100 Relations: Connections to the Outside World

Overall, how did you find this project? Was it difficult?
In the beginning, I thought the brief was quite difficult to understand. I didn't understand what I was being asked to do but I think that was because SP4 is such a self-directed project. Coming up with an idea was a hard task too, but once I discovered Marianne Holm Hansen's '100 THINGS NOT WORTH REPEATING' project, everything became a lot more easier (because I had a more clear understanding of what I could do). 
In terms of the actual creation of the 100 paintings, sketching ideas for each survey response was difficult because A) there were so many and B) I couldn't think of any ideas for some of them. (Compassion was the hardest). However, once I had a sketch of each design, I found the painting aspect quite easy and calming.

Was there anything that went wrong, or not according to plan?
The biggest problem that I had to overcome was COVID-19. Needless to say it was very interruptive as I couldn't work side by side with the charity like I originally planned to. I overcame this by developing the project into a more community-like body of work, focusing more closely on people's connections with each other and the world around them. 

Did you experiment at all in this project? (Materials, processes etc.)
I decided to get out of my comfort zone for this project and involve people other than myself in this project. In this case, the people who filled out the survey were involved as well as the charity. I would class this as experimenting because I've never involved the public with my own art project before. I found it quite fun too. 

What was the best part of this project for you?
The gathering of responses and reading all the physical copy surveys was the best part for me. I didn't know how many responses I would get and so seeing people take the surveys in the gallery space, then filling them out and putting them into the suggestion box was a really delightful thing to see. 

Would you change anything in this project?
If I could go back, I would spend more time on my gallery display work. I don't think the appearance of my work in that space looked as professional as it could have done. I should have spend more time planning it and creating work to display there. 

















Was it difficult finding artist research? 
Finding a starting point of influence for my project was the most difficult part. I knew I wanted to create work with a purpose and was set on creating work to raise awareness for a good cause or charity but I really struggled finding any project that was similar to what I had in mind. 

How did you find the mid-term show?
At first I hated the idea of it. I didn't understand the purpose of having a show displaying unfinished work. But eventually, I grew to the idea and discovered that it would be a great opportunity to gather more survey responses (which it did very successfully). However like I said previously, I wish I paid more attention and spent more time on the appearance of my work.

Do you see this project being a key work to your practice?
I'd definitely like to explore working with the public in future art projects because of how fun and unpredictable it was. Crowd-sourcing might be a possible idea for establishing my own professional art practice.

Are you happy with the outcome of this project?
I couldn't be happier with it. I'm really happy that I managed to create 100 paintings, because a lot of people doubted that idea and were very concerned that I wouldn't have the time. It's a good feeling to be smug about my time management and perseverance which has allowed me to prove them wrong!