Essay Seminar (Graham)

Essay Seminar
Graham

I have just had a seminar with Graham to talk about my essay so far. It was really helpful! He said that my introduction was really good and I shouldn't change any of that  but the next section talking about Tehching Hsieh is a bit confusing as I have gone off topic saying that anything can be art.
Grahams gave me quite a few artists and information I can research as he thinks I should focus more on the repetition as it has more of a connection to my own work.

These are a few of the artists that Graham has told me to have a look at:

1. JSTORE - Onkawara & Essay 'Lewitt In Progress' by Rosaland Krauss
2. Yoko Ono
3. Vito Accanci - Instruction
4. Hanne Darlaven

I am going to continue with me essay so I can get it done ready for my next tutorial next week and ready for the hand in next Friday!

Work On Essay

Essay 
More work done on essay

Last night I have been working on my essay and have managed to get another 200 words done ready for the session with graham.

This is what I have done so far with my essay:

Process can seem to be forgotten when viewing art, sometimes camouflaged behind the final outcome which is displayed in an exhibition format. Nevertheless, it is now becoming widely accepted in the art world, arranged through various mediums allowing us as artists and viewers to get a deeper insight into the stages of production.

Process was the doing not viewing, but can now deem to be defined as a finished product and an actual piece of art.

An artist named Tehching Hsieh has emerged within my practice research recently, providing me with a deeper insight into the extent that the art of process can be taken to.

(Fig 1. Tehching Hsieh, One Year Performance, 1978-79, Performance, New York)

Fig 1. Displays Tehching Hsieh being consumed within a cage for one whole year doing nothing, alone with his own thoughts. This fantastic piece highlights the distance some artists go to in order to produce artwork.

The New York Times covered this piece stating ‘He built a cage from pine dowels…furnishing it with a bed, a blanket, a sink…each day the friend took a photograph of Mr. Hsieh, who had shaved his head at the beginning’ (NYT 2009).

Initial thoughts would be, could this generate the same impact as a piece such as Marcel Duchamp’s urinal which is shown within an exhibition context?

Hsieh’s piece was staged in the ‘Museum of Modern Art… from 11a.m. till 5 p.m. people could visit it like a gallery and see the work in progress’ (NYT 2009). Viewing the performance would enhance the thoughts and response to the artwork from the viewer, impacting in a way that they will be indulging themselves into the spatial aroma.

The connection between my own practice and Hsieh’s is not easy to read, this is what makes it so interesting when researching. Although I am not presenting a staged performance as of this piece, I dive into the format of repetition presented in his series of documentation.   

2nd Crit (Liz Lemon)

Crit
Liz Lemon 

During the crit we went around in groups to each others work like in the last session but discussed the work we have been producing since the last time we all met up.
I presented a couple of my pieces that I have been recently working on, these are the pieces that I had shown:

For the receipt feedback the main problem that I found as well when creating the piece is that it is not like the original. In some way the original has a better feeling about it than the reproduced pieces. One thing that I am going to do to improve this is try to dye the actual receipts in some way in order to categorize them so that it keeps its original quality.

After talking about this piece and explaining the reason behind producing these, the group gave me some ideas in which I could improve and get read to present it as a final outcome during assessment. 

These are some of the ideas the group came up with:

1. Go larger with the receipts and cover a whole studio space
2. Lost it with the reproduction of receipts, go back to the original
3. Maybe place it near shopping center to see if people notice
4. Take it away and place it in an exhibition format
5. Enlarge the receipts maybe as big as the wall

Some of the artists that I have been told to have a look at in relation to this is:

1. Christian Boltanski
2. Henry More

After looking at the receipt project I am working on I showed the group the small leaves that I am looking forward to producing for the 'Long Road Project'.

They really liked the leaf with the image printed on top as it brought up questions into how I have made them and how long it took me to do so.

I am going to keep producing these leaves with images printed on as I would like a large pile of them ready for the exhibition! 

Artist Lecture

Artist Lecture

During the artist lecture I was thinking about my own practice in regards to his when he was explaining what he looks at and what he is interested in.
This weeks artist lecturer was a painter and it reminded me of the canvas I have sitting in my studio doing nothing. I really enjoy painting but I get worried that it wont be as good as it would have been a year ago as I haven't picked up a paint brush for that long. But, I am thinking of producing a piece in response to my consumerism theme and work over Christmas on it so that I have enough time to think and get into the notion of painting again.
This is going to be a challenge but something I really want to get back into!

Placement Talk (Tom Davies)

Placement Talk 
Tom Davies 

During the session with Tom he talked about the placements we are thinking of going on and whether we have made contact with them. I haven't made contact yet but I am thinking of doing it very soon!

After speaking to Tom about my placement he said that I should talk to my school quickly as if I get my ideas in they will have time to think and try and fit me into their schedule.
Also he asked me to drop him an email to the website of the school I am thinking about going to so that he has a reference and idea of what the school is like and the curriculum.

