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.