Amalgamate

THE INTREST OF OTHER ARTISTS

ENVELOPA: Drawing Restraint 7 (Guillotine) 1993

MATTHEW BARNEY

CREMASTER 4: TT: ascending HACK (1994)

Loughtan Lamb (Native to the Isle of Mann)

  I've been really interested in Barney's surrealist biography of himself because it can reveal the untamed fantasy of an inner mind which you never knew. Crossing Greek myths with Celtic legends to create something which has no context to time. In 'ENVELOPA' (a series of progressing photographs) depicts two satyrs wrestling on the floor,(most likely because the false goat legs are insufficient to hold the weight of a grown man) their disfigured stone faces cleverly hides the personal identity of the two humans. This makes me realise the context of how animals all look the same (separated by species) and usually don't have any defining features apart from markings. Its like Barney saying "this is the animal, this is what it looks like". 

CREMASTER 4: Three Legs of Mann (1994)

CREMASTER 4 Film Stills (1994)

   In CREMASTER 4, Barney takes the role of a young gender-ambiguous Loughtan lamb/Loughtan Candidate (see image above) which progresses into a male through the course of the film. He uses the Isle of man as a film set, also making use of the heritage that this Island has accumulated over the years (The Tourist Trophy/TT races, wildlife and natural geology). "The Three Legs of Mann" shows two side-car driver attached by cables to a shriveled scrotum (Barney) on Victora pier. I noticed that the clips on either side were uneven; which to further investigation was to "Create perfect indifference by making the scrotum equal like classical and neo-classical sculptures, to acquire balanced masculinity". Barney thought that the Loughton Lamb was the perfect species of equal indifference because its horns are pointing an equal amount up and down. After 'OTTOSHAFT', Barney began exploring the use not only of Teflon and stainless steel as prosthetic materials, but also plastics that could be used in a similar way. He was interested primarily in their potential for extending the body.

MARCUS COATES

 I'm interested in Marcus' practice because of his approach to animals and the subversive feral subconscious.

"By trying to become animal he empathises with the animal's sense of being and he explores how this might differ from human conciousness ans the human experience of self and being. He investigates humanness by experimenting with peregrineness, deerness, foxness."- 'Being Something' by Tracey Warr 2001   When I saw the work 'Crucifixes for Various Amphibians' (2000) it reminded me of the 'poles' described in Iain Banks' The Wasp Factory; a crucifix-esque arrangement of sticks which animal heads were tied. 

Crucifixes for Various Amphibians (2000)

Wild Animal at its Den (2000) -Billboard in Grizedale Forest-

Stoat MUSTELA ERMINEA (1999)

 His relation to my own work is that through some of the videos that I made in Northfield quarry, I became an animal human in the landscape of this place; creating offerings to my altar, foraging for items for my den and guarding the woodland. I admire his persistance to become the animal in question, for example "Stoat" 1999 where strapping mimic stoat feet to his own and learning how to walk again. This reminds me with all the children found in the wild where they have adapted to how their animal carers move, whether a bear or a gazelle. I was astonished to read that a 'Gazelle-child' was found in Siberia who was capable of running at 50mph and had adapted his body to have acute hearing and eyesight (John Michell and Robert J.M. Rickard 'Phenomena, a Book of Wonders' 1979).

"Massachusetts Chandelier" (2010)

PIPILOTTI RIST

   I went to the Hayward Gallery South-bank Center to see Pipilotti Rist's 'Eyeball Massage'; it brings together over 30 works from the mid 1980's to the present day. I wrote my experiences down from this exhibition. 

"Yogurt on Skin- Velvet on TV" (2009)

   I had never heard or seen of Pipilotti's work before, so I didn't know what to expect. I walked into a large dark room, which was filled with colour, a chandelier made of underwear hung in front of the door. So many works which intrigued me, there wasn't anything I didn't like, everything had its own soul and been lovingly made. She is present in most of the videos she makes, not so much her face but parts of her body. "Your Space Capsual" (2006) is a bedroom miniature and Pipilotti says that this is your life, "you are the one with the slice of pizza in your stomach." Also the video projections onto the floor - "Mutaflour" (1996) an endless loop of Rist thrusts the camera into darkness and then an anus appears, then she turns around and opens her mouth (as if she is eating the camera) an endless cycle of 'metabolic therapy'. "Lobe of the Land" (2009) is a beautiful visual display of different environments by using flowers and nature to create something that is projected all around you. 

CARRION- A Feast for Our Lady of Sorrows

CARRION- A feast for Our Lady of Sorrows

ELOISE FORNIELES 

"Formerly one knew (or perhaps one guessed it) that one had one's death within one, as a fruit kernel. The children had a little death within them and the grown-ups a big one. The woman had it in their womb and the men had it in their breast. One had it, and it gave one a singular dignity and a quite pride" - Rainer Maria Rilke

 In CARRION a dark room with scaffolding creating the silhouette of a roof. The floor is thick with clothes, which Eloise undresses and re-dresses (using the clothes in the space) walking upon all the discarded garments. The carcass of a calf dominates the room, she atempts to bring it back to life, when she fails she repeatedly cuts into its flesh until it becomes 'pulp'.

"Opening her legs to receive seed and spit out human flesh"- CARRION Eloise Fornieles

CARRION is a 3 day long performance where she receives notes from the audience (apology and thanks) she reads them to herself at the table, folds them up and undress and approach the carcass in the middle of the room. She then makes an incision in the calf's flesh and inserts the letter then returns to the table. But the beast is already dead so why does it need our apology? The deed is done and we must live with the consequences. Words cannot make it better.   This reminds me of the ritual I filmed with Robert Smith, where I ceremoniously cut open a mouse that my cat had given me as a present. I poured wax over its body to seal its organs and inside flesh from the worlds atmosphere; a protection that I lovingly gave it. 

Books:

Marcus Coates- Grizedale Books (2001)

Eloise Fornieles- Other Criteria (2009)

Matthew Barney- Stephan Urbaschek (2007)

Matthew Barney (Drawing Restraint vol 1)- Printmanegment Pritt (2005)
Dream Interpretation A-Z - Pamela. J. Ball

The Wasp Factory- Iain Banks

Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution (Organised by Cornelia Butler) -The Mit Press (2007)

Paul Koudounaris- The Empire of Death - Thames & Hudson (2011)