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WEEK 6, HOWEVER FRAGMENTED BY THE EASTER BREAK, LOOKED AT TRANSFERENCE. TRIG-GERING IDEAS OF BLEEDING, RUSTING ETC. I PUT TOGETHER A BLACK DRESS AND APPLIED SECTIONS OF UNCOATED STEEL WOOL TO IT AS APPLIQUE AND TRASNFERRED THE RUST ONTO THE FABRIC WITH BLEACH, VINGAR AND WATER. THIS WEEK I ALSO FINALLY CARRIED OUT MY BLEACH NECKLACE/TSHIRT EXPERIMENT, WHICH ALTHOUGH BEING QUITE PRETTY, HAD A FAIRLY UGLY OUTCOME. THE GREY WOOL JERSEY WENT VOMIT BROWN WHERE THE BLEACH AND MELTED DOWN, SOMEWHAT RESEMBLING VOMIT. DOING A LOT OF RESEARCH INTO PRESENTATION METHODS, PARTICULARLY FILM. VERY EXCITED TO START WORKING ON MY PLASTIC/WAX GARMENTS AND DOING SOME DOCUMENTATION WITH A NICE LITTLE HD VIDEO CAMERA.

In the 15th-century Palazzo Pisani, Karla Black has made the kind of work that whets the appetite for the Turner prize, the award she is tipped to win this December: boulder-size bundles of sugar paper chalked over in shades of peach and pistachio and bedecked with talcous mounds of plaster powder; sheets of paper sprayed with fake tan; and balsa wood painted with eyeshadow. In one series of rooms, the floors are scattered with soil on which sit industrial-size cubes of soap from toiletries chain Lush, a sponsor of the exhibition.

Don’t, though, whatever you do, call this apparent onrush of girliness feminine. She finds this description of her art disgusting. “It is ridiculous and annoying,” she says. “Why do people call it feminine? Because it is light, fragile, pale? Because it is weak, impermanent? When you start going to work on it you realise how ridiculous the description is. How can a work of art be feminine?”

It is certainly Black’s year. Aside from being the insiders’ favourite, neck and neck with painter George Shaw, to win this year’s Turner prize, as Scotland’s representative at the Venice Biennale she has been thrust on to the largest and most prestigious international stage for art.

Though not an official participating country – Mike Nelson represents the UK in the Biennale proper, eligible to win the Golden Lion for the best national exhibition – this is the fifth time Scotland has staged its own “collateral” show, an increasingly important platform for the nation’s artists. Martin Boyce, fielded by Scotland in 2009, is also shortlisted for the Turner prize.

Her sculpture, Black says, is absolutely non-representational. “There is no image, no metaphor,” she says. Rather, the point is the sculpture’s sheer materiality, its heft and presence and fact of being in the world as it confronts the viewer. The use of materials gleaned from Boots’ cosmetics counter, she explains, is not a kind of feminist critique of sculpture – “though I am a feminist”. It is, she says, not as simple as that: “When I am spraying fake tan on paper I am actu-ally thinking of people making cave paintings. They would hold the colour in their mouth and spit it out: that was the first spray paint.”

This autumn, Black will be preparing for her Turner prize exhibition at the Baltic centre for contemporary art, Gates-head. Having been far from a household name, she will be pushed out into the public gaze, her work seen by thou-sands and pored over by the media. “I’m pleased,” she said. “But I am keeping my head down. I have a lot of work to do and I am concentrating on it. Next year it will all be over, and it will be someone else’s turn.”

KARLA BLACK INSTALLATIONS

Aaron Moran is an artist from British Columbia’s Lower Mainland. He holds a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design and has also studied Film & Video at Simon Fraser University.

Aaron’s work explores assemblage, drawing, print & digital media, and he is also involved in an array of self publishing projects. He is the current artist in residence at the Ranger Station Art Gallery in Harrison Hot Springs, BC.

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“I am interested in the juxtapositions of ideas, media, color, and shapes as well as their reconciliation. I am constantly searching for ways to create subtleties and surprises in the fine details and passageways. I start my process until the painting takes on its own life, thus a relationship is formed between my the subconscious of the painting and my own intuition. I like to explore this relationship with layering, adding, and omitting culminating in a finished, whole, piece.”

