Venice Fellowship - Day 13

The Research Project - Thoughts and Updated Plans

Last night I realised that I hadn't necessarily been working with the Island or Freespace briefs in mind while I have been here. I have been working on drawings based on interesting things I have seen, studies of Art works, buildings, landscapes - all reactions to things I've experienced on my Fellowship. But I need to find a way to link all of these together.

It is also important for me to remember that I am conducting this research in order to enrich my practice - in a way Researching to Make. I am thinking about themes and things I want to research, in order to find something to make Art work about, with or around. I am thinking to inform my practice. 

I went on a note-making spree last night while thinking about it, so my updated notes are as follows (see also original notes for my frantic handwriting).

• I'm reading 'It Was Me: diary 1900 - 1999' by Daniela Comani. The artist wrote a diary every day, entries only a line or so long, all from facts within the 20th Century. She assumes the role of the victim and the perpetrator. I was drawn to this because of the honesty of the first person perspective and the individual voice, which is something very central to my work and particularly in my paintings. But I also think its interesting that I've picked up a book from the perspectives of victims and perpetrators, as its an example of one extreme and another - much like the British Pavillion (see notes on this below) and also peoples reactions to it. I think the important thing to me here is the sense of injustice, imposing boundaries or situations on (other) people, and the sense of voice, which relates back to Brexit, the Pavillion, the history of Venice and the Acqua Alta.
• Pavillion notes 1. The high up pavillion with seats and tea has connotations of positivity, sharing, a bright future, community, sharing, communication VS empty pavillion has connotations of loneliness, a singular experience, abandonment, a void, negative space. People love it or they hate it. 
• Pavillion notes 2. It's also from a very singular voice - Marcus Taylor and the curators have made a joke between themselves, laughing about the Brexit situation by abandoning our space, our Pavillion, and literally building with scaffolding and creating a piazza (which aesthetically is not attractive to many of us aside from the view - Venice is so beautiful while they've made something ugly). They give away free tea, a very British drink. It's Lemon Verbena tea, not PG Tips or English Breakfast, so he's assuming that this one flavour represents the British tea drinker in general, which on mass it does not. This isn't a critique of the Pavillion, but I think the individual perspective is interesting when they're meant to represent a country. 
• Individual Voice. I do work with an individual voice when I work as there is a focus on the hand-drawn mark, signature, voice. I will often make spontaneously based on my mood, sometimes in reaction to a song or a memory, so there is a focus on text to represent my internal voice. Will I include text in my paintings, drawings and prints?
• The History of Venice and Social Restriction. Invisible boundaries or lines drawn. I don't know much about the history of Venice and tensions surrounding race, gender and equal rights, and these aren't themes that have previously emerged in my work. And I think it is interesting to consider themes such as slavery, as I've spotted in work such as the Doge's Monument in Basilica di Frari and paintings of Venice in the Gallerie dell'Accademia there are references or representations of black slaves. This is a social line or boundary that was imposed on an entire race, and there is still residue today. It would be interesting to consider the social restrictions that are still present for the residents of Venice today, whether it is for the homeless surrounded by expensive restaurants, women in the city (I personally have been harassed on this trip), people who have immigrated to Venice as well as the people who are leaving (I would like to speak to a representative from Venice in Peril about the population decline and pressure on the residents from tourism). 
• Acqua Alta. I think with a focus on restriction or boundaries, the Acqua Alta is a fantastic example of this. When the water rises high enough, boat services are suspended, platforms are put up which creates predetermined routes for people, some areas are inaccessible, some people don't even leave their houses. It's like nature's curfew, a liquid boundary. A water line. 
• Prints and Tension part 1. I am a Printmaker as well as a Drawing and Painting artist, and recently within my work I have been creating a lot of Collograph prints. Collograph is a process in which you have a plate, often I use cardboard boxes, and stick found materials on to it to create a printing plate. The textures on those objects are what you then see printed onto the paper at the end. 
• Prints and Tension part 2. I have been collecting objects that I find lying around in the street to print from, most commonly tape to cordon off areas (more boundaries/lines), strings and ropes, smooth objects like popped balloons etc. A lot of the things I spot around are bits of posters for events and very disposable things, so I think a collection of these objects also comes back to the Social Restriction theme and Venice in Peril, as there is very much a "grab and run" culture here. The tourists come, everything either blows up in price or reduces in quality to become cheaper, everything is less authentic, consumed on mass and thrown away to pollute the streets the locals increasingly hate to walk down. I think printmaking is a fantastic physical research opportunity, but I need to keep it in mind that I can't make them until I'm home.

'Untitled (Collograph 1). Christina Barton.
Collograph, Chine Colle, Pen, Pencil on Paper.
2018.

After some brainstorming over dinner, I've thought about the work I have already made, I've thought about the social issues in Venice now as well as in the past, and also work that would be useful for me to go and see - particularly my plans to visit the Guggenheim as well as Ai Wei Wei's Guilded Cage exhibition. It could also be fruitful for me to go back to Basilica di Frari and Gallerie dell'Accademia to see those more racially charged works - I wonder if it would also be worth visiting the Ghettos and the Jewish Museum to think about the way they sectioned areas off based on religion as well. 

I think it all comes back to tension, memory and social issues within my work as well as the ideas that are at the forefront of my mind during this project, so I think this is a good basis to continue moving forward from. I know that the meeting the other Fellows and I will have on Monday to discuss our ideas will help me to piece things together, and give me a clear direction.