Category Archives: Inspiration

May 21 2012
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Inspiration, Presentation, progression, Uncategorized

final presentation for the degree show

So for some time now I have been pondering the presentation of my ideas for the final assessment and degree show. I started with the idea of a bedroom at the very first point and worked my way through the ideas of a self standing structure just from the objects to using some sort of shelf or shelving units. After much consideration I have chosen to use boxes to create some kind of structure, possibly a sort of box shelf type thing. Cardboard boxes have been chosen as they are really the perfect way to show this. Inspired by the Song Dong exhibition, I have realised the boxes are how my mother stored the items I’m putting into the show, and with the ebay thing in tow, it seems like they would need a box to be sent in, so I intend to put each thing in its own individual box and have some indication, perhaps a post label, to show that the item is on ebay and ready to be sent when needed.

I’ve found some quite cool uses of boxes for shelving and storage.

May 20 2012
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Inspiration

Nostalgia science

I’ve been looking at a few things Nostalgia related and I came across a few really interesting blogs/pages to do with the exact things I’m sort of looking into with this work. This one explores ideas of hoarding and the natural way we use material objects to store memories. here’s a little taste -

‘What I found really interesting about Frost’s account of hoarding is that it is very compatible with current research on the extended mind hypothesis. Hoarders often use their collection of stuff as an external memory source. They can remember the details of when they brought each object into their home. To throw away these objects would be tantamount to throwing away their own memories. Moreover, it is not just their memory that is externalized but their very personal identity. William James thought we all had a “material self” that bleeds into our personal possessions, but with hoarders this sense of self extends into ALL their objects, and not just special ones. They feel like their objects are part of their basic self-hood, to the point that it becomes emotionally traumatic to throw away a piece of useless trash. Hoarders often have deep personal histories with each of their objects, and what might look like junk to an outsider could be to the hoarder a treasure worth cherishing. Hoarders are also interesting because they seem to enjoy aesthetic qualities in everyday objects that normal people might only experience on psychedelic drugs. The stained pattern on an old milk carton might be beautiful to a hoarder and they just can’t imagine throwing it away.’

It’s really good stuff and definitely worth a read. It shows that everything I’ve been thinking about isn’t just made up, it really can work like that. Material objects can hold a whole world of memories!

Another one is cognitivephilosophy.net and the post ‘In defense of Nostalgia’ covers some similar points as the one above, but it talks in terms of Nostalgia and not Hoarding.

‘

There are times when I am looking for a movie to watch, or after I have just finished a book and am looking for a new one to read, where I just survey my libraries for a time. Looking at different titles one after the other and transporting myself with each new cue. Not only remembering the stories and ideas contained within the book or the movie, but also the time or times I read or watched it, what else was going on in my life at the time, how it affected me, the people who I shared those experiences with, etc…A few hundred years ago, none of this would be possible.

Is the take away from this that we should spend all our time looking at things that bring back happy memories? No. But is there a function that nostalgia serves beyond simply giving us momentarily pleasurable experiences? I think so. But that’s a post for another time. I’ll just mention that for those who have been reading some of my ethics posts, you’ll notice that I tend to have  a future oriented approach to ethics. While your experience is always happening in the present, and may be of the past, it can only possibly have a causal effect at some future point in time. Whether seconds, minutes, or days. My subjective conscious experience can have no causal consequences for the past, and given that synaptic plasticity is always taking place, and that brain activity is an active ever flowing process, what I think about in the now necessarily affects what I will think about in the future, who I will BE in the future. So whether we know it or not, simple acts of reminiscing necessarily affect (and to a certain degree, effect) the kinds of people we will become. That’s something worth keeping in mind in general. Whether implicitly or explicitly, everything we do and everything we think, directs who we will be and what we will think at a later time.’

Some very interesting points, don’t you think? It sort of makes me feel validated in what I’m doing now, gives me a sense that it isn’t just me and it is something that everybody has experience of.

