My extended essay 'The Work of the Work and When the Work Works' is published in Four
Hundred and Twenty-nine Significant Moments: Documenting an Artist’s Research
and Processes by artist Lisa Watts, designed by DUST, Sheffield. My essay evolved through creative prose in response to encountering Lisa's work over a series of iterations as it developed from the project Skittish (witnessed at Vane, Newcastle; The Tetley, Leeds, to Not a Decorator… (witnessed at SIA, Sheffield; Castlefield Gallery, Manchester).
Extract from 'The Work of the Work and When the Work Works': "Some things are named according to the
specific task, role or function that they are usually identified to perform. Here,
naming defines the parameters of expectation and convention, pronouncing and
privileging a single designated identity or activity to the exclusion or marginalisation
of all others. Definition thus involves the cut of decision, settling the
boundaries and limits through which things are both known and knowable. Now,
imagine the task or challenge — this could be conceived as an instruction or
score, a spell or incantation. Let things be released from their habitual
duties and designations; let them become free of name, more than language ordinarily allows. Ritual emancipation, re-wilding
the domestic — liberated, let everyday things surprise in their potential. Repurpose
without purpose: let things enter unexpected relations, initiate new alliances
and confederations — edges between dissolve as nascent action-assemblages
emerge. Yet, what to call this practice of transformation through material play
— artistic (Is this sculptural or performance?) or alchemical (Is this the
science of invention, speculative
philosophy or magic?) The categories of naming are already
becoming protean, porous; disciplinary demarcations begin to collapse or blur. Find
ways for notating and sharing this process of slippery transformation — yet be
wary, for words can easily fix and stabilise that which is in motion, mutable
or inconstant. Attend to the moments of decision-making, of minor revelation and deviation, of epiphany and failure. Yet take
care, for in privileging one decision or observation, a myriad other options
fall away inescapably, forever forgotten or forgone. Engage language lightly,
for it too suffers the strictures of its own systems of definition and
denomination, yet has the potential too for liberation, for also running wild. Still,
be patient, since transformation will not be hurried, does not often come with
haste. Transformation’s arc has many phases — witness as preparation tilts
gently towards play, experiment edges towards invention. First — setting up the
conditions: towards letting go, loosening
the bonds of recognition and utility. Pre-formance — notice the doing that precedes doing, what must be
done before play is begun."
About the publication: Hundred
and Twenty-nine Significant Moments: Documenting an Artist’s Research and
Processes maps the artistic processes over a nine month period of the making of
the art work Not a Decorator… by Lisa
Watts 2017. It does this through the
artist's use of Studio Activity Sheets SASs and two essays by writers Emma
Cocker and Sarah Gorman who watched the art develop. It is also introduced with
a transcription of a conversation between Lisa Watts and Rebecca Fortnum. This
book is unique in revealing a close-up, chronological view of the formation of
a specific artwork from the perspective of the artist. The research in this
book encourages other disciplines, both within the arts and outside, to
understand the aspects of an artist’s practice, as it unwraps artistic
processes and their documentation for trans-interdisciplinary research. An
edition of 100 printed books. £20. Please email lisa.karen.watts@gmail.com if you
would like a copy.
