Laura Slater

Arresting printed objects for every day use within the home

Informed by the interaction of colour and shape, the designs focus on the translation of drawing and surface through hand printed processes.

Laura's specific interests lie in engagement with pattern and it’s ability to connect us to the environments around us. This is explored through approaches to drawing, process, materials and product.

 

 

 

http://www.lauraslater.co.uk/

Paint used as glue

Within my dissertation I discuss three ways in which play exists within art; namely, the form of the artwork; the process of making the artwork, and the way in which the audience experience the artwork. Chapter 1 seeks to examine how Phyllida Barlow (1944-) makes work in a playful manner. Within this, I explore the notion of intuition and spontaneity; how she deals with scale; her use and application of colour, and her choice of, and engagement with, materials. 

 

Action is implicit in Barlow’s sculptures. The manner in which she applies paint to a surface is intuitive and physical. Paint is smeared onto a surface in an uncontrolled fashion, covering part of the structure unevenly, and leaving other areas exposed. Tidily and seamlessly are two words not associated with how Barlow works.  Paint is used not just for its colour, but for its structural function as a means of sticking things together. 

This prompted me to use paint as a form of glue, attaching individual Cheerios to one another. The size of the Cheerios limits the extent to which I can apply the paint in a gestural manner, but the paint has been able to stick the hoops together.

Musings on 'A Hypothesis of the Evolution of Art from Play' by Ellen Dissanayake

Over the next few weeks, our weekly MFA seminar programme will involve each of the 2nd year MFA students selecting a text relating to their dissertation, sharing it with the group, and then chairing a discussion about the text.

This week was the first in the series, and I was the person to select the text and chair the discussion.
I chose 'A Hypothesis of the Evolution of Art from Play' by Ellen Dissanayake for a number of reasons. It is one of the few academic papers that I have found to address the relationship between art and play. Most papers address play in relation to children and their development, whereas this takes an alternative, and rather novel approach.

The text gives an overview of the characteristics of play and then considers how these are applicable to both the making and appreciation of art. It provides an ethological explanation for the relationship between play and art. She uses the study of animals to propose that art arose from play. Just as play is a form of social signalling for animals, and a means of members of a species communicating with each other, art is a means of communication, and therefore could be regarded as a civilised form of play.

She acknowledges that aspects of play, such as seeing something as something else, could have led to artistic activity that had a social purpose, but realises that what may have originated as a purposeful action becomes completely disassociated from its original purpose. She therefore accepts that to regard art as existing purely for this purpose would be reductionist. It is through this disassociation that art develops beyond play and becomes something else.

Art stems from an action that is playful.

Play is not an unbound activity. It is often limited by constraints, whether that is as a child only being able to play until a certain time, or in a certain place, or as an artist having to make an artwork in time for an exhibition, or to a set budget.

Dissanayake makes the argument that “By giving artistic form to real or imagined events and objects, man gains perspective on the objective as well as the subjective nature of experience.[1]” The self-awareness or self-consciousness that is allowed to emerge through the artistic process is of high value for humanity.

It is interesting to consider the development of self-consciousness that arises through the artistic process as being both generative, but also a restraint. Playfulness can somehow switch off anxiety, but anxiety can also be useful in forcing us to produce something. Too much anxiety can preclude an artist having the confidence to be able to make something.

The term playful or being in a state of playfulness should not be confused with unthinking or a lack of criticality. For an artist, being playful happens for a period of time, and then there is an important point of reflection and evaluation, where critical decisions are made as to what is working and what needs developing or editing. It is at this point of reflection that the artistic process is no longer playful.

Ive included the text below if you want to read it for yourself. It's quite a challenge, but hopefully you will find it interesting. Let me know your thoughts / interpretations / understanding of it, and ENJOY!
[1] Dissanayake, E. (1974) A hypothesis of the evolution of art from play. Leonardo. 7 (3), 216. 

Phyllida Barlow in conversation with Briony Fer and Fiona Bradley

Phyllida Barlow in conversation with Fiona Bradley, Director, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh and Briony Fer, Professor of History of Art, UCL. 

In this video Phyllida Barlow talks openly about her practice. Topics discussed include her exhibition in the grand Duveen Galleries at Tate Britain, her working process, her fear of heights, intuition, scale and size, colour, working with her 'team' to make the work, the discipline of sculpture and her experience of education, both as a student and a lecturer.

Andrea Cohen at Walter Maciel Gallery

LOS ANGELES, CA.- Walter Maciel Gallery presents a new series of work by New York based artist Andrea Cohen. 

