Third year week 2.’WHen life gives you covid make a cup of mucus’

14th Nov 20222nd Dec 2022 | harussell1

This week my project took a full 180 degrees turn.What was meant to be a weekend visit to my partner who lives in Okrney turned out to be a full week due to us both getting Covid.In my fevered delirious state i started to wonder if the cloaked figure I had imagined was actually a premonition of my own covid due to the fact it had a rib sternum as a face covering.I had felt so lost with what esactly the world was going to be that connected to the cloaked monster but now I knew.That world was this world and Covid visits us when we least expect it.The most hideous monster of them all

Covid Feels like.

Covid feels like: Burning hot pokers pushed into your eye sockets.

Covid feels like: Having your head crushed slowly by a car door.

Covid feels like: A lump in your throat that will swallow YOU whole.

Covid feels like: ‘Welcome to the worry factor’

Covid feels like: ‘I’m gonna fail,I’m gonna fail’

Covid feels like: ‘I can’t afford it’

Covid feels like:’Rich,Rich,RICHARD’

Covid feels like: *SNORES*

Covid feels like: *Cough…spew…cough*

Covid feels like: ‘it’s chocolate,it’s something you like’

Covid feels like ‘Not on your nelly,not one little bite’

Covid feels like: Missed opportunities.

Covid feels like: -£900.18

Covid feels like: There had to be a positive.

I wrote this in the midst of covid and altho I felt down and burnt out by it to start with one night whilst wide awake with the shivers I felt inspired to write this.

I also kept a diary entry.

When life gives you covid make a cup of mucus.

Day 1 8pm: It all started when I went for dinner with Richard and the girls. He wanted to sign up to

Rev comps and I was trying to ignore the fact that I felt ill until he went to sign up and it delayed us

leaving so I blurted out ‘I feel ill! Please don’t!’ Can we go now?

We watched 1408 as it seeped in I sure as hell wished we hadn’t as most Stephen King movies are

like a fever dream anyways and I swear this just made it worse. I didn’t know what day of the week it

was by the time it had finished and my temperature soared through the roof. Rich tested me.I was

negative which was the positive in my mind.

DAY 2 5am: Searing pain in my eye sockets, my head feels like it’s been slammed in a car door several

times. The pain keeps me awake the chills make me not want to leave my bed to search for

ibuprofen. Decided to wait until almost day light (which takes a while in Orkney in the winter) to

wake Richard because I couldn’t handle the pain much more. Out of the goodness of his heart he

wet me a small towel and applied it to my head and eyes. It was a small gesture but one I was so

grateful for. I finally slept until 9am.

He took the day off to look after me.

He’s too sweet.

I lay on the couch lethargic and coughing up flem balls like flemy cat.

Somehow, we came to the unanimous decision that going to the spa would be a great idea.

(It was not)

Turns out the sauna and steam room did not clear the flem in my throat it just made it SO much

worse. It felt like the thickest flem ever that I couldn’t clear or get up. The coughing was leading to

me gagging, which was so embarrassing (especially in public)

Rich told me to spit.

I’d rather swallow.

I was meant to be going home tonight but I had to reschedule due to feeling so ill. It cost me £30 to

reschedule.

Day 3: I slept so well!!!!I woke up so refreshed!!I never sleep like this, I barely even noticed Rich

leaving for work! The hill is alive with the sound of…shivers? The cough of doom? FFS. At least I

managed to get the clothes washed and some of the dishes done though. I decided to run another covid

test because something isn’t right here…

POSITIVE.

Messaged Rich because he was in a meeting. He comes home then…

POSITIVE.

Couples who get covid together stay together right?

His &hers

How sweet.

I had to reschedule the ferry (again)they let me do it for free this time though because to travel with

them with covid is against their policy. Thank God as I had no money left.

Feeling so para about Uni, had to cancel my welding session, tutorial and everything. I didn’t want to

fail.I can’t fail. I really don’t want to fall behind but what can I do?

I messaged Pernille, she said t would be ok to talk to her about it. That and the 10,000 other things

keeping me behind just now. My Dads ill ,my cats ill ,I’m ill. I have no money. Urgh.

I can’t differ again. Not this time.

We played stardew valley. It was addictive yet therapetutic I can see how people got hooked during

lockdown and how it helped mental health. Planting, listening to rainfall and relaxing music.

We watched Goodfellas.

