Digital Collages

Forgotten posts...

Whilst typing up the notes from the crit I realised I hadn't actually posted the work I was presenting. I have been digitally manipulating photos relating to street photography, layering them with my paintings on acrylic. Some of them seemed to 'work', or 'do something' for me, with others not so much.

     

Fine Art Crit #2

1. Make art that makes you questions. 2. Ask the questions.

"A good crit is actually a conversation. It's talking about something, through something, with something." Miraj Ahmed, Lecturer, AA/Cambridge University

As well as offering the chance for us to get feedback and discuss our own work, the crit allowed us to spend time with other works, learn from others and develop our ability to talk about art.

The crit format allows us to bring our work out of our studios, choosing what we display and how we display it. 

One of the most important things I took from the crit is to consider the question can the work sustain conversation? Questions, although mildly terrifying, are a chance to break down barriers and engage with your own, others' work and the community around you. It 'shouldn't' be a scary thing (though let's be honest I'm studying art I'm not exactly the most confident of people), and if things don't go how you expect them to- that's art for you. Other peoples opinions and interpretations are sometimes just as important than whatever the artist was thinking when they did it...hence why it's important to a) actually turn up, b) take notes(on others work and feedback as well as your own), and c) try to take part- no matter how little or much. It's about discussion, rather than criticism. 

"I didn't get it and I'm not going to pretend to"

• Chaos and instability; support structures behind the 'chaos', emotive
• Soundscapes, Synesthesia
• Repetition and noise
• Alien interruption, white noise on TV
• Colour makes it easier to see what's behind, helps to seperate layers
• Where as black and white you can't tell what's there
• Lines, erosion, acid wash, burnt

Another interesting point that came up, not about my work, was the question "Where does the work finish?"

Tabula

How do you look at art?

Thinking about group crits and how to attempt to 'read' art. 

"The best foundation for any fresh consideration of contemporary art is to start from zero"

T- TIME Give the piece a few minutes, what are you looking at?

A- ASSOCIATION What can you relate it to?
B- BACKGROUND Look for clues,
U- UNDERSTAND What is the artist playing with, e.g. line, texture, surface
L- Look Again- using this knowledge and understanding
A- Assessment- Will you applause or escape? How does it make you feel

'Ways of Looking: How to experience Contemporary Art' by Ossain Ward

Bringing in photography

Street Photography and it's place in the world

Another type of art that came to mind when reading the introduction to 'How to See the World' was street photography, and the importance of it to modern day memories, as well as it's place within social media. Whilst reading I was reminded of an exhibition I saw in August by famous street photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. 

A photo posted by Rosie (@rsprcy) on Aug 5, 2016 at 8:22am PDT

...but that was ages ago...from this I was inspired to begin to take my camera out, taking photos of mundane situations and surfaces that I found interesting. This links to my current practise through my use of texture and exploring space. I am thinking about using photoshop to combine both my physical paintings with photography to create a photoessay- linking it to the subject/object grid given to us.

Life Drawing

Linear bodies

One of the key things that I learnt from doing my footnotes assignment on 'How To See The World' was the significance of taking a step back from detail, and seeing things in their simplest forms."We assemble a world from pieces, assuming that what we see s both coherent and equivalent to reality".This inspired me to explore how I can use shapes and lines to break down complexity, implying figures and going beyond the surface, and almost through the detail and into a new way of seeing.

Exploring surface

How does the surface effect the relationship between the artist and the work?

To develop my ideas surrounding surface following the lecture, I experimented with using different materials to create a differing physical surface. In the back of my mind I had the idea of painting on a transparent surface to see the effect this had on the atmosphere and connection to the piece. I headed to Homebase and bought a sheet of transparent acrylic. (note= add this to Christmas list) 

Taking it back to the studio I stared at it for a bit, not sure how to start. After a few hours and trips to Mcdonalds/the vending machine I decided to snap it in half (so professional), viola, two sheets of acrylic. I then went back to the sound clip from Digbeth and the paintings I had done. Prompted by these, I masked areas of the plastic and printed onto the acrylic using the same wallpaper samples and acrylic paint. The shiny and slippery surface made it difficult to print directly and carefully on to, though this might have been because my 'technique' was to place the wallpaper onto the plastic and stand on it to transfer the pattern/texture- looking back I could have possibly invested in a roller..

The two pieces of acrylic directly on top of each other, with a white table as backgdrop

My ideas to progress with this are to place either piece in front of each other, and light by an artificial light, making it more of a 3D work- Looking at how the distance between each sheet of acrylic, and the background, affects the result. I may then possibly film the installation, returning it to a 2D form, before showing this film, combined with the sound clip through a TV screen.