My work up for final assessment!
Posted: April 28, 2014 Filed under: Year 2 - Term 1, Year 2 - Term 2 - Art and the Conscious Mind, Year 2 - Term 2 - Gorilla in the Roses Leave a comment
Hanging cut-out life drawings
Posted: April 27, 2014 Filed under: Year 2 - Term 1 | Tags: cut-out, life drawing, shadows Leave a commentAs I thought that my cut-out life drawings looked more effective when on their own, I decided to make more to do just that. I made some more but this time I just cut the silhouette out of newspaper rather than using lots of different cut-out pieces to build up the layers of the body. I think that making my cut-outs more simplistic looks more engaging. I decided to hang my new cut-outs up on a line of string so that shadows can be cast behind them. I think that this looks effective as it makes the figures have a presence.
Francis Bacon inspired drawings
Posted: April 27, 2014 Filed under: Year 2 - Term 1 | Tags: Francis Bacon, isolation, parallelopiped Leave a commentAs I did with my little sculpture previously, I have used Francis Bacon’s artwork as inspiration for my own art. Firstly, I used one of my cut-out life drawings that I had left over from my “Gorilla in the Roses” project and placed it inside some sort of cube to isolate the figure. I also painted the background of this piece a flat blue colour to add to the isolation of it. In this piece the figure looks as if it is lost in some sort of void. I like the effect of isolating the figure through placing it inside something, but I think that my cut-out pieces actually look more effective when just displayed on their own. I think that they have more of a mystery about them this way.
I also made a drawing of a figure inside a parallelepiped as opposed to the cut-out figure. I feel that this piece is slightly more successful than the previous piece as I like how with drawing you can be more gestural with your mark-making.
Isolated Sculpture
Posted: April 27, 2014 Filed under: Year 2 - Term 1 | Tags: Francis Bacon, isolation Leave a commentAfter reflecting about what I could do with my ‘lampshade’ I decided to take inspiration from Francis Bacon and use it as a sort of cage. In Bacons work, he used various methods in order to isolate the figure. One of his methods was to place the figure inside a parallelepiped. I decided to make a small abstracted figure out of modelling clay to place inside of this. The abstract nature of my figure leaves it genderless and hence makes it look more isolated. The undefined features make it fade into the background. The cage that I made was only just large enough to accommodate the figure, I think that the figure looks quite suffocated and uncomfortable.
Artist research
Posted: April 26, 2014 Filed under: Contextualisation, Year 2 - Term 1 | Tags: Francis Bacon, giacometti, the shape of things to come Leave a commentI have been thinking about what to do with the ‘lampshade’ that I made the other day but was unable to use. At the moment I have been researching artists such as Francis Bacon and Giacometti for my dissertation and they have inspired me to further my own art project. I have been particularly interested in the way that Francis Bacon isolates the figure. He does this in many ways, but I think that when he places the figure inside a parallelepiped it is particularly effective. I have decided to make an abstract figure out of modelling clay which is inspired by Giacometti’s existentialist figures and place it inside the lampshade(which is basically a transparent triangular prism).
I also recall visiting an exhibition called “The Shape of Things to Come” at the Saatchi gallery some years ago and at the time I did not think that it was that inspiring but looking back now I have a completely different view. This exhibition had quite an existential theme running through it. All of the sculptures involved were questioning our existence in some way. Looking back now I find the sculptures by Folkert de Jong, Rebecca Warren and Berlinde de Bruyckere really interesting. Each of these artists have distorted the human figure in some way and have made me think about my own work.
Transparent Silhouettes
Posted: April 26, 2014 Filed under: Year 2 - Term 1 Leave a commentA while ago after making some cut-out life drawings, I decided to do this again but with plastic. I thought that by doing this that the cut-out figures would have more of a presence as I could shine light through them and project them onto the walls. I think that was quite effective as it did give the figures a presence, but also removed it as the shadows looked lost due to the transparent plastic used in the first place. I definitely think that my dissertation research is helping me to progress my work. At the moment I am looking into abstracted figurative art during the post-war period and how the presence of the figure within the art explained the human condition. I feel that this piece shows the solitude and loneliness of humans in this universe.
