Archives for posts with tag: mixed media
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Rule Driven at Platform Arts: Documentation by Simon Mills

01/07/2021 //
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Platform enlisted the talents of photographer Simon Mills to document the exhibition. Here are a selection of his excellent images. In my experience good documentation is always important, this sense was heightened for ‘Rule Driven’ because Covid restrictions meant the public were not permitted to enter the gallery space, only catch fleeting glimpses from Connswater shopping mall windows.


drawing in process
drawings, drum kit, sculpture and projected video
Me at work
A still from iterations of a shape video
Drawing near completion
drawing detail

John Macormac is a recipient of a Support for the Individual Artist Programme award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland

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Categories belfast, chalk, collaboration, drawing, experimental, geometric, wall drawing

Star Chart Series 8

27/06/2020 //
0

Original drawing

Mixed media on black recycled card, A1

Star chart 8

Digital manipulation:

Star chart 8 remix

I’ve been continuing this series of drawings that started in March as the Covid-19 lockdown began in Belfast. The process harks back to an earlier method of working, where marks are added and erased until a precarious, fragile balance is achieved. Lately I’ve felt the process becoming repetitive, the early excitement burning out. Digital manipulation or ‘remixing’ of the work presents a new avenue of possible development, extremely intricate and unexpected new configurations are possible. These may suggest organic growth, the infinite complexity inherent in nature from the structure of cells to galaxies. The next step may be to attempt to replicate these through drawing, or acquiring a plotter and learning how to program it to draw.

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Categories abstract, Art, belfast, constellation, digital art, digital work, drawing, experimental, geometric, Irish Art, mark making, mixed media, symmetry

Star Chart Series V 2020

18/05/2020 //
0

Star Chart Series V

Star Chart Series Drawing V

Mixed media on black recycled card

A1

I’m moving between composed drawings and ones where a pre-determined process determines the outcome. This style is composed; working on it felt like the way I used to approach paintings and collages, where each part would effect the whole and many revisions take place before a fragile balance is achieved.
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Categories abstract, Art, black, constellation, drawing, experimental, geometric, Irish Art, mixed media, pencil, white

Scratched landscape, 2010

16/08/2018 //
0

old pic

An old piece of work, from around 2010 when Robert Rauschenberg and Mark Bradford were my work’s biggest influences.

Detail 1

deet 2

Detail 2

deet 1

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Categories abstract, Art, Collage, drawing, experimental, mark making, mixed media, pencil

An arrangement of lines, accompanied with sound

01/12/2015 //
4

shape.jpg

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.

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Categories abstract, anglular, Art, atmospheric, belfast, black, darkness, experimental, geometric, occult, painting, sonic art, sound art, symbols, wall piece

Blank black wall

06/02/2015 //
4

The wall turns black, ready for new drawings.

black

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Categories abstract, Art, art college, atmospheric, belfast, darkness, drawing, experimental, Irish Art, minimal, painting, wall piece

Mid year Show in progress

18/01/2015 //
2

Our mid year show opened on Thursday night at the Belfast School of Art. Thanks are due to to all who attended. The area I share with the other part time MFA students looked like this

mys

I’ve added a black band to the top and bottom of the main wall piece. I like it as a frame, but I’m aware the lines aren’t completely straight- I spent a couple of hours on Thursday trying, and failing, to get this right, it is probably time to invest in a spirit level. Fellow student Damien Magee has been painting the pipework in the space different colours since September. I like that some of the pipes are now interacting with my drawing, establishing a conversation.

I brought my drum kit in and performed some improvisation with my friend Michael O’Halloran playing guitar. He used a loopstation to repeat ideas, and then layered dischordant notes. Heartfelt thanks are due to him.

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I think our course director took the above picture. I also included a small projection of a video I have made of my working on the wall from the early, tentative stages. It has been deliberately projected low down and at a small size, separate from the work. The idea is to have several pieces of stimuli that can openly question the relationship between the rhythms people have percieved in the drawings and the act of making, as well as the time based rhythms created by the guitar and drums. The noise we made reverberated around the space. I think Damian took some video of us playing, I will hopefully be able to upload some of this in future posts.

The show is open to public

11am-3pm on Monday 19th January

Tuesday 20th: closed

Wednesday 21st: 11am-3pm

Thursday 22nd 11am-3pm

I will be performing noise improvisations with special guests  at the following times, all are welcome to attend these.

Tuesday 20th 10am

Wednesday 21st 11am

Thursday 22nd 12noon

The hope is that musical improvisation can stimulate further wall improvisation. I will not seek to create finished work, only to push further what already exists.

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Categories abstract, Art, art college, atmospheric, belfast, chalk, darkness, drawing, experimental, Irish Art, mark making, mixed media, performance, tracing

Orpheus building wall, the next stages

13/01/2015 //
1

I talked about a need for new approaches to the ongoing wall piece in my last post. Since then I have been conducting experiments with new forms:

new forms

Responding to criticism, I have chosen an indentation in the studio to trace and repeat in the above rhomboid form. Care was taken to ensure the chosen mark’s shape could not be easily read as animal like, or to evoke many associations beyond it’s own pure form.

shape of itself

I am preparing for our MFA mid term show this Thursday night in the art college. Rather than try to seek a resolution, where the whole wall coheres as a piece, I have decided to heed one of my tutors advice and set up an experimental drawing ‘lab’ for the duration of the show. This will free me up, the idea of having to produce a ‘resolved’ piece fills me with anxiety. In my experience anxiety is a perrenial enemy of creativity.

One possible idea would be to use black as a framing device, perhaps with the repeated blob shape, as in this hastily mocked up photoshop picture:

mock

This would heighten the impact of the central band of marks. Another idea for potential development is sanding the wall. I like the looking through tracing paper effect of this, as seen in this small section:

sandy

The piece will continue to evolve in the coming days, over the duration of the show. I will be performing in a time based work. I’ll update this blog with what happens.

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Categories abstract, Art, art college, atmospheric, belfast, chalk, constellation, darkness, experimental, Irish Art, mark making, tone, tracing

Wall/floor/ceiling piece in progress, October 2014 to present..

09/11/2014 //
3

I’ve been working directly on to the walls of my studio space in Cathedral Studios. It has been a liberating and exciting process. I’ve continued the marks on to the floor and the ceiling, which encourages the viewer to feel that they are ‘in’ the work; to relate to the scale of the work with the size of their own body. The work has gradually grown over the past few weeks. Part of the feeling of freedom comes from the awareness that the piece can only be transitory. Ultimately it will be painted over, only to exist in photographs and memory.

This makes documentation especially important, though it is wholly inadequate in terms of experiencing the work. I have often thought this when looking at installation or performance art. Immediacy, sensory stimulation and interaction cannot be translated into a two dimensional image or video.

Walls:

wall piece 1

wall piece 2

wp3

 

wp5

wp6

wp7

wpf

Ceiling

wpc

Floor

wpf2

wpf3

 

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Categories abstract, Art, art college, belfast, biro, charcoal, drawing, experimental, holes, Irish Art, map art, mark making, mixed media, wood

scored panels, October 2014

08/11/2014 //
2

scored

I obliterated an old piece of work scoring with knives, drilling and gouging the surface. I like that it looks like the bi-product of  another process.

The same method has been applied to a piece of MDF primed with grey paint below.

scored panel 2

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Categories abstract, Art, art college, belfast, Collage, drawing, experimental, holes, Irish Art, mark making, MDF, mixed media, painting, wood
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