Installing Exhibition: Dimensions of Space

The day had arrived.  The sun rose, just like any other day, but on this day I loaded up the car and hi-tailed it to the gallery to start installing my exhibition. What’s more daunting than a blank white canvas?  A white empty room when you have people coming in 36 hours expecting art and refreshments. 

I remembered the overwhelming feeling of white from last time and knew not to be too put off by it.  The secret seems to be, just put all your stuff in the centre of the room and get cracking.  It was much more exciting than last time actually.  I feel much further along than I was back then, and more confident in the work I’m making now.  Yet, I digress…

Here are a few pictures of the work ‘in pieces’.

I planned this work to cover a certain amount of the wall.  But during the process, I realised I needed to go further around the corner.  Thus omitting work I had planned to do.  Oh well, that happens.  In doing so, I didn’t anticipate how much longer it would take me to work on something double the size.  It took me pretty much the full two days to complete the work.  Including looking time.

I worked alone, although by halfway through I wished I had someone to help me.  They would have needed to be able to read my mind, and I didn’t think that would be a possible achievement in the space of two days. 

The length of time it took to install the work enabled me to ponder the various elements and because of this, I added another shade of grey and some other shapes, which I think just finish it off nicely.

Pics of the finished product to come…

Exhibition Prep: Bits and Pieces

Squee!  I am super excited about my exhibition, Dimensions of Space, and it opens in just 3 days!  Not nervous.  Just a touch of the ol’ racing-mind, trying to get all the ducks in a row in my head.  And lists!  Oh, the lists I have.

Look!  It’s my postcards.

Have been passing these around, shamelessly self promoting myself.  I’m sure I’d have given you one, if I’d seen you.  But do make sure you come along.

I’m also listed in the latest national Art Almanac.  (As ‘Noami’, but I’m sure I’ll get over it) 

I have been looking at my lists and checking them twice (groan), and I think I’m practically ready.  Just a few bits and pieces to pick up, a tin of paint here and a roll of tape there, and I’ll be ready to start installing.  I anticipate it will be a pretty labour intensive couple of days.  Of the four artworks in the show, three don’t yet exist – I’ll be installing them Monday/Tuesday.

And in breaking news – I have decided to scratch one work, in favour of another.  Was reviewing photos of a corner of the gallery that has been causing me concern.  I just don’t think what I planned is going to work in that space.  So, I have decided to make an all new work, that’s never seen the light of day before.  Site specific, with colours I have been working on.

It appears I’m a bit of a colourist.  I play with colour in my journal, check site and go back to my journal, long before putting paint to wall.  But I also work intuitively, decide what should be added as I go – I don’t plan it all out ahead of time.

Detail is minimal in the picture, but that’s a flat aqua house paint, watercolour and wood-grain-look vinyl.

So now you’ve had a sneak peak.  Come along and see what it morphs into in the ‘flesh’.

Blue & Yellow Interior

 
(c) 2012 Naomi Nicholls, Blue & Yellow Interior (Installation view)
Acrylic paint, vinyl.
(c) 2012 Naomi Nicholls, Blue & Yellow Interior (Installation view)
Acrylic paint, vinyl.
(c) 2012 Naomi Nicholls, Blue & Yellow Interior (Installation view)
Acrylic paint, vinyl.
(c) 2012 Naomi Nicholls, Blue & Yellow Interior (Installation view)
Acrylic paint, vinyl.
I started this work last week.  I believe it is now complete.  
I added some narrow lengths of wood.  One I painted the same grey as the lines and it starts to bring the shapes out into three dimensional space, instead of illusionary 3D space created by the painted wall.  There is plenty more to be done in three dimensional space.  Now my challenge is to incorporate this into my work again.  More wood, foam core, paper, cardboard, fabric, plastic – all out and off the wall.
I love documenting my work.  There’s always something else to notice through the distance a camera gives.  I love the angles and smalls works that exist in the larger work, just by using cropping.
What’s next
I want to make some works in places where I can respond to the site.  However, since I don’t even know how to begin to think in that way, I am absorbing as many artists that work site specifically as I can.  I have lots of questions and lots of time to get answers and figure it out for myself.  The likelihood is I’ll just have a crack at it and see what happens.  But I’d love to hear some differing approaches to site.  

Wall Installation, Blue & Yellow – Work in progess

(c) 2012 Naomi Nicholls, Installation view, work in progress
Acrylic paint, vinyl.

Back in the studio (Yay! Walls!) and I am working on an installation.  A little paint here, a little vinyl there.  I am trying to go bigger than I have before, with some success.  This work is probably approx 2.5m x 3m x 2m (l x W x H).  However, I have been limited by the size of the vinyl I’ve been able to source so far.  I have hopefully found a place where I can get some larger widths, which will enable me to be a bit more daring with size.  I would just paint, but I like using both paint and vinyl together.  I think they have good conversations with each other. 

(c) 2012 Naomi Nicholls, Installation view, work in progress
Acrylic paint, vinyl.

