This is my response to Mark McDean's present to me, which I described in a previous post My artwork is formed from a white envelope, covered with cotton wool (I tore up cotton wool balls, joined them together and flattened them out). I then scattered the rectangle with small pieces of imitation gold leaf, (which I've had since I was at RMIT in 1997 and which I used over a series of images at that time) and placed it all inside a plastic cover. In total the artwork measures 18 x 13.5 cm. I've called it 'Skin'. It collides with Mark's artwork in that although he honors his mother's words and the uniqueness of her handwriting, as well as the message she imparts, in my piece I am honoring memory/correspondence, since I see handwriting as relating to an era prior to email and text messaging, a time in which we told people of our love and our news through the postage system. The message then becomes something precious (gold leaf) - a memento mori, whilst at the same time acknowledging that memories themselves are a form of skin that cushion us. Indeed I might have called the piece 'cushion' for that's exactly what it looks like. That this skin is transparent revealing what lies beneath is primary. But even these memories may, in time, become corrupt, counterfeit. Fraudulent to the extent that we consistently define and redefine our personal narratives. The piece coincidentally resonates with the piece of writing about gender that Mark posted on the blog today; in that I've used soft materials, thus in some way substantiating Winnicott's notion that girls generate towards soft things, but I obfuscate the issue by placing these malleable objects inside a hard and secure casing.
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Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Collision and Skin - Julie Clarke/Mark McDean
This is my response to Mark McDean's present to me, which I described in a previous post My artwork is formed from a white envelope, covered with cotton wool (I tore up cotton wool balls, joined them together and flattened them out). I then scattered the rectangle with small pieces of imitation gold leaf, (which I've had since I was at RMIT in 1997 and which I used over a series of images at that time) and placed it all inside a plastic cover. In total the artwork measures 18 x 13.5 cm. I've called it 'Skin'. It collides with Mark's artwork in that although he honors his mother's words and the uniqueness of her handwriting, as well as the message she imparts, in my piece I am honoring memory/correspondence, since I see handwriting as relating to an era prior to email and text messaging, a time in which we told people of our love and our news through the postage system. The message then becomes something precious (gold leaf) - a memento mori, whilst at the same time acknowledging that memories themselves are a form of skin that cushion us. Indeed I might have called the piece 'cushion' for that's exactly what it looks like. That this skin is transparent revealing what lies beneath is primary. But even these memories may, in time, become corrupt, counterfeit. Fraudulent to the extent that we consistently define and redefine our personal narratives. The piece coincidentally resonates with the piece of writing about gender that Mark posted on the blog today; in that I've used soft materials, thus in some way substantiating Winnicott's notion that girls generate towards soft things, but I obfuscate the issue by placing these malleable objects inside a hard and secure casing.
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That is nice Julie, it does look like a pillow.
ReplyDeleteIt was the angle at which I took the photograph that makes it look like a cushion, although in actuality, because it is slightly padded it does take on the form of a pillow.
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