Post session reflection
Brief: Take some time to discuss this experience in your research journal. What have you taken away that will support your critical thinking and writing process in the future? How has this exercise broadened your understanding of the possibilities for writing in relation to practice?
With regards to the piece that our cohort were asked to write, all of us answered the questions/prompts very literally and directly. However, had we been asked to rewrite the piece after this session where we were taught a lot about how artists think about, write about and talk about their work, most of us agreed that we would not change what we had written. The seed has been planted in terms of thinking more deeply and more critically about our own art practice, but at the same time, I think it will take some time for the seed to grow.
Even with my background in writing and journalism, I don’t feel that I currently have the right depth of or combination of words to describe my artistic practice.
ON NOT KNOWING:
I sit on both sides of the fence when it comes to the premise of the work of Fortnum and Fisher (2013). There were parts of the chapter of their book that resonated deeply with me, most notably the conclusion where they conclude that “In creative processes, and the statements that emerge from them, there is a productive to-ing and fro-ing between the known and the unknown.”
While I understand that for some artists, they approach their art making in a state of not knowing, using studio practice as a mode of enquiry, but I feel that TJ Diffey’s statement that “For virtually all artists, the search for the unknown outcome is not only welcome but provides a driving force within the creative process, as painter Paula Rego says “you are doing it to find out what the result will be.” is not necessarily true for ‘virtually all artists.’
I feel that the premise of the chapter in this book is actually wholly dependent on the artist and the type of art they are making as to whether ‘not knowing’ is true or practiceable. For example, I would imagine that it is far easier to not know the outcome of an abstract piece, or an installation piece, or a piece that is speculative in nature. On the other hand, looking at more ‘classical’ types of art, Michelangelo would not have been able to approach the Sistine Chapel in a state of not knowing. In fact quite the opposite: according to Getty Education Museum’s Website, a few of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel drawings exist still today, it is known that he burnt the majority of them in order to conceal his plans, process and struggles. Their mere existence alludes to how the outcome of this work was planned.
Whereas Fortnum and Fisher (2013) quote Ryan Gander as saying “If I make a work that is successful, and I know how, then it’s no longer challenging. It has to take you to a place you don’t know, somewhere that scares you.” I feel the opposite is true for me: the challenge for me rather, is to plan something so meticulously that the challenge lies in getting the finished piece to as close a version of that which I had planned in my head or on paper. Of course there are moments in my art-making where the piece may take an unexpected turn, but all in all, I am very much in a state of knowing what outcome I’m looking for when I make a piece of art.
Artist Mitch Griffiths appears to follow the same method. Whilst very little information exists online about his process, scouring old social media content, such as his Instagram feed where he acknowledges both models and photographers that took part in his compositions (and therefore his paintings), as well as a video by Halcyon Gallery that shares video footage of the model that is captured in one of his bodies of work, reveals uses a very pre-defined and premeditated process where by he selects the models, sets up a photographic shoot, and then places the ‘actors’ in compositions for photographs. This then results in a number of photographs from which Mitch Griffiths replicates his artworks to exacting and photo-realistic standards.
Conclusion:
As a creative person, I have had an art practice, and I have written both professionally and creatively. But never have I written about my creative practice, nor have I written as a part of my creative practice. After this week’s module, it is clear to me the benefits of an artist thinking about and writing about their art practice. It appears that Fortnum and Fisher (2013) would agree “My hope is that if we understand more about the kinds of ‘space’ we need for ‘not knowing’ within the creative process we might make them more visible in our accounts of practice and so resist the superficiality of our current systems, as well as the instrumentalisation of notions of knowledge. This is important because as artists we will always be called to account for what we do on a fundamental level.” In a time of social media proliferation and community-driven praise and/or criticism, Artists that wish to move in the public domain will be held increasingly accountable for the art that they put into that public domain. Finding ways to communicate the message and meaning in their art will go a long way towards clearly articulating their concerns and concepts.
References Cited:
Fortnum and Fisher (2013) On Not Knowing: How Artists Think by Elizabeth Fisher and Rebecca Fortnum, chapter entitled “Creative Accounting: Not Knowing in Talking and Making”. Published in 2013, Black Dog Publishing. (accessed 31 October 2023) from online link to chapter:
- Getty Museum Online: Michelangelo: Mind of the Master: Sculptor. Painter. Architect. https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/michelangelo_drawings/explore.html (accessed 1 November 2023)
- Halcyon Gallery: Mitch Griffiths https://www.halcyongallery.com/mitch-griffiths/ (accessed 2 November 2023)
- Rauschenberg, R The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Website: White Painting (1951) https://www.rauschenbergfoundation.org/art/galleries/series/white-painting-1951 (accessed 1 November 2023)
- Simonini, R (2020): ‘I Can Begin to Learn Again’: Turner Prize-Winning Artist Helen Marten on Writing Her First Novel https://artreview.com/i-can-begin-to-learn-again-turner-prize-winning-artist-helen-marten-on-writing-her-first-novel/ (accessed 30 October 2023)
- Whitley, Z (2018): Lubaina Himid: ‘Telling stories of the black experience that are both everyday and extraordinary is what I’m here to do’ – The Turner Prize winner talks to Tate Modern’s Zoe Whitley about black visibility, historical trauma, and the power of the ordinary in her paintings https://www.artbasel.com/news/lubaina-himid—telling-stories-of-the-black-experience-that-are-both-everyday-and-extraordinary-is-what-i-m-here-to-do-(accessed 30 October 2023)
- Whitworth, Z (2017), Understanding Contemporary Art – Did I miss the point? https://psuvanguard.com/understanding-contemporary-art-did-i-miss-the-point/ (accessed 1 November 2023)
- Youssra Manlaykhaf, Y and McVeigh, R (2020): Jennifer Packer’s Political Still Lifes & Intimate Portraits Centre Black lives https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/art-and-ideas/get-to-know-jennifer-packer/ (accessed 30 October 2023)
Debbie New 