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The Making, Installation View, The Agency 2015, Photo by Ekphrasis
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The Making, Installation View, The Agency 2015, Photo by Ekphrasis
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The Making, Installation View, The Agency 2015
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The Making, Installation View, The Agency 2015
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The Making, Installation View: Helena Hamilton, Philippa Snow, The Agency 2015
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The Making, Installation View: Phillippa Snow, The Agency 2015
Photo by Ekphrasis
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The Making, Installation View: Simona Brinkmann, detail, The Agency 2015,
Photo by Ekphrasis
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The Making, Installation View: Michelle Williams Gamaker, Videodstill
The Agency 2015
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The Making, Installation View: Andrea Heller, Philippa Snow, Nooshin Farhid
The Agency 2015
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‘The Making’
Ruth Barker, Simona Brinkmann, Nooshin Farhid,
Michelle Williams Gamaker, Helena Hamilton, Andrea Heller, Philippa Snow, Brigitte Stepputis, Gallery 1 and 2
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One of the most underrated elements of art is the process of making work. And even today, when we can safely assume a fairly level playing field for men and women in the arts, experimentation and techno-conceptual approaches are often insinctively attributed to male artists first. The forthcoming exhibition at the Agency brings together eight contemporary women artists from very different disciplines, who present a part of their process to the viewing public, to give a rare glimpse in how a work is made, reflected upon and in some cases changes meaning in different contexts. Rather than demystifying the practice and rendering it an imitable process, works in progress can reveal a multidimensional approach to considering the merits of an object, film or action. The exhibition will reveal elements of the conception process, which usually remains unseen. It will bring together sculpture, drawing, film, sound, live performance, interactive works and text. The works connect via a common strand of revealing a confident playfulness and an open mind, which is often part of "making" work.
The period of time from the conception of an idea to the finished object or presentation is usually mystified or simply not mentioned. It takes confidence for an artist to reveal their "making" process and confidence from the viewer not to fear confusion or inaccessibility of thought processes, instead both allowing for a journey to take place. The process of reflection and realisation also throws up unfinished lines of thought or unresolved questions, which offer unexpected tangents in relation to the practice of an artist. In genres where technology is not key, but a craft based approach applies, such as sculpture and drawing the contextual thinking process can reveal astonishing links to notions of social space, financial feasibility and the transposition from one medium to another. Without the privileged access to " the making" of such works, the reading of a finished sculpture and drawing might just throw up genre related formal enquiries, which sometimes is not the answer to the origin of a thought or an underlying tension in the work.
The insight into the 'process" can also reveal failure and a work in a different medium than originally planned may be the end result. Film and Performance involve scripting and rendering processes. Linguistic considerations can influence technical decisions and vice versa. In the case of performance or sound art "the making" can be less ephemeral than the act itself. During the process of making work aspects of collaboration or impetus also come to the fore, other artists, writers and thinkers take influence on the conceptual direction, which is either visible in the final work or occasionally obscured entirely. In recognition of the importance of collaborative processes and the relaxing of boundaries between disciplines practitioners, who mainly create in the field of writing and design, are contributing works, which show the closeness and striking congruence with art.
Opening the curtains on the usually hidden part of studio practice expands the possibilities for the reading of a work or a practice overall and pre-empts the retrospective search of the art historian on the how and when. It also reveals the genre crossovers that can occur prior to the completion of a work and surprising possibilities for live interactions, bridging the conventional gap between art and public.
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