Personal Mapping...a new update

These collages are becoming larger and more complex. I'm experimenting more with text and hope to soon have the courage to try this technique on my relief forms.

Roots & Remains Update

I have a new draft of Roots & Remains, though I don't have the same conviction about this piece being complete as I do with Isaiah's Inventory. I feel that for now it is in a good place. Originally, I intended for this to be an audio piece but I believe that it becomes stronger by combining the image of a landscape near the cemetery where I found Great-Uncle Flemming with an image of the bill of sale showing that Isaiah Jr. purchased Charity Ann and her children with Flemming's signature on it.

I will use the same photo installation as Isaiah's Inventory.

Isaiah's Inventory

Finally, I'm at a point where I feel this piece is complete. I remixed the sound, leaving more space between the reading of the names so that more of the object/animal list is discernible as I mentioned with the last draft. The sound also builds more slowly in intensity, which I believe is more effective at creating an emotional connection with the viewer. 

I also altered the image so that the list fills the entire frame which I also believe makes more of an emotional impact, however comparing the two images, I think including the edge of the book is visually stronger. I will have to think more about whether or not to change the image back to its original cropping. Finally, I tweaked the timing of the dissolve to compliment the timing of the narrative. I sighed with relief when exporting this last draft because for one of the very few times in my life, I knew without a doubt that the work was resolved and with the exception of deciding what to do about the image, I believe I achieved what I set out for. 

I've also been working on the installation. The video will be projected into the negative space of a photo collage containing images of the landscapes of Harris County, county maps, the probate documents I found in the Town Hall, and graves from the Sardis and Prospect AME Church cemeteries. This installation will also be used to project Roots & Remains.

Roots & Remains

Yesterday, I completed the 1st draft of a new audio piece. A question that I've struggled with this semester is how to incorporate my research and artistic process more into the finished work. 

In this piece, I wrote narrative describing my trip to Harris County in search of my ancestral home, Negro Heel, and Isaiah Parker Jr.'s grave. I combined it with a nature recording of my childhood home and recitation of and repeated excerpts from Alice Walker's poem, Turning Madness into Flowers. I'm currently exploring ideas for turning the piece into a video installation and will discuss this further as it develops.

The Water Knows My Secrets: Update 2

This work, Water Secrets 1 is a companion piece to an earlier work I made this semester. It features a visual and audible shift in tone. I am exploring the possibility of combining the two works into a two-channel video installation. 

In regards to my time-based work in general, some of my primary sources of inspiration include the following works by:

Ann Hamilton - Corpus - Sound and My Love
Janet Cardiff - Jena Walk (Memory Field)
John Akomfrah - Vertigo Sea

List and Inventories Update

I have a new draft of Isaiah's Inventory. I was very unsatisfied with the quality of sound in the original draft, so I re-recorded everything. I also considered tone more with the mixing of this work. My intention is to create a sense of confusion and complexity. My mentor, Cathy, suggested being more thoughtful about the sculptural qualities of sound. Taking her advice, I experimented more with the use of stereo to create sound that is more dimensional and experiential. I'm currently working on the installation for this work.

Although I intentionally overlapped the tracks containing the lists of animals and inanimate objects, I also tried to space out the narration of the names so that the viewer/listener can catch snippets of the contrasting list. In between the names of people and their valuation, one can here things like bay horse mule, or meat, or buggy. I'm not quite convinced that enough of the animal/object list is discernible, making the contrast clear between it and the list of peoples names.

Finally, I added more contextual details in the document's narration, in an attempt to aid in the listener's understanding of the work.

Personal Mapping Update

Over the last week, I have made several collages using themed images from my grandparent's backyard:

• my childhood playhouse
• the basketball goal
• beyond the fence
• 2 generations of banana trees

After editing the images in Photoshop, they are printed, cut and used for collages. Since photo transfers are a new technique for me, I am experimenting with various methods on boards before I move on to the papier-mâché forms. So far, I've worked with acetone, matte medium and Mod Podge. My mentor suggested to also try oil of Spike Lavender and Citra Solv.

I'm also experimenting with surface: unfinished wood, primed and painted panels and paper, in addition to the papier-mache forms that are my ultimate goal.

To finish off the paintings, I add text. A list in prose form of my own memories associated with the place depicted in the collage.

Work in progress

Work in progress

Inspiration for this work comes from...  

Tone and texture

Tintypes, particularly the one shown above that I saw at the Smithsonian Museum of American History

Treatment of figure and setting in portraiture

Gerhard Richter's Portrait Wunderlich

Use of narrative and text

Mary Kelly's Post-Partum Document

Figure and place imagery in collage

Romare Bearden's The Dove