Post tutorial thoughts and new works.

I have had a series of diverse and informative tutorials with Tim and Michael and another with Fiona Crisp.
The first tutorial was with Tim and Michael and was nicely informal. Though the grad fellow's studio is based just behind mine it was useful to have a conversation in a tutorial context. The main outline of the tutorial was a discussion on how I felt my work wasn't successfully conveying the messages I wanted. Whilst my work has always considered the environment and raising awareness of ecology, I recently wanted my message to be a lot stronger. The perspex work that I had been creating just felt a bit stale in this conceptual context.
It was suggested that my work was relying too much on its aesthetic qualities, something that is instantly attributed to the perspex pieces with its references to minimalists such as Judd and the constructivist Naum Gabo. This aesthetic prominence was sacrificing my conceptual qualities and it was put across that maybe I should work in a sphere outside of my comfort zone.
After writing my dissertation on socially engaged art practice I thought about the idea of having an event, Tim spoke of a way of directly transferring information through to the audience, perhaps video or performance. I decided to book out the dark space and create a quick experimental solution to my problems.

This arose in the form of a handout that the audience would be invited to take with them. It would be loaded with information gathered from various internet sources and would provide statements about environmental policies, statistics and other ecologically relevant material.

The second tutorial was with Fiona Crisp and was much more critical. Again I spoke of my lack of satisfaction with how my practice had progressed this semester. Fiona went down a different avenue that the previous tutorial and pointed out how she thought my most successful work had been the turf pieces that were exhibited in CONTROVERTER. The invitation of the landscape into the studio brought forward successful conversation and had driven my practice forward. The perspex pieces were not moving forward as they were just works that had been created through the pleasure I received from creating them, using materials that pleased me in both a tactile and aesthetic fashion.
I have now decided to attempt to create another turf piece but grow it from seed this time rather than buying turf. The idea of growth in a studio and eventually death has an interesting environmental context, almost the idea of bringing in the landscape as an attempt to save it and preserve it.

We shall see how this progresses...