BAS7

 The opportunity arose to be part of an exhibition connected to the British Art Show 7. The show was for the partner colleges of Plymouth University, as an ex Camborne College student I was put forward for this opportunity. The BAS7: In the Days of the Comet looks to art made in the period 2005-10, paying particular attention to the ways in which artists make use of histories. The subtitle was taken from the book by H.G.Wells, set a century ago in 1910, the date of Halley's Comet's last-but-one apparition. From the five themes to choose from, I chose Parallel Realities. I was able to show the dream text I had been producing along side the time lapse of myself sleeping. It was a great chance to really consider the presentation of my work, and what I wanted to convey to the viewer.

Video work

Sleep. Something I was finding I had a distinct lack of! Whilst documenting my dreams through written means I decided to document it though video too. I was researching video work and came across time lapse footage, the condensing of time in a video. I created the following film on my laptop using a time lapse program called Gawker. The quality wasn't as high as I hoped, but I am pleased with what I did achieve with such amateur equipment. Next move will be to get hold of a better set up and play with what effects I can create.

 

Susan Hiller

I have been looking at the artist Susan Hiller. In the 1970's she created a body of work concerned with dreams.....

Dream mapping

In 1974, in conjunction with the writer David Coxhead, Hiller published the book Dream: Visions of the Night. The previous year, while working on the book, she conducted a group investigation into the 'origin of images and ideas' called The Dream Seminar (1973). In this work, twelve participants met for twelve weeks to discuss their dreaming and their subconscious interaction or 'dream meetings', documenting their progress in notes and audiotapes. For Dream Mapping, Hiller invited 10 participants to develop a graphics system of recording their dreams.

Then, for three nights, they all slept outdoors in an area of the Hampshire countryside with an unusual occurrence of fairy rings, or circles formed by the marasmius mushroom, chosen because of the myth that if you sleep within one of these circles, you can enter fairy-land. Each participant was given a notebook with a map of the dream site on the cover. Every morning they recorded their dreams using the system of note-taking that they had developed earlier. They noted the similarities and differences among the dreams by the making of collective dream maps, in which they took all of the individual diagrams from each day and superimposed them to create a group notation.

For her solo exhibition at the ICA in London in 1986, Hiller evolved a form of presentation for this material, displaying the open notebooks in individual vitrines, and reproducing a considerable number of the participants' dream maps and diagrams as large wall drawings. 

More Dreams....

I am continuing to record my dreams. I had a break from recording them and it has become less stressful. I record my dreams as remembered, in language that reflects the memories, using commas to show the constant flow of a dream world. As time goes on I find I am able to remember my dreams more vividly, they come back to me with less effort, I find this interesting, it is as if I am training my conscious mind to hold on and retain the thoughts of my unconscious mind.

 

To cope with and to gain control back from the uncontrolled subconscious dream world I am exploring I have began to make strong, sturdy frames out of rough wood. The rough wood reflects the wear and tear my body has through living life. The frames are my way of containing my dreams, controlling the dreams that I feel are out of my control.

Dreams

Started a new project about control and consciousness. Writing down dreams immediately when woken, finding this link between reality and dream world starting to become distressing. Playing with my consciousness dangerous, maybe some things are meant to be filed away and forgotten.

A podcast I came across on the TED website.

Daniel Dennett, talking on the subject of our consciousness. He discusses and shows examples of how we are not the authority over our consciousness, that scientists from the outside can show us more about our consciousness than you would ever dream of. I found this very interesting, I will be looking into more of Dennett's work.

End of Year Exhibition 2011

 For the final exhibition I built an installation....1950's theme. For this I recreated/replicated everything. I then created a giant 'alien pod' as the centre piece. I wanted the viewer to experience my work. It was enclosed so the viewer was enclosed in the space, light and smells amplified by the closeness. What 'happened' in the room was down to the viewers imagination.

Experimenting with latex, letting the material determine the result I found myself creating an old barn full of 'alien' pods. After sharing this piece with others I realised that subconsciously I had made a reference to the film Invasion of the Body Snatchers that I had watched when I was younger.

Inspiration

I started looking at 1950's Sci Fi Cinema .....

Exhibtion 2010

 I had been looking at the beauty of pregnancy, the way in which nature works and the changes that occur during this time. I took casts from my friends developing pregnancy and simply displayed them on a washing line. I also created a resin cast as if the skin had been peeled away.

New Blog, Old Work....

These images are from a Site Based project I completed back in 2009. I used a pinecone as my starting point.... I became obsessed with repetition, reproduction and scale. I produced an 'Army' of cones using Vinamold and plaster. These I photographed and made a stills animation with.

This was a piece I created for an exhibition back in 2008. I was starting to begin to realise my fascination with seeing two worlds collide... the mixture of fiction and non-fiction.