Meeting with Tara 4/9/2017

We have all our research stuff in the exhibition space with us
Print off all the readings I’ve done and annotate - show you have read them (highlight) or add in info. Make lots of notes to show that you have read them
Can hand in online blog - make sure it is all clear and organised
Don’t think I can’t use beads I just can’t use them in the way I have - starting to reference a cultural understanding of a material that isn’t mine - too close to cultural pattern
Can use beads but has to be used in a different way
Piles of beads/material
Count them out and make reference to some historical event
Felix gonzalez turose (?) uses beads (bead curtains), find the work he did with lollies - amount in weight was the weight his partner was when he died from aids so when the viewers take away the lollies they take away the weight. Gets refreshed every night.
IDEA: of piles of beads - how many? What does the amount represent? Reference facts
IDEA: beads hanging from ceiling
Simple but poetic and effective
Look into the meaning of the bead curtains - rows of beads - not trying to do anything with them that is too close to their cultural meaning. Don’t reference anything culturally specific
Use the materials more conceptually to say something - subtle references
My work is too close to the cultural use of the material - use them in a more neutral wa, the way I am using them is too loaded.
Liza Lou - rope out of beads that is meters and meters long (white beads) and she curls it up. Just an object in a world: rope. Neutral use - no particular reference, won’t offend anyone
IDEA: make a rope and spell words in it like Pakeha?
Can use materials in neutral ways just by thinking about how you are using them
The idea I sent in the email was too literal - too obvious - too big to make it now if it doesn’t work
IDEA: Pakepakeha, the fairy folk of Maori legend - where the term Pakeha comes from. It references (language, colonialism, culture, histories, white skin) the things I’m talking about but not strong enough just because I like it. Is interesting but doesn’t sum it up. What is the critical moment for using those words and ideas?
Documentary on it?
IDEA: draw them out and print them on material
IDEA: make them out of wire and material
In New Zealand I am Pakeha - I have to conform to the place I am in
Have to have the criticality of why I am making these things, need to be in a place which shows I am sure of what I am trying to say about it.
PROCESS: Make a list of the possible materials I could use, maybe don’t go with the obvious wire and material, think carefully about the choice of materials: is it a good choice, a million ways to make the object. Don’t have to make with the same materials just because that was what I have been using. Surprising material? What's the best, most suited, what will up the interest?
IDEA: make it out of white clay? And make the jackets and sails out of the material
IDEA: cement?
The way I have been thinking is what is getting me into trouble; I just make without really thinking it through.
Research the idea inside and out
List materials
List ways of making it
Really should be using materials and media I know I am good with, go back to a materiality I know I am good with because we are so short on time
Need a good quality in the work to reach honors
Try and make printmaking work
Library foyer is a space of movement which is why I went with it - movement is the cause of my disruption so that's why I needed a place with movement
Make something you are confident in so it is good quality
Don’t think wire and beads is a good artistic medium for Elam
Think about scale
Think more conceptually about the materiality
IDEA: experiment with ideas in a workbook so you end up with lots of ideas that can be evaluated and thought through - don’t waste time just making
Figure out content
Figure out process and materiality: that is the first thing
Second thing is thinking conceptually about work rather than diving into materials
IDEAS: Sort through all ideas: do some simple ideas, quick sketches and ideas of simple things, then go through and choose best options
The wire and material is too difficult and don’t have enough experience with it
Make sure I have artist models I can reference (same materials or ideas) if it is ok for me to do
Develop ideas on paper first! Then mock up some models (can do on computer) skech-up
Make a list of top 10 artists and say why you like the ideas and how I can feed off it (within my league)
Have a set of discussions/reasons to use what I use
Printmaking: last year's work would have been interesting because of its big size and the text handwritten would've been interesting. Also the stretched material is not a normal way to see material so it would draw attention.
IDEA: could write story and print it out on the material and stretch that out on the wall. Fictional story having reference to my experiences
The things I have been making have been too complicated, too many things going on - strip it back, make it similar
Issue is translating context into material - trying to do too much
RESPOND TO OWN EXPERIENCES!! Its what you own
IDEA: Talk about the times I have spoken to other South Africans here in NZ
Got to be careful if I use the Pakeha reference because even though that is what I am called it is someone else’s idea, will need more info especially if using the Pakepakeha reference/mythology
Problematic because I keep trying to reference my experiences through cultural starts
I said not comfortable using my own memoirs words
IDEA: amount of beads representing years eg:1995 for the year I was born and count the years of all important moments (in my move and/or colonisation)
Can say how I feel within a set of circumstances I find myself in
What is the one thing I want to say? Can I say it in a word, an image or a material?
Look at other artists (postcolonial artists)
Use subtle references
Look at michael Parekowhai for subtle references