Using When Faith Moves Mountains by Francis Alys as my inspiration for this perception-based transformation, I would reduce the numbers of performers within the piece to leave just one volunteer moving item by item of furniture with industrial anomalies from one side of a room to the other, mirroring the exact format the state once existed in. This process would continue in its cycle 500 times to replicate the number of volunteers for Alys’ performance. The simplification of this piece would indicate a shift towards independence while presenting an underlying desire to be connected with others. It will also be an interesting psychological study to witness what would happen if an onlooker got involved to assist the worker which, unlike with the scale of Alys’ piece, may be a plausible outcome.

Francis Alys- When Faith Moves Mountains, 2002

My blog has allowed me to explore my interests, existing knowledge, and future pathways within my creative practice. It has encouraged me to be more expressive, and to document both my thoughts and findings within the process. I found that my blog entries are relative to the subjects of my interest, and highlight the common themes within artists, and theories I am inspired by.

Jason Rhoades- Black Pussy, 2006

An unapologetically noisy, autobiographical, light, spatially aware, conflicting, sensory experience.

I find that my artwork often questions the definition of art, so that -to some- they may question the purpose or narrative of my practice. The word ‘unapologetic’ i find perfectly describes this method of working and enhances my creative ability to be what I see in my head as the definition of my artwork.

Plato established two major art theories regarding Art in Imitation and Art being Divinely Inspired. For this task, I am particularly interested in exploring the theory of Religion in Art and whether this continues to exist in a Contemporary era with lesser numbers of religious individuals.

Throughout history, Religion has played a major factor contributing to the art world. From Paleolithic religion, cave paintings even suggested ‘hierarchical format’ between ‘humans and animal spirits’, preceding ‘the development of agriculture’ (Perlès, C. 2007)¹.

Unknown Artist and Year

Commonly the ‘Religion in Art’ theme is noticeably present in the Byzantine and Renaissance periods -including the infamous works of Michelangelo. However, from Baroque and Rococo Art we begin to see a shift from romanticised religious depictions in art and by Neoclassicism and Romanticism around the 18^th and 19^th Centuries, art became less inspired by Religion and centred more strongly around historical and contextual events. This was a slow and gradual change with many anomalies, but we can assume from this that approximately around the shift in 1534 due to the Act of Succession combining Church and State, the two largest Empires in the world were divided over religion.

Michelangelo- The Creation of Adam, 1508-1512

For the past two Centuries, religion and art have been growing slowly apart in the eyes of success; however, despite contrary belief, many still argue that ‘religion is alive and well in contemporary art’ (Plate, S. B. 2014)². Plate lists artists such as Shahzia Sikander, Andy Goldsworthy, Meredith Monk, and James Turrell as artists who continue to explore religion in their successful, yet contemporary, art careers.

Shahzia Sikander- Utopia, 2003

James Turrell is an artist I am particularly inspired by and have referenced many a time in my Contemporary Project. His use of experience and sensory experimentation within his performative installations suggest a divine manipulation, and are akin -in nature- to artists of the past.

James Turrell- The Light Inside, 1999

¹ Cortazar, R. Z. Harvard Gazette, 2007. Available at: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2007/04/scholar-cave-paintings-show-religious-sophistication/

² Plate, S. B. HuffPost, 2014. Available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/s-brent-plate/religion-is-alive-and-wel_b_5676134.html

I chose the painting Reverse by Jenny Saville to appropriate into my own work, as Saville inspires lots of my work, despite her medium being something which I do not -as an artist- particularly use to finalise my work. To do this I photographed the model with her face pressed against a mirror in order to recreate the reflective surface from the original. This outcome was then edited this with Photoshop by posturizing the image to mimic the bold brush strokes typical of Saville’s work. Saville uses this technique to highlight the high and low points of her models, defining the tonal contrasts -much like the effect of posturizing does. I then saturated my interpretation to capture the raw emotion from Saville’s piece. Although Saville contrasts this with cooler toned yellows and blues I decided against copying this technique as with my blue background I found the resolved piece to be too dull through the choice of colour tones; I also chose against editing out the background to imitate Saville’s painting as it would have looked too unnatural for the composition I was attempting to appropriate.

