Reflections on Tracing the Landscape project
I enjoyed and found lots of merit in this first project of the course for lots of different reasons. It facilitated me connecting with a lot of staff and studio spaces which I appreciated. And it also encouraged self led practise which I appreciate as I work well in this manner.
I had the opportunity to really delve into ceramics which is something that I have never done before. I learned lots of techniques including slip casting and glazing; I enjoyed both so much that I would definitely like to explore these disciplines more in the future.
I personally found it a steep learning curve in some ways. For one I was stepping back into full time education that focused on my own needs, which took a little adjustment; I had to wrangle a bit with some parental guilt around that. And it was a reminder that it can feel easy to do what you are good at (in my case research and concept development). But harder to step into endeavour that feels intimidating (in my case just getting stuck into open ended making and showing up in studio space). After I got over this initial block, I was really connected with my making process and made prolifically across discipline. It made me consider that I enjoy crossing boundaries of medium and feel like I lean towards multi-discipline work.
I am happy with how I interpreted the brief and really enjoyed researching and reinterpreting what I decided to focus on which was desire lines; lines made by repetitive organic relationship with space and collective anarchy. I like how I tied the project into our local and historic landscape of Sherwood Forest while also exploring something else close to my heart that looks to the future; environmentalism and grazing ecology.
What I think is most valuable to take away, is that my favourite pieces from this project were without exception the makes that came out of experimentation and translation.
The rough stitch landscapes that I decided to frame were actually the reverse of the works because I found the back stitches far more interesting visually and powerful conceptually. The back works embodied more of the chaos of the desire paths I was painting in thread and the quality of the stitch feels wild and feral, like the landscape and animals it represents. If I were to expand on this I would play around with scale, creating much larger pieces, and I would also would mess about with the visual script of the piece; using neon or primary colours in the thread for more impact and edge in the piece.
While I am proud of my slip cast horn pieces because of the sheer volume of work and patience that went into the process of making them, I prefer the organic uncontrived and experimental quality of my ceramic test pieces.
