kim abeles and john baldessari

For the first six days of this year, I have been keeping an artist’s notebook in an attempt to catalog things that come my way on a daily basis in an analogue fashion. Yes, there is a digital archives of images, but the text strives to be handwritten except for extensive lists.

Yesterday, I got an e-mail from a friend that thought of me when she saw Kim Abeles’ “A Mile A Minute”

And then this morning, I learned of John Baldessari’s passing and I decided to dig into the archives for an image of his “Dot” works which comes to mind first when I hear his name. Instead, I ended up discovering a Baldessari that I had not seen before and it seems to connect to various aspects of my current practice.

This is Grass. Water Heater, Mouths, etc. (for John Graham)

More than 300 seconds from 10.24.2019

The last few days have been spent getting ready Art Byte Critique and myself ready for the Setouchi Art Book Fair which is taking place starting tomorrow, Friday, October 25th through Sunday, October 27th. Arriving in Takamatsu this afternoon in a heavy downpour, I am sitting in my Super Hotel room with my laptop and catching up with some of what has been going on in the study the last few days. The books and all the necessary materials for booth setup are all packed and ready to go for tomorrow morning.

Having worked digitally over the last week or so, I got back to hands on, analog making last night before heading to Takamatsu today. I took an approach similar to what I did during the course of the Future Sound/Future Vision exhibition at Launch Pad Gallery last year. It is a bit different as there is more intentionality with these enlarged, unintentionally cropped Daily Drawings. Trying to keep things as intuitive as possible, I was making this piece while watching television. The end result is a malleable and relatively unstable form which can be played with and altered. I used photo paper to print out the Daily Drawings and got some what I thought was relatively sturdy construction paper from the 100 yen shop, but it is less rigid than I had hoped. Here is the end result from three different angles.

My muscle memory for working in three-dimensional feels a bit rusty. I do think there is potential, but there are still more experiments to play with to refine things. I was inspired by the Memory Remnants that I did a few days earlier which was the result of pulling off excess pieces of paper after printing seals for the Setouchi Art Book Fair.

I can almost imagine a mass of lines connecting cropped Daily Drawings and Memory Remnants on the gallery floor. I have brought construction paper with me to Takamatsu and will play around with it when I am not at the art book fair.

On the way to Takamatsu this afternoon, I went back and did some digital work with my Daily Drawings and Memory Remnants which I have not really crossed over and the results are four different studies using a one week period in December 2018 and selecting elements for each Daily Drawing and Memory Remnants and pasting them in chronological order going forward and going backwards. These are the results.

More than 300 seconds from 10.20.2019

I had spent some time writing about the following three studies only to have my text disappear in the saving process. Not sure I am going to repeat or can repeat all my thoughts, but I will touch on each of the studies one more time.

Using a random number generator, I chose ten Daily Drawings from 2018 and cropped interesting or repeated motifs and made a digital collage of all the images along with the titles for the music and books I listened to while making these drawings.

For the next study, I chose all the Daily Drawings that I made between December 10 - 21 from 2017. Those dates are from my solo exhibition at Hasu no hana in 2016. Rather than using a rectangular selection tool, I used a smart lasso to digitally replicate what I was doing for the “Inside the Daily Drawings Universe” installation. Again, juxtaposing the text of the titles of music and books, I was continuing an attempt to find connections between the drawings and what I listen to. I am not convinced that this is the best approach to finding a connection, but I will persist for a bit longer.

And for the study from yesterday, I used the Daily Drawings from 2018 for the same December 10 - 21 time period. This time, I discovered the transform function and attempt to render/transform elements of each of the Daily Drawings to give a more three-dimensional feel or shape. In addition to the titles of the music and books during that period, I overplayed Memory Walks from December 10, 2018 which was the day I made two Daily Drawings. Returning to the Memory Walks in two-dimensional form in a digital format was kind of interesting and might have some possibilities. Again, combining the Memory Walks and Daily Drawings together with text was an attempt to find connections between the two projects which I am not sure is happening in an obvious way.

