Will Won't Art

Is an accidental mathematician.

2010-11-08T19:39:00.000-08:00

"I started studying art hoping to one day be an artist so that I would never have to do an office job. But more and more my artistic process begins to resemble an office job." - me

Making a database, creating mathematical formulae, writing a stupid bloody thesis, organising schedules. Why can't I just learn to paint? Why do I have to make my working process into a boring mundane combination of reading, writing, maths, data entry, organising, repeating, uploading and other such uncreative acts?

The answer I do not know. Today I spent time doing maths. Looking at the dreaded n pattern of sequencing.

1, 2, 6, 24, 120, 720, 5040, 40320, 362880, 3628800, 39916800, 479001600, 6227020800, 87178291200, 1307674368000, 20922789888000, 355687428096000, 6402373705728000, 121645100408832000, 2432902008176640000

Its the sequence that means the number of possible combinations of a deck of cards is:
80,658,175,170,943,900,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Its the sequence that makes no sense but is annoyingly true. If you have just 7 people in a line there are over 5000 combinations you can be in. This pointless maths might not be of any interest or relevance to you but it has been quite frustrating for me. Scuppering some plans of mine but possibly inspiring some new ones. Sorry not sure why I wanted to share this. Was just staring at numbers and when you stare at a number with over 150 0s on the end of it it becomes rather meaningless and mind numbing. Oh well at least I did the maths before attempting to order things. Just ordering 10 objects would take me the rest of my life. Bring on plan B.

An explanation

2010-10-17T18:24:00.000-07:00

So this relates to the photo of my hairy feet with toes tied together. It is part of a huge project I have started and am continuing with. Should explain it a bit for seminar tomorrow even though in my quick presentation I doubt anyone will read this and I wont read it out to the group.

But any ways the project involves massive repetition of events. This involves doing various things on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis. These actions/events are given set amounts they need to be repeated or a set amount of time they need to be done for.

So the best example is the toe tying from the photo. Every week at an unspecified time I must spend half an hour with my toes tied together. So between midnight Sunday one week and midnight Sunday the next half an hour of my time is spent with my bare feet attached with some form of string at the toes. Normally the big toes but this is not a requirement. This action must be repeated every week without fail for 50 years. After that time the artwork is completed. If at any point for whatever reason this action is not undertaken within the time frame of a week then the work in progress is deemed a failure and no work has been made. The rules of this have been written down and I will type them up at some point but for now I think I have explained it enough.

Another example of this is the annual backwards dinner party. This will be an event where me and others (unspecified and allowed to change) eat a 3 course meal backwards every year on a set date. This date has not been decided yet as I have yet to organise the first enactment of this event. Backwards means simply going desert, main course starter instead of the usual course order. The meal must be eaten at a restaurant and happen on the same date every year until my death.

Both of these events/actions have more detailed and complex rules that I won't explain right now but will post in future. The very specific rules must be written down and a hard copy kept for reference. Breaking of a single rule will mean the project ends uncompleted and no art is made. These are just 2 but I intend to create a constant schedule of events so that I am constantly working but with far off completion dates. New projects can be added at any time and failed projects removed. My life will be become a constant workload of progression of various works in progress but with no finished pieces being completed for a long time and perhaps ever.

Before the end of term/2010 I intend to have at least 1 daily, weekly, monthly and annual project in progress and hope that there will be many more than this in future. Right now it is an experiment on an idea and needs testing, researching and analysing but it could become my entire artistic process. The undocumented performances of first year taken off on a massive tangent and turned into a life long endless artistic process with little to no work ever being created and sporadic if any documentation.

Okay that will do. Totally text and so nothing enjoyable for the seminar group to look at. And now it is 2:22am (deliberate blink) and I am off to sleep. Will probably be talking about this shit in exactly 12 hours. YAY!