For her third solo show at the gallery, Cohen introduces a series of highly textured and patterned hydrocal sculptures cast from bubble wrap, Styrofoam, plastic and foil. In previous work, Cohen has used these materials as her medium to make concurrent references to nature and industry. Now, through the casting process, the legacy of these materials is imprinted on her new work. The liquidity of pigmented hydrocal allows for varying effects when it cures; for example, foil and plastic folds generate both stone-like and fleshy forms in contrast to bubble wrap which leaves behind bold yet mutable patterns suggestive of pock-marked landscapes and perforated architectures. 

Cohen continues to build her sculptures as assemblages, working with play, improvisation, and a deep curiosity in the physicality of her material. She pours, tints, blends, folds, squashes, models, fragments, and assembles the components of each piece and works with a painterly palette that is both quiet and cheerful. Some of the works have a relationship to her previous sculptures made from carved Styrofoam and inspired by Chinese scholar’s rocks. Overall, it is clear that the new forms continue Cohen’s interest in Chinese landscape while at the same time are also influenced by the textures in the sculptures of Jean Dubuffet, Franz West and Paul Soldner. Cohen’s latest forms and processes, like her previous mixed media work, continue a dialogue between binaries, including control and exuberance, humor and contemplation, product and experiment. 

Cohen received a BA from New York University in 1993 and her MFA from Tyler School of Art at Temple University in 1999. She currently teaches in the School of Design Strategies at Parsons New School for Design in New York City. Her large-scale sculptures were featured in the seminal exhibition, The Uncertainty of Objects and Ideas: Recent Sculpture at the Hirshhorn Museum of Art and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC in 2006-07. Cohen was featured as a Critic’s Pick in ARTnews magazine in the October 2006 issue. She has recently exhibited at Project 4 Gallery in Washington DC and the Guggenheim Gallery at Chapman University in Fullerton, CA. Cohen exhibited in group shows at Walter Maciel Gallery including Size Matters in 2012 and Political Draw in 2009 and at our auxiliary gallery in the Pacific Design Center, West Hollywood in 2010. Her work is included in many important private collections.

Sushi Series performance

On Thursday evening as part of the 'Yes, but is it editable?' exhibition in the ExLibris Gallery at Newcastle University, I did a performance called Sushi Series.

The premise of the exhibition is to examine ways in which form and image can be reproduced, shared and transformed through the creation of a multiple. Artists have responded to this in a number of ways and have used a wide range of materials and processes.

I was keen to make a work specifically for the exhibition opening, and wanted to produce something beautiful by performing a number of processes, rather like what happens on a production line. My intention to share the process and outcome with the audience lead me to develop a sushi making performancI set up a table with all the equipment and ingredients that I needed to make a selection of different types of sushi. I had spent the Wednesday evening preparing lots of sushi and so had a supply to start with.

I had prepared a range of vegetarian Maki sushi "rolled sushi". The specific type of maki sushi I made was Chumaki. Chumaki sushi refers to the medium sized roll with the rice and filling on the inside and seaweed on the outside. There are usually 2-3 fillings in Chumaki as opposed to a single filling in Homomaki.

During the performance I made more Chumaki. The fillings available were


- avocado
- cucumber
- pepper
- carrot
- spring onion
- prawns
- crab sticks
- smoked salmon

I used a variety of combinations of ingredients, and made bespoke sushi for people. They could each choose their own combination of ingredients. People got very excited, and made some ambitious requests, meaning that some of the sushi turned out to be Futomaki, which are large rolls of maki sushi with 4 or more fillings!

In addition to the maki, on the evening, (with a little guidance from fellow sushi fan, Irene), I also made Nigiri sushi. Nigirizushi or Nigiri Sushi basically means "hand-pressed sushi".


Sushi rice is formed into an oblong shape using the palm of one hand and the forefinger and thumb of the other, then it is topped with a swipe of wasabi and covered with Neta (a topping that is normally some type of seafood, but can also be a Japanese Omelette, chicken, horse or something else).


Some toppings are bound with a thin strip of nori around the middle.

I really enjoyed the evening and being able to share something with others. It was well suited to the occasion of the art opening, and I was positioned in a good place within the gallery as it invited people into the space, and did not disturb the other works too much.

I am beginning to realise that my role in the activation of the work is important, and am keen to explore this further.





















I

Current mindmaps

At the moment I am working on both my studio work and my dissertation. The two are linked, and inform each other, and although I find the prospect of writing the dissertation daunting, the process so far has been very useful and thought provoking.

Yesterday I gave a short presentation to the new intake of MFA students on the same course as me, and provided a brief insight into my current thoughts with regard to both my studio work and the dissertation.

These mind maps attempt to get these thoughts onto paper, but please bear in mind that each day my thinking develops and ideas change, so who knows what they will look like next week!