While working on these studies, I have spent the rest of the last few days preparing for Art Byte Critique’s participation in the Setouchi Art Book Fair this coming weekend. In addition to the administrative preparations, I found myself diving down the rabbit hole of making another book, even though I did not really have an idea until I woke up Saturday morning with the idea of improving my Perfect Binding technique. In addition, I have been working on presentations and preparations for events and workshops associated with the Fundamental Complications exhibition in the Bay Area coming up in early November. Juggling all those things, I managed to make enlarged/cropped printouts of all the December 10 - 21 drawings from 2017 and 2018 on L size photo paper which I want to use to explore three-dimensional objects in lieu of paper or the digital plane. I am looking to my experiments during the Future Sound/Future Vision exhibition at Launch Pad Gallery as a starting point for those explorations.

Less than 300 seconds from 10.16.2019

2018

33, 75, 237, 194, 150, 95, 240, 40, 50, 4 (n/a), 109

Evolution of forms over the course of 2015 - 2019

An addendum. The result of staring at the above drawings from 2018 led to this.

More than 300 seconds from 10.15.2019

After my meeting last night, I had been thinking about how to start analyzing my different projects. Naturally, I gravitated towards the Daily Drawings as a starting point since that analysis has been started. My original idea was to select ten drawings each from 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 and then select motifs that were interesting from each of the Daily Drawings. From there, connect them to other projects by date. As it turns out, how to select ten drawings become my point of focus for the day and I settled on a random number generator to select five drawings from 2016 as a starting point. I went through the Daily Drawings and cropped out the motifs and elements that most interested me tonight. From there, I pulled up the Memory Walks records for the day(s) of the Daily Drawings and have juxtaposed them below.

Except for the masking tape one from February 7, 2016. I could easily pull out commonly used motifs that have been ongoing over the last couple years.

Finding how these cropped elements relate to by day to day walks will be an interesting process. Do I look at the whole day? Do I look at just the time around transit periods on trains?

2016年2月7日

2016年7月17日・西池袋・品川駅・羽田空港国内ターミナル駅・羽田空港ゲート71・高松空港ゲート3・高松空港・JRホテルクレメント高松・高松港切符カウンター・男木島港・さくら民宿・男木島港・男木島図書館・オンバファクトリー・高松港・瓦町駅・スーパーホテル・Doutor・餃子の王将・春風堂・ここからのファイン・2016年7月18日・スーパーホテル・高松築港駅・土庄港・バス停・セブンイレブン・福田港・福武ハウス・アジアカフェ・福武ハウス・福田港インフォメーションセンター・池田港・高松港・瓦町駅・タワラ屋・春風堂・スーパーホテル前・2016年7月19日・スーパーホテル・瓦町駅コインロッカー・瓦町バス切符売り場・FLAG瓦町・MF Book Cafe・FLAG瓦町トイレ・ダイソー・高松空港・エリエール・Family Mart・高松空港・高松空港ゲート2・羽田空港滑走路・羽田空港北門・リムジンバス切符自動販売機・羽田空港トイレ・池袋西口・2016年7月20日・西池袋・和光市駅・サンクス・広沢・RIKEN・池袋駅・Anytime Fitness・セブンイレブン・セリア・カフェドクリエ・セブンイレブン・西池袋・マイバスケット・2016年7月21日・西池袋・和光市駅・広沢・RIKEN・北参道駅・ビーンズクリニック・池袋駅・カフェベローチェ・西池袋・サイゼリヤ・セブンイレブン・2016年7月22日・西池袋・和光市駅・サンクス・広沢・RIKEN・池袋駅・たんぽぽ・カフェドクリエ・2016年7月23日・西池袋・Anytime Fitness・西池袋・池袋西口公園・ゴリラコーヒー・デメル・西池袋・マイバスケット・2016年7月24日・西池袋・恵比寿駅・Lawry’s・原宿駅・Apple Store・Camper前・池袋駅・たんぽぽ・セリア・西池袋・ビックカメラ・くすりの福太郎・カフェベローチェ・西池袋・Anytime Fitness・2016年7月25日・西池袋・和光市駅・書楽・サンクス・RIKEN・池袋駅・池袋西口公園