Day 4:I couldn’t sleep, Rich’s bed is as solid as a mortuary slab and my hips and back cant take it. I

shivered so much, hugged him for warmth but even he wasn’t his usual warm self. I didn’t wanna get

up because I was too cold to turn the heating on. I finally got up and turned it on. Tossed and turned

consistently. My back and hips hurt, it was too hot it was too cold, coughing,I thought covid was

meant to make you lethargic? I thought up a spoken word poem about covid and all of a sudden it hit

me,

THIS IS A POSITIVE.

The hooded creature with the rib sternum IS COVID. The elephant in the room!!The ultimate

creepester in the room! The one guy you didn’t invite to the party but he turns up anyways

UNINVITED. No matter how big or how small he is he’s there.

I moved to the livingroom to sleep but the ideas paced and paced my head.

Day 5:I can’t smell or taste. Somehow I never noticed this until now. It makes life so abysmal.I keep refusing food and Rich is getting worried. Trying to makesure I atleast take supplements. We went for a walk across the beach. I only managed half way before feeling absolutely freezing,I feel that this was mostly down to me not eating. Everything tastes like textures. My head feels heavy. All I want to do is sleep constantly. I moved the ferry again to Friday this time. Luckily having covid means you can’t travel with them so they will transfer the trip for free.

Day 6: We chanced a walk to Tesco. The exercise did me good and if it was Richard’s way we would be climbing mountains by now but am I fuck. He tested negative. Can’t help but feel bitter about it! Starting to wonder if I will ever test negative at this rate. Or even get my taste and smell back. Not looking forward to getting the ferry home tomorrow especially feeling like this.

Day 7:Even packing for the ferry was a killer let alone getting on it. It was pouring down too which wasn’t great, the ferry wasn’t too rough atleast.

Day 8:I had to wait atleast 2 hours on the train. Forcing myself to eat food I couldn’t taste and then struggling with my luggage to the taxi rank. Taxi driver felt so sorry for me after I told him my multiple sob stories that he gave me a can of energy juice.haha.

Day 9:still positive and I need to pick the cat up.My brothers autistic OCD traits were going into overdrive. Sanitising my hands at his door, wearing a mask. wouldn’t let me use the toilet or touch anything that wasn’t Tia’s. I’m definitely greatful that this happened now and not during lockdown as I spose I would of faced this off everyone. Went to the shops, bought food but barely ate it.

Day 10.Still positive although my mentality is not.Apparently I am well over the infectious stage so is ok to return to the public even though I feel guilty about doing so.Rich is sending me vitamins.I managed to eat breakfast and lunch although it felt like yuck. Mushroom stroganoff tasted like the texture of slugs. Emily made me eat a banana for her project because the joke is that I ‘wouldn’t be able to taste it anyway’ I still hated the texture. I couldn’t even swallow so I spat. Spoke to Pernille, feel better about things now. I will just take everything one step at a time and stop comparing my workload to last years. Done printmaking prep which was an effort and a half. Pushed myself to stay all day and do as much as possible

Did you know your an amazon warrior?

I decided to smear body paint where i felt it the most which was my eyes,head and throat,I also felt like I was drowning in my own mucus which wasn’t particulary a pleasent feeling.Mucus which never comes up.

During a talk from a lecturer (Delia) in my expansive module she mentioned how Amazon Warriors use a type of red seed which is also used to colour cheese in the West and cheesey crisps etc to smear there bodies with in order to protect them from measels!I was in shock as I knew nothing about this but instinctively I was drawn to do this!

I think when I return to uni (hopefully next week) I will ask fellow students who have had covid to go over their stories of it and to choose a colour that they feel best resembles their experience with covid aswell as interview them about their experience.

The covid monster.

I decided to play about with the idea of covid as a monster,the cheap halloween costume kind made from an old snotty bedsheet.But first I decided to create it in shadow form watching over me whilst I slept.

One..two..Covids coming for you.. I like the fact that this shadow figure was reminiscent of ghostly figures from the victorian era.

An abandoned church in a chzech village was filled with lots of statues made by a local artist ‘Jakub Hadrava’ His work was to try and save the abandoned church and was meant to resemble the ‘Sudetan German’s’ (ethnic minorityGerman’s) who were expelled from the country atfter WW2 to Austria and Germany.

