Through a multimedia practice and expression of my Mancunian-Irish background, I evaluate the duality of my heritage and the struggle to find a middle-ground. Homi Bhabha’s theory of the third space that conceptualises a space where two overlapping contexts become a new, singular identity has been a comfort throughout this mental conflict in that it considers that there is another option to belonging rather than forcing you to be in either one place or the other. It has been influential through the creation of my own Third Space installation consisting of found objects and a new form of collage for me: video projection used as collage.
I have expanded my concept of a multimedia practice during this unit through introduction of many new skillsets. Through collage: a medium I use as a foundation, I explore the physical cross-over of two opposing aspects of my life by using images of found ephemera and with Fatimah Tuggar’s influence in mind as she deciphers her ‘relationships to place, home, and self’ through the overlapping of cultural signifiers within her collages.
This unit has also given me the opportunity to develop much more digital knowledge through the self-teaching of Premiere Pro to create multiple video works, Longing for In-Between in particular housing a more complex skillset of masking paths and collaging videos over one another. Through the making of The Place I Long For, The Place I Yearn For I made informed decisions from my previous knowledge of photography to design a book using an additional software: InDesign. The making of this book became a vital aspect of my research, not only through using new processes such as perfect binding, it was also the initial reasoning behind my trip to Mountmellick, my father’s hometown in Ireland, where I spent most of my childhood summers. This was encouraged during my mid-unit review and which I also felt a necessary task to immerse myself back into the culture and get into contact with that side of my identity. I documented the process through writings of past memories and photographic/ video content which formed my later works. The trip was focussed on the journey itself to express a yearning to be able to exist in the in-between space and not have to solve your inner-conflictions. During this journey I made a conscious effort to learn about the history of the town and the historically influential textile industry that gave it the name of ‘the little Manchester of Ireland’. With this, I found representation of the lace was an important addition to my work, particularly the lace my father was gifted. The embroidery has a standard characteristic of white thread on white cloth, which encouraged me to honour such style through the making of my book with the cloth cover and white screen-printed symbol on either side. I further developed this using thermography powder to replicate the raised feel of the lace itself.
With reference to the in-between, places of transition have been a recurring symbol throughout my context this unit, whether understood in the physical form of commonly-used thresholds, or the conceptual form of liminal spaces. I have used the concept of thresholds as a reference to physical borders that both separate and connect a place as well as using them to escape traditional borders and instead transcend space and time. This is evident in each piece I have made this unit; through the composition of my book: not only has the book been bound to have two sides of the journey that meet in the middle, separated and connected by a border; the order of photographs reflects the journey chronologically with them meeting in the middle both physically and through the photographic content. Thresholds are also the focal point of one of my films featured in the degree show as each clip ventures through windows and doors into different times and places. Lindsay Duncanson uses this same technique in her video piece ‘Brief Loss’, however her use of sound creates an awkwardness, reflecting the silence of inside whereas my use of the never-ending kettle boil, although it induces the feeling of waiting, has an ambient nostalgia about it.
Visiting artist talk by James Sibley and the tutorial afterwards with him had a positive impact on my outlook of installations which directly transformed my decision making when it came to curating and selecting work to include in a piece and to understand how not to overcrowd a space. This proved especially useful during the set-up for the degree show; to take into consideration the space as a whole, including where people would enter and exit from and how this would impact the engagement of your work was interesting to consider. I took this into account during the curation of the show through discussion of work placement and how to fill an empty space or un-crowd an area.
Through my submissions to several open calls and inclusions of my work in them, I have been able to reconsider and reflect on my own work multiple times altering my decision making and encouraging me to look deeper into how I want my work to impact the viewer. Through visiting exhibitions I have featured in such as the Comme Ca x AWOL Studios open call, I have had the opportunity to see how my work has been curated within a space with other surrounding artists which will be informative for future proposals.