Database work

2010-10-12T10:16:00.000-07:00

Trying to capture this screen shot I realised I had not saved the custom coding which made my access database function properly. I had gone in an made my own coding to automatically insert images into the database without too much additional storage space and lag time. But enough nerd posturing here is an image from something I am working on at the moment:

Basically this is one form from a huge database I have started working on. It will document every possession in my life. Like I said before these have been problems with the image insertion, as you can imagine there is also a problem with the photo taking. I am needing to organise all my possessions in 1 place with a good camera, a good memory card and my computer to label, compress and order the whole lot. So it is very much an ongoing process which is ongoing but does not progress.

Basically once complete the database will be the corner stone of some actual artwork that I want to create from it. This will only be possible once everything is put on there and then it is updated weekly to take into account things brought, sold, lost, found and stolen by or from me. So very early days but a big process which will eventually lead to some finished work.

Thesis

2010-10-12T08:47:00.000-07:00

So thesis draft is in, first feedback on things happening tomorrow. Thought I would tell friends and seminar group a little about my chosen topic and the way I am writing for this thing. Last year when we were doing thesis proposals I handed in 3 short ones instead of one proper one. I could not decide on a topic or find a way to make the process of reading and writing bearable. But I do now have a far better idea of what I am doing. It will obviously have to be negotiated with a tutor over the year and be subject to much change but here is the current plan.

My thesis will be in the form of a play, neatly avoiding the horror that is academic writing. Said play has the working title "5 conversations had in heaven" and that describes it pretty well. Set in the smoking area outside the pearly gates where heavens smokers are shuffled off to due gods smoking ban. The characters involved in these conversations are currently Marcel Duchamp, Oscar Wilde, Noam Chomsky and Martain Creed. Two of these will be killed off to get to heaven. But their death and other things will be avoided. Plot will be near nothing as I don't want to be writing a story but imagining a conversation. The focus of the thesis/play will be the conversations the group have about politics and art both as separate and as interconnected ideas. This will mean attempting to get into the characters thoughts through their writings and then trying to create a realistic conversation based on the ideas of the men in question.

Problems I foresee include: tutors hating it flat out, criticism of it being a group of white males, criticism of the fact I'm putting words into other peoples mouths, 2 of whom are still alive and capable of talking for themselves and criticism of me being an atheist using heaven as a setting for conversations between people who religious people might not think worthy of heaven. So it will be an uphill climb but I needed a topic I was and can remain interested in and a way of writing that would give me the freedom to be creative and address serious issues without having to use elitist alienating academic jargon. Wish me luck.

Seminar Group

2010-10-12T07:50:00.000-07:00

I will now be using this blog for the additional purpose of showing work to my seminar group. This is because we have to set up a blog, I don't want to create a 5th blog when I have trouble updating the ones I have while working on bigger internet projects, trying to survive London and of course doing my work at Chelsea. So this blog will continue to be a mess of random things from plays about bus stops, photos of my old doodles, things about friends work and other miscellaneous crap. But more formal writing and things specific to recent university work will also appear in places.

For seminar people:

If you want to look at everything on the blog feel free. If you don't then you can filter out some of the random to get things more relevant to the seminar. To do this just click the seminar button on the top of the right hand side bar. Comments are moderated so they won't be visible to others until I have read them and deleted any spam ones but please do feel free to comment with any thoughts, links, opinions or whatever you feel might be relevant.

If you do look though non-seminar things read the writing bits or at least look at the labels as some things on here are not my work. They might be friends work, work I own, collaborative work or something else.

To be explained in the future.

2010-09-10T12:47:00.000-07:00

Art as religion

2010-08-21T11:10:00.000-07:00

"Art’s like religion....invented by the cunning to gain power and profit from the ignorant and gullible... recruits through powerful institutions where the indoctrinated replicate themselves... makes believers self-righteous and condescending... infiltrates and uses the state to gain power and funds... has tentacles in the education system manipulating the syllabus to create a more docile malleable youth... splits regularly into separate belief systems... has many followers who while not being true believers play along out of fear of accepting the indifference and meaninglessness of their lives and everything they create... uses a fear of existentialism [that will make] even the most intelligent live life in self-denial... will become less meaningful... as it accommodate the freedoms demanded by a larger more diverse group of followers."