I am definatly going to try to contact the school either this week or next and then update Tom on my progress so that there is a constant communication between him and myself!

Receipt Colour Printing

Receipts
Colour Printing

During the tutorial with Anna Francis she was mentioning to me ways in which I could show how I have categorized my receipts slightly clearer to the viewer without revealing too much!
One of the ways she suggested is to colour the receipts in relation to the colours of the pins I had set up in my studio space.

So I took down all of the original receipts from my studio wall and started to scan them in on my printer in which I could use them in Photoshop to change the colour of them.

This is what the scanned images looked like when I processed them on my computer:

Once I had scanned them in on my computer, I went onto opening them into a file on Photoshop and placing a semi transparent film of colour on top of the receipts in order to show the categories within the products.

This is what it looked like one I had placed a film of colour on the receipt and printed them off:

Represents food

Represents everyday items

Represents clothing

These are the same categories I had placed them in before with the pins but instead of using the pins I have cut them out in various colours. After doing so I found out that where the receipts had been previously creased, the printer had printed the colour off darker than normal. Therefore I used this to my advantage and used the harsh printing lines to form the creases on the paper to make it look like a receipt and the illusion that it has been in someones pocket all scrunched up.

I then started to present it on my studio wall in the same way as the last time I presented the original receipts: 

This made the studio wall really colorful which enticed some of the viewers mirroring the attraction that manufacturers want in their products.

I enjoyed making these receipts but the main problem was that I don't think the printed out versions were as good as the original ones and don't have the same effect. 

I have a Crit soon so I will soon so ill see what other students think!   

Graham's Essay Meeting

Essay Meeting
Graham

Yesterday I had a meeting with Graham about my essay and it was really helpful!
It was only a 15 minute one but he gave me quite alot of books to have a look at. My work is also looking at an archival basis so these are a few books that Graham has advised me to look at:

1. The archive without museums - Hel Foster
2. The body and the archive - Sccula
3. The archives - Charles Merriweather
4. Art and artifact - James Putmnum 

I am going to keep doing some more research on these for my essay!

Essay Research (Introduction To Essay)

Essay Research

I have been having a good think about what my essay is going to be about as it is coming close to the time of writing it.
The essay has to be related to my own practice and how it relates to other artists and the ideas that have flowed within the studio. I have had a good look at the way I am working and presenting my work and I seem to be working more process based than relying on a good final outcome.
The artists that I am going to have a good look into with being process based is the artists that Jessica Longmore provided me with.
In the essay I am going to look at how process can sometimes be forgotten within the art world as the final outcome is deemed to be the most important. Also, how the process is being more accepted now and how they display this when an exhibition takes form.

I have had a go at doing the introduction to the essay regarding the process based theme:

Process can seem to be forgotten when viewing art, sometimes camouflaged behind the final outcome which is displayed in an exhibition format. Nevertheless, it is now becoming widely accepted in the art world, arranged through various mediums allowing us as artists and viewers to get a deeper insight into the stages of production.
Process is the doing not viewing side of art but can now deem to be defined as a finished product and an actual piece of art.

This essay starter may change depending on the reset of the essay but i am going to see how it goes as it goes along!

Tutorial (Anna Francis)

Tutorial
Anna Francis

I have just had a tutorial with Anna Francis, it was really good as I have got many more ideas to go with my art!
We mainly discussed the Long Road Project and my receipts as they are two of the main pieces of art I am currently working on at the moment. I was having difficulty with the way I am going to present my receipts from the students of fine art and Anna gave me some great ideas regarding this.
One artist that she said I could have a look at is Ellie Harrison and her day to day data (it should be in the library as a catalogue) as it displays an archival way of looking at the presentation of work.

Also one thing that stood out for me was instead of using pins to categorize my work I could scan in the receipts and re-print them on different coloured backgrounds in the categories I have explored. I am definatly going to have a go at this!

In addition to this, I haven't really used video this year so far so Anna suggested that I should photograph or scan in all the receipts in date order and then produce a video where the viewer can view the pile/collection of receipts in a continuous motion which lasts maximum 5 mins.

Also she did like the idea of collecting my own receipts, but every time I buy something I should write down how I feel at that exact time and date and time it. Then after getting a collection I can think of archiving them in a certain way! Going to start this immediately!

In regards to the receipt piece of art, I was thinking of recollecting them but make a note of who gives them me and how old they are ect. to create a large profile of people which could go into an archive at some point.

Books/Artists Advised To Look At:

1. Susan Hilier (Looks at archives)
2. Alain De Botton (The art of travel, The art of happiness)

I might have a talk to a woman named 'Liz Allen' about archival systems as she is based in the university!

