2112 10 sided shapes
First drawing of 2021, back at our kitchen table.
Attempting to heighten a machine drawn feel, hundreds of tiny human mistakes are always present.
White pencil on black recycled card.
A1
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I’ve been playing with digital variations on the ‘charged’ shape from the last post, I’m working towards a gallery installation early next month that will be painted directly on to the walls. The installation will involve repetition and variation of the colour of the shape.
These digital renderings are extremely crude, but provide a sound means of testing ideas.
I presented this painted black gloss shape on black matte wall at a recent studio critique. It was accompanied by this sound piece, played through a powerful stereo:
It was sufficiently loud that it caused objects within the room to vibrate.
The group discussion read the combination of sound and visuals as being oppressive and ominous, combining to create an atmosphere suggestive of religious cult rituals or sinister political gatherings.
It was felt that the work presented in this crit represents a departure from previous work. The black gloss symbol has nothing of the organic, gentle feel of the pencil drawings. It is extremely assertive and dogmatic; very oppositional and uncompromising in every way, to the point of feeling threatening. It suggests none of the time based creative process of the pencil drawing.
I am gradually assessing where I go from here. The shape is just an arrangement of painted lines, although I can understand why it was interpreted in these ways. I do feel that playing with sound and visuals with a certain charge and potency has potential, though I want to find ways to puncture the pomposity these signifiers carry, to promote recognition of their ultimate absurdity.
I’m back in my space in Cathedral Studios and I’ve been trying to maintain some kind of creative momentum over the Summer holidays from Art School. Here is one wall drawing at 3 stages of development:
Here are some photographs of the three drawings I created for the end of year exhibition at the Belfast School of Art. I realised I need to include more ones of the room to achieve a sense of scale.
 
One of the 3 wall drawings I currently have on display in the Orpheus Building, Belfast as part of the MFA show. I am honoured that the image was used in the exhibition flyer.
The show will continue this week at the following times:
Monday 8th June: 9am to 5pm
Tuesday 9th June: 9am to 5pm
Wednesday 10th June: 9am to 5pm
Thursday 11th June: 9am to 5pm
Friday 12th June: 9am to 5pm
Saturday 13th June: 10am to 5pm ( show closes)
Wall drawing is becoming more focussed and minimal, though I hesitate to use that word. Something is activated when multiple layers of chalk are built up, the form appears more solid and sculptural.
The plug socket is included to give a sense of scale.
I cut out the traced blob indentation shape that keeps recurring in this work and projected it using this antiquated overhead projector; the reliable, clunky type I remember from school.
I moved the projector across the floor. The shadow shape was repeated at intervals across the wall five times.
The projector was moved progressively closer to the wall, and the resultant shadows drawn around. This made these concentric blob shapes.
I continued to work using this process at at intervals until the day of our group critique, the predetermined finish point.
The piece was accompanied by a fifty second tape recording I made by digitally slowing a ten second recording of me playing bass drum and hi-hat down. I shifted the pitch down and added a series of effects using a program called Wavepad sound editor. I chose analogue audio tape because of its warm hiss, it’s imperfection. The piece was interpreted as the sound of marching boots, or of an industrial process involving heavy machinery.
Fellow students and teaching staff thought that the sound and the drawing seemed to coalesce to a greater extent than before.
John Macormac 