I did initially make three of these but unfortunately the first two that I made got thrown into the bin! I am really annoyed as those two were so much more effective than the one that I am left with. I thought that they showed more emotion than this one as the figures were whole rather than cut-off. It is also a shame that I will not be able to make any sort of installation with them. I was planning to make some sort of lamp shade with them-well I did make it but now I will have to improvise and do something else with it!! Unless I have time to recreate them, I will have to think of another use for this lonely one! 😦
Ideas for new artwork!
Posted: April 5, 2014 Filed under: Contextualisation, Year 2 - Term 1, Year 2 - Term 2 - Art and the Conscious Mind | Tags: Francis Bacon, painting, psychic representation Leave a commentWhilst doing some research for my dissertation, I came across the phrase “psychic representation”. This was used to describe Francis Bacon’s style of painting in the article “Vulgar Pictures: Bacon, de Kooning, and the Figure under Abstraction”. This phrase has inspired me and I think that I might create some expressive drawings of people to capture their moods as quite often many of my life drawings are quite static and they could be anyone. I think that taking inspiration from some of Francis Bacon’s work will allow me to further the projects that I have done so far this year and hopefully make them more interesting!
Simon Schubert’s paper folding
Posted: January 4, 2014 Filed under: Contextualisation, Year 2 - Term 1 | Tags: Paper embossing, paper folding, Simon Schubert, white paper Leave a commentAfter really enjoying embossing paper last term, I decided to research some artists that use similar techniques to this in order for me to see the potential of what I could do. I came across the artist Simon Schubert just now actually. Simon Schubert is a German artist who folds white paper to create shadows. Before reading about this artist, I assumed that he used a similar embossing technique to me. It might be interesting to try folding paper myself to see if it gives a similar effect, although thinking abut it I doubt that I could create the smoothness that the embossed marks give with folding.
I was interested in Simon Schubert’s work as it looked very similar to the pieces that I produced last term. His work is very intricate and is mostly of architectural spaces. They look very ghostly as he adds no colour to the white sheets of paper that he uses. I really love the purity of these pieces and like how you have to look closely at them in order to appreciate them. After reading a little about his work, I feel that his work I about loneliness. Many of his pieces have clear vanishing points which add to this feeling. Long corridors and large staircases give the impression of being isolated in a large place.
here is a link to some of his work: http://style.paperonfire.co/2012/06/paperonfire-interview-simon-schubert.html
Week 5: Relational Aesthetics – 8th November 2013
Posted: December 5, 2013 Filed under: Constellation, Year 2 - Term 1 | Tags: art, Artur Żmijewski, Gabriel Orozco, Nicolas Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics, Rirkrit Tiravanija Leave a commentThis week we looked at the topic of Relational Aesthetics. It really opened up my mind about what ‘art’ is. This idea was theorised by Nicolas Bourriaud in the 1990’s. Relational Aesthetics works with the idea that communication and participation is essential in the completion of an artwork. This can be seen in Gabriel Orozco’s ‘Parking Lot’, 1995. In this installation Orozco ‘broke through’ the boundaries of the white cube and therefore tried to combine art appreciation with life.
Another example is the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003. This event was made very informal, allowing artists to engage with the public in an every-day setting. A similar example to this is a piece by Rirkrit Tiravanija made in New York in 1992. This artist created a setting (which looked a lot like a messy kitchen) in which the public would visit and talk to each other whilst perhaps having something to eat! Again, this piece brought together ‘art’ and ‘life’.
The most interesting piece of art discussed during this lecture was by Polish artist Artur Żmijewski, titled ‘Them’, 2007. The artist created a setting in a studio and invited various people who all had very different political views to create art. This situation involving opposing viewpoints created lots of disagreements and hostility. It was quite exciting (and funny at times) to watch. This really made me question what art could be and whether it is necessary for the ‘artist’ to create the work themselves.
Here is a link to ‘Them’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoEkWhuh6a4
AmeliaRoseGauci 