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!Hurrah!An eyelet is born!The kit I had bought seemed to be more for leather punching then materialAs advised by the welding technician i measured the distance between the eyelet as this would then be the distance that would need to be measured out on the flag pole as i would make hooks there.I also measured how long I would want the flag pole with a little extra left at the top of the flag for some kind of design (which i’m still slightly undecided on)
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 weavingI found the middle object at the beach and felt that it looked similar to the Red Lady’s symbol.The weaving has a troubled anxious feel to it.The feeling of a tangled web or something that would be done with repitision whilst the person worried.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.
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?A burnt almost snakeskin looking effect cast onto stoneI wanted to take this whole stick home but it proved too heavy to carry and kept getting metal splinters in my hand so I just kept the metal triangle.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I feel that the movie’s work well but that the images alone are more striking.I think i may work on shortening the video’s down even more so that they just consist of a few images.
I grew up watching this music video on repeat as my dad was a big fan of Jean Michel Jarre.I can’t seem to find who the artist was that shot this video but it also was the inspiraton behind the headcage shots altho the Red Lady’s eyes are deffinately more threatening!
Ana Mendieta
Ana Mendieta liked to work with the four elements and created this piece as she felt that she had been torn from her homeland and wanted to feel the body to earth connection again. Altho her theme is very different to mine I admire the symbolic qualities of her work.Particulary the use of red in the top left and bottom middle photo,it really adds a darker context to the work and is simple yet captures your attention.I also find it slightly ironic that the top left and bottom middle photo look like that of a murder scene and the and the artist fell to her death from a 33rd floor window of her apartment (it is thought that she was pushed by her husband)Prehaps she predicted this through her art?
Mendieta would often use chicken blood in her work to raise awareness of issues women faced such as domestic abuse and rape.
Joseph Bueys
I can’t say I believe in the ethics of Joseph Bueys work as it seems rather ‘show off’ in terms of how much he must of spent on particulary the exhibition I Like America and America Likes Me (performance, 1974) by not stepping foot on american soil.Using a plane then an ambulance to get to where he needed to go.I do like the fact that he used being a shaman as part of his work practice and how performance particualary in this exhibiton was mixed between his natural state and symbolic shamanic gestures.It made me consider how this could possibly influence my work in reguards to mixing the every day with the performance itself.
‘The Pack’ I like the way Bueys has transformed these inanimate objects into looking like living things.
Anselm Keifer
Der Gordische Knoten by Anselm Kiefer. I appreciate the darkness in Kiefers painting and the way he incorpates Norse mythology by marking Runes into his work.I also like the dark textural effect.
‘Field of the cloth of gold’I particulary enjoy Kiefer’s exploration of the tension between beauty and terror which I feel that this painting depicts well and the textural elements.
Mark Dion
I feel that my fascination for beach combing and for curiosities long hidden within nature could be compared with that of Mark Dion’s work.Altho he doesn’t re-purpose the objects as such he stores them more as artefacts but in an artful and interesting way.I suppose this could be something to consider when it comes to displaying my ‘Artefacts’ publicly.
‘The libary for the birds of London’
‘The Texas cabinet’ The Texas cabinet actual reminds me of a cabinet within my house where i store alot of curiosities.
Goshka Macuga
From Gondwana to Endangered, Who is the Devil Now?, 2020 Altho this tapestry is based on economical issues mixed with humans portraying animal characteristic as part of the ‘furries’ trend I look the dark dystophian feel to this picture.
Hanna Tuulikki.
‘Deer dancer’ Taking from a performance piece at the Baltic.
I like the way Tuulikki communicates words with movement via her performance pieces and the simple,effective yet symbolic use of costume.
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.
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,Printed onto dry calico.After soaking the calico and ringed it by hand the placed it between two towels and rolled out the damp.Hung up not only to dry but to give the feeling of what it will look like as a flag.A small part of the top middle was missing due to me not getting it with the heat gun but I figured after alot of consideration and speaking to the technicians that I would probably be the only person that would notice that it was missing and to treat it as a lesson learnt in the future and to be more metriculous with the process.According to the technician it is reallly difficult to get waterless lithography ‘perfect’ and that at some point you just have to be happy with the end results.
