The following documentation, maps the journey I took in the development of my practice during the year long Conditions Online Programme, led by Matthew-Noel Tod and David Panos, and under the mentorship of Conditions Associate and Vienna-based artist, James Lewis.
The brave decision to destroy previous works, principally the works I made from clear packing tape and pvc film became instrumental as a way of erasing the body in its presence from my works, and inserting the invisible actions and enactments that a body can carry our. Over several weeks and months, resulted in the durational and ongoing series called ‘4.8038206872’.
This number makes reference to the miles of clear packing tape and clear pvc used in the making of various works (which now do not exist, only in documentation), which can be viewed in the gallery of works on this site. The reason for the ongoing side to this series, is that in the undoing and redoing made further use of clear packing tape, increasing the milage, where the title’s name and number would continually change, ending with ‘4.8038206872’ as its current (and uncertain) position.
4.8038206872 (inversion)
Destroying any body of work, is something an artist hesitates in contemplating. In this instance, it is a crucial part to making this small series. Involving recent works created from clear tape and PVC film - both sculptural and choreographic in nature, are dismantled, cut up and reassembled in an act of returning this ‘object-material’ to its origin, or at least a semblance - ending up as a simulacra of sorts. The title alludes to the statistical data gathered from the various works created as a means (and curiosity), to summon up its currency in the form of measure and quantity.
Together with its counterpart, ‘4.8038206872 (residue)’, both share the stages of making and un-making. These works, once created from clear tape, no longer exist, and are now ‘hidden in plain sight’ as new arrangements of themselves. Their new forms mimic reels of film, holding a provenance of indexical, haptic gestures amassed in their making, performing and display, are presented as their own imagined footage to a moving image.
Documentation. Installation view, clear tape and pvc film, dust, hair, skin, fibres, cardboard spools, perspex cases. Dimensions: 41cm x 41cm x 72cm
4.8038206872 (residue)
Clear tape residue accumulated from returning the material objects I constructed from clear tape back to their origin, collected as a mass of tape off-cuts, shards, and dust. As a byproduct in this process, this mass has inadvertently become a separate work in itself.
Each small layer is a host, that carries multiple elements such as dust, hair and skin particles (skin cells, fingerprints and other remains of dna) that were accrued from its original process in making the objects, as well as additional marks and imprints of other's body's through performance, interaction or touch.
This piece and its counterpart, ‘4.8038206872 (inversion)' both allude to and share connotations to celluloid film stock - its components of film being spliced and put back together, as if they were picked up off the editing suite’s floor in the stages of editing, creating an imagined film from its shards and discarded remnants.
Further accumulations, such as, cardboard dust and shavings, fibres from clothing, more hair, more skin etc., extends the piece's indexical and durational journey, and are now new companions, as they mingle in different shades of transparency.
Documentation (studio instal view), clear tape, pvc film, dust, hair, skin, fibres, plastic carrier bag. 40cm x 31cm x 26cm approx
4.8038206872 (damage)
In this journey of inverting, incising and accumulating residue of objects made and un-made in their doing and undoing, these un-objects have now gone through their next phase in their transformation. In much of this small series of works, the physical presence of the body is invisible and only visible in its activities and actions that the body performs — the indexical, haptic gestures are being preserved that create ways of considering the body’s relationship to the materials.
In the instance of 4.8038206872 (damage), a form of flaying has occurred resulting in the damaging of the painstaking process the original works had gone through to arrive at this point.
Documentation, clear tape and pvc film strips, cardboard dust, hair, skin, fibres, perspex. Approx 200cm x 56cm x 25cm
4.8038206872 (incision)
Appointing a Stanley knife and its numerous blades seemed the best possible incising instrument to aid the cutting, splicing and dissecting of each clear tape object in the first stages of returning this 'object-material' back to its origin. The unexpected was revealed in the clear tape’s adhesive becoming congealed and stuck to the surface of each blade, where the tape has imparted, leaving traces of its own demise. This act has in itself served to become another arm to this series, creating what can only be described as an 'aftermath' in the wake of the numerous hours of cutting and trimming the clear tape objects to fit the 211 spools dimensions. This added an extra layer of the indexical and haptical relationship to material, as a proposition for the counterparts in this small series, transforming these consumable products to oscillate into something less neutral, or material, but into objects.
Documentation of 12 knife blades, clear tape and tape adhesive, pvc film residue, cardboard dust, hair, skin, fibres. Dimensions: 5.5cm x 2cm and 6cm x 5cm (including residual matter)
About Conditions Programme
Conditions is artist-run, co-founded in 2018 by artist and educator Matthew Noel–Tod and artist and musician David Panos. The programme has been developed in collaboration with curator Sara Sassanelli since 2021. The aim is to build a long-term, sustainable, and independent environment for artists.
Conditions is led by Matthew Noel-Tod, whose work in art education includes previously running the Moving Image degree at University of Brighton: a pioneering course in artists’ film and video.
More details about the programme and a list of the Conditions Artists and Associate can be found below