Look at Jessica Warboys works with the action of the sea to generate a sense of movement within her abstract paintings and artists who have used machines to paint or draw include, Rebecca Horn and Akira Kanayama. Look at their work on-line, in books and journals and make notes in your learning log. Can you find other examples to compare and contrast to your own explorations?

Sea Paintings by Jessica Warboys (b. 1977) is a series that explores the ritual performance of nature. Emerging the canvas in the seawater off the coast of St. Ives, or close to the site of her exhibitions, she allows the waves to combine with the raw mineral pigments that have been applied by hand to damp folded canvases to produce large and evocative pieces.

The result is a series of floor to ceiling colour canvases that examines the Western tradition of landscape painting. (See figure 1) While her works present a performative aspect, the artist does not consider herself a performing artist. Rather, she views her paintings as ‘a poetic performance’ that relate to the transition between ritual, performance and the artistic process. In a wider context, this incorporates a variety of media including film, sculpture, ceramic, photography, found objects and sea paintings. (Kadist.org, n.d.)

This method removes the artist’s compositional hand, giving way to the natural elements of the sea and weather to dictate the outcome. Fundamental to the creative process, the artist drags the canvas along the shoreline leaving a trace of the movement of the artist in the canvas.

Rebecca Horn’s Flying books under black rain (2014) incorporates paint across the wall and over three open-and-closing books to produce a large-scale gestural abstraction. The machine only reacts to the motion presence of the viewer (via motion detection) thereby dissolving “barriers between passive spectators and active performers.”(Horn, 2014)

Akira Kanayama, part of the Avant Gard Japanese Gutai Group had a unique way of painting with an automatic toy car. The painting machine is an early example of the machine/robot in the role of artist. Kanayama’s remote-controlled painting machine mimics Jackson Pollock’s drips painting – a technique he developed in the 1940’s. (cyberneticzoo.com, n.d.)

The idea was to produce art that was devoid of the influence of the artist, producing a completely abstract work.  The artist challenged the concept of an artist having to be devoted to a piece of work. In principle Kanayama had removed himself from the outcome. However, with the limitations of technology the machine was controlled by the artist so it wasn’t entirely self-directed.

Sougwen Chung is an artist who explores the human-machine from a perspective of collaboration rather than just a tool. A collaboration between the artist, the data set, the machine, and the dynamics & design of the algorithmic process. This leans towards Artificial Intelligence linked to her movements to create a piece of work. In a wider context this examines technology and society in an evolving order. (Chung and Pranam, 2019)

References:

Bell-labs.com. (2018). Nokia Bell Labs: A discussion with Sougwen Chung about human-robotic collaborations. [online] Available at: https://www.bell-labs.com/var/articles/discussion-sougwen-chung-about-human-robotic-collaborations/ [Accessed 1 Feb. 2020].

cyberneticzoo.com. (n.d.). 1957 – Remote-Controlled Painting Machine – Akira Kanayama (Japanese) – cyberneticzoo.com. [online] Available at: http://cyberneticzoo.com/robots-in-art/1957-remote-controlled-painting-machine-akira-kanayama-japanese/ [Accessed 31 Jan. 2020].

Horn, R. (2014). Flying Books Under Black Rain Painting. [online] Harvardartmuseums.org. Available at: https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/350526 [Accessed 31 Jan. 2020].

Kadist.org. (n.d.). Sea Painting, Dunwich, September – Kadist. [online] Available at: https://kadist.org/work/sea-painting/ [Accessed 1 Feb. 2020].

Kelly, S. (2019). Rebecca Horn. [online] Skny.com. Available at: https://www.skny.com/artists/rebecca-horn [Accessed 31 Jan. 2020].

Prabook.com. (n.d.). Akira Kanayama. [online] Available at: https://prabook.com/web/akira.kanayama/3742052 [Accessed 31 Jan. 2020].

Sougwen Chung, S. and Aswin Pranam, A. (2019). Putting The Art In Artificial Intelligence: A Conversation With Sougwen Chung. [online] Forbes.com. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/aswinpranam/2019/12/12/putting-the-art-in-artificial-intelligence-a-conversation-with-sougwen-chung/#2cf1121f3c5b [Accessed 1 Feb. 2020].

Tate. (2017). Jessica Warboys – Exhibition at Tate St Ives | Tate. [online] Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-st-ives/exhibition/studio-and-sea/jessica-warboys [Accessed 1 Feb. 2020].

Warboys, J. (2016). Jessica Warboys Sea Paintings (2015-16) at BAS8. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arQJ0F1l6lI [Accessed 31 Jan. 2020].