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.Measured by eye where each strip would go.I find the different colours that appear with rust facinating,a variation of umber,browns and greys
Found artifact #no5.
The welding technician said that he reckoned the top half of the object was once a door hinge.I found the cluster of stones and shells attached to this object really interesting.Altho the twine is made from natural fibers I felt that it’s ‘chunkyness’ drew away from the fine details of the object.I felt drawn to binding this object due to the man made holes in it but also in holding with the theme.
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.
Eerie looking shamanic drawings.
Medevil ink drawings
I have been trying to capture and essence of medevil ink drawings by using recycled paper and dying it with tea bags before drawing with ink on top.
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.
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
This week was a busy week,inductions and my very first face to face crit since coming back!
But first of all we’ll start off with the Blacksmithing induction.
My intial idea was to make a shaman’s staff but it turned out that that idea was a little too adventurous. First of all we took some industrial metal rods and cut them up,We then filed the sharp edges off ready for heating up in the machine (of which I have forgotten the name)The rod slid into the machine but wasn’t able to touch to sides of the coil it went into otherwise you may be given an electric shock so the teacher had made a stand to use so that you could easily slide the metal into the machine.
This machine was used to remove any sharp edges on the metal.The metal must be held at either a 45 degrees angle or straight against it so that it didn’t get caught and fly from your hands.The machine used for heating the rod up.All of the grey scale from the metal must be gone and the metal must be yellow in colour before the metal is ready to be hammeredThe axel is what is used to lay whatever your hammering onto.In order to add the twist the metal but be clamped into the vice then clamped again and twisted.Depnding on how tight or how far you twisted the metal effected the final outcome of the lines!If the stick was slighly out of shape a cow hide hammer which is softer would help mould it back into shape.This was best done not when the metal had returned to it’s grey colour but still hot.The stick must be kept close to the leg and when hammering you must hold the hammer from the middle because as I found out,if you don’t it strains your wrist and makes everything much harder work then it allready is!In order to achieve the tip the metal must be continously hit from a certain angle whilst the metal is rolled to make sure all angles are equal.I found this very difficult to achieve especially within the time limit of trying to do it before the metal cooled again.As you can see the angle is still slightly off but not too bad for a first try.The gold tip was created simply by using a metal brush with gold coated steel wire on it which then transfered onto the mental when brushed with it whilst still hot.
Altho the idea was initatlly to make a shaman’s staff I feel that it was important to get the technique right first before trying anything more adventurous plus I ended up making an interesting looking arrow/wand which really isn’t too bad at all!
So for my crit this week I decided to use a performance art technique which I had seen used in the past.I told the handful of people in my crit to sit on the floor and i had choosen a spot in which to put a chair with the symbol i had choosen for my character above it.I went and put on my head piece and retrieved the arrow whilst letting suspense grow.I had also painted the symbol on my eye and was wearing the red cloak.
The feedback was what I was hoping to achieve,so therefore i felt that the crit was sucessful.Some of the feedback was as follows; ‘I hated it,I felt as if I was loosing my nerve.’ (this was from the woman whom squirmed) haha.
‘Sitting on the floor felt like being in a position of weakness,I felt small and un-nerved’
‘The symbol had an egyptian feel and made you look almost like a Spynx’
‘Thou shall not pass’
‘Dystophian,handmaids tale’
‘Alien like’
‘Plague mask’
‘Make-up very sci-fi,should of disapered mid way through someone elses crit and came back with it on’
‘It went from a fanciful fairytale to scifi’
‘Was wondering if there was going to be a speach’
‘Noise brought you back into the room’
It was suggested that i could also of used the staff/wand/arrow to point at different people.
In the future I could do a performance piece within the uni where I jump out on people.
Piece was reminiscent of Marina Abramovic where she sits and stares individually at each person who ques to sit infront of her.
I felt that personally I got the reaction that i wanted from the audience but as the tutor said it would of been interesting to see if i could of held composure should people of not of had their masks on.Which made me wonder how the people I saw do it how they managed.What did they think of?
