Going Public at Sheffield Millennium Gallery

Crit Group 12/10/15

Millennium Gallery Visit

Do Huh Suh's work explores emotional and physical aspects of migration.

Ghostly replicas of buildings. Raises questions whether we can ever truly inhabit a place.

Minimal forms/aesthetic. 

As you enter the gallery space Suh's piece instantly draws you in and encourages you to walk through it, inhabit the material sculpture and taken a closer look at the little details such as light switches, pipes and lamps.

Do Huh Suh. Home within a Home.

Own Photo

Responsive piece. Wire and string.

My response to Suh's work explored the relationship between two contrasting materials, wire and fabric/string, in my practice I am interested experimenting texture,  Combing wire with string/fabric softens it's aesthetic, adds to it's delicacy and creates a playful and freehand approach to work I believe.

British Art Show 8 Leeds Art Gallery

Exhibition Notes.

"British Art Show 8 is accompanied by a richly illustrated publication that includes the work of 42 exceptional artists whose practices span from sculpture to painting, installation, drawing, film, video and performance. In images, essays and a wealth of discussions with the artists themselves, British Art Show 8 explores their engagement with the material world at a time of increasing convergence between the real and virtual spheres."

Exhibition provides us an opportunity to explore the world as it is now. Consisting of 42 Artists 

Last time in Leeds was 1992. British Art Show 8 is a touring exhibition, Leeds have paid to host the exhibition, Leeds is central, with good links from Sheffield, making the exhibition accessible to a wide audience.

42 Artists, Seen as British however not all holding a British passport or residency. Articulating a particular moment in Britain through one artwork.

Curators argument is the selected artists have all practiced in Britain at some point in their careers, British national as expanded throughout the years

Curators  thread at connects artists, post selection. exploring the (an) object as we experience it in the real world, or experiencing it within digital world, asking questions to what it is to experiencing an object, experiencing it within its materiality.

objects that exist outside of human relations
virtual world how is it hard wiring us to how we experience objects in the real world
 the natural may world always be stronger.

Rachel Maclean
Feed Me. 2015
'Candy coated and colorfully confected'
Green screen, plays each character. Narrative which explores commercialization and sexualisation of childhood. Targets innocence of children. Adults exploiting them. Protecting innocence in a hope to make it eternal.

Feed Me. 2015. Video Still

Nostalgic
Dark/Sinister
Happy, Colourful
Bittersweet
Human Cravings
Innocent

Imagery from Exhibition

ART PRACTICE 1B 6 IMAGES

Studio 1B Personal Project: Stains, Textures

 

This series looks at texture. I worked on cardboard 

and then added materials such as string, tissue paper, burlap

and tea. I layered them on top of eachother, experimenting 

with aesthetics to see what worked best.

I used very thin string which I lightly stained with tea.

I am pleased with the outcome, the materials create a 

very tactile surface while remaining subtle and not 

to over powering.

Studio 1B Personal Project: Stains, Tea

    

as part of my project based on everyday stains, using everyday materials I have been working with tea bags, exploring their potential. In this series I have worked on canvas using tea bags, pva and white paint. My aim with this project is to make us see everyday stains in a new light, I have learnt the qualities of  the tea bags through working with them and using them in an unconventional way.

                                                             

The colours when mixed with pva and paint were really intriguing, they blended together and formed an interesting connection. they flow well. the texture from the bags works well, making the piece tactile which I like. 

AP1B Reproductions of a reproduction

I watched John Berger / Ways of Seeing, he talked about the invention of the camera and how it has changed our perspective when it comes to viewing traditional art which had been made for a gallery, and through technology advances, reproductions of famous art have been made accessible to more people through taking pictures of them for us to see on our screens in a new setting, not in front of us, not physical.

This inspired me to find an image of the Mona Lisa, by Leonardo Da Vinci, 1504, take a picture of it on my computer screen using my camera, transfer the copy on my laptop, then take a picture of the copy, and so on,
there is no real original as the first image I copied from was a reproduction, which would of had its flaws and could not compare to the original painting. I reproduced the image until it's original qualities had been lost. 
the image becomes very abstract, and turns into block colors of black, yellow and white.
I am pleased with outcome of this and would be interesting to keep reproducing the image to see what happens and if the image would completely fade away 

Taking a line for a walk. Derive Elective

Part of Derive Elective. we worked as a group working from a map of Lincoln and recreated it through drawings, mapping out and objects.

AP1B Reproduction Theme Video piece

As part of this theme our task was to reproduction something of our choice a number of times. I chose to capture a short recording of the water front, focusing on the waves from the river.

