I’ve refreshed my brief to allow objects to begin to take on a life of their own. It’s about changing the framing to allow dialogue with objects
The subject matter today seems to be
memory, Britishness, celebration, cloying-ness, appeal
Anyway my Winston 3D print looks a bit like honeycomb or something, so I thought about adding honey, golden syrup (racing green tin), pomegranate molasses, chocolate .. maybe as a readymade with the suggestion that you eat it. Golden syrup was too on the nose, likewise with honey.
I ended up buying evaporated milk, though. It had an overtone about Churchill being a Dead White Guy. Evaporated milk is like something you wouldn’t actually want, which should be consigned to history, but that you might associate with Grandfather. I also bought sprinkley dot things, the idea of decoration.
Extending the idea of wrapping, and disarming something nationalistic, I wrapped the barbed wire in some insulation tape. Then, by putting chocolate coins or smarties in the bottom I was thinking something about ‘pain’ and shitty reward (smarties and chocolate coins are way worse than I remember.)
So then I rolled the smarties in ink because I had seen a tiktok video where people put bolts in ink and rolled them on paper to start a drawing. That was like off to one side and quite crap too but the idea of residue is present, just poorly articulated
Just when I had given up on art for the day, I thought I might as well just try this evaporated milk thing, somehow.
Process shots show something quite interesting. The 3D print is obviously inedible, but it looks like breakfast or cake. Like; imbibe this thing you do not want, and cannot. This slightly smelly, preserved liquid.
And also the inky smarties are amazing as the ink hits the sugar, they look like marbles. I will check on them tomorrow.
Also I have 8 bricks now, which will take on their own life as tissue boxes or birdhouses and be part of a photography project. They might be difficult to work with but I am glad to have them because they are very formal and positive (as in, once they are glazed, which is what I will do, working with them will be interesting.)
Decoration, Celebration
Prepare, Residue
Appeal, imbibe, imbue, resist, disgust, reject
(Protect, repair, tension, release, weight, take flight, crush, collapse)
Cloy
And so this same thing, this 3D print honeycomb discovery, but not Churchill, or not text at all? Remove an element and proceed? Evaporated milk is a sufficient stand-in for British History, here. The residue of plaster, like frosting. Talc, for icing sugar?