Bruce Mau's An incomplete manifesto for growth

A friend recently reminded me of Bruce Mau's 'An incomplete manifesto for growth'. It is my intention to read it regularly, and take the advice on board.

1. Allow events to change you.
   You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.
2. Forget about good.
   Good is a known quantity. Good is what we all agree on. Growth is not necessarily good. Growth is an exploration of unlit recesses that may or may not yield to our research. As long as you stick to good you’ll never have real growth.
3. Process is more important than outcome.
   When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we’ve already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to be there.
4. Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child).
   Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your work as beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials, and errors. Take the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.
5. Go deep.
   The deeper you go the more likely you will discover something of value.
6. Capture accidents.
   The wrong answer is the right answer in search of a different question. Collect wrong answers as part of the process. Ask different questions.
7. Study.
   A studio is a place of study. Use the necessity of production as an excuse to study. Everyone will benefit.
8. Drift.
   Allow yourself to wander aimlessly. Explore adjacencies. Lack judgment. Postpone criticism.
9. Begin anywhere.
   John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.
10. Everyone is a leader.
    Growth happens. Whenever it does, allow it to emerge. Learn to follow when it makes sense. Let anyone lead.
11. Harvest ideas.
    Edit applications. Ideas need a dynamic, fluid, generous environment to sustain life. Applications, on the other hand, benefit from critical rigor. Produce a high ratio of ideas to applications.
12. Keep moving.
    The market and its operations have a tendency to reinforce success. Resist it. Allow failure and migration to be part of your practice.
13. Slow down.
    Desynchronize from standard time frames and surprising opportunities may present themselves.
14. Don’t be cool.
    Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Free yourself from limits of this sort.
15. Ask stupid questions.
    Growth is fueled by desire and innocence. Assess the answer, not the question. Imagine learning throughout your life at the rate of an infant.
16. Collaborate.
    The space between people working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife, exhilaration, delight, and vast creative potential.
17. ____________________.
    Intentionally left blank. Allow space for the ideas you haven’t had yet, and for the ideas of others.
18. Stay up late.
    Strange things happen when you’ve gone too far, been up too long, worked too hard, and you’re separated from the rest of the world.
19. Work the metaphor.
    Every object has the capacity to stand for something other than what is apparent. Work on what it stands for.
20. Be careful to take risks.
    Time is genetic. Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow. The work you produce today will create your future.
21. Repeat yourself.
    If you like it, do it again. If you don’t like it, do it again.
22. Make your own tools.
    Hybridize your tools in order to build unique things. Even simple tools that are your own can yield entirely new avenues of exploration. Remember, tools amplify our capacities, so even a small tool can make a big difference.
23. Stand on someone’s shoulders.
    You can travel farther carried on the accomplishments of those who came before you. And the view is so much better.
24. Avoid software.
    The problem with software is that everyone has it.
25. Don’t clean your desk.
    You might find something in the morning that you can’t see tonight.
26. Don’t enter awards competitions.
    Just don’t. It’s not good for you.
27. Read only left-hand pages.
    Marshall McLuhan did this. By decreasing the amount of information, we leave room for what he called our "noodle."
28. Make new words.
    Expand the lexicon. The new conditions demand a new way of thinking. The thinking demands new forms of expression. The expression generates new conditions.
29. Think with your mind.
    Forget technology. Creativity is not device-dependent.
30. Organization = Liberty.
    Real innovation in design, or any other field, happens in context. That context is usually some form of cooperatively managed enterprise. Frank Gehry, for instance, is only able to realize Bilbao because his studio can deliver it on budget. The myth of a split between "creatives" and "suits" is what Leonard Cohen calls a ‘charming artifact of the past.’
31. Don’t borrow money.
    Once again, Frank Gehry’s advice. By maintaining financial control, we maintain creative control. It’s not exactly rocket science, but it’s surprising how hard it is to maintain this discipline, and how many have failed.
32. Listen carefully.
    Every collaborator who enters our orbit brings with him or her a world more strange and complex than any we could ever hope to imagine. By listening to the details and the subtlety of their needs, desires, or ambitions, we fold their world onto our own. Neither party will ever be the same.
33. Take field trips.
    The bandwidth of the world is greater than that of your TV set, or the Internet, or even a totally immersive, interactive, dynamically rendered, object-oriented, real-time, computer graphic–simulated environment.
34. Make mistakes faster.
    This isn’t my idea — I borrowed it. I think it belongs to Andy Grove.
35. Imitate.
    Don’t be shy about it. Try to get as close as you can. You’ll never get all the way, and the separation might be truly remarkable. We have only to look to Richard Hamilton and his version of Marcel Duchamp’s large glass to see how rich, discredited, and underused imitation is as a technique.
36. Scat.
    When you forget the words, do what Ella did: make up something else … but not words.
37. Break it, stretch it, bend it, crush it, crack it, fold it.
38. Explore the other edge.
    Great liberty exists when we avoid trying to run with the technological pack. We can’t find the leading edge because it’s trampled underfoot. Try using old-tech equipment made obsolete by an economic cycle but still rich with potential.
39. Coffee breaks, cab rides, green rooms.
    Real growth often happens outside of where we intend it to, in the interstitial spaces — what Dr. Seuss calls "the waiting place." Hans Ulrich Obrist once organized a science and art conference with all of the infrastructure of a conference — the parties, chats, lunches, airport arrivals — but with no actual conference. Apparently it was hugely successful and spawned many ongoing collaborations.
40. Avoid fields.
    Jump fences. Disciplinary boundaries and regulatory regimes are attempts to control the wilding of creative life. They are often understandable efforts to order what are manifold, complex, evolutionary processes. Our job is to jump the fences and cross the fields.
41. Laugh.
    People visiting the studio often comment on how much we laugh. Since I’ve become aware of this, I use it as a barometer of how comfortably we are expressing ourselves.
42. Remember.
    Growth is only possible as a product of history. Without memory, innovation is merely novelty. History gives growth a direction. But a memory is never perfect. Every memory is a degraded or composite image of a previous moment or event. That’s what makes us aware of its quality as a past and not a present. It means that every memory is new, a partial construct different from its source, and, as such, a potential for growth itself.
43. Power to the people.
    Play can only happen when people feel they have control over their lives. We can’t be free agents if we’re not free.

