Hardscape
So, I begin my residency from just down the road in Nottingham. The pandemic has left me unable to visit Derby – which is obviously an interesting challenge for a site-specific project. So, I have no choice than to leap-frog into the city through all available portals. I’m resigned to the clunky websites of local history enthusiasts, maps provided by the all-seeing eye of Google and good old fashioned human conversation - albeit through the Zoomiverse.
Since the dawn of land ownership in Britain, common land has been a contentious topic. This last year public land and property has been a huge part of the post-pandemic zeitgeist – which comes as no surprise. Who gets to use certain spaces? What can and can’t you do in them?
I applied for this opportunity with the word ‘Psychogeography’ plastered all over my application. So, in order for you to follow my train of thought – I’ll start there.
What is psychogeography? This is the clear part, simply put it’s the way a place can influence one’s psyche. It does what it says on the etymological tin. Psychogeography was originally developed in the early 1950s. A gang of pan-European mavericks who would later be known as 'The Situationists' conjured up the field. With a penchant for red wine drinking and Marxist thinking, these flaneurs produced a number of books, exercises and visual art forms used to highlight the role of the built environment in our minds.
As with the situationists and Marxist thinkers of their time, modern
Read More
Categories:
Ryan Heath, Uncategorised, Visions of an Unmade City
s a projection would be quite minimal as I often feel like I have shown my methods and documentation with but separate to the final outcome, stopping once the physical object is completed. It would be interesting to take the sculptural interpretation of the collages and continue to make the physical work, but for the final outcome to be a visual experience rather that a physical sculpture, and this would be broadening my creative intention towards my practice.
Reading peter Eisenman’s ‘Diagram Diaries’ I came across these two quotes: the first is about the technical aspects of lines and dimensions and the process through which shapes become diagrams;
“Technical preconditions that would allow modern architecture to refound itself... on the twin bases 
The more I research salt the more connections it seems to have with the human condition, culture and identity.
I wanted to use the residency as an opportunity to really consider the medium I work with. To explore its properties, to play with it, to learn about it, to understand its benefits and limitations. Playing with materials is such a vital part of my artistic process; it allows me to experiment and expand my thoughts, seeing the materials move, change and react allow me to visually transfer text-based research and ideas through symbolism. I will not adopt a masterly tone and bore you, rather allow me to take you on a visual journey
Both salt and water are essential and detrimental to our existence. The first part of this process was seeing what would happen to a chunk of Himalayan salt under a running tap within a few minutes the water created a hole within the salt. What was dry on the surface was now glistening and part translucent.
