Art@41: The joy of being a mixed media artists is that mat...

Art@41: The joy of being a mixed media artists is that mat...: The joy of being a mixed media artists is that materials have no boundaries....well, for me I love flotsam and Jetsam, the opportunity of...

The joy of being a mixed media artists is that materials have no boundaries....well, for me I love flotsam and Jetsam, the opportunity of breathing new life into something old and forgotten, the possibilities of creating new connections, fresh meanings...

....along with the fact that I really love how installation art  draws the viewer to encounter new experiences through a visual  and emotional feast....

My dissertation is about how and why artists use materials such as cloth to evoke dormant memories and how they often use installation to gain successful and effective results.

Artist such as Annette Messager, Louise Bourgeios, 

PINK DAYS AND BLUE DAYS, 1997
Steel, fabric, bone, wood, glass, rubber and mixed media
Overall: 117 x 87 x 87 inches (297.2 x 221 x 221 cm)

A life-long hoarder of clothes and household items such as tablecloths, napkins and bed linen, from the mid-nineties Bourgeois cut up and re-stitched these, transforming her lived materials into art. Through sewing she attempted to effect psychological repair: ‘I always had the fear of being separated and abandoned. The sewing is my attempt to keep things together and make things whole’.

Peaux de lapins, chiffons ferrailles à vendre, 2006
Steel, stainless steel, marble, wood, fabric and plexiglass
251.4 x 304.8 x 403.8 cm / 99 x 120 x 159 in

http://www.hauserwirth.com/exhibitions/743/louise-bourgeois-the-fabric-works/view/

...other artists I have been researching further are  Christian Boltanski, Anselm Kiefer, Tracey Emin,

Robert Rauschenberg..... all these artists use installation art to enable the viewer to encounter first hand, through its construction, an effective impression of dispersed subjectivity. The clever articulation and positioning of the objects heightens the viewers awareness as they have to physically enter....its a whole mind and body experience. The artists present the viewer with elements for them to experience directly achieving a heightened appreciation.

The fact that they all use cloth, clothes, textiles within their work takes the installations to another level...they become metaphors, carriers, bearers of significant meaning...provoking and arousing almost  palpable responses such as memories and emotions......I am still working on my dissertation and have a lot of research to do but feel that I am turning the corner as to how to present my point.....I just have to thrash it out and stop being distracted!

Anyway these photos are the start of an installation based on my pebbles!....I've got a few old port holes and I'm suspending machine embroidery across them taken them from the markings I find on the host of pebbles I find on my local coast of Scarborough. I'm hoping to get a few more port holes ...but sadly they are a tad expensive so...I 'll have to see what else I can find to substitute as an outline of a pebble..of course there will be a mirror within the installation, I love the fact that the viewer is visibly part of the experience and I'm searching for some relevant text to include or weave within the embroidery marks...

They are all going to be suspended from above so they hang together -  gathered like you associate them on the beach...with clever lighting I hope the shadows will accentuate them and double the amount of pebbles for further effect!....also - element of sound if they bang together?....well thats the plan!....like my dissertation its a working progress!

Machine embroidery of pebble markings
on water soluable material

 I just thought I should touch base with my blog as time seems to be flying by and a good Sunday blog helps end the week nicely for me!

happy reading, take care...bye

Studio pebble experiments

OK....the life of a pebble....how complex can it actually be?! well a lot really!

I have been looking at the life of a pebble, from a small cluster of pebbles caught in a crevice to one particular pebble, its possible journey, history, location, shape, colour and patterns....etc

Over the last few months I have been experimenting with a selection of ideas using various materials to see what does and doesn't work....from these I hope to try and establish in which direction my studio practice will go next semester....and start planning for our final exhibition....

To be honest I've really enjoyed the freedom of trying out different ideas and not really feeling any pressure to produce a completed product. ...just sample and see!  
I've really enjoyed seeing what evolves and thankfully been able to laugh at some of the disasters!...any way I thought you might like to see some of them....

selection of plastic, cardboard pipe-tube offcuts

One of my many recycling projects...old drainpipes, selotape innards, paper and cardboard inner-tubes.
I wanted to create a cluster of pebbles highlighting our coast. Each one resembling and representing a pebble bearing  marks and colours just like we see everyday!

I was influenced by Susan Benarcik, her work is also reminiscent of objects found in nature. 
Her work is made with the environment in mind, her compositions provoking the viewer to observe and reflect on human experiences. Her soft natural pallet and clever use of recycled objects articulately manipulated to create not only delicate sculptural installations that are highly tactile and evocative but clearly  highlight her fondness and respect for the natural world...
I highly recommend a look at her website for more of her work...
http://www.susanbenarcik.com

...this is just a sample of what I would like to produce on a larger scale...
I used OS, geographical and a variety of old maps  for the lining, but only the section containing our coast - from approx Whitby to Bridlington

masking tape  card centre re-used
coastal map inside, chiffon and nylon net
 painted with ink then shrank with heat gun

Some of these tubes work really well, I've tried to make them have different interesting elements rather than them all being painted with acrylic...no pebble is ever the same, so non of these are ever the same!

thinking about their composition and
how best to arrange them...

