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The Self-Isolation Residency 31st March 2020: Day 2

3/31/2020

dA42m, Cowhouse Studios Artist Residency 2011

As I mentioned yesterday I will from time to time during this residency I will reflect back to previous works and residency when relevant. Today I have been thinking again about the idea of self-isolation but also but also about that other key phrase that is being so heavily used at the moment 'social distancing'. We are being advised that when we do go out that we should retain a minimum distance from other people of at least 2m or 6 feet. I love to play with mathematics in my work, be it the kind of complex equations and trigonometry that I use to create my spatial-paintings or the more playful approach to numbers that I employed in the piece above; 'A42m'. This was another experimental piece which explored the circumference of an A4 sheet of paper, which is bizarrely 1.14m. By making a simple cut on two sheets of A4 I created two differently proportioned sheets of paper which both have a 1m circumference. This piece of course immediately came back to my mind when considering the social distancing policy today.

So, social distancing, or personal space as we used to call it in more innocent times. I prefer the term personal space, I suppose you could argue that its not the same thing but it is, the only difference is what used to be a courtesy is now legislated. I've seen various people making jokes and memes that illustrate how much space the 6 feet or 2m that we are actually supposed to be keeping between each other is on the internet. In keeping with this I have once again been thinking about how this distance relates to me personally, when I am allowed to go back out into society that is. I am myself 6 feet tall, so I should keep my height between myself and the next person; my height or the span of my arms which is of course also 6 feet. When that particular thought came into my head it was accompanied by a very famous image, it was the image of a man with his arms stretched wide: Leonard da Vinci's illustration of Vitruvian Man. Three Vitrurvian Men standing in this stance would enact this idea, albeit imperfectly. of social distancing. Once I had thought this I of course couldn't resist this simple idea and have had to act of it for today's simple sketch or study. I would have been a hypocrite if I didn't, I have always said to my students when they ask the question about an idea, 'should I do it?' that the answer to that question is always 'yes'. You may not always get what you want or expect from perusing an idea in this way, but you will always learn something, even if it is only not to do it again!

Not quite how it works Mr Da Vinci! : Self-Isolation Residency Day 2.

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The Self-Isolation Residency 30th March 2020: Day 1

3/30/2020

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Portrait of the artist as Schrodinger's Cat: Self-Isolation Residency Day 1
One small cardboard box containing (or not) a silver pendent on a leather strap.

So let me begin by saying welcome to my new residency and blog, I firmly expect the unexpected from this process, as I say I've taken part in many residencies before, but never in times and under circumstances as we currently face now in 2020. For me residencies are always time to make new work, and indeed I will probably post images and write about the work I've created during past residences as part of this process to help to put things into context.

One of the best ways I find to stimulate my own creativity is to put myself under a little pressure and to that end I will begin this residency in a similar way to previous ones: by giving myself two simple rules.

Rule 1, if I run a blog I must post on it every day whether in be a couple of lines or a whole essay.

Rule 2, I must make at least one piece of new work every day, again this maybe a couple of lines or a whole essay. What I mean by this is it could just be a quick sketch that I post or a totally finished painting or sculpture. Sometimes I might post small experiments that go onto becomes more complete pieces as the period of the residencies progresses.

For me the thing that is obviously at the forefront of my thoughts is my/our current situation and I intend to use this as the beginning for my new work. There are many aspects of the Corvid-19 that I may possibly explore during this residency but the first one that I want to think about is the one that for me began today; self-isolation. What does self-isolation mean for me? Well in some ways it could be though of as just another day at the studio, but I'm sure that over the coming days and weeks it will probably come to mean something very different.

As I think about the idea of self-isolation I inevitably begin to think about the two separate ideas that the phrase is comprised of: the idea of self and the idea of isolation. Philosophically it could be argued that we are all self-isolated all of the time within out own minds, that is certainly a potential starting point for this project. But perhaps for now I should consider a more literal interpretation of the idea. The idea of embodiment of (my)self...isolated: so what am I? How do I represent myself? The obvious thing that comes to mind is the pendent that I constantly wear around my neck, its something that I have had and worn for decades for and I rarely take it off at all, for anyone who knows me it would be a good symbol of 'me'.

But what about Isolation? I could simply put it in a box, but does that make me Schrodinger's Cat? I initially wrote the previous line as a kind of joke, but perhaps at his stage that is as good a place to start as any? Schrodinger's Cat is a thought experiment and in many ways so is what I am doing here and now. If the experiment were actually to take place the cat in question would be both simultaneously alive and dead until the box is opened at which point the quantum superposition ends when the cats actual fate is determined. This makes me consider my isolation from outside the box? Outside my studio, outside Athole House. If I am truly isolated in here and nobody sees me the question could be asked as to whether I am truly in the box?

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The Athole House Studio
Self-Isolation Artist Residency
30th March 2020 - 7th November 2021

The Self-Isolation Residency 31st March 2020: Day 2

The Self-Isolation Residency 30th March 2020: Day 1

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The Athole House StudioSelf-Isolation Artist Residency30th March 2020 - 7th November 2021​

The Self-Isolation Residency 31st March 2020: Day 2

The Self-Isolation Residency 30th March 2020: Day 1

Archives

Categories

The Athole House Studio
Self-Isolation Artist Residency
30th March 2020 - 7th November 2021