Considering Presentation

I have continued intermittently carving my stone sculpture whilst also drawing and printing alongside it. I have been saving the limestone dust excavated from the block of stone as a physical, visual reminder of the negative space material that inhabited the void within the sculpture.

Above: Some progress photos of my stone carving.

I also played with the idea of containment within my carved stone sculpture by filling the void with water in order to create a more visual show of the volume and mass of the space. However, this did not play out as I had expected: over around 15 minutes after filling the sculpture the water gradually all absorbed out of the void and into the surrounding limestone. Despite this not being the result I had intended to create, it ended up being even more applicable to containment – the stone itself was literally containing the mass of the water that perfectly filled the void.

Above: Photographs showing the stone carving filled with water and the progress of the water absorbing into the limestone and out of the voidi.

A silent crit in a tutorial brought presentation to my attention. Displaying my stone carving and its excavated dust on the floor in an empty room really highlighted every decision I had made regarding presentation, from the angle I had placed the block of stone at to the material of the container holding the dust, everything held a meaning. This forced me to think carefully about each part of the presentation of my work and how any element, no matter how small or unintentional, can affect the reading of the entire piece. In this crit my excavated stone carving was read as a comparison of geological time through materiality and even as a political comment on pollution with microplastics and the everyday object, simply because I placed the excavated limestone dust in a laundry liquid pod to contain it next to my sculpture.

Above: Some woodcuts displayed in Woodlane Windows.

Also participating in Woodlane Windows has helped me to consider the presentation of my work and how different pieces work together. Having to select just a few pieces to represent my practice at that particular stage and also display a certain narrative was great practise for doing the same on a larger scale for assessment. After displaying some woodcut prints and the woodblock itself which used the imagery of my stone carving in Woodlane Windows, I began to think about playing with the narrative of my works. By displaying the carved stone sculpture, carved woodblock and print on paper with the imagery of these carvings, I had created a sort of triptych. I found it interesting to experiment with removing the ‘middle man’ in this display by removing the woodblock and placing the paper print next to the stone carving and allowing a viewer to work out the narrative. Placing the ‘positive mass’ of the material (stone, wood) that was removed to make the carvings next to the print for example also played with this idea of the narrative and the ‘carved image’ and the process of carving itself.