I was very interested in this talk which had obvious overlaps with my work as well as integrating ideas from other artists I admire into the landscape genre.
Woodger is a trained geologist who became interested in photography when recording the landscape for her work. She is interested in “how landscapes have been shaped and how they respond to human influence” (www.elizabethwoodger.com).
Woodger often constructs things in the studio as a starting point. Her project Diagenesis (a geological term which refers to the changes in sediment after deposit but before it turns to rock) folds printed photographs of her local Exmoor before returning them to the landscape where the images were made and rephotographing them. The larger prints are held by the artist which for me changed the meaning and possibly detracted from the work at least aesthetically, although there is a counterargument that they highlight the role of the human in the anthropocene. Woodger makes the point that Exmoor looks wild but has been managed by humans for thousands of years. In addition she commented that the work becomes a kind of performance (and often a battle with the wind) in which the folded form is diminished by the reality of the landscape it depicts. She takes the origami further for her Geological Kusudama, very redolent of the work of Alma Haser; a series of photo paper balls which as a series act as a kind of self-portrait.
There are also alternative processes such as cyanotype landscapes (Cyanoscapes) constructed along classical lines using natural materials and Solargraphs (pinhole photographs of the paths of the sun across the sky over the landscape).
Sadly for me most of the above was gleaned from the website as the lecture itself was dominated by discussion of OCA methods. My concern about this obsession with process is that it obscures any substance the work has (for good or bad). In some talks OCA students have not shown or referred to their work at all, only presenting their “practice” which seems very back to front to me.
Woodger encouraged the audience to use instagram, seeing social media as the way forward (I am not convinced by this but it may be a necessary evil at least for now). Also to go in for lots of competitions, concentrating on the small, free ones that are a natural fit for your work. And not to be afraid of rejection which is inevitable in most cases, but not all…
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- https://elizabethwoodger.com/ (Accessed 12.1.2023)
Level 3.1 Learning Log 