A few thoughts on becoming an Artist

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Less than 48 hours after my exhibition opened at the QCP I was on a plane headed for Europe, ready for new adventures. It probably seems a strange way to do it but I'd already planned the trip before I was offered the QCP space.
The exhibition went well. I was thrilled with how many people came to show their support. I received the above press about the exhibition. The image 'Fog' was also featured in the arts page of the Brisbane News. I'd sold two prints before the exhibition even opened (thank you!). For a first solo exhibition I was very happy with how it went.

Now that I am finally (!!) working on a new body of work I have been reflecting on my career as an artist so far. It has not quite been a year since I graduated from university. A graduation that only just happened despite being in the top percentile for every subject I did bar the last one (it's a very long story). Two days before Christmas one teacher warned me 'You have no resilience Rachel. You will never make it as an artist unless you can develop some resilience'.

Well it has been almost a year and I feel like I am gathering strength as an artist. I feel like I have struggled with myself all year, at one stage I wanted to throw it all in, I felt like all the creativity had been sucked out of me and I hated the art world and all the incest within it.

The last two months have seen an exciting turn around. By working across multiple fields- writing, painting, photographing I have opened up new doors to ideas and new ways of working and existing. I have also, thankfully, moved beyond wanting to be someone else and stopped trying to imitate them although they still influence me and motivate me to work harder. It's taken a year to become independant. The hardest thing for me was to create work outside of University where I don't have a deadline or a teacher to give me a grade and give my work value. I am now my own judge.

I've still got a long way to go, I'm still in the starving (and slightly insane) artist category. For that I am keeping one word in my head at all times: Resilience.

I've currently got hundreds of images to sort through for my next series. For the first time I've photographed people - a major step outside the comfort zone of a born and bred introvert. I'm exploring ideas that I am not passionate about but rather completely intrigued by, which is far more interesting. I feel like I am poking my fingers into something intangible and it is wonderfully fun and satisfying. I am interested in the artist as a scientist, as a researcher exploring ideas that can't yet be expressed verbally. It's a nice feeling to be consumed by my work again.

Under the Hammer, Virtually!

Exciting news! My image 'Dew' from the Archimedes' Field series is going up for auction with 140 Hours of Fame. 140 Hours is the first online art auction to use Twitter and is described as "re-inventing the art auction business and making it ready for the 21st century". It is held by the New York based Galerie Saint George. Their first auction held in early November was a great success and I'm excited to be a part of the second.

"140 Hours:24" goes live this Friday 27th November from 12noon EST until 12noon Saturday 28th November. So 24 hours only! The starting bid for Dew is $300US, so this is a great opportunity to get your hands on one of the Archimedes' Field images.

The image for auction is numbered no. 7 of 10 and is 70cm x70cm (27.55x27.55inches). There are only seven remaining of this image. Last year 'Dew' was a finalist in the Clayton Utz Launch Scholarship and was recently exhibited at the Queensland Centre for Photography.

As part of a larger series examining impermanence and the cyclical nature of life Dew is the image that represents hope for the future.

The auction listing for Dew can be found here.

To find out about the bidding process click here or visit the auction home page here.

UPDATE: 'Dew' no. 7 of 10 sold for $300US to a collector in the US.

Field Polaroid #7: The Party is Over

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.

-TS Eliot

Time to go, with the help of my little sister we released the remaining air out of the balloons so they could be disposed of in an environmentally friendly way.

It's ironic that I write this last Field Polaroid instalmant surrounded by storage boxes, my backback and ticket and accomodation details. It's the end of a chapter. Archimedes' Field was about deaths: deaths of relationships, of dreams and aspirations. But thanks to nature it became more about the cycles that occur. Today a chapter of my life comes to an end but tomorrow I'm leaving on a jet plane (sing with me now!) for Europe, and a new beginning.

The exhibition opened last night and was quite a success. I had so many of my friends and family there to support me which was just wonderful. I said a lot of my goodbye's there and saw a lot of people I hadn't seen in a long time. Thanks for coming guys!!!

If you didn't get to the opening it will be showing until the 16th August and I'm in the window space so you can go at any time that suits you!

Anyway, I'd better get back to packing up my life now.

