A DISCUSSION OF THE STILL LIFE IN THE MAKING
Instruct. Construct. Again.
The project exists as an analysis of the physicality involved with the still life; dealing with the processes and acts that are carried out upon things. Typically a staged event, the intention is to acknowledge the hand at work in the production of the still life and to position the construction of a scene as being performative. In turn, the subjects/ objects become components vernacular of ‘construction’ to in this act of construction. (quite literally) inform site and to aid in the decision making INSTRUCT, CONSTRUCT, AGAIN around collection. The curated borrows a methodology of search for objects extends from ‘objecthood’ from minimalist – or the personal, domestic ‘tool shed’ ‘literalist’ (Fried, 1967) – sculpture to construction sites and supply artists as a way of drawing from stores. With a heavy focus on the existing denotations inherent the material and component-like in ‘construction components’. The nature of the act of building, project is also concerned with the it is hoped that connotations way context may dictate how a around the physical process subject is received by a spectator. of construction will be carried from object to image – and in “…the experience of literalist art turn, object/image to event. is of an object in a situation…” Observations of sites within Michael Fried, Art and Objecthood (1967), 3. Melbourne and surrounding suburbs has allowed for an The intention of the project is to insight into development and curate for/ facilitate an event that construction in general. As is indicative of the processes situations of flux (in that significant of the still life; relying on the changes are always occurring),
INSTRUCT, CONSTRUCT, AGAIN adopts this quality as one that is representative of construction as an encounter. The project proposes a unification of the language of the still life with that of construction in order to facilitate for this discussion. Aside from the collection of ‘construction’ objects, the motif of hi-vis gear and signage are intended to translate to still life apparatus by being integrated into the photography set. In this way, the connotations around a building site in flux carried by the hi-vis gear may begin to speak of the process of the still life being an event; something that is also in flux. As such, ‘construction’ exists
(1)
COLLECT ‘COMPONENTS’ FOR CONSTRUCTION.
(2)
COMPOSE CUES OR INSTRUCTIONS FROM WHICH TO ARRANGE.
(3)
EMPLOYING THE STILL LIFE PHOTOGRAPHY ‘SET-UP’ AS A FRAME; PERFORM THE TASK AS OUTLINED.
(4)
DOCUMENT THE ASSEMBLY.
as site, object and apparatus; in isolation and all at once. The preceding collection of still life images exist as a result of prescribed written or visual instruction; in reference to the way construction is always carried out with purpose, intention and planning. In this case, the relationship between instruction and image posits the work as a construct from a cue, asking you – the reader – to consider the steps from acknowledgement of instruction to response. The images are intended to be viewed as a moment of flux in contrast to something in a fixed state. A relationship of production rather than observation. The ‘set-up’ of the image remains in
sight, positioning the images as a snapshot of a scene/ event/ happening above all else. “…for something to be perceived at all is for it to be perceived as part of that situation.” Michael Fried, Art and Objecthood (1967), 4.
All arrangements are temporary, and some subjects appear again and again through the photoset; an indicator of the changing state of things. A human presence is not explicit but is implied through the change in arrangement and the motif of the hi-vis as a framing device.
Alana Fahey 08/09/2014