Carolyn Black - discusses her practice

Carolyn Black, photo © Alex Caminada

On Making and Taking Stock

Cooking up ideas........

I frequently find myself using cookery terms in relation to my practice. Hence the title of this piece.

We make stock by creating artworks that we can’t or won’t sell. That stock can become a collection. Or a burden. Or just surplus. We all know that feeling.

We also make stock when we are cooking. We take the bones of a creature, or vegetables, that still hold some flesh. We add other things, vegetables, herbs and spices. Then slowly, so slowly, we let it steep at a low temperature until all the delicious flavours are drawn into the water. We then use the stock as an essence to make something else to eat. In my studio, my process of construction, deconstruction and reconstruction means that some of the bones that underpinned the original concept are discarded, transforming and reappearing in other works. To create my stock, my essence. Some of the ingredients are useful, some are surplus. Others will be reconstructed in due course. Many are discarded forever, unseen by others. Occasionally I will share one on social media that I know no-one else will ever see. For my eyes only, in the world. But don’t worry, it won’t disappear entirely, it will be reincarnated.

My collages began as a 1.5M one glued to the paper. Some of the ingredients were from previous works that I tore up. Deliberately. For me it was interesting, but not what I wanted. So I cut it up. I tried various iterations of reconstruction, and the only one that worked was mapped out on a round table top. I took photos. But I was still unsure about it. So I made a film with a photo of it. Yesterday I selected areas with overlaps of different thickness papers and cut them into squares. To make a grid - take back control. I became deeply engaged with the surfaces, not the colours or the marks. This grid will become my bones, my scaffold, for other things. That shall be another story.

By writing this I am taking stock of my process, by using the action of making edible stock as a metaphor. Of course there are many shortcuts to making food stock - powders, chilled tubs, cubes and sauces in jars. Just like in art, there are equivalents to all those options, but they never taste as good as the real thing.

Last year I realised I enjoy printmaking because it is a form of alchemy, as is working in a photography wet room to develop images. It looks like this year might follow that with transformations made from one thing to another, but the transitions will not be visible.

This gives me food for thought.