The Descent of Man – Greyson Perry

‘The descent of man’ by Grayson Perry is an overlook at the idea of masculinity and how it effects the way that our society is run. From the start Perry discusses the idea of holding back emotions and channelling them through anger and the brutish nature that a stereotypical man would show off; this one way discussion throughout the entire book gives and insight into the particular views of the author yet are somehow made to appear as though they are fact, due to the fact that the book itself has been written from the perspective of a male.

In relation to the idea of clothing Grayson Perry discusses how the use of suits and ties symbolise power and wealth; “With their colourful textile phalluses hanging round their necks” this quotation gives an air of resentment about it, as Perry seems to be disgruntled with the idea of how such a small community of people can dominate the rest and carry most of the highest paid jobs even though they only represent a small proportion of the population, along with how the majority are white men not allowing for minorities to have the same roles. The tone of this carries on throughout the book covering various different topics such as emotions, stereotypes and mens rights giving a negative but constructive idea of the society we live in today.

The initial brief for this piece was to create a passport, a document that could give an idea of your character/personality within an inanimate object; I initially wanted to create a flick book, due to the way that they are made this would enable me to create a small animation instead of just trying to use pictures to sum myself up. This idea was a good plan until I realised how much of a perfectionist I had become, creating hundreds of small images to build one scene would not be viable in the time limit given. Working from this information I began to build a large quantity of small individual drawings of myself; these illustrations had many different looks as the task for me was to produce as many as possible instead of trying to get a perfect likeness.
To create a more aesthetically pleasing composition (something that is important within my art style) I began to include small pink circles behind all of my illustrations as the idea of creating a perfect circle by simply cutting it out is not easily done looking further into my perfectionist art qualities.
I built my colour scheme around the idea of minimalism with only three colours used, I liked the tonal qualities that each gave to to final outcome especially the pop of pink that made the images stand out against the simplistic illustrations, without this base of colour the images wouldn’t have stood out as much and looked a lot less refined.
If I were to take this piece further then I would just look into producing a larger selection of portraits as I think the whole outcome would look best if it were on a larger scale potentially filling several walls in order to produce a 360 degree panoramic outcome.

Upon reflection within my blog, I can see how my art took a dramatic turn from more traditional ways to creating work, to more of a new media approach. This was evident from Task 2 where my work was considering Anselm Kiefer and the type of painting/sculptures he creates, compared to Task 8 where I distorted an image through editing software. This distortion is a key theme to my art now which allows me to see how the impact of the blog was more influential than I first thought.

Benefits from doing the blog was that it allowed me to focus on other aspects to art other than my own. Task 3 (analysing NikkI S Lee’s Part 14 photograph) and Task 5 (reflecting upon Bathers at La Grenouillère seen in the National Gallery) allowed me to think more in depth into other’s artwork and to focus on what I can take from those. In doing this, it inspired me within my own artwork, which also encouraged me to look more closely into other artists to get the same result.

At times the blog also proved challenging, this was most evident in Task 6 when being asked to create a mode of practice. Creating an original technique proved a struggle seeing as there are already so many ways out there. This I adapted and overcame by focusing more on pre-existing processes, pilling them together and placing emphasis on what people can take from the result. This did not come naturally too me, however forced me to focus on an innate original idea that would go on to strongly inspire me in my work to come.

The blog allowed me to focus on elements, concepts and theories to art that I otherwise would not have focused on. Most of these being fundamental to my work and more importantly to the art world around me, thus informing me in more ways I’d like to admit.

10 chosen words:

Technology, Evolve, Atmosphere, Effects, Distortions, Perspective, Progression, Questions, Exploring, Variety

Although my practice originally started with no connections to technology at all, nor did I aim to explore into it, I find myself centring my work fully around it now. I found this evolved through the Contemporary Project. I begun looking at Monet’s impressionism and seeing how he slightly altered the way we see a scene, which inspired me to do the same using a variety of methods to do so.

Here I began focusing on creating an atmosphere to my work through using certain types of effects and distortions. I emphasised this in the Film Project where I took ordinary videos I’d captured over time, of both people and places, and edited them using adobe premiere pro (a 21st century piece of technology). This gave a whole new perspective too the videos and completely altered from what they originally showed.

Throughout I found myself asking, although I can make these effects completely change the image which has progressed from years of technology evolving – does this make my artwork any better, than simply viewing it via how it was originally captured? This can also be said in relation to Monet’s work, where you could question whether impressionism really brought something to the world of art, or simply took away what was really there. This kind of question is the main theme around my art, and one I wish to continue exploring.

Captured image from the Film Project titled – Is This Better Now

Technology and art have always had an intertwining relationship, that has revolutionised one another. So much so that in the 21^st century there are endless ways to produce art through technology, this is often categorised under the title of ‘New Media’. This has evolved from simple spouts of mechanical technology used to create art, such as the printing press, which dates back as far as 1440 (1).  To electronical technology or ‘digital electronics’ which made its first appearance from the 1970’s (2). The sweeping change from mechanical to electronical came under the ‘Digital Revolution’ which brought sweeping changes to how an artist created their art during the latter 20^th century.

This in-turn has lead up to the creation of Aaron Koblin’s work of Flight Patterns. This is a video that “visualization of airplane traffic over North America during a 24-hour period” (3). Each colour represents a different type of aeroplane that travelled in and across north America on this day in August 2010. This highlights how almost every single bit to his piece of work has originated from some type of digital data. From obtaining the flight patterns, to creating the actual video, Koblin has relied solely on technology to reflect upon how interlinked we are with it and how our lifestyles also reflect this.

I’m inspired from this piece as it show the capabilities of what ‘New Media’ art can involve. It also highlights how using technology is a completely new art form, as “technology in art allows us to stimulate our senses” (4) in ways that might not have been possible one upon a time.

Aaron Koblin – Flight Patterns (2010)

Bibliography

(1)    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Gutenberg – reference to printing press

(2)    https://www.barbican.org.uk/hire/exhibition-hire-bie/digital-revolution

(3)    https://www.seditionart.com/aaron_koblin/flight_patterns

(4)    https://makezine.com/2013/11/15/art-technology-new-art-forms-not-just-new-art/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/7-ways-technology-is-changing-how-art-is-made-180952472/

“Our environment and our memories make us who we are.”

My art at the moment is about identity and how one’s memories make up their identity. I want to express that all of life’s experiences, even the smallest ‘insignificant’ ones are what make us who we are. The places and the people that we’ve chosen to surround ourselves with play a role in shaping us into the person we are today. We learn from our past and learn from these memories of experience. Without memories, we have no reason, no emotion, no action and no identity.

I’ve been mainly working in paints but have recently grown an interest in print, which I’d like to develop further. I’ve also taken an interest in expressing the theme of memories through film. I enjoy working with mixed media and layering different materials on top of each other. In the above artwork, I layered birthday cards, postcards, maps, book pages and other documents of significance and painted on top of them, making sure you could faintly see them underneath the paint- like glimpses of distant memories.