PLACE (week 7&8)
22/10/18
Monday Lecture Notes
Place, space, environment:
physical, imagined, fictional, remembered (explore the etymology of "place")
Marlene Dumas, Oscar Wilde and Bosie
"These portraits by contemporary artist Marlene Dumas (b.1953) represent Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) and Lord Alfred Douglas (1870–1945), also known as ‘Bosie’. Wilde is one of the most significant writers, dramatists and poets of the late nineteenth-century. His relationship with Bosie, which took place when male homosexuality was illegal, led to his incarceration in Reading Prison between 1895 and 1897. Wilde’s final works, ‘De Profundis’ (1897, published 1905) and ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’ (1898) emerged from the profoundly affecting experience of his imprisonment.
These portraits are based on nineteenth-century photographs and were originally exhibited as part of Inside: Artists and Writers in Reading Prison, 2016, an installation developed by Artangel that responded to Wilde’s time in Reading. The portraits are exhibited here to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of male homosexuality and are resonant of the conflict that existed between public and private identities in the Victorian era. Dumas's work explores constructions of identity, often probing questions of gender, race and sexuality."[1]
"As a writer of great wit, his combination of intelligence and humour is unique. He was imprisoned at Reading for two years for loving the beautiful, untrustworthy 'golden boy' Bosie. I have painted Wilde before the entry into the prison that destroyed his life and tried to show him less as a proud author and more as a vulnerable man in relation to the young lover who led to his tragic end."
Marlene Dumas, Amsterdam, 2017 [1]
"People point to Reading Gaol, and say ‘There is where the artistic life leads a man.’
HM Prison Reading opens for the first time to the public as artists, writers, and performers respond to its most notorious inmate: Oscar Wilde. Wilde’s time in jail was devastating, the work produced in result enduring. Incarcerated in solitary confinement he wrote De Profundis, an extended letter to his lover Lord Alfred Douglas; on release he produced his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol.
At this resonant site, the penal regime Wilde suffered is explored through archives, leading through to the installation of new works by artists such as Nan Goldin, Marlene Dumas, and Steve McQueen in the previously inaccessible – or inescapable – cells and corridors.
In some cells, visitors will find letters on the theme of state-enforced separation from around the world by writers including Binyavanga Wainaina, Ai Weiwei, and Anne Carson. Each Sunday throughout the exhibition, Wilde’s harrowing and heartfelt De Profundis will be performed live in the former prison chapel by readers including Patti Smith, Colm Tóibín, and Ben Whishaw.
This exhibition brings together that which Wilde's final works so eloquently delineated: the pain of separation, the excruciatingly slow passage of time, betrayal, redemption, and love." [2]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tuuc9hh7VG0
By displaying an exhibition the a prison that Oscar Wilde served time in exaggerates the significance of place- the act of this explores imprisonment and homosexuality and it's almost perfect that their painting s are hang in his cell and the forbidden love can live of the wall. The piece is a tortured mixture of love, history, brutality and imprisonment.
"In the great prison where I was then incarcerated, I was merely the figure and the letter of a little cell in a long gallery. One of a thousand lifeless numbers, as of a thousand lifeless lives". – Oscar Wilde, De Profundis [2]
23/10/19
Tuesday Lecture Notes- transport
How the physical transportation becomes integral or becomes the work itself
Gabriel Orozco, Yielding Stone (Piedra Que Cede), 1992- expanding the site
"To make Piedra que cede (Yielding Stone), Orozco shaped nearly 150 pounds of plasticine (equal approximately to his own body weight) into a ball and pushed it through the streets of New York City. In the process, dirt and detritus from the streets were embedded in the surface of this malleable material. Orozco references many art-making traditions in this work: Arte Povera's recycling of prosaic materials, Earth Art's exploration of sites beyond the gallery or museum, and the engagement of the artist's own body in performance art." [3]
Doh Oh Suh
Richard Long
A line made by Walking, 1967
Darren Almond
Simon Starling
Text
Dorris memory
body in one place mind in another
Jeppe Hein
Bibliography
[1] https://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/display/2017/marlene-dumas-oscar-wilde-and-bosie
[2] https://www.artangel.org.uk/project/inside/
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Wider reading/ Visited Websites
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOpEO8kq0uE\
- https://www.sfmoma.org/watch/doris-salcedo-memory-as-the-essence-of-work/
- Richard Mabey |Nature Cure
- Robert MacFarlane -The Old Ways |A Journey on Foot
Visited Galleries
PROGRESS TUTORIALS (week 6)
Southbank Centre, Hayward Gallery
White Cube Bermondsey [1]
‘The experience of an individual is always my point of departure. But during the process of making an artwork, I must maintain a distance in order to leave that person intact, untouched. And from there, as soon as I begin working, everything enters into the paradoxical terrain of art.’
(Doris Salcedo, A Work in Mourning, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and Chicago University Press, 2015)
In her work Salcedo questions and exposes trauma by exploring its capacity to reveal and connect with grief, carving out a space for mourning that is both poignant and insistent. ‘My work is about the memory of experience, which is always vanishing, not about experiences taken from life’, she has said. In Palimpsest, presented in the South Galleries, she deals with the subject of Europe’s migrant crisis and the many who have fled from Africa or the Middle East over the past 20 years and drowned in the Mediterranean or Adriatic attempting to cross into Europe. Produced initially for the Palacio de Cristal, Centro de Arte Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid, the installation consists of a floor of rectangular stone slabs covering the entire gallery space, on which the names of over 300 victims temporarily and intermittently appear. The names are first spelled out in sand (for those who died prior to 2010) and then in delicate droplets of water (for those who died between 2011−16); a constant state of inscription and erasure that transforms the gallery into a potent and active memorial. Bringing to mind the image of a ‘crying’ earth, Palimpsest attempts to expose the inability to collectively mourn, highlighting the way memory functions in a society which is trained to forget, where each new tragedy erases the previous one.
For Salcedo, artistic process, research and the very act of making – often highly complex and technically difficult – is fundamental to the meaning of the work. In this case, a process manifested through five years of research to obtain names and stories that could offer up potential avenues of exploration. Through its literal act of naming, Palimpsest marks an important shift away from the artist’s earlier work in which the individual particulars of a victim’s experience were not made explicit. Moreover, the work refers not just to the migrants who died, but also to those who live and mourn them, reminding us how loss defines life forever on. In an essay published in the accompanying catalogue, Andreas Huyssen has written: ‘This is the palimpsest of memory itself, embodying the temporality of writing and erasing, the temporality of memory and forgetting, the temporality of intense and subsiding grief, even the temporality of the event of death itself...’
Southbank Centre, Hayward Gallery
Richard Wilson [2]
Since the 1980s, Richard Wilson has been making large-scale sculptural interventions into architectural spaces: rearranging, disrupting and displacing their basic physical components – bricks, concrete, glass – in order to radically alter our sense of space and, in the process, ‘knock [our] world-view off-kilter’.
For his installation 20:50 (1987) – first presented at Matt’s Gallery in 1987 – Wilson has flooded one of Hayward’s upper galleries with engine oil, leaving only a narrow passageway through the centre. The surface of the dark, dense substance mirrors the space above it and creates for the viewer the vertiginous impression of being suspended within a curiously doubled and seemingly infinite environment.
‘We all have preconceptions about architectural space, about rooms, about buildings – whether they’re galleries or museums or not’, Wilson has said, ‘– and if you can do something that unsettles those preconceptions, you can generate a whole new way of understanding your place in the world.’
Jeppe Hein comments on mirrors being ‘a tool for communication and dialogue’, this reminds me how when you go to the hairdressers and how the presence of the mirror in the creates conversation, otherwise you would just be awkwardly staring at yourself and the hairdresser.
Mona Hatoum
‘Hatoum does not construct hierarchies of form and content; they perform in tandem while pushing against each other, and break open a space for the ambiguity, duality, paradox, and humour that lie at the core of her practice.’ – Michelle White, Mona Hatoum: Terra Infirma, 2018 [4]
Hatoum challenges the movements of surrealism and minimalism, making work which explores the conflicts and contradictions of our world. Her studies at the Slade School of Art coincided with developing ideas around gender and race, and she began to explore the relationship between politics and the individual through performance.
