Hi everyone
I’m sorry to announce some sad news today that, hopefully, won’t last very long.
Alex and I are being forced, through lack of time, energy and resources, to put Slip Online on a brief hiatus. With both of us at pivotal times in our academic careers, it seems as though our ambitions may have to take a back seat for a little while whilst we improve our minds and making skills.
We’re still working on all the stuff we were before - exhibitions, talks, CAL reviews, artist interviews - but it’s getting harder to update the blog regularly. Until we have more time, we’re going to have to take a break.
We hope that you will still keep popping in and checking what we’re doing, and if you’ve signed up to Facebook, our RSS feed or Twitter, you’ll get any new updates straight away.
We’d also still like to receive any reviews, articles, images or work you would like to have on Slip Online. The most important part of this project is the audience (that’s you!) and so far, you’ve been amazing. So I hope you don’t feel we’ve let you down in any way, and that you understand what a struggle it can be to do everything you want.
So that’s all for now. We’ll be up and back online very soon, don’t worry. In the mean time: take care, work hard, and keep the faith - we will.
Love
Slip Online
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This week, New Avenues will be looking at mixed media; not just in individual work, but in the transference from one avenue of art and design to another.
I was inspired to write this post from a number of sources. First, my own artistic development in moving through different art/design avenues. Secondly, an artist called Peter Crawley, who I saw on Mr X Stitch. Thirdly, from an image of Alex’s work that he showed me today - I can’t say much about it apart from it has elements of mixed ‘media’ to it.
‘Media’ itself, especially in this context, could mean lots of different things. As well as purely material genre, it could mean art/design genre - Crawley’s influences from product design in artistic practice, or production techniques. Careers themselves can be mixed media, moving between avenues of work, each informing the other.
The negativity of ‘mixed media’ (and there is a certain disparaging air surrounding it, within certain groups) could be down to the blurred boundaries, of unfixed attributes. Properties inherent in clay, glass, cloth, video, light all could be found in one object, or installation, each combining elements of the whole concept and expressing individual tendencies. The wish to define, clarify and fix is incredibly human - hence the ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ and the insistence it must be something, something finite, whether it is a dinosaur, astronaut or Prime Minister - and mixed media works/people/careers present a challenge to this desire.
Taking the negative position, the phrase ‘Jack of all trades, Master of none’ could be applied to mixed media artists. By focusing on many different styles, materials or ideas, where is the primary focus, the driving force, the skill, the clarity? Arguably, in some works, yes. Denying development of skill, and covering it over with apparently ‘edgy’ disparate themes, elements, material can result in poor and frankly, boring, work.
But embracing different paths and sets of ideas can also create intriguing, cross-trans-inter-disciplinary objects, informed by different practices and sewn together coherently. Even the language we use to describe specific art forms comes from other avenues: clay as a ‘canvas’, ‘construction’ techniques, ‘painterly’ qualities, and so on. A broad artistic vocabulary that encompasses different genres can, like verbal vocabulary, result in varied, exciting conversation between forms and concepts.
Ceramics has a history of ‘mixed media’, forever grazing the borders of art, craft and design, of function and decoration, and by utilising other materials such as glass, natural materials or even detritus from making e.g. kiln bricks incorporated into the work. The fascination with clay is due in part to its changeling qualities of mixed media from wet, dry, hard, soft, dust, mud…all possible within a day. More and more university courses are also embracing this, providing mixed media applied arts degrees to encourage students to look at other materials. Of course whether this is good as a whole for ceramics is best left to another discussion.
Thinking about mixed media - and what it entails for your artistic practice, career and personal development - is an interesting one. So let us know what you think, as always, at getinvolved@sliponline.co.uk.
Enjoy yourself and stay awesome!
Elly
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