Thinking Outside of the box

Julia Woodmore - Portfolio > Thesis > Introduction

Thinking Outside of the Box

Introduction

"Bring out the nature of materials, let their nature intimately into your scheme. . . . Reveal the nature of the wood, plaster, brick or stone in your designs; they are all by nature friendly and beautiful." [1]

Do former applications of a material dictate its use in art today?

In presenting this body of work to you I want to make it explicit that this is a personal study. The way in which this writing represents my work is symbolic of my approach in researching this topic.

Fig. 1

Within my personal practise my work with 'materials' is my motivation. How I use them and how I can push them to their limits. How I can change our perception, relationship and experience to a given material. But how do they play a role in representing the situation they are intended for? This got me thinking. Where do the feelings that I experience when working with them come from? More importantly what are these feelings and do they play a role when choosing materials? Why do I choose one instead of another? Is it a conscious decision (i.e. Does it 'look' right or 'feel' right) or is there a fundamental knowledge gained from our preconceptions or experiences with a given material and our associations with its use in the past? Maybe we should be asking where it has come from and whether this has an effect on or affinity with our work. It is with all this in mind that I will be looking at concept and context in terms of the material as shown in Fig. 1.

I have created this from the main themes in my readings. It helps me to illustrate the overlapping nature of the question I am asking and the position I am entering from. This is important in the greater scheme where it brings to light an often overlooked aspect of Public art ? the role of material as a driving force in the process of creative endeavours. I know this is not the only point of view, but in art these areas overlap with such complexities that I have to be brutal in the approach that I take.

With these questions in mind I began to look at theory. I found that ideas grounded in representation, bricolage, materiality and phenomenology each play a significant role in the understanding of this topic.

However this will not and cannot remain a purely theoretical exercise. I will be exploring the very nature of material and in turn our relationship to it specifically using my own work with cardboard as a major case study.

Through much of my own work, that of my contemporaries and the artist James Carl (all of whom have worked with cardboard as well as other materials) I will be gaining knowledge through case studies, interviews and questionnaires. This includes an experiment with word association (materials based of course), that will allow for a greater insight which I could not gain from text alone.

These questions not only have applicability for public artists but also for the public. Those who are engaging with the piece. These kinds of material encounters take place at an everyday level with a multitude of results. I am also interested in the opinions of those who are not practising artists to see if there is a different relationship and understanding formed. After all it is this public that we are trying to engage with. In the 'The Practise of everyday life' Girad describes the idea that there is a 'practise of cooking' but that the tools, resources and materials that people use and the way that they use them are all nuanced and different. For example, the way that I hold a potato peeler or a tin opener is different from the way that you do, but we are both 'peeling potatoes or opening tins'. [2] This point being, it is important to listen to the individual and to be aware of these nuances but not to undermine the fact that a practise exists ? that there is something we all do ? but we all do it differently.

It is my belief that the relationship between artist and material is formed through ones own personal engagement with it in precisely the same way as the example above shows with cooking practices. My own bodily experience will not be the same as yours, my reactions are nuanced to me as yours are to you so while experience can be shared it will never be the same for any two people. Due to the nature of my research I have been led to explore this project in terms of representation because to a certain extent, representation allows a platform for shared understanding despite every personal experience being different.

"the challenge of creating public art is combining appropriate materials and an artistic vision" [3]

But what makes an appropriate material? Questions arise from these issues such as maintenance in public art,

"Art is not thought of as having a life expectancy, but maintenance issues raise the question of just how permanent is permanent public art" [4]

But is that where it begins and ends? The above are important factors in debates surrounding material but I want to move on from these issues in my argument. I will however be taking into consideration issues of permanence, ephemeriality, site and place using ideas highlighted in the work of Krzysztof Wodiczko, Andy Goldsworthy and Johanna Rosenqvist's essay 'Materials in time and space' as a context for this part of my debate.