A piece of my work that I would like to see enlarged and made more intricate would be the small elephant acrylic painting that I created in my manifesto zine. I would like to do a similar style to William Kentridge’s ‘If We Ever Get To Heaven’ refugee premonition exhibition. He normally works smaller (i.e. 1m square pieces) and in various medias such as ink, collage and charcoal. However, this exhibition uses performance, film and silhouettes to tell a narrative. Large silhouettes of people’s heads are carried, with a brass band and background imagery, that was being developed for years and shown before the refugee crisis that dominated the news.

I would like to turn my painting of the elephant into a cardboard cut-out and film someone walking along with it, maybe also making silhouettes of trees and grass and make them move as if the elephant is trekking across miles of land. I would like to then show this in a dark room to immerse the viewer in the film. Then I would maybe start to make more and more silhouettes of animals and maybe show a narrative of animal migration as a narrative.

Throughout this process I have expanded my knowledge on other artists work and understanding myself and my practice.

I enjoyed Task 9 as this helped me explain my work and practice in a way that I wouldn’t normally. However task 7 I found very challenging because the two texts were very dense and I struggled to understand them, I had to look over them several times before I could write a response.

I had preconceptions that I wouldn’t like task 8 as I don’t normally appropriate other people’s artwork on purpose. On reflection I really liked completing this task as I worked with paint in a way that I wouldn’t normally. I think I will experiment further with the process that I used in this task.

Overall I have liked this process and the short writing tasks, even though I have had difficulty with some of them.

Monochrome

Varied

Concealed

Hidden

Three-dimensional

handcrafted

line

personal

precise

mark-making

I chose my manifesto zine to represent my practice. The manifesto consists of random artworks on each page of the zine. Each is a different style of art that I focus on in my practice, such as; painting, pen line drawing, charcoal and pencil drawing.

Once you have seen all the images in the zine, it opens up to reveal a written manifesto. I decided to focus on things that I believe my work should aim to be rather than what it should look like because I create many different styles, I think what the piece stands for is more important.

I chose the manifesto to represent my work because it shows my varied way of working. The way the manifesto is hidden in the zine represents my work and myself as a person. The words that I chose to represent my practice, such as, ‘line’ and ‘mark-making’ are vague. I also included monochrome as I mainly work in black and white, however I do occasionally work with colour. ‘Concealed’ and ‘hidden’ refer to my manifesto and the meanings behind each piece of work. I don’t like to explain my work as it is personal to me, also I like to see what other people think about my work without giving their thought bias. The hidden writing also represents how I like to keep my thoughts behind a piece private.

I have included some more images because it is hard to show a three-dimensional piece in its entirety in one photo.

Napalm, Banksy

This print is of two American pop culture icons (Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald) and a girl, seemingly being kidnapped by the two characters.

The image of the girl has been taken from a famous photograph of the Vietnam War (June 8, 1972). The girl is Kim Phuc, a 9 year old girl who was running away from her home after it was attacked by a Napalm blast. The photographer Nick Ut captured this moment and presented it for the world to see what was really going on.

Banksy appropriated this photograph to use it in a contemporary context. There is no confirmation on why he chose to put the two main faces of American pop-culture holding the hands of a young girl in pain. One reason could be that they are making a comment on the way that people view Americans, their cultures and visa-versa. This could be how large companies produce products and don’t seem to care about the effects on people in either their country or other countries.

The original print is very large and is mostly monochromatic. The size that the two characters are makes them seem arrogant, especially with their smiles. This is a contrast with the obvious pain that the girl is in, she is screaming and trying to get away. The way that the piece has been kept in black and white could be showing the origin of the photo. It also adds drama to the piece with the high contrast.

Overall this piece has a strong political context, whether it is trying to show America’s society or just trying to bring back this image from the Napalm blast to remind people.

I looked at two artists who both use paint but in very different ways. Robert Holyhead paints with bright colours and leaves texture from the paintbrush. He also leaves white squares seemingly placed randomly across the image. The white squares look like they have been cut out where they are so precise. I think that the image could be a person’s mind; the brushstrokes represent thoughts, feelings and memories. There are memories that people forget over time, like childhood memories. The white blocks could represent these memories that are forgotten.

The other artist I looked at was Secundino Hernández. The painting that I focused on was an untitled piece that looks like paint thrown onto the canvas in a rushed manner. Most of the paint is focused in the middle so it looks like a dark void on the canvas. The appearance of this piece makes me think of feelings and emotions of a confused state or mixed emotions.

Although the styles of painting are very different, they remind me of similar themes. I thought that they could work together well, so I decided to try combining them. I used masking tape to mask off areas that would be left white. I then used purple, blue and black paint with evident brushstrokes to colour the paper like Holyhead’s work. I took the masking tape off the paper and painted a similar pattern to Hernández piece over the top. I made three of these paintings, experimenting with the black patch of paint in the middle of the image. The first one I just painted straight on using a paint brush. The second one I dripped the paint from the tube then moved it around using a paintbrush. The final piece I dripped the paint from the tube and didn’t move it with the paintbrush. On all three of the paintings I flicked paint on with a paintbrush, and used tissue to make a speckled appearance.