On the right the figue of ‘Nadja’ from ‘Art and the Occult’ prehaps ‘The Covid Monster’ is like a spirit figure only ever seen by thoose who are hallucinating due to fever.

Through out dark times in history,people have created art.What I like the most about American Gothic is the fact it was painted during the ‘great depression’ and yet the couple seemed to be in some kind of depression themselves,the painting is such a satire.I want my work to be this,dark humour,based around a dark era in the world’s history.

In this age of darkness,do we need a modern day demon to blame our troubles and woes on?Can we blame our woes on ‘the covid monster?’ as it seems that everything esp at the time of the full lockdown was blamed on Covid.Businesses being behind with workloads,people not replying to emails when they should etc etc.

Third year week one-A discovery of ideas.

2nd Oct 20222nd Dec 2022 | harussell1

Over the summer holidays I have been inspired by working in orkney and visting not only skara brae but excavation sites,cairns,ancient graveyards and other such oddities.What interested me more then anything was the objects from these sites that could not be explained.What were they?Nobody seemed to know but rough guesses were they were used for some kind of games.

An excavation site where three layers of settlements were found,medevil,victorian and modern day!

I also visited Crete for a week before i returned to uni and visited the palace of knossos.One of the oldest discovered palaces.What particualry intersted me was not only the paintings which would of been done super quick whilst the plaster was drying but the vast amount of findings which had been stored at the Herakilion museum such as clay objects with there arms risen up in a cult like worship,giant burial vases one which showed the skelton still inside it.A board game with the rules unknown.I realised that it wasn’t what was known that interested me but what wasn’t.Which is what give me such a morbid obsession with death because there is so much that is unknown in regards to after we die but the greeks has such a fascination with it that they made up a whole universe and characters that would look after you after death such as Thanatos who would come to carry you off when your time given by the fates had expired.Objects made to look like this god were also to be found in this museum.

Returning to uni I found it really hard to get into the swing of things so decided to help inspire myself and my morbid curiosity that i would take myself to Surgeons Hall (a place i have never visted even after 10 years of living in Edinburgh) it was extemely worth a vist with miles and miles of basicaly body parts in phthalimide that had either suffered certain fates or had a tumour/disase,tumor,bones and other such items of morbid curiosities.Unlike the Greek/neolithic findings there was much known about these findings.Photo’s weren’t allowed for the obvious reason of the items being body parts but sketches were. One item I found particualry interesting as random as it may seem was the rib sternum in particular the shape it inspired me and made me think of what a wonderful headpiece the shape of the sternum would make,I thought of this,the god Thanos and prehaps an alternate surreal universe where a cult of white clothed figures lived,the leader where the rib sternum as a had piece.

After recently having watched ‘Keep sweet:Pray and obey’ I thought of how all the morman women were required to dress the same.Same hairstyle,clothing etc within a particular sect a polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, an offshoot of mainstream Mormonism.The women were required to do a dance infront of the men in order to ‘keep them sweet’ and what if this particular cult of white clothed figures did the same.

Female Morman’s dressed in cerimonial white after the death of their leader Warren S Jeffs.

Female mormans of this particular off branch were expected to have their hair styled in one of four particular ways aswell as a certain dress code.

A world where nothing is quite understood we can only guess,a world of darkness,mystery,weirdness and alure.I felt that last semesters work was too dark and heavy and it made me miss the light surreal tones of the semester before.So I feel like moving forward I wanted to mix the best of both worlds altho I haven’t yet worked out if i want there to be a serious message behind this cult (prehaps about removal of female identity?) or just completely nonsensical but this will be something that i imagine will come to light as I work further through the project.

My first stop tho is to make the rib sternum into a headpiece.My first consideration is whether or not I should first make a maquette from card or not and how much of the rib sternum I want to make,do i want the ribs included or just the sternum?Should i make a maquette of both and which would have most impact?

After painting out one of the creatures in black ink I felt that it would transfer really well into waterless lithography which is a technique i tried out last year due to the bold and gestural paintmarks.

The white voile sheet i hope to cover myself in is inspired by Loie Fuller.I hope to experiment with movement and light when I am within the voile.

sewed together piece of the rib sternum of prepared scrunch brown packaging paper with black ink,

Tomorow i have a visit to the Hawkhill museum college and hope to take sketches of further odditities particualry from the pathology department to add to my research collection.