In the late 1980s she began to make installations and sculptures in a wide range of materials. These often use the grid or geometric forms to reference to systems of control within society. She has made a number of works using household objects which are scaled up or changed to make them familiar but uncanny. [5]
Drawing upon themes interwoven in everyday life and the larger situation of our inherently unstable world, Hatoum’s work creates a sense of profound unease through a process of visual and material seduction. By engaging the viewer in a direct phenomenological experience, industrial materials and everyday objects are transformed into potent cyphers, charged with emotive and thematic force. In the poised and disquieting installation Remains of the Day (2016−18), which evolves from work made for the 10th Hiroshima Art Prize exhibition, simple wooden furniture and domestic objects − a kitchen table, group of chairs, rolling pin, stool and vintage toy truck − are covered with chicken wire and subjected to an intense, furious heat. Burnt and charred, the resultant black and brittle charcoal forms are held together by their wire armature, appearing like ghostly shadows of the solid objects they once were, while scattered fragments across the floor imitate the possibility for further disintegration at any given moment. As if registering some sudden and dramatic catastrophe, Remains of the Day interrogates the idea of ‘home’ through familiar and symbolic forms, locating it not as a place of refuge and established order but as a site of upheaval, disorder and the uncanny. [1]
Mona Hatoum: Remains of the Day- Duration: 6:36 [1]
Bibliography
[1] https://whitecube.com/exhibitions/exhibition/mona_hatoum_hong_kong_2018
[2] https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/blog/2050-1987-richard-wilson
[3] https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/blog/360°-illusion-v-2018-jeppe-hein
[4] https://whitecube.com/exhibitions/exhibition/mona_hatoum_hong_kong_2018
[5] https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/mona-hatoum-2365/who-is-mona-hatoum
ALTERED SPACES (week 5)
08/10/18
Initially hearing “altered spaces” I thought of Escher and creating illusions and manipulating perspectives. Escher uses three-point perspective to achieve relativity, he plays with this concept to accurately distort the viewers perspective. The concept of relativity involves the imagination and uses the methods such as lighting and defining mass and form. Escher works doesn’t make logical sense and initially seems to be an optical illusion; however, visually the image hasn’t been distorted, only rotated, stretched and pinched. Additionally, the compositions and curves in the control the viewers eye to travel around the image in loop (no focus point).
"He is most famous for his so-called impossible constructions, such as Ascending and Descending, Relativity, his Transformation Prints, such as Metamorphosis I, Metamorphosis II and Metamorphosis III, Sky & Water I or Reptiles." [1]
10/10/18
Lecture notes
Stain glass intrigues me, the very idea of these colourful bursts of light in a church, which tends to be dark and slightly gloomy. Stain glass windows not only provide symbolism and biblical narratives, but also enhance the beauty of the church itself.
From the 10th century to the 16th century, the medieval subject matter was typically religious and the colour choices depended much on the elements and knowledge available at the time; the colours heavily relied on the state of oxidation. In an oxidising environment metal ions will lose electrons and the colours would change from pale blue to yellow-like browns; where as in a reducing environment, the iron will gain electrons and the colour would change from yellows and browns to pale blue.
A Brief History of Stained Glass
"The making of stained-glass windows has hardly changed since the 12th century. A stained-glass window consists of pieces of coloured glass held together in a latticed web of lead. The glass has previously had details of faces, hands and drapery painted and fired on to it in black or brown paint. About the year 1300, yellow stain was discovered, This had the ability to turn white glass yellow or blue glass green, and was extremely useful in the highlighting of hair, haloes and crowns.
Stained glass continued to flourish in England until the Reformation of the Church in the 1540s when changes in religious outlook undermined the need for sacred art.
Although coloured glass continued to be made in the 17th and 18th centuries, the craft declined and skills were lost. Only in the 19th century was there a serious attempt to rediscover the techniques of the medieval glazier. Men like the antiquarian Charles Winston, and the architect A W N Pugin helped to re-establish the scholarly principles for a Gothic Revival of stained glass. As a result of Winston's technical experiments of the 1850s, the quality of coloured glass approached that of the medieval glaziers. Today almost all parish churches and cathedrals contain Victorian windows. Their quality and craftsmanship are now widely recognised."[2]
I was interested in how the manufacturing of stain glass has changed [2]
The Manufacture of Stained Glass
A short description of the methods and materials
used in the manufacture of stained glass
since the twelfth century.
Medieval Techniques and Materials
In the first quarter of the twelfth century, a German monk, who adopted the pen name Theophilus, wrote a description of the techniques of making stained glass.
The basic methods have hardly changed. Glass was made by melting sand, potash and lime together in clay pots. It was coloured by the addition of metallic oxides - gold for red, copper for green, cobalt for blue and so on. This is called pot-metal glass. Pot-metal glass, especially red glass, was often too dark to transmit much light. To overcome this, 'flashed' glass was made by dipping a lump of white glass on the blowpipe into a pot of red glass and then blowing. This provided sheets of glass with a thin surface layer of colour. Later, parts of this layer could be removed by grinding with an abrasive wheel; this produced two colours, red and white, on the same piece of glass.
As paper was scarce and parchment very expensive, the full scale outline of the design for a stained glass window was drawn out on a whitened table top. The designer would indicate the principal outlines of his drawing, the shape and colour of the individual pieces of glass to be used, and the position of the lead strips (calmes) that would eventually hold all the pieces of glass together. The panes of coloured glass were cut to shape with a 'grozing iron' and laid on top of the drawing. Through the glass, details of the drawing - faces, hands, drapery, etc. - could be seen and these details were traced with an iron oxide pigment on the surface of the glass. After painting, the pieces were fired in a small furnace for sufficient time to fuse the paint to the surface of the glass, and then relaid on the table and assembled by the glazier, using strips of lead H-shaped in section, which allowed the glass to be slotted into the grooves on each side. The lead provided a strong but flexible bond. The intersections of all the lead strips were then soldered, and oily cement was rubbed into all the joints in order to make them watertight. The panels were then held in place in the window openings by a grid of iron bars set into the masonry.
From the early fourteenth century a further range of colours varying from a pale lemon to a deep orange could be achieved on one piece of glass through the discovery of 'silver stain', a silver compound painted on the back of the glass and then fired in a kiln. By the mid sixteenth century many different coloured enamels were being used. As a result, windows began to be painted like easel pictures on clear glass of regular rectangular shape, with lead calmes no longer an integral part of the design. These methods prevailed from the seventeenth to early nineteenth centuries. However, the earlier techniques were revived in Victorian times; the Museum's later displays show the survival, continuity and development of these traditional skills.
Modern Techniques
Every window starts as a full-size cartoon, either drawn in the studio or provided by an outside designer. Modern cartoons are drawn out on paper. The coloured glass is then selected to conform with the designer's conception and the position and purpose of the window. The glass is cut to size with a glass cutter. Awkward curves can be nipped ('grozed') with a pair of smooth-jawed pliers.
The design is applied as a black or brown paint which is a mixture of metal oxides, powdered glass and gum. The artist mixes it with water on a thick glass tile. Solid lines are painted thickly, carefully tracing the design from the cartoon. Thinner washes are left to dry and then dusted with a badgerhair brush to give fine shading effects. Finished pieces are then stored in glass racks to await firing in the kiln. The painted glass is laid on trays of whiting and loaded into the hot upper part of the kiln where it is fired at a temperature which fuses the paint to the glass. lt is then left in the cooler part of the kiln to relieve the strains created in the glass by firing.
 Firing the glass The studio of C.E. Kempe c.1900 |
Leads of various sizes can be prepared from cast bars by squeezing them through a lead mill, either electrically powered or hand cranked. The window is assembled on a large table, each lead being cut and bent to fit its pane. As the work progresses, completed parts are held against battens by horseshoe nails tapped into the table. When the panel is complete, each joint must he soldered individually. Finally the whole window is sealed with mastic which is brushed hard into all the joints.
"Though the words “stained glass art” may trigger thoughts of medieval cathedral windows, today’s contemporary artists are proving that the thousand-year-old craft is anything but outdated. Throughout ancient history, stained glass art was traditionally made in flat panels, featured biblical imagery, and was used for the windows in churches, mosques, and other religious buildings. Today, modern works of glass art are not only seen in places of worship, but also in contemporary homes, commercial spaces, and art galleries.
Inspired by the stained glass of the Middle Ages, many of today’s contemporary artists put a modern twist on medieval techniques. Others work to create striking three-dimensional structures that transform entire environments with dazzling, abstract beams of light and colour." [3]
CHRISTOPHER JANNEY- Tunnel of colours, walking through a universe of colours
TOM FRUIN- The “beacon of light”, contemporary 3D form
KEHINDE WILEY- powerful, contemporary narratives, "celebrating modern-day people of colour"[3]
11/10/18
Sigmar Polke, Windows for the Zürich Grossmünster, 2009
"Seven of Polke's twelve windows for the Grossmünster cathedral in Zürich are not stained glass at all. Instead, the German artist employs thinly sliced agate mosaics in a twist on traditional stained glass techniques. Their designs are abstract, a kaleidoscope of mineral cross sections. The remaining five windows are figurative and represent scenes from the Old Testament. Polke’s formidable career was bookended with work in glass: He began his artistic training in 1959 as an apprentice in a glass-painting workshop, and he completed the Grossmünster windows a year before his death." [4]
12/10/18
Jehovah's Witness, Trafficking, Arts & Craft Stained Glass
Trevor Barnes finishes his short series on stained glass by talking to Peter Cormack on how glass artists transformed the aesthetics and production of stained glass in Britain and America during the Arts and Crafts period. [5]
17:08 / 43:47- was the most interesting moments within the podcast in my option, where the art and Craft movement and this history of stain glass is discussed. I've transcribed a snippet of the conversation below.