Artist Research - Alice Bradshaw (Recommended by Jessica Longmore)

Artist
Alice Bradshaw



When Jessica Longmore first told me about this I found it really interesting! What Alice does is collect all of her rubbish throughout a period of time and then display it! She called this 'Museum of Contemporary Rubbish'.
I am interested in this because like my receipts I am trying to find out what everyone else (students) purchases and in which categories does this fall in. Whereas, it would be interesting to have a look at what I consume within a period of time and collect it like Alice Bradshaw does and see what results it gives me!

If I was to do a project like this I would have to have a big period of time in that I can see how much I consume and buy and whether it is a large amount or a very small amount. I was thinking of doing this next semester where I can start at the beginning and go right through till the end of the year!

I'm going to keep this one in mind!

Artist research - Tehching Hsieh (Recommended by Jessica Longmore)

Artist
Tehching Hsieh

I was given this artist during my tutorial with Jessica Longmore and have done a bit of research just about what he does and how it relates to my own work.

He did a piece called 'One year performance' this was a structure of around 5 pieces in which he did various things and events for one year and then displayed his findings in a exhibition.

Here are a few pieces related to the 'One year performance':

1. One part of this was called 'Cage Piece', this is where he locked himself in a cage with only a basin, lights and a pail and a single bed for a year. In this year he could not talk, read, write or listen to tv or radio. For documentation, a friend came once a day and removed waste and gave him food and took a single photograph for every day in a year. This was displayed in the exhibition! 
2. Another part was called 'Time Clock Piece', this is where he punched in every hour on the hour for a year. Every time he punched in on the hour it would take a picture of him which gave various outcomes as he did not always meet the time and had to run and would just have his hair go past the camera. Also before the piece he shaved his hair and by the end his hair was longer which showed how time passed. He displayed this with punch cards and photographs to match that time. 
3. 'Outdoor Piece' was another he produced where he stayed outdoors for a whole year and could not enter any public transport or building until the end of the year was up.
4. In 1983-4 he produced a piece of performance called 'Rope Piece'. This is where the artist spent a whole year tied up to another person by a rope and like the first piece he shaved his hair and by the end of the year it was long to show the time passed. They could only touch each-other at the end of the year. 
5. The last section to this piece of performance was called 'No Art Piece'. This was the last stage where he did not look at any art, talk about art, visit any galleries and museums which was totally opposite to what he was normally doing.

I thought this artist was very different but very similar to my own practice. This was interesting because he works with repetition, especially the one where he clocked in every hour. It relates to my receipt one as every day I come in and there will be some new receipts on my studio table and I would put them up before starting the day, definatly repetition.
Also I need to have a look how to present my work in order for it to be categorized further. I want to see how far I can go with the receipts in regards to categorization!

I am going to looking into this artist further to see how he came up with the one year performance at the start!  

Leaf Printing (Second Attempt)

Leaf Printing
Second Attempt 

I decided to not have a go at the glue transfer as I had a research and it said that it wouldn't work with this type of surface. I have also been thinking of the Long Road project and what I will be doing for that as it is coming up really quickly and this idea about printing on leaves sounds like a good idea for that project as I was looking at how we try to control the environment when I was on the retreat. But, instead of printing the receipts on the leaves I was thinking about transferring some of the images I took while I was in the Peak District of signs giving us an instruction. I am finding this really interesting as it is linking in with my own practice now!

I did some research into what other ways I could transfer images onto surfaces with and also spoke to some of my friends and they said why don't I try to use Lazertran!

I brought some Lazertran from the art shop and sealed my leaf with PVA Glue as it is an absorbent surface:

Added a thin layer of PVA on to the surface of the leaf (opposite side to the spine)

While I was letting the leaf to dry totally I went to the photography department with the Lazertran to print off the image that I wanted on my leaf. It was difficult to find out which side of the Lazertran to print on as I failed previously at this step because I printed it on the wrong side. The right side is to print it on the glossy side. 

I made sure on the computer that the image was the right size for the leaf before printing:

Checking the size of the image

After the printing was done I went back to the studio and cut it out and got ready for the next process which is placing it in warm water.

When the image is placed under warm water there is a small film like surface that comes off that is placed upon the leaf surface ready to dry:

This is where I have placed the image in warm water to reveal the thin film in order for me to place on top of the leaf

After I got the film off the paper in which the image was printed onto I placed it on top of the top side of the leaf and pressed it down so it was stuck. This was really hard as I don't think this is normally used to transfer images onto a leaf but I carried on and made sure all the edges were stuck doesn't before trimming around the edge of the leaf to make it neat.
After the leaf had been trimmed I let it dry and then patched it up with a bit more PVA glue and sealed it with hairspray and it turned out like this:

This is what the final item looked like and im pretty happy in the way it has turned out!

I will keep trying to make these with different images and also the receipts as I want to perfect this method!

