Final Reflective thoughts

Sandra Holle

HOL14245918

August 2021

Reflection and evaluation of my MA / professional practice course:

  When I first started a Level 3 course at Hull College school of art and design in 2014, I only wanted professional advice on my painting and to improve my technique. Since then, painting is what I have done the least. What, however, emerged over time, was an understanding of why I do what I do and why it always seems to develop towards a certain direction. During all the projects that I did, there was always a sense of distress, muted colours, imperfections and organic-ness to my work that I have grown fond of. That’s me.

  I moved from oils to drawing to school workshops to animation and model making to knitting with upcycled PET to clay and finally seem to have settled with sculpture, mainly in concrete but I also don’t mind the occasional piece of copper on my workbench. These 7/8 years gave me such a wide range of skills and I was well able to feed my curiosity about different techniques and materials from many angles that I can benefit from now when creating. The sky is the limit.

  To finish this MA is for me a true milestone. At my age, this is probably the last major qualification I will gain. At last, I feel confident enough to build myself a new career whilst pursuing my dream of working creatively. After all the different projects I developed over the last years, I recognise my own style now. A style that is shaped by very personal subjects, by the Japanese philosophy of wabi sabi or the beauty of simplicity, nature and even decline). My hand is also characterised by my thinking patterns and the aim, to create something with a purpose (move people, initiate positive emotions, contribute to wellbeing). The fact, that I use my creative work as a therapeutic tool to effectively manage my health problems plays, however the most pivotal role. I came to choose techniques that are repetitive and require different senses or levels of energy from me. They also produce satisfying results with the materials I manipulate through these techniques, for example:

Modelling – low energy

Grinding – high energy

Sanding – high energy

Polishing – low energy

Wire looping – low energy

Metal chasing - medium

Metal polishing – low

  All these activities can either calm me down, get me focused, give me a feeling of achievement even when I have little energy. No matter what I do or how long it takes, creative work like that seems to suit me and consolidate me. I recognized the beneficial effects artwork has on me and I figured that these techniques are all very tactile and the results I can achieve are even more so. The satisfaction I felt holding a finished piece of for example smooth polished concrete was very rewarding and worth putting my mind at a lot more seriously. Since I am confronted with an unpredictable and debilitating illness daily, this was the obvious topic to finally commit to.

  I have a vivid imagination. Hence, me knowing the medical facts of my illness and what it does to the nervous system, the inspiration inevitably took over. I found a starting point for the shapes I wanted to create – the neural tissue. I think I was of course influenced by the rendered images of neurons and axons and myelin that are vastly available online to educate the interested person. Microscopic images were not so common when I did my research but the material that I found made me bow to the incredible complexity and beauty of the human brain and cellular structure in general. 

  Initially, I focused on the neurons (nerves) and the nerve cells that are connected by them. Is the connection interrupted, something stops working properly. An electric circuit would be a good analogy. In my case, the connection would fail when the insulation or white matter or myelin of the nerves decomposes through inflammation. This led me to thorough experimentation with wire and tubular shapes in clay. I had tremendous support and input from our dedicated ceramics tutor Emma Harms. She let me explore surfaces and colour on countless test pieces. She never got tired to fire another tube shape with oxide stain and she encouraged me in my idea to find common ground between clay and concrete. I figured that clay and concrete had this kind of call and response rhythm to them. I would try something in clay and would adapt it to the other material. If this wasn’t possible, I embraced the different result and tried to adapt to the clay and vice versa.

  A good example is the use of oxide like iron oxide, manganese, or my favourite copper carbonate. Iron oxide turns a dark brown, manganese a black and copper carbonate a dark green or metallic black, when fired in the ceramic kiln. These oxides were after all great metaphors to communicate corrosion and tissue damage. In concrete, I can also use these substances whilst they don’t change colour too much. If anything, they might react with the acidic environment with the concrete.

  Another good example is the flexibility of clay. If only I could get my concrete objects modelled more delicately, make them look ‘softer’… This is when I started making originals in clay. Always on the lookout for ways to get the distress showing in my pieces, I added paper beads into the clay which would leave their trace and ideally lots of irregular holes in the clay after firing. These intricate details could now be preserved in concrete by making casts rather than hand building. 

  A method I was trying to tackle with more control in building my concrete forms was the inlay technique. Whilst it would take me a long time to achieve the desired effect in concrete, I could make fast progress trying it out in clay. I’m now able to use this method more targeted. I can plan more precisely what my cement mix should look like for the new layer. It was a brilliant learning curve to experiment in clay. The sessions in the ceramics department also helped me understand about dynamics of a form and how to train your eye for the 3dimensional composition. 