I think i do want to use the staff as part of the act in the future as I feel that this character should remain silent and reaction should be caused by her movement and eye contact.Part of her back story is that she was tortured for being a tale tale and not allowed to speak so she inserts her control using other methods.I allways remember growing up that when me and my friend had been up to mischief her mum wouldn’t even say anything she would just give us a look that was more scornful and terrifying then a telling could possibly ever be and that it the kind of power that i want this character to purvey.
I don’t know how confident i feel about staring at people within the uni.I suppose within an art school environment your pretty safe but it’s deffinately not something I would want to try in public.I feel that i am happy to perform in a space that has been organised to perform in and I am interested in making short films but that is it.Ofcourse the publics reaction is allways going to be more interesting but there is also nothing more unpredictable or volatile then the general public and having worked with them for many years I wouldn’t feel safe,I mean after all a member of the public held a handgun to Marina Abramovics head when he was given the opertunity so anything is possible.
Is there anything more powerful then a stare?The eyes are the windows to our souls after all.
Lazercutting and Lino printing
I found lazercutting alot more technical then I thought it would be.I really struggle with anything technical due to my dyspraxia.I have a short term memory because of this and because there are so many instructions with anything digital/technical i get lost really easily and have to keep asking the tutor to repeat themselves.I still really enjoyed the process especially how unpredictable the end image is.I felt that my image turned out closer to the original image then anyone elses did as there’s were alot more detailed then mine.The small dots made by the lazer gave it a real pop art feel.It was difficult to get the esact right amount of ink on the lino cut (i have in the past put too much) and then when i got the right amount i managed to get a flek of ink in the middle of the symbol.It’s also difficult to get the print straight on the paper.But practice makes perfect and prints are deffinately something I want to take further in my work so I am currently in the process of booking an induction with the main print workshop.
Sandcasting.
Sandcasting was such a long and complex process,again alot longer then I thought it would be.The technician advised me that the process would normally be done over a couple of days but due to the restrictions and class sizes it now has to be done in a day.
The biscuits were first glued to a board of sorts,had a special kind of sand with oil in it added then a cast was made of that before the boards were drilled together and the liquid bronze poured in.Before this could happen tho it had to reach a certain temparture. (this was checked regulary by using a probe)The liquid travelled down the funnels made in the sand down to where the biscuit casts were.
The biscuits casts were then sanded down to get rid of the rough edges before being sandblasted.They were then taken to be painted using a certain paint that needed to be applied by using the heat of a welding gun.I choose to go for emerald green and magenta/blue.The biscuits then had waxed applied and were polished to bring closer attention to detail.
Before the paint and polishAfter the paint and polishThe outcome was deffinately worth the wait but I just don’t think I could see myself using the foundry in the future.I found the process far too time comsuming.Maybe it has something to do with my very short attention span but I like to work on serval things at the same time and sandcasting doesn’t really allow time for that and what if you go through such a long process just for the outcome not to be what you expected?!?I am glad however that I gave it a try.Nothing ventured nothing gained.
And for my next trick..
This weekend I plan on making a black and white silent movie in the woods.It will involve the character pacing amongst the trees and disapearing from one area then re-appearing in the next.I also have an idea for the character screaming at the camera in a silent rage.I would like to experiment with different music and sound in the background.(Hopefully I can get some asistance from the i.t lab with this)I like the thought of white noise playing whilst she screams but these things don’t allways turn out quite as you expect. This weekend I plan on making a black and white silent movie in the woods.It will involve the character pacing amongst the trees and disapearing from one area then re-appearing in the next.I also have an idea for the character screaming at the camera in a silent rage.I would like to experiment with different music and sound in the background.I like the thought of white noise playing whilst she screams but these things don’t allways turn out quite as you expect.
I have found myself becoming inspired by a mixture of different cultures,from witchcraft,to shamans to ancient egyptians to vikings!I think mainly because all these things have allways interested me.So it makes sense that i bring all these elements to my work.Oh and the more morbid the better.My Mum was allways worried about my obsession with The Return to Oz as a kid because I especially loved the part where the queen could choose a different head to wear from all the heads she had cut off and I guess my morbid frame of mind has continued ever since!