Artist Lecture (Bedwyr Williams)

Artist Lecture
Bedwyr Williams

I have just been to the artist lecture and it was awesome! It was about an artist named Bedwyr Williams who is a welsh artist who works with a variety of sculpture/painting and performance art!
His work is shown at the Venice Biennial which is spread out throughout Venice in various churches and buildings. I really enjoyed one piece of art where he had an opaque wall in the background but over the top he had a film called 'Scrim' which theaters use as an illusion and maker things creepy. If you shine a light through scrim it will reveal the picture which then it could create a misty effect!
He also made a big sculpture of a table (looked at bit like a large ikea table) which had various objects on which maybe new couples would have if they were moving in together. This was really good because the table was very large and the viewers can walk underneath it and see the objects from below as the table was transparent.
Later on in his presentation he explained that he was looking at imagery that relates nasty imagery with ephemeral imagery.
As I worked with actors in my final piece for level 4, I thought it was really good that he worked with musicians to create a video piece. The people he worked with was someone who worked with Charlotte church ect. The piece was about what it was like to be buried within a pile of bricks.
As the presentation went on I realized that he doesn't really like curators as they are trying to be new artists. Therefore, he made an art piece from gingerbread of a dead curator and asked local people to make the gingerbread and he sculpted it. This was good as the whole body was eatable.
Finally, he also uses found materials eg. shells to make various pieces of art, he made a piece from shells in
the form of a BBQ.
The funny part was when he described his work as dumb but is art!

This was a really good artist lecture, best one so far!

Lighting & Documentation

Lighting & Documentation
Photography

Today we had a session with a tutor from the photography department about documenting. It was really interesting because I got to see how to use a DSLR and how to use a white balance and look at the room I am wanting to take the shoot in correcting the various light contrasts.
We went around various peoples work trying to get one painting, one sculpture and one installation to document. It was really interesting because the painting had gloss on which gave off reflections and uncontrollable light which was hard to capture a good picture. Therefore, we added a few lights which bounced off the white walls behind the photographer which softened the focus on the painting.
After this we went to an  installation piece, this piece was made from small pieces of string wrapped around beams to make a big spider web. This was extremely hard to get the camera to focus on the small pieces of string which we ended up using a macro lens allowing us to get up close to the string and focus better!
Finally, we went to my piece of sculpture (money doesn't grow on trees) and we took various shots against a white wall. As it was a sculpture piece it was interesting as there was various shadows given off from the piece. I also found out be re-positioning the lighting in different places it can control the direction and quantity of shadow allowing me to take a good picture.
I am going to see if I can get the pictures I took off the camera we used for this session for documentation!    

Priming Of The Canvas

Priming
Canvas

I have just finished priming the canvas that I had made last week! I used an item called Gesso to prime it as I am going to use acrylics and various inks to produce the piece of art. still not sure what I am going to do on it yet but im sure I will think of something to expand onto the canvas with.

Here are a few pictures of the face of the canvas being primed:

The only places that I didn't prime were around the sides of the canvas as I have ran out of Gesso and need to buy some more to finish the whole canvas off. I might put another coat of Gesso on the front as well to make it brilliant white!

Artist From Jessica Long

Jessica Longmore has just provided me with another artist that I will look up along with the others she gave me during the tutorial tonight.
The artists name is: 'On Kawara'.

First Attempt At Leaf Printing

Leaf Printing
Preparation

I started by having a walk around the campus and picking up a couple of leaves that interested me and are large enough to print a receipt onto.

The reason for wanting to print a receipt onto the leaf is because during the tutorial with Jessica Longmore, we talked about the piece I am currently doing which is the categorization or receipts and how I can relate this to my other ideas towards nature. The idea of printing receipts came from how humans try to control nature and how we are becoming distant from the natural environment and steering more towards consumerism and mass production.

Once I had picked a couple of leaves I wanted to work with, I dried them off quickly with a hairdryer and then put a thin layer of varnish on both sides to seal the leaf:

This is what I applied on both sides of the leaf to make sure it is a bit stronger for the next step of the process.

I was thinking of ways in order to print onto a leaf and I thought about putting it through a printer!

I started by scanning a receipt into my computer and then aligning it up with the position I would like it to be printed onto my leaf.

In order to put the leaf through the printer I had to experiment by placing the leaf of an A4 piece of paper with small dots of blue tac to make sure the corners are down so that it will feed through smoothly.

Unfortunately, it didn't work and nearly got stuck within my printer so I had to take it out quickly.

Although it was a fail, for the next attempt I was thinking about using glue and trying to transfer the image off the receipt onto the leaf!

Leaflets From Birmingham Exhibitions

Leaflets

Exhibitions & Events:

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery:

Birmingham Printmakers:

Discovery Trail - Birders Paradise:

Birmingham Exhibition Visit

Birmingham Exhibition Visit

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

As I didn't go to the London trip with the University, I wanted to visit a gallery to see what is being shown.

