The Art Show

Over the past week, I helped to set up the art studios to be ready for the upcoming show. I helped move the tables, chairs, student work and at one point, I even filled some of the holes where nails had been in the walls. Overall, I think I completed these jobs easily, even though it took a lot of work. However, I was unable to attend the show on opening night due to complications with ways of getting to college. I did, fortunately get the chance to see some of the work after the main show and how it was presented.
After having looked at all of the pieces in the show, I was particularly interested in two pieces created by two foundation students:

Installation piece
Jack
2017
Mixed media




From first impressions, I thought that the piece represented his life and how he is an extravagant person and that people may see him in a different way (this could be represented by the way that some of the mise-en-scene is destroyed and broken). I really like the way that he has placed the blinds over the mirror in this piece due to the fact that when you look in it, you appear fragmented, which is a similar impression that I am potentially aiming for in my current work. Additionally, I like the layout of the composition as he has achieved balanced throughout the piece, which once again is something that I am aiming for. Also, I like how he has managed to bring together a variety of different materials that work well together and give contrast when it comes to texture and colour.

Installation piece
Amber
2017
Mixed media





When walking through this piece, I thought of family trees and how everyone is linked through family; that we are all tied together in society (the string and rope that was tied together helped me come to this conclusion), however after asking her what her composition was about, I realised that it was more personal than I thought; this is something that I really need to think about when it comes to my work as it will help strengthen the overall outcome. Meanwhile, something that I was fascinated by was the use of the light, more bland colours with hints of bright colours on the inside. This captured my attention more than some of the other pieces that were just all colour. Something that I could take from her work is the idea of creating a walk through so that people aren't distracted by anything and that they are just focussing on my work.

When you combine both pieces together, the main ideas that really struck me was the installation layout. I want the audience to feel enticed by my work and to feel surrounded by it so that they really think about the meaning behind the composition.

Textural experiment with photos

Our task was too use texture in a way that supports our photos and conveys the theme more successfully. At the start, I found this quite difficult as I am always very organised and as a result, I started to cram the photos into one piece. However I then went and got a variety of boards that had different textures on them and I started to match the photos with its own board, regarding colour, textures and marks. After having done this, I started to place each photo on its own board in a variety of positions so that I could see what composition was best. I then figured out how it would be best to cut each board down and to what size so that the composition of each piece is improved. 

I then went on to refine my textural pieces by cutting out the specific scale of board that I wanted for my photos as the individual photos were being overwhelmed by texture initially when on a large scale. I found it quite difficult to saw off wood from what I wanted as I have never used a saw before, however I think that I started to get the hang of the technique towards the end. 

In Tuesday's lesson, we carried on working with our textural compositions so that we could develop and refine them. After Monday's lesson, when I decreased the scale of the boards, I wanted to place the photos onto the boards in the same way that I had planned to do however, I realised that after I had cut them down, the composition did not look right. Therefore I slightly changed the arrangement of the photos to match the movement and colour of the textures. Afterwards, I stuck them down in the position that I wanted, and then I tried to figure out how to blend those photos into its background as they stood out too much and didn't create the depth that I wanted. Each board had its own texture and colour, which is why I chose separate ways of blending. With the fish double exposure board, I used recycled paper, due to it being the same texture as the board and I also painted these parts with dark green ink as it helped to blend in the white paper to the green background. Meanwhile, with the butterfly double exposure board, I used blue ink and dripped it down the board as these marks resembled the frailty of the butterfly and delicate wings that the butterfly has. Additionally, I used the dry brush technique with the cheetah double exposure as it helped continue the marks from the board through, onto the photo, which worked quite well. The final piece I created was the owl piece which was blended onto the background that has nature on it with recycled paper as the colours and textures are similar. If I were to improve this, I would maybe add some cardboard as well, due to the fact that the colours of these are very similar. After creating these pieces, I had to place each piece onto the wall in a way that shows off each aspect of the work without distractions from the other pieces created by other people around it. 

