displaying work.

21st Apr 202221st Apr 2022 | harussell1

This week was mostly about tying up loose ends in regards to video work and looking at how I could pull all my work together and display it for assessment.

Firstly,I decided to add some music over both edits of the Red Lady and the flag combo.I decided to use music that gave the feeling of tension with a beat that seemed to echo that of a heartbeat as I felt that it was important that the viewer felt the tension and fear that the red lady feels.The swishing had a space-like feel which I felt added to the dystophian feel behind it.

The Halloween edit gave more of a creepy vibe then the tension I was seeking but being a sucker for a baseline I decided to make this edit anyway as i felt like the flash imagery worked well with the beat.

Collaboration

I got asked by a fourth year Claire Gamble if I would want to collaborate with her in a photoshoot which would be shot by a local photographer (Lydia Smith Dundee) as she was making viking styled jewlery and thought it would be a great idea to incorperate the Red Lady’s asthetics with it.So I modeled holding an old book with jewlery on it,a challice with earings in it and a stuffed crow on a branch with jewlerry hanging from the branch.There was a white mark which had appeared on the hood of the cloak which Claire tried to remove with a wet wipe which ended up leaving a wet mark on the hood which the photographer wasn’t happy about.It was decided to tie a shoulder throw made from crow feather around the hood area.I agreed to this altho it doesn’t particualry go with my aethetic.Upon viewing the photo’s afterwards i realised it looked more like hair and I can’t say i was a fan of it but these photo’s were to be used by Claire for her degree work mostly so I didn’t say anything and luckily the wet hood dried for the ‘in character’ shots that I did. I particulary like some shots that were done using red lighting and the ones which were up close to my eyes are it looked like I was going to cry (but really I just had hayfever eyes that day haha).Sadly the photo’s are not yet availible so i’m not able to post them to the blog but hopefully in the future they will be so that I can add them here.

Displaying for assessment.

It’s difficult to get a real perspective from this photo alone but I had originally envisioned having the head cage up on a plynth as I felt that it was a very important part of the story so I wanted to draw attention to it but I felt that it would distract from any other found items/sculptures I also found that the other pynths weren’t long enough for the other items particulary the long spear shaped found item.

A class mate suggested turning the longer plynth on it’s side.I liked this idea height wise because it instantly makes the audience member crouch down and therefore starts to get them actively ‘involved’

Dirt!I decided that why not involve the audience member in what I found most exciting,which was a huge part of the process and also part of the story an archaelogical dig/found items

Digging style tool used by Archaeologists which has a similar shape to the digger tool that I forged

I decided to merge alot of the strong ideas together for the final assesment piece.I took Maria Fusco’s advice and filmed a performance piece where the Red Lady appears and leaves her mark and tell’s her story by making cave-like paintings.I felt that it was important to partially use natural colourings due to the Red Lady’s surrounding being the woods, so I mixed the compost used for the dig in a little water and used a mixture of sticks and an electric cable to paint the images I also mixed the red paint with compost water to give it a darker grungier tone.I also used the cable to scratch in some detail to show frustration,anger and a feeling of being on edge.It also helped with the primitive feel.

I felt that the reverb of the door slamming went well with the reverb present in the music.I wanted the movement of the red lady painting herself to be almost as if she was praying and moving in a hypnotic motion.

The image on the right is her abusive husband warning her not to meet or gossip with others.

The red lady then uses her time traveling powers to travel through different decades leaving items and hints at what is to become the future for women if they don’t act now.

“Nolite te bastardes carborundorum”

(Don’t let the bastards grind you down) (Margret Atwood 1985)

The handmaids tale has played a huge part in this project I think more subconciously then conciously as I am a big fan of the books and TV series. Something that has echoed in my mind is that in the second book ‘The Testaments’ there is a chapter where many decades on into the future diaries are found written by Ofred which then become artifiacts as the historians try to piece together what happened and I like to think that about the ‘unknown artifacts’ left by the Red Lady as people try to piece together what these items are and where they have come from.