Going to Birmingham galleries was really fun as it gave me more of an insight into the way they curate the exhibitions and different artworks that are shown.

I started off by visiting the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, although it isn't soul'ly art it was really interesting seeing the different historical artifacts. Also as I am looking at different categories for my receipts it was good to see the way they categorize there artifacts and various pieces of information. One of the ways they categorized the history was to present it in date order. I might have a look at date order in my receipts and see how far I can go with it.

As I walked into the museum there was a really good piece of installation art at the entrance, this is what it looked like:

A side veiw

Looking down

I liked this piece because we are able to look at this piece at different angles. One of the most interesting angles that I captured when viewing this was when standing underneath it. This is what looking up at it looked like:

Looking up at it

This blew me away because it captured the sunlight and it looked like some type of entrance or exit from a bubble.

Walking around I also saw a few more intriguing pieces of art:

This was a painting with oils, I want to start a painting as I have made a canvas and was looking for some inspiration in order to start and I really like the use of layers and oil colours within this piece of art.

This piece raised alot of questions for me as I didn't really know what it was at first and thought it was some type of war sculpture. But, when getting to read the statement from the artist it said that it was a sculpture relating to a rock drill reconstruction! but it did have a war history to it as well so I mustn't have been too far off!

I really enjoyed walking around the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery! I even saw an insight into an artists sketchbook which showed us the way they work before producing large scale artworks.

This is a sketch from an artist sketchbook, it was really detailed!

The New Library Of Birmingham

The reason why I wanted to visit the Birmingham library is because I knew there was a piece of art from one of my tutors, Anna Francis.

The piece of art was called 'Birder's Paradise'. This piece is all about looking at different species of birds and trying to spot them throughout the library. At the beginning there was a small booklet I picked up where I had to walk around the library and match the birds that we saw as I walked around with the ones in the booklet.

Here is some of the birds that I found when walking around the library:

This was actually a really fun activity that I could do as I walked around the library!

The final thing I had to do was to find my own bird book and draw the bird on the booklet and jot down the author and the book title.

I really liked the interactive element to this piece of art as it got the viewers to walk around and be aware of their surroundings.

This is what the entrance of the hut looked like where Anna's piece was and where they stored old books that were not wanted:

I really enjoyed this trip! Defiantly going to go back to see new exhibitions as the arise.

Might take a trip to Manchester nest to view their exhibitions! 

Placement Discussion (Emily Campbell)

Placement Discussion

Emily Campbell

Today we discussed the areas we want to explore during this practice and placement module.

At the beginning we went around the table and said who we were and what we are working on in our studio, this was just giving Emily an insight into what we are looking at and researching.

After, we each told the group the different ideas we have for our placement, I had two ideas, one being an exhibition and getting more experience in curating and the other was to go back to college and try and bridge the gap between an A level and degree standard.

There were great pieces of advice given to me which I need to look at before I approach the school/college.

Some of these ideas are:

• Think about what I am offering to the college students
• Think about the language of art (come up with a project and think about how it makes you feel)
• Think about how many visits/sessions I will need to complete the placement
• Think about what materials I will need to take in
• Think about coming up with a theme (in relation to my practice maybe going into different shops and what feelings you have when you enter)
• Think about having an interactive lecture/PowerPoint (how to break tension and the lack of self-confidence)
• Think about what type of visual outcomes there could be
• Think about looking into the national curriculum and how to fit it in with the school system
• Think about breaking it down into a day to day plan so it is simple to understand
• Think about explaining that artwork doesn't have to be finished to be a piece of art (when is something called a piece of art, when is it finished?)

I was thinking about the structure while I was in the session and have came up with this:

1.    Introduce yourself and go around the group saying who each person is and what there area of interest is

2.    PowerPoint

3.    (Past) describe a piece of work to the best of your ability (Michael Branthwaite)

4.    (Present) look at work in progress and when do they think the work is finished

5.    (Future) Write a proposal for your next piece of artwork

6.    Group seminar

7.    Individual tutorials

(This schedule may change as I go along up to the placement itself)

I am going to look into all of these areas further so that when I wrote my proposal for the college it will be detailed with the exact information I want to present and what me and the college will get out of the placement.

Made A Canvas!

Canvas

Today I have created a canvas in the wood department of the university. Not really sure what it is going to be at present time but I am going to do bits of research and dive into consumerism and see I where it takes me!

This canvas is pretty large as I thought I would like to challenge myself as I haven't produced a painting since last year.

This is what the canvas looks like:

 I am going to prime it before I start painting on the surface like Stephen Boyd taught us in level 4!

Pictures from the Peak District

Peak District
Images

Here are some of the images I saw when we went to the Peak District for our Richard Long retreat. The most important element and the idea that interested me the most was how we try to control nature either from the use of mass consumption and consumerism or in general.

Here are some of the pictures highlighting how we control nature:

When walking around the site it was strange to see these various signage around the manor because with it being in the wild and being one with nature, it takes away the freedom and is trying to control the environment.

