sketch book 2 (a certain romance)

7/28/2019 Sketch Book 2 (a Certain Romance)

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Sketches relating to A Certain Romace


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Sketches for A Certain Romance and electronic and mechanical component sketches made with students fromImperial College


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Sketches for A Certain Romance and electronic and mechanical component sketches made with students fromImperial College


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A Certain Romance

A Certain Romance is my first step toward creating an array of different sized, lacedcovered waltzing tower blocks through the use of mechanics and electronics.

I eventually would like to see these buildings not only slowly waltzing in a gallerysetting but I also aim to work in partnership with institutions such as Saddlers Wells or

Trinity Laban in the future to create a performance where individuals who werearrested in the London riots of 2011, dance with, in and around them and each other on

the streets that were effected by the riots and for that performance to be documented andfilmed.

To help re-imagine a beauty that did not exist on some streets in London for those fewdays.

Research

I found it quite difficult to pull up any direct connections with a sculptural form dancingin the way I envisaged. I found one performance on YouTube involving people dressedas buildings dancing in a joyous, slapstick manner but I was looking for a moremelancholic aesthetic.

A few articles written on the inherent beauty of dismissed architecture in a social context

which although sat well with some of the ideas Ill explain later, were more aboutarchitectures role. But nothing specific, that I could pull up and show to an audiencewho, after viewing said material would immediately understand, not so much theconcepts perhaps, but, the visual aesthetic I am looking for.

I searched the internet for how I might make these buildings waltz, float almostghostlike around a space and how they might avoid each, glide past one another withintouching distance. Robotics and their mechanics seemed the answer.

I met with some MA students from Imperial College, London who sat down with me towork out how this might work and the components needed. They were both generous

with their time and input and, after some translation of language to a more visual planewe came up with what is thought the right tools.

A certain type of wheel, an Omni Wheel that can move an object in any directionsimultaneously, motors with an encoding gearbox (to control the speed) to drive thesewheels, a power source, Ultra Sound sensors which send out a sonar signal so thebuildings can avoid crashing into each other and a small computer called an Arduino thatall these components can plug into and be written with a simple open source code toachieve all of this.

It failed, thus far . . . . . but only due to financial constraints and gallery space.

An initial, temporary re-imagining of the piece in static form took over which theninformed how the piece might look and what else it talked about now that motion wasabsent from the work.


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A Certain Romance

An investigation into class, taste, difference and aspiration through a sculptural form

When I was a child I climbed out of mybedroom window, on to the roof and up to the top.

It was about six in the morning. I sat astride therooftop, exhilarated and frightened.

Coming down was harder as the tiles kept slipping,making me lose my foothold.

High Wire is a dream of walking in the air, out intonothing.

But it has an urban background and thehigh-rise buildings provide the frame and support.

The dream of reaching the sky is also amodernist dream of cities in the air, inspired by a

utopian belief in progress.

Every time I see Didier turning back I rememberhearing him shout, from where I was standing onanother rooftop, Cest pas possible!

But something was possible, he returned safely.

And something emerged from the actuality of thewalk, which was a moment when reality became moreof a dream than the dream itself.

Catherine Yass on High Wire

Maquette for A Certain Romance


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Sketch of the containing lace structure, construction ofthe internal building and testing of different laces invarying light conditions.


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Originally a single lace was decidedupon to cover the buildings timberstructure but as one of the ideas withinthe concept was about taste I decide to

apply a second lace over the firstcovering lace. I hand cut with a scalpelblade an ivory/cream finer lace to act asan appliqu to the structure.

The notion of a home inherent to theidea or, a lack of one joined with thetraversing nature of the originalwaltzing buildings and my many yearsspent travelling found their way into ana representation of a map through the

hand cut lace.

The lace naturally lent itself to thisthrough the process of cutting.

This appliqu reminded me of both theornate discoveries I made whilsttravelling and the idea of pace throughmovement, as if running a finger along acoastline of a country in an Atlas.

Something I found myself repeatingmany times with an Atlas as a child.


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Detail of lace appliqu and test patches

with a light source from within

The lace appliqu was originally sewnonto the lace substrate but was found to

be too time consuming.

Also, thestiching buckled and skewed the lace so

as to not allow it to lay as flat as Iwanted it to.

I then glued the lace with PVA gluewhich worked perfectly.

Although almost as time consuming assewing the lace it allowed the fabric to

sit well on the substrate and allowed fora certain amount of manipulation due

the curing time of the PVA


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Construction of internal homageto art

Using thin wooden strips and aglue gun I decided to make a

homage to art within the piece, topair down the internals of a home

to just this box frame that isconstructed by the same lace thatsurrounds the earlier building and

contains again,a single piece oflace that represented once again

the idea of a building.

This idea of a building is held upas an inspirational figure or icon

that illustrates also the lonelypainting or print that was so

often found adorning the homesthat I grew up in.


