pinhole

portraits of colleagues: Andrius T.
silver print, 2004
Hasselblad + bottom of beer can= Holeblad.

Collection of pinhole camera artists; exploring unpredictability in image making.

http://www.pinhole.lt/en/?pid=54

Kyle Jorde

Can Installation

http://pinterest.com/pin/203013895672462640/  

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jordre/3119161145/lightbox/

Eva Hesse

Repetition 19 lll. 1968. Fiberglass and polyester resin, nineteen units, Each 19 to 20 1/4" (48 to 51 cm) x 11 to 12 3/4" (27.8 to 32.2 cm) in diameter.

"Repetition Nineteen, III comprises nineteen bucketlike forms, all the same shape but none exactly alike. Like many artists of her generation, Hesse explored repetition as a compositional strategy. However, rather than relying on the strict, hard-edged geometry of Minimalism, she deployed softer, handmade forms. This work is made of translucent industrial fiberglass, one of the artist’s favorite materials."

http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=81930

Catherine Lee

Diminutive Painting #4 of 45 (black C-5) (detail) (1977)
Ink and acrylic ground on canvas, grommets
14 ¾ x 18 in (37.4 x 45.7 cm)

"Obsessive and repetitive markings over a strict grid structure characterize the early paintings by Catherine Lee. Drawing from Minimalist practices, Lee’s purity of form has intellectual rigor but evokes the tenacity and sensitivity of the human hand."

http://www.artslant.com/ny/events/show/9948-the-mark-paintings-1977-79

Jill Townsley

"This exhibition by Jill Townsley, is a culmination of work carried out as part of her research into the role of repetition in the process of art production. Each of the artworks explore ideas of repetitive labour and its significance to the art object. The exhibition consists of sculpture, video, film drawing and installation.

All the works are an accumulation of hundreds of hours of repeated actions. Mind bogglingly tedious and insignificant actions repeated thousand of times. Actions such as: looping wire, scribbling, gluing polystyrene beads or tying 3 spoons together with a rubber band 3,091 times.

Some work exists only in the moment, temporally changing, a culmination of moments, repeating over time. Some works are a result of thousands of unstable repeated units, each precariously balanced on one another to make a whole sculpture. Other works are only offered as a record of process, exploring time in a virtual or parallel timeframe.

The body of work describes the logical application of repetitive process, illogically extended beyond the usual limits, producing work that sometimes in the end destroys itself, while still being generative of new and often surprisingly beautiful moments"

http://www.londonsartistquarter.org/events/jill-townsley-moments-repetition

Damien Hirst

Zirconyl Chloride, 2008
Household gloss on canvas
84 inches diameter  (213.4 cm)

Damien Hirst has painted less than 10 of his famous spot paintings, leaving the work up to trusted assistants. When people criticise this, he simply refers to great architects not building houses.

Gagosian Gallery (2011) [online] Available at: <http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/damien-hirst/exhibition-images> [Accessed 8 February 2012]

Patrick Morrissey

Fragmentation

Patrick Morrissey is a London based Constructive/Reductive Artist. His work uses systems that create a form of meandering geometry.

Morrissey, P. (2010) [online] Available: <http://www.patrickmorrisseyhanz.co.uk/index_files/PatrickMorrissey.htm> [Accessed 8 February 2012]

Ian Davenport

Prismatic Diptych, 2011. Colour etching diptych on Hahnemühle Bright. White 300 gsm papers. Paper 199.5 x 193.0 cm / Image 181.5 x 177.0 cm (overall) Edition of 15

Ian Davenport uses a syringe to pour gloss paint down smooth surfaces like aluminium, rather than canvas. Gravity and chance dictate the direction of the paint.

Art and Coin TV (2011) [online] "New Etchings by British Artist Ian Davenport at Alan Cristea Gallery" Available at: <http://www.artandcointv.com/blog/2011/10/new-etchings-by-ian-davenport-at-alan-cristea-gallery/> [Accessed 8 February 2012]

Charlotte Trimm

Artist's Statement

Chromatics

 Chromatics (detail)

"Charlotte Trimm is a systems artist whose practice deals with aspects of repetition and process with a methodological approach to the creation of work. Often describing herself as suffering from art induced obsessive compulsive disorder her approach to work often manifests itself in a neurotic style, which results in works with recurring forms with lines and linear structures becoming an almost necessary feature. A fascination with colour has lead to works which explore the processes by which colour can be manipulated"

Trimm, C. (2012) [online] Available at: <http://www.charlottetrimm.daportfolio.com/about/> [Accessed February 2012]

Questioning my practice

I've been struggling recently to make anything, due to the fact I've been questioning my practice so deeply.