One of the main points that I did realize was the further away from the manor house, the less signs I saw trying to control the environment. But, on the other hand, the way the trees are positioned in a field and paths made to walk is still an insight into humans trying to control the environment we live in.

This is very similar to consumerism as we are taking over nature to build masses of houses and shops, we forget about nature. 

Also as humans we worry about too many things in life and we think we need to rush and plan our lives out where as in nature it travels at its own pace.

I am going to print these off large and see if it communicates with the other pieces of art that I have made!

Tutorial (Jessica Longmore)

Tutorial
Jessica Longmore

I have just had a tutorial with Jessica Longmore. In relation to Liz's tutorial earlier in the week it was really interesting to get another artists point of view about the work I am producing at the present time.
Jessica asked me about the work I am looking at and I explained about the subject of consumerism that #I have been exploring for the past year.
She was really interested in the receipts section to my work as it is a repetitive process and she thought it was great that that idea stemmed from one of the readings from Michael Branthwait.
It was really interesting the ideas that she was providing me with, one of the artists Jessica wanted me to look at is a performance artist that looks at how important process is in a piece of art. This is a Chinese artist called 'Teching Hsie', this artist also looks at repetition in the same sense as the receipts that I am working with.
To find the artist I need to search on google 'Liverpool Biennial' and then there is a piece of art called '1 Year performance'. (I am going to have a look at this very soon!)
In relation to my receipts, we were discussing which route I could go on, one of the routes that I found intriguing is seeing how many categories I can sort them into until there can be no more categorizing.
I mentioned that I went to the Damien Hirst exhibition and enjoyed that he used various categories which I have began to display in my work. Jessica said that I should have a look at archives in library to help with the idea of grouping the receipts.
Therefore, I might take a trip to the museum to see different orders they present their objects in.
Another artist was mentioned during our tutorial, her name was 'Alice Bradshaw'. She collected all of the materials she used for a year including the pens that have ran out when writing ect. I like this because its like storing an archive in which gives us an insight into the way she works and what she consumes within the year! She made a piece called 'Contemporary Museum of Rubbish'.
There was one main thing that stood out for me in this tutorial and it was to use natural materials to produce receipts.
I was thinking of going out to the local park and picking some of the leaves and seeing if I can print a receipt on the face of the leaf as an experiment!
Also, maybe in relation to the repetition, I could blog everyday about what I am doing every 10 minutes.

This tutorial was really good and very helpful!

Added More Receipts!

This morning I have been able to get some pins to further categorize my receipts! Also there was alot more receipts left on my studio desk from various students which is good so that I can apply more to the wall.

This is what my studio wall looks like at the moment:

This is half of my studio wall, but I am planning on making this as large as I can so I can fill an exhibition space with all of the receipts!

Grahams Lecture About The Readings

Review about the readings
Grahams Lecture

During this lecture we went through each reading, it was fun because it was an interactive lecture.
The first session we had was the readings I didn't go to but the second half of the lecture was about the readings I did go to. This was interesting because with the readings being a couple of weeks ago it was good to see how much we can remember. Surprisingly, I remembered quite a bit! Graham chose some of us to answer some of the questions, the one I was asked was 'What period was Post-Modernism?'. At first I didn't really know what period Post Modernism was in but during the lecture he went through post modernism and what it entails and by the end I knew what it was on about and really interested me!

When doing some research into Post Modernism, it was really interesting because it was the same type of idea I am looking at in my own practice. It is all about mass consumption and consumerism between the 1960's and the early 2000's. I need to look into this period further to see different types of artworks that are involed in this time and how they could relate to the practice I am pursuing at this time.

Tutorial (Liz Lemon)

Tutorial
Liz Lemon

The tutorial with Liz was interesting because I haven't really spoke to her about my work before and it was nice to have another tutors views on how I can move on productively.
At the beginning of the tutorial I mentioned to Liz about a new idea I have been thinking about during the artist lecture, the ideas was to look in a dictionary and pin point words that relate to the idea of consumerism and make a geographical piece of art using the one word only that I had found. Liz mentioned that although it sounds like it could be a good idea if I did a bit more research into it, she thinks that I have got enough work to dig deeper and find different ways of presenting it and expanding on them to improve or alter in some ways.
I thought this was a good idea cause it has made me more focused with the work I have already produced leaving me thinking of different presentation ideas so that it makes more sense to the viewer.
Also, I have started to realize that my work is starting to be very process based, highlighting that the most important part of the works that I am producing is the process (the receipts art I am working on).
Liz also gave me some ideas to do with research into how my small sketches relate to the receipts I have on my wall, as the receipts have very small writing on them and you would have to get up close to interpret them. My small drawings also have small writing on them so I want to have a look at the relationship between them and maybe see where that takes me.