“It’s something of a Jew of the arts and craft movement […] stain glass had been revived very successfully during the Victorian period, but it had fairly soon fallen into a lot of com, mass production, use of formulaic designs, copying especially of medieval work and by the 1880s there was a strong reaction against this inspired by Ruskin and William Morris and artist felt that stain glass offered an enormous potential for artistic expression that wasn’t really being exploited….Colour is previous Victorian was rather dull… a new awareness of colour… textured glass with very dense colours.”
The mention and idea of copying in art really always intrigues me and constantly reminds me of Picasso's quote the a "good artist copy, great artists steal"[6]
The podcast included William Morris and his influence on stain glass and how with Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti produced the distinctive Pre-Raphaelite style.
Kelmscott and Morris: Past, Present and Future. Project Launch (Peter Cormack)
“Morris was an antiquary throughout his career, he had this great respect for the past and feeling that the past could be an inspiration” [7]
Agreeing with Morris, the past holds great importance and inspiration to the future, with my own exploration stain glass- in the medium of paining- I am revisiting churches and particular stain glass windows that hold great importance to me and then I'm viewing new window that I've never seen before to investigate if that will have an affect ton my connection to my creation. By being inspired by something from the past and something from my past are very different things, by looking at found images or visiting new churches I responding to them for the first new and all my thoughts are personal that that particular site. Having a religious background and a really appreciation for the making and symbolism of stain glass, I would really like to create a window as Morris and Burne-Jones did.
13/10/18
Edward Burne-Jones – Exhibition at Tate Britain | Tate
One of the last Pre-Raphaelites, Edward Burne-Jones brought imaginary worlds to life in awe-inspiring paintings, stained glass windows and tapestries.
There was a very whimsical atmosphere when walking around the gallery gazing at these fictional worlds. You feel quite transfixed and transported into the scene you are looking at.
Edward Burne-Jones, being part of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, a particular piece that I adore is "The Golden Stairs", like the instruments within the piece, there is a harmony between the colour, the figure, the composition and the movement.
Bibliography
[1] https://www.mcescher.com/about/biography/
[2] https://stainedglassmuseum.com/briefhistory.html
[3] https://mymodernmet.com/contemporary-stained-glass-art/
[5] https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b08z97zy
[6] http://www.dklevine.com/papers/b_l_review.pdf
[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwm1pV-7qSw
Wider Reading/Visited Websites
- http://cdm16028.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/66508
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b08z97zy
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwm1pV-7qSw
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzHqhvt08UE
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QHp1HCnHKU
- https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/victorian-art-architecture/pre-raphaelites/v/sir-edward-coley-burne-jones-the-golden-stairs-1880
- https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/05/12/many-colored-glass-peter-schjeldahl
Visited Galleries
- Space Shifter - Haywood Gallery | Southbank Centre
- Edward Burnes-Jones- Exhibition at Tate Britain | Tate
MATERIAL NEWS (week 4)
01/10/18
The Zodiac [1]
"The zodiac (which is derived from the Greek word meaning "circle of animals") is believed to have developed in ancient Egypt and later adopted by the Babylonians. Early astrologers knew it took 12 lunar cycles (i.e., months) for the sun to return to its original position. They then identified 12 constellations that they observed were linked to the progression of the seasons and assigned them names of certain animals and persons (in Babylonia, for example, the rainy season was found to occur when the Sun was in a particular constellation which was then named Aquarius, or water bearer).
The signs of the zodiac are subdivided into four groups:
- Fire Signs: Aries, Sagittarius, Leo
- Water Signs: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces
- Air Signs: Libra, Aquarius, Gemini
- Earth Signs: Capricorn, Taurus, Virgo
Each of these four groups is inscribed in its own quadrant, or group of "houses," on a circle. The division of the 12 houses is based on Earth's daily rotation and relates to such circumstances as relationships, finances, travel, etc. The division of the 12 signs of the zodiac, on the other hand, is based on the earth's year-long rotation around the Sun and relates to character traits and areas of life (e.g., Venus represents affection, Mercury represents speech and writing, etc.). Each planet is associated with two signs, and the Sun and Moon with one each.
Approximately 2000 B.C., Babylonian astrologers believed that the Sun, Moon, and the five planets known at that time (Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Saturn, and Venus) possessed distinct powers. Mars, for example, appeared to be red and was associated with aggression and war."
History/Origin of Horoscopes
Horoscopes really interest me as they are based on the exact moment you were born and how that affects your future. Even though its not scientific like DNA, people buy into it as the language is so vague and the open language makes it apply to anyone. At the time of the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of christianity astrology was supressed as it contracted the bibles teachings-
"Astrological beliefs in correspondences between celestial observations and terrestrial events have influenced various aspects of human history, including world-views, language and many elements of social culture." [2]
"Early astrological systems were concerned with weather patterns, seasons and crops. Because early humans didn't understand the causes of things like eclipses or the retrograde movement of planets, they created stories, passed on for hundreds of generations, that tried to explain them in a context they understood. Shapes in the stars and the planets themselves became gods -- or at least symbols of gods. Every ancient culture had some form of science/religion that was concerned with patterns of movement in the stars. At this point, astronomy and astrology were one and the same. Ancient scientists observed and recorded the patterns they saw in the sky (astronomy); then, they extrapolated those observations to fit their cosmology and life experiences (astrology)." [3]
"The first real newspaper horoscope column is widely credited to R.H. Naylor, a prominent British astrologer of the first half of the 20th century. Naylor was an assistant to high-society neo-shaman, Cheiro (born William Warner, a decidedly less shamanistic name), who’d read the palms of Mark Twain, Grover Cleveland, and Winston Churchill, and who was routinely tapped to do celebrity star charts. Cheiro, however, wasn’t available in August 1930 to do the horoscope for the recently born Princess Margaret, so Britain’s Sunday Express newspaper asked Naylor.
Like most astrologers of the day, Naylor used what’s called a natal star chart. Astrology posits that the natural world and we human beings in it are affected by the movements of the sun, moon and stars through the heavens, and that who we are is shaped by the exact position of these celestial bodies at the time of our birth. A natal star chart, therefore, presents the sky on the date and exact time of birth, from which the astrologer extrapolates character traits and predictions." [4]
Coinidence
After researching horoscopes, I looked into the concept of coincidences and the idea of happy accidents, which tends to happen a lot when I'm experimenting sculptures.
Interview with my grandad:
02/10/18
White Cube- Dorris Sacedo
Her work is particularly interesting as she creates these abstract spaces with function as a memorial to the victims of violence. the fact that the objects are of domestic association to mourn the lose of families, for example, her "cement-choked furniture" [5]
Like the news, Sacedo's work changes and adapts with current affairs and her work provides an attempt and method for healing. The darkness and discomfort bought by war is mirrored in her work- the textures, the material choices, the compositions and the context; for example, her piece Untitled, 1989-1990 was created in respone to the two massacres that occurred in the north of Colombia 1988. The line of white shirts- the shirts the of the dead- and the way they are stacked and pierce through the steel bar emphasises the loss of life and is very uncomfortable to look at.
Click the link below to watch video where she explains how an old piece she was working on transformed and came back to life, ironically after the death of the Congressman of Vale. Her purpose is concerned with the preserving of memory and honouring those innocently killed in man-made hatred. (https://www.theguardian.com/cities/video/2016/jul/26/artist-doris-salcedo-bogota-forces-work-brutal-video)
Variations on Brutality: Doris Salcedo Interview [6]
ART21: I’m curious how early on your political sensitivity was formed and when you connected that to the notion of being an artist. Looking back, when do you think you started to connect these things?
SALCEDO: I always wanted to be an artist. I cannot name a date when that came to me; it has always been there. Living in Colombia, in a country at war, means that war does not give you the possibility of distance. War engulfs reality completely. In some cases, people can be killed or wounded at war, but in most cases war just distorts your life. It throws a shadow over your entire life. War creates a totality and you are embedded in it. It’s like being engulfed in a reality. Political events are part of everyday life here, so art and politics came to me as a natural thing, something that has been very much present in my life from the start.
