writings

location

It can all be understood as an attempt to locate what is important whether that be an object, a meaning or even a possibility.

Locating means finding, that is to say it is the result of a search in a landscape, giving the thing a place, a coordinate, a fixing. It means recognizing objects.

When something is located it is sometimes enough to simply know where it is, however far away, and leave it there. However, we often want move those things we have found to places that are more convenient and give the object more use, more meaning and more value. This is a process of re-location. Either the person moves to the object, thereby relocating themselves, or the object is brought into the reach of the person. We locate objects where they do most work for us, in libraries, kitchens, workshops and galleries. These are places that congregate objects in a particular location so that they function better by being gathered together.

The verb locate can mean find and it can mean place. When we locate objects in the sense of placing them, we move from being finders to being makers.

Through the processes of placement, it is possible to establish connections and interrelations that extend our understanding of objects. The process of re-location evolves, practically and theoretically.

possible object

I’ll see,

see

what I can find,

see 

what is possible

then

I can show you

The possible objects exist in a state of immanence, waiting to be realized, hovering on the cusp of legibility; it holds the promise of understanding and control. The possible object is ambiguous and elusive, slipping out of place. It exists in the future as a promise. It exists in the present as a question, as something that may or may not be. Understanding is withheld for the time being. 

I now believe that any thing or idea that is accessible, detatchable and manageable can be considered an object. It is the act of isolating, handling, shaping and repositioning objects that defines my creative practice. 

The first imperative is to prove I can move things around, to have influence, to show that I can affect change on that part of reality I have access to. The second imperative is to accommodate states of transition, uncertainty, flux and ambiguity. The objects I find become models for the objects I want to construct. They are ambiguous, elusive on the point of becoming or dissolving. These are special objects that seem to be able to cross boundaries, access other realms of perception. They are psychological objects, magical objects that I sometimes find and other times construct through the processes of making.