10 Diary Entries [2010-12]

Simon Granell

This work is an exploration into a personal use of spoken language though a predefined process intended to mirror that of my painting practice. A similar process of self-imposed limitation is applied with the aim of suggesting both an autobiographical residue of my own thinking, and open up a potential dialogue for the reader. A series of ten quotations taken from a painting diary are paired with words and punctuation from a series of books that I own. This process has been repeated until all ten quotations have been paired, one word and punctuation mark at a time, creating lists of footnotes, the suggestion being that language has been acquired in this manner. The relationship between word and associated footnote becomes the source of play, frustration or familiarity. The intention is to demonstrate that this deterministic process far from being reductive in its effect, has resulted in the words being read either as part of a whole or reintegrated and reoriented into something new through a process of appropriation rather that engenderment. The hope is that this procedural limitation can act as a trigger for the reader to resequence and reconfigure the references through association and connection that might say something about them in terms of age, taste and perhaps even prejudice. While painting is the subject of the quotations, the implication is that this is constructed by material from another source. This has a distancing effect, which I hope has drawn some parallels with the process of making a painting itself. The footnotes have become detached for the quotations and are free to be re-cited, and act less to affirm or underline and more of leave a trace.

¹ Hughes, T., 1999. Birthday Letters. London: Faber and Faber, p.3

² Austen, J., 2003. Emma. London: Penguin Books, p.8

³ Toltz, S., 2009. A Fraction of the Whole. London: Penguin Books, p.79

⁴ His Holiness the Dalai Lama., 1999. The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living. London: Hodder and Stoughton, p.102

⁵ Sagan, F., 2009. That Mad Ache: A Novel. New York: Basic Books, p.6

⁶ Hughes, T., 2005. The Iron Man. London: Faber & Faber, p.1

⁷ de Beauvoir, S., 1999. The Mandarins. New York ^. London: W.W. Norton & Co, p.12

⁸ Larkin, P., 2010. Letters to Monica. London: Faber and Faber, p.88

⁹ Feinstein, E., 2002. Ted Hughes: The Life of a Poet. London: Phoenix Books, p.xvi

¹⁰ Curtis, P., 1999. Sculpture 1900-45. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p.107

¹¹ MacNeice, L., 2008. The Poems of W.B. Yeats. London: Faber and Faber, p.11

¹² Bishop, C., 2005. Installation Art. London: Tate Publishing, p.8

¹³ Hughes, T., 1983. Seneca’s Oedipus. London: Faber and Faber, p.8

¹⁴ Ruskin, J., 2009. Selected Writings. Edited by Birch, D., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p.143

¹⁵ Longley, M., 2005. Louis MacNeice. London: Faber and Faber, p.ix

¹⁶ Thompson, N., 2012. Living as Form: Socially Engaged Art from 1999-2011. Massachussetts & London: MIT Press, p.257

¹⁷ Larkin, P., 2005. Jill. London: Faber & Faber, p.x

¹⁸ Larkin, P., 2002. Further Requirements: Interviews, Broadcasts, Statements and Book Reviews 1952-1985. London: Faber and Faber, p.4

¹⁹ Lacy, S., 2010. Leaving Art: Writings on Performance, Politics and Publics, 1974-2007. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, p.19

²⁰ Hughes, T., 2009. Letters of Ted Hughes. London: Faber and Faber, p.xiv

²¹ Kester, G.H., 2011. The One and the Many: Contemporary Collaborative Art in a Global Context. California: Duke University Press, p.15

²² Hughes, T., 1996. Difficulties of a Bridegroom. London: Faber and Faber, p.viii

²³ Kwon, M., Ed 2004. One Place After Another: Site Specific Art and Locational Identity. Massachussetts & London: MIT Press, p.12

²⁴ Hughes, T., 2001. Collected Plays for Children. London: Faber and Faber, p.4

²⁵ Harrison, C., & Wood, Dr P.J., 2002. Art in Theory. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, p.37

²⁶ Heaney, S., 2005. The Burial at Thebes: Sophocles’ Antigone. London: Faber and Faber, p.1

²⁷ Middleton, T., 2000. The Changeling. London: Nick Hern Books, p.7

²⁸ de Beauvoir, S., 1995. All Men are Mortal. Translated by Cameron, E., London: Virago Press Ltd, p.17

²⁹ O’Doherty, B., Inside the White Cube: The ideology of the Gallery Space. Berkeley & London: University of California, p.20

³⁰ Kaye, N., 2000. Site-Specific Art: Performance, Place and Documentation. Oxford: Routledge Books, p.32

³¹ de Beauvoir, S., 1997. The Second Sex. London: Vintage Classics, p.10

³² Larkin, P., 1985. All What Jazz: A Record Diary 1961-1971. London: Faber and Faber, p.36

³³ Ferguson, B.W., Greenberg, R., & Nairne, S., 1996. Thinking About Exhibitions. London: Routledge Books, p.164

³⁴ Wolf, N., 2008. Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, p.7

³⁵ MacNeice, L., 1996. The Strings Are False. London: Faber and Faber, p.11

³⁶ Larkin, P., 2005. A Girl in Winter. London: Faber and Faber, p.12

³⁷ Wolf, N., 1991. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are used against Women. London: Vintage Books, p.29

³⁸ Hughes, T., 2008. Poetry in the Making: A Handbook for Writing and Teaching. London: Faber and Faber, p.11

³⁹ Bishop, C., 2012. Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship. London: Verso Books, p.93

⁴⁰ Sagan, F., 2008. Bonjour Tristesse and A Certain Smile. London: Penguin Classics, p.23

⁴¹ de Beauvoir, S., 2006. She Came to Stay. London: Harper Perennial, p.19

⁴² Adamson, G., 2007. What Makes a Great Exhibition? Philadelphia, PA: Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative, p.50

⁴³ Hughes, T., 1998. Phèdre: A Version of Racine. London: Faber and Faber, p.3

⁴⁴Wolf, N., 2008. End of America, The Letter of warning to a Young Patriot. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Co, p.16

⁴⁵ Graham, B., & Cook, S., 2010. Rethinking Curating. Massachussetts: MIT Press, p.xii

⁴⁶ Jackson, S., 2011. Social Works: Performing Art, Supporting Publics. Oxford: Routledge Books, p.229

⁴⁷ de Beauvoir, S., 1987. The Woman Destroyed. Translated by O’Brian, P., New York: Pantheon Books, p.12

“The¹ work² has³ developed⁴ out⁵ of⁶ a⁷ series⁸ of⁹ strands¹⁰ that¹¹ with¹² the¹³ benefit¹⁴ of¹⁵ hindsight¹⁶ ,¹⁷ are¹⁸ easy¹⁹to²⁰ trace²¹ .²² These²³
are²⁴ habits²⁵ .²⁶ Rather²⁷ than²⁸ allowing²⁹ them³⁰ to³¹ go³² unchecked³³ ,³⁴ I³⁵ have³⁶ tried³⁷ to³⁸ foreground³⁹ them⁴⁰ into⁴¹ something⁴² that⁴³
has⁴⁴ some⁴⁵ eloquence⁴⁶ .⁴⁷”

29 08 2010

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