Surface

Backgrounds are integral to the work, developing from, and within, the idea. As the artifact is a constructed artifact, being part of the work, the background is also a construct. Maybe I am trying to voice the issue that I want it’s appearance to be ‘natural’ a part of, not applied to. Defining what ‘natural’ is or could be, has been a continual preoccupation. Why does there need to be a background? every work is displayed against some form of background be it a wall floor or location of some kind. Nothing exists in isolation, it is within presented within the context of other artifacts and surroundings. Painters apply paint to a canvas so why should it be an issue for me. I feel that I’m still not getting to the nub of the dilemma, but bringing it to the fore is part of the process?

Using colour is seldom instinctive, the patina offered from the found and discarded is ‘there’ rather than needing to be formed or imposed upon. Just as I’ve heard that surgeons view surgery as an expression of failure, manipulating materials risks compromising fluidity and intention.

With the found object in view, I wanted to achieve a synergy between idea, intention and artifact. As my work explores text, I considered using text as the basis of the work. I wanted something that needed as little intervention as possible. Newsprint was an obvious choice. Whilst it fulfilled the function I wanted something less structured. I moved onto using pages from disused notebooks.

Using something that already exists in a form that wasn’t intended for any other function, is pleasing. It offers a quality of spontaneity that is valuable; the aim being to produce work that negates the marks of intervention or (too much) artifice.

Using the notebook pages, to what extent do I manipulate them? My instinct is to use them in their raw state but I wanted to consider how else I could prepare them. I could produce copies to ensure a supply and, or, I could copy them to allow me to enlarge a single page to enable an A4 page to be scaled up to fit an A2 or A1 format. I am drawn to turning a page into ‘sections’.