AN INVITATION

You are invited to attend

Rachel Marsden's exhibition

ARCHIMEDES’ FIELD

Opening 5-8pm Saturday 18^th July 2009

Queensland Centre for Photography

Cnr Russell and Cordelia Streets

South Brisbane

www.qcp.org.au

Exhibition continues until 16th August

www.rachelmarsden.com.au

Field Polaroid #5: They Rose Again

As the sun warmed the balloons, the dew evaporated and the balloons rose one by one until soon they danced in unison. They became the antidote to a melancholy view of impermanence and a testament to the cyclical nature of the universe.

Field Polaroid #4: Art and Science

Sunlight reaches out to touch the dormant dew-laden balloons. Longer blades of grass begin to sway in a light breeze.

Archimedes’ was the Greek scientist who discovered the principle of buoyancy. There is an infamous story of him leaping from his bath and running naked down the streets crying ‘Eureka’ when he noticed that water rose when he sat in his bath. The buoyancy principle applies equally to gases such as helium which are lighter than air. In this case the external pressure of oxygen forces the helium balloons upwards.

I think there are a lot of similarities between Scientists and Artists. Both require a creative, open and inquiring mind. Both have a natural curiosity. Importantly, both work with the future in mind. The products of both scientific discovery and art also give us a stronger sense of who we are and how we fit into the universe. Questions are not always answered, but sometimes raised instead.

If I wasn’t an artist, Science would be high up on my list of alternate careers. What I am currently loving is seeing a merge between art and science in the works of artists such as Walter De Maria, Nancy Holt, Renata Buziak, Stelarc and Patricia Piccinini. There are many, many more that I could add to this list. In fact, if you have a favourite artist that merges science and art or even a scientist using art, please let me know in the comments section.

Walter De Maria’s seminal work The Lightning Field is an interesting piece in itself. It is made up of 400 stainless steel poles spread grid-like across a field in the remote Western New Mexico. The work is apparently best experienced during a lightning storm as the poles become grounding points for the electricity. However, because of the remoteness and the strict conditions attached to viewing the work, very few people can actually experience the work. Photography is also restricted so it is not an artwork for the masses. While I like the idea behind this work which utilizes scientific knowledge I do have a many questions about its perceived value.

One work I found particularly fascinating, that blurred the boundaries between art and practical science, was a garden project set up on radioactively contaminated land. The ‘art’ project involved earth remediation through the use of selected plants that can absorb heavy chemicals such as mercury and lead. A small area was fenced off and divided into four squares with different plants in each to study the effectiveness of each plant. This garden art work was questioned as to whether it actually constituted as ‘art’ or if it was just a practical science project. The artist argued that it was the concept behind the work in renewing the contaminated land that made it art. I am very annoyed that I cannot remember the name of the artist who made this work! I came across it in a book last year while exploring the work of Nancy Holt. Always write these things down! *edit: thank you to the anonymous commenter for giving me the name. Mel Chin is the artist and the work is called 'Revival Field'. More about this work can be found here.* It is works like this one where the line is blurred that I find particularly interesting.

Speaking of Nancy Holt, this artist belongs to the Land art tradition, and I found her Sun Tunnels while researching for my Archimedes’ Field project. Her Sun Tunnels are four large concrete tunnels placed in the shape of an X. Each one has holes drilled into the top in the shape of various constellations. The tunnels draw attention to light and our relationship to the sun, the stars and the passing of time as the view changes constantly with both the time of day and the time of year. What I like about her many works are that they are useful, accessible and socially necessary as well as beautiful.

Renata Buziak’s Biochromes are stunning and unusual documentations of the decompositions of plants using photographic paper. She has developed a unique way for the photographic medium to interact with vegetation. Her work allows for nature to take over the process of creating the final artwork in a very intimate way.

I guess the similarities between these works and my own is that they all allow for nature to take care of the results of the work, they all have a basis in scientific knowledge and they all openly welcome chance.

Throughout the shooting of Archimedes’ Field I was constantly at the whim of the wind. I had initially imagined the balloons standing tall like sentinals but the slightest breeze would set them off in every direction. They often would dance around in seemingly illogical directions. Also, like the land artists, my work was firstly designed to be experienced in person and interacted with. It was a mini-installation for my family and myself to enjoy.

