READING WEEK (5) /WEEK 6

 what is an assemblage and where did it originate?

I wanted to get a better understanding of the term assemblage and what it meant so spent the Time I had off to research this and then reflect back on the workshops to see how I may have changed things. The use of assemblage as an approach to making art goes back to Pablo Picasso’s cubist constructions, the three dimensional works he began to make from 1912. An early example is his Still Life 1914 which is made from scraps of wood and a length of tablecloth fringing, glued together and painted. Picasso continued to use assemblage intermittently throughout his career. (Tate, n.d)

Tate. (n.d.). Assemblage. Tate. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/a/assemblage#:~:text=The%20use%20of%20assemblage%20as,fringing%2C%20glued%20together%20and%20painted

To create Guitar Picasso made a radical leap from the sculptural tradition of modeling (carving or molding) to a new technique of assemblage. He created a first version of Guitar from cardboard in 1912, then later remade the work in sheet metal; the modern ordinariness of both of these materials is very different from traditional sculptural materials such as bronze, wood, and marble. The planes of the sheet-metal construction engage in a play of substance and void in which volume is suggested, not depicted. In a dramatic demonstration of the flexible way visual forms can be read in context, the guitar's sound hole, which normally recedes from the instrument's smooth surface, here projects outward into space.

Early visitors to Picasso's studio were bewildered by this work: "What is that?" they asked, according to the poet Andre Salmon: "Does that rest on a pedestal? Does that hang on the wall? Is it a painting or sculpture?" Apparently, Picasso responded, "It's nothing, it's 'la guitare!'" For Salmon, one of Picasso's closest friends during the Cubist years, the effect was of radical importance: "We were delivered from painting and sculpture, liberated from the imbecilic tyranny of genres." With its centre open to space, Picasso's Guitar was a radical breakthrough. (Picasso, n.d.)

Picasso, P. (n.d.). Guitar. Pablo Picasso. https://www.pablopicasso.org/guitar.jsp

In 1918 dada artist Kurt Schwitters began to use scavenged scrap materials to create collagesand assemblages – he called this technique ‘merz’. Assemblage also became the basis for many surrealist objects. Inspired by psychologist Sigmund Freud’s writings about the unconscious and dreams, surrealist artists often combined unlikely combinations of found objects to create surprising and unsettling sculptures.

Tate. (n.d.). Assemblage. Tate. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/a/assemblage#:~:text=The%20use%20of%20assemblage%20as,fringing%2C%20glued%20together%20and%20painted

Museum of Contemporary Art. (2015, September 24). Assemblage [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alCiumy8tjE

I watched this video on YouTube where they say things can be made out of anything in a variety of ways and is essentially cut and paste. often the people call themselves hunters, gatherers and recyclers and see how the combination of things all work together. it explained the task we were doing in the workshop well and helped me see why we were doing the task and the reasoning behind repurposing an object.

once I had a better understanding I wanted to attempt to write a poem as it was recommended and it may also impact my view if I see what I perceive assemblage to be. 

Assemblage 

Forgotten in a corner of the mind,  

Fragments linger, unconfined,  

Joy and laughter, anguish, loss and pain,  

Each a thread in a woven chain.

A ticking clock with hands askew,  

Memories like whispers, old and new,  

Pages torn from a photo book,  

Echoes of places, if we dare look.

Rusty keys in a dusty chest,  

Secrets held in a mind that won’t rest,

Stones unturned from the river's bed,  

Stories of hearts that love, that bled.

Each scar a testament, each line a verse,  

In the chaos of life, we find the universe,  

Together they dance, this odd crew,  

An assemblage of colours, vibrant and true.

after writing the poem my outlook has changed and I can see that assemblage can mean memories, emotions, thought and feelings alongside just objects so I want to ensure that whatever I do helps to provoke emotions and be remembered by the potential users. 

I also began reading staying with the trouble due to being bed bound post op so found it the perfect opportunity to take one of Belinda's recommendations one part I particularly enjoyed as from the introduction. 

"many of us are tempted to address trouble in terms of making

an imagined future safe, of stopping something from happening that

looms in the future, of clearing away the present and the past in order

to make futures for coming generations. Staying with the trouble does

not require such a relationship to times called the future. In fact, staying

with the trouble requires learning to be truly present, not as a vanishing

pivot between awful or edenic pasts and apocalyptic or salvific futures,

but as mortal critters entwined in myriad unfinished configurations of

places, times, matters, meanings"  (Haraway, 2016, p. 1)

Haraway, D. (2016). Staying with the trouble: Making kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press.

I found this particular part interesting because everyone is always worried about the future and preserving things for other generations which is nice to be considerate and give them the opportunity but it does mean that you may not be fully fulfilled or making the most of the time you have as its not always given which is a lot to consider. what are you missing out on if you truly aren't being present ? 

I then wanted to review what I had created in the workshop and answer the questions that I had been considering such as what is it? what's its purpose? did using verbs help influence my design? was it successful?

 

I finally decided that I had made a side table that could also be used as a percussion instrument or a stool for someone to sit on or perform with, using verbs helped me with some guidance as provoke helped me consider other senses such as sound which is how I ended up down the musical route. I believe it was quite successful for the short amount of time I got to use the workshop due to things such as an operation taking away some of the time. id have been intrigued by how I could have further developed this initial seed of an idea.