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  • A painting’s background in Virginia Woolf’s 1927 novel ‘To the Lighthouse’

    A painting’s background in Virginia Woolf’s 1927 novel ‘To the Lighthouse’

    Encyclopaedia of a painting’s background


    She scrutinises her canvas on the easel and wonders how to connect the right window to the left hedge in her painting. How can she break the empty foreground?

    Isle of Skye summer holiday house
    Scale: 1 centimetre = 1 metre

    With a canvas 60 cm wide and a point of view 35 cm from the canvas, the field of view spans from the window to the hedge

    due west wind from the east
    red geraniums spilling from urn
    escallonia hedge
    lawn
    pampas grass
    elm tree
    apple orchard
    pear orchard
    kitchen table with legs in the air

    a. the window
    b. red-hot poker plants
    c. jacmanna
    d. purple passion flowers
    e. anemones
    f. artichoke bed
    g. strawberry bed
    h. herbs
    i. raspberry bed
    j. poppies
    k. dahlias
    l. mesembryanthemums
    m. grapes in greenhouses
    n. greenhouse entrance
    o. love corner
    p. coffee garden
    q. tennis lawn
    r. house entrance

  • Red space holder: forget remember

    Red space holder: forget remember

    ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF A SPACE FORGOTTEN
    They seek the central point of the picture. They enter the picture through a room with three walls of green stripes. They are in a hurry. They rush through a room with two walls of grey stripes. They have no time to notice. They run through a third room with just one wall of blue stripes. They feel time is running out. They enter a room with no walls of stripes, just a floor of orange stripes. They exit the picture, disappointed. They roamed the general picture, but did not find a door to its central point.

    1. The forgotten wall of green stripes in a drawer, remembered
    2. The forgotten two walls of grey stripes in a drawer, remembered
    3. The forgotten three walls of blue stripes in a drawer, remembered
    4. The forgotten four walls of orange stripes in a drawer, remembered
    5. Woodwork bench full of stripes unable to fit in a drawer
    6. Woodwork bench full of stripes yet to be remembered

    ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF A SPACE REMEMBERED

    1. Door to the picture’s central point

    2. Drawer of one’s moment now with a width of patience, a height of possibility, a depth of freedom and a timespan of love.

  • behind you: red

    behind you: red

    ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF MEMORY IN ART

    ‘That’s opposite to how I see it’, said the artist. ‘The artwork’s whole consists of a small actual part and a large thought part, behind you.’ ‘No, no, no’, replied the viewer. ‘It consists of a large actual part and a small thought part, behind you.’

    Details on the watercolour floorplan read as follows:

    • stairs
    • stares
    • 20
    • x
    • 20
    • Where ‘x’ is the measurement of space between a memory and the place the memory comes from.
  • ABC art: blue cube

    ABC art: blue cube

  • ABC art: red cube

    ABC art: red cube

    ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF THE ABC IN ART HISTORY
    Art historian A insists the meaning of this work of art can be found in room one. Upon rushing through the passageway to room one, however, we could not find any meaning.

    Art historian B’s books all conclude with the meaning of this work of art being found in room two. Upon rushing through the passageway to room two, we could not find any meaning.

    Art historian C argues in lectures to university students, that the meaning of this work of art is divided between rooms three and four.

    Upon rushing through the passageway to room three then four, however, we could not find any meaning.

    Returning to the passageway, convinced this work of art has no meaning, we little realised we were standing right within it. For later the meaning was found to be here, in this passageway, between the imaginary space of fiction and the real space of a red cube – a passageway through which we have been rushing all along.

    Floorplan details:

    – a. book shelf with works of fiction and a 170 x 170mm red cube
    – b. a page from the Encyclopaedia of the ABC in Art History
    – room 1;  ledge where someone found their coffee cup but not its saucer
    – room 2; ledge where someone found their coffee saucer but not its cup
    –  room 3;  where someone wondered why the architect designed such a long room
    – room 4: where someone did not notice they where in a particularly long room
    – imaginary space of fiction
    – passageway
    – real space for a red cube
    – a room for an encyclopaedia with lots of windows but no door

  • behind you: blue

    behind you: blue

    ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF ART IN MISSING MOMENTS

    Where they were searching the future’s dark night for the star-bright moment missing from their present; without realising it is not missing, but always in memory — behind you.

    floorplan details:

    • stairs
    • stares
    • missing moment
  • The Big Coverup: white with blue stripe

    The Big Coverup: white with blue stripe

    ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF INVISIBLE ART
    Five paintings atop of the stairs of whispers are suspected of containing encoded, top-secret information. Suspiciously, the owners claim the paintings are just primed canvases – depicting nothing – that have been covered up recently due to attracting nuisance crowds of unwarranted sightseers. Your mission is to go undercover and reveal the truth of this situation by ascertaining whether the paintings are, indeed, primed canvases and the cover-up is, just, a cover-up. Go disguised as an art viewer and note all suspicious circumstances – such as other art viewers. And remember, nothing is never nothing.

