Hello Everyone!
Well, it is hard to believe the Fall semester is almost past and this is our last week of scheduled crits. A big thanks to everyone for the feedback you provided me in the first round. In that round I asked you to familiarize yourselves with my project proposal and the work I had done since Berlin in relation to the project. I also requested that you focus your feedback on the three presentation formats of the journal pages and to view the journal pages as a single work that is part of the three presentations, rather than providing feedback on individual pages of the journal. Your feedback has been most helpful as I have further developed those three pieces, and I am looking forward to presenting both Look In Glass and Just Between Me and You at the Winter Residency.
Seeing as time is a very precious commodity for all of us, especially as the semester and calendar year comes to a close, I thought this time I would ask for your feedback on the individual journal pages. However by this point there are quite a few pages. So instead of writing about all of them, if you could please pick just one page (one side of one page) to provide feedback on, and also tell me why you chose that particular page, that would be most helpful for me.
The journal pages can be found in the gallery: M501 Journal Pages [note: as of May 11, 2015 this portion of the text was changed to reflect the new location of the work the critique group looked at.]
in the folders August-September, September-October, and October-November. [these separate working folders have been merged to the M501 Journal Pages gallery]
Additional information regarding the process as well as some detail photos of a few of the pages can be found in the Process Photos Journal and Sketchbook folder.
Please do not include the first two pieces in the August-September Gallery [Berlin One, Berlin Two] as they are not a part of the journal. [these two works can now be viewed in Berlin Summer 2014]
When selecting an image and writing about it please remember these are digital reproductions of handmade objects being displayed on a computer screen, and all screens are different. Therefore color and texture will vary. In addition, the images as displayed may have been cropped or otherwise digitally altered for the website.
Taking these items into consideration I am looking forward to seeing which pages are chosen to be spoken about and hearing your feedback.
Best, Robyn
PS Please feel free to check out all of my blog site, new postings, etc. But it was a very active month and I don’t want people to feel overwhelmed by the amount of information available and/or the need to comment on everything.
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Hi Robyn,
Perhaps appropriately, I was captured by Pretending As If (October 16, 2014) only to be fully entranced by Holding Together (October 16, 2014). I didn't realize for a while that they represent opposite sides of the same piece of paper.
As per your request, I will contain my comments to just one image: Holding Together. This piece employs two of my favorite devices and images you're working with: the stitched line and the Knight.
I love the use of stitching as a drawing device for the way it elevates a craft (a craft affiliated with the feminine) into art. This, for me, is an immediate association and political comment. There also is a comment about industrialization in that you are using a machine - a sweatshop tool - to make expressive, individualized art.
For me, the Knight is an interesting symbol because it does not depict the rider - who presumably is the actual Knight - but the horse: the mode of conveyance, the tool, the animal/natural world that supports human affairs.
The Knight as chess piece exists in a grid, yet has a perpendicular freedom. The Knight in Holding Together is immersed in a grid that seems to alternately surround and emanate from the figure. The Knight is a product of the stitched grid, created from the material of the grid, yet conversely, the hanging threads - which read like a mane and/or bridle - indicate that the gridded ground is composed of the same stuff as the Knight. The image is holding together - composed of itself, representing itself. Held in place, secured by the means of its depiction.
The pattern of the substrate - the green and yellow/orange appear weathered/scraped. I feel as though the image is constructed from a piece of worn plywood. This makes the penetration of the thread especially incongruous. Even if I hadn't known what the opposite side of the journal page looked like, I would have imagined it because as a viewer I know the thread is living an alternate life out of view on the other side of the paper. This dual image - like a phantom limb - is always present in the sewed pieces.
The stitching is regular like an EEG output, yet random enough to suggest distress in the patient. In this allusion, the vertical lines seem to be running interference - though we know the Knight can change orientation. To me the interplay of vertical and horizontal stitches (and the green plane) imply landscape: the creature in its environment, amidst ordered chaos, resonant of ancient memories of perfect integration, longing for return, yet aware of the present as containing all history and possibility, pain and amazement.
-Mark
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Only one? …. this is proving to be an impossible task!
narrowing it down … “display, withdrawal or both?” - “root” - from the first post (although “path to ecstasy” stands out to me too) ….. “keenness” - “like” & “do it again” …. & “depth” & “contour” ….. oh oh … & “facts” & “mateye” … & & & ….
okay - i’ll get back to you soon …..
C*
hey … i’m back!
i love that we have all picked out different pieces - it shows that there is, in fact, not any one particular piece that universally stands out - but that the work allows an individual resonance in its relationship to the viewer.
