About the work
I like the idea of landscape. Some of my work is simple to the point of minimalism and some is very complicated using lots of different bits of stuff. The two opposites work because the simple stuff comes out of the complicated stuff and sometimes the complicated stuff turns into 2 or 3 simple works. As I make things instinctively, they change and this gives them their own history, which makes them interesting. This is how they relate to landscape. Landscape, as opposed to nature, has been described as having a history.
When I make things, sometimes the materials say what to do and sometimes the idea drives the search for a material and sometimes the act of making changes what I am doing and how the work ends up. I don't know at the beginning how something will turn out or turn into. I don't even know when the beginning starts. When I make something with lots of stuff, then take it apart, the bits can turn into individual pieces, or get recycled into another work or keep on simplifying until I am left with off-cuts and bits of thread. Or the things I make to 'make' a work end up looking more interesting than the original intent. These truly have a history as they once had a purpose, now invisible. Somehow most of what I make relates back to the body, either full-size or hand-held. This also relates to landscape, as we measure things according to our body size.
I don't think about stories when I make something, but a story seems to happen along the way.
I like to make people stop using their eyes so much and pay more attention to the other senses like sound and touch. Touch is mostly noticeable as a sensation on your skin or your body when you are walking through a space, how you feel in a space. This is also the way you feel in a landscape. Sound can makes this more obvious. When you can't see well because of low light levels or when there is not much to look at, your peripheral vision takes over and you're more aware of where you are. It just happens.
For example, one of my works, 'The act of looking anti-clockwise', is something to do, makes a sound while you do it and teases you with what you think you can see, all the while hoping that you'll notice it's not what you are looking at but how you are looking.
When I make things, sometimes the materials say what to do and sometimes the idea drives the search for a material and sometimes the act of making changes what I am doing and how the work ends up. I don't know at the beginning how something will turn out or turn into. I don't even know when the beginning starts. When I make something with lots of stuff, then take it apart, the bits can turn into individual pieces, or get recycled into another work or keep on simplifying until I am left with off-cuts and bits of thread. Or the things I make to 'make' a work end up looking more interesting than the original intent. These truly have a history as they once had a purpose, now invisible. Somehow most of what I make relates back to the body, either full-size or hand-held. This also relates to landscape, as we measure things according to our body size.
I don't think about stories when I make something, but a story seems to happen along the way.
I like to make people stop using their eyes so much and pay more attention to the other senses like sound and touch. Touch is mostly noticeable as a sensation on your skin or your body when you are walking through a space, how you feel in a space. This is also the way you feel in a landscape. Sound can makes this more obvious. When you can't see well because of low light levels or when there is not much to look at, your peripheral vision takes over and you're more aware of where you are. It just happens.
For example, one of my works, 'The act of looking anti-clockwise', is something to do, makes a sound while you do it and teases you with what you think you can see, all the while hoping that you'll notice it's not what you are looking at but how you are looking.