Month: March 2024

MA U2: Exploring aesthetics – Part 3 – Harbour

| elizarawlings

This piece of work was a continuation of my exploration of how to express the third space through aesthetics. It started with a digital collage in a similar way to the piece I did for the MA Interim Show in Part 2:

MA Y1 U1: Exploring Aesthetics – Part 2 – Painting on silk for MA Interim Show

However, after I started this piece, my thinking took me to reflecting on how I felt about my work in the third space so far. My thoughts are captured in this blog:

MA Y1 U1: The elusive Third Space – Reflections from MA interim show and feedback

Although this work did not start as the abstraction approach that I concluded on in my thinking, I have altered part of the image to be less illustrative and more suggestive as a start of this new exploration.

METHOD

A digital collage was created using Adobe Express comprising an image of present time Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong, a row of colourful Victorian houses at Bristol Harbour and a traditional Chinese junk. The images were manipulated so that the buildings forming the skyline of the two harbours were combined forming a continuous shoreline with the HK Harbour image changed to a subtle but bright two-tone effect whilst the Bristol houses remained vibrant and unchanged. Various colour effect experiments were carried out to achieve this final image:

I recently started to experiment with using old black and white family photos in my digital collages. For this piece of work, the photos formed a collage on the sails of the junk:

Whilst the previous work for the MA show was printed on silk, I feel this image would suit a woven canvas (e.g. a traditional cotton woven canvas). So my plan is to have this printed on canvas then add brush strokes in the style of Chinese calligraphy. The digital collage was exported to Adobe Freso where I used the painting function to try out different compositions. Below are two examples.

Example 1 – using an abstract image done in Chinese calligraphy style:

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Example 2 – using Chinese characters that meant ‘space’ (as in third space) with a red seal stamp drawn in:

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This is work-in-progress and I will order several printed canvases to try out the calligraphy experiments.

REFLECTIONS

I am happy with the progress so far. I like the way the two harbours came together as one continuous shoreline representing the different parts of my life coming together as a continuum. After my reflections on my third space work so far, my aim here is to create images that are more ambiguous so that both the viewers and I have to think deeper to see what’s there. I am not sure if I have managed to achieve it with this work. I will reserve judgment until the work is complete.

What I am also pleased about is that I am becoming less sensitive about using my family photos. I have always felt that they were too precious to be used, like mining a fragile archeological site. Although I have not used the very precious photos of my close family yet, I am feeling more able to consider the idea.

LEARNING

Since this is still work-in-progress, I’ll leave the full consideration of my learning until the end when the work is finished.

NEXT STEPS

– To order a minimum of four canvases printed with the image to experiment with adding Chinese calligraphy style brush strokes to complete the painting.

– I will go for A1 size to start with; it gives a reasonable area for expression without having to commit too much costs or materials. If I like the outcome then I might consider printing more canvases on a larger scale.

– Other experiments to consider are:

a. Covering the image with a top layer of oil and cold wax abstract painting then complete the painting by scraping off areas to reveal the image underneath.

b. Spray painting in street art style to show further Bristol heritage.

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ADDITIONAL REFLECTIONS

After publishing this blog and giving more thoughts about my blog on the elusive third space, I decided not to take this piece of work further. This is because I feel this image is still rather illustrative with images of only ‘A and B’ (as explained in ‘The Elusive Third Space’ blog). So I’m going to leave this for now and focus on the Cheongsam series which may give me more exploration opportunities. I may come back to this later but I’ll leave it here for now.

MA U2: The elusive Third Space – Reflections from MA interim show and feedback

| elizarawlings

I talk and think about The Third Space a lot. From the first moment I came across this concept in a lecture by Nigerian-born American visual artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby, I found resonance and understood exactly what she meant. Then I started to research the original text about The Third Space in The Location of Culture by Homi K Bhabha. My understanding was further cemented. It is straightforward on the surface. When two cultures (let’s call them A and B) come together like in a Venn diagram, the overlap (let’s call it C) is The Third Space where something completely new emerges. It is neither one nor the other but has the characteristics of both of the original cultures. It is also alive and constantly evolving according to Bhabha.