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Details and further construction of homageto art


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A Certain Romance

I took myself , my life and an assumed lack of perceived beauty, not the wake up one day, walking down thestreet epiphany kind of beauty that happens when watching a child skip merrily down a street, or, a walk in thepark and a sudden rush of emotion that can make you weep, look at the beauty of it all but . . . a yearning for it,hat perceived beauty.

The kind that might (perceived) come from a stable background, a nostalgic image offered up by way of aprinted advertisement through the media.

A culture given to me through my upbringing.

An ignorant beauty.

The more I started to think about this idea the more I came to wonder if this absent beauty was/is absentbecause of its non-existence. The beauty I have already, although maybe not as readily apparent to me, is/was asvalid.

It could be examined and objectively pulled apart so as to not only see its virtues, but also . . . its failings.

This is okay, its acceptable and, perhaps more so, a necessity to have both of these elements of it standing sideby side.

It, they . . . just are.

To teach myself about them and having others comment also helps me to understand that, a lack of a want is anirvana maybe and therein that state is also, a lack of a God.

These sentient constructs are essential to humanity and that underlying fear that so many find themselvesfacing.

So, does my lack of a perceived beauty line me up in the same queue as those of faith (where myopinion understands that faith as being frightened, a refusal to admit to being alone; even though paradoxically Isomewhat admire their faith, if still thinking it delusional).

Does one or ones God create a beauty greater than oneself (as so often told to us through the ages, and inherentn ancient art even more so) to escape?

Does one escape a lack of beauty in ones life by creating it or destroying it? or, are both needed to exist?

Ignorance has come up often when thinking of this piece of work and it continues to skulk around, like a bitterunderstudy waiting in the wings hoping that the actor they are understudy to, falls flat on their face duringrehearsal.

I think apart from myself and the wanting to rid myself of as much ignorance as possible, that this may be one ofhe most important elements to this work.

My six year old could do that

Dont walk down there, its dangerous

They cant help it, look at their upbringing

No common sense, degrees coming out their ears, but no common sense


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These quotes impart a lack of will, an inert behaviour, that damages the self. It is as if alack of and partially educated person become one in the same; compliant to the idea ofeach other without knowing, really, who that other is.

As universal as that loop is and can be. Visually, those constructs are what I seek to

examine through the buildings that house most of us and to wonder if those ignorance'smight be able to transcend their containers and finally reach an understanding that mightbe beneficial to them both.

Attained beauty through aspiration and the subsequent ephemeral materialism areuseless, it isnt dismissed by me this want and is no less valid as I explained earlierwhen having beautys elements standing side by side, both its virtues and failings.

But it is useless.

It ends up as hollow as a housing estate about to be razed to the ground, empty of itsenergy . . . the beauty that might of been there, has dissipated.

Youre left with remnants amongst the rubble that alluded to a life, even if that life, atits most base level being just a happy accident of physics, can be sentient enough to faceup to the fact that . . . even through the cracks, if you pull back or even peer through thecurtain.

There might, just might . . . be enough space to let the light back in.


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Instead of a multitude of buildings representing a multitude of people, I opted for one building, this buildingnow became more about me and my relationship with a building/buildings I grew up in.

The ideas about the need for education and understanding, ignorance, aspiration and taste from both sides of adivide were still present and as important but, applying those tenants (scuse the unintentional pun) shrunk inscope to just me and a more personal almost, introspective, view.

Those tenants will not disappear from the future of the piece, they will if anything become more pronounced.

An example of one of these applies directly to the riots of 2011: I heard for along time after the financialcollapse from all strata of society that the bankers bonuses should be reigned in, this was an evil and outrightdisgust was calling from the rooftops for public hangings and the like.

I tried to read as much as possible about this collapse of our financial state. I dont pretend to understand thecomplicated mathematical equations used by the investment banks to gain their morally dubious profits but, Itried all the same to understand the processes involved and searched for a language I could understand.

And via one person on a forum came to a conclusion that wealth creation is not a bad thing in itself, as long asit is regulated.

The bankers bonuses I cared for not a jot after extensive reading, we gain 50% of those bonuses anywaythrough taxation but, regulation in its many forms was what was central to not letting this ever cyclical eventfrom happening again.

The banks were happy for their bonuses to take centre stage, but if you read some more detailed articlesconcerning regulation (that were honestly not taken up and offered to the public via the mainstream mediainstitutions), well, they were not a happy group of bankers at all when this was brought up.

Even to the extent of the most simplistic form of regulation being introduced such as ring fencing the retailarm of banks away from the investment arm (which essentially is a bung in the ready to explode Hoover Dam

truth be told).

The media are compliant in not giving the public detailed information as to the root cause of this collapse.

It is almost as if they shy away in today's culture of instant information and speed of information to go out oftheir way to not report the most important information.

Or, do they deem that information as too complicated or even more dangerously, too boring for the public.

The Today Programme, Newsnight, others, all complicit in headlines instead of important information.

Patronising? Yes . . . in a similar patronising manner you hear peoples comments about each other when theyare ignorant of one another.

