Jess Gibson
University of Tasmania
Artefact
“..occurs as a result of the preparative or investigative procedure”
Beginning with researching artist Kelly Austin and the concept of still life, along with her
predecessors Gwyn Pigott & Giorgio Morandi and contemporaries such as Kirsten Coelho &
Edmund De Waal. This taking me then into the depths of still life and the relationship with the subject and its importance or lack of.
The overly curated nature of it historically was about capturing a moment often including
something of decay, I set out to look towards a less serious and playful attitude of still life with a nod to Irving Penn.
Adopting drawing techniques to apply to make forms from clay, for example; made with elbow, with left hand, eyes closed, foot, palm of hand etc… to create shapes and forms with no purpose. I then photographed them with similar tonal objects; rice- cooked & raw, garlic & stones in a ‘still life’ setting. One photo after the other I added a piece or took a piece away, small changes to make a comment on all still life after studying it for some time looks some what the same.
Left then with a serious of images laid out as a contact sheet, I then selected a few and through scanning, photocopying, zooming and repeating this process came out with some interesting imagery which alongside the zines, contact sheets and clay objects made for a series of artefacts that reflected the process and research I went on.