I have found some of the Research and Communication skills challenging, especially task 7 as it has been a while since I have compared texts. However, overall it has been a useful way to document areas of interest in my work and to talk about my own and other people’s work, which has been useful in group crits.

Although I wasn’t pleased with my work in task 1 I like to be able to explain why I constructed my work the way I did, explain other ideas that I had and changes that I would make. Writing this down is very helpful to me as often I have lots of different thoughts unstructured in my head – writing them down helps me to make sense of them. It is also interesting to see how different my recent art is from the first task.

I enjoyed consuming a book, as I enjoy reading and it was a challenge to summarise the content of an entire book and also find a supporting quote. I then used the same artist in task 9 as I am really interested in Pipilotti Rist’s work and wanted to think more about the context of it. Reading the book has helped me in my own work, giving me inspiration and making me more interested in video and installation (which I continued to research in the Contemporary project).

I rarely write reviews of exhibitions, but think that this is a useful skill to have, so Task 4 was very interesting for me. I like the idea of having the blog so that I can remember what I thought about certain art pieces, exhibitions and my own artistic practice. Being given certain tasks, e.g. appropriation, seems daunting at first but has made me realise how much of the work that I create includes a form of appropriation.

The blog has been very useful in encouraging me to reflect on my own work and the work of others and look at different ways of working. I think I may continue writing similar short passages about my own and other people’s work or even just notes, to help me remember my thoughts later on.

Although the painting titled ‘Suspension’ by Dan Hays is on a large scale already (150 x 200cm), I’m imagining it billboard size or bigger. Because the painting has been made to replicate a screen that is showing a snowy landscape, the way the painting has been created is the part that drew me to this piece. Pixels in a screen are made by red, blue and green dots. this dot increases or decreases intensity of their red, blue or green colour depending on what tint or tone is required to make up the image. Hay’s has painted this piece using thousands of tiny red, blue and green dots to replicate that of a screen. This is not so obvious though when seen it’s original scale, so therefore enlarging it will make these dots more evident. This in turn will obscure the image, and will make it almost unrecognisable as to what it originally showed. It would give the piece a whole new perspective which might make it overwhelming. It will lose some of its original qualities which make the painting effective, such as the fine detail behind the work. Making it smaller however wouldn’t have the same effect, but would almost make it easier to see what it’s trying to represent which is a snowy scene. This loses the point behind why the artwork was made which was to represent an image in relation to how technology shows it.

Suspension by Dan Hays (2014)

The use of dots to create the painting up close

Summary of blog

The range of the questions in the blog has helped to develop my understanding of Art Practice. This has been further informed by reviewing exhibitions; Art pieces, texts/books and reviewing own practice. I found task 3 very useful because I had never took the opportunity to review an exhibition that I have been to before and this helped me understand and enjoy the exhibition further. I found task 7 most challenging due to the language and length of the texts. As I am interested in Art history, it made me want to read more books related especially related to my areas of interest. I found the tasks which involved practical work most enjoyable because it helped me engage with the text. I have tried to link tasks I can to my own practice in the studio. I have achieved this in tasks 2, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 11 which has developed my work further. This has linked to my practice because it has helped me reflect on my work more and has given me the initiative to read more about the artists and contexts around the themes I am looking into.

“Archive, memory, colour, organise, chaos, food, objects, layering, repetition, consumerism”

In my work looking into everyday objects, food I eat and colour has been very important. One of the ways I have developed this is through layering of different styles of print, collage, ink and paint. I thought the investigation through print was important because it linked to mass production, packaging and artists like Warhol. I have archived objects such as my pencil case to sweets I own, where I have extracted the colours and manipulated it through more free ways of working such as splashing paint to more controlled ways such as looking into pattern and repetition. I think the investigation of colour has been very focused in my practice because it gives the sensations of flavours and emotions that cannot be portrayed through just black and white and shape. I intend to develop the project further by manipulating pieces I have already made by changing it shape, colour and pattern. I should look into ‘installation’ as a form of presenting my work as a collective. Going to Ilya and Emilia Kabakovs Exhibition “not everyone will be taken into the future”, where many of their works were installation-based and showed elements of both organisation and chaos. This has inspired me to look into ‘installation’. Additionally, I have started working in 3D using different coloured matchsticks which has developed my practice because making the work links to everyday objects in a different approach to before.

Ilya Kabakov- The man who never threw anything away

This piece is an installation by Kabakov who collected objects in his studio and hung them up with string and labels/narratives. In contrast, the table’s tops were full of unorganised stacks of pencils and art stuffs. Additionally, there were also cabinets where objects were presented as if they were in a museum with every object numbered and catalogued.

The number of objects in one space gives a sense of chaos. But the way Kabakov has catalogued the work is very systematic and clean. The angular nature of the objects hung by string and the lighting created shadows which I think intensifies the feeling of chaos because it makes the space look fuller and creates an illusion there are more objects in the space than there actually are. This installation was first presented in 1988 when an installation using everyday objects which was not as common. ‘Installation’ first emerged in the 1960s but was not common until the 1990s, with the rise of conceptualism.