ART21: Explain a little bit more about war. I suspect for people living in the United States, they think about war as being something where two countries are fighting each other, and war here in Colombia it has a slightly different aspect.
SALCEDO: I think war everywhere has a different aspect now, because I don’t think war is waged between two nations any longer, or not the main war. I think war is waged at different levels. And those levels that are subtler are the ones that really destroy the life of a big section of the population. I believe war is the main event of our time. War is what defines our lives. And it creates its own laws. War forces us to generate some ethical codes in which we exclude a whole part of the population; once they do not fit into in our ethical code, then we can attack them and destroy them because they are not “human.” So it’s a tool to expel people from humankind. I think that’s the main event, and that’s why it worries me so much. You see that there are civil wars going on everywhere on a daily basis. You are reading about these events and these events are really shaping the way in which we live. That’s what I’m trying to show in my work—that war is part of or our everyday life.
ART21: How does this political thinking become embedded in a work of art?
SALCEDO: Well, my work is based not on my experience but on somebody else’s experience. I would like to reflect a little bit on the etymology of the word “experience”: it comes from the Latin word experiri, which means “to test” or “to prove,” and from the Latin word periri, which means “peril” and “danger,” and also from the Indo-European root per, which means “going across.” So experience means “going across danger.” So my work is about somebody else’s experience, literally defined. That’s where you get the connection with political violence, that’s where you get the connection with war. And that’s what really interests me.
I have focused all my work on political violence, on forceful displacement, on war, on all these events but not on the large event. I focus on the small, individual, particular experience of a human being. I’m trying to extract that and put it in the work. The memories of anonymous victims are always being obliterated. I’m trying to rescue that memory, if it could be possible. But of course I don’t succeed.
My work lives at the point where the political aspect of these experiences is appearing and disappearing. We are forgetting these memories continuously. That’s why my work does not represent something; it’s simply a hint of something. It is trying to bring into our presence something that is no longer here, so it is subtle.
ART21: What kind of research are you doing now?
SALCEDO: Well, I think I have been doing the same research for many, many years with small variations. For years I kept files on concentration camps, both historical ones and contemporary ones. What interests me is how it varies. It’s always there, but it presents itself in different forms. I was amazed when Guantanamo was opened in Cuba, because Cuba was the first place that had a concentration camp. Actually it was a Spanish invention. A Spanish general, Martinez Campos, thought it up in 1896. At that time they implemented it in Cuba. It’s amazing to see how it has come full circle. Now you have Guantanamo again in Cuba. But of course the British had it at the end of the nineteenth century in South Africa. Then the Germans had it in West Africa. Then you have killing fields, forced labor camps, gulags—the list is endless.
I have come to the conclusion that the industrial prison system in the United States has many of these elements, where people, for really no reason, for possession of marijuana or things like that are going to jail, where some minor crimes have become felonies. I’m really shocked by the sheer numbers of people being thrown into jails. And also I think it’s amazing how this system, being in jail and then going out, has so many collateral effects that a fairly large portion of the population are not allowed to be alive.
The idea of having a large portion of the population excluded from civil rights, from many, many possibilities, implies that you have people that can almost be considered socially dead. What does it mean to be socially dead? What does it mean to be alive and not able to participate? It’s like being dead in life. That’s what I am researching now, and that is the perspective I have been looking at events from for a long time.
03/10/18
Thinking back to an interview with Nadine Goepfert and how she says that "collected souvenirs – they can be found almost anywhere on earth." Souvenirs being typical small things that represent a place, my mini astrological sculptress function as a souvenirs that represents a persons astrological history/place of birth.
One to Forty-Nine (c. 1968) by Alexander Girard. Gift of the Estate of Xenia S. Miller to the Indianapolis Museum of Art
Gave me ideas about how to display the sculptures, almost like they were fossil that have been preserved. the box display suggests that whats inside is precious. even though astrology isn't scientific, people still believe in it. It's plausible that people believe is supertious things as a copying mechanism to life and the fear of the unknown.
The Terrier and Lobster: "Star Signs": Siri Tollerod Does the Horoscope Shot by Tim Gutt, Set Styling by Shona Heath
"Shona's passion for creative image making and storytelling comes foremost making her sets and installations memorable, whether in stills photography or film. She is happiest working and presenting fresh new ideas and brainstorming concepts of any kind right from the start of a project, right up until the physical execution." [6] This reminds me of my process and the stories I'm trying. to communicate via horoscopes and how I am experimenting until the last minute.
Damián Ortega [7]
Damián Ortega’s work traces economic and material exchange and, in particular, how regional culture affects commodity consumption. His work investigates systems, volumes and forms with an experimental curiosity in a range of different media including sculpture, installation, photography, film, drawing and performance.
Emerging mid-way through the 1990s, Ortega began his career as a political cartoonist and his art retains the intellectual rigour and playfulness associated with his previous occupation. He sees art as a process of “unlearning”, dependent on a sense of mobility, whereby the energy residing in inanimate things is revealed through both the successes and failures in a work's production. In his sculpture, everyday objects such as bricks, rubbish bins or tortillas are subjected to his characteristically “mischievous process of transformation and dysfunction”, creating a surreal unhinging of reality through the use of subtle and personal irony.
Bibliography
[1] https://www.astrologers.com/about/history
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_astrology
[3] https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/horoscopes-astrology/horoscope6.htm
[5] https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/jul/10/doris-salcedo-review-artist-in-mourning
[6] https://www.clm-agency.com/set-design/shona-heath
[7] https://whitecube.com/artists/artist/damian_ortega
Wider Reading/Visited Websites
- https://www.horoscope.com/us/horoscopes/love/horoscope-love-daily-today.aspx?sign=1
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-are-horoscopes-still-thing-180957701/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70DgUjbKuU4
- https://inhabitat.com/neons-house-of-mirrors-creates-a-trippy-kaleidoscopic-view-of-the-australian-beach-landscape/house-of-mirrors-by-neon-5/
- https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&biw=1398&bih=688&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=Ij_OW__ECNOtgAb2_4fIAQ&q=beach+huts+sculpture&oq=beach+huts+sculpture&gs_l=img.3...10407.17858.0.18669.10.10.0.0.0.0.67.489.10.10.0....0...1c.1.64.img..0.3.175...0j0i67k1j0i8i30k1j0i24k1.0.fyqJYISX8XE#imgrc=wCZ08bdel62VJM:
- https://blog.oup.com/2017/11/shadows-visual-arts-timeline/
- https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/masters-of-paper-art-and-paper-sculptures/
- https://www.richardlangchandler.com
- https://www.eh-resources.org/romanticism-and-nature/
- https://www.google.com/search?q=richard+long&safe=strict&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjC_pfo66veAhVSZ8AKHawlDpYQ_AUIDigB&biw=1398&bih=688#imgrc=lzy0C0wB-4mVvM:
- http://www.richardlong.org/about.html
- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/661405.Nature_Cure
- https://www.google.com/search?q=obsessive+art&safe=strict&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiryfKHj67eAhXKDsAKHTqNBQAQ_AUIDigB&biw=1398&bih=688#imgrc=-WI2pJGj9AarYM:
- http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/articles/phoebe-cummings-is-named-the-winner-of-the-womans-hour-craft-prize/
- https://www.google.com/search?q=cement+house+sculpture&safe=strict&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiO-4a-qq7eAhUkJMAKHShSCdwQ_AUIDigB&biw=1398&bih=754#imgrc=B638VzoyyRkJ0M:
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05mwszp
- https://blog.oup.com/2017/11/shadows-visual-arts-timeline/
-
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-12/souvenirs-exhibition-gold-coast-artists-re-imagine/7164156
Visited Galleries
- Anselm Kiefer |White Cube
- Doris Salcedo |White Cube
- Heidi Bucher |Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art
RE EDIT PROJECT (week 3)
24/09/18
Lecture notes:
“The editor” by Stefano Basilico (author, writer, educator) uses pre-existing films/TV to create a new narrative, different emotional content and new musicality. His articlestates how artists manipulate the familiar to be unfamiliar; through this reconstruction of reality the viewer gains a new comprehension and question for what they think they know. Basilico talks about gestures- creative categories- which creates new forms of information, changing what’s already been said, changing the context and changing the viewers initial perspective. Basilico defines the positions of found footage as “natural resources” to reveal something new.
The concept really intrigues me, the idea of making someone see something as if for the first time and maybe seem more real than the first time. It would be hard to achieve this, as a person’s first exposure to something is normally most affective; especially with an iconic film like pulp fiction.
