ISOLATION WITH SABBY

The final outcome of my large mod rock piece has changed in many ways from where I first started with it. I have trialled and errored with it and with every experiment I had created layers onto this piece. I think this plays a crucial part to the context of the work because in the camp the tents walls were layered to keep them sheltered and warm. Through certain experiments working and not working lead me to change perspectives on how I can articulate and experiment in order to continue developing the piece.

Going into lockdown has also played a huge part in changing my practise in certain ways, for example I worked on smaller scales building tiny models and this helped me think about how I could display my work or build a tent in the future when I have the tools and space for it. Working digitally has also helped me in terms of creating concept photos and printing images to draw models onto them, this all can be used in future when I create as it is less time consuming and helps me envision creating projects to develop further.  

I have definately gained confidence creating during this semester even with my personal circumstances and limited space, I can stop and analyse and criticise my work as well as reach out to peers for advise and feedback. I also feel confident that I have several directions I could continue creatively with this project, and its all part of experimenting with what works and what doesn’t! 

From here, I can continue to create minature models, or concept photos of what I could do in future and how I could build my tent and where it could be placed. Not only do the minature models and concept photos help to envision artworks but they themselves are artworks. My aims in future would be to continue making several large mod rock pieces, and using newspapers, cardboard and other materials to form a tent. 

If this was to be in an exhibition space, I would fill the floor with sand and add a fog machine which would represent the beach the Calais refugee camp was, and the fog being tear gas that was shot out on a daily basis. I could also add sound to make it more atmospheric such as sounds of the refugees shouting at the police, or sounds of the rubber bullets racing through the skies. This creates an atmosphere for the viewer/public to feel as if they are experiencing the camp themselves. On the floor would be the tear gas pellets and rubber bullets scattered across the sand, and these could be replicas I would make with plaster or jesmonite as I have experience from this from the first semester. 

I would also like to have my zine on a shelf or inside the tent so viewers could physically sit inside the tent and read through my zine full of the camps photos and memories as well as being surrounded by emulsion prints of the camp on the walls, or hanging down from the tents walls. 

With the help of my partner, here are some concept photos of my final outcome. Theres still room to develop further with the modrock piece and how I can form it in future but here’s what it is so far! Since I have no where to display my modrock wall, I took an image of the modrock flat on the floor outside, and edited them onto a plain background that resembled a studio or exhibition place if I were to display it. Also edited some parts out and made the chicken wire more prominent in areas to emphasize it coming through the modrock, reminding us that this is supposed to be representing the walls that caged the refugees in the camp filled with their memories. 

This second image is from my concept photo I doodled prior, and edited in bits of my modrock wall, leaving some empty tiles of this dome-like structure. I thought this was an interesting outcome. 

Since I have limited space in my current situation I bought tiny models I made to the beach for a mini-photoshoot creating concept photos! 

I created tiny models of different forms of how I could present my work. Think of this like a mini exhibition. I chose the beach to get the sandy base and the sun was helping with brilliant lighting. If I had an exhibition I’d want to fill the room or a section where my piece would be with sand just like the beach, just like the Calais Refugee camp. I’d also want to scatter tear gas pellet bombs everywhere and rubber bullets to show evidence of what had went on. On the walls would be a shelf with my ‘La Jungla’ zine. I think a change of the scene really helped bring these pieces to a different perspective. The site definately helped me!

I made one traditional tent form, one that looked similar to shelters I saw in the camp and one matchstick model I experimented with previously. I also attached string on the inside and small rectangles which would represent photos of the jungle where people could walk through looking at these. 

I built tiny models using matchsticks to experiment a structure of how I could build my ‘tent’ or a frame for my modrock. Originally I want to create honey-comb tiles, in a real-life sized tile it would be a frame of metal bits welded together and the modrock chicken wire inside the frame, and together the tiles would make some form of dome-like structure, but minature this had proven difficult! Then I built a second structure by incident just placing sticks ontop of each other and gluing them down. It was really tricky working smaller in this case because it was so delicate and waiting for the glue to dry was time consuming. It took me at least 2-5 minutes for each stick I stuck to another. 

I really enjoy this second experimental structure but I wouldn’t be able to put the chicken wire and modrock on effectively, so I’m thinking back to more traditional or simple structures again. 

I also tried making a prism shaped structure, this could work as a frame but again because it was so small and delicate on this ratio it was difficult to make several without the help of a second pair of hands! 

