Orange Bounce
A little catch up post of work from a couple of weeks ago.
This new hallway work (new work, new hallway) comprises of a large area of orange, it’s more British Paints Peachy Dream actually. The shape casts from the floor up onto the wall and across the open door, as if it were a projection of light. Incidentally, I should work with projection. There’s an idea! The shape sits on a background area of washy and painterly grey watercolour, which make the shape seem as if it’s floating. Further along the wall is a muted green, which floats a meter off floor level and also sits on a watercolour background. Painterly marks in watercolour and green appear on the opposing wall and also on the floor where the orange shape sits. Overlaid the large orange shape is part of a grid in vinyl and a set of three geometric shapes butted up against each other and stretching down onto the floor.
The work has a strong directional property, a hierarchy of where to look. The orange is obviously the starting point and your sight bounces from one point to the next. There is also a great effect on the opposite wall to the orange shape – an orange glow. My photographs don’t quite capture it, but it’s striking to walk through.
The experiential nature of my work needs some exploring. For me, they relate heavily to the body. Although you wouldn’t think so, to look at them. But when one walks through, ones body is directed by the work, as is one’s eyes and head. Where do I bounce from? Do I duck under anything? I also feel aware of my height and size in relation to the work. Sometimes the scale of my work in relation to the body prompts the viewer to step away to capture it all in one line of sight. This has been really interesting when making work in hallways. I also think the hallway aspect has really added to the content of the body in my work. For example Other Points of View was in a square room, and not a thoroughfare. It did have some good readings, and others did read a bodily interaction with the work. But nowhere near as much as it has ‘worked’ in hallways. And even in Line Drawing Extrusion from my Dimensions of Space exhibition, the room was long and narrow, and there was a reason for the viewer to walk the length of it. That wasn’t present in Other Points of View. So – certainly something to play with.
