Shown in The Art + Design Gallery September 7th through to 16th, 2021
The Countervailing Balance I & II, 2021, steel, 63″ x variable
Place Holder I, 2021, Steel Place Holder II, 2021, steel, 63″ x variable, shown on the left in order of appearance
The Countervailing Balance I, 2021, steel, 63″ x variable
The Countervailing Balance II, 2021, steel, 63″ x variable
In The Countervailing Balance series, shown here Part II, the body is an essential starting point for the work. I use measuring and physicality to make the work, with the call and response sensitivity to the materials and making being vital to the pieces. When making the top sections of the series, I used various performative methods of finding the drawn line to start the piece. The variance of line and how they are all individual to each piece in the series is part of the listening process of making the work. All the leg pieces across the series are uniform and in works I to IV have remained straight and rigid forming an aggressive dynamic relationship with the floor. The making is a physical experience often wrestling when welding with the resistant tensions within the material. I make drawings with the pieces (directly onto the walls, and paper) both in the studio and in the gallery, as they settle into place, they make marks on the walls and the floors. Each piece when installed takes time to settle and the action of installing is finding a balance within each environment they are placed.
I use performative methodology, where the meaning is in the making. I often work in pairs of sculpture and in works like Place Holder, the body is an essential starting point for the work. I use measuring and physicality to make the work, with the call and response sensitivity to the materials and making being vital to the pieces. I looked carefully at the work of Carol Bove to look at how I could vary the surfaces of the metal and this is going to be developed in future work. Richard Tuttle has been a great influence on the subtleties of placement and implied sound in my work.
Place Holder III & Place Holder IV, 2021, steel, 63″ x variable, shown on the right in order of appearance.
I use performative methodology, where the meaning is in the making. I often work in pairs of sculpture and in works like Place Holder series shown above, the body is an essential starting point for the work. I use measuring and physicality to make the work, with the call and response sensitivity to the materials and making being vital to the pieces. The work if experiential of my lived reality of masking and being a presence but often looked through, marginalised or invisible. Materialistically, I looked carefully at the work of Carol Bove to look at how I could vary the surfaces of the metal and this is going to be developed in future work. The work echoed feelings of containment, of invisibility and of taking up space. The pieces were made to represent my body in various states of identity, a flux and fluidity of image verses felt identity. For each piece I took measurements from my own physical self and created the exterior space. These works were both performatively made and worked through drawings both in sketchbooks and made whilst working through the problems of making.
The show continued into the Art and Design Building Sculpture Studios
The work I showed in the Studios was a complex mix of work, some made in response to the Place Holder series leaving the studio when it was chosen for the gallery show as in the Shadows Rested series below. The works included were all very relevant to the practice as a whole and some were small inclusions that could be missed. The studio show was a response in part to being the antithesis of the ‘bells and whistles’ (Marylyn Monroe, Some like it Hot, 959) expected at such events where often the student is expected to add projections, sound and excitement to the work. My intention was to slow the pace, to ask the viewer to rest on the work, to walk into my world and be subtly moved by the possibility of sound, of touch, of time and of light. I resisted making the work perform, instead asking the viewer to perform to activate the work within their own realm of body and spirit.
The Shadows Rested Inside I, 2021, calico, thread, galvanized wire, various materials, 80″ x variable
The Shadows Rested Inside II, 2021, calico, thread, various materials, 80″ x variable
The Shadows Rested Inside III, 2021, calico, thread, various materials, 70″ x variable
The Shadows Rested Inside IV, 2021, calico, thread, various materials, 80″ x variable
The Shadows Rested series are another technical challenge that I feel I have worked hard to resolve. I wanted to “cast” the insides of the Place Holder series, so that there was still a presence of them when they left the studio to go into the Art and Design Gallery. They are made from the internal dimensions of each Place Holder piece, and then a further measure as if one were hold up one’s arms in being pulled out of the Place Holder. The slideshow below shows the pieces in their various positions before the final installation.
Knucklebones, 2021, glazed earthenware on mdf painted plinth
The Knucklebones were all cast in white earthenware. These works are all related to both my body, my grasp and the stones I collect on walks in local Neolithic and Bronze Age landscapes. The reference of Knucklebones is a game I played as a child like Jacks but with stones, picking up more each time with a bouncing ball. I used a painted plinth to show the pieces on so they could be viewed at about my chest height.
From Berlin to Birdsong Film, 2021, Film on usb, approximately 8 minutes
During 2020 I started to capture short pieces of my journeys. This film is made up of some selected films from the time period travelling to Berlin then the period of time from then to this summer sitting in my garden trying to identify birdsong with my husband Alan just a the point when life was about to change again.
