The Self-Isolation Residency 2nd June 2020: Day 65

Exploring Installation No. 8.5: 'Composition in White (Painting)',
501 Artist Residency, China 2011, Antony Clarkson

In my previous post I talked about how the line of light was one of the inspirations for 'Composition in White (Painting)' but it wasn't the only one. When I first arrived in Chongqing the gallery was just being prepared for the exhibition which would precede my own, it was also undergoing something of a facelift between exhibitions. The whole space was being freshly painted, a newly commissioned sign was being installed and 6 new blinds were being fitted over the high window to allow for better control of the lighting in the space. I watched the progress of these improvements with great interest as the newly modified space which they would create would be the space that I have be working with. I knew that although I was only just encountering this space for the first time that whatever I did 'create' with it had to be an 'experience' that would be both totally unique to the gallery and to the people who would visit the exhibition. As part of my program in China I had be commissioned to present a lecture series on the nature of 'Art as Experience', (see image advertising my lectures above), as defined by my 'situation specific installations' and so I really wanted for this piece to be a great exemplar of the thesis behind the lectures.

As I have said once I had the keys to the gallery I took to visiting it and spending as much time there as I possibly could whilst I began to develop my rapport with it. It initially, forbore I had the keys, my first visits all took place in the afternoons and evenings when the gallery was open, during these times the blinds were closed and the artificial lighting was on giving the place the 'desired' sterile, white cube effect the the gallery directors and curators were looking for. However once I had the keys to the space I became free to visit the gallery whenever I wanted and it also gave me the opportunity to be alone there and to experiment and 'play' with the space. And it was during this time that I began to realise the potential of the so recently covered windows.

Whilst visiting the gallery very early one morning I lifted the blind and was immediately transfixed by the beautiful light that streamed into the space. It was only once I had opened all of the blinds that I truly began to appreciate and 'empathise' with the space. There was an almost instantaneous realisation, an epiphany, that the crux of my piece should be about this light which should be part of the gallery but which was now being kept out by these new blinds which had just been installed. Somehow I knew that I had to let the light back in, no, more than that, letting the light in is too passive, I had to be more active in my response and to somehow 'draw' the light in. I also knew that I needed to make a reference to the blinds that were now spoiling the space for me. As I played with the windows, the blinds and the space I realised that by 'guiding' the blinds away for the window I could almost create a 'shaft' of light that would enter the gallery along the same line as the ambient light enters it. In this way all of the elements of my idea came together, the blinds that were the problem immediately became the solution. I would have the small, 'domestic' blinds removed and have new extra long blinds made which would cut across the space like a brush stroke drawing the light back in and painting the space with light.