Selective editing done by me to turn something a lot longer into something more digestible for sharing. While I think this raises some interesting questions, provides an interesting context for discussing some issues in and around art and has some truth to it; it is not an expression of my thoughts and opinions. It was just something that I found interesting and spent some time cutting and pasting into something to share with you folks.

I will respond to this the way I respond to religious preaching: respectfully say nothing preferring to quietly digest and contemplate in my own time if I consider it worthy of attention. Attempt to form my own opinion before trying to deal with other peoples and unless I can come up with a definitive truth and undeniable evidence for it I shall continue to respect difference and understand that my beliefs are as fallible and individual as any others. Interesting though.

If a conversation can be considered art then this one still isn't

2010-08-20T20:34:00.000-07:00

Things to know before reading this: MK is a freaky mixed-race weirdo I know who has ruined my life. She smokes Marlboro and is of indiscriminate sexuality. Ohhhh and she is a big fat racist art fag with a rediculaaas ack-sent. This is our collaborative art/random conversation highlight. I love her, in that hate filled urge to kill kind of way.

MK: i like my tobacco as i like my women.

Will: Cheap and poorly rolled?

MK: NO

Will: Imported?

MK: NO

Will: Wet?

MK: NO

Will: With nothing but white cotton separating it from your lips?

MK: NO!!!!!

Will: Duty free?

MK: NO

Will: Golden and called Virginia?

MK: Noooooo

Will: Pre-rolled in cigarette form with a red and white Marlboro packet?

MK: NO

Will: Filterless?

MK: NO

Will: Bum sucked??

MK: huh????????

Will: English term meaning a soggy end from someone not used to smoking salivating all over it.

MK: Ewwww NOOOOOOO!

Will: Capable of killing cowboys?

MK: NO

Will: I don’t know then, how do you like it?

MK: cold wet and full of jamaican!

Will: What the fuck has that got to do with tobacco?

MK: oooops sorry meant toboggan!

Will: You are really not funny. AND...Its a bobsled

MK: I like my lead boobs like I like my tobacco

Will: Cold wet and full of Jamaicans?

MK: RACIST PERVERT!!!

Plan B: old doodle book doodles

2010-07-16T13:41:00.000-07:00

I was going to upload some photos I took of some old work from back in my college days. But the photos are on Choyas camera and its battery is dead. Can't get them for a few hours at least. So insted I shall upload some old doodles from my college days sketch books. Recently god rid of most of them. Taking up too much space and I have been needing to compress my life. In no order and with no titles or details here are lots of pictures of old doodles.

Okay so one is a print not a doodle and one is a clay elephant that was beaten with a rolling pin. And the little guy at the bottom is not a man but an ice cream lolly stick in clothes. I can't remember why but that was funny at the time.

I don't draw anymore. Now you can tell why.

Banana boy

2010-07-14T12:25:00.000-07:00

I recently found some googly eyes in an old box of art supplies and random junk. No idea where they came from but I found them and I stole some super glue from Choya and I have been sticking them on things. It's a fun and easy way to make a new friend out of an inanimate object. Great for when there is nobody to play cards with. I want to take some out into the streets and leave them around. Not sure why. Will post photos when I get around to releasing some of my creations into the wild. For now here is my best friend of last week. Banana boy.

He is dead now. But like all good people he was a registered organ doner and his eyes will be reused in the future.

Shit List

2010-07-06T06:12:00.000-07:00

I found this during my recent sort out of everything I own. It is called shit list and it was my contribution to my first year interim show at Chelsea. It is a list of all the artists exhibiting in the space and a description of them and their work.

It is a pretty bad photo so here is a close up:

It is just a framed piece of A4 paper. The description for everyone is "Shit" apart from myself, I describe myself and this piece in particular as "Fucking brilliant". I called everyone shit regardless of my feelings towards them or the quality of their work. Some of the people mentioned are good friends and many peoples work was defiantly not shit. The piece was partly a joke but there was actually some ideas behind it.