This experiment was good to test out, I enjoyed the light that seeps through, but unfortunately I don’t think it would be a good structure for me to create on a larger scale because of my aims in the tent and creating a space to display my emulsion photos, and the modrock and chicken wire. I could always try working further more with my chicken wire and molding it in certain ways but because I ran out of space and materials a while ago I haven’t been able to test this further. 

I’ve been doing alot of thinking of how I want to present my work if I had an exhibition or for what I’d like to continue to work towards to produce in my practise. I have printed images of scenes where I would like to see my tent, and what forms. I would like to create a dome-like tent shape, with parts of my modrock wall, shaped into honey-comb tiles and with other mixed medias like cardboard, different cloths, newspapers in different sections of the tiles to make one big structure. 

The site of the refugee camp was on a beach-like area, there was sand that surrounded them but trees that grew as well and no sea like a desserted beach. I read excerpts from the book that focused on site-specifity called ‘One place after another’ and from my own understanding of it, is that the site of where the art is plays a huge role, and taking one art work and transporting it to another from where it originally came from or where the context derives from takes away abit of the artwork. I think thats how I made sense of it, or along those lines. 

 Thats why I have chosen trees and sand. For the ideas of the trees, I could create smaller versions of dome-like modrock/mixed media tents and have them without a base hanging from trees. People could walk under them and see inside, the photos/emulsions etc and it would let natural light seep through the tops, in gaps (?). For the sandy landscapes, I thought of building just a life-size dome tent people could walk into, and some smaller ones around them perhaps. Creating concept images helps me experiment forms and an expectation what I envision for them to be. I could further progress my practise into making frames by welding or other methods to create a frame of each tile, which then I’d attach the chicken wire/mod rock and/or other materials for different tiles. 

I posted a video which you can find here showing a zine I had made about the Calais Refugee Camp or better known as ‘La Jungla’ (the jungle). I imagine if I exhibited, I would have the large tent I’d make from my modrock (I still need to figure out how to display this) and the floor would be covered in sand, just like in the refugee camp, scattered with gas bomb pellets all over the floor that I collected and I moulded and made some more out of plaster during the first semester to be everywhere on the floor amongst the sand. I also have a few rubber bullets I could scatter and it would create the atmosphere of the camp. In the tent, you could walk in and sit inside and read this zine. It would reflect the images on the walls of the tent that have been faded out. It would be like being in the camp itself. 

I set up an area with sand, and the tear gas bomb pellets I have and also made scattering them about and took photos with the zine, creating the ‘atmosphere’ and taste for what it would be like in my exhibition (excluding the tent).

For the past few weeks, me and several other students from the second years of the fine art course have been working on an ‘online exhibition’ platform. I have been creating the website for the public. Unfortuantely I did not save my progress or screen capture the steps but trust me I have changed the website about ten times to get it where it is now and using HTML coding I have learnt over the years from editing the theme, to the font and even the way the images sit on the website. We also have a facebook page and an instagram to showcase our work on social media. I’ve kept it simple and easy to move around the website. At the top, you can easily navigate towards the artists and their work as well as icon links for facebook and instagram. The biggest difficulty was the actual images! Some images weren’t high quality so some of the images weren’t as detailed as I wanted them to be and everyone has been busy, so contact has been up and down but I’ve managed to my best ability. Who knew a few clicks here and there on a website would be so difficult to sort out! 

You can visit the website here: Art Behind The Screen

I feel like I haven’t been creatively active lately but I’ve took a break for myself with a sprinkle of pressure. I’ve been very exhausted lately growing from my little baby growing and growing. It’s been mentally and physically frustrating at times and I feel like everything has hit me all at once so bare with me! In the midst of appointments, trying to find a house

Some ideas/things I need to update and do would be:

Updating the online art exhibition blog

Make more tiny models of an exhibition space

More artist research

Catch up with my notes

Write my essay (which is my biggest stress induced thing lately) 

Some artist research from my journal pages! 

Me and several people on the course have worked together to set up an online exhbiition space during this pandemic to share and reach our work out to the public. We are currently setting up everything on social media. I’m currently working on making and running the website, whilst there are others in place to work on Instagram, Facebook and even Tiktok for all the cool kids. Due to circumstances one of the team members could not make a logo and poster in time so I took the role in my hands and with the help of an illustrator (my partner) who has made a poster and logo inspired by designs Steph (who had sorted out some designs prior to circumstances) and came up with these! Soon the website will be up and running as well. 

The logo:

The poster:

You can find him on most platforms for comissions! 

https://www.instagram.com/cwnutsandseeds/