During the whole project of re-reediting found footage, I was wondering about boundaries and how far one could take it. Is it copying? Is it theft? Is It recycling? These questions stuck in my mind for the whole week and echoed the words of Picasso and how “good artists copy, great artists steal” [1]. In my opinion, “tweaking” matches Picasso definition of “copying”; paradoxically, a great artist gains knowledge and absorbs the original artists doing before taking “possession” of it as such to stimulate their own creative thinking- transforming something to now belong to you.
Not what you steal, how you chose to steal it!!
Its virtually impossible to think or create something that’s completely unique as there is always something that has influenced your thinking or method of doing.
“Great artists steal” is at its root about finding inspiration in the work of others, then using it as a starting point for original creative output. Artists may recontextualize, remix, substitute, or otherwise mashup existing work to create something new. Sometimes it’s as simple as calling something art (Duchamp’s “Fountain” being the sort of ultimate example). [2]
Basilico’s Gestures:
- To Stretch –reorganise our experience of time
- To Remove –purposefully hide a character or scenes to reveal a hidden narrative or false reality
- To Arrange –Re-order of scenes in a film so that they take the shape of what the artists wants, not the original editor
- To Systematise –collections that when assembled create a new system of production or realities
- To Erase –to erase protagonists or events that reveal unexpected narratives or truths within a film
- To repair –to fill in a gap that has been intentionally left out by the original editor.
- To Continue –the use of looping footage at a particular scene is a very useful way to develop alternatives both positive and negative.
- To Match –Match the rhythm of a song with the editing cuts of a film.
- Editing–Cutting, shaping, sampling
- Found-footage–pre-edited existing film, video or artwork
- Ready made –Coined by Marcel Duchamp to describe a method for choosing everyday objects, renaming them and placing them in alternative contexts to their function
- Subvert- undermine the power and authority of (an established system or institution)
25/09/18
Between Film, Video, and the Digital: Hybrid Moving Images in the Post-Media Age By Jihoon Kim [3]
Encompassing experimental film and video, essay film, gallery-based installation art, and digital art, Jihoon Kim establishes the concept of hybrid moving images as an array of impure images shaped by the encounters and negotiations between different media, while also using it to explore various theoretical issues, such as stillness and movement, indexicality, abstraction, materiality, afterlives of the celluloid cinema, archive, memory, apparatus, and the concept of medium as such.
Grounding its study in interdisciplinary framework of film studies, media studies, and contemporary art criticism, Between Film, Video, and the Digital offers a fresh insight on the post-media conditions of film and video under the pervasive influences of digital technologies, as well as on the crucial roles of media hybridity in the creative processes of giving birth to the emerging forms of the moving image. Incorporating in-depth readings of recent works by more than thirty artists and filmmakers, including Jim Campbell, Bill Viola, Sam Taylor-Johnson, David Claerbout, Fiona Tan, Takeshi Murata, Jennifer West, Ken Jacobs, Christoph Girardet and Matthias Müller, Hito Steyerl, Lynne Sachs, Harun Farocki, Doug Aitken, Douglas Gordon, Stan Douglas, Candice Breitz, among others, the book is the essential scholarly monograph for understanding how digital technologies simultaneously depend on and differ film previous time-based media, and how this juncture of similarities and differences signals a new regime of the art of the moving image.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlU2A3cG7uY
After reading Between film, video and digital media, I had a better understanding go post -media art and provides a historical timeline of movie images through 20th and 21st century. the book includes reading of other artists and filmmakers, a couple in particular really grabbed me, for example David Claerbout.
David Claerbout investigating the conceptual impact of the passage of time through moving and still photography. As scholar David Green has explained, “Claerbout’s work subtly proposes a relationship of similitude between film and the objective world that lies outside and beyond the narrative space of cinema. In doing so he poses a set of questions about how we experience film and about the nature of the medium itself.” [4]
After the second lecture and watching Douglas Gordon "24 hour psycho", I was interested to find his thinking behind it.
"His work is often based on a disruption of perception; by making his audience aware of their own fugitive subjectivity, he questions how we give meaning to our experience of things." [5]
Douglas Gordon in his own words: "24 Hour Psycho, as I see it, is not simply a work of appropriation. It is more like an act of affiliation... it wasn't a straightforward case of abduction. The original work is a masterpiece in its own right, and I've always loved to watch it. ... I wanted to maintain the authorship of Hitchcock so that when an audience would see my 24 Hour Psycho they would think much more about Hitchcock and much less, or not at all, about me..."
Douglas Gordon manipulates the visual perception of the film by playing around with its original scale and space disposition; the altering of these temporal structures allows the viewers to gain a new understanding. By lengthening the scenes, it creates temporary alteration which removes all immediate tension from a thriller. therefore modifying the viewer’s mind to reconsider what is being perceived. The separation between the subjective and the objective is turned on its head. As a result, the viewer Its left to interpret and to construct a new translation of the film- what Jacques Rancière has called “emancipated spectator” [6]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a31q2ZQcETw
26/09/18
Scope e-Book: Cultural Borrowings: Appropriation, Reworking, Transformation
-Edited by Iain Robert Smith [7]
A Taxonomy of Digital Video Remixing
Found footage filmmaking refers to the practice of appropriating pre-existing film footage in order to denature, detourn or recontextualize images by inscribing new meanings onto materials through creative montage. A central practice of the North American and European avant-garde film movements, found footage films often transform extant images in radical ways, simultaneously challenging traditional conceptions of authorship, ownership and copyright through examina- tions of media representation and repression. In the last four years, this practice has been given a new life on the Internet with the proliferation of digital video files online, developments in editing software and the draw of video distribution portals like YouTube.
Trailer Re-Cuts
While I use the term digital remixing to refer broadly to all forms of digital found footage manipulation, a number of categories appear under this general um- brella. When discussing trailer remixing, there are two forms present: mashups and re-cuts. I refer to a trailer re-cut when the genre of a single film is détourned, such as Shining, or 10 Things I Hate About Commandments by Mike Dow and Ari Eisner, which transforms the biblical epic The Ten Commandments(1956) into a high school comedy reminiscent of Ten Things I Hate About You(1999). This re-cut appropriates the discourse of another genre though it only utilizes images from one film. Sergei Eisenstein once commented that effective montage, as a critical and interruptive form could be employed by considering the formula: "Degree of incongruence determines intensity of impression" (Eisenstein, 1949: 50). This might help us understand why the most potent re- mixes unite what might be seen as dialectically opposite genres. An effective remix, critic Scott Mackenzie suggests, is predicated on the "ability to make the familiar unfamiliar through humorous dialectical juxtapositions" (Mackenzie, 2007: 14). Examples of this include the romantic re-cut of Taxi Driver (1976) about naïve first love and the Tom Hanks comedy vehicle Big (1988) trans- formed into a thriller about pedophilia. Citizen Kane: Tha Remix takes Citizen Kane (1941) and reframes it in the discourse of urban gangster films complete with a Tupac soundtrack and graffiti fonts for title interludes. These works trans- form the meanings of a single film by transforming the soundtrack, inter-titles, narration and tone so that it reflects a new genre.
Trailer Mash-ups
While trailer re-cuts create détourned readings of films, mashups are an amal- gamation of multiple source materials which are montaged together to produce exquisite corpses from film fragments.
Bibliography
[1] https://www.benshoemate.com/2012/08/02/what-does-it-mean-good-artists-copy-great-artists-steal/
[2] https://lifehacker.com/an-artist-explains-what-great-artists-steal-really-me-1818808264
[3] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Between-Digital-International-Critical-Aesthetics/dp/1628922931
[4] https://www.skny.com/artists/david-claerbout?view=slider#6
[6] https://imagemdissenso.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/the-emancipated-spectator-2009.pdf
[7] https://moodle.arts.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/747207/mod_tab/content/12622/Cultural_Borrowings_Final.pdf
Wider Reading/Visited Websites
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tva3WJkJEfs
- https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=UPspDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA330&lpg=PA330&dq=the+editors+stefano+basilico&source=bl&ots=VZdRjaH3NO&sig=i_K-JyGQ6pLScZ7N00cAPd0x9hs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwje6MHz8cDeAhXsDsAKHaUmDTkQ6AEwDnoECAMQAQ#v=onepage&q=the%20editors%20stefano%20basilico&f=false
- https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/bill-viola-2333
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjO7Vpguu60
- Cut: Film As Found Object In Contemporary Video
Visited Galleries
- Mikhail Karikis: No Ordinary Protest |Whitechapel Gallery
- KNOCK KNOCK: Humour in Contemporary Art. Design | South London Gallery
COLLECTION PROJECT (week 2)
14/09/18
My visit to the Tate collection trail
15/09/18
Lecture notes:
16/09/18
Clet Abraham- a French artist who alters road signs, his work is humorous to me as his adaptations of the signs makes them incongruous to the context of their function. His creations are thought provoking, Abraham has received quite a bit of public backlash due to him challenging social rules and restrictions.
