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Had a guest speaker this morning, Connie Wilson. Enjoyed the discussion, very much!
Really resonated with the methodology that she described (which, methodology was identified as a topic in my later conversation with David), wherein she would identify all these scattered interests and just roll with the urge to work with them in some way, knowing that later she would eventually seek out some kind of connection that served as a justification for combining these things. The format and metaphor that her thesis worked with, was the sandwich board: two things held together at a joint, holding eachother up. She referenced Rosalind Krauss talking about the furry teacup: there’s two things combined in an odd way, the tea cup and the fur, but the third thing is the mental action of the viewer, imagining what it would be like to take a sip from the furry rim. Her own work, she identified, was a kind of “approximation of a thing” that “insists something it could never deliver”, yet is constructed totally sincerely. She framed this as “an ode”, as in the work is in praise of, or in honour of the original source material. Her work operates like a metaphor, as Krauss describes, two disparate things that combine to make something more.
Also, “art should be wasteful” — she described seeing a renovation happen and the huge amount of waste, and thought art was just a drop in the bucket comparatively. Which connected with this desire to leave a legacy, and let go of the shame of actually wanting that. It was nice to hear, bc I’ve been struggling with these things.
This is the energy we need:
Also chatted with David. Talked a lot about methodology — feeling torn between researching as a ‘scientific’ pursuit, and the hang-ups about objectivity and empirical evidence, vs. artistic, poetic interpretation and gut feelings. David was very encouraging of the use of metaphor, and poetry. Also paying attention to the process and way of doing as part of it. He noted the precision and delicacy of the recent cable drawing, suggested pulling that out as part of it. Was useful to hear — I get so caught up in the design process of it, trouble-shooting and experimenting, forget to consider these sub-surface layers to it.
