July Seminar // midweek reflections, notes, etc.
- annabensky
- Jul 4, 2023
- 9 min read
Updated: Jul 11, 2023
This is an ongoing blogpost that I will update throughout the week. Full reflections and feedback notes will be posted in another entry :)
Monday
Installation thoughts:
I forgot to take any photos during the installation process for seminar, but I wanted to document the strategies I used here for record keeping's sake. Initially, I had intended on exhibiting the series of 7 printed works on a singular long wall in the space, but I felt that this felt too sterile and rigid, and in placing them together they felt simultaneously too individual and too uniform. In an effort to allow each to have its individuality visible, I decided to space each out, in some places more than I would usually (i.e. on the individual walls choosing to place them intuitively rather than by exact even measurements on the wall's dimensions). This I feel gave me enough balance between having each piece visible as part of a collective and as unique in each of their own rights.
The title "Orbital Resonance" refers to a phenomenon in celestial mechanics by which two bodies exert regular, periodic gravitational influence on one another. By coming into orbital proximity, each impacts the trajectory and momentum of the other slightly, with the cycle repeating until they achieve a state of equilibrium. A terrestrial examples would be similar to pushing a child on a swing - the orbit and the swing both have a natural frequency, and the body of the person doing the pushing acts in repetition periodically to influence their motion. I thought the phrase related nicely to the celestial inspirations behind my research into this work around Comet 67P and NASA imagery, as well as the notion of abiotic agency - nonliving entities having influence over one another and other beings. Outside the context of Physics, I hope the inclusion of the phrase helps emphasise a sense of encircling, surrounding, place,... something I tried to mirror in the placement of the work within the space.
In placing the works in a circular fashion around the space, I wanted to evoke a sense of being surrounded by the mountains - reflecting the dispersal of the maunga throughout the landscape in situ and in aggregate. The title of the work also reflects this, chosen to reflect the building of structures from their quarried rocks and for the multiple meanings of "Aggregate Peaks" - this includes reference to the commonly named construction material (aggregate) and the concept of multiple pieces coming together to create a while.
In terms of installing on the walls, I wish in hindsight I had painted them beforehand, but oh well! Something to remember next time... Initially I trialed out a few different ways of installing - mounting the works on foam board to give space between them and the wall, deckling the edges, installing on shelves and without pins - but overall I felt the best strategy was to go with simple pins to hold them in place. As ephemeral images, I thought this may help add a sense of 'groundedness' to them; and within the context of questioning the concept of landscape and its viewing within a Western ideological lens, I felt the pins added both stability and a sense of literllay pinning down something unable to be generalised visually... Whether or not this is successful, we shall see.
Student-lead critique feedback (thank you Freya for taking notes)
mentioned this was an ongoing body of work
physical/visual connection to wet plate photography picked up on in some of the images
key words: volcanic, historic, ecosystem, form
uncertainty of hierarchy/focus - is this about Auckland specifically, or geology, ecology...? Where does the importance lie?
Positive feedback on the visibility of hand in the work (i.e. the smudge marks and ink dragging around the edge of the bordered images). Group felt they were important to have in the series as they added an element of consideration (i.e. these have been hand-made, there is a process of making that has taken place; temporal, considered); "a ghost of the process"
question of using black ink raised - desire for people to see different options, experiment; see where that takes things
Series felt balanced on walls - despite two different styles of print (bordered and unbordered) having them both together helped balance each; without borders may have felt too sterile, like images cut out of a science textbook
group said that the spacing made sense - having enough for each work to not crowd its neighbours, but close enough to be related to each other
More research
I'm unsure how I will continue to engage with these works and this subject matter in future, but I've been wondering about reaching out to the Tūpuna Maunga Authority (a collective that represents the interests of the 13 iwi who connect ancestrally to the mountains in Tāmaki Makaurau) for some guidance. I hope I have been respectful so far in my process and research, but I feel it would be wise to touch base with them around any future plans for recording and creating works in or relating to the spaces.
Given the geological subjects I am investigating and the cultural significance of the maunga within Māori culture, learning about their history in this light and in light of colonisation is a part of understanding more about them. I think learning as much as possible about a subjects one is exploring is a fairly normal process, however, that is not to say I want to address this cultural history in my work specifically, more so that this learning is an inevitable and important part of the process. I don't think as a Pākehā artist that would be appropriate to speak with any kind of authority on it in that way or to take up space in that discourse. I am unsure how to proceed in my geological exploration in light of this, if it will be possible or not in a way that is respectful. If not, I will need to recentre myself in something else...
"The Tūpuna Maunga are revered by all peoples for their multiple layers of cultural, natural and built heritage. As Auckland continues to grow and intensify, the Tūpuna Maunga are increasingly important as spiritual and aesthetic anchors for all Auckland communities, and as valuable open spaces and places of refuge in an urban landscape. They will continue to be celebrated, treasured and valued for their defining heritage features and importance in shaping the character and identity of Tāmaki Makaurau."
Friday
Well, safe to say I did not do a good job with my artist statement. Not only did it not convey the intention of my work and practice, it alluded towards some pretty problematic notions regarding whenua and perpetuating a colonial mindset.
