Maxine Bristow

Maxine Bristow's work references industrial textile production very heavily, and is steeped in regional history as well as the relationship to particular materials that we all develop from an early age.

3 x 19: Intersecting a Seam (1999)

These pieces are intricately and precisely designed, but owing to the nature of heavy fabric they are also irregular in individual, variable ways. They resemble sleeping bags, or large sacks, and look comfortable, evoking a tactile response without physical contact. The material was laboriously prepared, with the material treated with a mixture of Gesso, a PVA and chalk powder mixture, whcih seals the material and adds to it's texture. The Gesso is then partially removed by hand. The handmade approach to all of Bristow's work creates small differences so that whilst the pieces often look the same in repetition, upon closer inspection they are more separate.

18 x 51 over 11.44 (2002)

In this piece the reptition is enhanced, magnified many times over in several ways. The objects themselves are multiplied, again appearing similar but owing to the hand-made techniques they are all individual, with each button hole also having the same degree of separation from the others near it. The same process is applied to the material of the fabric as before, again creating an imperfect, inconsistent quality to the fabric.

Light-switch ref 20318 (2004)

With this piece, the repetition is magnified even further, as seen in the above image, stretching out past the line of sight. Equal distance between the switches and their piping, following neatly along the curvature of the wall, reinforces the theme of functionality within her work more literally.

Bristow experimented with a variety of different mixtures to create the concrete blocks that form the basis of the "lightswitch" design. Various materials involving concrete mixed with other powders were tried, with various degrees of success. In this image you can see Bristow trying the fabric component of the shape with different blocks that she has produced, testing her response to each one. The image clearly demonstrates the different qualities each block provides in texture and colour tone.

In this image you can see the finished result of the selection process. The block again looks distinctly uniform in design, but the handmade nature of both the concrete mixture and the piece of fabric applied to it create individuality that is distinct. Specks in the concrete make it unique, amongst the many that sit either side of it.

This image demonstrates Bristow applying another part of the design, regular to each 'unit' of the piece. Holes will have been drilled into the wall at perfectly spaced intervals, providing clips for the handmade fabric pieces to attach and give the impression of securing the piping to the wall. Similar items appear regularly in virtually any building that a person might enter, but they are incidental, even insignificant to observation. Bristow has instead made the insigifnicant details of functional interior design something tactile and interesting, but without making them singular and obvious.

3D

We moved into working with clay today, and were shown how to operate a pressing-type device that helps to roll out blocks of clay smoothly and evenly with minimal effort. The clay is moist when fresh and this affects how much it may stick to a surface. Smooth, glossy surfaces tend to stick the most, making them unsuitable for working with a lot of the time when attempting to create stencils or to roll onto/with the clay.

The clay is placed onto a sheet of cloth, and then compressed with hands so as to be somewhat flatter than it would be when removed from a block (with a cheese wire). Another piece of cloth is placed over the clay, and then the rolling cloth is then laid out over the clay as well. The layers of cloth that are added ensure that the clay does not stick to the board surface or to the rolling cloth, or that it does not stain it. The device has a wheel to the side of it which is rotated and in doing so, moves the press roller across the length of the machine, flattening out the clay.The machine is easy to operate and is not dissimilar to the kind of presses used for print making, and is adjustable too like those machines are. Once the clay has been pressed, it can be flattened out furthermore by using a rolling pin, using pieces of wood (of equal height) to brace the sides of the clay, providing a minimum level that the rolling pin can move across. This results in a more even surface of clay.

This practise of rolling can be used to apply pressure to objects placed over the surface of the clay, also. I used a stencil made from a small card box the previous day, which had a series of angular, geometric shapes cut into it. Flattened out, the box covered the area of most of the clay, and when I rolled over the stencil, a gentle impression was made into the clay. I continued to create more and more lines and geometric shapes, both by reusing the stencil in different configurations but also by applying indentations with an assortment of tools, mostly plastic clay modelling tools.

I decided to divide the piece into sections, again using strong lines in geometric shapes, to then assemble into a 3D construction. Before the pieces could be applied however, they needed to be leather hard, which is a state of dryness where indentations can be made into the surface of the clay, and it can be cut through, but bending or twisting the clay would cause it to split and tear. To speed up the process, I used a hairdryer on the pieces of clay until I was satisfied they were solid enough, though with hindsight it may have been easier to apply some of the pieces had they been a little bit drier still.

