Tutorial

Finally managed to complete my 'List List List' project, in which I'd opted to construct the word 'LIST' out of a list of 10 things that are the wrong colour. The image below illustrates my idea, the 'L' is constructed out of orange hair and turquoise coloured carpet. The 'I' out of a London Brick spray painted British Racing green, the 'S' out of red coloured fairy lights (hand-coloured); then finally the 'T' out of nail varnished cardboard and a log coloured with red Monza spray paint. In this sense the 7 items I listed represent things that are the wrong colour. However, unfortunately some have only been achieved by human manipulation i.e the spray painted items, but I think the overall appearance of the piece works well, the message is rather clearly communicated in an entertaining and interactive way.


            


I'd tried to take on board what Max had told me about taking photographs - remember to have a neutral background. So I borrowed a large sheet of paper and laid my piece on the floor and took the pictures from above. I felt flash work most effectively, capturing the metallic sheen of the brick.

Joke

Advent Calender, comical...


                 

National Portrait Gallery and White Cube

Last week I'd been shown a piece of sculpture by Noble and Webster - 'Dirty White Trash' which relied greatly on the use of shadow to turn a mound of everyday trash into a portrait of two people sitting back to back. The idea was really thought provoking and got me thinking about how I could potentially use this in my current project, typography. I initially thought of how I could use a collection of small words to create a subsequently larger word using the same technique, or possibly use shapes which at first glace look totally irrelevant but when placed in the correct light would create a word. As I jotted down a few ideas a friend highlighted that one of Noble and Webster's sculptures was, and currently still is showing at the National Portrait gallery.

                        


Come Saturday afternoon we arrived at the gallery and soon stumbled across Noble and Webster, ('Isabella Blow' pictured above). Tucked away in a small room the piece is quite something to behold, its just fascinating how something so sculptural can produce a silhouette so perfectly. Its power to be both a sculpture and a portrait was really impressive, overall a good, inspirational piece.


                                              THE WHITE CUBE 

                             

Seen as we were already in the vicinity we decided to visit the White Cube gallery in the West End. I'd wanted to visit the gallery for quite a while, not only for the quality of artist they attract but the gallery building itself with its sleek lines and minimal facades. After admiring the external features we were introduced to Gregory Crewdson, an American photographer whose work 'captured the alienation and anxiety of small town America' in his exhibition 'Sanctuary' . Many of the pictures got me thinking of my up and coming decision for application to university in the sense photography is something that interests me more and more, especially since the recent purchase of my Nikon. I'm hoping that this may one day influence my decision in terms of choice of media in which to take on a project.

The work itself was executed with intense detail, the scaffolding in many of the old WESTERN movie sets in Cincettà, was fantastic. All the buildings and props on the sets where badly weathered and in disrepair, this is what Crewdson wished to capture, as a result they aim to be the soul narrative as opposed to requiring actual characters (common in his other work). In this way they illustrate the symbolic appearance of how exteriors can be deceptive and as Crewdson comments, 'I looked at the blurred lines between reality and fiction, nature an artifice, and beauty and decay'. This is something I really enjoy identifying with.. symbolism. That's why I try to employ this in my work when its possible, I find that this gives the work a greater meaning and more entertainment.

Richard Hambleton @ The Old Dairy

                 