One of the vinyls I’m using is shimmery-reflective gold.  Not normally the sort of thing I’d go for, but I was feeling adventuress.  It paid off: one, I think it’s a really good colour to work with, and two – by using it in the corner, it has reflected itself and created a new form that isn’t actually in the work.  You can see the dark area in the middle-right of the picture.  That’s actually all gold vinyl and just a reflection of itself.  I did use reflective items last year, but I think it’s something I need to explore again.

(c) 2012 Naomi Nicholls, Installation view, work in progress
Acrylic paint, vinyl, mess.

Above, another angle of the work, and a peek at the mess I make while working.

Still To Do
This work is only really half done. Tomorrow I’ll work on adding lines/detail up to the right of the work.  I may also incorporate some more reflective elements, and I want to add some parts that jut out from the work.  I have often used wool in the past to add a tactility and to bring the work out of the corner and into the room’s space.  This time I want to see how using wood instead might change the work.


Above: I have grown a bit of a fascination with the lines I see everywhere.  I think I have mentioned before my delight in the cable channels cut into the road.  Here’s some good ones I snapped on the way home tonight, also starring my feet.  Great fodder for my paintings (the lines, not my feet!).

Undulating Orange and Grey

(c) 2012 Naomi Nicholls, (installation view)
Foam core, enamel paint, muslin

Trailing back through the past week, I have been working on this work whenever I get a chance.  Today I was able to finish it!  And went for a drive to find a good spot for a mini photo shoot.

I’ve tried some new materials, contemplating what the spacing between the shapes needs to be, etc.  This is foam core, muslin and enamel paint, so a fairly lightweight object.  When I make another, I would like to try still other materials.  Perhaps some Masonite or some kind of wood/wood product which would offer more weight and therefore different properties.  Also, I need to consider another fabric other than muslin to work as backing, as muslin is a very coarsely woven fabric which warps and stretches on the diagonal and this, I have learned, is not ideal for this work.

I am so pleased with how the paint takes to the foam core.  It has a beautiful gloss to it and reminds me of a new car.  The addition of the grey adds another element of depth to the space it occupies.  It’s also another link to the Nebulous paintings the work is based on.

Now it just needs a name…

(c) 2012 Naomi Nicholls, (installation view)
Foam core, enamel paint, muslin
(c) 2012 Naomi Nicholls, (installation view)
Foam core, enamel paint, muslin
(c) 2012 Naomi Nicholls, (installation view)
Foam core, enamel paint, muslin
(c) 2012 Naomi Nicholls, (installation view)
Foam core, enamel paint, muslin
(c) 2012 Naomi Nicholls, (installation view)
Foam core, enamel paint, muslin

‘What Type of Art Do You Make?’ and Other Deceptively Challenging Questions

 

When a new friend discovers that I’m an artist, the question that follows is usually, ‘what type of art do you make?’  A daunting question, to be sure.  How can I sum my art practice (years of thinking, painting, making, trial and error and creative block) in just one teeny-tiny sentence?  The best idea is to have an answer prepared ahead of time, knowing that I will be asked.  But even that is overwhelming.  And how to do it without descending into art jargon my new friend may be ignorant of?

Here’s how it usually goes…
“well – ah… I’m a painter?… and I make abstract work about shapes and space and ah… but I don’t just paint pictures on canvas.  I’m interested in installation and stuff as well….?”  *hopeful grin* 
Ah, that went well…

To be succinct, but jargony:
Geometric abstraction
+

 

Painting, installation, drawing
+
Expressions of undulating/unimportant/surrounding space
=
My art practice.

Isn’t ‘undulating’ a fabulous word! Unduuulatiiing.

When initially making artwork I began, as I suppose most do, by making representational (IE: work that is a representation of something that exists) paintings/drawings.  I often found myself wanting to simplify and stylize my subject. Organic details and lines would become blocky.  Art school gave me the freedom to take this to the nth degree.  I rocketed towards geometric abstraction (IE: abstract artwork which is based on the use of geometric forms).

While the art I consume contains representational and non-representational work, in my own art practice I found myself less interested in making representational art.  I wasn’t interested in trying to reproduce something that already existed and furthermore, something that had perhaps been photographed as a reference to paint from, I would be thus reproducing the reproduction.  Having said that, I hold no illusions that my work is 100% original, I don’t live in a vacuum so I will always be influenced by other artists and creative practice and so much the better. But I am content to experiment with my own visual language and see where it takes me.

I have been ponderously-pondering these things as I prepare for my upcoming exhibition and the prospect of showing my work.  When I’ve shown work before, I had been overly self-conscious.  But now I am more at ease with my processes and reasoning.  Still, it is challenging to bring artwork into the light of day and to the eyes of those who have never seen my work before.  But bring it!

*Hehe, note: ‘What type of art do you make?’ was actually the only deceptively challenging question contained within.

Undulating Space, now in super-exciting object form

I have returned.  Why hello there!

I had a peculiar thought this morning.  What happens when I get sick of geometric shapes and bright colours? It puzzled me for a moment.  Then I went into my studio and got right stuck in.  I don’t think getting sick of geometric shapes and colours will happen any time soon.