The reason “Display, Withdrawal or Both” stands out to me is not so much due to being personally moved by it, as I am with many of the other pieces - but because it somehow posesses a kind of “rock-star” quality!
I’m not even sure exactly how to explain why I have this response to it … perhaps it has something commanding about it - in a kind of Miro/Kandinski fashion … it comes across as a little aggressive in it’s presence perhaps? Like it doesn’t really care too much what anyone thinks of it & that’s exactly why it gets attention … I think it has dyed black hair & a leather jacket & blue jeans & chews gum … but actually it is much more sensitive than it looks on first appearance - so maybe it feels misjudged!
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Hi Robin,
Again, wow. Your productivity over this period of time has me flabbergasted (and a little more than a little jealous!). Like Claire, I find it hard to narrow myself to just one, but here goes.
“How it is” is where I land. Or maybe it’s the one that lands hardest on me? That is to say, I feel it carries an emotional weight that I find to be hard hitting and powerful. Here I feel the most that your Knight has taken on a symbolic meaning that surpasses sign or linguistic capability. The world in which this knight dwells is chaotic and delacate. The lightest point of the work, just to the left of the knight, pulls my eye to a point of stasis that allows the knight to emerge visually in contrast to the world in which it lives. It’s surrounding atmosphere is red-orange and tenuously frenzied (is that how you spell that?) and your knight of broken blue-green is dense, solid, and stoic in its emergence from the page. Its world turns around it - fades in and out, rises and falls - but the knight stays resolute, affected but not succumbing entirely to the subtle sea that it is tormented by.
Congratulations on the work you’ve done - i really can’t wait to see it next month!
OC
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Hi Robyn,
I have really enjoyed taking a long view of your journal works with the invitation to focus in on one (or two, as I intend). All of these works are so caringly composed with significant elaboration that makes each one inviting to the viewer. Among my favorites, and the two I will respond to are the aptly titled Simply Perfect (Oct 15) and Blossom (Oct 15). First of all, mid October was particularly strong in this collection. You were on a role. I think I am first drawn to these two pieces because of a certain level of restraint in them. They are both very clean, with Simply Perfect being very limited in its black/white washes and Blossom in its high chroma oranges and yellows. In Simply Perfect my first enjoyment is its directness and some stylistic similarities with Christopher Wool, a personal favorite. However, I think you really take this piece to a more successful state with the two very deliberate elaborations over that wash: the circular stitching and the drawn on (I think) red thread-like line. Each of these work to create a figure-ground relationship over the washes, one that yields two figures, one ground. From a compositional standpoint, I enjoy how the red line works in both directions, drawing my eye down to the gathered area and drawing my eye up to its origin in an area of more negative space at the top. On first glance, one would expect that movement to terminate at the base of the drawing, not work both ways. I think that is the most enduring appeal. Blossom presents as a very different work in character because of its bright and cheerful color scheme. Despite this character, in line with the floral title, I was struck first with the electric violence of the blossom elements. I did not see blossoms until I read the title. Its the threading that makes them have this threatening feel. These are not blossom I want to pick and hold, more ones that I might enjoy visually with a sense of healthy respectful distance. I enjoy that uneasy contrast.
Great work, Robyn. I look forward to see the journal in person.
Best, KJ
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Robyn!!!!
Just one???? That is so hard! I had three that resonated, but the one that I choose is “Filly” from October 9, 2014. This one jumps out as quite different than all the others. The quality of paint is applied more organically and diluted, like a Chinese watercolor. It still has the foundational forms from the other work, but they seem to be expressed as a character versus the subject. I feel like this entry portrays fluidity of the human body and the boundaries that really don’t exist. The juxtaposition of the red on wet creates a natural approach, versus a more institutional approach. The refinement of the color selection also brings a more serious tone to the entry. It creates a feeling of beauty, complication and intellect to the issue.
“Filly” is the one that jumped out the most, but I feel as if your entire Oct/Nov entries were creating more depth in a simpler, more specific way. Those entries, carry more weight than the earlier ones. But I find myself believing that because the other preface it, and that is how I viewed it, the previous months show a play of position that evolves into a solid body of work that reflects the mind and lack of it. I find these to be overall the most moving pieces of a narrative as well. The overall conversation with these entries brings to light a little more of the emotional and mental awareness, rather than the physicality of it.
I saw that you are working diligently in getting this installed into your hallway. I am excited to see how you display in NYC and can’t wait to see them in person. Post pics of the installation! Looking forward to seeing all the work soon!