This gallery was recommended in Shortlist, didn't even realise they had an 'Arts' section (also this magazine is free at college!) so it was nice surprise to go somewhere that turned out to be worth while. The gallery itself was quite well set back off Wakefield Street, however as a venue it really worked as a space, one vast room with work well displayed. Having never heard of Richard Hambleton prior to the review in Shortlist I was rather surprised at his background and length of career, and slightly by his sponsor GIORGIO ARMANI. His work was far more meaning full than your standard graffiti art, in fact it incorporated quite a few aspects of last weeks lecture, the idea of relational aesthetic art (basically art which the audience feel involved in or able to relate and empathise with). Therefore Hambleton's work forces the viewer to be engaged by creating a sense of mystery as to who or what his street art represents.
The show most definately had similarities with the infamous Banksy's street art, but after reading the short introduction to the exhibtion I reaised that Hambletons work had a far more social/political message. In his earlier seies of street works, Image Mass Murder, 'the artist painted 620 'murder victims' - chalk outlines imitating thos drawn around dead bodies at a crime scene'. To ensure the greatest media attention to made sure all of his pieces were placed in areas which were 'considered to have low crime levels' i.e wealthy, upmarket neighbourhoods. In doing so he was able to 'generate a sense of distrust in ploice crime statistics' and an uneasiness amongst all social backgrounds.
Overall I enjoyed his work possibly even more so due to the fact this isn't usually my 'style' of art, 7/10

Turner Prize @ Tate Britian

Once again I used my Tate card to its full potential by visiting this years shortlisted Turner Prize artists. The four artists included, Dexter Dalwood (who ironically I saw outside college shortly after leaving Tate), Angela De La Cruz (who when I spoke to a steward was told had studied at Chelsea but on her biography made no reference), Susan Philipsz (no relation to Chelsea) and finally Otolith Group (headed by Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun). In the first gallery space several pieces of Dalwood's mixed media paintings were presented, some highlighted (similarly to his piece 'Hendrix's Last Basement' (below)) specific events, places, environments or landscapes with certain prevalent objects which related to that person or place. Then on the other hand there were paintings which merely portrayed a room or scenario which was abstracted; all of which were initially quite awkward but looking back now I really like how he shows a creative view point on a historic event. For example 'Hendrix's Last Basement' or 'Neverland' (a quirky look in to/impression of the bedroom of the late Michael Jackson) in which he symbolises Hendix's drug use by allowing the paint to run in an all most psychedelic fashion.

                      

                          

                                       'Hendrix's Last Basement'

The Otolith Group rather perplexed me, even though I watched a short documentary at the end of the exhibition by the Sagar and Eshun the level that their ideas were working on was a touch to intellectual for me. Angela De La Cruz's sculptors/ paintings didn't really appeal to me, it felt as though they had no real emotion or skill or je ne sais quoi, the only piece in her exhibition that I remotely liked was 'Three Legged Stool' yet even that I found to be slightly cliched. Finally Susan Philipsz' audio installation based around a age old Scottish lament or folk song, unfortunately I'd remembered that her actual piece was first installed under and around a bridge which of course couldn't be recreated in the gallery space. This in my opinion altered the effect of the piece in the sense I think the environment and the echoed and resonating sound of her singing would of been more engaging. Despite this I still felt really relaxed and at ease listening to her work and I suppose this interaction and emotional response is what her works all about.

Overall I think Philipsz certainly has the unique factor in her favour whereas Dalwood being the 'biggest' name on the list is possibly overdue the recognition... so for me its a two horse race.

The Museum of Everything #3 & Clay Sinclair

After being given our first brief in Vis Com I decided whilst I had some free time I'd venture to The Museum of Everything near Primrose Hill. It took me quite a while to find it, Wendy was definately right about checking on Google maps before hand. Nevertheless the exhibition run merely by volunteers and established by Sir Peter Blake was certainly intreaging. Initially I didn't quite know what to make of it, especially after examining several times the size of Tom Thumbs shoes! (literally no bigger than the length of  pen) but as I moved round the space, which in its self is rather quirky I felt quite amazed at the amount of original pieces of work that were present. In particular images of David Hockney and a lrg self portait print/painting, pieces by Van Gogh, Cheetah the chimpanzee (the first and only chimp to of had work hung in the National Gallery) but most pertanent to me was the original targets used for the album cover of Oasis' Stop The Clocks.


                   

It looked just like this except not quite as

vibrant and there's two of them side

by side.