Objects bound in a banishment spell.
The aesthic,style and strength of a viking woman has allways been something to be admired..I want to bring parts of this into my character and the development.
I find the egyptian eye make up quite inspirational and also the power of the female queens.
I have also started to wonder if the warrior like/strongness of the character has become my alter ego.The strong part of me that has prehaps carried me throught the last few months and prehaps even the last few years.
I started to look at way’s that it could be used within a mask.Also using orange peels to cover breasts so that the use of the peels were symbolic in connection with females/the female body.
After making the mask i realised that one of the peels covered my mouth which almost made me look like i was gagged and powerless.I feel that this tied in well with the whole message of anti-ageing within the industry and women being voiceless just forcefed infomation which they feel pressured into acting on.It also made me think of plastic surgery and of creating a ‘new skin’ and trying to dis-associate from the natural ageing process.I also decided to cover the orange peel in slogans that i found from an article.
Quick developmental drawing drawn from the oragne peel which had dried
quick developmental drawring
I think this piece was very sucessful as it points towards plastic surgery and ‘creating the monster within’
I photocopied and reversed the colours of the mask and found it very eerie
Reconstructed peel-Thought the half an orange was good symbolism for the vulva.
I also looked at different shapes that i could make with the orange peel and tried to reconstruct the peel.I also did a developmental drawing of this using watercolour media.I then added more peel onto the mask to find out what the mask would look like if it covered the whole face.
I then started to look at statistics within the film industry and how on average 74% of men were offered roles above females between 2011-2017.And also a chart showing the ages in which females an males are hired for films.From the age of 36 onwards females seem to be dismissed and from ages 62-72 the ages seem to match up. (these findings being from 2006-2016)
I decided to photocopy the orange peel and reverse the colour.This had a really interesting effect as the texture of the inside of the peel close up has a scaley effect and went blue in colour and looked quite space like.
Some experimental collage
I like how this image has taken a horror movie twist since being photocopied.This is something i would like to take forward.
This image i felt was symbolic of not only a penis but ovaries aswell
l like the linear qualities of this pic
I feel that this piece has a space like/horror movie quality to it
I then experiemented with imagery using the actress from the baby jane film,orange peel and collage.
I then looked at creating a mask using the inside of the peel and did a collage of this.I felt that the collage was quite sucessful on it’s own.
Looking back at the work i have done so far i think that the collage work is actually more sucessful then the sewn orange peel.I think sewing the orange peel was actually quite time comsuming aswell and that prehaps i should of reckonised this initiatlly and that would enabled myself to get more quick inital responses done.
I also looked at a couple of artists including Paul Mcarthy (for his developmental drawings as suggested by my tutor int he group crit),Sarah lucas for her use of inanimate objects used in a sexual/lewd manner and Emma Finn as suggested by our artist in residence for her use of face masks. Also Martha Rosler due to her reflection on beauty.
Paul Mccarthy-baby world 1984-I like his loose style of drawing
Sarah Lucas.-I like the simplistic yet crude use of materials
‘Double mountain by Emma Finn.I like the mask effect.Martha Rosler ‘Body beautiful or body knows no pain’ These different images of women ‘beautifying’ themselves being uses as shipping containers i think is a strong yet effective image in conveying it’s meaning.I would like to try something similar within collage.
Born 1961 in Liberty New york.Age 16 she dropped out of school and started taking photographs.Living in New york provided the subject matter for many of her works (apartment buildings,store fronts,sidewalks,chain link fencing,graffiti ad boarded up windows.She works primarily with photography and sculpture. She has exhibited widely since the late 1980s and her work has been included in a number of seminal exhibitions including Documenta IX and Docunenta XII and the 1993, 1997 and 2014 Whitney biennials.
Alot of Leonard’s work reflects on the framing, classifying, and ordering of vision. She explained in a recent interview: “Rather than any one subject or genre (landscape, portrait, still life, etc), I was, and remain, interested in engaging a simultaneous questioning of both subject and vantage point, the relation between viewer and world.Basically, subjectivity and how it informs our experience of the world.”