“He believes signs are stopping individual expression and thought and many of his pieces of work make reference to religion.” [1]
The collection project is all about recreating something that already exists, transforming it and giving it new purpose, I thought that the reconstruction of road signs was very fitting. Would anyone notice? Would anyone care? Would it drastically affect a driver? Do drivers pay attention to road signs or do they take them for granted? While brainstorming and doing my initial sketches I was thinking of ask these questions.
Interview with Clet Abraham [2]
CAPA WORLD:Tell us about your background. Where are you from originally, how long have you lived in Florence and what brought you there? Are you a formally trained artist or self-taught?
CLET ABRAHAM: I'm from Brittany and I'm a bit self-taught but I also studied art in France before moving to the capital of art: Italy. My first stop was Rome where I worked for several years as a restorer in different ateliers. In my artistic career, this was a very important step which allowed me to gain a fundamental understanding of different materials and techniques as well as consolidating my need of creating physical things that would transcend paper. It is important to say that I’ve always carried on drawing whenever it was possible, giving me an important advantage when it was time to create. Then, I moved out of Rome to a place in the countryside called Poppi where I set up my small studio and went back to becoming a painter in the purest sense.
CW: Florence is not a city like New York or London in which street art is commonplace. How has your work been received by locals in Florence? What has the response been?
CA: It is true that Florence is not the best city to find street art; however, my art has been very welcomed by Florentines and the tourists. The local authorities now tolerate my work and the stickers I put on street signs a little more. I get a lot of support and also some criticism. I am often asked to do interventions in art schools or be involved in cultural events.
CW: Explain the step-by-step process of creating a new sticker - from the initial idea, to creation of the actual piece.
CA: I love drawing, so [to prepare a new piece] I draw a lot, for hours and hours! This is not out of pretentiousness. I tried to learn software, but since I’m a perfectionist I was never entirely happy - or at least never as much as with my hand. So I draw, draw and draw. Then I have people who translate my drawing into a precise pixel-based creation.
CW: How do you choose the location?
CA: The location is a bit random sometimes. It depends on the subject. I mean, the one called "Liberté", for example, I put up just in France. Others like "London" or "Freedom" I put up just in London or maybe in Amsterdam.
CW: When did you place your first piece? Where and what was it?
CA: I started working on road signs three years ago. I put the first one up in Florence. It was the one with the Christ on the cul-de-sac road sign, and it's still my favorite creation.
CW: Why is street art important to you?
CA: My art is continuously trying to challenge various institutions and stereotypes of our time. I particularly intend my sticky-man to make a temporary intrusion in people’s life to encourage them to re-think concepts of legality and justice. I want to be able to redefine and possibly discuss the frame around which our legal system rotates. As a society member, one should always question why - not just quietly accept norms and obligations imposed from above. By this, I don’t mean we all need to become criminals, but we need to reflect upon concepts of legality.
CW: With an open studio the public can visit and an ongoing body of work appearing around Florence, have you developed a relationship with the authorities? Have you ever been fined?
CA: My work on the street signs is illegal and I revendicate it; I never hide my identity. The only country where I've been fined is in Italy. The first penalty I paid was a newbie mistake! Now I have two ongoing trials for subsequent unpaid fines. In other countries where I’ve done work on road signs (Germany, France, Belgium, Holland, Great Britain and Spain), I’ve never been sanctioned, or at least I haven’t received any fines. As long as I have the support of an ever-changing audience, no sanction can stop my creativity.
CW: We've also spotted a lot of your street sign stickers around London recently. Talk about the differences in the way you approach your work in London where street art is more readily accepted versus a city like Florence.
CA: London is a much bigger city than Florence, and rather open to street art and other creative forms of expression. It’s one of the first cities I visited when I started creating the street signs for my art. However, the feedback hasn’t been immediate. They were removed almost instantly and very few remained in place. It’s only when I came back this summer that I’ve had a more significant response to my work.
CW: What do you hope to communicate through your art?
CA: I just love to create and send out messages for the public to read and hopefully move something in their consciousness. I decided to modify the signs to defuse the meaning of road signs and irony on the social rules, offer a smile and, above all, encouragement to reflect on the current constraints on “civil” society. Note that signage is a form of universal communication, and it is also the visual symbol of undisputed authority and obedience. My contribution is to stimulate debate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbJr6zMs8e0&list=UUayGLbAEzxwp-hSsr0fZ5rQ&index=7
17/09/18
Julian Opie- Escaped Animals (2002)
"Escaped Animals is a series of thirteen manufactured road signs depicting animals. Each sign was produced in an edition of four plus one artist’s proof. Opie created symbols for a fox, a hedgehog, a deer, a pheasant, a goose, a cat, a sheep, a squirrel, a cow, a goat, a chicken and a dog and placed them within a circle, rectangle or triangle, depending on the animal’s form and the visual appeal of the combination. The animals are depicted as simplified outlines against a coloured ground. Some – the fox, goose, squirrel and goat - are merely outlines, their bodies the same colour as the background. Others – the deer, cat and dog - are outlined in one colour and filled in another colour. The remainder – hedgehog, rabbit, pheasant, cat, sheep and chicken - are entirely another colour. Further variation is provided by the use of coloured margins around the edge of the sign. The signs consist of two geometric sheets of aluminium covered with vinyl overlays depicting the animals. These are attached in parallel on either side of a pole which is set into the ground in a metal sleeve. The image depicted is identical on either side of the sign. Installed, they stand at varying heights in a cluster of a minimum of three (as specified by the artist). To date, most have been installed outside, although the artist has designed circular metal bases for indoor installation. Tate’s signs are the fox (yellow outline on green rectangle, white margin), hedgehog (solid black on white triangle, black margin), sheep (solid white on blue circle, white margin) and goat (white outline on red rectangle, white margin). They were installed outside Tate Modern in July 2002 as part of a nationwide project celebrating the opening of BALTIC, the Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who commissioned them. Groups of Escaped Animals were installed at the Arnolfini, Bristol, the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh and the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin. At the same time Opie decorated the glass boxes at either end of the Gateshead Millenium Bridge with the outlines of a male and female body.
Opie’s work is based on the landscape – both urban and pastoral - of the developed world. His subjects are the elements of everyday life encountered by ordinary people living in urban and semi-urban environments and include buildings, roads, cars, trees, landscapes, cityscapes, people and domestic animals. Opie’s process involves putting everything through a unifying industrial process – that of his computer. His subjects are scanned from photographs and then simplified down to their most basic and recognisable form, creating a kind of generic language. The resulting images consisting of basic line and monotone blocks of colour, often in geometric forms, and have the homogenous appearance of institutional signage and corporate logos. Once an element – a tree, a human or an animal – has been made into a symbol, Opie exploits a range of possible uses for this element, emphasising its nature as a commodity. The same image may appear in two or three dimensions, in different materials and in a range of colours. Many of the animals depicted in the Escaped Animals series were used in 1997 painted onto wooden blocks or cut out of wooden blocks and grouped under such titles as Hungry animals, Friendly cows and Five lost sheep. Subsequent series, intended for outdoor display, employed more industrial materials: Nine hungry animals, 2000 are made of vinyl on aluminium and Three shy animals, 2000 (displayed in Clissold Park, north London) are fluorescent lights in aluminium stands. Six lost animals, 2000 is a smaller version of the Escaped Animals using different combinations of colours and geometric forms. Another version, Eight lost animals 1, was installed inside the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham in 2001. The latest title, Escaped Animals, implies that the animals depicted on the signs have voluntarily broken out of a restricted environment such as a cage. Some of the animals Opie has selected are part of Britain’s indigenous wildlife and usually roam freely within both rural and urban environments. Others live in closer contact with humans, usually in a peaceful symbiotic relationship with them. Like the road signs placed in rural areas to avert traffic of possible road crossing by such animals as horses, deer, ducks and frogs, Opie’s signs appear as a warning to the public. However, installed inside or next to a museum rather than on the road, the sense of warning is undermined by the incongruity of their implied presence. This is particularly true in the case of farm animals which are not likely ever to appear in or near to a museum. Translated into symbolic representations in the context of both the road and the museum, the animals are subject to an alienating process of technological co-modification, echoing the fate of all of Opie’s subjects and many elements of contemporary urban life. Whether this is good or bad, comic or tragic is left for the viewer to decide." [3]
17/09/18
From reading Opie's bio and furthering my knowledge about him, I took away a few elements fro his work to incorporate in mine; his idea of simplifying the signs "down to their most basic and recognisable form, creating a kind of generic language" [3] particularly intrigued me. The primary purpose of a road sign is to provide simple instructions that are understood by all members of the public through the written word and visual imagery, I wondered what the effect on daily life would be if these signs were subtlety and maybe humorously changed. I feel like road signs are taken for granted and that people would only appreciate them if they weren't there; ironically however, many signs tend to be quite ambiguous and unclear- the opposite of their purpose.