 I've used moulding paste, netting, sheer fabrics, tyvek, inks, tissue... often using the heatgun to seal or manipulate to create grooves or  crevices.

I'm not really sure if the Tyvek works....it looks a bit too    much like skin, not the desired effect I'm looking for at all - see image above!...
I'm not sure yet how to install this idea, wall mounted, suspended or I'm liking the idea of them being on the floor - like pebbles - found in corners of the room akin to how you find drifts of pebbles on the beach....

I do like how the overall effect works, the randomness of the tubes, some of which will be left in their raw state....to highlight what they actually are...I have loads more tubes to use, this is just a small sample of what it might look like, anyway, one of many.....

...next...

I'll post another another working progress soon...

happy reading, bye 

short break!

After a few weeks of trying to write .....something meaningful and mindful highlighting my interests within art....I've decided  to have a day - or two - off!

So Hepworth Gallery and Yorkshire sculpture park was on the agenda!....cannot believe how foggy the weather was this morning and it really gave the sculptures a really ephemeral and surreal look.

I was really inspired by two artists on my visit....

At The Hepworth, Wakefield  I really admired British Artist Clare Wood's "The Unquiet Head"
 


Her large-scale paintings (approximately 10 metres in length) use layers of enamel paint on aluminium. The paintings are often visually ambiguous and claustrophobic in their detail, combining abstraction and controlled figuration, held together by webs of paint and luscious reflective surfaces.
The colour combinations incorporated through clever use of collage - photography etc. the mixture of blended oils and block enamel on such a scale really works well.
Plus they were all applied to aluminium.


I was also keen to see Barbara Hepworth's "Hepworth at work" exhibition, her prototypes, tools and samples was really interesting, inspiring to me as I am really keen to try sculpture, but sadly we don't really have the facilities at my University or the space in my home studio!


for further information take a look at their website 
http://www.hepworthwakefield.org


Next I went to Yorkshire Sculpture Park, wow, I really need to go back when the weathers nicer to really explore properly...


Jaume Plensa from Barcelona has a really fantastic exhibition on at the moment at The Yorkshire Sculpture Park http://www.ysp.co.uk...

when I took these photos I was intrigued as to how they seemed to blend with the stone, manmade v natural, yet it works so well, a combination of languages and signs all ingeniously brought together. The choice of materials, sure and strong and shaped seamlessly.

you can almost see a face and the mouth in an O shape!

I found this arrangement very calming and contemplative, almost serene....

  

  
..through the fog you can
just  make out these huge
wire heads, again, seamless and minimalist and solid looking in their structure yet
actually empty and void of much detail...

this not only looked amazing, but sounded great too!

this area of the exhibition was viewed in silence,
tranquil and relaxed...

amongst all these pebbles, that all look the same
you can still stand out...

This is my favourite, it works so well in so many levels 

I think I'll look further into this artist as I like the idea of the reflections and the way images are suspended, mobile like and keep slowly moving to form new compositions....the use and association of heavy materials such as metal, steel etc albiet thin are used to create structures that give a solid illusion even though they are not. And the heavy solid figures in bronze and marble look peaceful and gentle... for further information about the artist try  http://jaumeplensa.com 

There were other exhibitions to look at to ....both inside and out, here are a few of the many photos I took ....

Jonathan Borofsky
"Molecule man"

Barbara Hepworth
"The family man"

Donna Wilson
"Endangered Species"

To do this attraction justice I am going to go back in the Spring, take a picnic and explore the whole grounds it is soooooo worth it and I would highly recommend visiting if you get the chance. 

I'm off to the Baltic on Thursday to enjoy the Turner prize exhibition, 

Hopefully squeeze the Biscuit factory in too!

(excuse the huge gaps in the blog....

I'm a bit tired and the computer and I aren't exactly seeing eye to eye!!!)

...enjoy reading, bye

short absence while I write my dissertation!

I just thought I should let you know that I'll not be blogging quite so much as I have to concentrate on my dissertation!.....once I have got to grips with it and feel I am making headway then I'll be back to rambling and reinventing.... until then  enjoy previous posts and if you have any words of advice or information that could help aid my research into the significance of cloth within fine art and its association with memory....please feel free to enlighten me!

see you soon! 

Frieze fest!

Frieze and Art gallery fest!...

What a few days I've had in London. Gallery visits are always great but really wear me out!

We ventured down to London especially for the Frieze Art Fair, Regents Park.  Really lovely setting and a great area in London too.

