This artwork — d7 — is a meta artwork of original (analogue) artworks, comprising 252 pieces (original artworks from my m series, each piece ink on paper, 90mm × 90mm) configured in an arrangement of 6 rows × 42 columns.

To get an idea of the scale and impact of d7, here are two mockups of it in one of the Gn rooms.

Thoughts

This was prepared primarily for my Proposal for the Final Show and is the first attempt to think more about and develop a cohesive resolved body of work. This is also one of the first times that I have been able to see the various artworks in my m series together: in this case, m12, m13, m14, and m15. While it works, it also doesn’t work, and I am considering substituting out some m sets for others… m13 gone… and for m14 some heavy editing as to which ones to include or exclude… which means either adding others (from m4 thru m10) or creating a new sets. This is because these — for me – stand out from their peers as the aesthetic is too geometric and systemic (which is hardly surprising because that is what I was experimenting with when I made these).

One very positive side of making d7: all the effort I put into automating Illustrator has paid off as I was able to generate this proof with almost too much ease (the slight hiccup being that it was originally row-oriented and for this it needed to be column-oriented.. a simple change of a few lines was all that was required). The main “pain” in making this proof was that for m12 I hadn’t prepared isolated images to manipulate… so I had to spend some time doing this… one of those jobs that is mind-numbingly boring and can’t be automated which explains why I had been putting it off for as long as possible.

To get a sense of the scale and impact of d7, I made two mockups showing different perspectives. To make these I took some photographs taken at the summer show last year — one taken by me and one taken by Katerina of the room and wall where Anthi had shown her final exhibition work and manipulated them (compositing by Photoshop). With the benefit of hindsight I wished I had taken more images of the space at Wilson Road… these mockups are greatly improved by using genuine images of the space instead of generic gallery spaces.

During my fifth one-on-one with Jonathan the idea for this meta artwork raised itself… when making d7 I was able to quickly iterate through various configurations, and went from an initial idea of 12 rows × 80 columns down to the final (?) 6 rows × 42 columns. The proof initially looked unusual due to the height to width ratio, but seeing it as a mockup the ratio seems to fit the space extremely well, and hopefully the impact on the spectator will be the desired one.

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