Even though everyone interprets things differently, road signs are supposed to only provide one perspective, not open for discussion- almost of sense of creative oppression, forcing everyone to think the same, conditioning society, yet keeping us safe and maintaining order. (Just as many pros as cons)
- Would anyone care?
-Would affect anyones day?
-Who anyone get offended?
-Does anyone actually read there signs?
-Would any notice? (The tower of babel)
-Would it create a new narrative?
Changes the tone of the sign
David Shrigley "Stop It" 2007 [7]
Like the traditional sign that it imitates, Shrigley’s version is made of white lettering on a red octagon with a narrow border of white around the edges. However, below the word ‘STOP’, the artist has added the word ‘IT’ in smaller script, completely changing the tone of the command. The reduction in the scale of the letters ‘it’ means that the second line is not immediately readable and from a distance the sculpture appears merely a quirky artist’s version of the sign. However, once the second word becomes visible, the sign’s neutral authority is reduced to an absurd and unexpectedly personal level. The command ‘stop it’ is one normally only made to a member of one’s intimate circle – a family member, a partner, lover or, in an extreme situation, possibly a friend, and so the words immediately give the sculpture a personal voice. Referring to his use of text in his work, Shrigley has commented:
"I like the fact that you can take a tiny piece of conversation, or the way somebody describes something, and use it as a quote. It can seem somehow absurd or profound whereas within the context in which it was said, it was probably just a normal piece of communication. I like the fact that you’re always guessing at the context in which it was played."
(Quoted in mono.kultur, p.16.)
I felt his work creates a relationship with the public and creates public art; this inspired me to create a sculpture that is interactive and involving the audience. it's fascinating how changing the font of a sign can completely change its tone, instead of being rigid and demanding, the
words appear me soft and take a more suggestive tone. By "satirising the many signs that advertise and glorify public monuments through the personal message that commands the viewer" [8], Shrigley is cross the boundary and merging what is public and what is art.
18/09/18
Home-Made Contemporary Russian Folk Artifacts:
The book features ordinary objects creating a unique collection "created with often idiosyncratic functional qualities made for both inside and outside the home" [4].
1. Transforming the ordinary to extraordinary 2.repurposing 3.creating a new narrative 4.profound but unique
The Home-Made Contemporary Russian Folk Artifacts reminds me of Richard Wentworth – Making do and getting by. Wentworth takes "Mundane snapshots and fragments of the modern landscape are elevated to an analysis of human resourcefulness and improvisation, whereby amusing oddities that would otherwise go by unnoticed become the subject of intent contemplation. There occurs a rupture between object and function, which allows a subsequent rupture between function and meaning. Meaning is no longer hinged on the commonplace and uniform functionality of the mass produced object, but rather augmented by the unfamiliar and, thus, noteworthy new function with which the object is instilled. Wentworth’s photographs bear witness to instantaneous transformations, wherein everything is celebrated for its conversion into something else." [5]
I wanted to explore how to make the familiar unfamiliar and how to create "rupture between object and function, which allows a subsequent rupture between function and meaning." [5] like Wentworth.
Bibliography:
[2] (https://capaworld.capa.org/2014/05/16/florence-street-artist-interview-clet-abraham)
[3] https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/opie-escaped-animals-t07944
[4] http://fuel-design.com/publishing/home-made/
[5] http://www.gupmagazine.com/articles/making-do-and-getting-by
[6] https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/shrigley-stop-it-t12819
Wider Reading/Visited Websites
IDEAS FACTORY (week 1)
10/09/18 “An artist is someone who imagines possibilities”
Due to the hypothetic nature of the project, I was designing a sculpture that would be half sculpture-like and half an installation. Jim Leach particularly interested me with his vacuum sealed table, which echoed Christos and Jeanne Claude’s wrapping of the Reichstag: the symbolism of democracy and evokes connotations of protecting or preserving. This also inspired me to play around with scale and not allow the size of the sculpture to hold me back. Hypothetically, my piece would be shown in a large white room where the lungs would engulf the space and tower about the viewer. At first, I thought to make the lung life size and real to scale to be more relatable for a viewer; however, I wanted to exaggerate the feminist movement and protest against people’s voices being silenced, by exaggerating the size of the lung, it heightens the message of controlling someone’s ait in order to form words of protest against inequality.
From researching artists like Nadine Goepfert, Hal Kawaguchi and Idris Van Herpes I gained more understanding in the various ways to incorporate vacuum sealing in art. Nadine Goepfert’s work makes me think beyond what is being shown to us in the piece, the social research and cultural materials behind the finished product- something I’d love to translate in my own work Shem particularly interests me as she explores a few taboo subject matters with I believed to be fitting with my investigation of feminism- as subject surrounded with negation to this day.
Christo:
"It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen: 100 rock climbers abseiling down the facade of the Reichstag, slowly unfurling this huge silvery curtain. There were no cranes or machinery, just people descending in a kind of aerial ballet. It was 1995 and huge crowds came to watch. Then, when it was finished, they came up to stroke the fabric.
Five million people came to see it in two weeks but, for a long time, we never thought the project would happen. My wife, Jeanne-Claude, and I first proposed the idea of wrapping a public building way back in 1961, during a show in Cologne. We made a collage with some text, saying that either a prison or a parliament should be wrapped, since those are the only truly public buildings. It’s much easier to wrap an art gallery, though, so we started with the Kunsthalle in Bern in 1968.
Eight years later, I went to Berlin for the very first time. I was so scared. The city was still divided and there were spies everywhere. I thought they would arrest me. The historian Michael Cullen introduced me to the Reichstag, and it seemed like the perfect subject: unused since the fire of 1933, it was the only building straddling both sides of the city. To me, as a Bulgarian refugee who fled communism, east-west relations are very important.
Of course there were complications. The building is so symbolic, we faced a lot of opposition. In the course of 24 years, we worked with six different presidents of the Bundestag and were refused three times. I was so depressed, I was ready to give up. Then finally, in 1994, it went to a vote and we won." [1]
Lost Art: Christo and Jeanne-Claude
"Touched by the beauty and popular appeal of the spectacle, the Bonn government asked the artists to extend the project but they refused: the building was unwrapped after just two weeks and the materials were recycled.
For Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the temporary nature of this and other projects was important because it challenged people’s belief in the immortality of art. Interviewed at the time, Christo compared the temporary nature of the wrapped Reichstag to the tents used by nomadic tribesmen, quickly erected and equally quickly removed, and to the transience of life itself. ‘It is a kind of naiveté and arrogance’, he commented, ‘to think that this thing stays forever, for eternity. All these projects have this strong dimension of missing, of self-effacement … they will go away, like our childhood, our life. They create a tremendous intensity when they are there for a few days’." [2]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulYR5bpu68E
Art made out of the air we breathe- Emily Parsons-Lord [3]
I felt went watching this video that it as though she had revealed a hidden world that has been staring us in the face all this time. Also, by making art out of the art that we breathe, she is inviting the audience to participate and feel involved. she talks about air as if its she imaginary world and discusses its past and present on earth; by personifying air like this, it slightly confused me as the idea of air being conscious is quite bazaar.
Nadine Geopfert's combines traditional and contemporary techniques in her designs, resulting in cultural consciousness; her material exploration inspired my own as I explored latex, balloon, plastic, string and wire. Like Geopfert, I as fascinated with the idea of starting from scratch with a material and seeing the relationship emerge as I combine materials through various methods; for example, my aexerpimentation with latex and wire produced textures that both juxtaposed and harmonised- smooth, fluid, mouldable vs stiff and collapsible. in my eyes, this represents that very core of a lung, its well structured and can hold itself, but the absence of oxygen causes it to collapse. A collapsed lung occurs when air escapes the lung, when making my sculptures and blowing air in and out of my chosen materials, I felt tight in the chest as the idea of controlling someones air flow could cost them their life.
(http://nadinegoepfert.com/about/)
"Nadine Goepfert is a multidisciplinary designer offering creative direction, design and consultancy on textiles and materials for interior, product, art and fashion. She investigates contemporary culture to create intelligent concepts and material innovations for clients from various fields.
