Blog
In the Laboratory
01/06/2013
My workplace for the past fortnight has been a massive oak refectory table among the virines in the subterranean lab at MHS. Using any optical matter from around the museum that caught my eye - microscopes, mostly, astralabes which aren't really to the point but are loveley to look at, telescopes, cameras - daily I'd set up a micro studio of scalpel, sheaves of black card, mirror vinyl and sculptual oddments and see what I could come up with. Every so often a visitor would drift past and linger by my table.
Making things - I usually let my hands lead my brain, fiddling about with tools/materials till something dawned on me, and relying on the undertow of interest and observation in my subconscious to generate an object/way of working through my hands. I found I used old, old ideas of mine that had been roosting, waiting to become pertinent, and flashes that produced satisfyingly finishe pieces within minutes. Some days I got stuck, screwing up sheet after sheet.
Other times I could have gone on for hours, surprising myself with what I could put on my plnth at the end of the table at closing time.
Making things - I usually let my hands lead my brain, fiddling about with tools/materials till something dawned on me, and relying on the undertow of interest and observation in my subconscious to generate an object/way of working through my hands. I found I used old, old ideas of mine that had been roosting, waiting to become pertinent, and flashes that produced satisfyingly finishe pieces within minutes. Some days I got stuck, screwing up sheet after sheet.
Other times I could have gone on for hours, surprising myself with what I could put on my plnth at the end of the table at closing time.