One of the most beautiful moments of the whole installation was when I sat amongst the balloons alone on the first night. The moon was shining and reflecting off the ivory balloons, millions of stars shone above, and all was quiet except for the occasional dog bark and night bird. Oh, and there was the sound of the balloons. It was incredible, I still remember the soft sounds they made as they bounced randomly into each other creating a surreal orchestra that was visual as well as aural. They were alive and communicating with each other and their song was sublime.

Field Polaroid #3: A Memory Plantation

On the Saturday morning the balloons lie expended in the morning sunlight. My project is complete. At least that's what I thought.

I would like to share someone elses words with this weeks Polaroid release. When Archimedes' Field was first exhibited at the Circle Gallery last year the arts writer Nick Walsh kindly wrote the words for our catalogue. Here is his piece on Archimedes Field:

"Exploring the theme of impermanence, Rachel Marsden's work Archimedes' Field delves into the latent memories that pervade and structure a site. Marsden chose what was once her father's vegetable patch as a location for her installation. Residual physical reminders of what once occupied the patch of earth were present in the form of old garden taps, providing a link back to the original function of the area. In the installation Marsden inflated white balloons, placing them in rows in the vegetable patch. Taking on a ghost-like form the balloons appear to echo the veiled memories that lie beneath.

After initially installing the balloons in the pasture, Marsden returned to find the crop, as expected, deflated on the ground. However, when the sun rose and the day heated up, the balloons re-inflated, blooming like flower buds. Accompanying the photographs of Marsden's memory plantation is a video piece documenting this blooming, highlighting almost a physical manifestation of the impermanence she finds so enlivening as a focus for her practice. The balloons represent this tenuous presence through the very obvious hollow nature of their forms, reignited perhaps by the memories that fertilise the pastoral space."

Field Polaroid #2: Influences

This is the second Polaroid out of seven to be released in the lead up to the Archimedes' Field exhibition in July. It was taken on the first afternoon just after the sun set. The balloons were full and bouyant and moved in unison with the slightest breeze. It was beautiful to watch.

Leading up to the shoot and even after it I did a lot of research into other artists who were exploring similar ideas to my own or who's work interested me. Eva Hesse and Andy Goldsworthy were key influencers in the development of my ideas.

Eva Hesse is of particular interest to me because of her minimalist creations and use of non-mechanical repetition. This is one of my favourite works:

Repetition Nineteen III, 1968 (click to view)

Apparently, she was not particularly happy with this work because she found it too beautiful and against her search for a “non” aesthetic. Despite this, I love the simplicity and repetition of the circular cylinders and the hand-made aspect of the work. I love the imperfect nature of it.

Most of her work was not made to last- she often used materials such as latex which she knew would deteriorate. She said her work was about ‘the process’, ‘a moment in time, not made to last’. I like that she see’s the impermanence of her work as an attribute rather than a flaw.

"She seems, in fact, to have been incorporating an anticipation of aging and, especially, the unknown into the creation of her art.” Elisabeth Sussman (curator of Hesse’s only solo show before she died).

Her anticipation of the unknown is an element I can relate to in my own work.

Andy Goldsworthy: I love the impermanent nature of the majority of his works and how they (often quickly) succumb to nature. This particular piece by Andy Goldsworthy captured my attention in the way the beauty of nature is documented and played with:

Extract from Rivers and Tides (click to view)

This scene in his documentary ‘Rivers and Tides’ is similar to what I hoped I have achieved in the Archimedes' Field installation. Goldsworthy spends many hours creating a beautiful dome of sticks, just next to the tide line. The documentary then shows an aerial view of the dome as the tide comes in and lifts and breaks apart the dome he has just created. In his documentary he talks about how his work is about the transience of life. He fights it by not trying to make permanent things but rather to accept and enjoy this transience.

Field Polaroid #1: How it came to be...

Let us start at the beginning:

Several years ago I had a vivid dream about a red inflatable mattress floating in the air outside my parent’s home – the place where I spent my childhood. A pink sunset lit up the sky and I remember just watching this mattress hover, weightless for a long time. The dream perplexed me and I couldn’t get it out of my mind.

Last year, while studying, the opportunity to create an installation work presented itself. I wanted to recreate the surreal feeling I experienced in the dream so I decided to create a floating bed.