I do not work in a bank, I do not work on the editorial team of a new programme, but, if I did, I would hope,like Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird try and cut through to the base level so the jury might be able tooffer up a suitable and just sentence.


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How does this apply to the riots?

You grew up learning, whether that learning is good or bad is irrelevant, you still learn and you carry onlearning, even unconsciously.

If you are faced with information on a daily basis for 3 years that then trickles down through the publicconsciousness that you have been had or swindled as was the case with the bankers, that they are thieves,then, are you not seeking some recompense when you destroy a window and walk away with a TV?

You know it is not right, morally wrong, outside the law. But, you have just digested 3 years of informationequating in monetary terms to trillions of pounds/dollars being laid waste through gambling, albeit legalgambling but, gambling all the same in simple terms.

Now whether or not their wealth creation is legal or not does not really apply when fed with little informationas to the causes of the perceived theft. My government paid for their upkeep and kept a roof over their head(they had to, I understand this, unless a total collapse of society was wanted which it wasnt and would ofhappened if the banks were allowed to fail).

You paid for them, I paid for them, I might not of paid anything toward them but . . . . if you allow them to

be caught safe and sound from falling from a great height . . .

Why do you not do the same for me? I creak, my structure moans under duress, I am in need of help

Why do you not allow me some respite, some recompense, some end of the rainbow pot of gold TV that Ivelearned is the visual and physical medal of getting ahead?

It can be boiled down somewhat to ignorance, of each other, institutions, education and your own ability towelcome open armed inert behaviour.

Stealing is wrong, no? . . . . Unless, you have no other means to provide for yourself, so, you invent Greenwich

Mean time so your merchants are able to get ahead and make more money. You invent your own set of rulesand laws that justify your behaviour and that others have to adhere to . . . or . . . .

You invent an illusory culture of information that is handed down orally via a headline to explain what is thereal problem. The bankers bonuses of course because I read it in the editorial.

But I still want my TV and I still want my car and I still want my cheap food and clothes.

Now whether they are procured legally or not, morally on shaky ground or not . . . . Isnt the question oneshould really be asking.

That question is for you and I to ask not only ourselves but another and another and another, and most of thetime, the question let alone the answer to that question isnt always easy to work out.

Your resources are finite and you compete to survive.


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A Certain Romance

Automatic writing exercise/investigation

Home, curtains, changed and washed, inhabitants, individual stories, social housing, me movingconstantly from place to place, not having a home, waltzing, the uprooting of the static buildings,

a want for perceived beauty via the act of waltzing, why would the buildings dance? What makesthe buildings want to dance? Do the inhabitants want to dance? Would dancing be a connectionor a release, is it a need that individuals would see as being important?

Are not the buildings needs one in the same universally, would not the mock Tudor semi want toor need to dance as the high rise? Would their dance be selective, individual, communal, as is thedancehall?

Is the act of dance a suitable metaphor?

Is beauty found more readily now in a high rise as opposed to 50 years ago, does a more multicultural make-up offer up a route to more beauty or a dissemination that might result in a

different form of beauty whether dancing or not.

Why a waltz? Why not a frenetic more contemporary form of dance? Is the waltz more anostalgic metaphor from my upbringing?

Or an honest appraisal of that time? And the not getting away from a more white Britain.

I attended an exhibition/street event with a Chinese friend of mine, the exhibition was aboutBritain's role after the war in putting on the Olympic Games (political opportunism? Of course)but the country needed a moral boost according to the then government and this was thought aperfect way to deliver that boost.

Lisa and I talked about the images and feel, that being of 50s street party, and how white it felt.We both agreed that that is sometimes shied away from and if it was underlined as to howwhite the celebratory feel would have been visually, it might of not happened, and that that wasa shame as there was an obvious whiteness of the time.

Is part of that beauty that I search for within those buildings because of an assumed lack ofbeauty in society at the time?

Not having been exposed much to high end culture whilst growing up is it then that thebuildings waltz is a yearning for the buildings and the inhabitants to pull their fucking socks upand push themselves.

As there is beauty to be found in what they are and what they do, so does the results of thembeing just that have every right to be construed as high end culture. Or a valid culture to thatend?

Did I, do I, view myself as different to everyone else in those flats?

Was the original idea of one of the buildings being tethered to the wall an egocentric idea ofmyself?

Am I then at odds with the other buildings? Is a division apparent to myself?


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Exhibitons, Artists and Influences for A Certain Romance

Catherine Yass - High Wire - 2008

Kaija Kiuru - Shelters - Travelling Beyond Places - 2004

Patricia Perez Eustaquio - Death to The Major, Viva Minor - 2008

Stephen Willats - Concerning Our Present Way Of Living - 1979 & How Others See UsAnd How We See Ourselves - 2012

Ayuko Sugiura - Second Skin - 2012

Rachel Whiteread - House- 1993

Do Hu Suh - Blueprint - 2010 & Staircase III - 2004

Louise Bourgeois - Cells - 1989

sketch book 2 (a certain romance)

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