Road Map
Title of Work: Slow Dancer
A visual expression of my relationship with my partner in the months before our wedding, exploring notions of devotion and love against the complex reality of the everyday. A highly personal project, Slow Dancer is a performative collaboration.
Keywords: Devotion, Love, Symbolism, performance, ritual,
Methods and Methodology: Typically there has been an approach mixing studio images with images of the mundane.The methods are currently focused around studio constructions for self portraits of myself and my spouse, and photographs of the everyday. I am considering ways of implementing rephotography into my practice, in the form of taking my work in the studio and photoshopping it into the everyday, mapping the emotional security of the studio against the real world… This could work, it might not it (didn’t) but I am interested in exploring the contextual bridge between the two. In the longer term, as the project is going to continue until we pass away, it is an exercise in rephotography in the sense that we will be photographing our relationship over and over again.
The methodology behind presenting the images would be both digital and physical, I would use tools such as Instagram and online submissions to spread the reach of my work whilst having a short-run zine available for purchase, there is potential to have these hand made with printed images assembled instead of digitally constructed print-outs.
Creating a video for exhibition is also an interest, cutting the images with footage as well as sound/music to be projected on to surfaces.
Number of Shoots:
Roughly 5 studio sessions in which I will aim to get multiple images for the project along side general day to day photography that just relies on me having access to a camera.
Outcome:
For this project the images I produce will feed into my FMP, the zine that comes from the work will be used to promote the FMP as they are all linked. The goal is to submit work to sites such as lensculture or AintBad and have my work featured. I also want to have the work featured on instagram pages with large followings.
Limited run zines would be produced with the aim to being put in artist book shops as well museum book shops where possible.
Results & Relationship with FMP.
The project is linked with my FMP in subject, I would like to produce images that could either be developed for use in my FMP or actually go into my FMP. The zine would be used with the view to promote the work for the FMP where possible – this could be for submissions, social media page submissions for photography groups, book shops, reviews, gallery submissions for example.
How much you consider the audience when making your work.
The work is very personal so it is more immediately about my relationship and myself as an artist than the way an audience would view the work. Beyond that inital point however once I have made the work and I am happy with it I will start thinking about audience engagement online, as well as how best to provide physical editions of the work is a large part of the process. The difficulty is whether anyone actually sees it.
How much you would allow a curator to influence the reading of your work.
I think it wholly depends on the curator and where they would be taking the reading to, because if it is completely off with how I would want to present the work then I would struggle with that. The curator would need to be able to show me something I could either live with or get excited by. The work is so personal by nature that it’s initial presentation is going to feel like being exposed so it’s understandable that I would want to present the work and myself, and my partner in a way we are comfortable with.
The lifespan of my work doesn’t end until it is either on the walls or in a book for the first time. If the curator was to do anything beyond this point then I would be completely fine to disassociate the work from the life of the project and let it continue living in a different way.
How curators could be useful to your practice.
networking, presenting ideas that you might not have had regarding pairings, providing your work with a life beyond the cycle you give to it. Being included with a contextually relevant exhibition alongside other artists who are more popular could boost the reception of your own work.
CRJ 