Sculpture or Installation





Oval with Points, (1968-1970), Henry Moore Foundation



I have this idea to create a piece for my Lancaster exhibition that will compliment my paintings, fulfil my desire to break away from my traditional ways of working and put into practice some of the techniques I explored whilst at university. I am not sure whether you would call the piece a sculpture or an installation and I will have to explore the differences between the two. I suppose an installation is specific to the exhibition site and would have some way of interacting with the viewer whereas a sculpture could be moved to any location and deliver the same viewing experience.

So are Henry Moore's large casts sculptures or installations? Are they not site specific works that the viewer interacts with, observing the landscape through the voids Moore placed in his work or wondering at the scale and smoothness of curve in the natural light? I don't think I have heard Moore called an installation artist though.

Follow this link for a good discussion on Installation Art by London based art critic and art historian Claire Bishop http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue3/butisitinstallationart.htm . I deduce from this that true installation work requires viewer interaction or active participation so the piece has 'relational aesthetics' according to cultural critic Nicolas Bourriaud. I also deduce that the trend is for the installation to alter perception or cause friction between the viewer and their surroundings which perhaps sets it apart from what sculptures can achieve.

So what of my piece? I have collected interesting pieces of wood from the beach and forrest and piled them in the garden. Now I am waiting for the wood to talk to me. I have some idea of what I want and I know where the piece will be placed in the exhibition. The piece will interact with the viewer as the natural light from a window it will be placed in front of will fall through acetate coloured with acrylic inks. The time of day and the weather conditions will alter the viewing experience each time. A sculptural installation perhaps?

I am considering putting an entry into this year's Sculpture By The Sea event in Australia.

https://picasaweb.google.com/118338774493048868745/SculptureByTheSeaCottesloe2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCNb-vr39j7fPVA# but I think I might be trying to run before I can walk.

The art of social unrest

I have just completed a painting I have been working on for the last three months and I am now wondering how to market this piece. My painting depicts the recent student protests in London and I have used a classical style as I thought the events that unfolded on that day were like scenes from a Greek play. I wanted to record the social unrest as an important historical event and used works such as The Oath of Horatii by Jacques Louis David (pictured below) as inspiration.

I find these works intriguing as they carry so much symbolism and narrative. In my painting, I have merged events from the day into one scene and I am sure that the classical artists over emphasised the drama and placed relevant people and objects in their scenes to depict the story. For example, I have placed Nick Clegg and David Cameron at the edge of my scene. They are treading on a tablet of stone with the Latin word 'Spondeo' etched into it. This roughly translates into 'pledge' and the tablet is fractured or broken so they are breaking their pledge to the students not to raise the tuition fees.

I was also intrigued by the media coverage during the protest and the use of videos taken by mobile phones so i incorporated this into my painting as well. Camilla Parker Bowles and Prince Charles are being confronted by the mob, as they were on the day, but their 'attacker' is brandishing a mobile phone to capture the moment for publication on You Tube or other social media sites.

There may be a backlash from some people (probably the police) as I have shown them as pigs. I have no intention to be disrespectful to the police, who I think handled the day admirably, and I used the pig as a symbol of a beast in a titanic struggle with the 'hero' as the classical artist have done. I have shown one 'pig' to be attacking a member of the mob but I have also shown one being pushed to the ground by the surging crowd so I believe I have balanced the scene.

Is there a place for this type of work to be shown? My painting carries images that may upset or offend. The banners carried by the mob read F**K FEES as they did on the day and I am wondering whether the newspapers will print this although they did print many photographs of the protests for days after the event. It will be interesting to get some reactions and I suppose the best thing that could happen is that I get some bad publicity as then I will know I have touched a nerve!

So here is my painting 'Spondeo Infractus.' I would welcome your comments:)