Play

Under The Floor

2010-07-27T12:30:00.009+01:00

One of the ideas we explored was 'The Under The Floor show', but it has not yet been fully developed. The idea initially was to use only the space under the floor in which to exhibit, as The exhibition space at Asylum Studios has a suspended floor over the top of an older existing floor; it is quite unique. But could be explored elsewhere to challenge audience expectations to art exhibition. I worked with Emma on a few ideas and these are my results. We worked in the Asylum studio exhibition space for the day and worked with the grid of the floor tiles, and also opened up the floor to interact with the space underneath as well as above. The materials are golf tees and other pieces from a similar source. I exploited the grid, the positive and negative of the top and underneath, formed 'uncanny' through selection processes, and configured the containing box and discs into a potentially animate form.

Steve

More contradictory stuff

2010-07-27T11:57:00.008+01:00

Here is some more of the work produced over the past year for the Play project. We had been working on the theme of 'Upside down' and 'Contradiction' for some time and found ways to create new works that take on this strategy. We thought of it more as a strategy to produce work than a theme in the strictest sense, as there was a restriction or point of compliance that allowed any form, object, subject to be explored but not to define it or limit the work. Initial pieces were perhaps fairly straight forward but the term 'contradiction' is very open and enables a conceptual approach to emerge, both in terms of function and implication and not just in terms of appearance. Such strategies are very much in line with our creative approaches and will become more and more I think a part of my practice.

Steve

These are some of the pieces that I created:

Back At PLAY . . . believe it or not . . .

2009-07-30T21:03:00.012+01:00

During 2008 we have been working on the project without updating the blog. We now have produced new work that explored ideas based on strategies such as 'contradiction' and 'upsidedown'. These are some images of the work produced in sessions together.

Steve produced these:

Alex produced these:

Emma produced these:

Do Not Use

2007-11-25T13:03:00.001Z

Do Not Use - Forensic Evidence

2007-11-25T12:54:00.001Z

Ship

2007-11-16T14:27:00.001Z

nonfunctioning machine for making a dead fly circle the light

2007-11-16T14:25:00.000Z

Do Not Use

2007-10-23T21:36:00.000+01:00

An open invitation. Make new work here, change what you find, publish results. Rules welcome. (Alex)

"It's this purposefully made box"

2007-09-07T09:58:00.000+01:00

Adventures in New Media

2007-08-31T19:46:00.000+01:00

The empty display case that perplexed and haunted me for a while was finally finished following ideas to investigate new media. I changed the idea from a video piece within the object to a sound piece within the box. This seems to have effectively pushed the references back to the object without creating another representation of it, and emphasizing its banal presence as a disfunctional display case. When we met and talked to Roger Ackling, he said to be radical. For me, I guess that has happened, at least to some extent, though I followed ideas and solutions to problems rather than seek to produce work that specifically meet what I thought radical meant.

Visitors went up close, as they had to, to hear the spoken loop to find it refering back to the undisplayed presentation. I found it difficult at first to work with an object that did not inherently provoke a response for me. I think that through the encouragement from the others to persevere on this one, I may work again in the future in a similar way, and definately expore new media more.

Completion of the first exhibition

2007-08-31T19:35:00.000+01:00

So we have finished the second phase of the project. After working together we have spent some time preparing and further experimenting with pieces for the first exhibition. The process has been successful and we have had good feedback about the work and display.

EXHIBITION NOW OPEN

2007-08-17T09:27:00.000+01:00

Pictures at an exhibition.....

2007-08-15T16:25:00.000+01:00

A few pages from the catalogue

2007-08-14T21:26:00.001+01:00

Marianne Koby Johnson contribution

2007-08-14T21:18:00.004+01:00

I work in the fields of painting, collage and assemblage. My paintings are atmospheric renderings of landscape, and the prints and collages are more abstract, the collages incorporating weathered manmade materials with organic fragments. It intrigues me how these resemble each other are they erode.Wherever I live and work I walk, and on these walks I pick up things. the objects may be disparate, stems or fragments of leaves crushed by cars, plastic shards, discarded lists, cash slips or school work dropped on the way home and trodden into the surface of the road. Occasionally I may come across a rich haul of objects which can form a complete work in themselves.when making a collage, the first few elements seem to come together by chance. Afterwards a succession of choices defines the gradual putting together of the image. The initial placing may be left for a time, a day, a month, a year. The objects/fragments gain new life through their relationship to each other and the space around, through juxtapositions, contrasting textures and qualities.I am currently working more "out of the frame", making wall hung and free-standing assemblages with a symbolic feel.

The Show is nearly ready

2007-08-14T21:05:00.000+01:00

A few shots of the work for Play going up in the church.

Some more boxes, books, and jigsaw bits to add to the mix...

2007-07-26T09:09:00.001+01:00

Aside from the seemingly ubiquitous books and jigsaw pieces, the making of the "space" box was triggered by Marianne's work in progress, drawing on themes of dreams and aspirations (below).