....I jumped on the tube and took a couple of stops to get to Goodge St. Seen as I had never been there before it was quite an experience being in an area which is a commercial hub for many Ad' and Media agencies. I noticed that there were several small, private galleries each boasting their own artists, however I soon reached the Woolff Gallery where Clay Sinclair is exhibiting his work. Immediately I was hit by the vibrancy of colour used in his paintings/prints, on closure inspection his pieces have a rather graphic and typographic element which express his opinions on many aspects of society, the ego and environment. My particular favourite has to be 'Happiness is...' (which had been sold) in which Sinclair ends this sentence with some rathr witty comments,

...'dancing with naked women at the top of a hill'

                                                                                     ...'yours for the price of theis painting'

                                                       ..'found at a high street near you'

             ...'constant stimulation'

                    

                  

SAATCHI GALLERY

I have to say I was pretty shocked at how 'high-end' and upmarket Sloane Square and the area surrounding the gallery was, a whole world away from Manchester. The building itself had undergone the usual restoration works which was mirrored on the interior this, it has to be said would of made a pretty amazing house to live in and the minimalist approach really works well with the contrasting Victorian features.

The gallery spaces where dominated mainly by paintings with a few sculptures/installations, yet there was plenty on show over the thirteen rooms. In particular the artists present who had previously studied at Chelsea, like Marcus Foster (pic below) and Graham Hudson. The piece pictured 'Untitled 2010' was a favourite of mine unfortunately the image pictured doesn't portray it in it's best light; however, its high gloss finish can still be appreciated, the questioning whether or not its a balloon or a vase upside down or maybe even something more abstract - pollen seed? Its top heavy manner and unstable aspect all most created an uneasiness around the piece heightened by its glossy reflective exterior. The artists p.o.v is along side.

                 

Tate Modern

Visited Tate Modern today, found the new installation The Unilever Series aka 'Sunflower Seeds' fascinating - the sheer scale of the operation that was put into place to achieve such a reflective piece of art was definitely inspiring. Initially the piece reminded me of the Japanese Banzai gardens in which the gravel is intricately raked to obtain the smoothest finish possible, but I soon realised that the work was far more symbolic. In this sense Ai Weiwei (artist/sculptor) employees the use of traditional Chinese porcelain crafting methods to create each individual 'seed'; with the help of no less than 1600 workers over 100 million seeds have been handmade and painted. To accompany the piece itself there was a short documentary illustrating the project from start to finish (i.e from the mining of the clay/porcelain, through painting and eventually the installation in the Turbine Hall, above). This was really insightful as it highlighted the social impact the piece had, quite literally upon everyone involved. One woman commented that she had earned £1000 (2000/3000 RMB) and that had it not been for the work she would of been bankrupt.
I felt this was an extremely ingenious way of using art to tackle a social issue which would have otherwise been left unheard of and in doing so confirmed that art is very much influenced context!


GARY HUME - Private talk 18.30 @ The Prince's Drawing Foundation

Thinking I was merely keeping a friend company I visited The Prince's Foundation where Gary Hume was giving a talk about some of his work. Despite turning up a touch late the talk was rather interesting, Hume discussed his techniques some of which were really rigorous and others the complete opposite. It was slightly surreal listening to a famous artist talk so informally and bluntly about his work often commenting 'if its **** then I start again'. His speech highlighted that self reflection can be as important as peer and staff assessment and not to take 'life too seriously'.