Some of the questions I've been asking are:

• Do I need a concept or context behind my systems?
• How valid is my system? 
• How should I select yarns? Is this important at this early stage?
• How should I select colours?
• What are the reasons behind my choices? Are they aesthetic, personal, based on emotions of colour? 
• Do I want to map a journey? Would that give context to my grid system? 

For now, I think sampling is the only way to move forward. Sampling in non-specific materials and colours will lead to decisions in the near future about how far to take my system based approach.

Another point I found was that all of my early samples, despite being systems based, looked too much like the coral reef projects. Despite their very aesthetic value, the connotations of the shapes to anyone with a small crochet knowledge renders them somewhat disruptive. Solved this by working in a deeper system.

Erin Curry

Traces of Spun #3
graphite on paper
30" x 22"

Traces of Spun #2
graphite on paper
30" x 22"

"Created with a specialised handspindle, this drawing records the making of a fine wool thread. The process mirrors itself as the fuzz of wool draws out into a woolen line while the line of graphite draws fuzz" (Curry, E.)

Curry, E. (2012) [online] Available at: <http://www.erincurry.com/TracesofSpun_02.html> [Accessed 7 Febuary 2012]

Jill Sylvia

Jill Sylvia takes old ledger books and meticulously eviscerates them square by square, page by page, until she’s left with a delicate ledger skeleton. Papercraft meets process art.

Sylvia, J. (2012) [online] Available at: <http://www.jillsylvia.com/BalanceSheetspage.html> [Accessed 7 Febuary 2012]

Joe Winter - Printershake

parallel lines (CMYK). 8.5 x 11 inches.

shaking the printer

"Images are printed with a standard desktop inkjet printer which is violently shaken during the process of printing. The initial images are simple, geometric control structures generated by computer: grids, parallel lines, concentric circles, etc. The resulting colour misalignments, interference patterns, and distortions alternately read as scientific data (EKG, seismography, spectrometry) and abstract drawings.The prints are created in groups of six: four prints are made of the same control structure, one for each of the four subtractive colors (cyan, magenta, yellow, black); the fifth print passes through the printer--and is shaken--four times, once for each color; the sixth image is a photograph documenting the process of shaking the printer." (Winter, J.)

Winter, J. (n.d.) [online] Available at: <http://www.severalprojects.com/projects.html> [Accessed 7 Febuary 2012]

Leah Rosenberg

double bind 2007-08
acrylic paint
9” x 9” x 7”

double bind (detail) 2007-08
acrylic paint
9” x 9” x 7”

"My paintings are time and process-based works that combine elements of layering, systems of accrual, and color. I allow and encourage the build-up of paint to act in a three dimensional manner, at times to the point of doing away with the support altogether. These layers of paint function as a way to mark the passage of time, but also reveal the paints’ inherent materiality as it begins to take on its own shape.  I select the colors based on personal systems, sometimes based on the text from a book that I am reading or lyrics of a song, other times reflecting a telephone call home to Saskatchewan, or the colors of the clothing worn by people who visit my studio throughout that day. Each work is the result of a ritualized routine that raises a question, which in turn leads to the next work. 

These paintings, like all painting, contain the time of their making. Each piece is a concentration of the many “paintings.” I am not refering here to the paintings in terms of finished art works, but rather “paintings” as a gerund, a series of consecutively painted actions. A painting, on a painting, on a painting — they end up concealing as much as they reveal" (Rosenberg, R.)

 Rosenberg, L. (n.d.) [online] Available at: <http://www.leahrosenberg.org/works.html> [Accessed 7 Febuary 2012]

Katie Lewis

201 Days. pins, pencil, thread; 84" x 48" x 1.5"

201 Days. pins, pencil, thread; 84" x 48" x 1.5"

201 Days. pins, pencil, thread; 84" x 48" x 1.5"

201 Days. pins, pencil, thread; 84" x 48" x 1.5"

201 Days. pins, pencil, thread; 84" x 48" x 1.5"

"My current work traces experiences of the body through methodical systems of documentation, investigating chaos, control, accumulation and deterioration. The artificially rigid organization of my materials alludes to control-- of the individual body as an institutional domain, and of irrational experience as a manageable, concrete set of events. My choice to use the body as a starting point aims to give visual form to physical sensations that are invisible to the eye and medical imaging, and only exist in the subjecetive realm. I collect data through daily documentation processes, and then generate numerous systems to allow the information to exist in a material form. I abstract and quantify the data in order to give authority and agency to subjective experiences.