Landscape Module ‘The wings of time’

1st Oct 202211th Dec 2022 | harussell1

After choosing what turned out to be a module that completely wasn’t for me (designed based) I switched five weeks in and found myself completely at home in the landscape module.

It made so much sense choosing the landscape module (which had been my 2nd choice after all) Having spent the whole summer in Orkney and alot of last year I had plenty of inspiration right at my fingertips.

In my usual macarbre fashion I had a collection of dead bird photo’s due to the bird flu which is a really bad problem just now in orkney so much so that people were (and maybe still aren’t) allowed onto the beach in Birsay.

What drew my attention to these birds was their positioning,and how artful and interesting they were.I also found it an odd juxtaposition,the birds lying still and motionless whilst the sea moved,the people walked and life continued around them,the hands of time only effecting the decomposing effects on their bodies.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/in-scotland-a-bird-flu-crisis-threatens-thousands-of-seabirds

In the above article,it talks about how allready a quarter of gannets have died this breeding season,entire breeding colonies are being wipes out and due to gannets only laying one egg per year the recovery of the population will be slow.Not only this,but seabirds in general help the ecosystem as they have essential nutrients in their feces and are top predators which helps the food chain.Birds who are predators will surely die too from eating the carcasses and catching bird flu in return.Frustratingly,the level of this strong multi-strain has been known about for a while but no money has been put into protecting the birds,national and regional responses are needed now in order to protect the birds before more outbreaks hit.

Still lives in nature.

My direct response using the bones found from birds on the beach on Hoy island (which I later found out I shouldn’t of touched)

Loie Fuller

Over the summer I discovered and became facinated by Loie Fuller a ground breaking American dancer and performer who was a pioneer of both modern dance and theatrical lighting.She used swirling silks and multicoloured lights and her movements were inspired by nature,she helped inspire the art Noveau movement of the early 20th century.I started to think about how I could use this performance style in my own work encouraged by death and life in the landscape around me.How could I use movement to resemble not only nature but the time that moved by?

Rebecca Horne

There seems to be a kind of similarity in Rebbeca Horne piece ‘Weisser Körperfächer’ and Louis Fullers wings and I wonder if prehaps she was inspired by her too!

Starting the process

The cycle I work in is one of drawing out by using a variety of mixed media so that I am able to put together in my head what i am going to do performance wise then I perform then I go back to drwing out based on the perfromance or looking at where things can be tweaked.I decided the best way I could show the connection of time with death and life was to make these wings which would not only act as wings but the hands of a clock an show movement but within the landscape.I also had a latin book which has doing words in it which I was initially just planning on using to collage then thought about how great this would be as spoken word over the top of the video/photos showing how movement is constant within the landscape altho death may be present life never stops.

Maquette

Based on the above image I wonderd how I could make this in a sculpted form,I started off wanting to make a more realistic form in metal (a media which I am fond of working in) but it would occur too many issues,I make a thick card maquette before I weld because then it shows up what will and won’t work altho I have to keep in mind that metal does not hold the same flexibility that card does.So I choose to make a more abstract form which shows the flow and movement of the wings.I plan on taking photographs of it on the costal line.

I initally wanted to make a more realistic form making a skirt but then i realised that the metal would’nt bend like the card would and the circular shape would struggle to attach to the shape below so how best could I attach it?

I decided to simplify the shape.the bottom half could symbolise a skirt of legs and what did it really matter anyway?The arms symbolised balance and flow.It would be interesting to make this into a kind of see saw where it could balance from side to side showing balance and motion.The moving life and the stopping death.

The bottom had to be weighted down using two pieces of card but I know that this shouldn’t be an issue with the weight of metal.

‘The Wings of time’

I choose Balmerino as my location as it is a place i am very fond of and feel a connection with.Altho I would of liked to of done the performances in Orkney that’s not really an option right now.Although the weather forcast said sunny it proved to be very foggy,whether that was to do with the smog left after a massive fire in town it was hard to tell.However,I felt that this gave quite an atmospheric feel.It was hard to balance on the pebbles but I somehow managed.The wind made it rather difficult at times too.I felt that it was important to wear black in order to contrast the white,altho i originally planned on wearing a black dress like the drawings suggested i don’t think it would of been very practical for movement.I found myself with an audience of old people which made it hard to concentrate at times.But once I was in the zone it felt like a new form of Tai chi,I moved with the wind and with my breath as you would with Yoga.I would say I am pretty pleased with how the photo’s turned out and prefer them to the video.My next move is to try and put spoken word over the photo’s in almost a slideshow style fashion. Inspired by Rebecca Horn I also wish to try and paint and draw with them.

