Paths, Space Invaders March 2012.

When walking the world, rarely we navigate away from the beaten track. The architects of the towns and cities sculpt how we move throughout. We keep in mind the safest root to our destination, however, the constant hustle and bustle of the human life often takes over. We cross the road near the crossings, we walk on the busy road to pass other pedestrians, and we go places we deem as unsafe, just to be on time. My current work looks at psycho-geography and architectural theory, in particular how people move through certain spaces. The piece you see marks the paths of pedestrians in a small part of Newcastle. Each colour is taken from outside the same window at a different time, one at 10am, 12pm and one at 2pm on a mild March day. Each path is of an individual who is only subconsciously aware of the architect’s ambition for the flow of the streets.

Liadin Cooke

Recently we had a Visiting Lecture from the artist Liadin Cooke, who drew a floor plan of every house she had lived in. I have previously made floor plans of how people move through gallery spaces, so in hommage to Liadin Cooke's Holden 2010, here are the floor plans of the places I have lived.

Candle Wax.

Ive always wanted to make candles, so I gave it ago. I used parafin wax, wax crayons and added a vanilla flavoring for sent. I want the wick to be layying flat, so when burnt, it will create a cave in the wax, like mosis and the water, but not as grand and holy. If it works, I may do it on a bigger scale as well. The idea is that it will show my route, and the dept of the wax will show the frequency I travelled along it.

I just did it in plastic tubs for the test pieces. One is using a red wax crayon, and the other includes sand, and shows the journey I took to get the sand. As I say, these are only tests, so If I do them again, I will make them alot neater, and in nicer shapes. When I went the burn the sand candle, the sand started popping out of the candle, so I blew it out due to fire risks. I havent butnt the red one yet.

I think my fairy cake candle turned out better though.

Corners.

I wanted to create something from my pin map. I want, at some point to take it off the wall, but for now, I have made a drawing from tracing the pins from the wall. I have traced and rubbed out the drwaing three times, using graffite, giving the pins a bullet hole feel. No pin is connected to the next, and the direction of travel is not indicated. The image is called corners, because each pin represents a change of direction on the map.

Train Sky Lines.

As a child (and now actually) I always try to follow the skyline of the journey. Over trees, fences, mountains, going over the highest thing. These are from a long seriese of drawings, made with brio, pencil and anything to hand, made at all times of the day. Each is postcard sized, and are titled with the journey.

Getting up to speed.

(Sorry abut the poor photo's) I am currently a Year 2 Fine artist, and I would like to take this opportunity to get you up to speed with my current practice.
I am looking at maps, and where I am placed in the world. This is a string map, pin pointing the places I have travelled to over a two week period. The navy represents places I have to go, blue where I want to go, lilac where I go to for my practice, brown is for taxi's, grey is for where I ment to go, and white is the direct route. The map has helped me create other works, view my 'usual' routes, and how and why I choose to visit a certain place. Over the past two weeks I have been noting down each journey I make, and translating it from a map to a plain wall, leaving me with my own route.