The work alludes to the body in certain pieces, through the text or a particular material, but the reference remains abstracted. By abstracting and codifying the work, I want to evoke a sense of the passing of time, accumulation of information, presence and absence, chaos and order, control and loss of control and the possibility of the system collapsing upon itself or reaching a breaking point. Once I devise a system for a particular piece, I follow it all the way through the work allowing the visual results to exist outside of subjective expressive decisions. By strictly following and never veering from a given system, the work is tightly controlled and asserts itself as accurate and authoritative (however false and unscientific), questioning the gap between a subjective experience and medicine's conventions for understanding the body. The work is often organized into grid-like charts and diagrams mimicking science and medicine's representations of the body as a specimen, visualy displayed for the purpose of gaining knowledge. In this way I create distance from the information and objectify the experience, giving a false sense that the body is accessible and easily understood" (Lewis, K.)

Lewis, K. (n.d.) [online] Available at: <http://katiehollandlewis.com/index.html> [Accessed 7 Febuary 2012]

Jackson Pollock

Number 23, 1948
Enamel on gesso on paper
support: 575 x 784 mm frame: 651 x 861 x 42 mm
painting

Pouring and dripping paint has an element of chance, however every action would have been thought out and considered. For instance, the order in which the colours were used, when to stop pouring, etc.

Tate Collection (2002) [online] Available at: <http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&workid=12146&searchid=11123&tabview=work> [Accessed 31st January 2012]

Dave Cole

Knitting Machine

Knitting Machine

The knitting of this flag wasn't an exercise in process, but a statement on society. However for me the process in this piece is unmistakeable, every movement planned to furthest extent. 

"Acrylic felt with excavators and aluminum utility poles. Completed flag is approximately 30 x 20 x 1 feet as installed at MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA"

Dave Cole (2005) [online] Available at: <http://davecoledavecole.com/projects-knitting-machine.php> [Accessed 31st January 2012]

William Anastasi

April 15, 1989,
32 minutes, 4B, 1989
Graphite

William Anastasi makes drawings, usually with his eyes closed. He follows a system of rules he sets. In  this instance he held a pencil in both hands and moved along the wall in a long sweeping motion, drawing as far as his arms could reach.

Mattress Factory, Ltd. (2012) [online] Available at: <http://www.mattress.org/index.cfm?event=ShowArtist&eid=21&id=246&c=> [Accessed 31st January 2012]

How to devise a system

Devising a system for making art isn't as easy as I thought it would be.

If I decide to roll a dice to make decisions, I have to give the roll of the dice a meaning. Or individual numbers on the dice a meaning or rule.

How do I then apply these rules to whatever it is I'm making? Yet another set of rules is needed at this point to contextualise the first roll.

Computers and Art

Description of mathematical art systems.

Mealing, S. (2002) Computers and Art 2. Bristol: Intellect LTD (p.54)

Sol LeWitt

The process of a Sol LeWitt wall drawing.

Every care has been taken to mask off the areas that wont be filled with scribbles, ensuring a clean line and spotless finish.

Pacewildenstein (2007) Sol LeWitt Scribble Wall Drawings. New york: Pacewildenstein

Systems drawing

Jorinde Voigt

Voight, J. (2012) [online] Available at: <http://jorindevoigt.com/blog/?cat=20> [Accessed 30th January 2012]

Crochet systems

This patternation follows strict rules, I would like to make samples in a similar kind of stitch formation.

Cabban, V. (2010) [online image] Available at: <http://doyoumindifiknit.typepad.com/do_you_mind_if_i_knit/2010/09/a-bit-of-knitting-here-a-bit-of-crochet-there-.html> [Accessed 30th January 2012]

Crochetdermy by Shauna Richardson

Freeform crochet on an impressive scale. Following a system of sorts but due to the nature of these creatures, increases certainly wont be regular across the entire form.

Richardson, S. (2011) [online] Available at: <www.shaunarichardson.com>  [Accessed 30th January 2012]

Inger Carina

Inger Carina, Filet Crochet & Starch

Carina, I. (2012) [online] Available at: <http://hellocraftlovers.com/> [Accessed 30th January 2012]

systems artists to look up

Josef Albers, Donald Judd (see fig.), Carl André, Sol LeWitt, Gerhard Richter, Mario Merz, Kenneth Martin and Mary Martin, among many others.

