The theme this month was chosen from an open call asking artists to suggest theme ideas, and Richard Kitchen’s idea was chosen. He has written this call out and will be our August featured artist. Thank you, Richard - the theme is …
Metamorphosis…
In nature, fossils become fuel; minerals become precious stones; insects grow to adulthood via a series of physical changes, casting off one shape or skin to reveal another. What kind of society are we evolving (or mutating) into? Will the planet need a profound transformation to survive? In the mythology of many cultures, people are transformed (by the gods?) into other, non-human, beings: Narcissus, Echo, Pygmalion’s statue are just a few examples. Sometimes the gods transform themselves to engage with the lives of humans and change them forever. Such tales have been celebrated and interpreted by Ovid, Kafka, Titian, Dali, Angela Carter, Paula Rego, and others through the ages.
In art, an idea or medium might merge with another to create a new manifestation. And let’s not forget our superheroes and monsters, of course! And what about us plain ordinary folk too, who might play a different role several times every day as we encounter different environments and situations
Richard Kitchen writes our first piece on this theme and his featured artist piece is here...
'Peregrine'
A note about 'Peregrine' which I'd be grateful if you could include in the issue:
'Peregrine' began life as a poem about a transformative walk across the Yorkshire Moors undertaken by a friend. After writing it I wanted to take the poem on its own journey into visual art: not as an illustration but abstractly, by basing patterns on word maps and reflecting the shapes of the text on the page, as well as tying the colour scheme to the elements of earth, air, fire and water which feature in the written imagery. It has given rise to further works since its making of it, so I can truly say it's undergone a metamorphosis or two.
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Resident Writer Michaela Hall talks about so really interesting artists in her piece …
Every day is a new day
Metamorphosis is defined as a great change in appearance or character, in other words, a transformation and growth to something new. This action itself of transformation almost acts as a rebirth, reminding us all those possibilities are endless and not everything is always as it seems. In a creative sense, this isn’t always an easy thing for an artist to depict – change. Artists often are well known for their signature styles or their way of working, so it’s those that focus on continuously reinventing themselves and their work that truly opens a conversation about Metamorphosis in art.
It’s important to note, that metamorphosis doesn’t have to mean one big change, it can be constant change and growth of one thing into another. In this sense, American artist Cindy Sherman personifies this journey. Sherman is most known for her photographic works that are self-portraits, and you may be thinking at this point, how can photographing yourself over and over again depict transformation, as it’s the same person? Well, think again – Sherman was the first to change how self-portraiture was defined. Sherman chooses to adopt a different identity and character for each shoot, she transforms into a different persona, narrative with a different appearance, quite dramatically for each photograph. In ‘Untitled #414’ (2003), Sherman is dressed as a rather vibrant and menacing clown glaring straight down the camera at the viewer with unrecognisable surroundings of pure colour. Alternatively, in ‘Untitled #533’ (2010), Sherman looks like a completely unrecognisable character from the previous image where she is dressed softly as the typical ‘girl next door’ softly looking towards the viewer. Sherman has previously said, “I wish I could treat every day as Halloween, and get dressed up and go out into the world as some eccentric character.” And this is exactly what she does in her art, showing that constant transformation is truly achievable.
The transformation of something existing into another is also something that British artist Emma Johnson focuses on. Emma’s materials are maps, documents, and directions that she re-purposes and edits to depict new pieces that have suddenly transformed from informational to nonsensical – guides to places that don’t exist as they are depicted. In her piece ‘Manhattan Lines’ (2015) we see multiple layers of hand-cut maps of New York City assembled in a way that transforms them from instructions to an abstract composition that is more like a painting and impossible to follow. Similarly, in ‘Lambeth Stack’ (2016) maps of London and all its complex roads and transport lines have been jumbled up to instead depict a spaghetti-like sea of red, yellow, and orange, completely untraceable to London apart from the work’s title. In all her artworks – what Johnson does is allow the materials she works with to have a rebirth as something else completely different each time, a metamorphosis of materials.
It seems obvious that both artists like to see something new form from their existing materials whether this is self or physical documents. They take chances for each piece to speak for itself rather than relying on any predictability or relationships between the work. The transformations behind the work represent that there is always room for new ideas, new identities and every day is a new day with new opportunities for growth. A modern approach to change and metamorphosis, one of constant recycled re-birth.
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Changeling
Jenna Fox
19/7/2022
Artists are the dynamo of change. They take the unyielding and they push and push and they push some more until something bends. The something could be material, thoughts, process, connections, or a step change and paradigm shift.
The imperfect becomes stranger and the uncanny becomes normalised. There is no material, process, or concept that is not within our bounds.
The concept of change is fundamental to being an artist. And I put it that the concept of change while being part of the human condition is never more so than becoming a mother. It is a physical and mental change of state. Fathers and partners and all that are in the surroundings of a baby are all about to experience change too. Baby has power. And the artist’s baby is their work.
Change hits at as so many points in our life. Love. Loss. Indifference. Reflection. Maturity. Education. Career. In tiny moments.
Or it can be sweeping and impactful.
Be it …
“I am sorry but Bx has died”.
“D loves H … forever”
“Nan, I’m Gay”
“You are dyslexic”
“Did anyone ever tell you how wonderful you are?”