2016年9月29日・西池袋・和光市駅・サンクス・広沢・RIKEN・池袋駅・みどりの窓口・セブンイレブン・Family Mart

2016年11月10日・西池袋・和光市駅・和光市駅トイレ・サンクス・サンクス・RIKEN・北参道駅・MiniStop・ビーンズクリニック・池袋駅・西池袋公園・西池袋・西池袋公園

2016年11月22日・西池袋・和光市駅・広沢・RIKEN・池袋駅・世界堂・ビックカメラ

300 seconds (or more) from 10.14.2019

Spent most of the day thinking about the meeting for my upcoming exhibition. I brought the Remnants of Memory, Daily Drawings, Daily Drawing collages, and the Chigasaki Community Memory Map materials as a starting point for the discussion.

The meeting helped to refine what I am interested in working on for the exhibition. It also was an opportunity to reflect upon the different projects that I have worked on this year. With regards to the Inside the Daily Drawings Universe, I realized that the analysis I did for that installation was really just the starting point of the analysis and reflection on my process.

During the course of this year, a lot of practical concerns have played into my decision making process in the studio. Storage, ecology, and time are three that come to mind for me at this point.

Moving forward, I realized that deeper analysis into different aspects of my studio practice is going to be key for the upcoming exhibition. I am going to focus on the four ongoing projects - Daily Drawings, Memory Walks, Remnants of Memory, and Stories and look at the history of all these projects. Ask questions about the works themselves, ask questions about the process for making work for each of those projects and then asking the questions about how these works relate to my interest in memory. What kind of memory are each of these projects trying to evoke?

I need to read up on the different types of memory and their mechanisms from the special of TIME that I got on my last visit to the Bay Area.

In the course of tonight’s discussion, I started to think about how my other collections such as receipts and ticket stubs might also be brought into consideration for the December exhibition.

Right now, my timeline is to focus on analyzing the four different projects over the next month and see what discoveries and results come to light. From those discoveries and results, I will work on a new installation for the exhibition.

I walked into tonight’s meeting with no sense fo what shape this solo exhibition was going to take shape or how I was going to make it take shape. However, by the end of the evening I had a better sense of what I want to do and what I do not want to do for this exhibition as well as getting a clearer sense of how to move my studio practice forward.

300 seconds from 10.13.2019

Thinking about my upcoming solo exhibition in December, I have yet to really put down thoughts about what I am going to do. Here is a list of what I am thinking.

Artists I am looking at and thinking about

Sarah Sze
Chiharu Shiota
Diana Cooper
Yuko Mohri

Materials I am thinking about

Chigasaki Community Memory Map materials
Collages from Inside the Daily Drawings Universe
Daily Drawings
Memory Remnants

Processes

Sculpture
Installation
Collage
Sewing
Video/Projection

Analysis the focus of the next exhibition

What kind of analysis? How do I break down the information? What information do I break down? What is the relationship between the analysis and the new work?

Thinking about the work I made for Future Sound/Future Vision. Making work from leftover materials or materials that I have not used which have been sitting in my studio for years.

future sound + future vision, week 1, day 4

Upon arriving at Launch Pad Gallery in the sweltering heat on Marine Day, I had no preconceived ideas about what I was going to do.  I walked into the space and saw that the works had proliferated even more in the gallery space with all the walls filled with works as well as the floor and objects hanging from the ceiling. 

