Mini Artist Residency – La Perdrix, France – The Object Project Part 1

The Object Project

I have just had the pleasure of doing a mini-art-residency at La Perdrix, in the beautiful Dordogne region of France. The huge house, a 13th Century monastery, became our home for the week. I went with four fellow 3rd year ceramic students, and four MA ceramic students, and two tutors. There were two photographers/film makers from America staying at the property at the same time as us, recording our progress and documenting our projects.

The Gang

The first day we went to a local antique market, and were asked to choose an object that would be the starting point for the weeks work, the inspiration for the project. The idea behind the object was to explore it and document it in as many new ways as possible, learning new techniques that would allow us to reach a wider audience, express our creativity in new exciting ways, and to challenge our personal practices as artists.

The Fisherman’s Float

I bought a spherical glass fisherman’s float, originally used as a visual marker for nets, keeping the top of the net buoyant and accessible. I had thought about choosing cut crystal, as there was a huge amount at the market, but I decided I wanted an object that was a strong simple form, as my current ceramic practice is moving in that direction.

I decided early on that I wasn’t going to work in clay, but rather explore different methods of recoding a physical object, and how it is possible to express the materiality of something through visual means. I started by making a pinhole camera in an empty tin can, and experimenting with light, positioning and exposure time, learning more with each shot taken. I managed to capture some really interesting close-ups of the fisherman’s float, that became abstract in their development, with light and reflections creating intriguing images.

Pinhole Experiments

I wanted to capture the form of the float, the essence of the surface qualities of the glass, how it distorts light through refraction and how it reflects a different world back at us. This became the focus of the photography.

Pinhole Photography – Light and Reflection

 

Pinhole Photography – Light and Reflection and Form

I particularly like that the images are negative, as it gives a completely new perspective of the object, bringing focus to the reflective spherical form and how it plays with light, which otherwise might be overshadowed by colour.