thesassoongallery

2006-02-11T15:54:00.000-08:00

Friday seems to have passed in a blur, with the knowledge that the plans i'd made were just about accomplishable on the condition that there were no hitches or hiccups along the way. So there was the pressure to be accurate and do things right first time as well as the time issue! Cool as cucumber I was not, but it came together. Ironically one of my favourite things about the work was the layout of the smaller parts on the left hand side of the space, which I finished in the last half hour or so. There's something immensely satisfying about its incidental squareness.
As I was finishing up I became aware that despite my best empirical efforts there was still an intense musicality about the room, and the object. Some of the heavier suspended parts had stretched their strings so taut that when brushed (or deliberately plucked) they played a very clear note. The progressive nature of the arrangement of the pieces (large to small) had a feel of musical notation to it - decrescendo - and their shadows (and/or the fishing wires) the staves. I included the recordings i'd made of the removal of the strings as ambient sound in the space: and echoey noise in a highly resonant space, and despite the rather quiet volume it was set to, there were times when the sound in the room was so loud it made conversation difficult. I liked the intrusive nature of it. It's been demanding all the way through.
Conversations with some artists at the private view has made me consider whether or not the space was too full. It definitely felt crowded with many people in there, but I'm not sure there's anything I could have left out without some detrimental effect.
Any suggestions as to what I could do with the pieces come tuesday would be great, as I'm loath to throw them all in a skip but can't afford a fluxus-esque mailout as I spent all my money on animation.
Watch this space for less frenetic developments over the next few days - exhibition closes on Tuesday 14th.

P2090160

2006-02-09T17:52:00.000-08:00

P2090160
Originally uploaded by hannahraealton.

P2100178

2006-02-09T17:51:00.002-08:00

P2100178
Originally uploaded by hannahraealton.

P2090148

2006-02-09T17:51:00.001-08:00

P2090148
Originally uploaded by hannahraealton.

Wednesday involved 14 hours of screwing masonry eyelets and rawl plugs into the underside of the arch (causing stiffness, brick-dust blindness and the loss of the sensation of taste. Possible emphysema.) The eyelets are in three straight lines along the middle of the ceiling, corresponding to whether the component to be suspended required one or two eyelets to hold it level. It involved lots of compensation for the arc, and marking out lines with wire to keep tings straight. And a hammer-action power drill. I am now cured of my irrational fear of power tools. And indebted to the help I recieved with the sheer physical labour.

Thursday has involved a lot of fishing wire and steady progress, as well as planning for the use of the space tomorrow, the terrifying realisation that tomorrow is Friday, i.e. opening night, and the final realisation that my plan to edit the duration of every frame of my animation to fit the cubic voume of the corresponding piano component was overambitious for the one week's timeslot. So it will be there in more basic form tomorrow, projected onto the side wall of the front of the gallery.
I managed to hang all the hangable parts from the ceiling hooks tonight before leaving, so tomorrow will be both computer based (finishing animation, burning dvd)and arranging of the rest of the things in the gallery (list of instructions, smaller unhangable piano parts, dvd player, amp and speakers etc.) And the small matter of a college assesment worht 25% of my degree classification, apparently. The fun never stops.

I feel that at least my aim for the space is achievable, just, in the time I have left. And hell or high water will not keep me there past 5pm tomorrow. Every artist should shower before a private view!

P2090153

2006-02-09T17:51:00.000-08:00

P2090153
Originally uploaded by hannahraealton.

P2090156

2006-02-09T17:50:00.001-08:00

P2090156
Originally uploaded by hannahraealton.

P2100175

2006-02-09T17:50:00.000-08:00

P2100175
Originally uploaded by hannahraealton.

P2080132

2006-02-09T02:49:00.000-08:00

P2080132
Originally uploaded by hannahraealton.

the lovably lethal scaff, near death experiences. But lots of strong screws into the brickwork. Mission accomplished.

P2090141

2006-02-09T02:44:00.000-08:00

P2090141
Originally uploaded by hannahraealton.

P2080133

2006-02-09T02:43:00.000-08:00

P2080133
Originally uploaded by hannahraealton.

all the larger pieces lined up and ready to hang

P2080135

2006-02-09T02:42:00.000-08:00

P2080135
Originally uploaded by hannahraealton.

P2070084

2006-02-09T02:14:00.000-08:00

P2070084
Originally uploaded by hannahraealton.

the first prototype of the displacement machine involved the suspension of the water - not so practical.

P2070119

2006-02-09T02:10:00.000-08:00

P2070119
Originally uploaded by hannahraealton.

P2070088

2006-02-09T02:09:00.000-08:00

P2070088
Originally uploaded by hannahraealton.

spot the ghostly hovering artist

2006-02-08T19:30:00.000-08:00

tuesday 8th
today was the true start to the setting up process. I was measuring the cubic volumes of some of the smaller piano components with mind to setting the frame timings on the upcoming animation. I constructed a water displacement machine out of palletts and a blue bin (see images) but got a little caught up in wondering where to round up or down to.

Where do the fractions of pennies from people's pro-rata wages go? Does the bank keep them for intrest?

