Narrative 2012in three projects

Amelia Johnstone MA RCA

P * Q * A

Painting * Quote * Adjective

In project you are give given three ingredients as a starting point for your

narrative. The idea is to use the adjective to add power to the story which you are going to tell; it will help to set the tone. The painting will provide the palette and to a

degree the content and the quote will help to work as a catalyst with the painting and the adjective to accelerate the story and bring

it to life.

‘Mr Holohan, assistant secretary if the Eire Abu Society, had been

walking up and down Dublin for nearly a month, with hands and pockets full of dirty pieces of paper, arranging about a series of concerts. He had a game leg, and for this his friends called him Hoppy Holohan. He walked up and down constantly, stood by the hour at street corners arguing the

point, and made notes; but in the end it was Mrs Kearney who arranged

everything.’

‘Did you ever see your husband’s face when you went to a party – I mean this kind of

party?”‘Of course she didn’t ,” said Joyce.“She might have,” said the superior Beatrice. “E.S.P. they call it. Extra

sensory perception,” she added in the tone of one pleased with being thoroughly

conversant with terms of times.“I read one of your books,” said Ann to Mrs Oliver. “The Dying Goldfish. It was quite

good,” she said kindly.“I didn’t like that one,” said Joyce.

“There wasn’t enough blood in it. I like murders to have lots of blood.”’

‘To remember what it feels like to wear other people’s clothes. To begin with that, I think. Assuming I must. Back in the old days, eighteen, twenty years ago, when I had no money and friends would give me things to wear. J’s old overcoat in

college, for example. And the strange sense I would have of climbing into his

skin. That is probably a start.’

‘And then, most important of all: to remember who I am. To remember who I am supposed to be. I do not think this is a game. ON the other hand, nothing is clear. For example: who are you? And if you think you know, why do you keep lying about it? I

have no answer. All I can say is this: listen to me. My name is Paul Auster. That

is not my real name.’

‘In Paris, Violet had rummaged through documents, files, and case studies called observations from the Salpetriere hospital. From these accounts she had cobbled together a few sketchy personal histories. “Bothe her parents were servants,” Violet told me. “Not long after she was born, they sent her away to live with relatives. She stayed with

them for six years but then was sent away again to convent school. She was an angry girl – unruly and

difficult. The nuns thought she was possessed by the devil, and they threw holy water in her face to calm her. When she was thirteen, the nuns expelled her, and she went back to her mother, who was working in a house in Paris as

a chambermaid. The case study doesn’t mention what happened to her father. He must have disappeared. It does say that Augustine was hired ‘on the pretext’ that she teach the children of the house to sing and sew.’

‘Margaret was silent. Something shook her life in its inmost recesses, and she shivered.

‘I didn’t do wrong did I?’ he asked, bending down.‘You didn’t darling. Nothing has been done wrong.’

From the garden came laughter. ‘Here they are at last!’ exclaimed Henry, disengaging himself with a smile. Helen

rushed into the gloom, holding Tom by one hand and carrying her baby in the other. There were shouts of

infectious joy.‘the field’s cut!’ Helen cried excitedly – ‘The big

meadow! We’ve seen to the very end, and it’ll be such a crop of hay as never!’

‘I am standing in our bedroom in the future. It’s night. But moonlight gives the room a surreal, monochromatic distinctness. My ears are ringing, as they often do, in the future. I look down on Clare and myself sleeping. It feels like death. I am sleeping tightly balled up, knees to chest, wound up in blankets, mouth slightly open. I

want to touch me. I want to hold me in my arms, look into my eyes. But it won’t happen that way; I stand for long minutes staring intently at my sleeping future self. Eventually I walk softly to Clare’s side of the bed,

kneel. It feels immensely like the present. I will myself to forget the other body in the bed to concentrate on

Clare.’

Wickedly

Exhaustedly

Sarcastically

Optimistically

Hurriedly

Objectively

Painstakingly

Rose-tintedly

• An 8 page full colour book 28cm wide and 20cm high. Alternatively you may wish to make a short film or animation please discuss this with me at your tutorial.

• Responding to one adjective, one painting, and one quotation from the the slides provided, using the palette from your chosen painting.

• Include a cover and title for your book, you may use words or tell the story with just pictures.

Compulsory individual tutorials: Thursday 4th October*I would like to see the whole narrative in thumbnails, all development work so far including sketch books and work sheets, i.e. experiments with palette, method and your interpretation of the texts and paintings with the adjective giving an accent to your tale.

Group Tutorials: Thursday 11th October

Deadline and critique: Thursday 18th October