I spent a lot of time trying to make a pretty pink child’s bed that could be held up by helium balloons. Calculating the weight of the bed compared to how much the balloons would lift, then working out how many balloons I could actually afford and then how I would attach them and then photograph the bed without the balloons or strings visible was a very time consuming process that kept me awake long hours at night.

By then I knew I wanted to capture the rise and fall of the bed to illustrate the temporal nature of childhood dreams. However, something wasn’t right with my concept, it was too cynical and simple, trite and a little patronizing.

I wanted to express something about the impermancy of human life and dreams but combine it with a celebration of the constancy of nature.

I kept working away at this silly bed, then one day it just clicked, as these things often do, that a field of balloons would be a marvellous way to recreate that magical feeling I’d experienced in my dream. I had found a way to express my ideas in a more refined and subtle way.

However, when it came to the installation day, nature and science turned my concept into something more complex and much more beautiful. I had allowed for the unknown, even welcomed it but the results were totally unexpected…

To be continued...

Related posts : The Doing Girl

Seven Weeks. Seven Images.

To celebrate the upcoming exhibition of my Archimedes' Field work I am pleased to be releasing seven never before seen images taken over the course of that weekend. One image will be released online - on my blog and webpage - every week during the lead up to the exhibition with the final one released the day after the opening.

It was little known by anyone that in addition to the medium format film and digital images, I also shot Polaroid's. In contrast to the high quality of the original images these Polaroids, reproduced as prints, are soft, grainy and otherwise technically flawed. This lo-fi approach enhances the dream-like feel of the field- almost as though my original vision was scooped directly out of my unconscious brain and placed onto paper in all it's unrefined and messy glory. I love this and especially like the way they compliment and add to the original images and video work.

With the release of each image I will also be providing additional insight into how Archimedes' Field came to be and the thought processes behind it.

The first of the Polaroid prints are going as gifts to collectors and some very special people in my life (often these people are one and the same). The rest will be made available for collecting as they are released. If you would like to acquire one of these Polaroids (or any image from the series) please e-mail me. The Polaroid's are available in two small limited edition sizes:

| 8x8inch - 30 only | 5x5inch - 30 only (+2 artist prints of each size)

But, of course, you will want to see them first so please do return soon.

Archimedes' Field opens at the QCP on the 18th July 5-8pm. I shall be very pleased if you would attend.

Churchie National Emerging Art Exhibition

Another image from my Archimedes' Field series is in the limelight.  Archimedes' Field - The First Night (above) was fortunate enough to be selected as one of the finalists in the Churchie National Emerging Art Prize.

The Churchie National Emerging art prize is a well known art award in Australia and garners a lot of attention from the public so I am excited to have an image in it.  I'm not in it to win it but rather to have my work seen and just to be involved.  I also love these type of exhibitions as a viewer because there is a broad variety of art to look at and it is always interesting to see what other emerging artists are doing.  

Last year Dew, also from the Archimedes' Field series, was a finalist in the Clayton Utz Travelling Scholarship.  You can view the whole series here.

The exhibition is open from Thursday 28th May until Sunday 31st May at Morris Hall, Churchie, Oaklands Pde, East Brisbane.

To find out more about the Churchie National Emerging Art Exhibition and the exhibition opening hours click here

'The First Night' can be purchased unframed here

The Doing Girl

It was 3:00pm.  I had an hour and a half to inflate as many helium balloons as I could.  I had to tie weights to each string, attach the string to the balloon and then lay them out in neat lines. A lot of money was behind this project and the timing had to be just right.  I was told each balloon would only float for twelve hours so the timeframe to inflate and shoot was precise. It had to be this weekend. Then, at the last minute the person who originally agreed to help me couldn't make it.  My palms and forehead began to sweat even though it wasn't hot.  Things were going wrong.  If it wasn't for my family stepping in to help this project would have gone quite differently.  I had the help of my two youngest sisters (seven and ten), my darling brother Dion (19 years old with Down's Syndrome) and my Dad who just so happened to be on holidays from work.   

Pictured above is Ginevra, who was seven at the time,  affectionately known as 'the doing girl' because she likes doing things.  She helped tie the weights to the strings, organized them and positioned the balloons on the field as Dad and I inflated and tied balloons.