I AM INTERESTED IN THE WAYS THAT BRITT BASS HAS EXPLORED PAPER IN THIS PARTICULAR PIECE. I LIKE THE IDEA OF SEEING WHAT WOULDHAPPEN IF YOU APPLIED ANOTHE ELEMENT TO THIS PIECE OR TO A PIECE USING PAPER IN A SIMI-LAR WAY. WATER, FIRE, WEIGHTS, BLEACH, ACID COULD ALL CONJUR UP VERY INTERESTING RESULTS. PRIOR TO SEEING THIS IS WASN’T PARTICULARLY INSPIRED BY THE IDEA OF USING PAPER. BUT THIS HAS DEFINITELY OPENED MY EYES TO PAPER AS A POTENTIAL PLAYER IN THE OUTCOMES OF THIS STUDIO.

WE MAKE CARPETS, consisting of Marcia Nolte, Stijn van der Vleuten and Bob Waardenburg, mix traditional skills and a critical view of the consumer society in unusual carpets.

We all know carpets. The word is derived from the Persian ‘tafta’ and literally means woven. Weaving carpets is a centuries-old tradition, which flourished in (Flemish) Brabant in the 13th century. Throughout the centuries, the carpet industry was leading in designing graphic patterns. The decorative carpets were, in this way, at the cradle of what we now call applied art. Owning this labour-intensive product was associated with wealth, prestige and power. The acous-tic and insulating function often came in second place.

In line with the recent revaluation of the craft (in combination with present-day techniques), WE MAKE CARPETS makes a contemporary interpretation of this centuries-old medium. The weaving method, use of materials and patterns reflect the 21st century. At a distance, we simply see a decorative carpet. Closer inspection will, however, surprise us. WE MAKE CARPETS sampled analog everyday items of use into carpets with impressive sizes. Products that normally have no value once they have been used, such as plastic forks, plasters, paving tiles, pasta, cotton balls and pegs are arranged in an inventive way to form a graphic pattern. WE MAKE CARPETS are inspired by the colour, shape and pos-sibilities of the material chosen. The result is not just a decorative carpet, but an object that makes us think about the consumer society that produces these ‘weaving materials’. A contemporary interpretation of wealth.

SO INTERESTING TO LOOK AT THIS WORK FROM A NUMBER OF PERSPECTIVES. I REALLY REALLY LOVE THE WAY THEY ARE TURNING THESE HARD BRITTLE BEADS INTO FLEXIBLE MALUABLE STRUCTURES, THE CONTRAST AND COMPLEXITY IN THAT IS REALLY BEAUTIFUL. MAKES ME WISH I’D DISCOVERED THIS BEFORE WEEK 1. THEY ALSO CONSTRUCT CARPETS OUT OF REALLY BIZARRE MEDIA THAT COULDN’T BE CLASSIFIED AS BRITTLE AT ALL. SUCH AS THE BANDAID CARPET (PICTURED) AND PEG CARPETS, PASTA CARPETS, ARMY FIGURINE CARPETS. IT’S INTERESTING TO SEE HOW A TEXTILE CAN BE MADE OUT OF NEARLY ANYTHING.

WE MAKE CARPETS RIGID VS MALUABLE

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Born in Saga, Japan in 1967, he worked under Shiro Kuramata in 1987 and Issey Miyake since 1988 and established his own studio, Tokujin Yoshioka Design in 2000.

Some of his most important works are displayed as a part of permanent collections in the world’s well-known muse-ums such as Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, Centre National d’Art et de Culture Georges Pompidouand the Victoria and Albert Museum.

But what we love most about his work is the serenity it portrays. For the Miami Design exhibition, he filled a large space with a snow like kind of fibres that transformed the room into a child’s fantasy.

EVERY TIME I DISCOVER AN ARTIST THAT WORKS WITH TRANSIENCE SO CLOSELY IT JUST INSTILLS SO HEAVILY THE BEAUTY IN SOMETHING THAT DOESN’T LAST. I THINK THERE IS SOMETHING SPECIAL ABOUT CREATING SOMETHING THAT WILL CHANGE DURING THE TIME THE VIEWER SEES IT OR THE WEARER WEARS IT. WHETHER IT BE OVER A FEW MINUTES, HOURS, DAYS, WEEKS OR MONTHS. PHYSICAL CHANGE IN SOMETHING SHOULD BE CELEBRATED, AS WE ARE DOING IN THIS STUDIO, AND TOKUJINS WORK IS SO BEAUTIFUL, THE PURITY OF THE WORK AND THE WHITE REGISTERS REALLY WELL WITH ME FOR SOME REASON. WHICH IS LUCKY, BECAUSE I AM LOOKING SO CLOSELY INTO THIS IDEA OF CLEAR PLASTIC CLOTHING WITH PERIPHIN WAX COATING.