My method for reproducing it was to record from my phone, then do a recording of the original footage on phone but record from my camera, I repeated this process around 15 times until the footage had lost its original qualities and become something new.

The video turns very dark as it loses quality, the glare from the screen enhances and layers reflections. the waves become more simplified
and indistinguishable.

I enjoyed this process and found it interesting to see the footage change, the piece became almost demonic and intense. I think it could be improved by cropping the edges, and focusing in more on the water, overall I feel I learnt to consider images more and how they can be recreated through multiple reproductions.

Studio 1B: Three Colours: Blue

Three Colours: Blue.

The first part of a trilogy- Blue, White and Red, the names are inspired by the French flag and the ideas it represents; Blue – Liberty, White – Equality and Red – Friendship.

Blue questions liberty and the search for freedom from grief

Julie (wife) became a recluse as a way of dealing with grief, a form of therapy. Complete Isolation from the world. Had no responsibilities left in her life, her husband and child had died, the only person left was her mother, however she lives a care home and suffers from Alzheimer’s.

Her condition allows Julie the freedom which she desperately seeks because her mother cannot recognize Julie as her daughter, their relationship has been lost and has died like her husband and child, there was no one left to care for.

Combination of strong and subtle uses of symbolism, one of the symptoms of pathological grief is to have no desire. Imagery, music, power to add emotion

The film shows her journey, searching for liberty she had no desire for friends, her family home, material possessions or love

Coffee and ice cream is a key moment, it is one of the few moments we see her eat, and she poured the coffee into the ice cream allowing herself something nice. The first moment she was interested in having a pleasurable experience, up until that moment she had deprived herself anything nice or rewarding.

There are a lack of reactions throughout the film, often internalised, whenever something bad happened it goes to a close up of her face, and search for emotion but her facial expressions do not give anything away, there is a lack of emotional remorse, for example when she wakes up from the hospital and finds out her husband and child have died, is there no crying, no shouting, she just closes her eyes.

Julies way of dealing with the loss of her husband and child can be perceived as a reasonable reaction for dealing with grief. As an introvert, she isolates herself, does not talk about what happened, sells her family home and furniture, moves to a small flat in Paris and becomes a recluse.  She changes back to her maiden name, detaching herself from her husband’s name.

Shows the importance of the narrative, created by the continuous use of the colour blue, the lollypop, the chandelier, the swimming pool.

In the scene where Lucile comes and speaks to Juile at the swimming pool and she speaks she was not crying, the whole pool turns blue as a group of child come running wearing red arm bands, there is a sudden shock of red and white into the blue sea. References to the other elements of the French flag, sub narrative, the film becomes more like a painting.

  

The film challenges the viewer to consider and reflect upon how they might react in the main characters (Julie) situation, the filming was about working grief out in a philiposical way as opposed to acting it out in a more dramatic way of shouting, crying and feeling angry with the world. The film engages with the viewer on a didactic level.

There misleading moments in the film when the scene fades to black, making the viewer question if it is coming to an end. The gaps create a disconnection from the character and the viewer.

http://www.openculture.com/2015/03/andrei-tarkovskys-message-to-young-people.html

http://www.mediacircus.net/blue.html

Death: The Final Stage of growth, E. Kubler- Rose, 1975

Breathing in a City Elective. Photography

As part of the elective I considered cities and how busy they can get, From the constant lights, cars and trains traveling people from one place to another, cites are full of energy throughout the day and night.




I explored locations at night when there was less people, I walked through the train stations at night it was empty, aside from a couple of cleaners,

I am used to experiencing these locations during the day at peak times therefore it was a big contrast to experience it at night.

Edited in photoshop I added lights to the images to represent the movement and energy that once was, bringing the scene to life in its vacant state.


Footage from journey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orIiLXU2wgg

Studio 1B Stains Project

Stains

My starting point for this project will be to define my theme of stains and what it means to me. Definition for ‘stain’ “A mark or discolour with something that is not easily removed.” Considering a stain as something which is difficult to remove, it inspires me to think about everyday routines and how throughout the day the things we do can leave a mark and sometimes stain, sometimes leaving a permanent reminder of a process or journey we have taken.

I am interested in capturing these marks, as often they are viewed as negative, such as splashes of ink, food and drink accidentally ruining fabrics and surfaces, I want to gather and collect marks and stains and show them in a new light as something which can be interesting I intend to investigate what constitutes a stain, it is always accidental and unwanted or can be purposely created and appreciated. .

It is the things that go unnoticed which interest me, an artist’s workspace over time builds up of paint, ink and other materials they chose to work with, an essence of their work is left behind each time, to remain until it is discarded and replaced.

