S2 Wk1 - brief notes: Sorawit Songsataya and Sriwhana Spong
- annabensky
- Jul 20, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 23, 2022
- Thinking about how different artists work with history, narrative, research within their practice to connect to wider themes; origin points and specificity as an opening to further exploration and development...
- interested in looking into Songsataya's practice more, especially their investigations of NZ history, landscape, natural phenomena, wider connections...
Digital Artist 'In Residence' Sorawit Songsataya - Rumours (Mermaid) - Video Preview https://govettbrewster.com/news/2020/8/digital-artist-in-residence-sorawit-songsataya
"Sorawit’s residency explores New Plymouth’s geographic and ecological histories - the outcome of which will be the Rumours (Mermaid) exhibition. Sorawit’s blog post described their research into Taranakite, Taranaki’s own mineral. In this update, the artist considers the volcanic activities that formed Ngā Motu / Sugar Loaf Islands and the history of earthworks near Port Taranaki; using 3D modelling and scanning to create a scene of rocks, minerals, fossils and artefacts. It reflects Sorawit’s
interest in the “weight” of history, and how it can be fabricated, constructed, or manipulated using 3D modelling software – a media that generates countless images circulating weightlessly online. Take a look at this video of a fly-through camera moving through Sorawit’s rock scene, rendered using geometic outlines and polygonal modelling – a method which can erase details and flatten depth in 3D models."
"Rumours (Mermaid) is the outcome of Songsataya’s residency, which has focused on researching the local ecological and geographic histories of Ngāmotu, and in particular Paritutu Rock and the Sugar Loaf Islands.
The exhibition considers the distance and difference humans construct between themselves and the natural world, and how this sits in contrast with our desire to reconnect with the environment. The ocean, as a key geographic and cultural context in Aotearoa, is a space where these tensions are regularly played out, often reflecting key differences in the practices and values of various communities. This concern with humanity’s relationship with the natural world is reflected in the exhibition’s title, Rumours (Mermaid), and its subject, which gesture toward the potential of becoming with (rather than against) nature."
Notes: Sriwhana Spong, castle-crystal | Edinburgh Art Festival 2019
Moving image is a primary method of making and thinking, though it’s hard to stick to one
Out of the process of making film or video works come ideas for performances, sculptures; shows often incorporate multiple mediums
became interested in the linguistic techniques present in a medieval text written by a mystic woman; the text was written from woman’s own perspective, a common occurrence given that women were often excluded from male-dominated institutions and thus had to rely on their own language, narratives, perspectives and experiences; this was a familiar form to Spong, resonated with her own experiences of the world
Looking at these techniques as a method of making films
The text: the interior castle, which describes an internal architecture of 7 different dwellings through which the author thought, walked or moved
Interested in thinking about the central architectural monument of the castle (in the case of the Edinburgh Art Festival, the castle of Edinburgh), and what that could mean both physically and psychologically; thinking about this fictional castle and what it gives to Teresa of Avila (the author)
The work moves across two spaces. The first installation of work incorporates moving image and a glass bell sculpture (designed with Clair Duncan; introduces architecture to the space), which can be played using a secret score
Second location was at St Bernard’s Well, for which sculptures were made to sit in the window ledges; sculptures were made from wax and wet clay; as the clay dries slowly shrinks away from the former on which it rests; these were accompanied by sculptures made from fruit skins, pressed into one another. Two movements – sinking, pressing, kneading; and pulling away, shrinking
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