Matthew childs 9 rules of Rock climbing (and life)

 1.Don’t let go- You will think about letting go way before you physically have too. Try to allow your body to keep up with your mind.

2.Hesitation is bad- The longer you hesitate the more time you have to panic and the less likely you are to complete the move successfully.

3.Have a plan- Work through the route in your mind before attempting it.

4.The move is the end- Each move is as integral to reaching the end as the last

5.Know how to rest- The very best climbers are the ones who, in the most extreme of situations can get in to a position where they can rest their bodies and minds

6.Learn to control fear- If you are focusing on fear you are not focusing on what you are doing but instead on the consequences of failing what you are doing.

7.Opposites are good- Focus on physics. Opposing pressure equals balance.

8.Strength doesn’t always equal success- Balance is far more important

9.Know how to let go- Plan your falls where possible a controlled fall is less likely to cause serious injury.

I have spent this last week predominantly researching. Whilst prowling the internet for inspiration I came across the work of two artists that caught my attention.

Hamish Fulton (the walking artist) much like Mathew Barney intrigued me due to the direct Physical engagement he has with his work and his environment. The way he produces work is refreshingly simple yet effective. He walks and he creates pieces of art representing the walk allowing us to engage indirectly. Although the works he creates hold their own as individual pieces of art it is very obvious that it is in the physical process of walking that the true art is created (in the direct influence the exertion has on his mind and body). The two pieces below I found most effective. The first uses text to show the physical connection between three separate biological processes, essentially emphasizing the connection between the mind and the body during physical exercise. The second is simply a photograph of worn walking boots a symbol of the how the process of walking has had a direct physical effect on the artist. It is a powerful image as it speaks for itself with no need for text as explanation, the piece is the walk.

 

I plan to carry on documenting my climbs as before but as Fulton has done by archiving various found objects and relevant material.

As I mentioned in my proposal I am also interested in looking at and portraying how the mind works during the physical process of tackling a climb. Last year I used video installation to recreate the feeling of anxiety and plan to continue to explore this and to continue to experiment using video and video editing. I was advised to look at the work of Douglas Gordon in particular his film 'Zidane-a 21st century portrait.' A piece of video of a full length football match focusing solely on Zidane. Having no interest in football what so ever I was skeptical however on watching I became instantly mesmerized by the way in which the footballer moved. The piece is filmed in such a way that I forgot that I was watching a football match. Parts of it are so intimate that I felt uncomfortable. It was as if I was witnessing the players thought process's including his anxiety's which ultimately manifest themselves as physical behaviors such as involuntary twitches and exertions of breath. This kind of intimate filming is something I am eager to try with climbing and plan to do so the next time I get chance to climb out doors.

         

Final year project proposal

Aims and objectives-

I have decided to focus my third year project on Rock climbing. I have been climbing committedly for the last two years and during that time climbing has become not only my passion but also my obsession. When deciding what to focus my final year on it only seemed logical to combine the two things that I spend the majority of my time thinking about, climbing and art. Over the summer I have climbed outdoors whenever the weather has allowed, Trad climbing in the Lake district and the Peak district. Sea cliff Trad climbing in Devon, sport climbing and deep water soloing in Spain. Through perseverance and training over this 5-month period I have managed to climb to my hardest grade yet. The majority of this I have documented through journals log books, photography, film and sketching. I have read numerous books and articles including, The white spider-an account of the first accent of the north face of the Eiger and Touching the void-Joe Simpsons account of being cut off a rope and left to die whilst descending a mountain in Peru and have been inspired to push myself (although not in such a life threatening way.)

I have started the project with the following mini projects.

Firstly I began working a series of three routes called the unconquerables at stannage edge. The left unconquerable is an E1 grade, which is one grade higher than that I have previously achieved and after various attempts currently seems impossible. I have began a study of the climb, through detailed drawing, photography and also by looking through books, internet forums and videos to find out about the route and people who have previously climbed it. By the end of May this year I aim to have completed the route. The obsession has begun!

I decided to try some route setting of my own by traversing the length of my garden wall and documenting it through film and photography.

I have found a lecture on site TED http://www.ted.com/. Called Mathew childs 9 rules of rock climbing. I found this talk fascinating as each of the 9 rules applies not only to climbing but also to life. My two favorite rules being number 5. Know how to rest-“The best climbers are the ones who, in the most extreme of situations can get in to a position where they can rest their bodies and minds” and number 6. Learn to control fear- “If you are focusing on fear you are not focusing on what you are doing but instead on the consequences of failing what you are doing.” I have started to try to apply these rules to both climbing and life.