I plan to reflect on my own environment and ways of work to discover art in the accidental or unwanted. To be inspired by my surroundings such as the studio space, I will investigate and respond to marks and stains found. And aim to develop my research through experimenting with creating/responding to stains, artist research 

I have used tea painted on to a knitted piece which was time consuming. By being stained the piece loses a precious element, the fear of wanting to protect and keep it in good condition has been lost. 

Using a substance such as tea makes the piece easy to relate to. I feel by taking away the original pristine aspect the piece becomes more real.

The Gift elective

As part of this elective we each we given anonymous gifts. I was given a brown parcel box, green inside with a game of listed instructions of possibilities I could do with the gift.


cut holes, brunt edges and repaired with masking tape, the box was presented to me decorative and elegant through being destructive it contradicts its original purpose.



through taking away and adding new elements such as the string
and masking tape and burning the surface the box can no longer
conceal a present, but can be given as a present as it is,
which is a piece of art.

Practice 1A: Evaluation on Rotations

I liked 3D Volume most out of all the rotations, I enjoyed using plaster and combining it with different textures I felt It worked well and made the pieces very tactile. I became interested in taking soft, fragile materials and making them hard and solid changing our perception of them. I felt the pocket and tight piece worked best and had the most potential.

For gesture/paint I enjoyed layering colours, observing how they dried. I produced quick gestural drawings which I felt worked best, setting myself a time limit and working from different angles. I also liked the task where we had to produce a painting using only three lines, I liked the fact that it was challenging and required to be more thoughtful when placing the paintbrush on the page 

For Duration I used photography to document my walk to uni, I experimented with Photoshop, focusing on light and capturing it from street lights/cars (see sketchbook) I also used video to record the city hall which is the view from the window, I liked using video as a way of documenting and capturing daily routines.

Drawing/Print I attended life drawing every week and produce a lot of observational drawings, often timed and instructed to use different mediums, my drawings progressed over time. I also drew from my surroundings, a lot of quick sketches; I used different mediums and combined them to develop initial drawing further, which I felt worked well, especially the paint/pastel chalk as it adds textural qualities. I experimented with Printmaking, but it did not inspire me, although I am glad I became familiar with the studio and how to print.

Studio 1A: Archive and Contain

Aug-Nov 2013

Studio 1A: Archive

This archive is based on routine, specifically dinner and what is had throughout the week. Dating from April 2012 till November 14, meals have been written every day.

There is an obsessive element to routines and a dedication. Throughout the years the paper has aged and stained.

July-Oct 2012

This archive shows an insight into real lives, an ordinary subject taken note of for a long period of time, which in result, the acumination of meals, small, compressed writing and blemishes to the aged paper combined with the more recent notes creates something very unique and individual to the household.

Studio 1A: Contain

My starting point for this was to look around a charity shop. I found a small box which I saw had potential. I experimented with changing the boxes aesthetic qualities, inside and outside. I destroyed the sides of it and kept the pieces and glued them back together.

I kept a record of receipts I had collected throughout one week and used the box to contain them, the receipts represent money spent, the box was protecting them, I destroyed parts of the box to represent how easily it is to spend, our w destroy our bank accounts the more money we spend, by taking the element of protection away from the box it questions is purpose, the box becomes more fragile.

3D Volume: Experimenting with textures

This work sparks from my interest in textures.
using a gift pouch and burlap, both having very different but interesting textural qualities.

I enjoyed using plaster, filling a soft material with a hard substance created an interesting outcome. The visible creases formed add realism, a reminder of what the material is and its original purpose, which has now been altered

The burlap adds another texture, it's frayed edges give the piece a sense of aged aesthetic.

In this piece (Left) this was done with left overs I had, preserving the materials.

The materials overlap and merge into one well, what once was fragile has been turned hard through the plaster.

Experimenting on canvas

 I made my own canvas, I found it intimidating to start with, it was large, white, untouched and clean. Whilst working on other pieces I decided to just add to it,





















I was inspired by the materials I was using and decided to recycle them into the painting, I used the remains from green chalk pastels and let them fall on, which created an aged effect resembling mold. I allowed ink to spill on, I reworked the piece rendering it with paint to add more depth.
I added broken pieces of wood, which gave a hard texture, I used stuffing from a cushion, giving a soft texture, creating contrast and also making the piece very tactile.

This way of working allowed me to not be to precious over the canvas, I found once I had made a mark, even if my accident, I was able to make more marks and begin to experiment, which in result helped me get the most out of it  I believe.

I am pleased the progression of the piece, it is something I can keep adding to over time.