In our discussion on Wednesday, Jeena and Monique consoled me that the recent lockdown might be a positive for my painting practice.
Given that one of my methods is 'working within my limits', the lockdown has proactively and literally affected my practice to 'do without'. As I left my materials in the city - my oil paints, paper, canvas, gesso and brushes- I was obliged to look into the resources my home offered in order to continue my practice- effectively activating a literal translation of the method,' working within my limits'.
Having ordered paper from Gordon Harris, and using watercolours I am now going to downsize and work on small-scale paintings for the time being. Monique and Jeena encouraged me that this buffer period might offer a unique perspective into my fieldworks.
They encouraged me to make my own pigments, inks and dyes if need be, and work with scraps of papers, and textiles that would otherwise be disposed of.
While this method idea was interesting in light of the 'compost', I also noted that I am interested in 'image-making', even as a starting reference which would then be 'processed' via abstraction, blending- effectively 'disintegrating' the image(s) into the foreground. Jeena picked up on this idea of 'image-making' and suggested that since representations or figurations are pertinent to practice, perhaps I must keep thinking about the relationship between figurations and abstractions within my compost methodology. The compost methodology engages a figuration to 'decompose' or disintegrate, melt into, blend into, break down, move and deteriorate.
Expanding the methods of 'working within my limits', Monique commented that since using homemade dyes, pigments or inks may deter me from creating figurations to the varied precision that conventional paint would permit me to, she suggested that the use of monochromatic colours for this buffer period might be more particular to the type of paintings I am interested in.
Hence by limiting my colours, I may be able to explore a type of relationship with the subject matter more insightfully. A limited colour palette renders to limited resources available when composting. Compost is comprised of local materials often found around one's garden, a collection of scraps, bits and ephemeral bobs.
While my practice is conceptually engaged with the idea of the compost, that is, scraps of ideas, subject matter, a thought, my every day, the 'small' and so on (a sort of ecology of the personal), using a limited palette might offer a more rigorous insight into 'compost' and the relationships within these 'things' I paint.
Some artists mentioned at this point in light of limiting my colour palette:
Marlene Dumas
Silvia Bachli
Working small scale with watercolours has often meant working in a quick tempo as I feel like I need to keep up with the fluidity of the medium and its drying speed. Hence this process has led me to work en masse whereby I can accumulate a volumue of images, ideas, new figurations in ways which oil cannot offer. This pace has often helped me to focus on gesture, mark-making, and I can compose a mass amount of ideas which lead to a larger scale painting.
Conceptually, in terms of a compost, by literally layering these watercolour paintings beside each other, they generate relationships within other paintings through figurations, colours, marks and subject matter. Together, these small paintings holistically become a whole, the 'big'; a composition of my personal matters or in painterly terms, what Monique coined as, 'a painting ecology'.
Furthermore, Monique describes that working with small paintings draws an analogy to writing a novel. If every painting were a chapter, every line a character, and the conglomeration of paintings bound together would tell my story; a non-linear, visual novel which delves into my perspective of the world through the compost methodology. Thus, the viewers reconstructs my narrative through 'reading' my work within the prism of their own understandings.
Some sections of my 'novel' are romantic poems, others comprise of diary entries, others essays and political matters. All these paintings are an addition to the 'compost' of my being.
Putting Jeenas thoughts into words:
While I am interested in gauging relationship with my present everyday domestic field by studying nuances in the banal, these studies often lead me to the past and then trajects towards the future. I am interested in how studying the 'every day' is bound to relate to personal nostalgia- how memory lives in my banal and aids my relationship to the present. As I learn to live in communion with the present, my personal history is deeply embedded with it.
Hence, 'introspective fieldworks' discusses how the past (or maybe just non-linear time) includes the 'every day'. To me 'everyday' is the literal present, however, over time, I begin to realise while I would start painting my present, I often flitter between time; a moment here and a moment there. This communion/ integration of not only subject matter 'decomposing' into each other, but the varied connections of time, helps 'regenerate' a distinct narrative which the viewer is activated by.
As a 'solutions over criticism' kind of person (or trying to be!), relationship seemed key to healing my disconnected life. DIsconnections to my birthland, my present land, and following through perhaps a disconnected future. I am pretty fed-up with capitalist ideology, and understood the negative implications of its system causes major, disconnection on several physical and political/cultural/ social levels.
Hence proactively, my research into understanding 'relationship' or 'being in relationship' with my present(field) (and also how the past lives within the present), I vowed to heal separations and divisions within my spiritual, social and physical personal life. To me, healing through 'relationship' has been pertinent to finding my place and my connection with others- be it humans or non-humans.
A side note- It's quite interesting being in lockdown for the 2nd time. It takes me a while to adjust to my surrounding, but working home, with my family, my garden and my most intimate feelings has been reassuring to my practice. Working within my proximity literally has affected my paintings and how I paint and the detailed study of my everyday through looking as opposed to taking pictures. Studio sometimes feels like a lab as I examine or exoticise my own life. I can distance myself from the world and speculate in my own bubble. But working in my 'bubble' at home has helped me navigate my practice to its full potential because of the literal translations from field to canvas/ paper.
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