The Curtain Shifted as her memory of him dissolved at each recollection, 2021, architectural intervention modifying the windows and studio, materials include galvanized wire, detail paper, eye screws, pine strip wood, aluminium tape, household paint, chipboard and tape, 96″ x 72″ x variable
The architectural intervention of the piece The Curtain Shifted as her memory of him dissolved at each recollection was a challenge to make the work really well. The work developed over a few months and the drive to make this curtain piece was driven by haunting recurring dreams I have where my father is there, almost tangible to touch, then just dissolves into a hazy curtain. The barbing of the wire and the physicality of the twisting of each piece and the horizontal holding piece is performatively made and integral to method of making. My father was a trained master decorator and cabinet maker, so for me to achieve this level of work and finish is an essential part of whether the work is successful. The quality of light was achieved by using reflective tape and this has really made the work. The work looks incredibly simple, as if it were always there, but the whole piece has been totally fabricated by me for this show.
Grasps Four Times, 2021, plaster and graphite powder
Using measuring of my physical presence, Grasps Four Times, happened to make my height when place in a vertical line. I had made these originally from wax under the tuition on Alexandra Harley at London Sculpture Workshops. And from the stones found on ritual walks were the wax works made. The transformative nature of the casting and use of materials takes the work to a different place where I feel its knowledge and truth can really be found when shown this way.
Nine Untitled Stones, 2021, ink, graphite and earth on paper, each pieces is 297mm x 430mm and float mounted on paper backed foam board
I made all of this work during sessions at the Sculptors Drawing Space international online drawing space I was invited to join run the Royal Society of Sculptors. These works are all related to both my body, my grasp and the stones I collect on walks in local Neolithic and Bronze Age landscapes. Using repetition and techniques of drawing learned from my father’s use of a Rotring pen as a child, I used varying ways of mark making initially with each drawing using a found stone to draw around repeatedly with graphite. On some I used white wax, then covered with brushed on ink. Finding the negative spaces, and a way of seeing beyond the page into a distant meditative space, through the process of drawing over, they pieces are part of an ongoing series.
The Unbearable Lightness, 2021, graphite on paper, 2000mm x 3000mm
The Unbearable Lightness drawing has been an ongoing enquiry and has taken many forms. In this installation it forms a link between spaces, holding a liminal space.
Traces-femur & Traces-pes, 2021, paper, wax, ink and acrylic paint, 1200mm x 980mm
Both Traces pieces, Traces-pes and Traces-femur are remade from smaller works and made into whole surfaces through the painting of the underside with red neon paint. In the making they felt like forbidden pools to jump into the intention to create a temporal and imagined tension. The influence of Helen Chadwick seems obvious to me having experienced her blue body photocopy image installations, they were made in the same way, directly using my own body to image make with inks and resist in place of blue toner. The paper becomes sculpture as the entire surface becomes activated. There is not front or back to the paper. These pieces were tried on plinths as suggested by a tutor. However this kind of made them feel their energy had been taken away. Another tutor wanted me to take them altogether from the show and hang them as if they were drawings. I decided to keep them in the show, despite this feedback. I certainly felt they were an essential part of the final installation and added to the dialogue between the works on show.
The Pink Veil, 2021, Acrylic Ink on Yupo paper, 8″ x 10″ x 1″
Pink Veil is a work that has been many years in the making and will develop into ceramics. In itself it holds serenity and its own small corner allows it protection and vulnerability. This piece was made with Yupo transparent watercolour paper and inks. The paper folded, placed in water then the ink dropped onto the piece. The slight drying of the paper as the piece was made created different areas of the piece. There was quite a bit of discussion about how to show this small and fragile piece of work. The conclusion which I did need help with was to let it sit on the floor, although vulnerable, in the corner. Over a time period of a week I let it sit so see how it would stand up, and it seemed to be the correct place for it. Within this show of my work, many pieces are subtle and not easy to see, as they are low down, dissolving onto or into surfaces.
Clutches of Sad Remains, 2021, canvas, acrylic paint and steel rod, 63″ x 5″ x 6″
Clutches of Sad Remains, is a reference to reflection, identity and detachment. The canvas painting is propped up by a steel rod cut to my height, the face of the piece being leant against. I lit the piece so that the shadows formed a tripod.
A Countervailing Balance III, 2021, steel, 63″ x variable
The third and fourth in the Countervailing Balance Series, these were made quite differently to each other. III shown below was a technical challenge and I had to really hone my welding skills, through the making I understood more about the temperature of the metal and how to control the legs of the piece while making. I broke up the feel of the steel with grinding off certain areas so the piece looked and felt more drawn, like the drawings I have been making over the course of the two years.
A Countervailing Balance IV
In this fourth part of the series, I used the forge to hammer the cross piece that became the top. In very much the same way I made the galvanised barbed wire, I used an element of chance within the materials to allow an outcome. The legs were welded onto cleaned spots at regular intervals which were a hand span apart. The piece leant well against the wall, and with the spotlight on the final installation, gave a strong negative shadows piece agains the wall.
