Evaluation of Place and Placelessness

I found this module difficult, I didn’t do nearly as much as I could’ve. I think as I was struggling to do any work at the start of the term. After our trip to Venice I had more of an understanding to where I wanted to take this module but again wasn’t producing as much work as I could’ve been. I really enjoyed the chance to experiment more in the module and I think ceremics is something I want to continue on next term. I’m disappointed that I didn’t do more work for this module but am happy with the work I did produce.

Clay

During our trip to Venice I had seen a huge sculpture by artist Yee Sookyung, she had taken household ceramic items such as teapots, vases and pots and created an entirely new sculpture out of those pieces. I liked the idea of taking natural material out of its place, creating something out of that material which would in turn also have its own place, to then sculpt it into something completely different that could also have its own place.

I have always enjoyed pottery and have wanted to use it more in my practice and this module gave me the opportunity too. I wanted to create really organic pots and tea light holders. I wanted to use that organic form I had ben seeing cropping up throughout this module. I created the small pots in porcelain which I found easier to work with than clay it was a lot softer and could get a lot thinner which made it easier for what I was trying to achieve. I’m not finished with these just yet, I still need to glaze them, I’m planning on just adding glaze to the rim of the pots then firing them a little higher so the porcelain will glaze itself. Then possibly creating a sculpture out of these pots.

Photo Montages

I wanted to use the photos I had taken of the landscapes so I started playing around with a few of them. I montaged two different places together creating a different view altogether. I liked that it was combining places and creating a place that didn’t exist parts of the montages almost look as though they could be a place.

I also tried sellotape transferring images. Placing one place on top of another. I’ve always like abstract photography so these experiments I really liked the effect of. I did feel like when creating these experiments it was merging the sense of place and placelessness and became a little lost in this module.

Yes Sookyung and Pat Short

Yeesookyung (b. 1963) is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Seoul, Korea. She received both her undergraduate degree and MFA in painting from the National University in Seoul. She has completed notable residency programs at Villa Arson, Apex Art, and the Bronx Museum. Internationally known for her acclaimed Translated Vase series, Yee combines histories: art historical, spiritual, and cultural into unique objects, imagery, and performances that reflect both her personal heritage and a global borderless moment. Many of her works mix distinct historical references, for example: combining the meditative process-based Tibetan Buddhist silk scroll painting (thangka) with the flat graphic style of Goguryeo Dynasty era cave paintings. Yet the voluptuous forms of Yee’s signature ceramic sculptures filled with gold in their cracks and the iconography within her paintings and drawings produce a uniquely contemporary experience with her work.

Yee’s work has been shown internationally at the 57th Venice Biennale (2017), the 6th Gwanju Biennale (2006), ARCO (2007), the 5th Liverpool Biennial (2008) the Vancouver Biennale (2009), the Buson Biennale (2010), and the 18th Biennale of Sydney (2012). She has been included in notable recent exhibitions including Women In-Between: Asian Women Artists 1984–2012 at the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, the 2012 Korea Art Prize exhibition at the National Museumof Contemporary Art in Seoul, Korean Eye 2012 at Saatchi Gallery in London, The Collectors Show: Weight of History at the Singapore Art Museum in 2012, and K.P.O.P.: Korean Contemporary Art at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei.

Currently, a major 10-year survey solo exhibition of recent works is traveling from the Daegu Art Museum in Korea to the Museum of Contemporary art in Taipei, Taiwan. Yee’s works can be found in the permanent collections of the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Korea, the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Philadelphia Museum of Art, IFEMA ARCO Collection in Madrid, Echigo-Tsumari City Collection Japan, Saatchi Collection in London, and the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas, among others. Yeesookyung will participate in Viva Arte Viva, the main exhibition of the 57th Venice Biennale, curated by Christine Marcel.

From a little girl, I have been fascinated by crashing waves, autumn leaves and stormy skies. I loved to press flowers, collect shells and take bark rubbings.

Many years later I discovered clay and the sheer joy of working with this soft, sensual, responsive material. It was a true revelation that I could reproduce the wonderful shapes, colours and textures of the natural world and the beauty of forests, streams and oceans, but with an abstract, highly stylised, twist.

Over the last two years I have established a studio in my garden and have an electric kiln in an outbuilding. My commute to work is just twelve steps and it is a sheer joy to work hearing birds singing and teh tall trees rustling in the wind.
Since I started working in my garden I have developed a passion for gardening. A fabulous hobby and at times a delightful distraction.

Aberystwyth

Venice

Realisation

After I had settled into Swansea a little better I started to realise that it wasn’t so much of where as I was that was affecting my work but more of what the places looked like. By this I mean I work better on dense areas, heavily forested areas or rocky areas more so than open scenery. I was paying more attention to details within the place rather than the actual scenery.

Artist Research

Hi Brendan, there have been some issues trying to upload my research so I have emailed you the document along with my presentation.

Place and Placelessness

For this module my initial idea was to look at my home, Blaenavon and Swansea. During our first session we were asked to free wrote for 10 minutes and I wrote about how out of place I felt being in Swansea. I was feeling pretty homesick at the time and was finding it really difficult to produce work I’m Swansea, so I started pushing myself to go onsite and draw and gather bits that would help me to work. I did this both at home and in Swansea. As the months went on I started drawing and gathering from all the place I went, Venice, Aberystwyth and place near my home.