what a difference an audience makes.

still mulling over the seminar i presented a week ago. things i had set out to say and discuss did not get an airing. my fault. stage fright ? this is a reflection of my wider current concerns with audience and content taking second place. i think i was also sheilding pertenent 'indulgent' questions that might have been to revealing. i have still yet to fully digest the issues wrapped up in both pieces myself

the first lot of work i presented was a group of installation pieces for transition 3 at newlyn art gallery at the beginning of the year. the second piece was a video projection i installed in a public high street for a local festival, lafrowda day in st just. the first works i made came out of a few years of planning from my notebook books. the work was created from images taken of the mojave desert in southern california, over the last few years. i created 3 light boxes, a display cabinet with old images that you could play with, three plinths with fold out images and text, a old school desk with a pile of images taken from a moving car and a display case with three objects from the location. when i presented this to the group. i glossed, at high speed , over the content and context of the work, and talked about the tension created by being in a public gallery. this is something i realise i do in my own practice. i devalue the images to the point that the are arbritory to how they will eventually be used. i will capture the images, and then leave them in a draw festering until i am ready to look at them again. this devaluing is a process i use reduce the need to examine the intuitive or emotional resonance that the image(s) orginally held. denying them a voice. this also makes me think that i am denying the responsibility of taking the image. i 'create' new found images. i need to think more on this.....

the second video piece was created simply and quickly from the title of the festival 'lifes a beach'. i tried to create a mostly art reduced piece that would appeal to the majority of the audience at the festival. the audience consisted of the local community and my neighbours (and appreciative art friends) . I shot and edited a 3 mins piece titled 'to do list'. this i back projected (using a digital projector) from my dinning room window onto the high street. i projected the piece for 12 hrs. 12pm until 12am. the footage was simply described as my feet at the beach. the great irony is that the projection only really came alive at night, when the sun had gone down and the festivals goers where a little inhebriated. good crowd. rows of people developed throughout the evening, standing opposited my house to watch the show. i would get caught by them as i came and went from ther house. the reaction was good. i think they were open to the idea that the projection was created for them. so were not suspicious or closed minded. the drink helped. the image of the sea spread a shifting blue haze out in to the street which you could see from the square.