Lisa Darrer- Artist's Blog

| ESPERANTO | ROWING |

Artist’s featured: Sean Raspet, Sean Townley, Emanuel Rohss, Zoe Williams, Amy Yao

- ‘ESPERANTO is the first multiethnic “Food of the World” restaurant chain founded by serial entrepreneur Mr. Bow.’

-  Use of corporate colour schemes, steel surfaces, designer lamps and open-plan kitchens that so often characterise today’s international restaurants.

- Artist’s culinary philosophies draw on past experience in the kitchen, but also personal tastes and a penchant for games and provocation.

- ‘In a constant oscillation between truth and fiction, Mr. Bow’s tale draws upon two spheres simultaneously, using a double language, the insider world of food bloggers and the visionary character of an overambitious entrepreneur who through his business sets out to achieve retroactive dream.’

- Start at absence to arrive at essence - emptiness is a good canvas to start from

- The characteristics of the place mingle with anomalies

| ELAINE STURTEVANT |

-Remade famous artworks such as Warhol’s ‘Marilyn’ and Duchamp’s ‘fountain’.

- Rather than replicating a work, she ‘repeats’ a work.

- Never intends to make an exact replica but aims to take viewer on a conceptual journey from mistaken identity through to repetition. 

- The idea of a ‘double take’ is central to the works.

- Describes work as para-fictional (work that isn’t quite fake but not quite real, not trying to lie or be unethical)

In our first copy seminar, we learnt about traditional teachings of art through memesis and how the tutors at Central Saint Martins throughout the late 60′s strived to change this curriculum. The most infamous and drastic method was known as the ‘locked room’; a series of six consecutive weeks where fine art students were locked in their studio, unable to communicate and only allowed to create work with the particular material they had been set that week. Through this, the Chaîne opératoire was broken and the room became part of the process as well as the only site of production and subsequently part of the work. 

Our groups finalised publication. 

15 artists synthesised into one thing, disillusioned, a garden, a Post Garden. A collaboration of strangers unwilling or unable to reach a coherent ideology. But there is always an entropic ‘descent’ into failure. We soon realised in our search for cohesion, we could only find failure. We accept this, we desire to fail and use zen to fail. Post zen garden a post zen curation. Nature and escapism to tranquility. We are searching for Satori, “Seeing into ones true nature”, a sudden enlightenment. Using technology to find your zen. Finding zen quickly. Technology designed to enhance experience of finding your zen. But technology failing to connect us.

Musing on the term Plastic Information we expressed a desired to create a text of speculation, blurring lines between fact and fiction. A plastic publication; Manipulating information making use of languages malleable qualities. Materialising zen, garden objects, commodifying spirituality. Materials in essence, gentleness despite plastic materiality.

We need to consider culture and capital . Western culture’s appropriating Asian cultures has led to advertisement of an accelerated sudden enlightenment that is boasted by the zen life style. Zen has becomes a brand, a fad and a throw away relaxation buzz word, reducing it to the weight of the plastic emoji as a global symbol. It’s not a Zen Garden its an impoverished post zen garden. A Connecting network of capitalism. The work became a “Post capitalist/apocalyptic zen garden”.

Then the works itself. A hanging waterfall banner. The welcoming entrance to our work, it sets a premise. Images of zen like waterfalls blowing in the breeze of the street.

The goal posts, sacred VS common ground. Sacred but for a very small amount of time. Surreal posts. The functionality of the Goals is to score; A sudden rush of ecstasy. So we consider the aim, the goal to achieve the zen. But we’re aiming away from the target through the height and location of the hanging posts. It’s settling on the floor, theres a weightlessness to something that’s so integral to being grounded. Then the clay water fountain. Failing in its functionality. Ghost of a commodity. The romantic value of craft. A physical reproduction from the original virtual image. And painting exists on the ground laying in the sand. Using old eastern traditions, adapting to an empty space.

It is a forced resourcefulness. We appropriate work into a complex environment and think of its spirituality/lack of. The curation is the life of the garden and we consider it either having a future or representing one - a utopian idea of the future.

History becomes geography and time becomes spacial. Our Post Zen garden is a model of a modern day ecosystem.

Zen itself is a contradictory philosophy. It cannot be taught only found. And by actively trying to find your zen you will never encounter it.

Through careful curation, allocated tasks and a strong team ethic, our group was able to produce a show that seemed to soundly convey our thoughts and concepts surrounding ‘post-zen’. 

Images of final piece: 

The piece was finalised after creating a makeshift structure out of scrap materials to separate the two elements of the sculpture and adding a perspex table for the fiji bottle and bluetooth speaker to be placed on. 

Construction and curation of the show:

Making informed decisions together through our meetings about where to locate our work, sourcing materials and how to curate the individual pieces as one, we worked collaboratively in the space, ensuring that our collective vision was achieved and the work was created to a high standard, on time.

Research combining text and images that inspired my personal piece to add to the group exhibition.

Development mood boards: depicting thoughts and ideas portrayed via mind maps, found images and created images derived from our regular group meetings and shared via a group Facebook page. 

Our imminent failure in creating a successful collaborative piece that fully satisfied every one of us began to consume our thoughts. This idealised, unrealistic final outcome seemed to mirror a zen garden; unnatural, perfectly manicured and with a set of extremely regiment, structured rules that do not have leeway for individual creativity.

Live screen recording collage.