more log work

ok, so the bark is definitely an issue with these logs. i've cut the end bit of bark off another section and completely just painted the primer straight over the bark on the third log. 

 here's the two logs with bark removed a few inches from the top

for this one i'm just going to paint over the whole log

the one thing that keeps surfacing in my mind with these logs, as i work with them, is that i feel they should be a component element in something more assembled. perhaps as just one part of a network of interrelated objects. as single objects they are, for me at least, just a little bit too totemic.

trying out some added elements

i'll just keep pursuing it and see where it ends up. 

logs_studio experiments

pondering with drawings

experimenting with taking off the bark

not really feeling it yet with these pieces. the bark is a difficult element here. so i've decided to trim off some of the bark on one of the logs to see how that plays out. once i start painting on some patterns hopefully something will start to develop.

logs_studio experiments

so really, this work with these logs is very much intuitive. there's no conceptual underpinnings for it, that will come later as the work develops. it's just a matter of following an instinct. 

 painted white on the ends, preparing for patterns to be applied.

i've placed down some artificial grass as another possible element to contemplate. this grass is recycled from another work, lovesong, from a show at owl and pussycat gallery in richmond 2009. recycling materials is a financial necessity at this stage as well as a reflection of the bubbling and regenerating reality of chaos.

logs

these are the logs from the church in my street - a nice variety of segments to work with:

i need to replace my orbital sander before i get to work on these, so i can smooth out the surfaces for some painting. and i'm still considering embedding mirror fragments, but most likely they'll be shards of glass rather than the circles i was working with for the first idea of synapse. perhaps the glass shards will work in conjunction with the abstract painted patterns. we'll see. something to experiment with.

the reason i'm expressing my initial ideas for these sort of studio experiments is to open out the whole process of my art-making practice. often i start with a rough plan, an idea, a thought, and then it wends and winds its way toward a resolution that may be some way off the initial step. but often it contains elements of it. also, the initial ideas may simply not be suited to a particular medium or time and may resurface later in more appropriate media, or when they have been more developed or refined.

material collections

the church in my street just cut down a few of the trees in its grounds and cut them up into small logs. they were all bunched up on the street so i grabbed a few pieces as studio material for future work.

 thought i'd document the origin of the site

i'm pretty sure these were oak trees, common in this area of south yarra

i'll upload some images of the actual segments of the trees that i acquired when i get to the studio. one of the plans i have for them is to use them as stands in sculptural works and also to try painting abstract patterns directly on to the wood.

 

plant hybrids

it's been a busy week with writing - i had to conjure up a 3000 word sample chapter of my thesis - and my head is full of literary conversions of my creative material output.

"The expansive territory of nature serves as both a rich field of inspiration from which to harvest ideas and a prism through which to examine the swirling pool of our collective understanding."

on the good news front, i just got curated into a group show for the end of november. it's at a commercial gallery - dianne tanzer - as part of their progressive program of introducing emerging artists into the mix of their represented stable. curated by drew pettifer and gillian brown the theme of the show fits pretty well perfectly in line with my work - experiments in plant hybridisation - the title taken from an 1865 book by gregor mendel.

this exhibition affords me the opportunity to revisit a previous work - prewood_postwood - that was exhibited at c3 contemporary art space in 2009. 

prewood_postwood 2009

rather than just re-represent this particular piece i'm going to develop and refine it. so the plan is to make it more intricate, with more component elements, so that the integration of biology and technology is more intertwined and appears more co-productive.

 

studio drawings

here's a couple of drawings on my studio walls at the moment:

i've got about 30-40 speaker cones i've collected from hard rubbish over the years and am thinking about building a giant, geometric wave that is embedded with them all. this is an early plan for that idea.

the scale of the enterprise is a little daunting, but summer might be the perfect time to bring this to fruition.

 

this is a few little sculptural ideas, i really would like to re-visit some kinetic elements in my work. i made a working fountain in a large sculpture for a show at seventh gallery in feb2010, and quite liked the feel of it. so these are some thoughts about fountain based works.

this is a large ink drawing, about 1m by 1m, that took many hours to make. 

i'd like to make a series of these, probably with more cuboid elements to them, so this sits on my wall to remind me to get back to it at some point. the series would be similar to the HoneySucker_series i recently made for a show at shifted gallery, and have almost sold out of now (8 out of 12 have been sold). those will be on display at the sofitel hotel in melbourne in 2011. ideally, another series of these cuboids would be completed by middle of 2011, and i think probably about 6 would suffice.