Overall, I found that my process was well approached. Linking her painting style and manipulating this across mediums through posturizing was a great method and my outcome was successful in achieving what I intended to.

Leo Steinberg (b. 1920) from Other Criteria, discusses ‘relating Modernist work to a changing continuum of self-reference and representation of the world going back to the Renaissance.’ This text analysing Steinberg’s writing, claims that Other Criteria ‘was received as a powerful counter to what was seen in the early 1970s as an increasingly barren and entrenched formalist orthodoxy’, meaning that he challenged what was considered normative in the 1970s and provided new principles to work by. Contemporary characteristics of art which often are the factors determining the era in which it belongs, are commonly defined by how much they push the boundaries of what is considered of its time.

Steinberg’s essays are further examined and built upon with descriptions of how this perceptive art theory is translated into practical methods of artistic manipulation such as ‘color economies’, ‘proportional attenuation’, and ‘shifting reality levels’; or ‘the “recall to art” may be engineered by the subject matter itself through devices such as internal spectators, the juxtaposition of windows with framed paintings, or mirrors filled with reflections’ in a phrase of ‘art drawing attention to art’.

The text later discusses the idea of a ‘Flatbed Picture Plane’ in order to describe the ‘pictorial surface whose angulation with respect to the human posture is the precondition of its changed content’ -or more commonly- artwork displayed in the traditional format parallel to the observer. It is common when observing artwork through the ages -or simply the view of one’s surroundings- to witness a canvas or frame hung on a gallery wall, a sculpture surfacing from the ground, or a landscape view from a window. Here, the idea is postulated that -to not conform towards custom, or to remove any personified association within the art piece, curation should be experimented from more unorthodox perspectives, as the presentation of the artwork becomes part of the art itself.

Similarly, in The Yale Lecture by Richard Serra (b. 1939), the idea of site-specificity is challenged in the simple phrase ‘You can’t build work in one context and indiscriminately place it in another.’ In this transcription of Serra’s Lecture, the issue of curation and space is repeatedly discussed in order to persuade the listeners to consider the context of the landscape in which art is both created and presented. For art to truly be enjoyed and connected with by its audience (if that is the purpose of its outcome) the energy from its surroundings and the nature of its appearance should be measured and foreseen by the creator(s) to express the idea in which they created, rather than having external elements influence the narrative and manipulate the message (or lack of) which the art is portraying. This is exemplified in Le Corbusier’s letter (1932) ‘if the Sistine Chapel’s wall and ceiling were intended to be preserved a form, they should not have been painted with frescoes… someone wanted to remove forever their original architectural character and create something else’. Though this premise may be the intention of the work itself, Le Corbusier argues the importance of being aware of Art’s context.

As individuals born in 1939 and 1920, Serra and Steinberg’s life experience precedes the Contemporary movement and explore the shift from Modernism to Post-modernism. At this artistic turning-point of the 20^th Century, both have first-hand knowledge and understanding of the zeitgeist, and the way in which factors within politics and global events such as the Second World War influenced the production of artwork. Therefore, their experience with contextual understanding and drastic change is valued in their text.

For the task given, we were told to create or evolve an art practice. As a practicing artist whom enjoys working in textiles, I decided to use stitching and embroidery as a starting point from which to evolve my chosen practice. As a physical object, subject to manipulation, thread, wool, and fabrics are interesting to work with and are commonly used together. However, I was interested in expanding the ways in which we use stitching to also cover items we may not typically associate it with.

On top of this I decided to also experiment with incorporating words into artwork. For example: Why do we, as humans, label writing and drawing as two separate things? If drawing -in reality- is mark-making, why isn’t writing under that same label? What differs the two?

Although, there are plenty of artists who have pushed traditional concepts of separating drawing/ painting/ art in general from writing by bringing them together, I wished to combine this concept with the physicality of the previous experiment. Thus, stitching words into Everyday objects and materials.