This reminded me that when I was a child I always wanted to be an astronaut, which seemed about as likely as sending an elephant into outer space.

(Emma)

Some bits and bobs for PLAY

2007-07-20T08:52:00.001+01:00

At last some things for PLAY. I managed to do something with a book (a bit late) I found one which hints at adventure/travel which is something I'm quite interested in avoiding. I am going to produce a series of works like those above and a large forest. Oh and some virtual jigsaw pieces. (Alex)

new ventures in sound & vision

2007-06-23T15:10:00.000+01:00

Unsure what to eventually do with the box, the glass and wooden display case, Alex offered to bring along equipment to record my rambling about the ideas and create a piece that combines this with a hand held video of the empty box. This will present additional references back to the box in perhaps a better way than the other ideas I had and do the job I have in mind. The box is quite banal and devoid of its very specifically constructed function, which is the exact point of disinterest that I have. So this challenge to find a creative response to it may be resolved at some point soon.

(Steve)

The puzzle continues

2007-06-20T16:47:00.000+01:00

The ill fitting jigsaw pieces are steadily increasing in number but we still need more, and decisions about how to display them are perplexing. Alex suggested that we should develop it further when the pieces are in-situ, adding objects in response to each others' ideas/materials.
(Emma)

Add & Pass

2007-06-13T20:40:00.000+01:00

Objects were passed around at the last meeting, and this is what I made of mine.

A similar theme ran across to the second jigsaw piece (this tends to happen if you work on two pieces on the same day!)

(Emma)

June 07

2007-06-09T17:36:00.000+01:00

So last week Alex came round and we sorted the blog, finally I get time to upload a bit more. We also finished the Poster/invites, here is a copy. The idea of creating an exhibition project that evolves like a collage, with many contributions from many people and the course of events unfolding without a defined plan, had proved a difficult way to work during last year. So, now having a focal point of exhibition in August does help. I realised the concept would be difficult in some ways as previous a project that I developed called Conversations, in Norwich, had similar aspects. Though much more structure was there to start with on that occasion. I feel that we are working well and playing with the idea as we should be.

(Steve)

Assemblage - Collage?

2007-06-09T11:04:00.000+01:00

Here are a few examples of recent work which kind of fit into the idea of assemblage. I managed to miss the last meeting where objects were passed around so I thought I'd bung some of this up as a sort of virtual contribution.

Adventure (things my wife has done but I haven't) There are lots of these.

Adventurer (one of 3 digital prints)

Forest (detail) I've since made two forests the idea is that I'm thinking about placing the trees in space rather than all the stuff I have to use to get them there.

(Alex Pearl)

May 2007

2007-05-31T20:47:00.000+01:00

We are passing round objects and altering them. Boxes are featuring now and we may explore the potential for display or concealment. We may add or remove things from them, deconstruct or reconstruct aspects and so on as they are passed from hand to hand. We all produced parts of a jigsaw which is very unfinished but has an agreeably disparate range of approaches and materials.

Early 2007

2007-05-31T20:21:00.000+01:00

Jevan had decided to retreat as he was to return to live in France, and Margaret had felt that she could not contribute full enough to continue because of other priorities. So we talked to Marianne and Alex about the project and they joined. A range of work is now underway as we are working towards an exhibition for later in the year. The focus has returned to objects rather than concepts at the moment.

Mid 2006

2007-05-31T20:09:00.000+01:00

We had met a few times and produced some work. The focus remained with books for a while and we were working to themes and concepts, which was new to some extent for some of us. Emma produced an excellent piece with threads and I (Steve) worked on the theme of Chaos. We had also met with Roger Ackling and discussed our ideas. This was a fascinating and inspirational accation that stopped us in our tracks. We had reevaluated our intensions and moved forward with focus on the work and decided as adviced not to document; though now we have a new role and perspective for the documentation as the blogg will be defined in the same way as the work we do in other ways.

Late 2005

2007-05-31T19:30:00.001+01:00

So I searched round and contacted other artists working with the materials and processes of collage & assemblage. I already knew Maraget Wyllie from a project I organised called A Construct of Time, site-specific to The Ancient House in Ipswich. While spending some grant money on documentation of my work the photographer Doug Attfield, I came across images of Jevan Watkins Jones' work, so I contacted him. I hadn't yet met Emma Johnson properly, I think. I am told that I interrogated them to some extent, as I found it fascinating how differently we all worked in response to materials and objects, and I wanted to know more and more. So the project was underway. Some of the work at this time revolved around books, I picked up on Jevan's shedding of paper and Emma's 'obsessive' repetative process work.

beginnings

2007-05-31T13:59:00.000+01:00

Mid 2005 I had been kicking around a somewhat loose idea about creating an exhibition idea about creating an exhibition project that formed in the same way as my collages and assemblages. Over a period of time the content and activity would change according to the participants.

(Steve Joyce)

An early piece