Completed Untitled Studies ['Deleuzian Cartography'] 2

 

Untitled Study ['Deleuzian Cartography'], Paper Collage & Mixed Media on Paper,
300 mm x 300 mm, 2024

Here is a somewhat delayed round-up of the paper-based studies from my 'Deleuzian Cartography' work. Everything here was produced during the latter months of 2024, alongside the slightly more substantial/resolved panels which emerged from these explorations. The first and last images here represent studies at the larger 300 mm x 300 mm size, and could, I imagine be presented as exhibit-able work, should the opportunity arise. In the event, the intensity of work and degree of resolution they represent falls only slightly short of the small 'finished' panels which have resulted from all this to date.  

This & Following Five Images: Untitled Sketchbook Studies ['Deleuzian Cartography'],
Paper Collage & Mixed Media on Paper, 180 mm x 180 mm, 2024

The remaining images show sketchbook-based studies, which were thus somewhat more spontaneous and rapid in their execution. This fairly organic methodology is a key feature of this phase of work, with motifs, themes cartographic locators and solipsistic references all bobbing to the surface of an ongoing process of exploration. The hope is that anything that emerges might draw on previous discoveries or feed into as yet unmade images with equal facility. 

The key motivation behind all of the work is, I guess, the search for a form of intuitive, deconstructed/reconfigured cartography, in which the established geometries of the street plan are perpetually short-circuited through space and time by more fluid currents of potential meaning or narrative. As can be seen, this has expanded to encompass references to electrical/electronic circuitry, diagrammatic labyrinths and specific literary/philosophical  references, alongside the streets, buildings and allusions to digital/analogue mapping with which I began. Simultaneity and a sense of zooming-in/out feel like they're pretty key too, and I can't help noticing that the inclusion of specific textual elements has once more become a thing.

As regards media and technique, there's nothing especially new to report. Everything has evolved via my long customary mixed-media/collage-based methodology. It allows me to hang onto a degree of chance and spontaneity and is a well-proven way to act as an editor/manipulator of found material (and spaces). I can only hope there's been some refinement of technique or increase in sophistication/nuance over the years I've been working like this.

The whole 'Deleuzian Cartography' idea still feels very live, although I've currently taken a short pause for thought, largely to consider possible ways to retain the key features and spirit of this kind of imagery at a larger scale. I feel like there are relatively practical issues of enlargement  implied here, but also an imperative to explore the idea of extensiveness and the transgression of set boundaries too. In relation to that, it's impossible to ignore the fact that Jorge Luis Borges once wrote an account of a physical map produced at 1:1 scale, which grew to encompass every topographic detail of the entire empire it eventually covered [1.]. Time for some more practical experimentation, I think...

Untitled Study ['Deleuzian Cartography'], Paper Collage & Mixed Media on Paper,
300 mm x 300 mm, 2024

[1.]: Jorge Luis Borges, 'On Exactitude in Science', From: ‘The Aleph’, London/NYC, Penguin, 1998

'Constructed City' 2: Groundwork

Sketchbook Study, Collaged Inkjet Prints On Paper, October 2019

For far to long now, I've been complaining about my creative energies having dwindled somewhat.  It's certainly true that there's been a distinct dearth of finished work to discuss on here, for some months, and perhaps - an associated disinclination to communicate much generally.  But, whilst activities may have slowed somewhat - at no point have they dried up altogether.  We all have slightly fallow periods, and a sense of the greater continuum of creative practice is all that really matters.  It's pointless to fixate on what hasn't happened, therefore - and far more instructive to simply carry on discussing the stuff that has/is.  It's supposed to be a process, after all - and not just a steady succession of 'outcomes' (ugh!).

Sketchbook Studies, Collaged Inkjet Prints On Paper, September 2019

So, whilst we're still a long way from anything one might deem complete here - it seems well worth documenting the tangible start of what I hope may grow into a new body of work.  If nothing else - there's always a thrilling blend of aspiration and trepidation connected with starting something new, and I wouldn't be without that.

Sketchbook Study, Collaged Inkjet Prints On Paper, September 2019

I've already mentioned my growing engagement, as a subject, with the major redevelopment and construction projects currently transforming my own central Leicester back yard.  One particular edifice now looms above these very rooftops - as a vast agglomeration of steelwork, scaffolding and other associated materials, even as I write.  I've been enthusiastically documenting such sites for quite a few months now, and the associated photographic library of raw material is already encouragingly expansive.  I've recently started to print and reconfigure some of those images, to create a series of collaged composite sketchbook studies - like those above.  Incidentally, it's a while since I've used sketchbooks like this, to develop imagery.  This probably indicates a general desire to let ideas gestate a bit more intensively, but also a need to feel my way into a slightly new way of thinking with a degree of caution - I suspect.

All Remaining Images: Work In Progress (Screenprints), Leicester Print Workshop,
October 2019

I'm sure I'll continue to generate more such studies, and to work back further into others as ideas develop - but there already seems enough potential there to get out from between the pages of the sketchbook.  Thus, the other images here show the very early stages of transforming some of this material into a new run of screen prints, at Leicester Print Workshop.  I've been a bit of a stranger at LPW over recent months, but always enjoy the hours I put in, when I do get down there.  Hopefully, I'll become a more regular fixture in the coming months, as I've decided this new project should be a largely print-based undertaking (funds permitting - at least).

Anyway, what you see here really does represent a very early beginning - and I'm definitely still just feeling my way.  The handful of printed statements laid down to date will probably be obscured behind numerous further layers, if my current plans play out.  In fact, they should simply constitute some form of ground, over which further elements may subsequently float - hopefully drawing on the new learning I gained on LPW's CMYK screen printing course, earlier in the year.  Either way, I'll try to keep documenting any progress made, in the interests of keeping open my communication channels with the wider world.  Too much introspection really can only get you so far, after all.

Finally, for what it's worth - I've already burdened this project with the slightly bland working title of 'Constructed City'.  Such things really shouldn't matter too much, and certainly not at such an early stage.  Nevertheless, anyone familiar with my working habits might already expect me to be worrying away with unnecessary pedantry, at the nomenclature, in future  posts.  Some things never change.