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 Badiou, A., 2012. In Praise of Love. London: Serpent’s Tail p.47

² Lattimore, R., 2007. The Odyssey of Homer. New York: Harper Collins Publishers Inc, p.7

³ Slater, N., 2006. Real Fast Food. London: Penguin Books, p.189

⁴ Mayer, M., 1997. Night Studio: A Menoir of Philip Guston. Boston: DaCapo Press, p.195

⁵ Eco, U., 2003. Baudolino. London: Vintage Books, p.2

⁶ Tuan, Y.F., 2000. Space and Place. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press p.42

⁷ Massey, D.B., 2005. For Space. London: Sage Publications Ltd, p.19

⁸ Benjamin, W., 2008. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. London: Penguin Books, p.42

⁹ Scruton, R., 2010. The Uses of Pessimism and the Danger of False Hope. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p.2

¹⁰ Mayer, R., 1991. The Artist’s Handbook of Materials and Techniques. London: Faber and Faber, p.462

¹¹ Barthes, R., 1993. Image Music Text. London: Fontana Press p.185

¹² Matthews, P.H., 2007. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p.6

¹³ Mandelbaum, A., 1995. The Metamorphoses of Ovid. San Diego ^. New York ^. London: Harcourt Publishers Ltd, p.81

¹⁴ Certeau, M de., 2002. The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: University of California Press, p.8

¹⁵ Eco, U., 2008. The Name of the Rose. London: Vintage Books, p.8

¹⁶ Ostler, N., 2009. Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin. London: Harper Press, p.17

¹⁷ Downs, T., 2007. Drawing Now: Between the Lines of Contemporary Art. London: I.B. Tauris and Co Ltd, p.xviii

¹⁸ Matthews, P.H., 2003. Linguistics: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p.3

¹⁹ Davidson, M., 2011. Contemporary Drawing. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, p.40

²⁰ Eco, U., 2001. Foucault’s Pendulum. London: Vintage Books, p.4

²¹ Scruton, R., 2012. The Face of God: The Gifford Lectures. London: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd, p.139

²² Scruton, R., 2009. Beauty. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p.22

²³ Eco, U., 1996. Island of The Day Before. London: Vintage Classics, p.86

²⁴ Barthes, R., 2002. A Lover’s Discourse. London: Vintage Classics, p.24

²⁵ Deutscher, G., 2006. The Unfolding of Language: The Evolution of Mankind. London: Arrow Books, p.143

²⁶ Eco, U., 2006. The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana: An Illustrated Novel. London: Vintage Classics, p.62

²⁷ Spender, S., 1971. The Temple. Translated by Eugene Langston. New York: Harper Collins Publishers Inc, p.4

“We¹ are² always³ attempting⁴ to⁵ move⁶ from⁷ here⁸ to⁹ somewhere¹⁰ else¹¹.¹² We¹³ have¹⁴ it¹⁵ all¹⁶already¹⁷,¹⁸ nowhere¹⁹ to²⁰ move²¹ to²² .²³ This²⁴ is²⁵it²⁶ !²⁷”

25 04 2012

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