Here is the Venn diagram:

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Alternatively, if we use a mathematical formula to represent the concept, it will be:

A + B -> C

Meaning A and B giving rise to or leading to C. Not to be confused with:

A + B = C

because it is not a straightforward linear summation, it is a fluid concept. It is Art after all and not Maths. Maths would have been easy… In my experience, once a Mathematical problem is solved, you could sleep at night. But problems in art are rarely ‘neatly’ solved, or an answer often leads to the next question and I have spent many sleepless hours thinking about this. I get the Third Space concept in theory, but how do I locate myself in this context and express it in my art? This has been keeping me awake, a lot!

EXPERIENCE

I recently exhibited at the MA Interim Show at Central Saint Martins, the making of my work was captured in this blog:

https://eliza-rawlings.com/2024/02/27/ma-y1-u1-exploring-aesthetics-part-2-painting-on-silk-for-ma-interim-show/

Here is the work on show at CSM:

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Making the work presented certain challenges. E.g. it was the largest Chinese brush painting that I have ever done (in A0) and painting on silk was very challenging (without a proper stretcher frame). Overall I was pleased with the outcome and it was an example of my transcultural layering work, however, I knew there was something lacking. I wanted it to represent something about my third space; but I have only created layers of A and B components, there was no C.

To explain this further, I have to introduce colours… If A is blue and B is yellow, then mixing the two gives green. Meaning C is green in this analogy.

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What I had created in my silk piece for the show was equivalent to patches of blue and yellow, there was no green.

I always knew pinpointing my third space was going to be challenging and I have studied various transcultural artists’ work to learn from them – this is part of my ongoing research. I also tried to find other third space phenomena to help me in my understanding. The strongest example I have found so far was the street names in Hong Kong. It is explained in this blog and the video of me making the painting was also shown at the MA Interim Show:

https://eliza-rawlings.com/2023/11/26/ma-y1-u1-hk-street-names-part-1/

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REFLECTIONS

I still have not managed to find how to truly express my C/green/third space… so where do I go from here?

I recently received some feedback from my tutor at the end of my MA Unit One, which followed by a discussion with him on this topic and my reflections are as follows:

– Some of my images are prone to being too illustrative. Meaning they are obvious elements of A and B; I know that just putting them together doesn’t automatically make C. I had hoped that layering those images might gradually yield C for me but it hasn’t happened yet and I haven’t found a way of making it happen.

– I was advised to just make work. Don’t overthink it, just keep making – images, painting, objects, anything. It’s ok to leave it vague and unresolved.

– I wonder – does ‘just make work’ actually work? If I don’t think it through in advance, would it work out? I acknowledge that years of institutionalised corporate strategic thinking means that I am programmed to always ‘start something with the end goal in mind’, then just keep working towards that goal with absolute focus. I know this approach is counterproductive in my art practice to the extent that it can be a barrier for creativity. Therefore I need to try harder to free myself to ‘just make’.

LEARNING

– I need to learn to trust myself to ‘just make’. My faith in this approach was reinforced by a gallery visit as part of the recent Low Residency week, where we visited an exhibition by the artist Maiko Tstutsumi:

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We were very fortunate to meet the artist where she explained her practice. Having listened to her to understand her background and way of working, I started to see ‘her’ clearly in all her work. It was the strongest sense of the artist that I have felt in their work for some time. The last time I felt so strongly was at Paula Rego’s exhibition at Tate Britain in 2021. Rego’s work was vibrant, energetic and sometimes even violent (e.g. depicting victims of structural violence) which is a complete contrast to Tstutsumi’s serene exhibition. Despite the contrast, I could sense the artists in their work equally strongly. I believe that is because their work was ‘them’. To learn from these great artists, I need to make my work more ‘me’. I am the transcultural being, if I can work out how to make my work ‘me’ then I will have a better chance of locating C and creating my colour ‘green’.

– Prior to the show, I had started to explore a more abstract approach combined with symbols (inspired by Fiona Rae) to express my third space. I believe abstraction could help me to avoid being overly illustrative. Now that the interim show and the Low Residency is over, I am going to return to pick up that strand of exploration.

NEXT STEPS

Just make.