Her collections and art installations examine the function and conventional use of materials to develop new design perspectives. Her internationally exhibited research projects question the relation between garments, individual and society to reveal unconscious patterns of behaviour in the everyday use of textiles." [4]
Interview by Metal magazine [5]
Nadine Goepfert’s flexible and interdisciplinary approach to textile design has substance – a substance that stems from her inquisitive nature and continuous theoretical research. Encouraged to create from a young age – by the time she went to the renowned school of art and design Gerrit Rietfeld Academie in Amsterdam, she had already spent years making things at home. Today, Nadine works with a wide range of materials and methods from coloured ice cubes for dying, or wire to use as fabric to wax for printing.
Her openness to experimentation allows her to use both traditional and contemporary techniques in design. Her work is always conceptual and in some cases arguably a work of art. Originally from Würzburg, a well-known research hub in southern Germany, Nadine now lives and works in Berlin, its cultural capital.
Can you remember when you started making things?
My mother encouraged creativity a lot when I was a kid. We would draw, paint, knit and do lots of pottery together. My father runs a varnishing business. By the time I moved to Berlin and Amsterdam, I had already collaborated with both my mum and dad on various material explorations.
So you tried lots of different creative things growing up - what do you believe inspired you to become a textile designer?
I’m fascinated by any kind of material and tactility from nicely woven fabrics to any kind of synthetic and plastic. Textiles are multifaceted materials. I like the idea that I have the possibility to start at the absolute beginning of a product. When working on a textile, the only thing you have at the start might be a plain yarn which offers an opportunity to develop it in a number of different ways. I, or whoever works on it next, can elaborate on the surface. Sometimes you don’t even know what the end product is going to be at the start. That’s what I love about textile design.
Can you describe your working method in a few words?
I enjoy exploring loose concepts that lend to the possibility of a wide range of outputs in my work. These concepts and ideas often form a basis for my textile design and art installations. I’m interested in traditional textile techniques and craftsmanship so I’m always experimenting and exploring different aspects such as materiality and structure. Over the last few years I’ve been focusing on researching garments and fashion that reveal our unconscious and unapparent daily habits in relation to clothing. I apply this research both theoretically and as a basis for further material explorations.
What’s the most complex material you’ve worked with to date?
There are two – memory foam (The Garments May Vary, 2013) and latex (Matters of Habit, 2014).
You’re based in Berlin at the moment. How would you say the city informs your work, if at all? What informs it most?
I’m surrounded by wonderful and inspiring people that support each other, which I find to be the most important thing, and not necessarily related to the city I live in. Also, I would say that the intention of my work is not about creating something new, but more about sharing and creating a "vision" about clothing and fashion with others. It focuses on daily habits in life and social aspects, not on creating new trends.
You studied at the Gerrit Rietfeld Academie in Amsterdam and the School of Art Weißensee in Berlin. How does your experience in both cities compare in relation to your work?
The schools are similar in their approach to design. They’re both quite free and don't force you to work purely on design which was important for me. While I was studying, I didn’t start working immediately on a final product. Thinking about the design of a product at the beginning of the working process can be quite obstructive. I believe that starting with some random thought or interest that’s not at all design related can open up new possibilities within my work.
The most recent project you have on your website is Matters of Habit which you’ve mentioned briefly. So it’s about the interaction we have with our clothes. The aspects you explore are daily moments we all experience but don’t necessarily dwell on, such as the imprint of a hanger or hook on a piece of clothing. You come up with practical solutions for these small occurrences in our relationship with clothes. Did you feel that there wasn’t anything on the market that acknowledged these things? Was it purely conceptual? A bit of both? Tell me the story behind ‘Matters of Habit’.
Yes, I would say it’s a bit of both. Matters of habit is a collection of garments that looks to investigate the close relationship between people and clothing. It’s a development of one of my other projects; The Garments May Vary (2013) where I started to look at the interplay of body movement. Each piece is devoted to a different aspect of our daily interaction and handling of garments: habits, gestures, movements, as well as storage and care. All of these things are manifested in shapes and textures. My research is primarily theoretical which works as a basis for textural explorations. I see myself in the position of the observer. Roland Barthes is one of my favorite writers – he studied fashion magazines and the impact of the presentation of garments. I investigate all kind of habits and unconscious moments in daily life. I actually view the garments in my collection as more of a reflection of my (theoretical) research in the form of textiles. I would be happy if Matters of Habit could also be an inspiration for textile engineers. Perhaps they’ll look at it and consider creating garments that are more comfortable for everyday life.
I’m fascinated by collections and intrigued by your Collect(ing) project which is so beautifully displayed and documented on your website. Was your collection of stones gathered specifically, or was ‘Collect(ing)’ inspired out of stones you already owned?
I collected them in 2010 on a visit to a beach by the North Sea. I thought they were so beautiful, some more than others. They inspired a textile collection (Collect(ion)) but I also wanted to show my findings which explore the habit of collecting, particularly souvenirs. Stones are one of the most commonly collected souvenirs – they can be found almost anywhere on earth.
Haruhiko Kawaguchi's-the artist who vacuum packs couples
When I first came across his work, it made me feel breathy just looking at it. the stressful image of the couples trapped and vacuumed sealed communicates the intensity of love.
"When you embrace your lover," he tells me, "sometimes you wish to melt right into them. To realize this wish, I've been photographing couples in small, cramped spaces. Soon I reached the point of photographing couples in vacuum-sealed packs. As my work has become more and more intense, I've noticed that communication is indispensable." [6]
An interview by VICE: [5]
Why do you go by the professional name Photographer Hal?
Haruhiko Kawaguchi: When I'm taking a picture, it's very important to me how the subject comes out. I take it just like a machine, and I'm conscious of A Space Odyssey as a mechanical symbol. I am HAL, not as a murder machine but as a computer, a pure machine.
So where do you find people willing to be vacuum-sealed inside plastic bags?
Nightclubs, bars, wherever, anytime. I always take a sample of Flesh Love to show couples I ask to model.
You just come out of nowhere as a complete stranger?
Everyone is surprised. Their reactions to my work are extreme. Some parties agree to model easily. Sometimes it does not work. No matter how hard I persuade, some couples are not interested.
But how do you convince a stranger to let you do this? If you didn't know your work it's pretty dangerous-looking.
I assert the significance and safety of shooting in good faith.
But you're asking them to maybe suffocate on the floor of your kitchen.
I just persuade the couples sincerely. When shooting, I have an assistant ready to open the bag if there is an emergency. And an oxygen sprayer and gel to cool people off if anyone starts feeling sick.
How long can people last inside those bags of yours?
In Zatsuran, 40 minutes. In Flesh Love, ten minutes. In total, about 400 couples have participated, and each shot takes around two hours.
Anyone ever been hurt doing this?
Never. In most cases, the only problems are when a model can't enter a bag because they're large-built. The bags are very specific to certain poses. Before taking a picture, everyone seems to feel scared. But when the photography is finished, everyone seems to be excited and enjoying themselves. I think that's similar to the way people enjoy an ride at an amusement park.
Do you pay them?
I give them a print.
Have you ever received criticism for this?
There are pros and cons. However, risk haunts a challenge.
Why are some of the couples naked, and why are some of them wearing costumes?
I have to respect how they like to be themselves. They bring a variety of their own costumes to the shooting location. Naked is one of several varieties.
How do the shoots work, exactly?
After the couple get in the vacuum pack, I suck the air out with a vacuum cleaner until there's none left. This gives me ten seconds to take the shot. In this extremely limited time, I can't release the shutter more than twice. I've been in there myself (see the last image below), and the fear I felt was overwhelming.
It kind of sounds horrible.
As the shooting continues over multiple takes, the pressure of the vacuum seal grows stronger. At the same time, the two bodies start to communicate, and whether through unevenness of limbs or the curve of joints, they begin to draw a shape of what they want to express. The two lovers draw closer until they finally transform into a single being. Looking at these vacuum-sealed packs of love, we can imagine a more peaceful world. For me, the vacuum pack is only a means to an end. The important thing is connecting to someone.
I can't decide if all this is more about intimacy or more about trust.
As you say, the couples seem to come together, to "stick" until they reach the limit. I'm seeking the possibility that they can stick more. To transcend togetherness.
Bibliography:
[2] https://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/gallery-lost-art-christo-jeanne-claude
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulYR5bpu68E
[4] http://nadinegoepfert.com/about/
[5] https://metalmagazine.eu/en/post/interview/nadine-goepfert-experimental-textiles-iranzu-baker
Wider Reading/Visited Websites
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUd7zq6V5UU
- http://www.newancestors.nyc/set-three/interview-nadine-goepfert
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2LFSrLK9XjRxLqTRNdftLqd/wrap-stars-christo-and-jeanne-claudes-50-years-of-pop-up-art