We, that is a few third year and first year Fine Art degree students arrived on Thursday for a few days of serious art viewing! First of all we wandered around Cork Street, it's great how a street of galleries can exhibit such different work. My favourite pieces from here were...found....literally at the Mayor Gallery

  www.mayorgallery.com 

the exhibition was

 "Do not remove"

Bruce Conner, George Herms & Robert Mallary

Called "junk" artists for their reclamation of broken everyday detritus Conner, Herms & Mallary reclaimed and reformed their objects' life, combining Surrealist obsession with the found object with a dark sensibility of the Victorian collector.

what unites these three radical Neo-Dadaist junk artists is their poetically artistic transformation of lost objects, lost souls and flyaway thoughts. Collected, reclaimed and reformed and given the chance to speak and be desired again.... 

burnt, tired and abandoned, yet my curiosity
about these objects was re-kindled
by the way they were all brought together.

delicate lace enhances this piece....

layers upon layers of singed paper not only builds texture
 but also my curiosity!

I just loved the attention to detail throughout
 the whole installation

love the freshness and neutral composition of James Dodds
exhibited at Messums gallery
http://www.messums.com

 At the end of the street we came to Haunch of Venison, Burlington Gardens...

www.haunchofvenison.com 

it's a truly beautiful building and was exhibiting  Frank Stella's "Collections" including work from 1958 to the present day. His work transcends boundaries between painting, sculpture and architecture. He continually reinvents himself. This exhibition brings together in broad thematic groupings two and three D work which explore Stella's involvement with planes, surfaces, space and relief, colour and movement and the limits of representation. The exhibition cleverly draws links between his artistic creations throughout his career.

K.37 - 2008 Polychrome resin
Combining weight, structure, solidity
and musical fluidity. 

I loved the fact that his pencil marks are often clearly visible .

 It's interesting to know that Stella rarely primed his canvas, the cloth being an important part of his art - how the paint absorbed the cloth for, in my eyes a richer and fuller effect.

great use of colours, Light, structure and shadows!

Jane getting up close and personal!...it was her idea to go to this exhibition
 and I'm really glad we did... it was really inspirational.

I was seriously intrigued by his maquettes, very clever

 I noticed there was a lot of Ian Davenport's work in the galleries and the Frieze,

 I saw his work for the first time in the Liverpool Tate last year, these paintings are normally quite large....I especially like the bottom of his paintings, how the colours are allowed to bleed into one another.

Frieze Art Fair features over 170 galleries from around the world, providing a unique opportunity to see and buy work by leading artists.

www.frieze.com

It's in a great location, on the corner of Regents park not far from Marlybone rd....I do love the shops around there! 

It's easier to just show you some of the pieces I valued the most...

Yuko Someya
water colour, lithograph & Chinese inks,
pencil & Japanese paper

Always really
effective and a big crowd puller!

Cornelia Parker's 30 pieces of silver 2003

I love the way there was sooooo much mixed media on show!

The clever and selective use of found, old, mundane materials given a fresh new and creative twist.

The variety of techniques and methods used to not only evoke new interpretations but also cleverly entwined the old with the new.

It's inspired me to continue using detritus within my work, possibly experimenting and expanding how I portray them within my work.

Paul Chan Volumes 2011
Oil paint on 28 book covers
I was quite taken by this piece, simple yet effective

Michael Raedecker
Scheme  2011
Acrylic and thread on canvas 

I loved both the choice of colour and the effective sheen
 and the hint of shadow highlighted by stitches

Out of all the pieces I saw at the Frieze I think Raedecker's Scheme was my favourite, just so amazing to see up close, his clever use of craft within his work is just beautiful

 
To the left:
Peter Blake
Children's games: puzzle compendium
(In homage to Robert Rauschenberg....I've been collecting items similar to these to make an assemblage piece to!!

to the right:
Marc Quinn
Fingerprint painting2
Oil, acrylic & silicon

 Marc Quinn:
Zombie Boy (Rick)
Bronze

I loved the hybrid sculpture, but forgot to find out who it was by! ceramic face, fur, prosthetic....

 Do Ho Suh
Specimen series:
New York City
Corridor - 1
2011
Polyester fabric

 Totally loved these pieces...ephemeral, delicate, complex, quirky...fab!

A topical piece was by Michael Landy - the artist who famously destroyed all of his possessions. He's created a machine that destroys your credit card in return for a one-off, signed piece of art! You choose a colour, the operative then starts a huge Heath Robinson-style machine  pieces clank and clang the pen whirls and draws a pattern on some paper (signed by Landy) and you say when you are happy. The operative then takes your credit card and puts it into the machine which shreds & totally destroys it!

mmmmm!

I can't not finish without including some of the dhhhaaarlings I saw over the couple of days away....

hope you've enjoyed reading, back again soonish!