I have been following a facebook group for a while called ‘Remebering the accused witches of Scotland’ which is a petition which has been started to get the goverment to issue a public apology for the hanging of scottish witches. I found that this radio programme discussed the issue in more depth.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0015bdj

Also the fact that woman are still being painted as ‘witches’ in today’s society should they be too outspoken.So really how much has changed?Particulary in the sense of abortion laws being brought back into states in America by states either goverend by ‘christian’ males or ‘christian’ females but more often then not males. This is why I felt that it is important that the narrative that the red lady is trying to tell is that the past is going to repeat itself in the future if the change doesn’t happen now.I feel like the rust on the items particualary the headcage ties in with these ‘age old’ laws and ways of thinking.And yes,some of the items may look medevil but it is a physical representation of age old laws making a revival.

Here are the states that have passed laws restricting and enshrining abortion access

This article lists the states which have banned abortions.

A woven piece of wood which looks like a vagina a symbol of the female being entrapped and restrained.

I wanted some of the prints to look like little gifts from the red lady to the audience to enable to give us little clues of her past.

I think I am mostly happy with the resolved display altho I would of liked use of the projectors so that I could of had my video work of the red lady and the flag displayed over it. As this is an important part of my work but I understand that projectors are prioritized to fourth years at this time of the year.I also wish I had more space so that things could be laid out a bit better but hopefully that oppertunity will come in maybe third year and hopefully fourth year. But I feel like all in all I have used all media’s to the best of my ability and tried to pull them all together along with the performative and story-telling aspect.I hope that the audience are able to participate and feel a sense of excitement,thrill,horror but also take into consideration the more serious undertones.

I feel like my creative journey to get to this stage has been a bumpy yet exciting ride,I am firstly super glad that I differed so that i was able to use the workshops and really draw them into my practice. I have learnt alot of new skills through them which I hope to take into my future practice. Secondly, I have learnt the importance of a strong narrative from speaking to Maria Fusco which had a really strong impact on my work as I felt like the narrative had to many loopholes and was too ‘lost’ prior to speaking to her.I feel like the mixture of story telling with the feminist undertones has relayed real problems that are still current for women in today’s society.

Semester 2 Week 10 Found objects,the blood robots and The making of the flag pole

6th Apr 202223rd Apr 2022 | harussell1

This week,I started to look over some of the found objects that i had found and how i could display and put them together.I also looked at how some of the found objects relayed with others and how they could be combined.

The lightbulb was half filled with water that never seemed to come out.I felt like finding this object was a breakthrough moment (even if it was later on in the term as it gave the project the dystophian feel I had been hoping for but for some reason I had found myself lost without realising it using materials that only suggested a medevil era such as steel,rusted objects and natural objects.This has been a complete learning curb for me and has taught me to consider the use or materials in regaurds to the narrative of the story/project more in the future.

I liked the way in which the objects fitted together

The Blood robots

After finding the lightbulb I felt that this helped draw in the dystophian influence and it also made me think of an Angler fish ,I decided what would happen if I mixed this with a robot? The edwards sciccor hands syle blades are hollow and draw the blood from people which in turn fuels the light bulb and also fuels the light within the town.

The mouth was also inspired by the Angler fish.

The blades were inspired by Edward Scissorhands.

Giant bomb inspired the tank in the stomach that fills with blood.

The making of the flag pole

To the right are two samples of the twist and a diagram showing me when i would need to twist.

Something I should of done prior to making the flagpole was measure inside my car as the flagpole proved to be too long for it,so I had to take it back to the workshop and remove a good 20cm.The technician suggested making an extension so that it could still resume to it’s original height.I did this by welding a bigger squarer pieces of metal to a smaller piece enabling the flagpole to just slip inside of it.Altho this was a great idea at the time it just seemed to make the flag pole to ‘top heavy’ and removing the extension from the bottom of the flag pole made it less so.It was also really difficult to get the right kind of soil for it to stand in.The soil was either to hard or too soft.It managed alot better with the harder soil altho it took a while to pitch it into the ground.