I went over to my works from the first two days and took in what I had made as I cooled down from the walk from the station.  I ultimately decided to scrap the collage I made with paper remnants and the double sided tape holder.  From there, I grabbed the two bags of materials that I brought and stored at the gallery and my eyes were drawn to the roll of cotton muslin which I had originally bought to try and cover the walls of Sawatari Gallery last year.  I began cutting the muslin into curved forms similar to what I did with the paper on Saturday and started drawing directly onto them with my Daily Drawings vocabulary.  The marker pens were wider and the muslin offered a challenging surface to draw on so the marks were looser and larger.  I then took these muslin forms and started wrapping the large paper form with them.  I tried to respond anew with each form to the last form and the large paper form.  After four or five forms, I ventured into my bag and pulled out the paper samples which I got for the Takeo Paper Show at Spiral Hall earlier this summer.  I had been using these as supplemental materials for my Remnants of Memory collages, but seemed to be at a wit's end with them.  I began cutting the different paper materials and colors into long linear forms which I then wrapped around the large paper form.  In the early going, the color paper wrapped into the form started to look like a bad rendition of the Tokyo subway/train system which I quickly remedied with some colors which are not normally part of my palette.  After a couple hours of working while talking with visitors and other artists, I ended up with this form.

Marcos Fernandes organized a Sound Walk event for Monday at 3 pm, but the sweltering heat and sun led to a delay in the start of the event in hopes of clouds and slightly cooler weather.  With the extra time, I decided to return to the wooden blocks and paper.  I started to pile blocks in various configurations and attaching them together with wood glue.  I then took the forms and attached them to a piece of paper.  At first, it resembled an abstract architectural model which I quickly moved away from by creating a circular form in three-dimensions.  I also added tendrils of wood blocks extending from the circular form before starting to draw on the wood blocks and paper.  I did not get too far along before the start of the workshop.

Marcos gave a wonderful and easy to understand explanation about phonography as well as the various recording devices, microphones, data forms and applications used in phonography.  For me, the binaural and contact microphone quickly went up onto my wishlist.  One of the great things I learned was the ability to use my digital IC recorder to make field recordings AND simultaneously listen to the recording through earphones.

From there we prepared for our sound walk and Marcos gave me a chance to try out the binaural microphone which he attached to a pair of crossed chopsticks and we set off around the neighborhood to see what we could discover.  The ability to listen to the recording simultaneously provided an all together different experience of walking around the streets that I had been traversing this past long weekend.  My ear buds blocked out most of the ambient background noise while the narrow diameter of the binaural microphones allowed me to pick up very specific noises in the environment.  I was particularly intrigued by the ability of the microphone to pick up high pitched sounds of birds or wind chimes in the distance.  I also used the binaural microphone to make field recordings of everyday activities like buying a bottle of water from the vending machine.  I also placed the microphone in the narrow gaps between buildings to use the structures as echo chambers to see if I could pick up unusual sounds.  If I thought I looked conspicuous taking photographs of Interstices, making field recordings was even more conspicuous.  As a group, we elicited various puzzled glances as we searched high and low for nature and man-made sounds.

After returning to the gallery about half an hour later, we learned about some simple ways of manipulating the sound walk files with the Audacity program and listening to portions of each other's sound walk files.  With the start of the work week upon me, I packed up all my materials and headed out in the evening haze back home.  As I tried to stay cool on the train ride home, I thought about all the different ways that participating in this exhibition has created new possibilities.  I am particularly excited about taking this experience forward as I prepare for my field research presentation for the MULPA project with the Chigasaki City Art Museum.

future sound + future vision, week 1, day 2

I woke up on Saturday morning with the intent of trying something different from day one, so the first thing that I did was pack a different set of pens.  I usually use the brush pens, but started to wonder if using them on the balsa wood was taking an unnecessary toll on the brushes.  I also knew that I wanted to work with paper on day two using a stack of paper remnants that I used for the VF16 and VF17 printmaking exhibitions.  Instead of the brush pens, I brought my 48 color set of Faber Castell marker pens with me. 

