Sunday, 31 January 2016

Project proposal - THE CREATIVE IMPULSE - 'Fire never burns in the same place twice'



 Creative Project Proposal CAAD 5007 

THE CREATIVE IMPULSE
                 

“Fire never burns in the same place twice” Batty Thunder Bear

The previous interpretive project inspired me to work through the additional medium of oil paint, and to look at light and dark, the subject of fire has sparked inspiration to capture a moment in moving time – light from the darkness – lux e tenebris. I found oil paint perfect to capture the movement and immediacy of fire. Fire is symbolic of the surge of inspiration between self and tools.

I have to start looking at this project from a number of directions; to use just my mind leads me to frustration, jumbled thoughts and a muddled concept.
The initial up welling of an idea / concept for me is largely subconscious and takes many days / weeks to start to float to the surface and take shape only when I interact with resources and tools. As I learn best kinesthetically I find a physical approach, where my passion and inspiration is channeled through my body and tools as if they were one (rather than my mind’s separation from body and tools); more beneficial to my practice.

       I am always looking at ways to express the relationships between things or people, how the synergy of being and paint can create something so much more than the two contributing factors. I particularly value the phenomenological approach to art when two apparently separate entities create a thing, of a unique moment in time without preconception or formula.
       I have been discussing the work of Martin Heidegger with several philosophy student friends since incorporating it into my most recent essay on Modernism and Postmodernism, and looking at how different it is from any other philosophy following Descartes. He advocates ‘Dasein’, commonly translated as ‘being there’ and not seeing oneself as outside the world around.
… is that the human being is first and foremost not an isolated subject, cut off from a realm of objects that it wishes to know about. We are rather beings who are always already in the world, outside and alongside a world from which, for the most part, we do not distinguish ourselves” Simon Critchley
Martin Heidegger says that the nature of the world can be best captured by art.  Art is an expression of the Entity of  “Experiencing - the – World”.
“It is the work that first lets the artist emerge as a master of his art. The artist is the source of the work. The work is the source of the artist”

        I have been reading ‘The Thinking Hand’ Juhani Pallasmaa; craftsmanship, the process of making, the immediacy and authenticity of the combination of man and materials motivate me. There is a place for skill, if defined as the will to optimise relationship between human being, material and process. If I look at craftsmanship in terms of my partner and his relationship with his work (carpentry), I am always amazed at the sensitivity of the relationship between his Being and the Being of the material / wood that he is using, this merging of Being creates a whole new level or understanding of being for both the wood and the man - Art.

“One needs to focus simultaneously on the world and on oneself, the external space and one’s inner mental space. All artworks articulate the boundary between the self and the world,” J Pallasmaa Pg 19
(If there is a boundary and not just an overlap between self and world where artwork is created)

I watched the film ‘Being in the world’, it explores creative mastery, the risks of becoming proficient and the meaning disclosed to our Being.

“Being in the World is a celebration of human beings, and our ability, through the mastery of physical, intellectual and creative skills, to find meaning in the world around us”

Concept

Initially if the Being of a craftsman is 1 and the Being of the resource or tool is 1 then the physical mastery can equal 3. If this new transcendental synergy then becomes the new 1 and I (as the being) is also 1, what is produced form this merging is a new 3 as the creation of artwork creates an artist.

I experience the spark of creative process, moment by moment through being there in 

somebody else’s synergism and the spark becomes collective.

To inform this project by using a phenomenological approach to self expression and learning to 

use materials in response to stimuli, materials as an extension of my body as the carpenter

uses tools and wood as an extension of his.

Humans acting at their best respond faster than they can think”
This could be interpreted as Heidegger’s ‘Ready at hand’, using a skill that comes as the most appropriate to do the job

Genres

I am inspired by the work of Anselm Kiefer, he also being a great fan of Heidegger; his use of Phenomenological expression sparks my own. His use and range of materials is vital to his mastery. Kiefer’s work is an experiential eruption in  response to modern German history, expressing the enormity of a collective response in the work of just one man.

Gerhart Richter, fits into many genres, his work can move between genres dependant upon what he is working with and how he chooses to express his ideas, from conceptual to abstract to photo realism, his ‘ready at hand’ box of skills appear unlimited. His fire never burns in the same place twice.

The work of Kevin Sinnott masters the Being of dynamic relationship and is vital and immediate. The people within his work are all connected and totally integrated within their environment. They are Being in the World.

“In the true work of art, the process of creation by the artist is described by Heidegger as a drawing up to the light from the well of Being it is the expression of an impersonal force, which uses the artist to actualise itself” Michael Watts Pg 214

SWOT analysis


Strengths –
A foundation of meaning within the potential work. Working with a project that inspires me and leads to work that is not just deeply personal but relevant to a world where people don’t always feel that they are a part of that world.


Weaknesses –
Tendency to run to far and too fast with the work rather than take time to fully explore specific areas fully.
Getting caught up in being representational and trite with making art.

Opportunities –
Opportunity to explore phenomenology and to gain greater insight into the synergy of relationships
A chance to explore the greater depths of technology as a part of the material response to this project i.e. Blog
Opportunity to raise something social and political within my work (which will be a first)

Threats –
Choosing a project plan with too much possibility, must be ready to fully develop one area rather than try to cover as much as possible.
Giving in to frustration when I try to ‘think’ my way around a project and then making work that lacks imagination or originality.
 

No comments:

Post a Comment