Flagpole extension.Bottom Half slides onto the rest of the flag pole and acts as an extension (it also meant the flagpole could fit into the car)

https://youtube.com/shorts/dr4la4ur8t0?feature=share

A slow motion edit of the flag up Law hill.The wind was super strong that day and the flag pole had to be held up towards the end and the flag started to tear out of the eyehole it was that strong so I had to hold the flag pole and the flag after a while.

https://youtube.com/shorts/lTgnt13uBw4?feature=share

A clip of the flag moving in real time.

This shot I felt was particulary powerful due to the way it caught the sun right in the middle of the eye symbol.I choose Balgay park to film this part in as I had allready scouted out this particular area last time I was there and noticed that the lighting was amazing at that time of day and how it made the leaves look red and how eerie the trees looked.I only edited the warmth slightly in this shot along witht he contrast as the sun was doing most of it for me.Sadly tho due to how loose the earth was and the fact it was on a hill I wasn’t able to get the flagpole to free stand.

Different edit where by I enhanced the blue of the sky and the warmth of the flag more so.I felt like doing this gave the sky much more of a dystophian/outer worldly feel.

I decided to overlay the Red lady with the movement of the flag as I was interested in how the material of the flag would move with the cloth of the hood.I also wanted the symbol on the flag to tie in with her torment and torture.I have just kept the orginal sound in for this video as there seems to be a scream in the background without it even being purposeful.Altho I have wanted the video’s to be soundless I may experiment with some with sound too.

This edit uses a slightly warmer tone and did’t turn out quite as condensed as the first one (I’m still trying to work out what I did differently it may be due to how I exported it).All in all I’m really pleased with how both of these have turned out and I think is amongst my most sucessful piece so far.

Just lately I have been watching the Andy Warhol diaries on Netflix.What I found particulary interesting from this doccumentary is that few people really knew Warhol as his personality was part of an act and a persona and most of all part of his art.I liked the fact that this doccumentry wasn’t another run of the mill doccumentry about his work but rather a deeper and darker look into Warhol himself via his diary entries.It made me think about ‘The Red Lady’ and how much of a cross over there is between my personality and hers.I think we certainly share the same strength of character.

Semester 2 week 9.Photoshop/beach combing.

21st Mar 202223rd Apr 2022 | harussell1

The tree that bleeds.

This week I edited some images from photo’s I had taken at Roslyn country park a few weeks ago.I felt inspired by a scene in Pan’s laberynth where Ofelia climbs inside the dark looking tree where a toad lives with a key in it’s mouth.Mixed with ‘The tree of the dead’ in Sleepy Hollow which of the grave of the ‘Headless horseman’ and contains the bodies of all his victims.I felt that the image of this tree would help piece together some of the story telling in regards to the main character.Prehaps this is where she was tortured and once a year the tree bleeds reminding everyone of her final resting place.The white filter on the tree was my favourite as there is a better contrast with the blood.I also altered the colour of garlic grass surrounding the tree to a black looking mould to add to the feeling of decay.

‘The tree of the dead’ containing the victims of the Headless horseman.

A haunting

I decided to use a couple of filters on some pre-exsisting images taken at Roslyn Country park.I felt that it was quite symbolic the removal of the face as by being silenced she had lost her identity,it also connected with the hole in the tree.This image of the woods at Balgay had red lighting without even a filter being used which I felt was perfect.

Flag

if the hole was even slightly too big then the eyelet would fall through,was a bit of struggle to get it to the right size!

Due to illness,the technician had to cancel the forging of the flag pole for this week but I’m going to try and get booked back in for hopefully next week or the week after.The 4th years have the workshop from the 1st April onwards so hopefully I can get booked in before then!

One of the least patriotic flag making video’s I could find.And the technique seemed the easiest.I drew up a similar design and took it to the technician who agreed.

Found objects

I found the metal looking grill on the beach and decided it would be great to use for weaving

Following on from the binding theme I decided to hang this almost hang man figure to the wall.The split at the bottom of the ropegiving the inanimate object legs and a life of it’s own.

https://youtube.com/shorts/Gj5Sp6IHkVI?feature=share

I travelled to Balmerino again on order to beachcomb.The tide was very nearly in but not quite (I keep wrongly judging the tide times online) so I managed to have a quick rumage and somehow pull this light from the beach which must once upon a time of belonged to a ship.Water had entered the lighbulb and it had little growths on the bulb also which made it all the more interesting!I feel that adding the lightbulb as a found object will give more of a ‘dystophian’ theme as i feel that everything else that i have made is more medevil.

