Reflective Statement

Relevance of work to proposal:

This semester I have pursued the investigation of apocalyptic, dystopic and utopic imagery. I wanted to investigate the reasoning and theory behind this imagery both in historic and contemporary times, and either enhance or undermine our reading of recurring signifiers and motifs by their presence in landscape arrangements. The final works are relevant to my proposal as I have directly addressed these ideas and reinterpreted the images and text I researched from film, television and written sources, but has evolved from my original title of Before the Apocalypse to become Apocalypse, Dystopia, Utopia - A Study to not only present but deconstruct such notions.

Conceptual development:

My ideas have developed this semester from wishing to depict the stages of apocalyptic development as mutually exclusive temporal events, to bringing the motifs and signifiers together in a simultaneous staging. Originally, I intended to depict the distinct settings of the foreshadowing of an apocalypse, the event itself, the immediate aftermath, and then visions of what we imagine rises from the ashes. However, from reading the theoretical ideas of Margaret Atwood I realised that there cannot be a utopia without elements of a dystopia, or a dystopia without elements of a utopia. Hence, I realised that these ideas are not mutually exclusive, and developed an artistic curiosity as to how the incorporation of apocalyptic imagery also would affect the reading of the final works in a visual confusion. As ideas that have no basis in the real and only exist in art, they are also subjective. Therefore, my depiction of the ideas underscores artificiality and deconstruction, asking the viewer to question the basis for such thoughts and undermine their supposedly ‘sublime’ nature. I also became engrossed in the writing of 17th century poet John Milton, using passages from his text Paradise Lost to investigate another potential form of landscape through the literary dimension, and play with the use of colour as an intervention towards the gravitas of the subject matter.

Technical development:

My technical development this semester has involved refining my presentation of my painting maquette to allow it to stand alone as a finished artwork. The choice to leave Apocalypse, Dystopia, Utopia ­– A Study unfinished became one mainly based on time constraints, however I also enjoy the conceptual result that has ensued. It means that the works are dependent on each other for their reading and interpretation – one cannot be fully understood without another – and thus it has become a physical manifestation of my thematic ideas. I enjoyed both painting in black and white and colour, and playing with a range of materials including paper, fibre and foam to create a dioramic representation of conflicting symbols, with the medium itself also contributing to the concept of artificiality.

Personal Evaluation:

This semester I believe that I have achieved a series of works that successfully reflect my conceptual ideas and have additionally allowed me to experiment with aesthetic ideas. To further my practice, I would like there to be more interaction between the two and three-dimensional elements I create, and more experimentation with their identity and dependence on each other. I intend to further this work by continuing my research on the signifiers of the utopia, rather than such a concern with dystopic and apocalyptic imagery.

Development of Work

Having now finished the painting of all my text works, I can now reflect on the process I chose to make each panel. My intention was that these works would argue the nature of landscape paintings and would challenge the imagery-based motifs and signifiers that I was incorporating into my dioramic work. I think next time I would leave areas of each panel unpainted, as whilst I like that the umber ground is visible to some extent under the coloured paint layer of the background which does give some spacial depth to the work, I really liked the aesthetics of them when they were partially painted and I like that this creates a sort of visual decay appropriate to the ideas of the apocalypse. An original idea for the display of my text works was to twist the positioning of each panel on the wall so that they all sat at angles to each other, and the viewer would have to twist their neck this way and that to read the words. However, I now think that idea is a bit gimmicky and doesn't add anything to the concept of the work, so I will display each panel in order, hanging straight. I plan to position the panels so that they can be read chronologically as a story, however as each excerpt was taken from all different places within Paradise Lost, my ordering is a new interpretation of the poem and resultantly, a new narrative.

To accompany the painting of the diorama, I kept working on the grid paintings, now finished. As the grid was created using random number generation it was impossible to dictate what the final image would look like, however I think perhaps next time I would eliminate the white and work only with greys and blacks. This is because when I made my graphite studies every single square was a shade of grey, and I seem to prefer this aesthetic to a complete greyscale, with the white. I think the panels I have painted still work with the diorama painting as it does involve white so the grids work as pixellations and deconstructions of other potential images in the series. I made a choice to keep an area of each panel masked so that in the end there would be a strip of exposed wood. This is because I wanted there to be some element to the painting that broke the illusion of it being a window to another reality, and highlight the fakery behind the ideas. I also just really love the aesthetic of timber, and thought the warm colour and brown complemented the fact I decided to paint these three dependent works in black and white.

I am disappointed that I ran out of time to better refine my painting of the diorama, however I am happy that the diorama was completed and stands alone as an artwork in itself. I am also happy with the conceptual result this has ensued as it means that the painting and diorama are dependent on each other for their reading and interpretation - one cannot be fully understood without the other - and thus the painting itself has also become a physical manifestation of my thematic ideas.

Ideally, I would like this work to be displayed along a long, blank wall, allowing the viewer to step back from the 'landscapes' and view them as a pictorial whole. To display all these works now I intend to have the diorama and painting facing each other on opposite sides of the studio space, with the text works separating in the middle. This means that the diorama and painting will not be too close together and cannot be viewed at the same time as each other. I hope this will mean that the viewer interacts more with the work and will be more interested in understanding the conceptual message of it as to why there is both a physical and two-dimensional version of the scene, rather than seeing the two works next to each other and just considering one a back-up maquette and the other the real final work.