Saturday 17 May 2008
Saturday 3 May 2008
Fine Art Statement 2008
Industrial machinery has an obvious mechanical function that can overshadow their machine aesthetic. The mill machines flaunt a functional, yet artistic production, revealing the design to be based on more than mathematical and scientific principles, taking on architectural considerations of space, volume, texture, materials, light and so forth. However I do not present my work as a mechanical form to represent the machine’s functional or intrinsic meaning and the work shies away from any social commentary on the industrial decline, particularly in the North. Furthermore it is not an addition to the critique on modern optimism in technological progress. The found objects and clay-work serves to address and contemplate the increasing variety of non-traditional forms found within today’s art world.
The clay-work has been primitively built and is devoid of any utilitarian purpose. Consequently performing an Aristotelian function, as the art audience is cathartically released from the pressures of an increasingly sophisticated and technological age. This psychological value is created through the work’s denunciation of technology and rejection of contemporary provocative art themes. The work’s ephemeral and unfinished quality, created through the use of unfired mud clay, wood and obsolete mill parts, creates an essential humanist quality that demystifies the artwork and helps incorporate the piece into an understandable and immediate language.
The cracks that appear after the clay has dried ruminates Duchamp’s belief in the importance of the ‘role of the accident’ in an artwork’s creation. Whilst the medium’s ductile pliability also acknowledges the artist’s personal style, their patte (‘paw’), which references traditional notions of authenticity and originality. However the work’s obvious compositional association to industrial machinery somewhat abstractly attaches the work’s ‘aura’ to the idea of reproducible forms.
The location of the exhibition in Armley Mills furthered the work, as I then wanted to create a completely disparate mechanical idiom, an ‘a-mechanical’ sculpture. The abandonment of the factory parts for clay and the final decision to not paint a black matte finish gives the installation of these artworks within an old industrial environment even more impact. The anti-functional aesthetic of the work emphasises the appropriation of the wheel, handle and cog forms. The strong symbolism between the work and the mechanical machines outside the gallery space almost allow the clay to have a sense of movement and to seemingly possess a mechanical function.
The clay-work has been primitively built and is devoid of any utilitarian purpose. Consequently performing an Aristotelian function, as the art audience is cathartically released from the pressures of an increasingly sophisticated and technological age. This psychological value is created through the work’s denunciation of technology and rejection of contemporary provocative art themes. The work’s ephemeral and unfinished quality, created through the use of unfired mud clay, wood and obsolete mill parts, creates an essential humanist quality that demystifies the artwork and helps incorporate the piece into an understandable and immediate language.
The cracks that appear after the clay has dried ruminates Duchamp’s belief in the importance of the ‘role of the accident’ in an artwork’s creation. Whilst the medium’s ductile pliability also acknowledges the artist’s personal style, their patte (‘paw’), which references traditional notions of authenticity and originality. However the work’s obvious compositional association to industrial machinery somewhat abstractly attaches the work’s ‘aura’ to the idea of reproducible forms.
The location of the exhibition in Armley Mills furthered the work, as I then wanted to create a completely disparate mechanical idiom, an ‘a-mechanical’ sculpture. The abandonment of the factory parts for clay and the final decision to not paint a black matte finish gives the installation of these artworks within an old industrial environment even more impact. The anti-functional aesthetic of the work emphasises the appropriation of the wheel, handle and cog forms. The strong symbolism between the work and the mechanical machines outside the gallery space almost allow the clay to have a sense of movement and to seemingly possess a mechanical function.
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