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artists-in-residence 2005-2006
JONATHON BAILEY
JONATHON BAILEY AUSTRALIA
August 2005 the application
The program seems suited to my artistic development. The disciplined use of
studio space would allow me the opportunity to focus on an artistic plan that
explores the relationship of a detached traveler to their surroundings. I will
investigate concepts via previously researched process to fruition. Due to its
semi secluded location and natural surroundings Saksala is an ideal area for me
to investigate studies relating to the surrounding landscape as it informs
identity through associated familiarity. As my proposed idea comprises of
various disciplines such as video, photography and sculpture I feel I have a lot
to share with other artists from different disciplinary backgrounds. I would
like to frequent the forums and symposiums that take place at Saksala and
perhaps talk about my experience in Australian based art collective DAMP and
their involvement with local communities
Titled “One Last Run” the work will comprise of a sculptural wall picture
accompanied by a video piece to be projected on a semi-translucent screen
resting vertically within the space.
The sculptural wall piece is a representation of a sketch work about the
destruction of a domestic house. It will be composed of a series of cut out
wooden shapes each painted in various colors all parts adhering to the wall
resembling the picture. The completed wall piece will span an entire wall length
and width (dimensions variable accordingly).
The video work will be representative of the same theme. In a single shot it
will begin with the construction of miniature balsa wood house and end with the
eventual destruction of the model from within by a small explosive charge. The
only effects used in the production will be the gradual slow motion of the
explosion as it blows the house away. Resulting in a graceful composition of the
transformation of the house as it morphs from its steady structure to a
collection of burnt embers and splintered chars. The last frame of the video,
which will feature a relatively empty space where the house once stood, will
lead into the beginning of the first frame presenting the initial construction
successfully looping the video.
February 2006 after one month in the residence
Saksala ArtRadius 04.03.06
Jonathon Bailey
Working and researching in foreign areas outside of my home country allow me to
realize that differences between foreign environments and my own local Sydney
Australian environment are significant in many ways socially, historically and
off course geographically. Undergoing a residency at Saksala has allowed me to
immerse myself in the countryside of Haukivuori. Much of the inspiration in my
work lends itself to the beauty of the surrounding landscape.
I am compiling a series of short video recorded process based studies and
performances I’ve conducted in Haukivuori. The resulting video work orchestrates
the rawness and experimental nature of human inquisition in a foreign land. The
house, being a common structure people gravitate towards as a means of living,
provides an interesting model around which to study local psycho-geography.
A miniature wooden house, balloons and dynamite are the apparatus through which
the properties of physics, form and color are expressed in a series of studies
amongst a snow covered, tree lined Finnish rural environment. In many of the
documented experiments an end-point reaction, in the form of an explosion,
threatens the structural integrity of the miniature house. Form and being are
drastically changed altering the house’s relationship with its surroundings. The
house becomes unrecognizable in its changed state, stripping the landscape of
its “familiar” humanized context.
The performance aspect of the video work in progress will portray a local
inhabitant of Haukivuori in a moment of daily living and interaction with the
surrounding environment. The performance will reveal a person dressed in a
makeshift cardboard polar bear costume navigating through the snowy landscape on
an unknown journey stopping only to sample red cordial snow cones, which are
disguised as natural flora. The bear becomes lost in it’s own routine as it
farms the land. The medial task provides innocent yet blind activity, leading
the bear to a seemingly directionless quest though the forest.
March 19 2006 the exhibition
I have been able to utilize the country scenery of Haukivuori to conduct
experiments with my own sculptures. From this experimentation, I observe the
relationship my sculptures have with the surrounding environment and explore the
ways this relationship can be changed. I have recorded these experiments in the
surrounding area via video camera.
So far I have been lucky enough to receive help from a local farmer in using
explosives to destroy one of my sculptures. My camera was also lucky to survive
the blast….just!
In conducting these experiments within foreign landscape I get the opportunity
to observe my own social and geographical proximity to the subject and
surrounding area.
the work shows the moment the
explosion has taken place but the sound of it did not reach the ears
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before sounds hits 2006
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bear food 2006
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ALLAPRIMA MUSEUM