    • stairs of whispers
    • four covered-up, invisible paintings
    • undercover passageway
    • hidden entrance disguised with invisible paint
    • where two, undercover secret intelligence officers heatedly debated whether an invisible painting is still a painting – albeit one that cannot be seen
    • chairs
    • fifth covered-up, invisible painting
    • bench upon which to open the tins of invisible paint with screwdrivers (to lever their lids)
    • tins of invisible paint on shelves
    • library of hidden, possible meanings rumoured to be behind these five paintings (inscribed in invisible paint)
    • a seemingly empty room with walls inlaid with invisible meanings
    • an internal, purpose built lake guaranteed not to leak
    • blue vinyl carpet
    • hidden space for secret intelligence agents with an entrance disguised with invisible paint

  • a sculptural situation to enter, and to leave

    a sculptural situation to enter, and to leave

    encyclopaedia of entrances

    – entrance some of the time
    – entrance rest of the time
    – entrance none of the time
    – page 1
    – page 2
    – art catalogues
    – violet painting
    – blue walls

    page 1

    ——–

    encyclopaedia of entrances

    – chair, someone trying to remember how they entered here
    – cd player on, a sad song leaving

    page 2

  • art opinion no. 637

    art opinion no. 637

  • difficult art decisions: wall six

    difficult art decisions: wall six

    Encyclopaedia of Difficult Art Decisions
    After installing this artwork on wall 6 we stepped back to admire our handwork when our attention was drawn to a chair nearby. On the chair was a cushion made from the same vinyl material. Now we’re not authorities on art, but it seemed obvious to us that this coincidental situation confused the distinction between what was art and what was not. Concerned that viewers might mistakenly read an ‘intention’ into the coincidence we resolved to change the cushion. The other cushions, however, all resembled the first. The decision as to which was the ‘least’ confusing became, therefore, too difficult to make. We filed a ‘Difficult Art Decision’ report so as to have an art authority solve the situation. The other cushions will remain from this time [18:50] and day [Montag, 15 Sep 1958] until such moment as the final decision has been made.

    page 46

    [floor plan details]
    – shelved Difficult Art Decision reports awaiting the attention of art authorities
    – double-sided shelves
    ===
    – counter for submitting Difficult Art Decision reports
    ===
    – room 4 of no chairs
    – table for deferring a decision until tomorrow (and tomorrow again)
    – table for measuring the degree of a decision’s difficulty
    ===
    – chair 3 room
    ===
    – cushion 1 room
    ===
    – chair 5 room
    ===
    – cushion 2 room
    ===
    – chair 1 room
    ===
    – cushion 3 room
    ===
    – shelved decisions that were wrong
    ===
    – table for doubting a decision
    – table for changing a decision
    – room 6 of no chairs
    ===
    – chair 2 room
    ===
    – cushion 5 room
    ===
    – chair 6 room
    ===
    – cushion 4 room
    ===
    – chair 4 room
    ===
    – cushion 6 room
    ===
    – shelved Difficult Art Decision reports of situations solved
    ===
    [floor plan of artwork on wall 6]
    – wall 6
    – room for Last Minute Decisions
    ===
    [lower, outer left side]
    – entrance to the Bureau of Difficult Art Decisions

  • art opinion no. 636

    art opinion no. 636

  • To make a work of spontaneous art

    To make a work of spontaneous art

    Encyclopaedia of Spontaneous Art
    To make this work of spontaneous art you must first enter a room in which there is a light blue rectangle with a green outline painted on the wall. In this room there is a chair about to fall. Spontaneously respond by reaching for a part of the rectangle and placing it under the chair. Record your unconstrained impulse on

    [floor plan]

    the ‘table more measuring spontaneous responses’ by asking someone close by the time [7:56 am] and date Monday 24.2.97 . Now return the Encyclopaedia to the ‘shelves for moments met’ beside the entrance. This work of spontaneous art is now complete.

    —page 5 —

    [floor plan details]
    – window
    – chair about to fall
    – table for measuring spontaneous responses
    – shelves for moments met
    – shelves for moments missed

Gail Hastings