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I’VE BEEN VERY DRIVEN TO EXPLORE A REALLY WIDE RANGE OF PRESENTATION AND DOCUMENTATION IDEAS FOR THIS STUDIO, IT’S DEFINITELY ONE OF THE MOST INTEGRAL ASPECTS TO THE OUTCOME. BEGINNING EXPERIMENTS WITH THE PLASTIC AND PEREPHIN WAX, IT’S BECOMING CLEARER A SORT OF FEELING THAT EXUDES FROM IT AESTHETICAL-LY, THAT IS DEFINITELY MAKING IT CLEARER AND CLEARED WHAT STYLES WILL AND WONT SUIT. I’VE BEEN LOOKING AT A NUMBER OF FASHION FILMS AND VIDEO DOCUMENTATION AND ART WHICH I AM REALLY KEEN TO EXPLORE AS A MAIN OUTCOME OF MY PROJECT, ALONG SIDE THE ACTUAL GARMENTS. BUT I’M ALSO REALLY KEEN TO PUT TOGETHER PERHAPS SOME POSTERS OR A BOOK OR SOMETHING AND I HAVE BEEN LOOKING INTO COLLAGE AS A MEDIA FOR THAT. I THINK IT COULD BE A REALLY GOOD WAY TO PORTRAY THE OVER ALL THEME OF MY OUTCOME, OR REPRESENT IT VISUALLY AND ARTISTICALLY IN ANOTHER MEANS OTHER THAN JUST VIDEO.

WHEN TACKLING THE TRANSFERENCE STUDIO I WAS IMMEDIATELY DRAWN TO THE NOTION OF RUSTING. THE EARTHY COLOUR AND TEXTURE IS SO APPEALING AND I THINK DEFINITELY RELATES TO THE FEELING OF TRANSIENCE IN GENERAL, I SUPPOSE IT FEELS VERY ORGANIC. INSPIRED ALSO BY CAROL CHRISTIAN POELL’S WORK, RUST WAS AN EXCITING PROSPECT. I GRABBED A TORN RAGGED SCRAP FROM THE SCRAP BIN OF THIS BLACK GEORGETTE/SILK FABRIC AND BEGAN WORKING IT ON THE STAND. USING ONLY HAND SEWING TECHNIQUES AND TRYING TO WORK WITH AS MANY NATURAL JOINING TECHNIQUES AS POSSIBLE (INCLUDING KNOTS TO JOIN THE SIDES RATHER THAN FULL LENGTH SIDE SEAMS). I THEN STITCHED SECTIONS OF UNCOATED STEEL WOOL TO THREE SECTIONS OF THE GARMENT, AND SAT THEM IN BOWLS OF A WATER, BLEACH AND VIN-EGAR MIX. LUCKILY, THE FABRIC WAS BLEACH RESISTANT, SO AS THE STEEL WOOL RUSTED, IT MAINTAINED A VERY EARTHY LOOK, AND IT WAS REALLY OBVIOUS THAT THE RUST WAS CLINGING ONTO THE FABRIC THROUGH THE CONTRAST OF BLACK TO ORANGE THAT WE WOULD HAVE LOST HAD THE BLEACH WORKED. THE STEEL WOOL RUSTED MUCH FASTER THAN EX-PECTED AND HAD BASICALLY TURNED TO DUST BY THE END OF THE CLASS, BUT FRAGMENTS AND A LOT OF THAT DUST HAD FOUND IT’S WAY INTO THE WEAVE OF THE FABRIC, LEAVING A VERY BEAUTIFUL AESTHETIC NATURE.

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SINCE MY PREVIOUS TSHIRT EXPERIMENTS HAVE ONLY HAD TEMPORAL OUTCOMES, I DECIDED TO FINALLY DO ONE THAT WOULD MAKE A COMPLETE TRANSFORMATION OF THE GARMENT. FREEZING CUBES OF BLEACH AND LINKING THEM IN A ROW ON A PIECE OF STRING I MADE A BLEACH ICE CUBE NECKLACE, WHICH I PLACED AROUND THE NECK OF MY TSHIRT AND DOCUMENTED MELTING. THE PROCESS WAS MADE DIFFICULT BECAUSE IT WAS A REALLY WINDY DAY AND THE BLEACH REACTED BADLY TO THE WOOL JERSEY TSHIRT LEAVING IT LOOKING YELLOW AND ALMOST LIKE IT HAD BEEN VOMITED ON. BUT THE MELTING PROCESS WAS NICE. THERE IS A STOP MOTION TO GO WITH THIS OUTCOME.