What's in a name?

Back Again...

Ok..... so I have been a little bit lax when it comes to filling out this blog so i'm going to take the finger out and start fresh.  New term... New start... and all that stuff.

My current work is only beginning to take shape and I have a funny feeling that it will be quite some time before my images are ready to be uploaded in some coherent fashion.  Until that time I shall leave the word "IDENTITY" floating around in cyberspace with the hope of catching a few more ideas.

At least I have begun......

Performance

Above are the photos of my latest venture into performance art.  Its something that I never believed I would ever be interested in doing.  After a two day workshop and a final two hour street performance with Alastair McLennan I now see myself using the techniques i'v learned in my future work.  Its a totally freeing experience and I really feel that everybody should try it at least once.  Even if your not studying art its a way to build confidence and just have fun.

Eventually adding some photos...

Its time to update the blog again....

Ok time to look at the blog and start updating it on a regular basis again its been too long on the long finger.
So...... i've been looking at time, but not in terms of watches or clocks (that was Sept and Oct), its more about spending time than noteing its passing.  Taking photos of moments is definetaly not a new concept but it is a concept all the same.
What if you could capture a moment then recreate its vibrancy in a more fluid way???? I even surprise myself with how my brain is wired sometimes so bare with me until I start making more sense :) 
Ok... so.... I took a photo of water being poured.... that photo is a moment... a static moment.... taking the image captured in the photo (pouring water)... I created it outside of the photo... (still not making sense..).... I looked at the shape of the poured water (for its no longer pouring).... and decided to find a medium to create its essence (clay)... I then created a piece that conceptually resembled the poured water.... from this piece I created another photograph.... and so on and so forth.... until the final piece (which has yet to be envisioned) takes form.... so..... it is in fact this repition of created forms that is the work and the time used to create it is the concept....

Another attempt at uploading my photos...

More recent experiments....

I quit..... I can't wait any longer for the pics to upload... bloody technology....

Whats been happening...

My work so far. 

7 days and counting.... eeekkkk....

Ok, so its about a week before all the work iv been doing over the summer is going to be put under the microscope and di-sected bit by bit and im really kind of nervous.  I feel like iv done enough but I guess il have to wait and see.

Ive spent the summer (part of it, I do have a life) gathering information about my chosen subject, which is time.  I have looked at clocks and watches, day and night, life and death and just about every other time related subject I could find.

Ive discovered that the present is the consciousness or awareness of recording of memory into the brain. Past is just a record while future does not exist.  I have also discovered that a FEMTOSECOND is to a second, as a second is to 32 million years.  This is all very interesting but hard to define in terms of sculpture.

Through various attempts at experimenting with time I realised that my whole life is totally dictated by it.  I can't go for even a few hours without checking what time it is, this leads me to believe that I either have an addiction or my life has been completely influenced by the clock. 

The pieces I have been working on reflect this overwhelming feeling of submersion in time, by translating it into colour and bombarding the eye with pattern.  In doing this I hope to be able to create a visual understanding of how my life has been affected. 

I will put up some photos to hopefully explain this a little better.

Assumption and Presumption...

OK... so maybe I was a bit presumptuous in a previous post, thinking I could tick all the boxes before the end of the summer was a complete farce.  I feel like I'm at a standstill at the moment and nothing seems to be progressing.  What I seem to have, is a collection of experiments with no obvious coherent thread and it is really starting to worry me.

I keep reading the brief and it doesn't seem to be enlightening me in any way, shape or form.  AAAAGGGGHHHH.... I need a severe injection of input.  I didn't realise how easy I had it in college, there was always someone to bounce ideas off and to discuss options with.  At home, although I have great support and copious amounts of interested ears to listen to me, it's just not the same as having someone who understands the processes and language of art.  I now understand how people feel when they say that they feel isolated. 

I am really looking forward to getting back to college and to getting some clarity.

Flavio Melchiorre

Time is ticking by ....

Well another week over and another week closer to the begining of a new term.  Really don't know what to expect but am looking forward to starting something new.

The summer project is going ok (I think) and I at least feel like ive started on a road that im happy to travel down.  I only hope that the 2nd year tutors feel the same Ha.  Im not sure if ive ticked all the boxes on the project brief but I feel confidant that I can tick them all by the end of the summer (fingers crossed)

Right ive nothing else to add right now, I can't seem to pen what im doing at the moment and I don't have any new photos to add but as soon as I do I will up load and update.

Bye for now. 

Image and re-image....

Working with colour and perspective...

Tangents....

AAAGGGGHHHH..... I think i've wandered off on a tangent that has no real relation to my topic.  The worse thing is i'm enjoying it so am reluctant to pull back.  I have a sneaky feeling that I may have to work it alongside something else in order to make it more relevant.

Eventually....

Well its about 4 weeks since the summer project started and I eventually feel like im getting a handle on things.  Although I havent actually made anything in the physical yet I at least have the the beginings of some research so thats a start.
Im still not sure where exactly im going with this research but I suppose thats a good thing.  I still feel unsure as to what im doing im just hoping that it falls into place and something clicks.  Only time will tell how it will all turn out im just keeping my fingers crossed that im not going too far off on a tangent.
Well lets hope that the next time I update this blog that I have a much better handle on things..

Summer Project....

Ok... so the first days of the summer holidays have arrived and I have begun to have cold turkey already (prime time to start researching).  I have read the details of the brief several times now and I am still none the wiser.  I have to consider the relationship between a part of something and the whole of something... sounds easy right? Well thats were im stumbling it actually sounds a lot easier than it is.
Because im attracted to natural materials I automatically am drawn to look at these first however my thoughts keep drifting to the predictable and the mundane.... trees as part of a forest, grass as part of a garden, bark as part of a tree and so on ... how bloody boring and unoriginal.  I really want to come up with a starting point that is going to inspire me for at least the next year and somehow I don't see myself hugging trees anytime soon.
Back to the drawing board .... and back to reading more words of wisdom from the project guidelines....

• Are there details within a place, an object or a person that tell you something that the whole of that same subject does not????
• What does one reveal that the other does not or cannot????
• How does an investigation of the detail of something and 'the thing itself' contribute to an understanding of a form, how it is made, how it is, how it ages/develops??

These are just some of the questions that should help direct me but im finding it harder than I initially thought.  Right best get back to the journal and INVESTIGATE this project a bit more.   I shall update as I go along (providing that I manage to progress a little further than the questioning stage) 

Some of the images iv been working on at home...



Cork Street in Dublin with the Guiness Tower




Florence in Italy




Cork Street in Dublin



Some sculpture pieces from the past few weeks....

Welding project

Love the shadow that this piece creates

Body Sculpture

Close up of body sculpture

Richard Long inspired location

The wind blew this piece down and after several walk-bys I decided that it actually looked a lot more interesting this way so I decided to leave it.

End of first year..... WOW....

Well we have reached the end of our very first year in college and it feels like it has flown by.  It only seems like a few weeks have passed since we started semester one.  The past 3 weeks have been filled with small projects which were aimed at giving us the skills to overcome mental blocks in the coming years.  These briefs have included 60sec sculpture ideas, pocket sculptures and new measurements to name but a few.  We have also been given a summer project which should keep our minds busy over the next few weeks and will act as a spring board for semester 3.