Proto-Objects

A series of Loose Ends works realised for the first time as physical tabletop sculptures.

On Repetition

I think there is something human in the pursuit of re-crafting something over and over and over again. The sushi chef constantly repeating and honing their craft. Being aware, responding, making minute decisions and subtle course-corrections through the trajectory of a serving, a week a year. No day is the same.

The process becomes ever so delicate, subtle and more sophisticated as it opens your eyes to tiny changes and differences in the details.

From the micro to the macro. Sushi chef to brands such as Apple or Rolex. They are constantly making iterations to refine and clarify. A human hand is often present at the most intricate of levels. This all said, I also love the idea of allowing for mistakes, errors – either from the human or machine to come into play. Allowing that to have a knock-on effect in the production and development cycle of the work and be visible.

Origin

The process must begin somewhere and have a starting point and the process of creating the sculptures differs from my paintings. They have to speak in a different tone and vocabulary. Previous systems and ways of working won't work here. They are a product of working through a different approach and lens. Negative forms and white space become physical. The form, material and mass becomes the gesture itself.

The Loose Ends series is ever evolving and self-perpetuating. Each new collage work creates a series of new off-cuts and forms that have the potential to be added to the vocabulary and universe of works.

Process

The new works are arranged, constructed and composited in a far different manner from any 2D work. Although they are inherently different, they possess a shared language alongside recognisable facets as they are ultimately borne from the same world.

The sculpture process and production system is almost a micro version that sits alongside the existing ‘master’ Loose Ends system. It inherits the expansive, rich world potential with room to evolve. Paintings, prints, drawings, graphic design, sculpture. Each of them behave differently, yet share a recognisable commonality.

On Fabrication

Originals and editions all have traces of hand painting + mark making from recordings of me and from others. It is obvious that you can’t do everything yourself, so I’m not going to pretend that I did. Sometimes there is a romantic idea that you do it all yourself, but I actually find the romance in sharing the idea with other people and letting them make their mark, choices and adding their skills into the idea. The idea then becomes bigger than one person, a shared and connected reality, a shared idea about connecting to each other.

Our individuality is amplified when we come together and find a common voice as part of the human experience.

On Digital

In these times of unlimited digital stimulus from all over the world, it is good to appreciate the value and beauty of the physical object.

The problem with our screen-based visual culture is that you’re only getting an input through a specific focal lens. You’re not getting the rest of the work. It’s like listening to music through one headphone speaker and you can’t digest the work properly without being there and you’re not getting the full experience. How you see, perceive and feel by being with the physical thing are entirely different. You’re missing out on something that you’re brain doesn’t realise but your heart does.

On Human and Machine

Perfection is boring. Making art is to feel human and about self-expression but also it is about tapping into bigger things that connect us all.

Organic forms colliding with machine-cut lines. A pencil scribble becomes a plasma-cut piece of metal. There is something about the fabrication and passing through human hands. The use of machines is always tempered by the human touch as a back-and-forth conversation of production.

Amplifying the ‘mistakes’ or how software has drawn a circle and gone wonky. The ghost in the machine says ‘a robot was here’. Allowing the machine to show its mistakes, much like a human. These are the things that spark my curiosity, alongside ideas that feel strange or include a deliberate wrongness. Because for me, strangeness and imperfection are the most beautiful quirks, oddities and unplanned incidents are wonderful.

Appreciating details in-person and close-up echos the relationship with paintings. Away from a digital screen, they look flat from a distance but up close you see inconstancies, randomness, drips and brush marks – the human in there, that I think we can all relate to.

On Animism

’Objects have their own world. Making an object means imbuing it with its own spirit’.
— Kenji Ekuan, Creator of the legendary Kikkoman soy sauce bottle.

Bringing these Loose Ends into a physical made-form, they become imbued with corporeal properties. A recording of what has been and what can be: a proto-object.

The series of objects become new Loose Ends fragments or motifs designed to help us rewire and reconnect to our imagination. The objects are something utilitarian but in a dreamworld sense. Built from a different language and process. a different metaphor, own meaning and own life. The works offer new perspectives for imagination and thinking.

On Multiples

The sculptures are produced and use the language of multiples as if they are an edition. They are however, executed as single-pieces. I like that the language of powder-coating could be seen as a process for producing multiples rather than a one-off.

Lasercutting a hand-drawn mark sums it up for me in what I’m exploring. Human-machine-human-machine. A machine making a single object rather than thousands. It is also a reflection on my practice between fine-art and graphic design and the juxtaposition of what the expected outcome is.

A Catalyst for the Imagination

Really it is about world-building, connecting and a shared experience. The art is activated from a deeper and more profound place within us all.

“We look at everything from the point of view of the human experience, but then how we can make changes in the way that things are not just designed but made so that in the end it affects the whole system.” - Ilse Crawford

Loose Ends 34

An original painting on aluminium. This piece has helped formed the basis of thinking for the new table-top pieces. This piece differs as it is hand-painted with acrylic. “It’s important that I paint this piece by hand and do it my way. You see my mistakes - my style... I like the exchange between technology and human fallibility that we all try and navigate every day”.