Crossroads ii

The Foundation course has certainly changed my perspective of art and design. However, I think personally the most successful of the rotations has been Vis Com; being our first rotation the first two weeks highlighted how an idea can be made into a final outcome which, instead of being verbally expressed is uniquely portrayed in a creative and visual way. This really fascinated me as I'd never encountered this form/style of art prior to Foundation; this was further enhanced by the fact the rotation posed a challenge and questioned what I thought art and design meant. In our initial brief I encountered my first hurdle; everyone was assigned their own word, the task was to then identify as many associations that the word had. Trying to communicate the properties of a single word was certainly difficult but I think this is what interests me most about the subject area - stretching the imagination.
I suppose that another reaon for my interest in this specific area is the fact that my work was praised by David Batchelor, he identified in my work the quality of compostion and how the overall layout and presenation of my work was well expressed, which gave me a massive confidence boost.
Despite this being a rather likely area for my specialism the other rotations have also further illustrated the diversity of art and design. In 3D Spatial getting to grips with perspective took quite a while trying to locate the vanishing point was sometimes difficult. I enjoyed 3D as many aspects involved accuracy and taking your time both of which I like to do when drawing. The construction of the instillation pieces was really interesting especially since I'd never undertaken such a project previously.
Dominic Wilcox's area talk proved that certain subjects can overlap and that in fact there are many grey areas in which two or more subjects have a lot in common. In this respect he highlighted that design and art can be one in the same thing and so in many ways this set in stone the way I now percieve art. I now know that in the long term what I specialise in at Foundation may be completely different to what I go on to do at degree or even as a career.

Week 1/2 (Vis Com)

I think its safe to say that my first experience of Foundation has certainly been interesting. In a similar way to when I started Art at A-level the course really opens your eyes to the sheer vastness that is 'Art and Design'. No more so than in week 1, Vis Com.

To start with we were all assigned a word most of which were nouns such as cup, twig, moon and mine... dump. The aim was to conjure as many ideas that that specific word evoked, so immediately I thought of the most common - land fill, waste, smell (the senses which are triggered by being around a dump). Then I moved onto less literal aspects, dumping/ abandoning children or pets, word that rhymed with dump (pump, slump etc); then finally the affects dumps have on peoples lives - disease, visual pollution and so on.

This was a side of art which I'd never encountered before, one which focused more on the process and production of ideas as opposed to the 'hands on' approach typically associated with art and design.

FRESHERS FESTIVAL! (08/09/10)

Wow! This being the first year of the FE Freshers Festival I was looking forward to meeting new people and finding out what subject areas people were most interested in. The purpose of the day was to buy your partner, someone you didn't know a gift for £1, quiet a challenging brief baring in mind that there we're 'prizes'up for grabs!

My partner or blind date as it was said, for the day was Lin (pictured below & right). Whilst we walked and talked along the streets of Chelsea we struggled to think of many unique ideas, until... we stumbled across 'Retromania'. Jokingly I walked over to a rack which advertised items for £1 (just off picture to the right) and placed a rather colourful dress up against my body, 'How do I look?' and shortly after Lin put on a navy blazer and thus our idea had been created! 'Gender Swap'. This of course being a very unique idea got us 2nd place and a £15 voucher.                                                                                                

               

  

 AUDIENCE

...the title of week two's project for me pretty much summed up what Visual Communication was dependant upon and many other areas of design and that is a consumer/viewer. Using the method of message / receiver we had to portray an idea which was both understandable yet enticed the viewer or audience. Dominic Wilcox's work was really helpful in this respect, illustrating that graphics and product design can be merged and have certain things in common.

I thought I'd go for a clear cut, simple message but focus more on the presentation and delivery as against an intricate message and simpler presentation.

Message ideas -

• time management, reminders
• routines
• keeping tidy... keeping on top of the WASHING UP.

I tried to think of things which were relevant to me (similar to Wilcox) and that i could easily relate to, and in doing so came up with washing up. Identifying the receivers was simple, who else than my flat mates. So I went about collecting various pieces of dirty crockery and dishes and placed them in areas which were either regularly used or easily seen by my flat mates in an attempt to visually send my message and ultimately prompt them to do there washing up. I thought maybe seen as one of my flatmates is rather obsessed with personal hygiene that I'd start in the bathroom. In this sense I tried to highlight that if you don't get on top of your washing or 'pull your weight' (a possible text message or slogan I could of used to further develop my project) eventually even the places used to clean the body would become overrun with unwashed dishes. I continued this method by finding other locations which had the greatest exposure to my flatmates and thus would be most effective in illustrating my message. These are shown below.

      And my final piece...