Semester 2 Week 8 Move for Ukraine/short movies

| harussell1

This week was a great week for many reasons,but especially in reguards to the fundraiser.Sunday night a reporter contacted the #Move for Ukraine facebook page from ‘That’s TV Scotland’ asking if one of us would mind giving an interview about the walk.Kristina and Taylor were obviously going to be too busy with the walk and would want to save there phone batteries incase anything were to go wrong.Alyssia was working so I volunteered to do it. It was via zoom and the journalist made it as relaxed and as friendly as possible.I was really nervous but knew that it had to be done to get as much coverage as possible for the cause.

https://www.facebook.com/ThatsTVScotland/

She asked me to send her any photo’s related to the cause and asked me how we came up with the idea,how Kristina was feeling,about her connections to Ukraine and how much we aim to raise etc etc.The interview only lasted about 10/15 minutes but it was enough time to get the point across.

That afternoon I decided to make some art in relation to the project using movement.So i used my feet and hands to create the ukraine flag.I felt that using my feet had an important significance as people had walked 1000’s of miles fleeing the war and i wanted it to represent that.

The left hand side was made using my hands and the right my feet.Altho i liked the ‘swishy’ sea like motion that the blue had made on the left I felt that the flag on the right was more symbolic.

https://youtube.com/shorts/D_dpcsOwYJs?feature=share

https://youtube.com/shorts/9ZeJcIx7C_0?feature=share

Donation box left I in the hallway
Wee blue and yellow bird made by Rachel in my studio.Was unintentially painted the colours of the Ukraine flag and given to me.Thought it would serve as the perfect wee emblem for our project.Birds reflect freedom,flight and most of all movement.
Poster I made for the protest expressing concern at the actions of Putin reflecting Hitler’s.

The girls finally completed there walk around midnight on the Thursday night.Kristina said that they were tired but mostly from not getting a proper night’s sleep due to the cold and that they decided to double up the end of their journey so that they didn’t have to spend another night in a tent.And that they had managed to book a hotel for one night at Burnt Island along the way and that that really helped give them the energy to spur them on.

Rather frustratingly,my toilet decided to leak (yet again) all over my bathroom floor so I wasn’t able to attend the protest which I was really wanted to attend but I heard from the girls that it went well.

Our current amount is sat at £740 so hopefully by the end of the month we will of reached our target if all continues to go well.

This project has turned into something that i would never of imagined and I am so proud at all the hard work put in.I had never met any of the girls prior to this and we have all worked so hard to get the project to where it is at.

Headcage

I like how the cage frames particulary well areas of the face.

This week I did some filming with a friend who is a fellow student.We have been in education together now for a few years and she is an amazing director and films really well so I love having her film my performance pieces.I wanted to display anguish whilst in the head cage but we also realised through trial and error that the filming worked best when the hood was fully up and the cape was tied right up under the chin in order to create more shadow and the hood moved really well particulary in slow motion.

https://youtube.com/shorts/NikBsR5ZMCs?feature=share

I feel that the movie’s work well but that the images alone are more striking.I think i may work on shortening the video’s down even more so that they just consist of a few images.

I grew up watching this music video on repeat as my dad was a big fan of Jean Michel Jarre.I can’t seem to find who the artist was that shot this video but it also was the inspiraton behind the headcage shots altho the Red Lady’s eyes are deffinately more threatening!

Ana Mendieta

Ana Mendieta liked to work with the four elements and created this piece as she felt that she had been torn from her homeland and wanted to feel the body to earth connection again. Altho her theme is very different to mine I admire the symbolic qualities of her work.Particulary the use of red in the top left and bottom middle photo,it really adds a darker context to the work and is simple yet captures your attention.I also find it slightly ironic that the top left and bottom middle photo look like that of a murder scene and the and the artist fell to her death from a 33rd floor window of her apartment (it is thought that she was pushed by her husband)Prehaps she predicted this through her art?
Mendieta would often use chicken blood in her work to raise awareness of issues women faced such as domestic abuse and rape.

Joseph Bueys

I can’t say I believe in the ethics of Joseph Bueys work as it seems rather ‘show off’ in terms of how much he must of spent on particulary the exhibition I Like America and America Likes Me (performance, 1974) by not stepping foot on american soil.Using a plane then an ambulance to get to where he needed to go.I do like the fact that he used being a shaman as part of his work practice and how performance particualary in this exhibiton was mixed between his natural state and symbolic shamanic gestures.It made me consider how this could possibly influence my work in reguards to mixing the every day with the performance itself.
‘The Pack’ I like the way Bueys has transformed these inanimate objects into looking like living things.

Anselm Keifer

Der Gordische Knoten by Anselm Kiefer. I appreciate the darkness in Kiefers painting and the way he incorpates Norse mythology by marking Runes into his work.I also like the dark textural effect.
‘Field of the cloth of gold’I particulary enjoy Kiefer’s exploration of the tension between beauty and terror which I feel that this painting depicts well and the textural elements.

Mark Dion

I feel that my fascination for beach combing and for curiosities long hidden within nature could be compared with that of Mark Dion’s work.Altho he doesn’t re-purpose the objects as such he stores them more as artefacts but in an artful and interesting way.I suppose this could be something to consider when it comes to displaying my ‘Artefacts’ publicly.

‘The libary for the birds of London’
‘The Texas cabinet’ The Texas cabinet actual reminds me of a cabinet within my house where i store alot of curiosities.

Goshka Macuga

From Gondwana to Endangered, Who is the Devil Now?, 2020 Altho this tapestry is based on economical issues mixed with humans portraying animal characteristic as part of the ‘furries’ trend I look the dark dystophian feel to this picture.

Hanna Tuulikki.

‘Deer dancer’ Taking from a performance piece at the Baltic.
I like the way Tuulikki communicates words with movement via her performance pieces and the simple,effective yet symbolic use of costume.

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