I started to 'feel' my way through creating the 3D piece, seeing which pieces I felt complimented each other in specific formations, as well as being wary of the piece being able to support itself. Being slightly too soft still, the piece was delicate. To bind the pieces together, lines are made into the clay (surface indentations still being relatively easy to make at this level of dryness) and then a composite of clay and water made into a thick sludge, called slick, is used to to bind the clay pieces together. The slick fills in the gaps created by the indentations on the connecting faces, which will dry to combine the pieces together solidly. The effect is rapid but takes more time to be of a decent strength, so the pieces need to be treated delicately still.

The lines appear symbolic or indicative of greater meaning, perhaps in a similar manner as the geometric lines represent cosmic mathematical equations in the H.P Lovecraft story The Dreams in the Witch House, probably my favourite of his works.

The inclusions of "1985" and "Fuck" into the piece are intended to reference my work in the Visual Communication and textiles units, as much as the geometric lines and shapes reference the summer project.

3D

In the 3D segment of the diagnostic term we have started by going back again to the summer project for inspiration (as well as any and all work we have been doing in other classes so far), in particular the theme of cardboard boxes as a material for drawing on, or simply carving directly into. With the piece I am working on, I am using a rectangular box about 1x1 foot wide/tall, and about half as deep. I opened the box out flat and started making geometric shapes in pencil on the inside of the box. The box was originally for cookware so the exterior is glossy and covered in graphics, so would not be appropriate for drawing onto without making it harder to see. Once I was satisfied with the complexity of the shapes and lines (all of which were straight, no curves), I decided which shapes would be cut out and which would not, and then went over the pencil lines for the shapes to be cut out in biro. This process allowed me to rapidly determine what kind of shapes I wanted to see. The end result I am working towards is stark simplicity, high contrast. I have painted the glossy exterior of the box in white (second coat pending) and I will be painting the interior of the box in a vibrant red, to create a sense of exposure, emphasising the gaps in the cardboard and indicating sensitivity inside. The box has holes made in three of the four sides, whist the base and top of the box are unchanged except for paint. I will be placing a second, much smaller box in the centre-base of the larger structure, following on the same colour theme, the interior white box contrasting again quite strongly against the red interior, with it's own red interior separate from it's exterior. Inversion, and contradiction, are the concepts I am experimenting with for this piece.

After applying the first coat of white paint to the large box, I needed to hang it to dry out of the way whilst I  continued on with the cutting of the smaller box. There was a projector set up and still operating in the room. The cardboard box was hung up, unfolded, from the projector sheet, resulting in the projection (at the time, just the Windows desktop screen) being cast onto the box and subsequently through the exposed holes, creating a segmented impression on the wall as well as an uneven surface for the projection to land on as the cardboard dangled in mid-air. This was an unintended but also very relevant side effect, as I have long been interested in video projection, as a technology, a means of special effects and also as symbolic of cinema as a whole. One particular instance of projection that has always been interesting to me is when it is used during performance, in examples such as film production (for example, projections of moving backgrounds to represent the exterior of a car journey, filmed in a studio, usually giving a slightly peculiar impression of the outside world that is not entirely realistic). Another instance that I have enjoyed is during music performance, and I have seen this example used well by Neurosis and the related act, Tribes of Neurot, as seen on stage and also in the Neurosis DVD for 'A Sun That Never Sets'. Neurosis' members include one person, Josh Graham, whose main role is the visual accompaniment aspect, a role that is considered no less integral to the artistic concept of the group as a whole, and is not serving the purpose of purely advertisement or promotion, but rather furthering the expression of the collective members.

The work is dangling in front of the projector. Only one side is painted at this point, in white. The geometric shapes are casting peculiar shadows, as well as creating equally strange shapes of projected light.

Neurosis performing 'A Sun That Never Sets'

The imagery used during Neurosis' live performances tend to be quite abstract, but relative to the bands general musical themes of nature, humanism and universal truths in general. During different periods of the bands' existance, images have ranged from heavily altered nature footage or video of natural phenomena, to infamous video footage such as that of the televised suicide of disgraced American politician Bud Dwyer in 1987. The video imagery is used to reinforce the tone of the music, which is consistently dark, often oppressive, but just as often as it is compressed and dense it is open and sprawling, vast and unbound.