Reflection

Reflection

On reflecting on the path of my theory and works I have been making, I decided to refine some ideas and alter the path I have been on. A few things aren’t sitting right with what I have been doing, and although I am enjoying the experimentation in the moment and the outcomes, I am not connecting with the work. It feels more to appease contemporary trends or academia rather than being true to me. While I acknowledge experimentation is wonderful and stretching boundaries and learning, I feel it's creating lots of loose ends and not connecting to my theory; there is too much noise in random ideas and there's a need to focus and refine for the next segment leading onto the end of the year.

I am going to abandon working at the beach, wrack lines and works that contain other organic matter (shells, sand, etc). One reason is the waste of material. I cannot reuse any scraps or remake things because it is tainted with sand and the likes, it's not the cheapest of materials so in this much more experimental phase and finding a direction, it's costly. With the algae-based bioplastic, one of the things I like is that it can be reused and recycled fairly cleanly, and the additives (organic matter) interfere with that. It’s also making a mess in my studio, which I’m not relishing (sand is just going everywhere).

I want to continue with the ideas around “bodies of water” but focus more on the body and skin and the water contained within rather than the geological bodies of water (oceans and lakes). Maybe origins and connectivity.