Camberwell College of Arts   2008/2009

Jenny Dunseath

AA2A Residency Outcome: Drawing0543

The method of Aluminium Sand Casting, introduced by Phillip White at Camberwell School of Art, was a fundamental turning point in both work and practise. The Process has allowed a departure from referencing architectural models, to a more direct exploration of form and construction in a material that lends itself directly to the language/idiom of frames and structure-Aluminium.

Reading the process as a diagram does not represent but rather constitutes a new type of reality and introduces architectural research into a field of actualization. The outcome is a dynamic object, unstable and evolving. It bares the traces of the activity that brings it into being. It becomes a map of its origination process. Repetitive performances evolve initial intuitive responses into primary techniques; stepping, strips, curves or meanders. Manipulation of the sand in order to produce a volume constitutes a curriculum of activity, a program of events. Understanding and developing the process transgresses the singularity of the object generating a series of similar but varying outcomes offering potential for the objects to continue beyond their final moment of being made.

The unexpected assistance, kindness and support shown by Camberwell School of Art, specifically the sculpture technicians P. White and Bill Grealish, has been instrumental to the progress of my work. The opportunity to have access to specialist workshops, a broad range of media, resources and appropriate technical support has not only improved my technical skills, but it has accelerated my studio practice to develop a significant body of work. The input from students and staff with diverse interests facilitated interaction that I am otherwise unable to achieve working in the relative isolation of my studio. For example during sand casting workshops, links were made with C. Follows of Wimbledon school of Art, for a project exploring processes in arts practice: http://itrdu1.arts.ac.uk/wpmu/process/?s=sand+casting