Kabakov in this series called himself the “garbage man” meaning that all these collected objects are rubbish and unneeded, which he has purposely archived them. Perhaps the sentimental values he had towards the objects grew due to their use in the installation. In a text I read from “The Archive” Kabakov says society is “boundless dump” and “fragments of culture” which I think that he thinks the same for this installation. One of the aspects I can see from the piece is showing a consumerist society and the obsession with hoarding that an average person has. The act of archiving objects leaves history, traces of yourself, and others. Kabakov has done this in “the man who never threw anything away”.

The man who never threw anything away (image 1)- my photo I took in the “Not everyone will be in taken in the future” exhibition (November 9th 2017)

Bibliography

Merewether, Charles, (1 Oct 2006). The Archive: Documents of Contemporary Art. Whitechapel Art Gallery (1 Oct. 2006), page 37

Firstly in this piece I drew cans inspired by Warhol’s work through mono printing. Then I layered it by a lithography print. Additionally, I printed out Warhol’s coke bottles in black and white and then went over it with coloured soft pastel. I did this because simply printing out Warhol’s coke bottles in colour would not make them my original pieces. Warhol made his work original by adding bright colour and by repeating and manipulating the image. By putting the different coloured soft pastel I believe I have done something similar. I also added actual packaging of sweet rappers to layer the piece further. The process of repetition which was continuous through all the stages was enjoyable to do and I thought it has made the piece more interesting to look at and gives the feel of consumerism and capitalist society better. It was the first time I have incorporated an Artist’s work into my own so I felt it was important to still make the work feel like it was my own. However, due to the cans and the coke bottles we can still feel the identity of Warhol’s work present in it.

In Steinburg’s text he first says that Art is constrained by the perspective of the vertical alignment of the human frame and that this is true even through cubism and abstract expressionism. The notion of the ‘flatbed picture frame’ has been coined by the author to describe an innovation that was introduced from the 1950s by artists such as Rauschenberg. This is illustrated by his piece of ‘square patch of growing grass held down with chicken wire’ displayed in ‘nature in art exhibition’. The horizontally flat grass patch was rotated ninety degrees into traditional vertical plane for viewing art. We still hang these pieces vertically just as we do ‘maps’. However, there is no longer equivalence with the human visual frame but instead with ‘operational processes’.

Rauschenberg ‘proposed the flatbed or work-surface picture plane as the foundation of an artistic language that would deal with a different order of experience’. He explored different processes such as: ‘turning his back on the model’; ‘objects placed on blueprint paper and exposed to sunlight’; ‘used newsprint to his prime canvases’; ‘included intrusive non-art attachments’; ‘photographic transfers’; ‘collage elements’. According to Steinburg, ‘perhaps Rauschenberg’s profoundest symbolic gesture came in 1955 when he seized his own bed, smeared paint on its pillow and quilt coverlet, and uprighted it against the wall’.

Richard Sierra built site-specific works in steel. He had supported his education working in steel mills. He brought consideration of manufacturing processes to sculpture, seeking to become ‘active producer within a given technology’. Site specific work reorganises the concept and perception of the site. He never sought to ‘decorate, illustrate or depict’ a site. The work is constrained in concept and perception by the specifics of the site and its social and political characteristics. One should be watchful of ‘governmental, corporate, educational and religious’ parties who seek to corrupt for their own purposes.

Considering similarities between Art based on the flat bed picture plane and site specific sculpture, there is some conceptual equivalence between the picture plane and the site. Both provide the context for the work. There is also a focus on the producing process.

Prompted by my self-directed study in the studio, I have realised an opportunity through the accumulation of objects every day.  By studying different aspects of these object collections, I explore particular aspects in different contexts. I organise and contrast these studies to explore emotional resonance.

I will address this approach by investigating objects through extracting the colours and textures. I intend to do this using printing, acrylic, inks and soft pastel. I believe that bright colours in the work are more effective as they convey packaging and represent more emotion. In my work layering has been effective and developing this further could bring an additional dimension. It is also important that these objects are owned by myself because I have a closer connection and would want to explore them further.

It is also important that I work in the studio on a daily basis so I would always be thinking and engaging with the work. This would help me reflect on my practice and I will record in my journal and sketchbook. Also I intend to work on a bigger scale than the sketchbook so I would not be restricting myself. This would allow me to be more expressive with my mark makings as well. Additionally I will try new surfaces such as painting on objects.

I have chosen to look into this chalk drawing based off Picasso’s work within my contemporary project. The piece is 210mm x 297mm, a smaller image then most other works in my sketch book. Due to the scale of the canvas the complexity of the distinctive lines and shapes are small. However if I was to expand the scale the detail would increase also.

A likely effect of the un-normal features, such as the eyes touching and the cheeks swirling into the face would help the viewer to confused and feel uncomfortable. It would help to take away the classic view upon the human face, which I have been looking to do within my project. By increasing the scale it would help to develop a stronger statement. The colours would be more pronounced, vibrant and amplified.

If the proportion of this piece was to enlarge I would have to think about adding extra shades of purple, green, blue and red to help keep the face seem malformed yet eerie. It would also display both sides of the face as being further apart, as the left is filled in with cold complexion, compared to the right side with a warm feel.

Although I would try my best to keep the image as similar as possible to the original. The unfamiliar look upon the figures face would be further exaggerated as the image grows.