May 05 2012
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Inspiration, Presentation, progression

boxes and hoarding, and my mum

After seeing the Song Dong exhibition at the Barbican I had an epiphany and could really feel the emotional connection with what I am doing and the feeling I got from the work. I realised that my work has as much to do with my mother as it does with me, as it is her who has kept hold of all of these things over the years, her who has seen my connection with these items and her who has grown older surrounded by them, probably in some ways having them around her has kept her feeling more connected with me as she lives in France and I haven’t been there living with her and my father now for nearly 10 years. Of course I speak to her all the time and we see each other occasionally, we have a wonderful relationship, but I cannot help thinking these things mean different things to her than they do to me, as a lot of the toys are from a young age which I can barely remember anything of and I have to rely on her to tell me about those times.
The Idea that she has kept all of these things fascinates me, in the same way the Song Dong exhibition did and I suppose a part of that was purely because I could relate to what I was seeing, as my mother has a similar sentiment and throws nothing away. Although I’m sure their reasons for keeping everything are different I can get the same raw emotion from both of these women’s compulsions.
Here are some pictures my mother kindly took of some areas of their home in Brittany, France. To some extent I think the size of the house has also helped contribute to the amount they have stored, its so big they have space for everything and have never felt the need to have to get rid of anything, so haven’t! They are planning on moving back to England, and will have to downsize somewhat, I wonder what will happen to all of these ‘memories’ when the time comes?
I have asked my mum and she has kindly written a few words to explain why she thinks she has the urge to keep all of these things that take up her time and space. She has a long and emotional story to tell, I just wish I could go into it in more detail, but she has given a quick, shortened version just for us!
My own story is less about what was happening nationally, as in Song Dong’s mother, but is a very personal story, it is easy to over simplify my reluctance to throw anything away. l had everything taken from me as a child, yes even memories, though l tried very hard to hang on to them, but without photos, so hard. After life took away my mother at age 3, then my father remarrying somebody who was pathologically jealous of me and my father’s relationship. If the relationship was so enviable how came it to be destroyed so easily? A relationship such as this surely couldn’t be so flimsy? …….yet l still believed in him.
The report from J. M. Stephen, M.B; B.S; D.P.M; the Psychiatrist stated and l quote……
Dated 21st October 1959.
“Gillian’s behavour is quite normal and she doesn’t give any trouble to the staff in the hostel or in the school. lt has become clear that Gillian’s difficulties were precipitated by her stepmother’s pathological jealousy of the child’s presence in the home. It is obvious that Gillian cannot return to this disturbed home”.And so it was that l went into care……l lost not only my father, but all my dead mother’s family who were every bit as attached to me as l was to them……l hadn’t one single photo of any of them, or any of myself……They had disappeared and so had I!!! I had nothing!
l want to say a little about the more fun side of stuff, the hunter/ gatherer instinct…. all the fun of those jumble sales back in the day and Boot Fairs now…..This goes way back, here is another excerpt from my files from NCH…… Report of a meeting with Mrs E Mason. Senior Child Officer. London….. “Gillian came to the office and we had lunch in the canteen. After that we discussed her financial situation. She is now completely self-supporting and is managing on her major award from the Kent Education Department…….. She is clothing herself and at the moment is in a very trendy fashion, buying at jumble sales etc.,………… After our official discussion I offered to take her to where-ever she would like to go as a birthday treat. She chose to go to the King’s Road, Chelsea where we visited numerous clothes shops, coffee bars, antique shops etc., Gillian thought this was wonderful”.
So to sum up, hoarding is typified in at least 2 ways….It is the oppressor but also the security and safety? Surely the manifestation & reminder of who you are, what you’ve done and where you have been? LOOK I AM NOT INVISIBLE, I HAVE STUFF!!!
So keep on shopping! It’s a family tradition! Use, reuse and recycle everything you need or want to of my writings, anything…
It’s yours Love, love, love and lots of ‘stuff’ MuM
- Gill Buckland
Apr 30 2012
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Artists, Inspiration, Presentation

Song Dong at The Barbican

So as well as catching the Jeremy Deller show at the Hayward I also got to visit the Barbican to catch the very awe inspiring Song Dong exhibition.

