The Orpheus building wall piece has continued to grow over the last few weeks. I have employed the same rational, measured and almost ritualistic process of tracing and transferring marks in it’s creation.
Marks congregate around my eye level, the natural and most comfortable place to work. In this way I leave a trace of the mass of my own self on the space.
Several sections occur where where marks are most layered and concentrated.
A photograph of one wall inverted. I think it resembles a constellation.
I could continue this approach until the end of the academic year, but I want to interrupt it and set new rules.
John Macormac 
This is a beautiful transition from the earlier works using the map tracings – the restricted palatte and selection of marks used for repetition for me, amplifies the act of making and notion of presence. The fact that all this is ephemeral including the building only adds to ‘recording of experience’ expressed in your documentation. Have you got a time lapse video recording some sections in the making ( and perhaps later stages of erasing) ? There is much scope here for further exploration – as you said in an earlier post the freedom afforded in further education is precious. Good luck and I also suspect you may be right about the new buildings (no mess allowed!).
Thank you very much for such a thoughtful comment Veronica. I don’t have a time lapse recording of this piece but it would definitely be a useful way to document future work. I do have video footage of working on several stages of the current piece. People often detect a sense of rhythm and kinetic energy in my work. I played with this notion recently by performing a ten minute improvisation in front of a projection of this video of myself working, my friend played guitar and I played drums. The hope was to establish a dialogue between both aspects of creative expression. Best, John
I’d love your walls to paint. I’ve thought the idea of working huge marvellous ever since I saw an exhibition of Mark Bradford in Chicago just over 4 years ago. It looked like her had adhered rope to the canvas, covered it with something, I’m not sure what but it would have taken buckets of modelling paste, and then samded back to reveal the tops in placed . . . it looked like veins. Bit of a rant there but I have a tendency to do that.
Thanks, yes Mark Bradford’s work looks amazing, I’ve never had a chance to see it up close. Do you remember the name of the piece with the rope? Yes I definitely recommend working directly on to walls if you get the chance. My tutor recenlty recommended Sol LeWitt’s wall drawings.
Just checked the photos I took (amazed that I was allowed but it was okay without flash), one was Crossing the Threshold, 2009 and another was Helter Skelter 1, 2007. I took a couple of extreme close-ups which I can send if you send your email address.
That would be great, thanks. My e-mail is johnmacormac@hotmail.com
Love this time based exploration of your presence within a bare room is marvellous.
Thank you Anthea. Yes I definitely am an advocate for working directly on to walls. I’m now seeking strategies for what to do next, one possibility is painting a section black and working on it with white conte crayon to achieve a result like the inverted photograph.
this is such a cool project
Thank you Anne Rose