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

Mirko Tzotschew - "I thought it still had potential. however, I did not get it to meet the standards."

Mirko Tzotschew - CPF927.1 - Digital Photograph

The story is very simple:

I went out to take yet another picture for my t-Scape Series and when I got back I discovered that somehow my camera had failed to take the pictures right. It took the first 30-40 pictures with the right exposure, but then failed to do so for the rest. Even though there were fixed exposure settings and not much change in the light. I worked on the pictures because I thought it still had potential. However, I did not get it to meet the standards. Well, here it is.

Mirko Tzotschew's Website

Lesley Guy - "The drawing lost its way"

Lesley Guy - Claude Levi-Strauss - 37cm x 29cm - Ink on Paper

The recent project Obituaries came from an attempt to produce art in a more playful way using found, and random images. I see drawing as a tool for thinking and exploring; I enjoy solving problems of surface, picture plane, illusion and form. However, my original concern was with exploring feelings of loss by collecting, and archiving the obituary pages from the newspaper. I was fascinated with the way that those who were recently deceased had become transformed into images of paper and ink, their lives reduced to a few paragraphs. The project was compulsive but the strategy gradually evolved into exploring the surface of the images, newsprint has a short life, the paper quickly yellows and the ink eventually fades, this is liberating.

There are over 100 drawings in the archive and there are as many different categories into which they can be sorted and displayed. The personal histories of the people depicted have some meaning, but this is often superficial, focusing only on the profession, age or gender of the deceased. Their image is the subject rather than their biography. My own concerns of loss, form, illusion, material or aesthetic problem solving dictate the ways these works come together.

In the case of Levi-Strauss, I was unable to see past the man. Because of my interest in anthropology I got a bit caught up in the idea that this image was important and that it had to work. Approaching the image with this kind of tension broke the spell, so to speak. The drawing lost its way, I tried to recover by using methods that had worked in the past which compounded the failure. Certain elements, such as the hand on the cane, do work for me, but overall it is clumsy and safe.

Lesley Guy's Website

Dara Alter - "There is no focus and it is so busy"

Dara Alter - Places of Origin - 101cm x 76cm - Acrylic

Places of Origin was painted from memory and imagination. I was hoping to create an engaging piece that brought the imagery of 'the wall' to interact with land mass and passages of a built urban landscape. Instead of a cohesive work, I found myself with a cartoony divisive image separated into different quadrants. It seems like there are at least three separate works on one canvas. There is no focus and it is so busy that it makes me uneasy to look at for more than a few seconds.

Recognizing the problem areas in this work has had a positive impact on work that came later. It made me really aware of considering a painting's unity and overall strength during all parts of the painting process. In this painting's case, I attacked the painting with my idea, and didn't diverge from that plan even though it wasn't working. Now I've learned to remove myself from my plans where I may follow them to some extent, but I realize the necessity of going where the painting takes you.

People agree with me when I point the issues out to them. However, some people actually like this painting.

Dara Alter's Website

Call For Submissions

Failure is immediately, and publicly, apparent for sportsmen and women, whereas artistic failures tend to be private. Artists typically present only works of which they are - or at least were - proud.

Do you have any work that you consider a failure? Perhaps fatally flawed, ill-conceived or unsuccessful? Did a line of enquiry peter out, leaving abandoned artefacts and/or preparatory work?

We’re putting together a group show that will bring works together that, despite failing, say something about the process of making art or show ways in which failure could be considered a critical strategy, especially within a culture that values success so highly. Initially we are trying to create an online archive of work in order to start a discussion about failure within art practice. We plan to create an exhibition that will tour UK venues in 2011/2012.

If you think you have a piece of work with a story to tell, please email to failure2011@gmail.com
    •    Up to four images (72dpi and no bigger than 600 x 600 pixels)
    •    A short statement of up to 300 words about the work depicted. Include a title, if any, and please make clear why you consider it a failure.
    •    Make it clear if you want the work to remain anonymous

We'll get back to you about including it on a website or this blog and take it from there.

A few other things:
    •    Feel free to circulate this statement/call-out within your own networks
    •    Don't send anything other than what is described above
    •    Submission does not guarantee inclusion either online or in the exhibition
    •    It may take us some time to get back to you, so please be patient
    •    We will be seeking funding for the exhibition, but as yet we have no money, hence the initial call-out being via email
    •    We will create a mailing list dedicated to this project. If you would rather not go on this please let us know.