I've decided to use electroplating technology to further my ideas about energy flow and transfer. I often draw three dimensionally with clay and so it makes sense to me to think about how I might bring fired clay into the electroplating process. I have now found out that in order to create a surface on my bisque fired ceramics that can undergo electroplating, it is necessary first to coat them with something that can carry an electric current. Looking at industrial processes this seems quite difficult as you need to submerge your object in a bath of electrolytes which then act as catalysts to enable nickel to coat the ceramic material. Once this is done it can be electroplated with the metal of your choice. However I am going to try and short circuit the process and use a graphite spray to coat unfired ceramic material. However there are various sorts and so I am trying a couple of different ones out in order to see what works and I have ordered more graphite power, so that I can also try rubbing it into the surface of forms more directly and then using the spray as a final coat. I like to use graphite as it seems to fit into the extended idea of drawing and I have used it in the past as a lubricant during casting, coating the interior of a plaster mould with graphite powder, so that the cast object could be released easily. I was at that time casting in lead, and it was about 50 years ago, so I'm interested to see how graphite application has changed over the years. Graphite is a crystal allotrope of carbon that can conduct electricity and in order for it to do that, graphite powder can be mixed with a binder such as an acrylic glaze to make a conductive paint. Apparently there is a commercial version of this material called 'wire glue' available which is used for no-solder electrical connections but I'm initially going to look at graphite spray as I want to keep the surface as thin as possible, so that the texture of the fired clay is not lost. As I'm very much a low technology person I shall just play around with these elements until something happens, it being for myself a process emanating from a form of thinking closer to alchemy than chemistry. If you want to try electroplating yourself there are lots of 'how-to' videos out there.
How to do it at home electroplating videos
However I'm also thinking of diagrams about how electroplating works and how these can be developed metaphorically; in this case I'm thinking about Benjamin Brett's diagrams that emerged from his explanations of the geometry of the unconscious. These thoughts sit alongside memories of Dada diagrams, that remind me that the diagrammatic form is a very persuasive form of visual rhetoric and that we should be able to play with it.
Benjamin Bett
The unconscious geometry of the liquid electrolysis of thought
Francis Picabia, Portrait of Marius de Zayas, 1915
Francis Picabia was a car fanatic, he had the money to buy them and they fascinated him. The diagrammatic drawing 'Portrait of Marius de Zayas' is a crazy diagram of a car's electrical circuitry. The two headlights that hang like bells are linked by a black line circuit diagram and a spark plug is connected into a red line version. Schematic electro-mechanical components and circuitry vitalise a women's anatomy and corset in order to give life to a portrait of the Mexican multi creative Marius de Zayas. Yes of course its nonsense, but it is a nonsense that arises out of an understanding of Pataphysics. Pataphysics has been described as the branch of philosophy that deals with an imaginary realm additional to metaphysics. It has also been described as a "philosophy" of science invented by French writer Alfred Jarry, and it is intended to be a parody of science. Difficult to be simply defined or pinned down, it has also been described as the "science of imaginary solutions".
I like the fact that I have had to mix up a solution in order to achieve my electroplating idea and that I am also trying to acknowledge the science of imaginary solutions.
The electroplating is only one part of the sculptural 'solutions' I'm trying to work with, as I'm trying to build objects in a similar way to how you might write a novel. I've been reading Ali Smith again and I love her way of weaving various stories together and how some voices might just have a page within which to articulate a thought and this can be interjected into a main story line or simply put there as a sort of marker or breathing space that allows another idea to emerge. I see no reason for sculptural objects to also have that sort of complexity.
Drawings for sculpture made to be shown at night
You can just about see that fish tanks sit beneath these drawings for sculptural objects. The images are an attempt to depict how they would be seen at night; these are objects/situations that are designed to both reference furniture and animal forms, the idea being that they give birth to new forms by various processes, including electroplating. I am thinking about this as a type of morphogenesis, or the shaping of organisms by a metaphorical embryological processes of differentiation. The process uses the development of ideas according to the genetic “blueprint” of the initial 'potential' organism, (a drawing) and then it becomes about adapting each object to whatever environmental conditions emerge in the studio, or wherever else I'm drawing or making these objects.
The forms were initially thought through as a series of drawings, but they are now emerging more on their own volition as objects down in the studio. All of them had to be in some way connected to an electrical power source, either to drive an inserted component, such as a TV or computer screen, or to power other things such as crystal sets or an electrical plating set up.
Drawings of ideas for furniture/animal objects
I have already drawn an animation that is designed to be run on embedded screens that sit within these constructions and this has been passed on to someone else who will 'upgrade' it from hand drawn cells to CGI using sophisticated animation software. Both versions will eventually be played on the embedded screens. The final sculptures will then become 3D realised diagrams, sort of sculptural versions of Kurt Vonnegut's idea of diagrammed stories.
