Over the course of the past few months, I have had the pleasure of working with Scott Massey on various projects. The work I did revolved principally around two major projects, Copystand Archival Work and his piece for the CAG auction.
Copystand Work :
- Spoke with Scott to understand the work (burnt slides) and how it can be best documented
- Worked with Scott on the best way of creating consistant documentation of the slides
- Sourced appropirate lighting panels to be used in a small table top lighting scenario
- Came in with camera gear to do a small test of the shoot, discussing with Scott the pro’s and con’s of each decision, finally settling on a fixed set of variables to progress with.
Astroid Production (CAG) :
- Finalized Design and sourced custom Stamp for bottom of limited edition boxes for Asteroids.
- Two days of asteroid production working as a team with Arial and Scott to get Asteroids from post-moulding to finished works. This included some work on the wooden boxes that the pieces were contained in.
Misc :
- Edited series of images from Scott when asked, mostly just perspective adjustments, colour grading and exposure equalizing.
- Documented Display Windows at the CAG for Scott’s SITE PHOTOGRAPHY.
Over the course of my time with Scott in the context of this class, my role with him went as expected. The thing that did become a variable was aligning our schedules to work together. A few times over the course of the partnership, by no fault of his own, Scott was unable to meet due to last minute circumstances. I was unable to meet on morning when contacted that same morning. In short, I think Scott and I work very well together, and I am very thankful to have had the time to work with him, I only wish that we had had more time to do so. This being said, I never came to this class thinking of it as a class that would start and end inside my experience in school. I was interested in using this class as an excuse to branch out further into the art world here in Vancouver and make meaningful connections that extend beyond the classroom. So although in the past few months arranging schedules to work with Scott has proven to be a challenge, I am maintaining my commitment to these projects we have started and will be continuing on them in the new year.
Skill wise, over the course of this experience I relied mostly on skills I already had. The tasks that Scott put me to work on drew upon my photographic knowledge (both pre/post production and execution) and other hands on skills. I think the most rewarding thing aside from personal connections that I will be taking forward with me from this experience was an opportunity to bring my artistic interests together with my work experience in a more commercial space. I look forward to being able to continually blur these lines as my professional and artistic lives blend further.
Artist Assistant – Scott Massy
Worked with Scott towards various creative endeavours using technical skills and specialized knowledge in the contemporary art world to further his practice and projects. Skills included : Photographic Documentation / Bronze Finishing / Public Communicaitons / Design and Photoshop rendering / etc.
September 2016 – Present