Location shot of Balmerino looking very dreary due to the mist.

Using the wings as a tool.

Inspired By Rebecca Horn’s piece ‘Finger Gloves’ (1972) I decided to draw using a black ink wash.I decided that black worked as a great ‘theme colour’ due to not only it’s symbolism of death and decay but it’s connection with oil and oil spills as before oil hits the sun it is black in colour.

Both colours have played an important part in the process,from the ink wash to the brown muddy slime on the wings.

https://www.netregs.org.uk/environmental-topics/waste/managing-waste-materials/disposal-of-waste-at-sea/#:~:text=Disposal%20of%20oil%20at%20sea,miles%20from%20the%20nearest%20land

The above website states that oil should not be dumped into the sea if your vessel is less then 12 miles from land when i have witnessed this from a vessel right next to the land.

I hoped that by putting the hat on my head it would give a feeling of the elongated Gannet neck (a bird I had personally found dead in ebundance during the height of the bird flu pandemic in the Summer.

The wing bowing out in the middle was a happy accident as it helped me to see when painting with it.The split pin under the chin helped it hold on for the best part.

Wing put on my head to give me limited vision whilst painting,the same way a bird’s vision would be limited due to the virus causing blindness.The hat resembled that of a ‘Dunce’ hat.Painting with my head like this in the corner it certainly felt like it too!

I tried to capture simultaneously with both arms at the same time images of myself wearing the wings and images of one of the birds i had found from a photo.I wanted to capture movement with my movement,the movement of myself and the movment of the bird,like that of an aboriginie cave painting.

Jaxon Pollock no 32. I admire the gestural flowing free motion of this piece.I tried to create a similar effect in my painting altho the motions wasn’t quite as flowing due to the wings and width of the paper.

Five stag heads found inside a cave in the Nave region of Lascoux believed to be a stag in different stages of motion.Also believed to be one of the ealiest findings of ‘animation’

I wanted my paintings to reflect this due to it’s connection with nature it felt only right that the paintings should have a primitive feel to them.

Rebecca Horne ‘pencil mask’ was another inspiration behind using one of the wings to paint with.

Arm maquette

I really liked how much the card maquette resembled the shape of the human figure but with over exsagerated arms to capture the wings.I was really excited to make this maquette into a metal sculpture then take it down to the beach to take photo’s of it but then due to the strike the teacher never showed up.I had allready waited 3 weeks at this stage just to use the facilities and couldn’t afford to wait another 3 weeks as this would go right past assesment time.

The markings resembled the gentle pitter patter of bird feet,with other areas more chaotic which made me think of the **Bird Flu** virus itself seeping through effecting **90-100%** of a flock within 48 hours

‘Passing through’,Sonnabend Gallery May 1977.Taken from the book ‘Rituals of Rented Island’
Interesting arm extensions of a human kind.I would be quite interested to know what they were made of altho it doesn’t seem to mention.Prehaps Paper mache?

Green Screen test

Altho asthetically pleasing I felt that these images didn’t reflect the bird itself when dying from bird flu/oil spill or a harsh death in general.The movements were to soft and fluid and suggested a gentle death,prehaps dying in it’s sleep or from old age.

I liked the movements but they were far too fluid and should of involved me squirming on the floor.I didn’t end up editing these photo’s in after effects due to this

Performing on the beach.

Looked too much like praying and didn’t want to cause any offence towards anyone.

Sample collected from the slimy looking mud which covered the beach

The image of this gloopy slime type mud resembled that that i found on the beach.

How Oil Affects Birds

Birds are often ‘beached’ when they loose there buoyancy due to the oil as the sea becomes to cold for them to return to.

The above is something I really wanted to bring into my final piece but i am not naturally a great contortionist!I would however in the future try a different series of photos on the beach prehaps using facial expressions to express the pain. I did have a series of photo’s where I was flat on my back on the ground but I had the headpiece on which i felt was too ‘distracting’ and ruined the piece.Below I thought of the seabird chick who jump into the sea prematurely if their parents have died,still attempting to gently flap their wings as the disease takes hold.It is also said that as the virus takes hold of the brain the bird itself starts to loose it’s eyesight and become disorientated.

