BFAP Magazine 2023 - Flipbook - Page 7
YF Where did you make work Em?
EW I was still in halls at that point, and I didn’t struggle
actual physicality of it’, and now having experienced
third year, I feel they both weigh the same amount.
YF That’s the difference between presenting your
work online vs in person. When you see an object infront of you, you can grasp the meaning of it through
its materiality, through the form, through the tactile
engagement with the artwork. Presenting online, using
a jpeg image, you somehow need to fill in the gap and
explain the context and meaning behind the work, but
this could force you to think about its meaning. As artists
we’re not always trying to interpret or make sense of
everything before we make the work, so that sounds like
an interesting experience. Obviously, everything changed
quite drastically in your second year as we moved away
from working on Microsoft Teams and moved back to in
person crits and tutorials. How did it feel to have a studio
in second year, working alongside your year group postCOVID?
AD Personally I’ve always found university studios
quite a strange place; my work sits in the field of expanded
painting, and performance so sometimes I found the
studio to be psychologically trapping. At the start of
second year, I didn’t use the studios that much but when I
did come in I found it useful. It acted as a thinking space
and gallery display. At the time I was still experimenting
with paint, so I would use the bare-white walls to curate
work. I formed a love/hate relationship with the studio.
It’s taken most of third year to truly appreciate it, it’s a
place where you can be as messy as you want and that
is helpful because when you’re at home or in halls you
don’t have that freedom. Of course, I don’t mean you
can beat your space up but overall, I am so thankful
for having had a studio, especially with regards to the
sort of work I was making; breaking ceramics, making
sculpture, filming. I couldn’t have done that at home
very well.
YF Do you think having a studio is necessary to make
work?
EW I like to have a space where I can perform. My
studio is messy but it’s a part of how I make work, it
makes sense to me; it’s a bit chaotic but I know exactly
where everything is. I’m much more aware of showcasing
my work in a university setting. I didn’t think about the
importance of a studio as much in second year as opposed
to third year. This year has allowed me to think about my
work in the context of a university and how I can curate
my work for the degree show. I’d like a studio where
half is a space to be as messy as I’d like and the other
half bare walls, where you can use it as an exhibition
area. I need the white walls to be in conversation with the
history of painting. Overall, I think it’s important to have
a studio space but not necessarily imperative.
YF It sounds like the movement in and around your
studio is so important. Having the studio space for an
expanded practice, painting on the floor, and having your
work free-standing. I don’t think your work would have
developed in that way without having a studio. Since
with technique as such. I was exploring my trauma at
the time, having come straight from A-levels, my work
felt very literal. I only knew how to paint exactly what
had happened. Having time away from the studio made
me think about how else I could talk about my trauma
without it being explicit. I have struggled with this for a
few years; I found it hard and I’m not exactly sure why. I
remember having a conversation with you, Yvonne, and
you told me that trauma has no form. Hearing that was
revolutionary for my way of thinking about presenting
my experience. During the COVID-19 period I had time
to reflect which was good but maybe there’s a bit of an
imbalance regarding thinking and doing. I’m excited to
get a studio space outside of university, so I can just do
and make work and reflect after, rather than the other
way around.
YF It sounds like you both found the isolation over
lockdown productive in the sense that it allowed you
to explore personal emotions whilst also allowing
you to have the space to research and think about
issues prevalent in your work. How did you feel about
presenting and sharing intimate work to others when in
crits or tutorials?
AD Crits in first year were quite odd regardless of topics
that were discussed because of the virtual element. For
me it took both first and second year to gain confidence in
talking about my art and other peoples’ art. Second year
was a lot better because crits were in person but in first
year hardly anyone said anything, cameras were turned
off, people were so nervous, and it was down to starting
university online. Human interaction is quite essential
for communicating about art, especially in a university
setting. It was challenging to present work to a larger
audience post-COVID but the more crits you attend,
the better you become at articulating and describing
your own and other peoples’ work. Crits have been so
beneficial over the years, they were a great way for me to
gain knowledge and experience in talking about art, it’s
only when you look back you can fully appreciate their
importance.
EW I found it quite hard too and it was a challenge to
separate the artist from the art. I felt as though I had to
justify myself a lot. This justification meant re-telling a
story or an experience, which no one had forced me to
do, but for my work to make sense to other people it felt
necessary. Now I’ve got three years of experience talking
about my art within a group, by having regular crits and
tutorials I’ve developed a way of talking about it, but I
don’t address it as politely as I did in first year. I also find
when you talk about trauma people aren’t necessarily
uncomfortable, but they don’t know how to address it
either. In the context of art, it’s quite hard to think about
a piece of work, the actual physicality of it next to the
meaning of it. I always used to think during crits, ‘which
is more important... the meaning of my work or the
BFAP
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2023