-L
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Hi Robyn,
Sorry for dragging my heels this week. After looking through the pages several times and noting the ones that grabbed me I began a difficult process of elimination. This was pretty tricky as the pages offer such diversity of technique, subject matter and feel. I ended up selecting ‘Clear and Sparkle’.
To me this work has a very dream like quality- specifically, fever dreams.
When I have bad fevers I tend to dream in black and white and without narrative. The dreams are textural and repetitive, often with patterns relating to numbers or text. The textures, numbers and words are uncomfortable and problematic and I am attempting to smooth out, re-arrange and de-code. My subconcious’ visualization of my body fighting the fever.
In Clear and Sparkle I immediately was reminded of these experiences- the cellular, biological composition presented on a transulucent surface made me wonder if you have had similar experiences. texture of consiousness and unconciousness working out matters of the body.
There is a feeling of looking through the guaze of semi-consiousness.
I find this work particularly successful due to the layering that you discuss in regards to painting- and yet to me it feels more like a drawing- yet when I consider how it will be presented it begins to seem more sculptural. All of this only goes to show that in the end- these words are just words- they may as well be written on the back of one of you pages. They are there, we know they are there, but their actual meaning is ambiguous, why do we need these words? In Clear and Sparkle the words provide texture (play on words?) almost the same as background chatter. We know that things are being said but the specifics are not the point. I may be rambling here.
I find that all of these works are very layered- I remember how happy I was when I tore parts of your painted canvas in Berlin and and discovered marks and stains on the back- even writing!
The painting’s surface only showed the viewer one surface when there were many hidden.
You seem to be really exploring the potential of exposing the inner workings of your art and it feels much more intimate and open than the opaque surfaces. This is inviting and will add to the overall success of your greater body of work which has so much to do with openness, trust and exposure.
I’m very sorry that I wont be able to personally experience this in NY but very much look forward to Berlin.
I hope this was helpful and again, I apologize for my tardiness.
I will get back to you with artist suggestions as I have some in my mind but want to post this right away!!
G
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Response:
THANK YOU! Although I phrased the question in a way to make it appear a quick and easy task, I was aware asking you to look through 116 images and chose just one to talk about was not quick or easy. Claire wrote, and O’Neill, Lindey and Gabriel echoed this sentiment “Only one?...this is proving to be an impossible task!”
The reason behind the question was to test a hypothesis I have about the pages and their role as part of a whole within other pieces rather than individual pieces. My hypothesis is, when viewed together it becomes difficult to separate out the individual, not just because of the sheer volume of images, but because as one looks closer at the pieces the realization that there are connections, maybe not always clear and obvious, but nonetheless an apparent connectedness, between the pages creates an inseparable whole. You wouldn’t abridge “War and Peace” to a single page, would you? Still, when asked to select one to talk about, you were able to do this. And yes, it would be possible for me to break the journal apart, it isn’t “War and Peace”. It is a formal possibility, but contextually it is not, and you proved this to me with your comments. Although Mark and KJ did not directly address the difficulty, Mark began his feedback mentioning both sides of a page before focusing his feedback on one side, and KJ chose to talk about two pieces- which do not share the same page, but are next to each other in their placement on the website, both showed the difficulty of the task.
Interestingly no one chose the same piece. Claire mentioned this, and I agree, it is very important to what I am trying to do with the pages and how they will continue to work within the Self-Portraits: “i love that we have all picked out different pieces - it shows that there is, in fact, not any one particular piece that universally stands out - but that the work allows an individual resonance in its relationship to the viewer.” I am sure there are those who would argue that because of the ratio, 116:6, it was highly favorable that a page would not be chosen by more than one person. However I like to believe that our response to art is not something that can be explained by statistics, so I am gladly willing to follow a more psychological explanation that the viewer can find amongst the masses those images which resonate with her or him on an individual level while remaining a part of a larger work. It is possible to find resonance with a single sentence, phrase or word in “War and Peace”, yet “War and Peace” is still the whole novel.
Finally, I want to mention how each of your responses to the pieces you wrote about have helped me understand the many ways they might speak to the individual. Getting to know each of you the past five months and reading the “why” you chose to talk about a certain piece I felt that whether the response was emotional or aesthetic in origin, it was in all cases a reflection of what I have learned through your posts and our conversations what you are thinking about within your work. This has helped shed some light onto the possible answers within my own work to one of the questions I proposed addressing in question 10c. of my project proposal, How are they able to dissolve borders between what they are depicting [subject] and the viewer [object], so that the roles reverse and the experience of the once subject and now object becomes experienced by the viewer? Thank you! Now I am really excited to hear your response to the work in person in NYC!-Robyn [BTW, I’ve never read “War and Peace”.]