Final performance.

**This over exposure actually made for a great final picture in the series of photo’s as it told the end of a story where the baby bird finally passes away.**I decided that the Colour should return as death is a comfort.

This piece made more sense,after some discussion with my tutor we discussed how the movements should really display the struggle of dying and how i should really get involved and grotty on the beach. I tried to immerse myself and really feel the birds’s last moments and how uncomfortable it would of been.Would they of been comforted by listening to the sea in their final moments whilst looking up at the sky?

Taken from ‘Student body’ by Marina Abramovic.After looking at the video it was decided that the images were stonger then the video itself and that one of the final pieces would work well as a series of images.I felt particualry inspired by this performance I found where the woman acts out a different celebrity in each shot.However,I decided to just have rachel snap photo’s every time i moved in a slow and static fashion even tho the pain of the pebbles underneath my knees made me want to move fast!

An example of what I could see in some of the photo’s with the headpiece on my head whilst lying on the beach. It was comforting yet clostraphobic at the same time.It obscured my view the same way the virus would as it slowly made the bird go blind.

Final installation

**I looked at a variation of ways I could display the wings.Firstly a paper plane?**

Super pleased with how the print turned out.Altho the university printing unit was closed so had to use the one down the road

I am really pleased with the final results of my work and mostly the presentation for assesment altho my measuring isn’t great!But otherwise my placement in general I think flows as one item directs you to another.I also decided to have the lighter markmaking over to the left as it would otherwise be swamped by the darker colours and you wouldn’t notice the delicate detail as much.

Semester 2 Week 11 Final video’s/Collaboration/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.

‘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.

Semester 2 week 7 ‘Move for Ukraine’

8th Mar 202223rd Mar 2022 | harussell1

Group PRoject

‘Movement’

This week I started the group project,it was something I had been dreading as I don’t often work well in groups and I usually end up clashing with another member or I feel like my ideas aren’t being listened to.But this group project as deffinately changed my outlook on group work/collaberations and instead has shown me the power of working in group projects and how a small group of people with determination and their heads in the right places can work as a total and utter powerhouse that can achieve anything.Next is a day by day account of our actions.

Day 1

Today we met for the first time,I was really anxious and not looking forward to it much.Myself and Katrina were the only people that had Idea’s.I spoke about prehaps doing a performance piece based on something I had done in a performance based workshop in the past where each person is frozen to the spot and there hands/legs etc are moved by another person.Kristina came forward with pretty much a fully written out proposal suggesting that we do a charity walk to raise money for Ukraine walking from Dundee to edinburgh.She had calculated the distances between towns and where we would stop over.Due to having really bad bunions I soemtimes struggle to even walk to college so I said i wouldn’t be able to do the walk as such but could work hard behing the scenes with fundraising/media etc.Kristina had friends who were still over in Ukraine so felt like the war there had really effected her.Alyssia had suggested that as part of the walk she could ask the scrapyard near her if she could paint the ukrainian flag on one of there crushed cars.I was really bemused by this suggestion and had to advise her that this would be highly insensitive and that you need to really think about the art and actions that you do when it comes to such a sensitive subject.I also advised the group that we need to think carefully about who we give money to,as having worked paid for the Red Cross for a few years I am understanding of the fact that they do good work but often the money can be spent in the wrong places because they are such a big corporation who’s CEO’s are making an incredible amount of money for pen pushing whilst there front line workers are often facing a humanitarean crisis themselves by being paid pennies.Kristina said she had been told by friends of the best charity to contact.

Day 2

Decided to allocate myself the position of external communicator.Contacted DUSA in regards to getting a stand for ribbons etc.

Day 3

Emailed Newspapers about the fundraiser.I also asked DUSA if they could advertise via social media and emails what we were doing (no reply which is the typical standard from DUSA).Emailed Victoria Edwards who sent an email out to all the students about the walk and the fundraising stall.Looked at the prices of ribbons on Amazon etc and decided that they would take too long to arrive for the stall as DUSA had agreed we could have the stall for Friday 11-1.I had decided upon these times as we would hopefully be able to catch the most people whilst they went to grab their lunch.Victoria Edwards also posted our email out to all students.

Day 4

Decided I would present them on the inside of my broken sewing box lid and that way if it was windy they wouldn’t blow away!