Some thoughts on my first year of the MFA

Yesterday I took down my exhibition and continued to sort out my studio space. As I look at all of the things I have in my studio, I realise how much work I made over the past year, and the wealth of materials that I have collected. I'm trying my best to reduce the amount of things I keep in my studio so as not to clutter it, but it is challenging given that I work in such a varied way and make use of lots of materials, both found and made. I often have materials in my studio for a while before I decide what I am going to use them for. It is almost like I am getting to know them and try to understand their properties before I make use of them.

Going through my year's work also made me realise how much I have embraced the course and really challenged myself, and I feel as though my work has moved in a different direction, and into the a place of possibilities. I have grappled with the notion of play and playfulness. I started out thinking that in order for artwork to be playful, it had to be fun and look cheery. I now realise that this is not the kind of work I want to make as it often appears childish and is very literal. What interests me much more is how artists can be playful in their approach and process. These ideas are going to be explored further in my dissertation.

My work started out brightly coloured and made of art materials such as plaster. Over time I begun to move away from what had become a somewhat familiar way of working, into the unknown. I introduced found materials, and begun to use materials not usually associated with art such as jelly. This made the work less predictable. Who knows where my work will be in another year?!

Using stencils with prints

After producing a full printed sheet using the jelly, I experimented with leaving some of the page blank by placing pieces of cut paper over the paper onto which I was printing on. I then printed the blocks of jelly in the same regular pattern, but when I removed the stencils, a white section was left.

The above print was more complicated as I needed to be careful when getting the different stencils lined up and ensuring that I was printing the right areas in the correct sequence without printing onto an area that had already been printed. 

It's all part of the process

As I was waiting for one of my layers of plaster to set, I had a much needed sort out of the space under the table in the casting workshop where I have been storing all my moulds and materials for the past few months.

I dismantled all of my old moulds, and began to sort out the moulds that were suitable for re-using, and those that were destined for the skip. 

As I glanced at the two piles of melamine boards stacked on top of each other, I was attracted to the traces of coloured plaster that remained on the sides of the sheets. The trace of the form that was contained within the mould is present on the edges of the mould.

Such unexpected discoveries are exciting and rather than throwing the moulds into the skip, I have now gathered them together and will be exploring ways that I can use these remnants in an installation.

Suggestions please

I have been thinking about ways in which to add more unpredictability into my artwork, and one way I have thought about doing so is to get other people to give me instructions, or dictate certain elements about what I do. 

I am looking for words/items that fit the following categories:

PROCESS e.g. to build, cut, sand, carve, fold...

MATERIAL e.g. paper, jelly, string, cotton wool...

ANOTHER LIMITATION e.g with eyes closed, on one leg, in 1 minute

Any help suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Please email them to:

helen.shaddock(at)yahoo.co.uk

Plaster powder

Today I have been busy sawing, carving and sanding some of the plaster blocks. 

These processes are extremely messy, but they create some rather wonderful patterns and compositions.

When drilling through the layers, the dust colour changes with each layer that one saws through. I intend on filming this.

I have been collecting some of the powder, and am contemplating how it can be used.