I really liked how these paintings turned out. I think the two styles, even though both very different, work well together. I chose to use the same colour scheme on all three of the paintings so they would make a series, also I wanted to focus more on the black patch of paint over the top than the background.

This is a photo of all three of the paintings displayed together

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Image 1, only the background

In the first text by Leo Steinberg, he spoke about how art should be seen in a horizontal way, inspired by the flatbed printing press. He focuses on Rauschenberg and Dubuffet’s work and how they distanced themselves from the old masters way of presenting work from being directly in front of us (the viewer), to presenting work on a flat surface. Steinberg discusses how, in the 1950’s, there was a shift of the way art was seen and created. During this time there was a change in the ideals and views of artwork.

Richard Serra’s lecture included how he is connected with the material as well as the process of creating the piece.  He also talks about how the site and the sculpture have to be a part of each other. They have to work with each other as this changes how people see the artwork. The traditional ways of creating sculptures have been replaced with new technologies and industries. The traditional idea of the artist studio has been replaced, over time, with industrial sites.

The two texts are linked by the way that people view art and create art. How artists are stepping away from the tradition of the old masters and into the new modern way.

Bibliography

Harrison, C. Wood, P (2002) Art In History. 2^nd ed. Malden, Massachusetts: Wiley-Blackwell

Steinberg, L. From other Criteria. Pg. 948

Serra, R. From the Yale Lecture. Pg. 1124

I like to use acrylic paint and charcoal in my work. I avoid using precise lines with these materials, I like to make quick marks. I decided to mix these two medias together because I use them in the same way. I started by drawing a simple image of an elephant with charcoal and I avoided smudging it. I then painted over the top with some black paint. As I painted over the top, the charcoal smudged and mixed with the paint. The overall appearance of the drawing was slightly smudged and softer. Some of the charcoal wasn’t painted over so the texture of it remained.

I then did the opposite with paint first then charcoal over the top. I really liked the effect this gave as the charcoal allowed me to add more detail over the top. The overall appearance is a lot darker than the first image, I like this as there is a much larger contrast between the black and white.

I liked the second image more because the charcoal textures are more visible. I will develop this practice further, maybe adding colour or producing much larger pieces.

charcoal with paint over the top                                        Paint with charcoal over the top

close up of the image with charcoal over the top

Jaume Plensa, Tribute to Dom Thiery Ruinart, 2016

This piece uses many themes such as love, memory and language.

This sculpture is of a figure hugging its legs, this could be a symbol of it loving itself. It has been created using many different alphabets including; latin, Arabic and Cantonese. This gives an idea that lots of countries are coming together with love, because of the figures position. The sculpture is monumental. The use of the polished, shiny metal means that the light reflects off of it and makes it appear like it is glowing, projecting love onto the viewer.

It appears that a whole has been cut into the sculpture at the front, opening the sculpture, inviting the viewer in. The writing in different languages is bringing everyone together and saying we are all human and should all be treated the same.

This piece is really awe-inspiring and almost catches you in a trance when looking at it in the flesh. I got a feeling of love coming from this piece. It also makes you think about how there are so many people on this planet, and we should all be treated fairly and all have the same rights to things.

In the summer, I visited the Frieze sculpture park in Regents Park, London.

I saw various artworks of all different styles. They were all set in a park, this is very different to a white walled gallery. Some of the pieces faded into the background, especially darker sculptures like ‘Reality hacking No. 348’ by Peter Regh. I also went on an overcast day which means that there was less light hitting the sculptures than on a sunny day. The look of some sculptures could change dramatically if it was sunny. All the sculptures were also ranging sizes from low boulder type spheres to monumental cartoon characters.

I liked the wide range of sculptures that were there as they were all very different and made by different artists of different backgrounds, it wasn’t just one artists work, or one style of work.

I really liked the sculpture park, the setting complemented the pieces well and you could get close to the pieces to see more details.

The figure in the image is sitting slightly to the right of the frame rather than directly central, with a male (presumably) who has his arm reaching across to the figure in the frame. The setting for this piece is in the back of a car, possibly a taxi. The figure takes up the majority of the frame, suggesting the artist wants her to be the main focus of the viewer.

Her facial expression appears to be distant or disengaged with her surroundings, also there is a large gap between the two people. This suggests that she doesn’t want to be sat near the man, and is trying to ignore him.

The light source is coming in from the back window; this makes the foreground appear darker and creates a halo like affect around the figures head. Subsequently, this causes the eye to be drawn to the figure, emphasising the artists desire for her to be the focal point. The cropped frame of this image also suggests this idea. This cropped style also creates a mystery around the man that is sat just out of sight, who is he?