I arrived at the gallery and saw a proliferation of works on the wall as well as on the floor.  I had spent the entire first day working on the floor and that took a toll on my lower back, so I decided to take up residence on a stool for the second day.  I pulled out paper and began cutting them in to long and curved forms which I then curled, twisted into new forms attaching different portions of the form together with double-sided tape.  Each of the forms was about 6 x 6 x 6 cm and I began creating more and more forms and then attaching the modules to each other to create a larger form.  The final form reached a size of about 40 x 40 x 40 cm which I placed on the floor.  While working on this form, a steady stream of artists came into the space to continue or begin the works while listening to the sound work files that Marcos had put on.

At the suggestion of a couple of artists, I decided to hang the form from the ceiling.  The paper I used was rather thick and the tight curls and rolls that I used added tension to the forms which could not be sustained by the 100 yen shop double stick tape.  Over the course of an hour, the form started to become unglued with modules dropping away from the form onto the floor.  Eventually, I decided that piece was better left on the floor.  I reconfigured the modules and ended up with this form. 

My next sketch was to make another form using different sharp angled edges, almost star-like.  Barely two forms in, I decided that it was not working and started drawing on one of the forms, but in complete dissatisfaction crumpled the two forms up and started over.  By that time, the cardboard holder for the double sided tape had completely fallen apart and the floor around my stool was littered with paper remnants from the cut curved forms.  In the vein of my Remnants of Memory collage project, I used the paper remnants and the cardboard holder for the double-sided tape to create this.

Throughout the afternoon, the space was quite lively with eight artists working at one time for several hours and more artwork filling up the space.  As the afternoon turned to dusk, there were still four or five artists working in the space.

With the live performance of Still-Life coming up at 6 pm, I had little less than an hour left after finishing those two sketches.  I settled down on a stool and started making a pair of drawings using my marker pens while consciously responding to the sound work files through color choice, type of mark-making, and speed of mark-making which resulted in these two drawings.

Still-Life, which consists of a pair of artists,  set up their performance space on the gallery floor and laid out a variety of everyday objects as well as an intriguing wooden box which kind of looked like an accordion (you can see a portion of it in the left hand corner of the image below.

Artists were invited to make work during the course of the performance much like we had been doing with the sound work files.  I grabbed a piece of paper and put my marker pen set next to me.  It was a very meditative and minimal performance using objects as percussion and wood instruments while also running taped sound works or radio frequencies during the course of the performance.  I did my best to respond to the sounds quickly and adapt with changes in sounds and feeling.  I ended up with a rather chaotic drawing that was full of colors and unfinished forms.  For those you interested in seeing the end result of this drawing, you will have to come to Launch Pad Gallery to see it!

After the performance, Still-Life talked a bit more about their project and process and we were also able to ask questions about the objects that they used.  The wooden accordion-like box turns out to be a shruti box with origins from India.  I ended up picking up one of their CD's which I uploaded to my computer and have listened to while doing work, trying to keep one ear focused on the sounds generated from the duo.

By this point in the evening, I knew I was finished for the day.  I put up my drawings and rearranged some of the pieces and headed back home after a very satisfying second day at Future Sound + Future Vision.

future sound + future vision, week 1, day 1

With the start of Future Sound + Future Vision happening last Friday, I spent the latter part of last week gathering materials that I wanted to use for the exhibition.  Over the last six years, I have accumulated a surplus of materials that resulted from my anxiety about running out of necessary materials at the last minute in preparation for an exhibition or project.  There is nothing worse than running out of a specific type of hook at 2 am on Sunday morning when the installation takes place at 9 am.  With almost no storage space left in my studio, I was happy to begin the treasure hunt for materials to bring to Launch Pad Gallery and I was not disappointed!

There are balsa wood blocks from the 2013 Setouchi Triennale, paper, string, and glue from the Tokyo Art Book Fair, and cotton fabric from the Nakanojo Biennale as well as some of my current favourite materials.  