The tutorial was really helpful and ive got a couple of ideas and ways into researching more about consumerism and having a look at the process the manufacturers have to go through, for example invoices ect.

Money Matters (Continued)

I have been looking into producing some more of these but finding characters that have authority within the Disney world.

I have produced these ones continuing on from the ones I had made with Mickey Mouse and Goofy on them:

Unfortunately

I think the idea of playing around with money and bringing a comedy aspect to it instead of the importance of money has came to stop. I don't really want to continue creating these pieces as I think it doesn't have many directions it could go. If I think of another direction which will improve these pieces then I will pursue them again but at present time I am going to move onto another idea that is forming within my work!

Crit Group Action Plan (Michael Day)

I have just completed the Crit group action plan that we all fill in after the group chat explaining how useful it was and what we are going to do next.

Crit Group Action Plan
Michael Day

How did your work develop in response to the readings? What was discussed at your Crit group?

During the reading with Michael Branthwait by Elizabeth Price, it was suggested that repetition is a good form of art especially if I have hit a brick wall and not sure where to proceed to. Thinking along the lines of repetition, Michael gave us the challenge to think of 3 things/artworks we can produce in relation to this. The action plan I chose was to collect receipts from various students and stick them on the wall in categories to see what is most consumed.

What do you intend to do immediately as practice?

After the Crit group some suggestions have been made for a healthy progression. One of the ideas was to keep producing and categorizing the receipts and fill the wall so it is overwhelming to the viewer. Also maybe bring in the relationship between a map and the receipts. In addition to this, I was advised to change the Disney characters on the notes and dig deeper to reveal history eg. why is Charles Darwin on the note. The most intriguing one is to look into the black void in the wall and how it relates to the Photoshoped images.

What do you intend to do immediately as research and contextualization?

I want to dive down and looking into this relationship between man and nature. Also I am thinking of taking out a book called 'Society of the Spectacle' as it looks into post-modernism and mass consumerism between the 1960's and the early 2000's. I need to gather a deeper understanding of post-modernism.

What current or upcoming exhibitions do you see as being useful to you?

I am currently going to visit Richard Long's exhibition in the Potteries Center as it looks a journeys within nature and I can see links within consumerism. As I aren't going to the London Trip, I am thinking of visiting galleries during that time.

How do you intend to test out your work between now and the next group critique?

As I work with sculpture and photography I will ask my tutors and peers for critical analysis.  

Money Matters (Currently working on)

Money Matters

This is the work that I am currently working on and I am finding this really fun!

I really like the idea of the money in the piece with the polystyrene head.
I started to keep making some more transfers of the money in which I am going to use in this piece of art! The idea of keep making these is interesting as I am mass producing am item exactly like a manufacturer does in a workshop.

I have heard that the chapman brothers have done a similar thing with the defacing of the queens head on a note. I am going to do some further research into this!

This is the money that I produced for this project!

I have had an idea to put a cartoon character in replace of the queens head which is found in the center if you hold it up to the light. The reason why I want to do this is because cartoon characters bring a comedy aspect to the piece also highlights a child-like theme. Putting this against a pound note takes away the seriousness of a note. (A bit like monopoly money) 

I want to use a cartoon character that is famous so that the viewer notices who it is straight away, just like looking at a normal note where the queens head is situated. 

These are the first two notes that I have created with Mickey and Goofy on as I believe and after asking various people are the most famous Disney characters.

I want to carry on with this idea but I might have a look into authority figures in the Disney world!

Long Road Project Retreat!

Long Road Retreat!

This was such a good expedition and learning more about Richard Long has given me more ideas about my own work and how I can relate it to the way I am working.
We went for the weekend which gave us enough time to see how we can respond to the environment around us and thinking about what we can do in our exhibition that is going along side Richard Longs work.

One of the main aspects that I really enjoyed was the workshops on the day of arrival. This was a great way of learning which department does what, meeting new people and the many interesting ways that we could collaborate and share ideas. Defiantly a great ice-breaker!
As the weekend went on it was really good to be able to see nature in a different way, being in the city most of the time made me in some respect ignorant to nature and needing to look closely at how it develops and what out there has a great connection to art!
Doing research into Richard Long before going to Ilam provided me with a foundation to which grew throughout the weekend giving me new ideas into my own practice as well as the exhibition.
It was sad to leave as I had loads of fun! getting to know how everyone works gives me excitement to apply and experiment within my own practice.

The main thing that I have got from the retreat was when I was walking around I saw various signs that have 'Don't step on the grass' written on them which I found really interesting as it is trying to control nature! I am going to have a look at this in my studio practice too!

Roll on the exhibition!

Crit Group (with Michael Day)

Crit Group 
Michael Day

During the crit group we had to walk around to each others work and describe what we can see and what different processes we thought they did during the production of their work.
This was really good because the idea of the artist not talking first and the group describing what they can see, reveals various ideas of what it can be and hearing these ideas gave me loads of ideas of where to go from here.