  The more I put my mind to it, the more difficult I found the compositional approach but studying the work of Barbara Hepworth, Ruth Asawa, Ewan Henderson (layered and textured clay sculpture and vessels) or the contemporary concrete artist Katherine Stanek helped. My first impression of what can be done with concrete I got from the work of Katherine Stanek (Stanek, n.d.) during my undergraduate course in fine art. After watching her demonstration videos and interviews I got very intrigued to try myself. Her work is stunning and rather figurative, but I like her skill-full, individual and open-minded approach. Concrete seemed to be the solution. I didn’t require a kiln. Yet, I could manipulate it like clay… 

  Everyone who is interested in sculpture, whether making them or looking at them, must know Barbara Hepworth, of course. I saw some of her pieces in Yorkshire Sculpture Park a few years ago and I occasionally googled her, but I only got to read about Hepworth’s work more thoroughly during the last half year. There is a lot more to discover, as well. (www.tate.org.uk/art/archive) (Zucker & Harris, 2019) (Brown, 2015) Shame on me! I’m so glad that I at last made it to Wakefield. To see so much of her work in the flesh was such a treat. To learn about her processes and thinking, inspiration and dedication is an eye opener. It’s probably cheesy but I can almost draw parallels between her and myself considering her drive to create amid family life. I also am very encouraged about my own work when I hear her in an interview talking about the importance of the tactile sense as our first developed sense or the impact our childhood memories have on our work. I think with her direct method to carve the material and her way of abstracting the human figure or elements of landscape, she was way ahead of her time. Even more so, when considering the status female artists had in the 1930s and 40s. I think she should have the credit for introducing the pierced form into the world of sculpture.

  Another inspiring female artist of that time I discovered is Ruth Asawa. She studied at Black Mountain College NC, USA and started to develop her distinctive looped wire sculptures.

According to Asawa, they resemble one continuous line. When reading about her and browsing the internet, I found she was very secretive about her technique. All she revealed was that she would wrap the wire around a dowel and then started pushing the loops into one another. Her daughter would give workshops teach her mother’s method, but the participants were not to reveal the technique either. Asawa was supposed to have learned the looping technique from native basket makers but that’s not a reliable information. However, she perfected the technique with wire and created large abstract bulbous forms reminiscent of plants, or sea creatures. (Cornell, 2006) Like Hepworth, she managed to do her work whilst raising children and working hard to establish in male-dominated art world. Her work wasn’t even considered fine art at the beginning and rather referred to as crafts. I for my part am thinking about this distinction a lot when I’m planning a piece. As soon as the object has a purpose or is useful in any domestic way, it’s considered crafts? Or if it becomes too decorative? I’m not sure if this division between fine art and crafts can be so sharp or if there is something like a grey zone? Making art accessible and unique at the same time is a worthwhile aim, in my opinion. Asawa has inspired me on more levels than her wire sculpture. She became a very popular woman and arts activist. I found a quote of hers on the Asawa website which I couldn’t agree more to, especially under the light of this course – PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE: 

“I think that I’m primarily interested in making it possible for people to become as independent and self-sufficient as possible. That has nothing really to do with art, except that through the arts you can learn many, many skills that you cannot learn through books and problem-solving in the abstract.”

 

Ruth Asawa (Asawa, 2021)

  I wanted to figure out myself how to loop wire. I’m not sure whether it’s the Asawa way I’m doing it but I certainly found a great way of being productive on a bad day when not much else is possible than sitting down and work some bendy wire. I can create mesh to work into the concrete or try new independent forms like the loopy pillow. I very much like the contrast between the flexible see-through properties of the wire work against the solid and heavy nature of a cool and smooth concrete piece. 

  One of my initial thoughts when I started out with my varying cement mixes and supporting inner structures, whether I could make concrete appear softer and more delicate than what it’s reputation would allow us to expect from the material. A material which is one of the most invasive and environmentally challenging there is. When I now look at my work, I find that I might have found a way for it not to be recognised as concrete straight away. At least this is what some conversations with the visitors of my exhibition suggest. One could also argue, I’m not even working with proper concrete for it needs coarse granite aggregate added to reach this status. In my opinion, my mixes are concrete, only with fine aggregates such as marble sand or ash. Yes, the experts can be very particular there. I have now the skills and ambition to further refine and develop my processes to push the materials I like working with, further.

