The underground p.2

Metallic honeycomb protects coloured wires from exposure. Red and blue line aluminium, shooting throughout the ceiling, which is constructed from yellow musk tiles. There are four visible, arranged as hopscotch, littered with drill holes. Twin, thin wire is trapped between the chicken wire and tiles, as if lacing the metal work together, a small line sewing the ceiling. In addition to this, three black plastic ties are used, two in the centre and one on the right-hand side, seemingly not strong enough to hold an important structure. To the right there is also more metal, the grid is stopped with rough edges, disappearing in front of steel, curved to follow the shape of the wall. Extending from this edge there is more plastic, creating a horizontal curve to the left, once again framed by hard metal, two pieces that create a step, building the plastic away from the ceiling, crossing the thin wire, which holds another black tie, this time horizontal. Further towards the centre there is a piece of re, possibly a reflection of light, trapped between the honeycomb and base. There are two steel hinges, attaching a vertical metal bar to the ceiling. This is also secured to the plastic, crossing with a bolt, one of four, all screwed in at equal intervals throughout the plastic. A blue vertical wire pierces the yellow, slicing through the exposed area. This is framed by more thin wire, leading throughout the frame. There is a red wire too, of the same thickness and brightness, once again shooting through the area, alongside eight more slices of metal, the edges lit by an unknown source. 

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/

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?

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

Aspect Lecture #1 Space

Art is dangerous.


Here are some notes I took from the first Aspect Lecture on 'space' by Richard Allen.

In summary the things I took from the lecture were ideas on how proximity and the intention of the work affect the relationship between the art and the viewer- I think it is important to make whoever's looking at the work think about what they are seeing.

I was also interested by Janet Cardiff's 'Opera for a Small Room' (2005) and want to look further into how installations can be linked with sound and wallpaper. 

http://spacelecture.tumblr.com/

Digbeth First Friday

The train's at 6.20, don't miss it...

Before Friday, I'd only been to Birmingham once before- and that was for a shopping trip with a friend. This time we were headed to Digbeth's 'First Friday'- an event which sees the first Friday of each month come alive with open studios, live music and street food.

Digbeth, although obviously run down, to me had some kind of industrialised magic about it. I don't know whether it was the eerie atmosphere but I felt inspired to create something walking through the streets(almost definitely just me). I mean maybe it was just dark and I couldn't seen properly but I felt like I was in a movie and I was a really cool DIY scene artist walking through the wreckage and on my way to making some kind of masterpiece which would then make me rich, famous and never have to work again... so I recorded it.

I took sound recordings of the train journey and walking to the studios which I want to edit as a part of my sound for an enclosed space. I personally find trains (Especially London midland ones) quite claustrophobic, and the noise can be quite overwhelming- so there we have an enclosed space. In the future I hope to create my own area, with physical artwork that mirrors the sound. I am also going to layer the audio clips to try and make my audience feel involved in the whole narrative of the work, as if they're there with me, at the station, on the train, walking the streets.

Digbeth's first Friday, October 2016 

London Gallery Visit

Are we nearly there yet? 

I feel about 10 going on a school trip, walking with partners in a line. We leave the university at 8 and don't arrive in London til 12, suddenly I'm taking back every time I moaned about the 2 hour journey from Norwich to London.

James Richards at the ICA

Requests and Antisongs

Sketchbook page from the exhibition

William Eggleston at the National Portrait Gallery

Portraits

Sketchbook page from the exhibition

Tate Modern

Sketchbook pages from the exhibition

What comes first, the material or the idea?

Here are some photos that I look during the day. I wanted to look for structures and architecture that might be useful in my own work.