They first looked at the piece of artwork 'index of receipts' and they talked about some really interesting aspects that they thought it was showing.
Here are some of the ideas that they came up with:

• They were looking into whether the receipts were in some type of order (this was really good because at this time I was wondering whether they would notice the order I had put them in).
• They thought the order was the most expensive at one end and the least expensive at the other (this could be something that I can look into if I decide to rearrange them).
• The receipts are like a hoarder as if someone had collected them for years.
• By placing them on the wall it is like everything has been made to be the same, doesn't matter about the price, they are all equal.
• Also be placing them on a wall it reveals their importance whereas if they are in your wallet they are unimportant as they get forgotten about.

This was really interesting because the outcome that I wanted the audience to get was successful within the crit group. Also I gathered some good ideas in case I wanted to change around the order of the receipts.

Moving on, the 'New York' one was more interesting because they read more ideas from it than I thought originally!

This is what they came up with:

• It looked like a scene off the 'Disaster Movie'. It looked fake but real at the same time.
• With it being in New York, demolishing central park where the entrance to hell has gone is like its destroying nature and consumerism is taking over.

Listening to others in the group describe this piece of work has made it easier for myself to understand it and be able to talk about it.

This is what the group said about the 'Money Doesn't Grow On Trees' one:

• They thought there was a connection between this and the New York one as they are both looking at nature being taken over.
• The way the manikin head related to nature and how man plays a big part in nature too.
• Money is consuming us.
• They did think that it was too easy to read!

This piece was most probably the least successful as it was definatly too easy to understand which I will go back to and see where I have gone wrong.

I had painted a black blob on my wall earlier last week and it was a mistake but as they started to look into what it may insinuate, I found maybe a new direction that I could take, this is what they said:

• The black blob looked like the entrance to another world.
• Looking into a void.
• This looks like a map as it has sharp edges.
• This links with the New York piece.

I am really going to have a look into the New York piece and see how it related to this black void I have created on the wall about it.

Next Steps

After we had a talk about what they thought the work was trying to say, I gave a small talk about the things I was thinking during the process of making these pieces of art.

After this we spoke about the next steps that I could take in order to push my work further, this is what was suggested:

• Produce even more receipts and cover the studio wall.
• Bring in the relationship between the receipts and a map.
• Produce more of an impact with the trees on the polystyrene head by making the tree bigger.
• See more of the black splodge.
• How the black splodge relates to its surroundings and the pictures it could be grouped with.
• Look for specifics and keep digging.

This was a really good exercise and am looking forward to carrying on with the ideas given and getting ready for the next Crit group!

'Money doesn't grow on trees' or 'The future is leaving'

'Money doesn't grow on trees'

This is a piece that I started at the beginning before the others a couple of weeks ago and have been looking at it wondering where it could go and not sure how to describe it.

Starting Point

I started with having a conversation with my dad talking about how University is going and what I am doing, this is where I explained that I am looking at consumerism and his reply was 'its like all the shops are trying to eat us all'.
This was where my thought started from initially wanting to make a polystyrene head with the mouth open and small people with bags leading up the tongue of the head (as it they are leaving).

Example:

Here I was playing around the idea of wanting to make the polystyrene head look less like polystyrene. The thing that interested me about this piece that I wanted to create is that I want to treat consumerism as being something human (giving it a life). This I thought related to a hierarchy system where consumerism is on top and we are the followers.

I was thinking of how I was going to make the small characters that will be consumed by the mouth of consumerism and I came up with the idea of using Lego people as it is one of the most consumed item on the market! Also has a relation to kids.... 

This is where I thought that the creation of these small people and the head would be too time consuming and after speaking to some students on my course I began to think about the subject of consumerism. We came to the conclusion that without money it is really hard to consumer products. I decided to revisit this idea about creating a head that consumes people at a later date and wanted to think about phrases that I have heard as a child. I want to take 'Money Doesn't Grow On Trees', as I have been told this alot as a child.

Moving on

I want to stick with using the polystyrene head from the last idea because it relates to something being manufactured with it normally being shown in clothes shops displaying clothes.

This did raise the question further 'how do I show money doesn't grow on trees?'. I like the idea of us thinking that we can just go out and spend money, this is where I came to the conclusion that I could create a tree growing out of the polystyrene head.

I tried out various positions in the polystyrene head where the tree can be growing out of it and thought this would be an interesting outcome:

I like this because it looks as if it is growing from within the head!

I needed to think about how much money I will display on the polystyrene head?

These are some pictures of the final outcome:

This is ready for the Crit later in the week!

The reason why I liked this piece is because of using man made items which is the polystyrene head along with natural items being the tree created a contrast raising questions. Plus the reproduction of money is like a manufacturer producing items in bulk!

The thing that I am worrying about is, is this too easy for the viewer to get? ......