It has definitely struck a chord in me and has given me some real inspiration on presentation for my own work. I needed the push his exhibition has given me to really do something with my ‘stuff’. I have been umming and ahhing over presentation for the last couple of weeks and up until now it has felt like nothing has been a perfect fit.  Seeing this though has shown me that it is blindingly obvious how I should show. All of my things have been stored for 10 years or more by my mum and all in boxes. They are the one and only true saviour of the hoarder. She has hundreds of boxes doing exactly what they do – Storing! They act as protection, keeping all those memories closed up ready to be rediscovered one day. I will see if I can get some examples of how my mum has used the cardboard box to her advantage in an upcoming post.

There is a great video of Song Dong explaining this work from the time it was shown at the MOMA here

I took so many photos at the exhibition but don’t want to bore anyone with all of them so here are a few… well, quite a few in fact!

Apr 25 2012
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Artists, Inspiration, Presentation

Sean Edwards – Shelving

So this artist, Sean Edwards, has an amazing way of displaying which is definitely the biggest part of the work.

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the pres release for this show -

Sean Edwards will create a new sculptural installation, entitled Remaining Only that brings together one continuous shelving structure to house a collection of objects assembled and created over the last year and a half: objects made for a specific purpose, and found, stolen, or leftover objects from past activities and other sculptures.
Edwards’s views his structures almost as if they were paintings or collages,
treating the small sculptures as formal elements within a larger whole. Remaining Only conjures up Harry Mulisch’s idea from his novel ‘The Procedure’, that ‘the narrator of a story is at the same time not the narrator. The story itself is the actual narrator; it tells itself … The real adventure is the narrating of the adventure.’ Similarly, Edward’s installation through the predictable and unpredictable manner of its creation tells of a cyclical narrative based on uncertainty and chance.

Apr 15 2012
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Artists, Inspiration, Presentation

presentation

EEeek! I’m really struggling with presentation ideas. The bedroom installation is a no go now I think. It has been overdone and there is always 1 bedroom in every degree show… but not only that, as cliché was kind of part of that idea, i think it will over complicate things for me. The whole thing will be very hard to get across exactly what I’m trying to do with the distraction of what could be seen as a fake set. To put these genuine items in a false, made up bedroom may devalue the whole idea and give the impression that they are items I have sought out and not meaningful things that belong to myself.

I’ve been toying with the idea of creating some sort of free standing structure just out of the items themselves.

I saw the Klara Liden show at the serpentine, ooh it must have been in 2010 now, and I really enjoyed her work. In her piece Everything In My Apartment she takes every single thing from her apartment and builds this huge structure, even her radiators are in there!

I would love to make something like this, but I don’t think I have enough items???

Apr 01 2012
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Artists, Inspiration

Grayson Perry and the shrine

Grayson Perry has a teddy bear called Alan Measles. Alan Measles is a 50yr old teddy who is Perrys Mentor/God. Perry uses Alan in a really interesting way. Alan has his own blog and twitter.

Perry created a shrine type thing on the back of a crazy motorcycle and took Alan Measles round germany on the back of his bike in this shrine. The idea of shrines really appeal to me and the way they are always nostalgic and usually very home-made looking. On rookiemag they had an amazing article about all these shrines people have made. Most of them are teenagers, and probably american? but it is such an interesting concept to love something so much to have a private little space completely dedicated to that thing.

Mar 28 2012
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Inspiration, Presentation, progression

Objects

My mother has arrived from france, and with her she brings great treasures…

 

I have a great big box full, of which you can see the top layer above!

 

included in here is:

  • a dress made from bubble wrap
  • 2 plastic garlands and a packet of old lovehearts, all from spain
  • 2 polly pockets
  • some oilily sunglasses, and some strange crazy coloured ones too
  • lots of beautiful b+w photos taken mainly by my father
  • a collection of The Face mags
  • a matchbox telephone
  • a speak and spell
  • a fisherprice music thingy
  • books from when i was a littlun
  • Fraggles!
  • my favourite doggy Rusty
  • A smiley acid face bag
  • a kitten box with lots of interesting papery stuff inside
  • dressing up clothes inc a wig and 2 feather boas
  • lots of band posters
  • items from jamaica from our time living there
  • spice girls memorabilia
  • lots of cds
  • some expensive clothes I wore as a teen
  • a furry notebook of sad tales
  • old bank statements
  • some crazy limericks
  • tiny polaroids of me
  • a notebook full of notes from old schoolfriends
  • letters from friends and boyfriends
  • lots of gig tickets
  • vhs of crybaby
  • notes and cards from family, along with a few photos
  • a collection of tickets to France
  • awards and certificates
  • old photos from going out

It sounds like a really weird collection of raffle prizes. Will get some photos of everything individually soon for trumps and the silent auction.