Leonard was active in AIDS advocacy and queer politics in New York in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1992 she wrote “I want a president”, a poem inspired by Eileen Myles’s run for president.
‘a f a s i a’
In 1995 she staged an exhibition at her studio on the Lower East Side of Manhattan which featured the work Strange Fruit, an installation of various fruit skins (oranges, bananas, grapefruits, lemons) that Leonard saved and then sewed together by hand with wire and thread. Strange Fruit grew out of a deeply personal response to the losses of the AIDS epidemic and as a meditation on mourning, it became a seminal work of the 1990s. Strange Fruit was exhibited in 1998 at the Philadephia Museum of Art , where it currently resides
Born 25 December 1911 – 31 May 2010) she was a French-American artist. Although she is best known for her large-scale sculpture and installation art, Bourgeois was also a well known painter and printmaker. She explored a variety of themes over the course of her long career including domesticity and the family, sexuality and the body, as well as death and the unconscious.These themes connect to events from her childhood which she considered to be a therapeutic process. Although Bourgeois exhibited with the Abstract Expressionists and her work has much in common with Surrealism and Feminist Art, she was not formally affiliated with a particular artistic movement.
She was the second child of three born to parents Joséphine Fauriaux and Louis Bourgeois. She had an older sister and a younger brother. Her parents owned a gallery that dealt primarily in antique tapestries.
Her mother died in 1932, while Bourgeois was studying mathematics. Her mother’s death inspired her to abandon mathematics and to begin studying art. She continued to study art by joining classes where translators were needed for English-speaking students, in which those translators were not charged tuition. In one such class Fernand Leger saw her work and told her she was a sculptor, not a painter. Bourgeois took a job as a docent, leading tours at the Musee de Louvre.
Louise Bourgeois’s work is powered by confessions, self-portraits, memories, fantasies of a restless being who is seeking through her sculpture a peace and an order which were missing throughout her childhood
Mind Mapping and jotting direct responses to memories
Looked at Rebbeca Hornes work and Mona Hatoum.
Research into PTSD was very interesting and informative
Through mindmapping I decided to focus on PTSD and the void that is created in that person’s head by disassociation with the event itself and in turn that person usually attempts to busy themselves in order to distract from the events that happened.I wanted to created a physical form that was representative of the void in that persons head.I also wanted to look at the physical presence of weight and relate it to the weighing pressure of traumatic events that weigh down that persons mind.
I felt inspired by looking at Rebbecca Hornes body modificationa such as Einhorn (unicorn)
I also felt that ‘the void’ tied in well with my last project.I enjoyed this theme and wish to continue it into this one I also decided to use bricks and bring the use of not only the sound but the physical presence back in aswell
Creating the basic cilinder shape
experimentation with the positioning of the voile
further experimentation
experimenting with different shapes using black elastic
Decides to weave voile through out the whole structure and to choose clothes that coule be identified as unisex
Avoidence is often a method used to cope with PTSD but I felt that this was maybe t o much of a relaxed avoidence method.
I wanted to experiment with doing things throughout the house but I felt that prehaps people might link this with feminism.
Mona Hatoum’s piece ‘performance still’ 1985. I found myself quite interested in the thought of using the body to drag/push something.And using items of meaning to do so.
Iwanted to experiment with some performance art pieces down by the sea which is connected with being spiritually healing.I wanted it to symbolize there being healing availible out there but due to the block the void causes ultimately avoidance is put in place weighing that person down.I decided to use black and white to create more of a serious atmoshpere.I specifically choose a day where it was misty and rainy/windy to create and atmosphere aswell.The wind also created interesting shapes on the t-shirt which resembles waves. (This can be seen more clearly in the video below)In some of the face on standing shots it is also hard to tell whether the body is facing forwards or backwards giving an alien like feel and connecting with the alienation that person may feel.
I decided to experiment with face paint as I think I might use this for my performance piece.I created one and and a peer did the other.I think it connects well to the mask people use every day to cover this dehibilitating mental condition
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Heather's blog 