Titles

["Clive Murray-White" <clivemw@zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz>]

Dear Title contributors,

Justin thanks for the contribution but where do names like these turn up?
not in my dictionaries of Angels, Latin, the classics, Symbolism, Oxford
etc.They sound as if they are ancient Egyptian?

Robin & Tomas thanks very helpful.

Back to the general discussion: As you can all probably see many of us use
exactly the same techniques to get our titles, I too use large sheets of
paper and have working titles (some of which persist in my memory far longer
than the formal ones that the sculpture winds up with) but one the greatest
problems with titles is how we ensure that our title doesn't cause the work
any real problems.

I made what turned out to be a major blunder many years ago when I made
abstract steel pieces by calling one "Women of Algiers" because it was
compositionally based on Delacroix's picture of the same name. Every critic
that reviewed the show that it was in got completely side tracked my showing
off to their readers just how much they new about both Delacroix and Picasso
who also did a series of the same name, I don't think they even bothered to
look at the sculpture!

As I see it the title along with lots of other things like price and the way
you choose to display your work all have huge bearing because they effect
the context and the way a work is perceived by the viewer.

There seems to be fairly obvious styles of naming, each of which almost
automatically declares precisely where an artist sees themselves on "the
very serious to enthusiastic part-timer scale", we usually accidentally
declare our age as each generation has its own habits, and we also declare
our historical biases and possibly even our lifestyle preferences ranging
 from totally alternative to ultra-cool urban.

The internet causes problems too because a name like Venus will be used with
all sorts of products and services to such an extent that it has probably
had its meaning both violated and substantially changed. As all companies,
organisations, projects, products and services require names its worth
checking your title on the net just in case its the same as something you
really don't want to be associated with.

To me the greatest challenge with titles is making sure that they do not
accidentally place the work in a context that I would not want, in fact, my
aim is to place my viewers eyes and minds precisely into a state of thorough
readiness to receive the full range of information that I may have put into
a sculpture.

Another thing worth mentioning is that the titles we give our works must
sound OK with our own names as they will often be mentioned together.

Regards to all Clive
Web: www.cowwarr.com