Beginning........
MOVEMENT - recording its shape, colour, tone and direction in two and three dimensional media. The resulting works are in themselves paradoxically static, providing only the illusion or suggestion of what a landscape, a figure and an object looks like whilst in motion. I stop the movement in mid-flow to capture single moments or traces of a whole sequence of events.
Moving on........
I want to explore these traces. Those actions, thoughts and "things" which have been left behind - the lasting results of movement. They maybe unwanted, insignificant, imagined or just partly remembered. The record remaining could be a faint track or even a hollow place.
The marks made which persist after that which made it has passed by/ moved on.
Tibetan word for track = Shul. In Buddism this refers to the path of emptiness - the way that opens up when one stops clinging to dogma.
Researching this leads me onto the phrase and concept of a Desire Path or Line. This is a path/ track developed over time by erosion caused by animal or human footfall. The path usually represents the shortest or most easily navigated route between origin and a destination.
So....... Movement > traces > marks left behind > lines/tracks made by desire to best reach destination.
Extending this further, I am also interested in what drives people to make certain actions or chose to take particular paths. Reason verses desire.
18th century philosopher David Hume ( 1711-1776). Among other things labelled as an empiricist. He concluded that desire rather than reason governed human behaviour.
Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.
This is opposed to rationalism. Some proponents of this movement (eg; Baruch Spinoza, Gottfreid Leibniz) asserted that in principle all knowledge could be gained through the use of reason alone.
What will prove to be more prominant in my work - will it be governed by reason of desire? Not totally sure if this philosophical
angle will even play a part in my current work.
Investigations /Play.
- Record marks made during movement / on journeys made by my and/or others - on paper, fabric, wood, video, digital photograph.
- Imagine and make my own Desire Paths (multi- media).
- Experiment with the "natural" flow of materials as they find their favoured or more direct route. (paint, pencil, pastel, wire, paper, fabric,wood, soil and other natural/found marerials).
- Explore my use of colour and tone to see which combinations / density best express the path taken.
Success recording.
I shall measure success by considering if I have created interesting
trails and tracks which persist, and evoke positive sensual reactions from the viewer (eg; visually, auditory, tactile). That the works made suggest that movement has taken place.