I have also started to study physical movement and strain during climbing through intimate photography. My aim with this is to portray how an experienced climber moves with the “strength of a gymnast and the precision of a ballet dancer.” (Joe Simpson-Touching the void.)

During this next year I will be exploring themes of; escapism, frustration, obsession, pushing my physical and mental limits and Mind over matter through art and the art of climbing. I will carry on as I have started by documenting through photography, film, log books, journals and written accounts, detailed drawings and paintings.

RESTRAINT

The purest and most satisfying way to execute a route is to solo it with no protection (ropes or gear.) It is a form of climbing that is taken up by fanatics world wide and is something I have experienced only on very easy routes. Although my experience of this type of climbing is very minimal, the sense of freedom of movement in comparison to rope aided climbing is to say the least addictive. However as you can imagine it is at the most extreme end of an already extreme sport and is ridiculously dangerous.

This got me thinking about the freest way to create art versus the most restrained way to created art. If you think about it as artist students we have ultimate freedom in what we do which is terrifying. We get to write our own brief and tackle it in anyway we want, at no point over the last two years have we been given any form of restriction on our creativity. So what if we were given guide lines and boundaries? Would our work be any less expressive? could boundaries in fact improve our work? or like relying on a rope to climb with, would it restrict our freedom of movement? as suggested by Juan I had a look at Matthew Barney's Drawing restraints. Restraining creativity in the most physical sense.     
 

 

what next?

Over the past few days I have started to think about the direction I want my work to go in next year and how to give myself a head start over the summer. A conversion with Juan towards the end of last term encouraged me to start looking in to creating work based around my obsession with climbing. As I learned from the project I have just finished I am far more likely to keep interest in a project if it relates to something I can be permanently engaged in. 

Jumble sale

On Saturday afternoon me and my boyfriend arrived at Bradway scout hut jumble sale. Bradway jumble sale is the god father of all Jumble sales and it occurs a mere twice a year and is an event that me and will make an effort to attend when we can mainly on the off chance that we will find some second hand climbing gear. However this year was slightly different as joining us was Lauren, A family friend of wills who was visiting from Australia. It was an interesting experience trying to explain to Lauren what a jumble sale is "Its kind of a communal event where people donate all the crap that they dont want, and people rummage through it and donate money to a charity." Apparently they dont have jumble sales in Melbourne. As we arrived at 2.25pm on the dot we were greeted by the hugest Que you have ever seen. It spiraled out of the scout hut swung twice round the car park and a good 15 meters down the road. As 2.30pm came around the doors were flung open and swarms of people forced their way toward the entrance in a sort of frenzied rampage. We walked through the entrance to find angry elderly ladies fighting for there right to pay 20p for the occasional underskirt and children clawing at each other to get at the second hand toy section. As I turned to Lauren it was apparent that she felt extremely out of her comfort zone. She gestured to me with a very 'help me' kind of expression on her face and I grabbed her arm saying "just keep close you'll be fine." After a good half an hour rummage and a car journey with Lauren appearing to still be in shock we arrived back at wills house and proceeded to empty our black bin bags and compare our prizes. Wills pile of prizes contained multiple 'vintage' looking jumpers (to be expected) a few books and a Charles and Diana commemorative wedding mug (less expected.) My sole prize was a Kodak brownie twin camera which I had snatched from a little girls hand for a quid! I was pretty exited about my prize. Lauren however had not bought anything as she explained she was too scared to get her money out as she had witnessed a lady put her purse down on a table to look for her glasses and another lady pick it up and try to buy it. I then found my defensively trying to explain that attending jumble sales was not something that me and will did every weekend and that we did have many other interests.

I can possibly feel a piece of art coming on relating to consumerism and wastage and the amount of crap we collect. All seems rather relevant.

Stupidly huge Que!!

My prize!

             

The end of an era

After my assessment last Thursday I packed up my life in Liverpool and head back to Sheffield where I will spend the beginning of the summer at home before I go traveling in June. I always find it surprising how relativity easily I manage to adjust to both of my separate lives. My main aims during this more latent period of my summer are to maintain my art practice (which I find rather difficult to do when I'm at home) maintain my blog, to climb and spend as much time as possible in the peak district. It will be interesting to see how much my art practice differs due to the difference in my surroundings. Below are a few snippets of my day to day goings on so far and experiments with my SLR camera.

Interesting light using my camera on Night mode

The state of my hands after a day of climbing

Washed out over exposed