Emma: meeting some inspiring people on day 4

2nd March.

The two artists we met today had two very different approaches to developing work that I found intriguing to observe.

Ruudt Peters described a two year work cycle where he would 'eat' and digest research, images and inspiration in the first year and in the second year he would bring together this research into ideas and pieces of work.

I won't retell you all the projects he showed and talked us through but a pattern emerged in my eyes that showed how this 2 year cycle happens in the flesh. For all his projects he first showed us a plethora of images - be that related to alchemical symbols and thoughts, images related to the circle of life or DNA strands (just to name a few).

Next, he took us through how the inspiration combined together to form an idea for the work - for example: the ouroboros (a snake eating its own tail) lead to ideas about the life cycle which lead to a ring that you could wear both ways. One ring also had blackboard paint on it so that it would wear off, another layer of meaning in the piece (he has many different layers of meaning in all of his work).

Ouroboros

Finally, the exhibition of the collection always had to add to the pieces and their meaning (another layer!). A lot of the exhibitions that Ruudt showed us had elements of performance by other people (men walking in wearing the pieces) or involved the audience to interact more with the exhibition. For the Ouroboros rings, Ruudt had the pieces installed on the roof beams and had the audience climb ladders to see them.


I really enjoyed seeing this process and the fact that it was of the same rhythm throught each new cycle. I also really liked being able to understand the multiple layer of meaning in each collection; you often don't get that depth when you go to see an exhibition because there's not a whole lot of information about the story behind the work.

One work I particularly connected with with was his 'Corpus' collection from 2011. Ruudt explained that Christianity was often too close to him to ever do a piece of work (hence exploring other religions for inspiration) but that in this case he wanted to give himself the freedom to try. He drew inspiration from Corpus Christi at Santa Spirito by Michelangelo which had the body of a 17 year old and the face of a 33 year old and made 3D corpus'. He then cut these off on the front to make a flattened surface (see image!) enabling the wearer to deal with the piece in an easier fashion - it looks abstract, so the person isn't wearing their religion on their sleeve, but the back shows Christ's face, which the wearer can choose to show someone.

Corpus Scapula, 2011

Andrea Wagner on the other hand, seemed to move from one series to the next with mainly material exploration or inspiration spurred from entering into various competitions or exhibitions whilst still having a longer cycle with series' of work. The thing I found most interesting about her talk was the variety of materials that she has used from collection to collection. She's cast found objects, rubber cast porcelain, made her own felt - just to name a few. There seems to be a line drawn through her work in the same way that various religious and other symbols were the thread throughout Ruudt's work. With Andrea however, this thread seems to be more about relationships, human thought and nature. There were two series of her work that intrigued me the most: 'Wonderbliss' (2000-2002) and 'The Architect Who Faced His Jardin Interieur' (2006). 'Wonderbliss' interested me because of her interesting combination of hand dyed felt with sterling silver and gold pieces. The other interesting thing about this series is that despite the fact that they look like imaginative creatures or plants from Alice's wonderland, Andrea describes them to be representative of human interactions and human insecurity. She wanted them to be sexually tinted and about the vulnerability of relationships. The quote off her website describes it in a particularly nice way (which i guess is the point of these things on a website!) "The implicit eroticism is somewhat in contrast to the "homeyness" in the work creates a provoking duality."

Voloptas Propulsa 2000-2002

 Concerning "The Architect Who Faced His Jardin Interieur", I think visually these pieces really appealed to me because they look like a secret garden that is a little over grown in places. They have colour and structure and are just really beautiful. I like the idea that they represent the imagination where we are allowed to fantasise and use our imagination to our hearts content. (I'll add some photos soon!)