  
these ones are based on an idea expressed by goethe, that plants grow with two dominant and equal forces - vertical drive and horizontal drive. so they are an abstracted representation of those forces, and in some way remind me of mondrian's paintings of trees, with his vertical and horizontal abstractions of the branches. the patterning on the cuboids is an abstracted representation of grass.

sketchbook

drawing is many things. more commonly associated with being a preliminary stage on a pathway to ultimate realisation as a more 'finished' work, it is now being more readily accepted as a medium in its own right. to most artists this has been a given for some time, but only recently has this began to be more broadly received. 

the following images are taken from my sketchbook and give an indication of both of these ideas of drawings - preliminary sketches and finished pieces.

 some ideas for sculptures

 another sculpture idea, wall mounted

thinking about an installation

an idea for a collaboration with lucy james (the warming room blogspot)

this is a straight out drawing, not a plan, just a drawing.

this is the sort of thing i'll occasionally construct, usually without expectation or particular intent. quite often, in cases of where i'm looking for new directions, these drawings will help draw out ideas that are lurking beneath the conscious level of thought, or else they provide happy accidents and mistakes that can coalesce into something new and exciting. from this particular one it opens a new passage into sculptural ideas, something a little more surreal than what i normally produce. actually, much of this type of drawing, for me, leans toward a surrealist edge, in stark contrast really, i think, to much of my output.

another straight out drawing drawing

ooh, now these ones i'm quite excited about. they are renditions of those instructional line drawings you get in gardening books.

they are almost always just a human hand interacting with a plant.

i have plans for a series of works from these. at this early stage, i'm hoping to produce a set of drawings, an animation and a series of large embroidered images. i really find these images rather captivating, especially en masse, as they imply a particular human relationship with nature that walks a fine line between manipulation and affection.

cytoarchitecture_opening

although this blog is generally devoted to the process of my art making, i think it's probably nice to also see the final outcome of things. so, in that spirit, here are some images of the exhibition opening at Techno Park Studios - which includes art from the following artists: 
                              
                                 Matthew Deleget
                                 Melanie Irwin
                                 Liang Xia Luscombe
                                 Taree Mackenzie
                                 Riki-Metisse Marlow
                                 Kent Wilson

Riki-Metisse's wonderful sound machines

Mel's subtle wall painting

Taree and Liang's piece

Matthew's wall-mounted plastic bags

my work, synapse

Riki-Metisse put on a performance, manipulating and coordinating her many sound machines:

 

against a backdrop of warnings about severe weather there was a great turn out of visitors. it was great to see some young kids enjoying Riki-Metisse's show, at times tapping their feet and clapping their hands to the irregular beats and the grinding, industrial sounds of the machines.

cytoarchitecture_darwinian branches

so, it turns out that cutting circles of glass, with no experience whatsoever, and sanding them into perfectly accurate shapes, then plunging them into articulated depressions in soft, green wood... well... that's a rather difficult prospect. 
after some dangerous glass splinterings, several cracked attempts and much expletives, i decided to abort that idea and place my hope in the darwinian principle of evolution - that from the occasional creative error, or aberration, advancement may occur. and with that philosophical mindset, i sat back, looked around my studio, reconsidered the ideas in the work and waited for a new creative solution.
and there it was, in a milk crate. a pile of about 20 large computer circuit boards that i had collected over a year ago from the side of the road.
the symmetry was like some sort of resonance - logs cut up from trees (themselves smaller parts of a broader 'environmental' network), discarded on the side of road; circuit boards, cut out from larger networked computer systems, discarded on the side of the road. bang! suitable collage companions.
mind you, they were still difficult to cut, and in the short time frame i had they are not as perfectly snug as one would ideally like, but they work suitably well. i hand cut about 6, breaking many coping saw blades before realising my electric jigsaw could do the task. that said, the jigsaw blade got blunt pretty quick and the last, little circles for the bundles of branch segments was cut almost exclusively by the friction of the flat, teethless saw blade.

these shots are actually from the gallery - Techno Park Studios. the lighting is a bit unkind for photography, especially for my little camera - but you get the gist.

so there it is!
i will need to take some better documentation photographs, perhaps enlist stuart for the task (http://littlesumo.wordpress.com/), as he has taken some great photos of my work previously (www.kentwilson.net).

i'm quite partial to the bundles of branch segments. i feel there might be some more work i could do in that vein. i'm still unsure as to whether i should have created a 'ground' for the piece. in the past, with these sort of sculptural works i have put down bark chips or gravel or fake grass. but in this instant i wanted it simple and have ultimately left it thus.

now, the work apparently needs no title for this show, but i always like to title my work so i've decided to call this group of sculptures - 'synapse'.