Arriving at Ishikawacho in the sweltering 35˚C summer heat, I headed over to Launch Pad Gallery along the canal with the expressway overhead buzzing with cars and trucks.  I arrived at the gallery to a largely empty space except for one painting leaning against the wall on the ground.  There were stools lined along the walls with a listening station as well as various recording devices on the table.  Two speakers were pointed into the gallery space with sounds being played from a mixing station on a large table at the back of the gallery.  Two visitors/artists were sitting in the middle of the space talking with one of the gallery directors.  

As I cooled off, I sat down on the floor against the wall and on the side of the air conditioner and began to unpack all my materials.  I knew that I wanted to work with the balsa wood blocks as a starting point so I unpacked those first along with my brush pens.  In the background, various sound works were being played through the speakers.  These sound works are field recordings that are either processed or unprocessed and resulting from sound walks in which artists capture sounds from the natural and urban environments in a practice known as phonography.  Marcos Fernandes is well known phonographer and organiser for Future Sound + Future Vision.  During the gallery hours, sound works are being played through the speakers as inspiration, source material, or background sound for the artists to make work in response to.  Sometimes the response is conscious, while at other times the response is unconscious.

As I walked with the visitors, I began to fuss with the wood blocks getting a feel for them again.  I grabbed one of my brush pens and started to draw on cube block to get going.

The contrast between the dark wood flooring and the balsa wood blocks made the floor a natural working surface.  I began to play around with the blocks, piling them on top of each other in a Jenga / house of cards manner.  The lightness of the balsa wood allowed the individual blocks to vibrate due to the air conditioner.  As I built up piles of blocks, they would repeatedly tumble from the cool air blowing from the air conditioner.  

This pile of wood blocks became the starting point of the first "sketch" I made.

Working around this pile, I began laying down various shapes of wood blocks and over the next hour or so, it began to take the shape of one of my Daily Drawings with the result being this.

In the spirit of experimentation, I took some images of the sketch and then sent the pile blocks tumbling and cleared my floor space.  From there, I began to make some more drawings on the wood blocks with my brush pens and noted the difference in the way the ink flowed on different faces of the blocks depending on the cut of the wood grain.  StudioDeanna and another gallery visitor were in the gallery while I was making these drawings and I invited them to draw on a block or two.

Here are the results from my second sketch after drawing on numerous wood blocks and playing Jenga / House of Cards with them.

After sending this tower of blocks tumbling, I noticed the strong late afternoon sunlight pouring in from the windows of the gallery and started arranging the blocks to create a pattern of shadows.

As I worked on the arrangement, I quickly realised that it was a race against time as I could see the shadows disappearing from the left side as the sun lowered in the sky.  A time lapse video would have been an interesting way to document this third sketch.

I decided to attempt one more sketch before taking a break and began building up a structure with the wood blocks including the ones with the drawings.  As I was on the tail end of finishing up this sketch, Kanako Iriguchi came to the gallery.  She is an artist that works with wood, modularity, and geometry.  I had see Iriguchi's work at the Artcomplex Center of Tokyo and then her solo exhibition at Jinen Gallery, but had not yet met her in real life though we are connected through social media.  She introduced herself and we chatted a bit as my hands continued to play with the wood blocks.  Knowing her work, I invited her to play around with the wood blocks and add to my piece or create something separately and happily, she accepted the invitation.  After about half an hour or so, this was the result of this collaboration.

Happy with the results of the afternoon, I took a break and got some food and drink.  Upon returning to the gallery, I took again took down this fourth sketch and began to start a new.  This time, the starting was a bit more difficult since I was quite happy with the results of the collaboration.  

I pressed on by making more drawings and playing Jenga / House of Cards with all the drawn upon wood blocks.

From there I decided to continue trying things that I normally would not try and grabbed the wood glue and string and ended the first day with this sixth and final sketch.

This piece is the only piece that remains from my first day at Future Sound + Future Vision and it sits on the ledge of the gallery window.  I made prints of all the other sketches and have installed them in the gallery space as documentation of the first day.  I left the gallery that evening satisfied with what had transpired and looked forward to day two.