  What I also realized is, that I started out with tubular shapes that would represent neurons and the protective white matter around them. That’s where my inspiration came from and that is also what determines my style in a way. The muted palette, contrasting whites and darks, organic, fluid lines rather than geometric, architectural precision. This is what I like making, looking at and touching. But the focus has shifted from depicting a narrative about neural tissue decline towards producing tactile sculptures with intriguing surfaces that trigger positive reactions and thus are contributing to our wellbeing. (Stellar, 2015) 

  To find out, whether it is just me who likes touching those forms and surfaces or if I could entice more people to practice mindfulness via a tactile sculpture for their health’s sake, I decided to put my work to the people. I organised an MA show in our garden for one Sunday afternoon. This presented me with a great opportunity to find out more about people’s preferences regarding materiality and pleasantness. (Klöcker A. A.-L., 2012) (Klöcker A. W.-L., 2013) I worked hard to plan the event and prepare it as professionally as can be done in a garden. The white plinths from HSAD looked striking on the green, the sculptures fitted well into the surroundings including the red brickwork of our house and the raised bed blended in just fine. Everyone seemed so relaxed because we were outdoors and didn’t have to worry about COVID compliance. I was always joking about putting hand sanitiser next to the work, couldn’t I have chosen a more unsuitable subject – tactile sculpture in times of a pandemic – haha. But that’s what I did. Hand sanitiser (and prosecco) put people’s minds at ease. Despite all the hard work I really enjoyed myself and I felt very privileged that around 40 people came and mostly stayed for the whole afternoon. Our garden has never been so crowded in the ten years we have lived there. At first, there was reluctance about being encouraged to touch the objects but according to the questionnaires I designed, people found it easy to adjust and genuinely enjoyed themselves. The evaluation forms proved to be a great element to engage people and look twice, be thoughtful and appreciative of the work. I will find valuable information in them about what surface preferences there are and how fidgeting is being acknowledged and dealt with.

  I am particularly proud of a comment I received from one guest that went greatly into depth:

“Thanks for inviting us yesterday, we had a lovely time. I thought your collection was well made, thought provoking and the interaction element was well considered. The idea of structure, balance and instability was what I gained from the work. Along with the understanding that parts are missing or eroded leaving elements strong or weak, depending on interpretation. The making process of each piece communicates skill, time and hard work that completes a resemblance to industrial finish. This was evident through your use of concrete (or what appeared to be) which was achieved using traditional skills and manual processes, to change the formation of the material. The deliberate imperfections versus the sometimes polished, parts were stimulating to experience through touch, which gave the opportunity to appreciate the materials, your intentions and the moment. Well done Sandra, I thought the works were beautiful and balanced perfectly. …”

I am grateful for the opportunity of doing an MA and I will use my professional qualification to build myself a future career. Looking at myself today, I can confidently say:

  q. e. d. Art helps me manage my own health and should be promoted rather than cut back to help relieve the NHS by art on prescription. (Bingley, 2012) (Holle, 2020)

Sandra Holle

Bibliography

Asawa, E. o. (2021). Retrieved from (https://ruthasawa.com: (https://ruthasawa.com/art/sculpture/

Bingley, A. (2012). Touching Space in Hurt and Healing: Exploring Experiences of Illness and Recovery Through Tactile Art. In M. D. Mark Patterson (Ed.), Touching Space, Placing touch (pp. 71-88). Lancaster: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.

Brown, G. M. (2015, 4 30). Barbara Hepworth: freedom and form/FT Life. Retrieved 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW78Qjnt2Qw : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW78Qjnt2Qw 

Cornell, D. (2006). The Sculpture of Ruth Asawa: Contours in the Air. CA, USA: University of California Press 1st edition .

Holle, S. (2020). How Artistic Work and Art Therapy can be a Means to Manage the Symptoms and Progression of Multiple Sclerosis (unpublished dissertation). Hull.

Klöcker, A. A.-L. (2012, Jun 21). Rasch-Built Measure of Pleasant Touch through Active Fingertip Exploration. Retrieved May 2021, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22737122/

Klöcker, A. W.-L. (2013, Nov 14). Physical factors influencing pleasant touch during tactile exploration. Retrieved May 2021, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24244425/

Stanek, K. (n.d.). https://www.katherinestanek.com/home.

Stellar, J. E.-H. (2015). Positive Affect and Markers of Inflammation: Discrete Positive Emotions Predict Lower Levels of Inflammatory Cytokines. American Psychological Association, 15(2), 129-133.

www.tate.org.uk/art/archive. (n.d.). Barbara Hepworth’s Sculpture Records | Animating the Archives . Retrieved from https://www.tate.org.uk/art/archive: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/archive/tga-7247/barbara-hepworths-sculpture-records-comprising-photographs-and-notes-compiled-under-the 

Zucker, S., & Harris, B. (2019, 4 23). Sheltered by the sea, Barbara Hepworth’s Pelagos. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMUAYeygy5U