Inspired by Raoul Hausmann’s Mechanical Head, our last Kick-About had fun with disembodied body-parts. Similarly, this week’s new works made in a short time have been inspired by the image of a woman’s hand, rendered spectral by Roentgen’s pioneering x-ray… For all previous editions of The Kick-About click here.
Vanessa Clegg
“I’ve been thinking about this and the idea of hidden things (in this case revealed via the X-ray) so have put in an image of an object encased inside of a book as my mind was going along the lines of invisible ink, spy paraphernalia, information squeezed into the spine or between the covers… The scene in ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ where Tim Robbins hides the tiny hammer in the bible. Anyway I chose a 1970s dictionary, cut a section out and, covering the flower head in ash, placed it behind a ‘window’. Climate change, forest fires and the loss of language all feed into it.”
vanessaclegg.co.uk / vanillaclegg
Marion Raper
“When I looked up the discovery of high-energy electromagnetic radiation by Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen I found out that one of his first x-rays was of his wife Anna Bertha’s hand, who apparently exclaimed ‘I have seen my death!’ when she first saw the skeleton. I decided to do a collage using some cut outs of my own hands, which turned out slightly spooky, but it cheered me to learn that Anna lived to the ripe old age of 80 years.”
Gary Thorne
“This no-frills main course is served up without any excess, may it be to your taste. It’s listed as #103 on the menu.”
Phil Cooper
“This was a prompt that sparked lots and lots of ideas for me, there was so many avenues to explore. I thought about the enquiring gaze of the artist, medicine, penetrating surfaces, unseen structures, the human body; endless!
I settled on making some work about bones, the skeleton that gives shape to things. Firstly, I took some objects from around the flat (a briefcase, some vases, a drill in a box, cans of fixative) and arranged them on the floor. Throwing a bedsheet over them, I sculpted a rough landscape of mounds and valleys, indicating, but not revealing the structure underneath. Using photography I then started to play with scale and tried to create images of vast rocky landscapes. Finally, I drew from the photographs with charcoal and wash on paper. A fascinating prompt, and a very enjoyable one to play with.”
James Randall
“Just tried to put down my ideas of X-ray workings and use.”
Itta Howie
“I am a movement educator and currently hooked by a book with the wonderful title ‘The Memory Palace of Bones’. The authors remind us that bones are alive within us and in deep relationships with our blood vessels, nerves, organs and connective tissue. Bones also shape and are shaped by our emotions. David Lauterstein writes, “The ribs take their long winding roads around our hearts and lungs. In 24 ways, they embrace the history of our loves, our griefs, our joys, our furies, and so much more.”
Inspired by this, I did a movement exploration of my ribs. I moved outdoors, letting the wind brush my skin. I felt the air streaming into my lungs massage my heart with each breath. When I could strongly feel the essence of my dance, I grabbed a piece of charcoal and continued the exploration on paper, where it took an unexpected turn. I then layered my drawing and a chest X-ray in Photoshop. I played around for a while, trying to create a kind of ‘holistic X-ray’ that combines structure with emotion.“
Kerfe Roig
“Right up my alley. I did some Rorschach monoprints and added a
little color for some zip to a few of them.
kblog.blog / methodtwomadness.wordpress.com
Phil Gomm
“These photographs are of the flowers of Helleborus orientalis – or the Lenten Rose. I love hellebores, on account of the secret they keep of their extraordinary markings (as they keep their flower heads bowed low). I picked a few, pressed a few, and then photographed them on a sheet of perspex over a strong light on longish exposures to disappear the actual structures as much as possible. I was left with these striking, ink splashes that reminded me of this previous KA effort from ages back.”
Charly Skilling
Graeme Daly
“I wanted to do some cyanotype experiments for this kick about but the weather has been absolute shite and super gloomy and since the chemical reaction needs the sun to pack a punch I had to think of something else. I used a page from a previous cyanotype and drew over the page using Tippex and white markers to create some various x-ray images of skeletons. Not as fun as relying on chance and seeing the images materialise before your eyes with actual cyanotype but still enjoyable.”
@graemedalyart / vimeo.com/graemedaly / linkedin.com/in/graeme-daly / twitter.com/Graeme_Daly / gentlegiant.blog
Tom Beg
“These images were inspired by the skeletal structures of various kinds of marine animals that I came across when looking for some visual ingredients for this challenge. You could play around with these kinds of abstract structures and camera effects for days. Now I’m wondering where to find my own X-ray machine to get the real deal.”
X / earthlystranger / vimeo.com/tombeg / tombeg.com
Tony Reeves
“This my first attempt in a long time at responding to a Kick-About prompt. When I saw the word Roentgen, something just clicked and it inspired me to start pulling sounds together. I’ve used a lot of automation in Logic to create an evolving soundscape, and then added quite a bit of compression to create a feeling of ‘pressure’ – this is my attempt at recreating the feeling of being inside an atom of Radium! Adding compression to the rhythmic sound makes it possible to trigger compressors on the chords and pads, which creates the feeling of everything being squeezed.”
Our next Kick-About celebrates our 4 year anniversary of mucking about together – that’s a little over two-hundred and eight weeks of making stuff! In time-honoured fashion, I’ll be asking our motley-crew of creatives to nominate their own favourite KA creation from the past year to be showcased in a ‘Best Of’. I look forward to your choices.
Red's Kingdom 
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