Megan Hoyle - "...the work cannot be complete"

Megan Hoyle - Installation Under Sink - Canvas, Lukas IV Oil Medium

'Installation Under Sink' is from a series of works predominantly investigating the drying behaviour of oil medium. Canvas strands in various configurations are poured with medium, after repeated pouring the medium begins to lengthen the canvas threads in the way stalactites are formed, by building up beyond the thread. With works such as 'Installation Under Sink' I am playing with the formation of the strands. Could the ‘painting’ have formed through the day to day use of the sink? Is it in flux and still dripping? I want the viewer to become drawn forward to see what is happening, provoking a sense of discovery in how the work has formed.

The intriguing fact about this piece is it is almost invisible and goes completely unnoticed. Those using or walking past the sink certainly aren’t looking for a work underneath it. The understated colour and thickness of the work means it is not easily seen, even by those looking for it.

'Installation Under Sink' is both a failure and a success. The work has many of the elements I wanted in it, if only it was noticed. It is in plain view; under a well used sink in a corridor but is never seen. On the one hand I find this idea very exciting, it is a secret work, only seen by those who know it is there. On the other hand, if a tree falls in the woods.... if an artwork is not seen is it a work? I’m not sure it is. 'Installation Under Sink' was made to be noticed, it was placed in that location for a viewer to question its formation. This questioning is not happening therefore the work cannot be complete. It has failed.

Megan's Blog

Lionel Playford - "...an unforgivable failure."

 Lionel Playford - Titanics 1 and 2 - Card, Bostik and Other Materials

As an obsessed teenager in the mid 1970's I made two different models of the Titanic. Both were built from scratch out of card and Bostik glue based on minute research of photos and plans I found. (The skills I learned from this turned out to be quite useful as a professional shipbuilder in the 1980's). The small, recently damaged, model (top) is extremely detailed - I need glasses now to see it and I no longer have the dexterity to make anything so fine (though it's pleasingly rough, too). The large one is more accurate but a bit twisted and lumpy in places - certainly falling short of the aesthetic standards I set when making it and therefore an unforgivable failure.

I showed the larger model to a primary school class yesterday and now the head teacher is keen to get the children apprenticed to create an even bigger failure (about 8m long), using corrugated card and anything else she can get for free. I think the children were less than impressed despite the great amount of effort I put into drawing and making it all those years ago. In fact, some of them were much more interested in the superficially 'perfect' painted plastic model I brought in.

Many people in Belfast felt until quite recently that the Titanic was a huge failure on the part of the workers.

Lionel Playford's Website

Martyn Cross - "My vandalism was vandalised."

 

Martyn Cross - Black Flag 197 - Knitting Pattern and Biro

 

The piece is called 'Black Flag 197' and was originally made for the 'Black Flag Series' - a group of works made using found knitting patterns and a biro. The flags are viewed as relics of an age that has never existed; utopia viewed in a black hole.

This piece failed simply because the degraded surface of the antique knitting pattern kept lifting up leaving white marks. My vandalism was vandalised.

 

Martyn Cross' Website