By describing all other work in the show as shit and itself as the only good piece it suggests that nothing else is worthy of being there and it should be there alone. But of course if all the "shit work" was not there and this was shown alone then it would be unable to exist. It is an attempt to play with an idea I was interested in at that time. Work that was anti-itself. I wanted to create a piece of work whose sole purpose was to argue the point that it shouldn't exist. A piece that was attempting to justify its own destruction.

One or two people saw through the attention seeking playful front of the work to question what it was about so I guess it got the point through to some people. Most people saw it as a silly joke and were amused by it. Nobody really got offended by it like I was hoping. I have been waiting for an opportunity to do another version of the piece for another exhibition. If I did do it again rather than just calling everything shit I would come up with specific criticisms of each piece. "A pseudo-conceptual immature and cynical sideswipe to mass consumer culture." "Another nail in the coffin of the medium of painting." "YBA derived narcissistic self-indulgent drivel." etc. Something that would offend more, making it funnier more provocative and hopefully also get more people to see past the joke to the idea behind it.

It wasn't a great piece but it is one of only a few pieces I have ever exhibited and an idea I intend to return to at some point.

Art Collection I

2010-07-05T18:37:00.000-07:00

I have recently been sorting through everything I own. My entire life is either in the bin, in 2 boxes stored on top of a friends wardrobe or in the suitcase I will be living out of as I move between sofas and maybe shop doorways. As I have gone through things I have been looking through all my old sketch books, the portfolio that got me into Chelsea university and all the other art related things in my life. Some of these older things will be photoed and posted here soon. Right now I want to show you some of my art collection. I have a few other bits that I will post soon once photographed but for now here are a few things:

This is my Cildo Meireles signed note. It was stolen from his piece Occasion which was displayed on the parade ground at Chelsea. You can read more about the piece here http://www.transnational.org.uk/events/54-cildo-meireles-occasion-20052008

I took it from the piece during the private view and then had the pleasure of talking to the artist and he very kindly signed my stolen note for me before inviting me and my friends to the green room where the private view alcohol was. A few glasses and 2 stolen bottles later I was vomiting over myself in the streets but I didn't loose the note and it sits in my collection to remind me of the night and so I can have a little piece of a work by a brilliant artist.

This is my fragment from the Seizure piece by Roger Hiorns. It was an instillation in which an entire flat had been coated in chemicals to create blue crystals. I remember queueing to get in for hours outside in the freezing cold outside a derelict block of council flats. The work actually made the wait worth it. There is a little about the work and lots of pretty photos to be found here http://shapeandcolour.wordpress.com/2008/09/11/roger-hiorns-seizure/

This is my Gavin Turk Flea matchbox. It was a gift from the ever wonderful Yuan. He was selling them at a flea market at the Tate gallery. It is signed and it doesn't contain a flea. It is the only piece that doesn't involve any stealing.

This last one isn't really an artwork by a real artist but it is in the collection. It is a found object sold to me by the artist BigMac Iguana. BigMac was a temporary artist persona created by the actual artist and good friend of mine Kiwon Hong one drunken night in his studio. Kiwons work can be seen on his website the link to which is on the side bar to the right ----->

BigMacs work mostly consisted of bent spoons but I consider this found object to be his greatest work. It is a functioning wind up clockwork toy Caterpillar. It is a sculpture that is a dance of colour and speaks of childhood and the loss of innocence embodied by the sexual innuendo of movement. To really experience this piece is to see it writhe on the floor moving itself teasingly slowly towards your open legs.

I hope you enjoyed this half of my collection. Part II will follow soon and further parts if the collection gains any additions.

Coming down with tears.

2010-06-28T18:36:00.000-07:00

I did this painting when I was 17 i think and it has been following me around since then. It has been in my various bedrooms for the last 5 years. It moved from my room in Wales into halls and then around various places with me and is still at home waiting to stare at me when I get back. It is not a good painting and I defiantly would never call it an art work, but it is an example of my creative output even if it is from a long long time ago. I just want to mention and show it here because while it is very old and very bad it has been in my life for so long. I have seen this painting 7 days out of every 10 for the last few years. More than I have ever seen any other painting or artwork. And while I feel very indifferent to the idea I am sure it will continue to follow me around for many years to come. So yeah here it is. The crying eyeless, strange shouldered, wonky boobed naked girl (or maybe boy?) who stares without staring at me constantly.