While I've been focusing on the volcanic stones and their use in construction in the city, even though from the view of wanting to highlight their placement and individuality and the ideological decisions that have gone into their displacement, it was explained to me during critique that addressing geology particular to Tūpuna Maunga could be an insensitive choice. In hindsight, and through conversation and reflection, this was a massive blind spot on my part, particularly as a Pākehā artist. The last thing I want to do is to cause harm to others or perpetuate trauma, especially through my art, so I will be leaving these subjects and their topic alone and working on educating myself further on kaupapa Māori-lead research frameworks around engaging with ecology in the context of Aotearoa. I have also reached out to the Tūpuna Maunga Authority to offer an apology and reparations for my actions, and will be contacting an adviser at Massey regarding my research around ecology (lichens and different geological locations) in the near future.
I am grateful to have been able to have follow-up conversations with Yolunda and Victoria about this, and for the patience the assessors took to explain the issues present in my work and statement. It has been a saddening but humbling and growth-filled week.
Mea culpa.
(NB: the writing below does not negate the fact that acted insensitively, nor is it intended as an explanation or justification for those actions)
If I was to write an alternative statement, it might flow along these lines...
What happens when we look at the image of an asteroid or distant, newly imaged celestial body? I cannot speak for others, but for me, I feel a sense of excitement, wonder, intrigue, curiosity... what would happen if we could turn that energy to the similar bodies around us on Earth? what would happen if we approached the everyday stones and rocks that we encounter - in walls, footpaths, buildings, roads - with this same sense of wonder? Might we approach them with more respect, and in turn, perhaps shift thinking towards that of preservation and protection so as not to repeat the colonial mistakes of scarring the land?
While the mountains in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland are now under protection, the placement of their material within the city is often overlooked or viewed as "simply because", rather than the result of conscious decision-making and actions. These rocks are not there by chance, but because of decisions that prioritised urban development over the land - in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand, the result of settler colonialism and violence; the attitudes of which are still deeply embedded in the ways the land is conceptualised and viewed today under global capitalism: as a source of resources for development and acquisition, rather than an entity (or complex network of entities) in itself.
What would happen if modern industrial society could recognise not only the energy and integral individuality of the living environment, but also the non-living? We know that mountains can have their own atmospheres, that rocks form mineral rich homes for plant life, bacteria and fungi, and that the earth can hold the heat of the sun in ways that affect all surrounding entities and how they may grow... If we consider the Western conception of the non-living world as equally full of agency and presence as the living, down to the most everyday of things, could we extend a reverence and respect towards it? No longer seeing rocks, minerals, the earth itself as a source of capitalistic commodification for human usage, but as an individual in and of itself worthy of respect?
These are not new concepts, but in creating 'portraits', 'illustrations', images of subjects both individual and part of the interconnected mesh (volcanic networks, visible peaks, overlooked within urban surroundings) in a way that asks questions about them from a non-human centric perspective, can colonial ideologies towards the land and its use be subverted, or at the very least brought to light so as to challenge them? If we can think of a stone as a mountain as an asteroid as a grain of sand as a being, what happens then?
At the same time however,...
What happens when we look at the image of an asteroid with the same intentions as capitalist and colonial society has looked at the land - not as part of a complex network of influence, existence, being, but in terms of its minerality for mining or surface for colonising? What subconscious ideologies are already being brought to this practice, or embedded in the technologies we use to do so? What danger is there in the process of not questioning the how, why and at what around the act of looking, particularly at an ideological, spatial or technological distance? The act of looking, particularly view the lens of technology, is loaded with subconscious biases and ideas. What values do we bring to the ways we look, and what can we learn (in the context of Aotearoa's past and present and in that of a global industrial world) in order to avoid perpetuating these actions, both here on earth and elsewhere?
With the recent rise in space exploration and newfound hopes of planetary migration, I fear there is the likely risk of perpetuating the same damaging, destructive and anthropocentric attitudes towards the land on other celestial bodies; and in turn re-enact ideas of colonisation, imperialism, capitalism and other human-centric ways of being that have lead to the planet's destruction, oppression and alienation.
Could a focus of re-enchantment towards the earth in its most unassuming of forms and a critical exploration of the methods and ideologies that surround imaging it disrupt damaging ways of seeing and thinking about abiotic and non-human existence?
In ways of looking...
What does the role of mapmaking, and in turn the medium of printmaking, have in this potential process?
Rather than centring on a surveying, overarching view of the land for exploitation and division as it has been used in New Zealand's colonial past, could the medium of print be used as a vehicle for countering anthropocentric attitudes towards the natural world? Not in a way that isolates or separates, but that illustrates the unique and unifying qualities present in each rock subject? Instead of producing images for replication and distribution, as print media and landscape art has traditionally been used in Western history, can the medium be utilised in a way that refuses or challenges these mores?
Is there a way to view the land, life, existence, that does not project an ideal of how it should appear, but that captures some truth of it as it is? Can the ephemeral aspects of existence, and the very futility and fact that it is uncapturable, be conveyed? And if so, what is the consequence?
In utilising geolocational data in the context of mapping in a way that says "this rock is here, now, in this time, place and form, due to particular historic choices, and as an entity deserving of respect not objectification", rather than "this is here for commodification and acquisition, separate from all things"... can something positive come of this? Can technology be used in an enchanting way that allows some agency of the rocks to be illustrated, thus society as a whole could move towards a more holistic way of being in the world?
Waiheke lava bombs at Stonybatter
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