Visit to Birmingham

On Friday 9th June, I visited Walsall art gallery, the Birmingham museum and the 'I want! I want!' exhibition.
            At the Walsall art gallery, I wasn't very interested in the concepts of the artwork as much as I was interested in the technique of creating the art. For instance:

Interruptions
2016
pencil, watercolour, ink and collage
Rachel Goodyear

I really like how Goodyear has created a vignette style effect in her work through the use of watercolour and ink as it draws the viewers attention to the piece successfully. This is something that I could possibly link to my work so that people are drawn to the main message and theme. If I were going to try and replicate this, I would try and experiment with different amounts of water added to watercolour and ink to achieve the gradual change in tone.

Oracles
Rachel Goodyear, Jamie Robinson, Sam Weaver and Otto Willberg
Three screen installation

I really like the layout of this piece and how the art surrounds you. The use of the black walls stops the viewers from getting distracted by unnecessary features. Additionally I like the use of the shiny floor as it casts reflections in different directions, something that really interests me and it is something that links to my work well.

             At around 11:45, we got back on the coach and travelled to the Birmingham museum and were given some time to have lunch and visit the museum and the 'I Want! I Want!' exhibition. Not much in the museum really caught my eye as the majority of it was old fashioned relics and jewellery, however there was one room of portraits that interested me:

Jonnie Turpie
Portraits
Graphite
2015-2016

I really like the composition of these pieces as they are surrounded by negative space which draws our attention to the main drawing and creates impact on his drawings. I like how ordered the pieces are as well - there is nothing abnormal about the pieces. Additionally, in this installation, Turpie manages to show diversity in his subjects, which is something that I would like to do as this would help everyone empathise with my pieces and engage with them.
             Meanwhile, in the 'I Want! I Want!' exhibition, I knew the concept for all the pieces and that they were all involved around technology, however none of them, in my opinion, were very interesting. I was more interested in the way things were set up than the reasons to why they were made. My favourite compositions were the ones that were in a small separate room in the dark. I could do this and light up my pieces in a different way so that the viewers would be surrounded by the work and they will have no choice but to think about the pieces.

Installations and my new edited photos

Installation art is a large scale, mixed media creation that usually takes up a specific area. Most of the compositions are spacious designs that allow the viewer to walk around or through it so that they can contemplate the reason behind the artwork. Rather than a space that shows different pieces of art, an installation is one that is unified so that the whole area or room comes together as one. Usually, the way in which the viewer has to view the artwork, is a major theme in their composition.

Artists and their work:

Cornelia Parker – Parker is an artist who uses a whole room to exhibit her artwork to create the impression of something exploding and being destroyed.

The wood has been suspended from the ceiling in a spacious way to show the movement of the materials as they move outwards from the focal point. The light in the centre of it all casts shadows around the room presenting the idea of the darkness slowly taking over. Rather than the wood creating a natural feeling to the artwork, the way in which they are shown gives the idea of something very abnormal happening. The fact that the composition is in the centre of the room allows the viewers to see the artwork better and walk around it so that they fully understand the work.

Trafik Kör – Kör suspends his photography on the side of walls, yet each photo is pushed outwards from the wall as each photo is fixed onto different sized boxes.
The fact that he has pushed each photo out from the wall could show how each individual object in the photos are not your usual objects and that they are separated from normality. On the other hand, the regular shape of the cube gives that sense of normality and balances out the juxtaposition between the two differences. The fact that they are pushed out from the wall allows the viewer to believe that there is more to see behind each photo (gives depth to the composition).

My photos:

After having edited these photos, I am happy with the outcome considering that it I have only just started experimenting like this. Although that in the photos where I have placed the animal’s print over the face, the outcomes are a little strange, I like the effect that it has (I wanted to show that humans are similar to animals). It creates a surreal impression, similar to that of Amy Hamilton’s work and in the majority of the photos, I have used a black background with a vignette, just like Andy Gotts.
If I was going to transfer the layout of my pieces to that of an installation, I would suspend my work off of the ceiling or the wall as I think this would create depth in the composition. It would suggest that behind a human there is always layers and that each human has an animal inside of them, spiritually.

Here are some examples of the photos that I created: