#LatePost

Finally making time to write my reflection on my third check-in point, these thoughts have been sitting and marinating for a while.
Had my third in-person meeting with Howie on November 24, I’m glad the plan to meet in-person once a month is still panning out. I was worried that my work schedule, and Howie’s family duties would clash but thankfully I have some flexibility with changing my work schedule to an extent. Again, our meeting point was at Howie’s studio, when I walked into his backyard I remembered feeling slightly surprised at the sight of the studio space. I felt as though something has changed, it felt a little emptier, maybe the rain or the damp fallen leaves. About a week before this meeting, Lauren and I were reflecting on our experience and brainstorming on what to create for our creative response (more on the post about our creative response). I think, at one point of the conversation, I had painted this image of the studio space in my head that had turned somewhat idealistic, and the discrepancy of the image and reality hit me in that moment. Also, this is the first meeting where our check-ins had fallen into more of a routine. I was more conscious of the studio space and also made sure to take some pictures to reference for our creative response.

On thinking, making, creating …

So far our meetings with Howie had always had a similar flow to it. Howie would start a spontaneous flow of conversation, and offer tea at some point. This time, he talked a lot about his work in progress, his process and where he thinks the direction of the work may go. Again, I appreciate the insight into his organic thought processes. After having experienced some VISA courses that were more research- and concept- heavy, it was a nice change of pace. I still think that prior research important, but to me it is something that I carry out naturally as I pursue an idea rather than forcing it out. Finding a balance between thinking and conceptualizing, to making and doing, is still a process of negotiation for me. That negotiation however, is often accompanied with a high level of pressure and often ‘paralyzes’ the making. I’m definitely more drawn to this organic way of creating, I enjoy it and I find it fun. But, the impression I have is that making art shouldn’t be ‘fun’, it is ideally critical, uncomfortable in the way that makes you think and hopefully grow, and I feel quite conflicted about it. My short-term resolution to this feeling is that it could be a balance of both.  Another question I had was about, when do you decide to scrap a project? At what point would you decide that the idea is no longer working or going in a different direction, does a project ‘die’? He didn’t really have a straight answer for that but it was, expectedly, spontaneous like how he works (maybe spontaneous is not the right word, but it’s the closest description I got right now). My conclusion from his response is that he simply exploring different ideas simultaneous, and whether they pan out of not in the future, it’s to be decided. And well, for ideas that may not have turned into something tangible, they are simply ‘there’.

On going digital

I finally asked about why he decided going digital with his artworks and the answer is quite simple and practical, space. And I assume money would go with that as well. This is Vancouver after all, and using digital means to save space is a logical move. It got me thinking of why I’m interested in going more digital. Apart from the new potentials that technology offers, time and space is definitely one of my motivations.  I like the afforded mobility, the idea that I can create work anywhere anytime, as long as I’m connected to the world wide web. The seemingly infinite virtual space and its affordances is an area that will continue to be relevant seeing as it will likely be here for a while.

On a tangent, I also started a conversation about conflicting feelings about displaying artwork in a gallery, the exclusivity of art in a gallery setting as opposed to how I felt art should be more accessible to all. I felt kind of relieved having this discussion to a practicing artist outside of an institution setting. Perhaps going digital is one way, and Howie did show me some platforms where people have shared their 3D virtual works. Of course, there are other connotations to creating digital work, questions of authorship, viewership, accessibility, ‘reality’,  etc. It’s also very different, in terms how ideas become ‘tangible’. People already extend humanity to inanimate objects, the virtual, artificial personas ans so on, so what next?  But, one question at a time.

Studio Visit – Brendan Tang

After our meeting in the studio, Howie took me to visit Brendan Tang, who is having his residency at the BAF. A chance for me to visit both an artist and institution partner that are part of this class! The two are actually good friends, both being not from Vancouver. Brendan had a small gift for Howie’s new baby and we went around, looking at his current work in progress. He talked about a little about his ideas, process and current plans. It was fun to see how they interacted, a mix of friendly banter, catching up, and throwing ideas here and there.

Howie joked that he thought it’d help to bring us to an ‘actual’ studio visit, more hands-on activities, since most of the work we’ve done has been remote and  virtual. It was to get a feel of a different working studio space. Aohan and sarah were there too at the time, helping him with sanding. As a short response, I made a word cloud summary of our impressions on his current work:

Since the situation seemed appropriate, I asked about how they met, and in general, how do they meet other people in the community and also out of the community. Brendan is an extrovert apparently. It was nice, getting a feel of how they interact with the community as well. I have a feeling Brendan had the mistaken impression that I have difficulty finding friends^ ^’. Afterwards, we then took a look at some of the work currently on display in BAF.

Updates from Escalator edits + Lenticular prints

The film editing has taking a bit of pause at the moment. I haven’t had the time to sit myself down and edit videos. Howie suggested looking into possible ways of displaying the work, how the setup might look like in an exhibition setting. As for the Lenticular prints for the VAG, after looking into the quotes. A friend of Howie’s had a bad review of the commercial printing place where we intended to print it. Admittedly, the person who I called for the quotes didn’t sound as professional but it’s hard to tell. I think Howie is thinking of taking a risk with the print quality. I looked up some more companies that could do lenticular prints, none in Vancouver unfortunately, and sent him links to that. In the meantime, still need to prep the lenticular files….