Edmund De Waal

A change in the weather (2007) Kettles Yard

A change in the weather is a collection of 365 vessels, seperated into 12 sections, according to how many days are in each month. The top shelf is January, the second Febuary, and so on. This type of collection/installation speaks loudly of process led making, a need for production.

De Waal, E. (2007) A change in the weather [online image] Available at: <www.edmunddewaal.com/projects/kettlesyard.../KettlesYard_mima.pdf> [Accessed 27th January 2012]

Systems Art

Neil Ferguson - 16000 Paintings as a Sequence

"The exhibition displays 16,000 small silhouette paintings produced under the same set of rules.
Each painting:
uses the same brush.
is the same size.
uses Ivory black watercolour paint.
is a complete silhouette.
has no gaps or spaces within the painted form.
is numbered.
is not titled.
cannot be repainted".

"The denial of artistic freedoms regarding choice of colour, shape of paper, tool of application, method of application seems to promote free possibilities for imagining that allows shifts of thought to investigate intrigue and influence. The tighter the rule, the greater scope for imagining takes place".

Whitechapel (n.d.) Systems Art [online] Available at: <http://systemsart.org/fergusontext.html> [Accessed 27th January 2012]

Systems Art

Defining a set of rules and sticking to them rigorously.

Initial documentation

A couple of shots taken in my bedroom of my numerous belongings.

Shoes I never wear

Books I always read

I thought Polaroid photographs would be appropriate, as they connote documentation, quick flashes and snapshots of life. As I don't own a Polaroid camera I have tried to Photoshop these images into a scanned photograph.

To make the image more realistic I think it would be advantageous to take photographs from a greater distance. Polaroids are square, so any images taken on a conventional digital camera to Photoshop in are not as convincing as they are framed rectangularly. By taking images from a greater distance, the area of photograph shown in the Polaroid frame is of the entire (in this case) bookshelves, rather than cutting off the edges. The rectangular photographs don't have enough space around the edges, with no important subject matter, to reduce the image appropriately.

Another attempt, again with the same issue of it looking 'cut off' top and bottom. The nature of digital photographs means they don't work well within a square frame unless taken at a great distance so as to fit the entire subject matter into the square.

Matthew Barney

A series of works over several years, each called 'drawing restraint' and numbered chronologically, are about making a mark.

Drawing restraint is to be taken literally; the artist is restrained by self-designed and home-made contraptions. He then proceeds to draw and make marks whilst working against and with the restraints.

Drawing restraint 2

Drawing restraint 6

This unconventional approach to mark-making is very interesting and something I had not considered whilst thinking about drawing with chance methods. An accessible way to draw in this manner would be to make marks with a pencil attached to a meter stick, or drawing at arms length.

Drawing restraint 15 is slightly different in that the subject of the drawing is the drawing tool. A series of drawings were made on a transatlantic voyage, taking advantage of obstacles like motion sickness and turbulent seas.

Drawing restraint 15

Barney, M. (2007) Drawing Restraint: vol v: 1987-2007. London: Serpentine Gallery
Barney, M. (2005) Drawing Restraint [online] Available at: <http://www.drawingrestraint.net/main.htm> [Accessed 14th January 2012]

Abstraction

Definition of 'Abstract art' from the Tate website glossary:

"The word abstract strictly speaking means to separate or withdraw something from something else. In that sense applies to art in which the artist has started with some visible object and abstracted elements from it to arrive at a more or less simplified or schematised form...A cluster of theoretical ideas lies behind abstract art...In general abstract art is seen as carrying a moral dimension, in that it can be seen to stand for virtues such as order, purity, simplicity and spirituality."

Abstraction for me is the development of a first notion, removing nearly all of the original framework and structure, into a new idea. This is important in art when employing the concept of decentered subjectivity. For instance, turning a personal project about my current situation into 'real art' (i.e. a venture that is deeper than pictures of my belongings) takes many steps, first of all documentation of the belongings is essential, but then it is of utmost importance to destroy the personal link, instead turning the items into something else, numbers, letters, codes. Turning this development into drawings, crochet. These actions are the first steps in abstraction.

Tate (n.d.) Glossary: abstract art [online] <Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?entryId=8> [Accessed 14 January 2012]

Hyperbolic crochet

Hyperbolic crochet is based around complicated forumlae and mathematics.

Institute for Figuring (n.d.) Available at: <http://crochetcoralreef.org/Content/makeyourown/IFF-CrochetReef-HowToHandout.pdf> [Accessed 6th January 2012]