OCA drawing 1.1

Look back and reflect on all of the research, reading, and drawing tasks to date. Produce a piece that encompasses and summarises the learning journey for this unit so far.

Alternative materials add context and differing view points.   They evoke questions and present theories.  When learning about all these works, that first appear alien to me, I find that the common element, wether the work is conceptual, realistic, disturbing, mediative, enjoyable, is that it’s all a language.  Each artist is having a conversation with you.

I see now how you can use an alternative material to enhance expression.  It doesn’t begin and end with the conventional drawing mediums.

Extend beyond recognised zones
Explore further dimensions
The timelines of our thoughts are infinitive

For my final piece I wanted to create something that is 100% out of my comfort zone.  I have always used traditional materials.  I have used them abstractly, but never the less, the recognisable materials give me an anchor of security.  

The previous exercise highlighted to me how much materials can control the narrative of an artwork.  Traditional materials can be used in alternative ways, and alternative materials can be used in traditional ways. 

The artist that challenged me the most was Helen Marten.  I found her work attractive but complicated.  The artist I was most drawn to was Caroline Achaintre, so I used Achaintre as a starting point.  And I was intrigued by Takesadas theories of time, and Jensens personal connection to his canvas’s.

I continued with the weaving technique to represent Achaintre’s tapestries. Achaintre purposefully lets the fabrics fray and hang loose to add texture and character.  I wanted to  expand on this and take my strips in multiple directions, and winding them around each other to create depth and interest.  In the same way I would use drawing materials on paper.

Inspired by Marten, I sourced and constructed the materials to a purposeful effect.  She creates work that questions the stability of the material world, and our place within it. Changing the nature of things.
Achaintre blends influences from animalism and tribalism, but they have a dual effect of attractiveness and hostility, so I introduced a sinister undertone by deliberately manipulating the wire frame to included sharp exposed spikes. 
The act of weaving represents time (Takesada), in the way vines and trailing foliage grow in and out of each other, clinging to life and suffocating at the same time.

This piece is about building something and our relationship with ‘stuff’, objects, nature, time.  Using the alternative materials to create layers, depth, details, tone, tempo.  In control but creating something chaotic.  Theatre.

Anxiety vs stillness of the valley. 
The silence of the petrified branches laid at the base.
A totem of shifting environments.

List of Images

Cover Image Flockhart, K. (2024) Hijack. [Mixed media, photo edited with Hipstamatic] In possession of: The author: Volleges.

Fig.1 Flockhart, K. (2024) Hijack Detail. [Mixed media] In possession of: The author: Volleges.

Fig.2 Flockhart, K. (2024) Hijack. [Mixed media, photo edited with Hipstamatic] In possession of: The author: Volleges.