{"id":545,"date":"2024-03-01T19:40:48","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T18:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.susandiab.com\/?p=545"},"modified":"2024-09-10T17:48:08","modified_gmt":"2024-09-10T16:48:08","slug":"ideas-for-work-so-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.susandiab.com\/?p=545","title":{"rendered":"Ideas for work so far"},"content":{"rendered":"

A piece comes to me very early on. Bearing in mind the work should be off the floor and the walls cannot be drilled into. The work must hang to be in keeping with the conditions of the space it is shown in. Or be integrated in other ways into the life of the space, as serviettes, or cushions or other ephemera. But the work should endure for the life of the exhibition, be in keeping with the life of the Byre but not be too self-effacing. How work is and what it becomes has a lot to do with how one is in social situations, though the work can be more visible, more daring and make more of a statement than my own physical presence might like to be. The work is not me, it has, or should have, a life of its own.<\/p>\n

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I say to Jan in an email: \u201cI am someone who works with given conditions and contexts. So I have already taken all the points you raise into account in my design of the artwork and am happy with the situation. You gave some very useful and comprehensive information when Elise first discussed the project with you, which she passed on to me. I am more than happy with the space and would like to build something of the specific history of the Byre Theatre into the new work, using the digital archive of images from its history that now exists. I like that the audiences won\u2019t be primarily art audiences but that the work will be seen by anyone visiting the theatre, the cafe, using the social spaces. This is good for arguing the case for impact as well in terms of broadening the reach of the work.<\/p>\n

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I have studied the images of the available spaces you sent through and think I understand the hanging system in place and will work with that. I also appreciate the age advisory aspects and have made many public art commissions in museums and public spaces so am used to working to the conventions around this.<\/p>\n

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At the moment I am envisaging a diaphanous wall hanging (possibly on repurposed silk) of digital photographic images of familiar objects, from Ernaux\u2019s writings, from my life and from the Byre archive. Things like a kettle, a table, a handbag, etc, ordinary everyday objects that people can relate to. It would be very lightweight, fairly indestructible and if it were to hang above the staircase on the large wall it would be out of the reach of anybody of any age or height.\u201d (23 January 2024 email to Jan McTaggart, Deputy Director, Head of Programme and Marketing, Byre Theatre)<\/p>\n

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Summary of ideas so far compiled Tuesday 20 February<\/p>\n

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Silk wall hanging \u2013 objects overlaid<\/p>\n

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Rough draft for Christmas card Dec 2022 (unrealised)<\/p>\n

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Outlines from Byre Storeroom photograph inventoried above with selection as \u2018archetypal\u2019 images compiled from Ernaux, Byre, Diab. Composite.<\/p>\n

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These, or other, objects made in miniature from clay, fashioned by hand, as \u2018props\u2019, arranged in different combinations, photographed.<\/p>\n

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First exhibited work, \u2018Must Sort Out That Drawer One Day\u2019, 1991<\/p>\n

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Fantasy of order\/organisation as understanding, overview, or comprehension of life.<\/p>\n

Whereas life consists in overlap, misplacements, random configurations, disorder.<\/p>\n

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Front<\/p>\n

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Reverse<\/p>\n

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This piece consists of three panels with all materials taken from the odds and ends drawer at my Mum\u2019s house, the house I mainly grew up in, in North London. The three panels were made only using these materials, which were sorted into their kind:<\/p>\n

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Wood: a wooden ruler, buttons, old pencils, worn down, nuts in their shells, some almonds,<\/p>\n

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Wax: from candle stubs and wax crayons<\/p>\n

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Metal: cutlery, scissors, hairclips, badges<\/p>\n

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Fabric: linen napkins, baize felt, remnants of dress-making fabrics<\/p>\n

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Paper: family photographs, Church collection envelopes, dress-making patterns, greetings cards, hospital appointment notices, price labels, recipes, shopping coupons, dishwasher tablet wrappers (foil), restaurant takeaway menues, confetti box<\/p>\n

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Combinations were made of materials in order to form panels:<\/p>\n

Wood set into wax<\/p>\n

Metal flattened at a Blacksmith\u2019s forge and stuck together (rather unsatisfactorily) with glue<\/p>\n

Paper cut into hexagonal templates for patchwork, as selected images and text set into reverse side of the fabric patches<\/p>\n

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\u2018Palimpself\u2019 bringing me round full circle to where I started with this piece which looked to the future, to an imagined point where it would all make sense to me and meaning would be revealed. As I said, a fantasy.<\/p>\n

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Relates now to the \u2018Dooferooney Jar\u2019, being a large glass jar that originally contained preserved peaches, filled with small objects I couldn\u2019t quite decide to get rid of when we cleared the parental home after the death of my Mother. For some time this jar has sat, unopened and unsorted under a glass dome (the type for museological display) in my study, gathering dust. The fantasy, to open the jar, take out each \u2018thing\u2019 and find it to be of indescribable charm and meaning. The fear, the objects would have no such resonance and be disappointing. So, far better to defer the pleasure and let the assortment of objects \u2018brew\u2019.<\/p>\n

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Dooferooney Jar, photographed Wednesday 21 February 2024 unposed as is in study, with dust, photographs of parents behind. Objects contained behind two layers of glass, with reflections.<\/p>\n

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\u2018Dooferooney\u2019 from \u2018to do for\u2019 as in a reason to keep something rather than throw it away. It might \u2018do for\u2019 this or that at some future point.<\/p>\n

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Photographed previously 10 November 2022 in studio:<\/p>\n

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These two taken as seen in the viewfinder of my Dad\u2019s old medium format camera, (uncleaned since he would have last used it in the 1950s or 60s)<\/em><\/p>\n

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Shapes laser-cut as frames for small scenes painted on silks as envisaged from Ernaux descriptions. Two cut-outs the same sandwiched together with the image on fine fabric between.<\/p>\n

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French ex-military \u2018silk\u2019 parachute. (Small print shows it to be silky fabric, not necessarily silk).<\/p>\n

Jellyfish,<\/p>\n

Imagine suspended above staircase in Byre foyer.<\/p>\n

Keep coming back to as source of some thread of thinking, not yet understood.<\/p>\n

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Research significance of silk: recycled parachutes, has fallen through the sky, poetic, non-stretchy, lightweight yet very strong, luxury references (Blackhurst article).<\/p>\n

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Other currently relevant visual source materials:<\/p>\n

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Deconstructed bottle, street, 18 February 2024<\/em><\/p>\n

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Bled \u2013 Offspring, disturbing crop of image, \u2018Happening\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

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Tate Britain, \u2018Women in Revolt, Valentine\u2019s Day with Kath, screen at entrance, feminist badges, find out who printed screen etc., not great sharpness but like its translucence.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Charity shop window, 13 February, 2024, things hanging, labels, always stop to look, cutlery<\/em><\/p>\n

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Wall ghost. Black damp mould on exterior of house in Portslade. Interesting as presence. 4 February 2024<\/em><\/p>\n

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Next Steps:<\/p>\n

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Recap and write up all readings, notes and annotations of Ernaux so far about materials, objects, etc.,<\/p>\n

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Read: L\u2019Usage de la Photo<\/p>\n

And other texts outstanding<\/p>\n

Refs given to me by Elise not yet read \u2013 recover references already given in emails, write out and summarise<\/p>\n

Order library books<\/p>\n

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Make:<\/p>\n