The painting got a little bit of dirt on it a few months ago. It looks like a freckle and I like it so it has stayed. Random bit of information; the title of the blog was the title I gave it when uploading it to a website years ago. It comes from a Duke Special song called Love is a series of scars.

Tomo Collaboration I

2010-06-26T17:40:00.000-07:00

This piece was made in October and November of 2009 and displayed at the Chelsea 2nd year interim show in November. It is a collaboration with my friend and artist Tomo (Tomonori Ishikura).

The original idea was mine and I recruited Tomo as a painter but as work went along it became a far more collaborative process with us working together to define the works concept and come up with the final piece. The title of the piece was 'ordinary life with nothing on my mind'. The painting was done by Tomo with me having the idea and doing all the woodwork to chop it into 140 pieces, frame them individually and sell them off at the exhibition for £1 a piece. Over 80 pieces were sold, the others remain in indefinate storage but I suppose are still available if anybody wants one for £1 plus postage. Aswell as at least 50% of the credit going to Tomo much love and thanks must go to all the people who helped with the ideas, making and selling of the work in particular Choya Hung and Selma Dahhouki.

On a side note the first piece of the work to sell was piece number 24 the bright pink left nipple. It was the only piece that was sold for more than £1 with a photographic print being traded aswell as the standard £1. That piece went to my friend and photographer Yiannis Baboulias. Here is the photo I got a print of.

It looks very good on my wall. All copywrite credit and thanks to him. For more of his photography check out:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/laviebohemie/

More old and new work and plugs of friends work coming soon.

Random Peckham bus stop man. (play)

2010-06-26T06:15:00.000-07:00

This play is based on real events involving real people and if anybody wants to help me put it on sometime let me know.

Character descriptions

Man: Average height black male in late 30s with short hair slightly balding, clean shaven. Dressed in dark blue jeans, dark trainers/sneakers, dark green t-shirt with some sort of printed design in black. Light weight black jacket worn open. Holding a dark green opaque carrier bag, fairly full but not heavy looking. Strong Peckham accent, slurring/mumbling slightly.

Will: Fairly tall white male in early 20s with scruffy but clean ear covering black hair. Long stubble/short beard, walks slightly hunched with speed but with a clear tiredness in his legs. Wearing slightly muddy black leather boots, baggy black trousers, a thin navy and white vertical striped silk shirt under an open green/brown feminine jacket. Black headphones coming out of collar, only left one in ear the other swings wildly around when walking.

Play

(At a bus stop on a quiet main road late at night the character known as 'Man' stands near a temporary bus stop sign infront of a low garden wall. With eyes unsoberly wide and slightly shakey legs he stands eyes focused towards the traffic coming from stage right waiting for a bus.)

(after 30 seconds 'Will' enters from stage right walking quickly along the pavement absorbed in the sound coming through the headphone in his left ear. Walks right infront of 'Man')

   Man: Hey
   Will: (Removing headphone and turning back toward Man quizically)
   Man: (Focusing unsober eyes on Will) Are you Jeremy Ear?
   Will: No (questioningly)
   Man: Who are you then? (unbelieving of previous answer)
   Will: Will
   Man: Are you travelling to Zion? (serious curious tone)
   Will: No (bluntly)
   Man: (dissapointed) Where you travelling to then my brother?
   Will: Home
   Man: Carry on then

(Will inserts both headphones and continues his tired yet speedy walk alone the road and leaves the stage on stage left.)

The End

That is my first attempt at play writing. Not sure the format for writing a play but I think you get the point from the way I wrote it. As I said before it is based on real events. I actually have a strange urdge to reenact this little moment from last night. All I need is 2 actors and a stage (or reenact it on location). I actually want to somehow put on this 2 minute play. I can play myself and direct all I need is a suitable actor for the 'Man' character and maybe somebody to document the work from the other side of the road.