When I was in cork last year I visited an instrument maker's shop. The entire ceiling of his workshop was crowded with half-done cellos, all hung on great silver meathooks to dry/settle. It was an amazing sight and one I only just remembered when looking at how I plan to use meathooks to suspend some of the heavier metal pieces of the piano.

There was some issue with surface tension affecting the results, I need to find a deeper container with a smaller surface area like a piece of pipe.

2006-02-06T15:32:00.001-08:00

I liked folding the velvet. There is something final and assuring about folding fabric. In folding it, the piano-space was taken away. That was the moment it went. It's like a build-your-own kit right now, and I want to make an exploded diagram (thanks, kuba) now, but alas it may be out of my technical/temporal abilities.

Monday 4

2006-02-06T15:32:00.000-08:00

Monday 4
Originally uploaded by hannahraealton.

Monday 3

2006-02-06T15:31:00.001-08:00

Monday 3
Originally uploaded by hannahraealton.

Monday 2

2006-02-06T15:31:00.000-08:00

Monday 2
Originally uploaded by hannahraealton.

Monday 5

2006-02-06T15:30:00.000-08:00

Monday 5
Originally uploaded by hannahraealton.

2006-02-06T15:10:00.000-08:00

Today was moving in day. I now have all the piano pieces in the space and ready to go! Grateful for assistance provided by friends with motor vehicles. Had to finish the dissembly in the gallery, due to unplanned delay caused by my failure to undo TUNING PEGS which are now my least favourite objects on the planet (actually, second to stripped screws). This could've been a failure but was actually a positive thing as I ended up having to get heavy duty with the crowbar and stonemasonry hammer, which wouldn't've gone down well in the living room.

It makes me happy that I found crowbars in a pound shop in Peckham.

So now it's completely in pieces, no longer a piano. I thought I would stop thinking of it as a piano when I'd finished taking the strings off, but actually I was still referring to it as a piano when all that was left was the faded and fragile piece of velvet from the back. It was still the piano-space, rather than a piano. In terms of function, it hasn't been a piano for months, maybe years. There was an outline in sawdust and cracked resin and old varnish around where it was which I haven't swept up. I want to see if it's still there in the morning.

I've wrecked my hands. Like Scarlett in her green curtain dress.

When I went to collect the piano, months back, I asked why the guy was selling it, and so cheaply (it was £2.50 on ebay). It had been sitting in an outhouse, and I was originally intending to tune it to play it. I played from the age of 5 but had to leave my piano when I left home, and it's something I miss very much. The man told me he'd been through a divorce and the piano had belonged to his wife. He was too sad to have it in the house any more. It had been (badly) painted white, perhaps in an effort towards camouflage. It seems like a sad end. I brought it home and tried to tune it but the whole thing was warped. I'd get the midle two octaves in, then the ends would have bowed out. Sensitive things. Hence the current events.

Tomorrow is going to be measuring day. Measuring volume of components using water displacement (go archimedes) and measuring gallery space using tape measure. Towards eventual end of animation. Action-event day, come one come all. 11 - (at least) 5 daily, underneath Peckham Rye BR. Private view this Fri 10th, 6pm onwards.

Monday 1

2006-02-06T15:06:00.000-08:00

Monday 1
Originally uploaded by hannahraealton.

The trouble with screws...

2006-02-02T04:37:00.000-08:00

Bollocks! How can I undo a really stiff screw? This piano is guarding its secrets. I need to get the harp off the soundboard, two very large flat-head screws. Have tried a very large flat-head screwdriver, and a rachet one with an adjustable handle (to give more leverage), some muscular boys and even the old fix-all- a good squirt of WD-40, but to no avail. Cash reward to anyone who comes up with the winning method...

2006-01-29T15:25:00.000-08:00

Butchers, butchers, butchers. Might have to go have a nice chat with one about how you carve up a cow (with regards to how you carve up a piano) - but without letting on that I don't eat beef. Could be fraught with faux-pas.

2006-01-29T15:03:00.000-08:00

Here are some tasty links - http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ma/gallery/hyper/cube.html, http://torina.fe.uni-lj.si/~zlobec/cube/Cube.html, http://dogfeathers.com/java/hypercube.html, http://www.brianlukoff.com/articles/AreaAndVolumeFormulas.pdf, http://www.execulink.com/~robin1/da_freq.html, and never let anyone tell you maths isn't cool...

previous work, 2005

2006-01-29T14:38:00.000-08:00

This is

IMGP0470
Originally uploaded by hannahraealton.

a piece I made about the use of sound in a space. There are two tape recorders set up in a delay loop. One is set to record, the other to playback, so that the audible sound is an echo of what was ambient a few seconds before. The length of time before the echo is dependent on the physical distance between the two machines. The white strips in the tape are pieces of written text that I spliced in, so when they passed through the tape heads, the machines were silent. I'm still interested in using these kinds of ideas for like there's no tomorrow, as the piano parts are silent objects. It will hopefully just all fall neatly into place...

work, 2005

2006-01-29T14:32:00.000-08:00

IMGP1113
Originally uploaded by hannahraealton.

an image of an earlier piece of work when I was just getting interested in the reaches (and limits) of language

IMGP1093

2006-01-23T09:48:00.000-08:00

IMGP1093
Originally uploaded by hannahraealton.

here is a piece of art I made