What I imagine was once the end of a wall?

1 to 1 tutorial and written work.

This week I decided to have a 1 to 1 with the amazing Maria Fusco,her advice really pointed out what my work had been missing,a stronger narrative, Maria posed the question; ‘Are we visting The Red Lady or is she visting us?And that since the Red Lady doesn’t have a voice what about visiting one of the locations I have been to and doing some impromptu writing?So I wrote the following;

Underground.

The damp moist leafs.The smell of dirt rich in my nostrils.The smell of pine needles my only relief.

I scream,the birds fly.

These creatures, they reach unbelievable places,

Don’t.

The box is too tight.

But that’s the point, isn’t it?

Discomfort,pain,agony and torture because I felt too much pleasure. I felt too alive and now they want me dead.

My legs are bound. No such thing as wriggle room.

I had too much wriggle room.

My head is caged so they can hear my screams.

They.

Females,women,girls.

And god forbid the animals should cause such a racket.

My face is hot.

The cage is heavy.

I try to kick the top of the box with my bound legs.

Of course, they made it too high.

The creatures itch, they tear at my skin.

I welcome death now,

I demand death now.

But I also demand

HIS.

The Cage.

The cage.The dreaded cage.The cold hard steel weighs heavy on my limbs.My view is partial.

Too many friends,

Too joyus.

He never had any.

I did.

My hands are blue.

I don’t talk now.

My throat is seared with heat.Dry hoarse heat.

This death is too long.

It’s night now.

Or is it?

My hands are heavy.

Pulling.Something is pulling.

Is he coming back for me?

Please don’t.

My ribs, piercing like sharpened daggers straight into my lungs.

The rope is too tight.

Mock me.That’s okay,it reminds me I’m still alive.

I’m cold

My ribs hurt

My hands are heavy

I don’t forget.

We also talked about how my work would be displayed in an exhibition context and how would the red lady visit?By the touching/moving of these artifacts do we bring her alive?Is she upset by changes in her environment? No matter what decade in which they should occur?Maria also suggested that aswell as having the artificats laid out and the video’s playing what if she enters the room and paints on the wall with the twine/straw.The item is then left aswell as the painting telling part of her story and adding to her own personal narrative and Maria also posed the question how would she of been able to paint herself in the other paintings that i had done.How would she know what she looked like?And that prehaps these paintings were best left as records of what happened by locals adding to the story.

1921 – Six characters in search of an author

Maria mentioned the playwright Pirandello Web and his play ‘six characters in search of an author’In this play the characters visit the audience in search of an author to make their characters more ‘complete’Prehaps the Red lady will visit the audience in order for the audience to give her her ‘voice’ by understanding her paintings.

Maria had suggested one of her own pieces of work ‘Master rock’ mainly due to all the different elements that came together to create this ‘experimental drama’ it was interesting to think of all the different narratives combined from the poetry to using the narative of a survivor called a ‘tunnel tiger’ who dug through the mountain and was the only person to survive,to an artistical mural and a musician as the voice of the Master Rock. It made me wonder if prehaps I could bring spoken word back in and prehaps use it over the videos.

Another person mentioned was the writer Ursula K. Le Guin and her science fiction based short stories ‘The Buffalo Girls’ which features a dystophian world and a play which is currently on at the Royal Court.

The play features a woman in a windowless cell in an Asylum in 1863,the audience visits her there where she has no memory of whom she is and becomes the accomplice of a medium who requires a new assistant.Altho I like this narrative I think that it’s all too common that we visit the character and what is expected instead of the character visiting us which changes the whole dynamic.

Semester 2 Week 8 Move for Ukraine/short movies

11th Mar 202222nd Apr 2022 | 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

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

Mendieta would often use chicken blood in her work to raise awareness of issues women faced such as domestic abuse and rape.

Joseph Bueys

‘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.

Heather’s blog

Short Horror films