Mar 05 2012
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Artists, Inspiration, Presentation, progression

Mike Kelley

Gosh. Have only just realised two things. 1 – the saddest – that Mike Kelley actually died last month, and 2, he worked with and was buddies with my most favourite man in the world (other than my father) Mr John Waters. Waters made 2 of the bestest films ever, both of which have been in my top 5 EVER faves since the age of about 6, Crybaby and the one and only original Hairspray. He is the king of bad taste and everything he does absolutely charms me.

Back to Kelley.  On the hearing of both these things, and after some gentle encouragement I had a dive into some of his work and although I have obviously heard of Kelley, I had no idea really about what he was about and his work. It just so happens that some of what he does is really relevant to the way my practice is going right now. It’s just such a terrible shame that he is no longer with us. Described by the telegraph (and Waters) -

He was particularly feted for his large agglomerations of forlorn, battered toys — as at the 1991 Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, where he created a vast room-filling taxonomy of reclaimed dolls and figures laid out on folding tables as if they were scientific specimens, investing abandoned childhood relics with a pathos that hinted at loss, remembrance and an overpowering sense of melancholy. The film maker John Waters described Kelley as “the man who made pitiful seem sexy by turning grimy thrift-store stuffed animals into heartbreaking, jaw-droppingly beautiful sculptures”.

 

The way he uses found objects, specifically toys, is of particular interest to me. At the moment with my ideas almost forming around this idea it is really interesting to see someone who does this and uses something that is normally joy inducing in a way that shows itself as really quite sombre. The way they are presented is what really does this, and at the moment this is where I am really struggling. In his work the found object is shown almost as exactly that, but for me I need it to do something different as I want to show the objects as having a high value so I will almost have to put them on a pedestal. For me it is trying to show the sentimental value of the items, to me. Perhaps I could do this in quite a literal way? By having a monetary value attached to the items, much higher than would be expected?

Feb 24 2012
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Inspiration, progression

early ideas

After a workshop with Mr Bevan concerning the amazing medium of 8mm film I have been considering making a few films using this very beautiful analog way of working. I love the way the film can be manipulated in such a physical way after it has been processed.

My rough thoughts at the moment are around concepts of Nostalgia and the sentimental  value one places on memories. The Baudrillard quote playing on my mind heavily since the dissertation.

I have some new old gadgets to play around with while I think up some interest ways to progress from studio 5.

A few thoughts I’ve been toying with are perhaps making films with my new 8mm camera of past boyfriends, to find them and take an interest in what they are doing now and to get their views on our relationship from their viewpoint, now. I’m interested in how their perceived value of the relationship we once had may and probably will vary massively from mine. i could do a sound piece that runs alongside with my differing views. Also the way people remember things differently is something i’m keen to explore.

Another thing I’ve been interested in at the moment is the exaggeration on the past. The way Nostalgia has almost become a hobby in itself. The idea of looking back and exploring the past in its extremity. It is present in all areas of life – The media absolutely reeks of nostalgia atm, you have so many different tv series/films set in previous decades. Fashion has always been steeped in nostalgia but it seems now more than ever. Whole websites dedicated to the 90′s. It seems my generation are all looking back to a decade when everything was so naive and innocent for us. Does it have anything to do with the ever present economical crises? are we all trying to remember times when these thinks weren’t there? Better times??

Take for instance Tavi Gevinson’s- of style rookie fame (which is also way way nostalgic)- online magazine rookie which is overflowing with nostalgic references. I’m certainly not complaining. I particularly like the article about shrines which is a must see.

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