“Wow, you are so kind”
“Blue really suits you”
“Thank you”
And then there is age. We know we age. And we know age changes us and as we change society brackets the elder in an odd social construct. Judith Butler speaks of performativity where actions and society make the gender and this could be so too for the elder and the artist.
How do we break free from these limiting boxes?
We push and we change.
We rally and as artists, we reflect the zeitgeist.
We balance as change can be slow … a process of informing of being and doing.
Radical art can affect change, but is it for the longer term? Is it a one-hit wonder?
I leave you with Bowie.
“Ch-ch-changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-changes
(Don't tell them to grow up and out of it)”
(Bowie, 1979)
Jenna Fox MA Sculpture RCA, Ph.D. year 1
@jennafoxartist
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Artist name. Francesca Fini
Website. https://www.francescafini.com/
Instagram account. https://www.instagram.com/francesca_fini/
Youtube/Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/713986955
re-fluo…
RE-FLUO is a project that investigates the AI-based photogrammetry technology that encounters chaos and error.
What happens when we take a 'selfie' with a 3d scanner? First of all, we have to think that we will no longer be projected, cell by cell, pixel by pixel, on that invisible and two-dimensional screen that ideally separates us from the phone.
We must move, let ourselves be explored slowly, inch by inch. We have to disclose our bodies, and turn around to reveal the interstices. 3D photography is a dynamic, empirical experience: a dance with light that relies on the imperfect intelligence of the device, which interprets, senses, reconstructs and puts together our fragmentary simulacrum.
And what happens if you decide to stress the device towards imperfections and glitches, embracing the beauty of chaos and error?
For example, what happens if I start scanning my face in 'face mode' and then I introduce an inorganic object in the picture, with unnatural colors and a too-perfect shape to belong to Nature? A plastic wreck, a scrap saved from the waste bin?
The software does not know how to interpret and integrate the intruder, the mysterious object, and then elaborates improbable Cronenbergian digital meltings, conceived by the crazy algorithm that stops recording and starts dreaming.
And what happens when these unreal agglomerations of pixel and color are transferred into a 3D software, illuminated with a virtual light, coated with a digital porcelain patina, and rendered with the metaphysical setting of a rendering engine?
RE-FLUO is a contemporary self-portrait experiment for artificial intelligence, a 3D scanner, and household waste.
Contemporary culture, and above all art, is essentially a search for identity, both personal and collective. I have always worked on this theme, especially through performance and body-art. The meeting with AI and GAN, mediated through the photogrammetry device, allowed me to recently explore the most mysterious and dystopian aspects of personal identity. What happens if we let the machine explore and judge us and work out its own version of who we are? This happens on social networks, it happens in the profiling of statistical data processed by the large groups that manage the Net, it happens in the new biometric policies developed by governments. My installation makes this concept clear and plastic, through the evident deformation of the physical image sought by stressing the capabilities of the AI.
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Artist name
Bradley Tooke
Website
www.bradleytooke.com
Instagram account
@bradtookeart
Youtube/Vimeo
https://youtu.be/2gc1pxfttzE -20 minute full version.
https://youtu.be/K_8jIvAjWhI -2m30s timelapse.
Description
Trope is a piece where poetry is written through the act of painting. By connecting myself and a conductive canvas to a computer, each time the brush makes contact with one of the surface panels, a new digital change is made. Through this, painting becomes a method for writing cut-up poetry, rather than purely producing the painting itself.
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Artist name
Michele Noble
Website
www.michelenobleartist.co.uk
Instagram account
@michelenobleartist
Title
What the Daphne Told Me
Description
This illustration is on acid-free watercolour paper, using a mix of fiber tip pens, and gold acrylic paint. I wanted to pay tribute to the painted decoration on ancient Greek vases without copying the style. There have been numerous references on television lately to the likes of Jimmy Saville and Gary Glitter and I imagined Apollo as a golden pedophile and Daphne as an underage innocent child. Her blue dress is a reference to her being a water Naiad the daughter of the River God Peneus.
Short bio
Although principally a visual artist, I began writing poetry as a school girl. During a difficult unhappy time in my life, I felt unable to make visual art and studied Creative Writing at Hull University. I was also a member of the Scarborough Poetry Society, giving readings with them at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round until I moved from Scarborough to East Yorkshire in 2010.
What the Daphne Told Me
I was in my early springtime
When the golden stranger came,
He flattered me with grown-up gifts.
Said I was too old for dolls.
Said he would show me
Other games to play. Oh yes!
Desired by other girls
But not by me.
He devoured me with his eyes
And such strange slitty eyes
The pupils horizontal like a goat.
I feared him sensing
Something
Twisted
Feral,
Rotten.
When he tried to touch,
I fled terrified
Into the cool green of forest
Leaping
Turning
Twisting
But he as faster.
I smelled rank sweat,
Cruel hands lunge
And catch.
I cried out
Father save me!
Felt numbness creep across my flesh
Skin callous into bark
Arms stiffen into outstretched limbs
From trembling fingertips leaves sprout.
Roots toed deep into kind soil,
Spread, held firm.
I could not move or speak
But was beyond his reach
Safe.
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