Creating my installation has challenged myself personally as an artist as it has required making something to intentionally disturpt and on some level, disgust the viewer. It is intentionally odd and confrontational, the sculptures themselves are designed purposely to have a aesthic which appears badly made and obviously man made. This therefore makes it a daunting risk to present to viewers and expose my ideas to a large audience. Recognising this I had developed my statement and title of the work to give as much of a tool to help viewers understand the complex ideas and issues that surround my work as possible.
From the first sculpture I made at the start of this year I have developed the method of making and worked on the shape of the forms. For the installation pieces I wanted to create monolithic forms that would stand-alone. Though it had been suggested that I could work into the surface textures of the sculptures more so by sanding, manipulating and embellishing the sculptures I decided not to as I felt this would detract from the intended aesthetic and would make them more like sculpted art objects which was not the desired affect and would have therefore adjusted the meanings of the work. I therefore decided to invest in developing the composition and environmental aspects for the installation as I felt this would be more impactful.
The name ‘The subjugation of the landscape’ came as I wanted to find a word that would reflect my idea of the landscape becoming submissive to human life in a commercial and regulated sense as it is owned and blocked off by humans. The proposed epoch of the Antropocene also states that humans are becoming a geological force as human activity becomes significant enough to alter the earth’s ecosystem. Therefore I wanted to reflect this in the title of my work. Having decided on subjugation I researched titles of romanticism landscape paintings finding most to be titled with a sentence in the format of ‘The…. Of …..’. I therefore decided to adopt this format as to lead on from the legacy of art about the landscape to my own contemporary interpretation.
Creating my statement I summarized the key aspects to be understood by the viewer for them to interpret my work. The main concern with this was to describe the materials used and intentionality of the appearance and the place of them as disruptive objects.
(Statement)
SUBJUGATE verb
1. Bring under domination or control, especially by conquest.
2. Make someone or something subordinate to.
The subjugation of the landscape features a collection of sculptures manufactured to be overtly man-made and artificial. Each sculpture is constructed around a hidden natural rock form using mundane and unwieldy materials of chicken wire, kitchen roll, plastic and acrylic paint. The process of constructing with these materials results in forms that are monolithic, alluding to the natural whilst remaining hollow and fabricated. They are intentionally disruptive and abrasive, confronting the viewer’s interpretations of beauty in the natural world. This is taken further as colour is utilised as a signifier. The dark metallic forms are disrupted and confronted by bold hues of pink and yellow which act as signifiers of the commodified landscape as the dark forms become submissive to them.
The installation combines these monolithic objects with traditionally superstitious and ancient ritual in order to question contemporary relationships and understanding of the rural landscape. Questioning human ownership and regulation of the landscape and commodification of sights of natural beauty, leading to a dilution of the ‘sublime’ experience.
The audience is invited to explore these pieces as they move around the installation and examine the surface textures and revealed areas of the pieces as they reflect on their own experiences of landscape, noticing the human impact to subjugate the landscape.
Through this term I had trialed and tested various aspects for the installation and feel one of the main successful developments has been the introduction of the yellow floor. The colour yellow was chosen, as it is the colour in nature that has evolved to be an alterative and warning colour seen in pollen and as a sign of venom. It human history is has also reoccurred as a warning colour for example by use of the Nazi’s of yellow sections of material to mark ‘outsiders’. It therefore has established unconscious associations to danger and warning and therefore is a useful tool to further the disruptive nature of my work. I feel it also helps to emphases the darkness of the forms and the glossy plastic finish creates reflections of the forms, almost shadow like, which increases their presence.
As the ‘Unearthed’ degree show marks the end of three years of progression studying fine art at Lancaster University. In reflection of my artistic development I am pleased to be taking a risk with my final work. I have developed from being a painter and drawer to a sculptor. I have also found that my ideas have become more resolved in the past weeks as my work has become finalized. Reflecting on a conversation I had with Ilana Halperin about the fine line between when works about the natural world stop becoming reproductions and re-represenations and become an artwork I feel I have now been able to situate my work away from being a copy done out of appreciation for the landscape to work that is critical of the contemporary relationships with the landscape. I feel this makes it more important to as it questions and challenges viewers. This has come with my own realization that my work could never be more than a fabrication that I have not attempted to contend with the ‘beauty’ of nature. As a recent quote I came across about land artists who attempt to work with and represent the beauty of nature is that “The irony is that as the land artists…enforced their grand creations upon the environment with such bravado that the natural beauty of their surroundings was often destroyed in favour of the artist’s need to make a statement.”