Benchmark as we had raised £320 before the walk had even taken place and the Dundee Courier had emailed me back in regards to media coverage.I told him Kristina has connections in Ukraine so I arranged a phonecall for 4pm between Kristina and the reporter then arranged for a photographer to come to the uni for 11 for photos.Went to Hobbycraft,collected ribbon and made only 18 ribbons from 3 metres of ribbon!The shop assistance mentioned that alot of people had been in buying ribbon to do the same.

Day 5

Today was the day of the stall in the foyer.Myself and Alyssia turn up early to paint our faces etc.Became a little worried as we hadn’t heard from Kristina and Taylor.Kristina showed up just before 11 but Taylor didn’t.I went down to reception to collect the photographer and the receptionist made a fuss saying i would need ‘a press release’ in order for the photographer to take photo’s of us inside the university and that he wouldn’t be allowed here anyway as no visitors are allowed currently due to lockdown restrictions.I advised her several times that the photo’s were going to be taken outside in the foyer area.Went away to ask Anita Taylor’s permission but she was about to go into a meeting then asking another pen pusher who said we would only be allowed to get photo’s taken outside the building.(Which is what i had told them we would be doing in the first place)The receptionist even commented that she ‘hadn’t seen anyone doing fundraising in a while’ well no wonder when everything is made so difficult!!

Photoshoot took place on the grounds with us posing beside and walking beside Katrina.Holding the poster and ribbons up.

No sooner had I spoken to the receptionist the Vice principal (or someone of some kind of importance) decided to send out a really feeble emailing saying that the uni ‘stood in solidarity with Ukraine’ and that in order to show this the chaplaincy were organising for people to meet up on the ground to show this.Absoloutely no mention of our walk which was actually going to make a difference unlike the universities pathetic all talk no action as per usual.

DAY 5

Today our story made it into the paper and on the online paper also.

Reporter had made up that myself and Alyssia had said things which we hadn’t.(He hadn’t even spoken to Alyssia) Had written that we were all doing the walk (which we weren’t).The online article had more photo’s etc but the link wasn’t very clear at all so it made no difference to our donations because people clearly didn’t know where to click.So we ended up making more money through our stall.I think what I hated about this the most is that we couldn’t be in control of the outcome of how it would be written or look in the paper and that we just had to trust that the reporter would do his best to raise awareness but upon reading the article Kristina stated that she could of written it better herself and English isn’t even her first language!They also mentioned the university in the post alot which I thought the university would make a fuss about but so far so good.

In other news…

I finally finished off the headcage for the red lady.The technician finally agreed to let me tack myself (as i had never done this type of welding before) I actually found it alot easier but my tacks were visable compared to the parts he had done as it was too fidderly to get the hidden the way he managed and as he said ‘it doesn’t matter aslong as you have managed to join the metal’

You can visably see the top two tacks compared to where the tecnhician has neatly hidden his on the bars below.

Very pleased with the outcome altho the cage it’s self weighs a ton and falls alot lower on my body due to the sheer weight of it.

Artifact no6

I had brought in the rusty bolt I had found at my front door in the hope it could be used for this piece but the technician advised that it would need to have a pretty big hole made for it and it would be better just to blow torch a new bolt to make it look old.

Hammering a hole into the Artifact caused the debris from the bottom to come away but I soon sorted this by glueing it back on.The bigger issue became that the top once attached was too heavy for the metal strip and would bend it if you didn’t support the top when picking it up.I think I may consider re-inforcing the rod with a strip of metal somehow attached underneath it altho this may ruin the asthetics.

Semester 2 Week 6 What once was lost now was found.

27th Feb 202222nd Apr 2022 | harussell1

Waterless Lithography

I started off this week by finally printing off the symbol I had created onto material.I was advised by the teacher that wetting then drying out the material (untill it was damp) would help the ink to soak into the weave of the cailico creating quite a bold print which is what I was looking for as it went with the bold punky aesthetics.Due to the stiffness of the material it created creases in the final piece which was accidental but I created an aged look which gave it more of the feel of being an artifact.The next phase is to make the pole to attach it to which I plan to forge and use the ‘pineapple twist’ technique for the handle.

image on cotton was much bolder then when it was printed on dry calico,

The offical welding of the headpiece!

