UTTER

UTTER in the news. Stella was included in an article for Neos Kosmos, along with seven other Greek object artists. Thanks!

http://neoskosmos.com/news/en/Radiant-Pavilion-Melbourne-Contemporary-Jewellery-and-Object-Biennial

 

Most artists work alone… their decisions and ways to get inspired has processes that are always private, vulnerable, and hidden from their public. An artist’s creative boundaries are set by their own artistic framework. Collectively we develop that and collectively we criticize what that is or should be.

The project UTTER has loosened that mold for me. In the beginning, the set-out pathway of collaboration with a common work methodology was daunting, difficult and almost did not get from the ground. It is what collaborations often faze: the peril of reality and purpose.

The two-week turnaround was hard for multi-faceted busy artists, whose life is compartmentalised by their activities.

At the very end, I was getting quite enthusiastic, because its unspoken language opened up with ideas from the conglomeration of my collaboration colleagues Stella and Andrea. That connection was quite special, definitely different, and it made me less self-focused.

The tone of this project got my attention. New sensory channels opened through the whispers, the guessing, the responses, the curiosity, the reactions, the resistance, the progression, the struggle; additionally, the visual clues dictated how to react, what materials to choose, colours to respond to, functionality to focus on.  It all gave me directions that I never would have considered.

This process was new to me. At the very end, I felt I was opening up a secret recipe book where magic could work in other ways. It is that uncovering narcotic magic that is additive. My early hesitation definitely turned around and is now asking for another round – like Tasman or other adventurists – with their pioneering question after their discoveries: “What is around the next corner? Does it go any further? Is there another promise?”

I do realise that the work in the Melbourne bookstore is in its unresolved infant stage, but has all the hallmarks of a companionate process with arbitrary outcomes that brings discovery and curiosity. What it needs is a further translation of its spell.

Peter Deckers

I have never been great at sharing. Growing up amongst 7 children nothing was out of bounds no matter how loudly you yelled it was at people. Clothes, music, hobbies, food, books, friends, all were fluid. Deflecting, hiding and controlling became refined hoarding skills.

I got to make the first piece in this project. I note in my visual diary I have 31 pages dedicated to thinking out ideas and collecting information versus 4 for my second piece, six for the third and 10 for the fourth.

That first piece had no sharing involved. I was serious. I needed to make a work that would be open for the others to respond to, embraced ideas of conversation but also invited viewers to weave their own stories around it. I looked at beads that it is claimed Neanderthals made. Some academics believing these small altered natural forms such as shells and eagle talons indicate the presence of symbolic thinking. To decorate one’s self implies a sense of self and other, self and the world. I asked myself, what is the point of jewellery? I pondered, I drew, I thought and made. I wanted to make the best piece ever for people to view but I only had two weeks. I couldn’t keep remaking. I had to send it, way too much ego.

When I received the second piece I was not in control anymore. There were two weeks in which to respond but I had other things to do as well and anyway, the other works weren’t what I was expecting. What had I been expecting? The works I received held surprises. What were they thinking when they selected those elements to respond to and not others? Is that really what stood out for them? I was quite fascinated. I started to think but really there wasn’t enough time. I needed to just respond and commit to the project. Analyse forms, colour, scale, material. Respond don’t initiate. This was difficult and not me.  Goodbye control.

The work arrived late for the third round of making. To catch up I had spent time pre-planning what I thought I could make as my response from what I had seen last time. No. The work had moved and what I had been thinking was totally out of place. Just respond.

The fourth iteration of the work arrived. I was looking forward to it, anticipating the challenge. What would my partners have seen in the work that I missed? I realised I would like this project to go on as I can see we really have only just begun. These works hold the potential for much more. Being part of this group rather than relying only on my existing making process made me alter how I worked. OMG, I had been sharing. There had been no yelling and I hadn’t lost anything. I had gained from the others view points, endured some discomfort but in exchange had received a wealth of possibilities.

Andrea Daly

At the midpoint, all is in disarray. One neither wants to go back nor forward. There is an element of not wishing to quit; – an unwillingness to strike the project invisible. Yet should it be struck out? Is it unworkable? Our resistance to succumbing; to be awed by the concept keeps us marching to the bench. But alas, one is at the low point of endeavour; where one no longer wishes to press on. We wish for the sure-fire trigger to creativity – curiosity – yet find ourselves overcome by the underwhelming, by duty – the dullard in the room. Responsibility becomes our compliance code and as artists, we pretend that this has nothing to do with our creative practice. Why do we end up in this strangled state when art is meant to be free expressive? Ah, isn’t that a load of crock! As any practising artist knows ‘making’ is just a series of painful articulations. A push-pull race to the finish line with one part of your subconscious holding you back while yet other part pulls you unwilling forward or worse yet someone shoves you from behind!

Pressure is a reliable if somewhat vindictive mistress. A two-week turnaround for Utter demanded quick thinking, decisive action, technical agility and a willingness to be flexible – to give some ideas away. Not always were all these elements possible. So, what gives when mind and hand will not cooperate? Time remains the constant. Ideas and responses for all three participants came thick and fast. There were no doubts to whether a response was possible. There always many roads that could be travelled. But deciding, and doing so quickly, that was the rub. As we all know it isn’t always easy to decide – at times it’s painfully difficult and for some people nigh impossible. Utter demanded decisions! And these decisions required abandonment. And it with regret that I think about the jewels that may have been, the paths untrod, the roads not travelled, the skies where our minds did not soar, the materials left on the bench, the tools not required, the left behind and unforgotten, the opportunities squandered, the conversation not ventured, the discussion never voiced, the responses non-existent, the objects that are only voids, the language not required, the jewels that no one else will imagine – specific as they are to the time, place and rules of Utter. For it’s maybe not what we make, but what we do not that is most intriguing, what no one else can witness – just as the conversations that may have been but never were avoid the banality of those recorded or voiced.

So, what happens? Options are abandoned. and the die is cast. Regrets – sure. However, on reflection, most creative projects may be more of an abandonment of alternatives than an acceptance of choices. For whatever reason, we are constantly putting ideas and objects into the ‘too hard’, the ‘no go’ or just ‘eek, absolutely not that’ baskets. Abandoned and most probably forgotten we move along our trajectory managing our articulations. Those cherished become the language, the favoured, the ones – the jewels that will be responded to. The forgotten a dull itch, more the memory of an itch, the rash no longer bothering anyone.

Stella Chrysostomou