Wall Drawing No. 47, 2021, graphite and household paint 63″ x variable
n this piece, I was referencing the wall drawing of Sol LeWitt, which he embarked upon in 1968 at the Paula Cooper Gallery, New York. In 1970 upon learning of Eva Hesse’s death he drew Wall Drawing no. 47 which for the first time included non-straight lines. I had undertaken many wall drawings in the studios and this one was made in direct relationship to the Place Holder Series when it was place in the studio. With a sense of the outline, never actually outlining but in fact being an internal line, and the relationship to it being site specific, tied to that place whilst the Place Holders being a container of the uncontainable. With the other sculptures being chosen for the Gallery Show, this took on a different aspect, of hiding, of being around the corner and easily missed. Sol LeWitt had said the graphite line was difficult to photograph in his first wall drawing. He had made his first wall drawing in Lucy Lippard’s Non objective art show, a statement against the artwork as a commodity. Although my wall drawing is many miles away from LeWitt’s conceptualism, I still owe something to this radical gesture in the way I work.
Oh no love! You are not alone, you’re watching yourself but you’re too unfair, 2021, site specific sculptural installation, steel, brass, acrylic spray paint, bamboo, masking tape, graphite, silicone rubber, fly fishing line, aluminium, 70″ x variable
The title of this piece is from a memory of listening to Alladin Sane as a teenager, this is very much an ear worm which often creeps in whilst I am thinking about the work, identity and masking/display. The installation took place over the residency in this studio from the end of June 2021 until the final project show. I added to the piece as I went about my usual studio business, then for the final show added the spray paint to at the feet of the legs. It is about fragmentation of personality and idents which we show and mask. I pushed my fingers in to clay and cast them in silicone, I gathered materials I had collected over a period of years and added them to the tops of the steel rod. I merged a welded structure which may yet be made into another legs countervailing piece. This work is about emerging, retreat, gathering and loss. I show up yet am lost. The bamboo cut from my yard, has been left somewhere for someone to find, or to turn to dust.
Wall Drawing no. 48 & Taffled, 2021, galvanised wire, graphite, paper, site specific installation, 65″ x 40″ x 40″
Held Inside, 2021, calico, thread, galvanised wire, 5″ x variable & Reflection of Her, 2021, steel, 15″ diameter x 1″ right to left, respectively
Held Inside is the beginning of a series called Tondo, which refers to a series Eva Hesse made as drawings, then became Repetition Nineteen. This work by Hesse has struck a deep chord with me and during my research, I unearthed information about Hesse’s studio works which cast a bright light on her major works. I have been cutting calico and making shapes with it, trying to understand my relationship to materials and their context. Calico has a complex history and it’s use in the fashion industry and my background in textiles and working in Liberty I was keen to really take up fabric as a workable material. In light of many processes at the university being with held due to health and safety issues, my ability to transform the fabric with resin was rejected. I therefore decided that the way it was sewn together would have to suffice for my investigations for now. This small test piece held a piece of hand made barbed wire and some other undisclosed objects. I paired it with Reflection of Her, as this was a welded drawing I made in steel along with some other test pieces, not shown. This felt like a shield and to lay it down on the floor in a prone position makes for vulnerability. The natural light flowing through the architectural intervention piece casts a reflection onto the wall.
Apart but together, 2021, steel, galvanised wire, plastic and plaster, 63″ x variable dimensions, installed against the wall
This piece was a wildcard. I can’t say I really understand what I was doing with this piece. The steel rod came from another piece which I was challenged to break by my tutor Paul Johnson. He wanted to see if I could break the seeming uniformity of a piece which had really been difficult to make and I accepted the challenge. The other piece to this became The Countervailing Balance I. This left over bit had an energy of its own and I would this galvanised tape around it. The barrel of the tape seemed to be some sort of charger for the piece so I retained this. I added detail in the top of the barrel with a keyhole which seemed to make sense at the time, like a kind of portal to another dimension.
The Three Chances, gateway to another place, 2021, plaster on mdf, 3″ x 4″ x 1/2”
This piece was going to be made as a larger portal. I have been developing this from found objects which hinted at a narrative for me about lost doorways and places of the liminal, unknown to us, but accessible through the unconscious. Having made a great deal of background work and headway with the piece, I could not complete it for the masters degree submission. I decided to just include this almost invisible nod to the future piece here.
Poem to be found, 2021, acrylic sheet and archival ink, 3″ x 2″
This poem I wrote an undetermined amount of time ago. I found it under my writing desk the week of the install of the show. I decided I had to include it somewhere amongst the installation. It was not important that it was found, but it needed to be present. I write prose and poems but decided not to include any of the works necessarily in any submission for the masters degree. I felt them to be an integral part of my practice but not up for scrutiny. They are my shadow work, it shapes my thoughts, emotions and behaviours but may not show up directly within the art practice work.
Tina Culverhouse 