It is interesting that the dynamic and relationship within a working-practice group starts to determine its own language. In a recent 3-month project with undergraduate and postgraduate Fine art students there was a notable difference between the conversational position of where we started and the newly formed language that we ended with at the end of the project. This wasn’t simply forming visual language; it was the language of and around the visual. It enabled the reordering of words so that they could hover around objects and images. These words would then stand in for or try and grapple with the relevant definition or description of a thing. The object that stood for a word and a word that suggested an object.
A group starts to trust the process, they develop ways to use words and objects to support there thinking and support their making. It is a hermeneutic navigation. I have decided that as I try and form the appropriate reflective route for this research process that I will anchor the preoccupations, theories, quotes or ideas with the visual. I am keen not to illustrate theories or ideas but to have visual, physical anchor points. Making concrete the ideas, grounding them. I rolled the plasticine wanting to make the sphere as perfect as I could before I put it in the mound. I had ordered the enamel pop tart tin online from America conscious of how the vessel itself framed the spheres and presented them ready for use. The cream surface against the grey, the perfect fit. The tin had a new function, no longer for novelty cakes but for the weighter plasticine, dense and full. The plasticine is primed. It is smoothed and pressed and held in its cases. It should feel precious, with a certain consideration. It is an intentional object made for someone, made for you. I am interested in the invite to touch, that by accepting the participant becomes active and has made the decision to engage. There is always the unknown and the risk of what this encounter might present but equally there is an implied generosity that this was made for you. 24 clay balls are ready. How do we see an experience beyond a photograph or a written or spoken description? How do we see or know it through a thing. A physical object or material. How can this stuff becomes reflective through a reflexive action? " I am handing out these plasticine balls, there is one for each of you. They are for you to hold, move, manipulate use or ignore whilst I am talking to you. " These balls are chosen and held. People laugh or roll them on a table, touch them against their faces to test the temperature of the plasticine, squeeze them between their hands or place them in front of them softly on the table. After a moment of checking what each other are doing, we begin. As I talk about the project, about materiality and touch, about objects and encounter the group are facing me but moulding the plasticine in different ways. They contribute and we enter a lively discussion of possibilities of practice. As we start the next stage of the session, the plasticine balls are collected. They are altered, mishapened, smaller, imprinted, stretched, dissected. But they are evidence of the last hour, they are a physical remnant. Catachresis
noun (online dictionary.com) 1.misuse or strained use of words, as in a mixed metaphor, occurring either in error or for rhetorical effect. (from Greek κατάχρησις, "abuse"), originally meaning a semantic misuse or error—e.g., using "militate" for "mitigate", "chronic" for "severe", "anachronism" for "anomaly", "alibi" for "excuse", etc.—is also the name given to many different types of figure of speech in which a word or phrase is being applied in a way that significantly departs from conventional (or traditional) usage.[1] Crossing categorical boundaries with words, because there otherwise would be no suitable word When making objects I am preoccupied with the space that is created between the known and the unknown and particularly drawing on the ability of ‘forgetting to know’. A cross over between truth and untruth can develop to create a place where knowledge and facts can shift (littoral definition here). This opening up thought and the idea that there is a potential ‘misuse’ or ‘error’ in the meaning or the definition of a thing is particularly exciting. When something isn’t supposed to be right but becomes right in its wrongness - this is where I believe the viewer, participant, learner can find a point of reference or anchor point. A word standing in for another or pretending to be that word leads me to the thoughts I have had on ‘decoy’. Decoys instead of metaphors? decoy noun noun: decoy; plural noun: decoys ˈdiːkɔɪ,dɪˈkɔɪ/ 1. 1. a bird or mammal, or an imitation of one, used by hunters to attract other birds or mammals. "a decoy duck" o a person or thing used to mislead or lure someone into a trap. "we need a decoy to distract their attention" I enjoy the mistrust within both the decoy and the Catachresis, ‘a wolf in sheep clothing’ is the idiom for this. We lose our footing and are let loose with the possibilities of meaning and reference points. When objects made intentionally for the USE of pedagogical adventure don’t sit it their official context how are they understood. My feeling/hypothesis is that they are seen as imposters, dressed up objects full of function 'fit for purpose'.
The term set piece is referenced in football and it follows an action that then allows a ball to be to ‘returned to open play’. Set pieces are also planned actions made in advance to achieve maximum effectiveness.
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Kimberley FosterKimberley's practice as an artist is pedagogical, it doesn’t just reference learning, it plays with, embodies and encourages learning at its core. The objects consider ideas of collaboration and authorship, discussions about touch and encounter, and bring into active consideration issues of learning within social and participatory practices. Archives
October 2018
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