George's W,W,H

First draft here:[edit]

work one

what

There are four objects on a simple shelf or alcove, mantelpiece or window sill. They are recognisable by their shape (but not quite by their finish) as drinking vessels, more specifically traditional beer tankards. All four tankards are seemingly handmade; slightly misshapen. Each is a hollow, vertical, cylindrical(ish), with a rimmed base that is broader than the main shape. The cylinder narrows toward the top like an old chimney. Each has a handle. One tankard is black with a yellow base. One is light blue with a red triangle on its handle. One is a dark leafy green. The last is metallic silver.

why

The tankards were made by hand with salt-dough, this is a simple mixture of flour, salt and water. The salt-dough was treated like clay or biscuit dough, rolled out, cut out, and the cylinders were formed around card from a cereal box that was stapled so as to to make a slightly funnelled cylinder shape. It was then baked until hard. The tankards were sealed with a PVA glue to protect from mould and decay and then painted with a range of shop bought or old leftover paints: household eggshell, spray paint, high gloss and enamel.

how

I was interested in shape of these drinking objects from seeing them a lot in pubs in England. I am generally interested the shapes colours and objects that have come about that we see repeatedly used in environments where groups of people meet to drink alcohol. Why is it that we surround ourselves with brown wood to drink beer? The four tankards were painted and styled differently to each other in order to imply varying and individual provenance. I wanted each tankard to have its own different aesthetic and attitude, to appear a little fake, and for them to clash slightly when they come together.

works two

what

Over two A4 pages there are three separate pieces of text, they are distinguishable from each other because they each adopt a different font; a page wide line of hyphens also sets a clear division between each section. Firstly there is is a five line paragraph in quotation marks, the source is indicated beneath. Secondly there is a Q&A style text with the questions (three in total) set in italics. Thirdly, the longest text consists of an introductory paragraph then a list of instructions. Together the three texts allude to a robotically operated room that choreographs anonymous sexual encounters.

why

The piece was designed in order to appear like each of the three texts was appropriated from a different source such as a newspaper or wikipedia article. This was achieved in both the styling of the writing on the page and also in the styling and form of the different text components. It was created in Google Docs which is a free to use web-based word processing app. It was written in short bursts over a period of a couple of months, as and when the idea for each component arrived to me. The first two were unedited to appear conversational.

how

I wanted to construct the text in a collaged non-fictional style in order to suspend the audience’s disbelief and to make ambiguous the content of the piece, especially with regards to the space’s real world existence. The work refers to a space designed for anonymous sexual encounters that encourages strangers to make love to each other without the disclosure of personal background, social status et cetera and with the aim of suppressing any prejudices they may have. When I wrote the work I wanted to speculate upon sex and sexuality, subjectivity, what we own, and what we are capable of sharing.