I'm not really a sculptor, even though I'm a member of the Yorkshire Sculptors Group. I tend to think as a drawer, whether I'm painting or making. This is why this blog is called 'Drawing', although more and more things are touched upon that might not come under the umbrella of 'drawing', in my mind they emerge out of the practice of drawing as a way to externalise thinking.
Every now and again I put up a post about presentation. Especially when you are making large drawings, exhibition presentation makes all the difference to how the drawings are received. I popped into the Leeds City Art Gallery the other day and they had put up a display of Peter Randall-Page's large charcoal drawings of organic forms. Randall-Page is a sculptor so as you might expect his drawings have all the hallmarks of a sculptural sensibility, from the use of cross contour lines to help the eyes 'feel' over the surface of these forms, to the use of the drawn black edges that cut right into the forms, to suggest that the drawn forms are bursting through the black charcoal drawing space and out into the gallery. Above all these drawings are big and they require an observer to walk about in order to see them properly, as you can see in the image above, they are collectively quite a physical presence. What I thought was very interesting about the presentation was that it reflected the way that Randall-Page would have had to begin the drawings by rolling out his paper. Large paper usually comes in rolls and for an artist this has advantages and problems. The advantages are all to do with size and scale, the size of the paper can be decided on because you have to cut the paper into chosen lengths and in doing this you begin the process of measuring the size of the paper in relation to your own 'human' scale. The disadvantages are to do with the roll. The curl of the paper is hard to work with and you are always fighting this, sometime reverse rolling the paper in order to flatten it and at other times putting weights on the corners to hold it down. In this case Randall-Page has used the fact that the paper will always try to return to its rolled state, and uses a presentation method that reflects this.
He has used what look like broom handles to roll the ends of his drawings onto. Stapling the paper right into the wooden rod and then inserting a metal screw eye into each end, he is able to roll the drawings up when not on display and simply determine how pulled open they need to be when exhibition time comes.
This presentation method makes the drawings feel more like objects. This is a long way from the window mounted drawing behind glass, he is making a point about the physicality of these drawings and that we as observers need to be just as aware of rolled paper and how it physically operates as we do of the nature of the organic forms that he is drawing.
By presenting these drawings as a block, the overall effect is very powerful and the wooden supports create a secondary visual grid like structure that by contrast enhances the organic bulging of these forms as they push out into our space. See also: Cross contour drawing Framing a large drawing Edges
I was in the 108 Gallery in Harrogate over the weekend and the gallery was hosting an exhibition of Michael Sandle's drawings. Michael Sandle's work is powerful and politically charged. His sculptures are complex responses to a society that continues to give generous support to a powerful military–industrial complex. His work is harsh and uncompromising and is designed to be seen in public spaces, his 'Der Trommler' in the entrance to Tate Briton being typical of a type of sculpture that can stand toe to toe with both historical and contemporary public sculpture.
'Der Trommler'
In his drawings technical drawing meets expressionism, meets drawing for sculpture. His drawings both explore the potential for making, and work as expressive vehicles in their own right. He uses technical drawing to give authenticity to the machine aesthetic that underlies modern armament production.
Michael Sandle: Bren Gun
Without technical drawings there would be no mass arms manufacture, and at the same time without technical drawing Sandle would not be able to give the degree of conviction to his drawings needed to make them work. Alongside the sharp precision of technical drawing he has a strong grasp of perspective and chiaroscuro, which he uses to control emotional intensity. (Compare other artists' use of tone for emotional effect here)
Bunker
Machine Gun Monument
As Micky Mouse morphs into a machine gun we have two different types of drawing language being brought together, and in this morphing of styles Disney meets the Krupp armament industry. This might appear to be disingenuous but if you compare the long standing German armaments manufacturer Krupp AG’s 1991 acquisition of Hoesch AG in Germany with the way that the Walt Disney Company purchased land for Disney World in the 1960s, you can see that they employed the same business tactics. Business tactics that are very close to military tactics. Over the course of six months, Krupp slowly and anonymously purchased Hoesch shares through a Swiss bank. Because the stock purchases appeared to be normal, everyday transactions, Krupp was able to buy up a large percentage of Hoesch without triggering suspicion. Disney anonymously purchased 30,000 acres of land in Florida, hiding its intentions and therefore preventing landowners putting up prices. The Chinese general He Nuobi advocated the outmaneuvering of opponents by hiding strategic military actions within a façade of everyday actions, a strategy designed to lull adversaries into inaction. Industry is rarely politically neutral, this Disney cartoon from the mid 1940s being typical of their wartime production.
Walt Disney: 1940s
Sandle is very aware that Micky Mouse is a production of a country that hosts the most powerful military–industrial complex that the world has ever seen. His sculptures make us aware of the continuing need to be vigilant and to never forget how easily we can slip into war mode.
A 20th Century Memorial
If you are in Harrogate it is well worth visiting the 108 gallery and not just for the powerful Michael Sandle drawings, there is nearly always an interesting selection of contemporary work on display, always sensitively presented and chosen very selectively.