Welding the headpiece together cause alot more issues then was first thought.In regards to how it would be welded (this was tricky when trying to attach the inside) Try to bend the circle just right (this required bending it around a plastic pipe with grippers and by hand.And part of the head piece needed to be forged in order to be bent around the plastic piece at the side of the headpiece as due to the fragility of the metal and the plastic it couldn’t be welded together.This took alot of adjustments before it could be put right.It became alot more time consuming then what we initally thought.Luckily the technician found some hoops that he had made for another project and suggested that for my next appointment we just attach them as they were the perfect size and it wouldn’t be a waste of metal.

Decided on a mixture of steel rods and circular steel as if i made it all with the steel rods it would be far too heavy.I plan on making the circular steel rust by spraying it with salt water.

Found artifact #no5.

The welding technician said that he reckoned the top half of the object was once a door hinge.

I wanted to attach the triangular top half of this piece to the rod and knew that welding wouldn’t be an option to the amount of rust on both object and by the metal being too corroded and thin and if i sanded down the metal it would end up coming through due to the fragility of it.So after conversing with the technician we decided the best idea would be to bolt it either with an already rusted bolt or with a new bolt then spray salt water on it in order to rust it.I will need to research the ratio of salt to water because altho i have heard teachers talk about it I have never done it myself.

I want the drawings to tell a story to help viewers piece things together.I want the drawings to look almost primitive/medevil through the use of sticks and finger painting to using ink and fine details.

Aboriginie cave paintings painted in the Northern territory of Australi believed to be 50,000 years old.These paintings depict ceremonies,to ancestrial spirits to animals brought over by the europeans and even drawings of the now extinct Tasmanian tiger.

Medevil ink drawings

Medevil ink drawing.In order to do anythink with ink it first had to be made using quite a labourus process which included cutting down boiling hawthorn.It was also quite matriculous because if it wasn’t boiled down in the right way it couldn’t be used.I don’t know if I would have the patience to use this process but in this modern day we luckily have lots of other alternatives.

The red lady ft the white lady

I was introduced by a fellow classmate to Balgay Park.I knew nothing of the history of the park and the cemetry and it wasn’t untill I got home and had posted some photo’s to my art instagram that a friend told me that the ‘white lady’ supposedly haunts the bridge that lays between the cemetry and the woods.It turns out that there are many stories about the white lady,but one thing that is agreed upon is that she was a beautiful lady,a beautiful lady torn apart by grief,after her lover tragically dies she throws herself from the bridge in despair.In other stories she hangs herself and another tale is that a wicked witch living on the other side of the bridge in a hut on the cemetry side throws her from it and that you can still hear her screams to this day and see the dent in the rock where her head hit.The rumour is that if you ever cross the bridge at night you will meet the same fate as the white lady.Ledgend also has it that if you run over the bridge backwards and forwards 12 times on the night of hallloween that she will appear.

I found it rather ironic that I found this location the perfect location not only to place objects that belong to the red lady but prehaps to also film whilst knowing nothing of the ledgend of the white lady.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is wp-1646295209415919960699852202409.jpg — I felt that this was an appropriate place to place this object as prehaps the white lady was unhappy at her surroundings being cut down so let this as a warning?

Placed beside an old grave waiting to have the trigger pulled…

I feel that this will be the perfect next location for filming.I didn’t realise how many red tones there were with the leaves untill after I had taken the shot.I love the exposed tree roots and the way the light falls.

Mothmeister.

An artist I have become quite interested in latley is Mothmiester who is a collab of two artists from Belgium who create grotesque post mortem style fairy tale characters who often come complete with a stuffed animal and a variety or curiosities from their own private collection.I love the darkness of these characters and how they go against the fairy tale ‘norm’.

As a child I allways loved darkfariy tales like the Grimms brothers and Mothmiester reminds me of them.

Another source of inspiration that is allways at the back of my mind from my childhood is Queen Mombie from ‘The return to Oz’ Her stare,poise and voice were allways very powerful and literally terrified me as a child yet drew me in as I allways wanted to watch more!And altho I don’t plan on my character speaking there is alot to be said as I found out during my crit about the power of the stare,my friends mother would only have to glare at us and tighted her jaw and this was more frightening then words alone.

My plan next week if I get a chance between the group project is to film myself screaming inside the headcage when it is made.I wanted it to be filmed in slow mo and silent almost like the Sirus Black Azkaban prison shot in Harry Potter