So permit me, if you will, to share a work in progress. 

Since I began painting shapes butted up against each other on canvas, depicting the presence of undulating space, I have day dreamed about making those shapes into an object.  But for many months, I haven’t quite known how.  Perhaps it wasn’t so very hard, I just had to try it out.  ‘Learn by doing’. 

 (c) 2012 Naomi Nicholls, documentation of work in progress
Cardboard, enamel paint, muslin

The beautiful thing about working with this object is its kinetic properties.  Once made, it lays flat.  But pull at any shape in the object and it forms an almost mountainous contour, with each facet aligning to support the higher peaks.  Quite fascinating to play with.

Here I have worked with pretty lowly materials: cardboard, spray paint and muslin.  But it’s a wonderful starting point.  Now my next task is to investigate other materials.  I love the gloss of the enamel paint though.   My plan is to take it out into the street and photograph it in some secret spots.  But the weather has not recently been cooperative.  Soon.

Will also look into some other colour possibilities.  This one I’ve made in this beautiful orange, but as with the Nebulous paintings on canvas, maybe two or three colours would be good.  I’d also love to scale up.  Busy busy.

2011 – Here’s what you missed…

This year has been another filled with new challenges and wonderful studio time.

Here’s what you missed…

I started the year interested in folding paper.  Not yet sure what I wanted to do with the ‘folding thing’, I just kept making work.  In 2010, I had spent a lot of time folding clothes, which culminated in my exhibition I am woman, hear me… do housework, which was held in April of 2011.

(c) 2011 Naomi Nicholls, The Folded Laundry, (installation view)
Clothing, wall pins

This, my first solo exhibition, was a great experience.  I learned a lot about getting comfortable with the work I was making, and also seeing the work in a gallery space really enabled me to extend my ideas and gave me lots of new directions to try.

The element that was most valuable from that body of work, turned out to be the action of folding and the shapes it created.  So I went on a folding spree, leaving laundry behind me: folding paper, folding collage, folding paintings, painting the shapes the folding produced.

(C) 2011 Naomi Nicholls
cardboard, acrylic paint, fishing line

 

(c) 2011 Naomi Nicholls, Untitled
Colour cardboard, fishing line

Folding, itself, involves your physical movement, and I wanted it to become more bodily.  So I began experimenting with creating an environment which the body could play a part in.  In these environments above, the viewer walks around and peers into it to fully take in the work, which is that bodily element I was wanting.

(c) 2011 Naomi Nicholls,
Digital photograph

Parallel to this, I wanted to explore this idea of depth in two dimensional paintings and also began working on photographic works.  Once I had created works in this way, I started using its shapes to go back and forth between works.  For instance, I used the lines and shapes from the above to create line drawings.

From here I investigated creating entire environments where I could extend the spatial properties of the geometric shapes, use of string and colour etc.  I also continued to work in two dimensions and produced a series of oil paintings here and here.

In addition to I am woman, hear me… do housework, I also showed work at the QENOS Art Show and the Undergraduate at the Toyota Community Spirit gallery in Port Melbourne where I was a finalist for the award.

(c) 2011 Naomi Nicholls, Line Drawing (installation side view)
Acrylic, wool, vinyl on wall

 

(c) 2011 Naomi Nicholls, Angle of Plan (Installation view)
Acrylic paint, vinyl, wool on wall

Now, here we are two days from the end of the year!  Next year, I have an exhibition in March (two weeks before Easter), I’m also currently working on proposals for a couple more exhibitions. And through the lovely time off from my job during the Christmas and New Year period, there’s lots of art making to be done.  So stay tuned for updates of my work in progress!  I feel some oil painting coming on.

 
Thank you for your support during the year, it is most appreciated.
Happy New Year everyone!  And a wonderful and arty 2012 to you all.

Transparent and Opaque: spatial paintings/drawings

(c) 2011 Naomi Nicholls, 2 sheets of 56 x 38 cm
Watercolour, gesso and graphite on paper.

 

 (c) 2011 Naomi Nicholls, 2 sheets of 56 x 38 cm
Watercolour, gesso and graphite on paper.

 

I’m interested in visual means of expressing three dimensional space.  What on earth do I mean by that?  Well, I think it’s really interesting how when we’re looking at something, we look directly at it, we might walk around it to get a different vantage point, we look at the foreground, the middle-ground and the background.  So I’m taking that idea of space folding out and folding in and make work about those spaces.
At the moment I have been working on some watercolour works, because I’ve been constrained by having no studio at present, so I can’t make really big works.
The works above include shapes of transparent watercolour, but I also really like playing opaque colours off the transparent.  It gives a bit of a shift in the space.  The transparent being something you can, in theory, see through, the opaque something to can’t see through.
Although I think this is a work in itself, it also feels a bit like a planning drawing for a large scale installation.  I don’t know how I’d actually make such a work, but I definitely have some ideas to try out.
Summer holidays are going to allow me more time to work on my art, so I will keep going with these drawings/paintings.  And some of them might make it into my exhibition in March.  Woo.