The next step was deciding upon the word(s) to stitch. Conceptual art, in any artistic movement often implies a theme of pushing the boundaries of what is currently available -looking into the future. A current battle within the art world includes the question: ‘why spend your whole career (or parts of it) looking at/ working on the same things. Artists like Ad Reinhardt produce very similar pieces over time and from my perspective, this is in protest of that very question. Following this, I made the decision to use one word continuously throughout my experiments upon different surfaces.

Ad Reinhardt photo from exhibition – David Zwirner https://www.davidzwirner.com/exhibitions/ad-reinhardt

The final decision before beginning to work was which word I should use, to which I had a very easy discovery. The most taboo, powerful expletives of protest ‘cunt’ seemed like the obvious word to use. As something commonly avoided in conversation, publicising it seemed like the best way to explore text and protest in one continuous outcome.

This is  Gunther Ueker’s 1964 piece, White Field which inspired my experimentation with needles

Seeing a large-scale sculpt such as ‘Ghost’ in person at her Tate exhibition, was an incredibly valuable experience. Sculpture and installation are mediums in particular, demand the experience and exhibition space surrounding it to achieve what, arguably, the purpose of exhibitions aim. Looking at objects presented 2-Dimensionally does not exert the same level of impact upon viewers and therefore exhibits are treasured memories for the perceivers.

‘Ghost’ by Rachel Whiteread challenges the native perception of a living room being structurally sound, representative of the owner’s character, and comforting. This mix of architecture and sculptural installation art presents interior space in a way we don’t typically recognise, despite it being a fundamental part of our existence. By the technique of inverted space, Whiteread creates life-sized casts presenting a physical, ‘anatomical’ (If walls could talk: An interview with Rachel Whiteread, 2002) representation of space.

Through this space-containing practice, Time is also captured in a state of frozen-ness, holding memories of the individual who may have lived in the mould of this cast. Ironically through preserving the building’s character, it is subsequently lost within the concrete enclosure, and only the physical structure is left to be seen. Thus further expanding the viewpoint that there is both an interior and exterior, an implied persona, or a side to which no-one but those of the creator’s choosing can see.

Reflecting upon this exhibition, I would like to further it by reading into the concepts of Time, Space, and The Everyday and have begun my research into the Whitechapel Gallery Texts on these.

If walls could talk: An interview with Rachel Whiteread (2002) Available at: http://pastexhibitions.guggenheim.org/whiteread/interview2.html (Accessed 6 February 2017)

Being a fan of Rachel Whiteread’s sculptures using negative space to translate the everyday into lifeless casts of what the item once was, I recently visited Tate Britain to see it in person. By being able to perceive space in this format, the viewers (sub)consciously become more aware of their surroundings. The way in which this exhibition was curated, it allowed each exhibit to be reflected upon in its own time while not entrapping it within the gallery space itself; for example, ‘Ghost’ which was exhibited there, presents the interior of an entire living room space- so the ‘room within a room’ aspect was explored but yet with this curatorial setup, did not become the focal point of the exhibition.

For this task on discussing the mise-en-scene of works by Female Artists and the context surrounding them, I chose the ‘Hot-en-tot Venus’ 1994 photograph by Renée Cox depicting her own body as a model to promote “self-love” (Hooks, B. ‘Sisters of the Yam’ -1993). This image represents the ideal body image for black females to try and achieve in order to look attractive. The obvious, faux plastic breasts and buttocks help to communicate the argument that idealised, societal beauty cannot be achieved without falseness.

The monochrome finish allows the portrait to suggest a racial interpretation of the artwork, focusing politically on the duality of life (i.e. Black/White, Female/Male, Gay/Straight). Through  breaking the element of the fourth wall, the audience is addressed directly as though communicating the message of society taking action to break down the existing attitudes.

Cox, as a black Jamaican-American artist, brings her political activism into her artwork in order to provoke action in the subjects of Feminism, Gender, Race, and Culture. Therefore, using her art as a platform to promote change and protest within society, Cox pushes the boundaries of what the art can truly be defined as. Questioning whether the image itself is in fact the art, the message it conveys, or the performance of activism encouraged by the piece.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renee_Cox