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. 

Inside- Artists and Writers in Reading Prison

"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 Profendis, 1897

Today I visited the Inside- Artists and Writers in Reading Prison event. .The exhibition is centred around it's most famous inmate Oscar Wilde, containing paintings, sculpture, photographs, videos and writing in the cells, along corridors and in the prison chapel. It is the first time HMP Reading is open to the public, after it was closed in 2013.
Taking place throughout the original Victorian architecture, the exhibition featured work from artists including Richard Hamilton, Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Wolfgang Tillmans and readers including Patti Smith and Ben Whishaw, among others.
As well as being eerie and ghostly, the exhibition was also very touching at times. The graffiti on and scratched into the cell walls bought the exhibition back to reality, making it really thought provoking. I highly recommend this exhibition and feel as if the atmosphere of the building can only truly be felt when inside, walking up the stairs, along the corridors and in and out of the cells.

The outside of the Inside Reading Prison Exhibition

Exhibition info

HMP Reading from level 3

Wolfgang Tillmans video 

A cell on Level 1

Part of an installation by Doris Salcedo

"I'm stood in a field in a scarecrows hat"

Graffiti in a cell

Weight (2016) by Steve McQueen in a cell

Oscar Wilde's cell door in the former Prison chapel

Details of Oscar Wilde's door

For more/detailed information on this exhibition visit:
https://www.artangel.org.uk/project/inside/

Aspect Lecture #2 Surface

/The outer covering of an object./

The texture of a work can be important, with seductive surfaces drawing us in, but can also be repulsive. Texture is very important to me in my own work, as I feel it creates an atmosphere and gives the work more substance. 

This lecture also focused on 'beyond the surface' and how Agnes Martin used surface to portray a state of mind. "Anything can be painted without representation, I never painted a grid with squares..." I feel that the surfaces she uses in her work creates a mental connection, almost meditative, between the viewer and the work. An intensity only seen when in front of the painting.

Agnes Martin, Untitled #3, 1974

http://surfacelecture.tumblr.com/

Fine Art Crit #1

"Art doesn't have to represent anything"

One of the things I've struggled most with about the course so far is the idea that contemporary art doesn't have to be directly representative of anything. It is important to have and be able to form your own opinion around a piece of work- It's what it does, rather than what it's supposed to do. 

During the Crit our lecturer asked someone else doing the joint honours with Psychology course "Would you say it(the piece of art) is an experiment?". I think this is an important question to think about and in my own personal opinion I think all art is to an extent- the artist changing the materials (Independent variables) to see what the effect is (Dependent variables). This has led me to think about my ideas in a more structured, almost methodological way, and consider what I am doing. 

Focusing on my own work, he suggested I could try presenting the paintings in a different way, combining them with the sound to create a moving image. This is something I want to explore. I am thinking of filming the painting from a tripod- layering it with the sound to bring it together. I may also try layering the works digitally, using photoshop, or physically, prehaps printing onto transparent plastic or tracing paper to combine the images- putting one in front of the other to explore ideas of space  and how it effects the work.   

Responding with paint

How do you paint sound? 

I took the sound clip I recorded and picked colours which I felt best matched it. I chose to use blue, green orange and yellow, to mirror the atmosphere of the audio. 

To tie my work back to the Subject of 'Wallpaper' I used wallpaper samples from Home base(other DIY stores available) to contact print onto other paper. This allowed me to create layers which overlapped, matching the chaotic noises throughout the sound. Silence was also important and to reflect this in my work I used masking tape through some of the layers to leave empty spaces. 

After experimenting with different materials I found acrylic paint was the most effective to layer and get the intensity I wanted to create quickly, However I also found using chalk pastel and glue to add different textures contributed to the surface of the paintings. 

Here are the two most successful outcomes, which I think well capture the sound:

 

To move forward I need to think about how to present the work and whether or not/how the sound will accompany it. As the sound is 'for an enclosed space' I'm thinking possibly putting it through headphones (to bring the audience directly in) or to surround the art as more of an installation than a still piece.  

Experimenting with sound

One of the things I noticed whilst on the London trip was that I was attracted to works which were loud, slightly chaotic and not necessarily still, so it became clear to me that I should consider adding these features to my own work. 

I used Adobe Premiere Elements to edit my audio clips, piecing them together, and overlapping them to create a continuous sound that brings the audience into my work. All of the sound was recorded on my camera, a Nokia D3100 to ensure it was of the same quality. I think it works in terms of creating an atmosphere and giving narrative to a piece of art, as my main goal is to bring a viewer closer and make them think.

A photo posted by Rosie (@rsprcy) on Oct 8, 2016 at 12:03pm PDT

You can listen to it here:

Moving forward I need to consider ways of linking this to wallpaper (through the patterns and repetition).

How do you draw sound?

What does sound look like?

How can I transform vibrations into an image?

From portraits to line

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes (Turn and face the strange) Ch-Ch-Changes

I've decided that although I enjoyed looking at portraiture and how identity can add emotion to work, it doesn't completely sit with my other ideas and thought processes. Throughout my portraits I found that line and linear patterns were what interested me the most, so that is the direction that I want to go in. 

I feel this change will also enable me to bring wallpaper back into my work, tying me closer to the brief and give me a stronger focus.

Portraiture

You can tell a lot about someone by their face. 

Facial expressions and shapes within the face help to build a strong narrative, adding to the connection between a work and the viewer. Sometimes this link is explicit, for example in a piece of art showing clear emotion, but what about when the face is distorted or overlapped?

One of the things I took from the Aspect Lecture on space was the importance of the viewer having to work to understand what is exactly going on, letting them form their own ideas and opinions surrounding the work.

To help me with my technical drawing skills I asked people I knew to send me photos of their face- which I then drew and developed using different materials. 

Hannah, Acrylic Paint

Ellie, Fine Liner

Jay, Charcoal Pencil

Leah, 2B Pencil

Poppy, Charcoal

I then used Photoshop Elements to overlap and manipulate the images digitally. These were the results-

A practise attempt at making a digital collage of faces

A second attempt at the collage

Final attempt at overlaying drawings of people- changing the
opacity allowed me to create a better 'flow' of the collage