Jonathon Bailey (Australia) at Saksala
August 2005: the application
The program seems suited to my artistic development. The disciplined use of studio space would allow me the opportunity to focus on an artistic plan that explores the relationship of a detached traveler to their surroundings. I will investigate concepts via previously researched process to fruition. Due to its semi secluded location and natural surroundings Saksala is an ideal area for me to investigate studies relating to the surrounding landscape as it informs identity through associated familiarity. As my proposed idea comprises of various disciplines such as video, photography and sculpture I feel I have a lot to share with other artists from different disciplinary backgrounds. I would like to frequent the forums and symposiums that take place at Saksala and perhaps talk about my experience in Australian based art collective DAMP and their involvement with local communities.
Titled One Last Run the work will comprise of a sculptural wall picture accompanied by a video piece to be projected on a semi-translucent screen resting vertically within the space.
The sculptural wall piece is a representation of a sketch work about the destruction of a domestic house. It will be composed of a series of cut out wooden shapes each painted in various colors all parts adhering to the wall resembling the picture. The completed wall piece will span an entire wall length and width (dimensions variable accordingly).
The video work will be representative of the same theme. In a single shot it will begin with the construction of miniature balsa wood house and end with the eventual destruction of the model from within by a small explosive charge. The only effects used in the production will be the gradual slow motion of the explosion as it blows the house away. Resulting in a graceful composition of the transformation of the house as it morphs from its steady structure to a collection of burnt embers and splintered chars. The last frame of the video, which will feature a relatively empty space where the house once stood, will lead into the beginning of the first frame presenting the initial construction successfully looping the video.
February 2006: after one month in the residence
Working and researching in foreign areas outside of my home country allow me to realize that differences between foreign environments and my own local Sydney Australian environment are significant in many ways socially, historically and off course geographically. Undergoing a residency at Saksala has allowed me to immerse myself in the countryside of Haukivuori. Much of the inspiration in my work lends itself to the beauty of the surrounding landscape.
I am compiling a series of short video recorded process based studies and performances Ive conducted in Haukivuori. The resulting video work orchestrates the rawness and experimental nature of human inquisition in a foreign land. The house, being a common structure people gravitate towards as a means of living, provides an interesting model around which to study local psycho-geography.
A miniature wooden house, balloons and dynamite are the apparatus through which the properties of physics, form and color are expressed in a series of studies amongst a snow covered, tree lined Finnish rural environment. In many of the documented experiments an end-point reaction, in the form of an explosion, threatens the structural integrity of the miniature house. Form and being are drastically changed altering the houses relationship with its surroundings. The house becomes unrecognizable in its changed state, stripping the landscape of its familiar humanized context.
The performance aspect of the video work in progress will portray a local inhabitant of Haukivuori in a moment of daily living and interaction with the surrounding environment. The performance will reveal a person dressed in a makeshift cardboard polar bear costume navigating through the snowy landscape on an unknown journey stopping only to sample red cordial snow cones, which are disguised as natural flora. The bear becomes lost in its own routine as it farms the land. The medial task provides innocent yet blind activity, leading the bear to a seemingly directionless quest though the forest.
March 19 2006: the exhibition
I have been able to utilize the country scenery of Haukivuori to conduct experiments with my own sculptures. From this experimentation, I observe the relationship my sculptures have with the surrounding environment and explore the ways this relationship can be changed. I have recorded these experiments in the surrounding area via video camera.
So far I have been lucky enough to receive help from a local farmer in using explosives to destroy one of my sculptures. My camera was also lucky to survive the blast .just!
In conducting these experiments within foreign landscape I get the opportunity to observe my own social and geographical proximity to the subject and surrounding area.
