Category: Assignment 5: Draft for tutor feedback

Assignment 5: Submission for Tutor Feedback

Assignment 5: Self Directed Project

Preparatory work for this assignment can be found in the links below:

Assignment 5 preparation 1, Assignment 5 preparation 2, Assignment 5 preparation 3 

Assignment 5 preparation 4, Assignment 5 preparation 5, Assignment 5 preparation 6

Assignment 5 preparation 7, Assignment 5 preparation 8, Assignment 5 preparation 9

Assignment 5 background and context, Assignment 5 shortlisting, Assignment 5 Further thoughts on presentation, Assignment 5 Peer Feedback

Artist’s Statement

A numerical journey along the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal towpath

The inspiration for this work comes from a fascination with our industrial heritage, a love of Gloucester Docks which has been the focus of earlier work and a passion for walking and what better way to indulge all three than a walk along the canal towpath. Artists whose work is rooted in journeys have also proved influential; Yan Wang Preston travelling the length of the Yangtze River for her ‘Mother River’ project and closer to home, walking artist Hamish Fulton’s art is based exclusively on his walks. I have also tried to embrace Fulton’s mantra of ‘leave no trace’ or to put in in more familiar terms, ‘take only photographs, leave only footprints’.

The Gloucester and Sharpness Canal is steeped in history, completed in 1827 after 34 years in the making, it runs for 16 miles from the River Severn at Sharpness into Gloucester Docks, the most inland port in the UK.  For more than a century the canal provided the main means of transporting goods from Europe up to Gloucester and on to the industrial Midlands. These days there is little commercial traffic on the canal and it is mainly used for leisure activities. 

Whilst this is without doubt beautiful countryside, I needed to find an alternative to the scenic landscape photographs, of which there are already too many. Early on in my walk I became aware of numbers, initially milestones indicating the distances still to travel and then other numbers; mooring berths, weight and height restrictions on bridges, registration numbers of the narrow boats and other seemingly random numbers along the way. A numerical journey along the towpath, the perfect focus for my project.  

The images:

It is currently my intention to present this work in  two ways. Firstly in  grid  form as a poster and secondly as a hand made Japanese Stab Bound book.

The book will be introduced by the following text:

Self Evaluation

Demonstration of technical and visual skills

I believe I have achieved this element of the criteria particularly well for this assignment. Not really knowing what I was looking for to start with I photographed a range of possible topics but quickly noticed that the numbers along the route offered something quite different. I believe my technical and compositional skills are well developed and that my photographs  are technically very good.  Having walked the route in 4 stages I found the different light on one leg in particular quite challenging, that said, I have been able to modify the tones and brightness to some extent in Lightroom and the tones and colours will be taken into consideration with the final sequencing of the work.

Quality of outcome

This is another area that I feel has been particularly successful and the biggest challenge so far has been in the shortlisting process. It has been my intention from the start to present this work as a hand made Japanese Stab Bound book and following feedback from peers will now add a large poster and I am aware that the two methods of presentation will likely demand different permutations of photographs. Having made a handmade book which received positive comments for Documentary assessment, I have booked onto a workshop at The Photo Parlour in Nottingham the end of November with photographer and book maker, John Blakemore to further develop my skills. I know that one of the things John focuses on is sequencing of images which is important in achieving a professional outcome.  Having tested several double sided papers with my photographs, my decision is use Fotospeed Matt Duo which provides slightly warmer results than some of the others I have tried.  Fotospeed have provides custom profiles for my printer to ensure that colours are as accurately represented.  I am yet to decide on the material for the cover of the book but have had several options suggested by visual artist and book maker, Shona Grant, with whom I have been in contact. I am also aware of the importance of using an appropriate font for any text. This is something I have been researching and will choose quite carefully.

Demonstration of creativity

I feel that my own interests and passions are emerging through this work more than previously and I have taken risks with something  I was not initially confident would work.  I walked the towpath with purpose looking for something different and believe I found it in seemingly random numbers, which also ties in with some of Hamish Fulton’s work.  The more I have worked with the numbers and sought the opinion of peers the more ideas have been generated, particularly regarding how the work could be presented. I am currently experimenting with grids with a view to producing at least one large poster and have been in contact with the local branch of the Canal and River Trust with a view to them using this for marketing purposes.   During my walks I recorded the sounds of the canal and the towpath and although I have not yet found a way of using these recordings I will keep them for future use.

Development of a personal voice has been a long slow process for me but I believe has been helped immensely by my choice of topic at Assignment 4 when I researched artists using text as their art.  What this taught me is that what may seem crazy initially can result in very successful work and as a direct result I have developed a text piece in a similar vein to some of those produced by Fulton, which I believe works well both in explaining something of the history of the canal but also my own unique angle.

Context

This work was initially inspired by Yan Wang Preston’s ‘Mother River’ project and Polly Braden and David Campany’s ‘Lea Valley Adventures’ and I did consider walking the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal towpath for Assignment 2, which required me to photograph a journey.  It was the right decision to leave my walk until Assignment 5 however because not only have I had more time to do the project justice but it has also benefited from the further development of my own skills, in terms of trying different things.  I have been able to draw on and further develop research started in Assignment 4, particularly in relation to land and walking artist such as Hamish Fulton and Richard Long and Fulton in particular had been quite influential.

Rebecca Solnit’s Wanderlust has been a constant companion throughout this project and some of the factual information provided has helped me think about the purpose of my walk; to slow down, clear my mind, absorb the landscape, and to use Solnit’s quote from Jane Austin’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ that the heroin, Elizabeth, ‘wandered…until she was beyond her own knowledge and into new possibilities’ (Austin quoted in Solnit, 2002:101). I have tried to work beyond my existing knowledge, or comfort zone with this project and have discovered that those ‘new possibilities’ are quite exciting.

I have researched the history of the canal quite extensively, both through the Canal and River Trust and a book and website developed by local historian, Hugh Conway Jones. It is this initial factual research that inspired me most to develop the work further.  Much of the research undertaken has not been used in the final project, for example, having decided to include text, I discovered that there is a ‘Canal Laureate called Nancy Campbell who has written poems specifically for the Canal and River Trust.  Nothing quite worked though so I chose to write my own which I think was the right decision.

Sources:

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