Tuesday Talks: Jacqueline Donachie

The Whitworth talk this week again was very good. Jazqueline Donachie was a very good speaker when it came to her work and really got the audience interested. She discussed her work from the nineties up to her most recent work. The piece that stuck in my mind was the piece she did with the community of a small town and how they rode bikes all day creating marks on the roads. It seemed quite nostalgic and it was clear that a lot of her work was based around the public, using them and incorporating them.

What I found in this lecture was how she came across as a speaker. She was very confident when speaking which allowed the audience to always be switched on to what she was saying. You could also see her passion for what she does, and how she has brought different factors from her own life to the public into that, so in that way I think she is easy to relate to, and quite down to earth when it comes to her work, it isn't intimidating, if anything it invites people to be part of it. This seemed to work in her favour because her art work was very public based, public art.

When I think of public art it seems quite mundane and just there for the sake of it. It was interesting to see stories behind the public art and how an artist has to work around things to create it. She was very successful in what she did and has created a name for herself. So if in fact people like myself find public art boring, that's her job, she is getting a lot of commissions and paid well to do it, so in fact, she is having the last laugh. I realised this when discussing her work as a group, I'm finding it easier to understand and be open to different artworks and to get out of this head as viewing things as a viewer, but as an artist.

Shelter: Tights Piece

From showing our pieces today after working on the theme of 'Shelter' for the past 4 weeks, I had mixed opinions and feelings towards the day.

I was not totally happy with how much work I had done on the project and it felt like a constant struggle all the way through the project, I kept myself busy with drawing and trying different techniques of mark making in my sketch book. The piece that I showed, I thought was okay, but I felt I didn't want to carry on with it. I admittedly think that I could have done more artist research too.

I presented an A3 drawing of built up lines, which I had based upon the fabric of tights when stretched, and I think it was a strained attempt at connecting it with Shelter by taking the idea of clothing as our shelter and combining that with my practice.
On the other hand,the aspect I think it worked quite well when the piece was up. It was very basic, and below the drawing was the pair of tights I had based it on, and from this, I wanted the audience to connect the two.

I didn't think the idea of people writing down what they thought worked well. Where I had put my piece I found it got missed out by a lot of people, and when people did give me their input it didn't seem helpful at all. I also thought that the video pieces that were shown were given more commitment by the audience as opposed to just quickly passing by everyone else's pieces.

I did find it enjoyable looking at other peoples work, but I felt I couldn't criticise or give helpful feed back to the piece because it was not always obvious what it was about. This is realistic in gallery terms but with the idea of helping each other and maybe taking someones idea and thinking about it, I think was a bit foggy.

It was the discussion later on in the day, when asked to read our feed back back, that I felt benefited me. The feedback people wrote didn't help me as such, and in some instances didn't seem to be serious. But when asked about my work, and if it was purely about aesthetics, I could immediately say it wasn't but still struggled to put it into words what it was about. It was something I enjoyed doing, it was me. So therefore could be considered as a self portrait. I see myself when I create these style drawings,and the idea of getting lost and hypnotised when drawing them is something quite calming to me. I did find myself stuck though still, do I really want to carry on with drawing or has it come to an end of inspiration for me.

Liverpool Biennial

Images from other pieces I saw at the Liverpool Biennial Festival:

Liverpool Biennial: Sachiko Abe

Drawing piece from 'Scissors Paper Film'.
Image taken from: (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinZTWkvEyMcPCMOyMrEZWH6fmwjWApwz7cnk0qwRJDp03HxGU-xfrbKSQa7s5Yax0-Wahu73U45J7tQSIvL2btW_x9fQ8jacFrbHKd7mV6Fs4d2veZMT9eL3nslF_DAOh6zN_QJDVZ5fY/s1600/sachiko+abe+drawing.jpg)


This live installation piece was very beautiful and consisted of using paper and illustration.

As the artist herself, sat high up on a ledge in the large space, she cut out paper into thin strips which fell across the room and collected together into a large mount in the centre of the room, in a 'rapunzel style' fairy tale way.

I found her drawings more inspiring and outstanding due to detailed they are and how no mistakes seemed to be made. The framed pieces seemed to be drawn with pencil and having attempted very detailed and repetitive myself, how clean they were seemed amazing. Her work seemed very clean and peaceful, but the drawings quite chaotic in their nature.

Her work inspired me, because I found myself doing similar style mark making already.

Liverpool Biennial: Ryan Trecartin

Ryan Trecartin's work at the Biennial was one of my favourite pieces. What was a converted space from an old shop called 'The Visitor Centre' had his work playing in the basement of the shop, and you almost stumbled upon it by accident along with the other pieces in the maze like shop turned gallery.

His film works shown immediately drew me in, they seemed very bizarre and had no context to them. Using real people and make up and costume, editing was fast and manipulated, and gave a drug trip type of element to the viewer. They seemed be basic story lines- but chewed up and spat out, making it not so basic. There were places to sit, which in themselves were quite random, along with the work, the sits were not just ordinary seats but were picnic benches and also rows of aeroplane seats. I found myself sat in the aeroplane seats watching one of his films to the very end, which was over 20 minutes. This in itself seems an accomplishment when an artist portrays their work, because it is allowed to be walked away from, the viewer can watch it for how ever long they please. I found his work very intriguing and I just wanted to watch more.

It didn't seem important to know what was going on, but still there seemed to be a story going on and the way it was put together seemed quite dream like or in some instances- nightmarish.
What impressed me were the people he used in the video and how they played these bizarre characters, which in reality could be connected with real people. The editing and the way it was put together was very sophisticated but also seemed carelessly put together. The costume and colours used also seemed brilliant to the piece, and I cannot answer why I think this is. Maybe it's because it is like something I hadn't seen before, or the idea of 'playing dress up' as a child, but done by adults and put on screen. I think his work is quite confident in that aspect that he can go out and create the work he does. I had never found video art work that drew me in like this before, I was always quite dismissive of it.

From seeing many pieces at the festival this was one that stuck with me the most.

I looked online at his other work and he creates sculptures too and along with his film there is a definite connection when it comes to colour and the context add randomness of the pieces.

K-CoreaINC.K (section a) from Ryan Trecartin on Vimeo.

Taken from: http://vimeo.com/5841178

Liverpool Biennial: Tenching Hsieh

Liverpool Biennial was so inspiring, seeing so many different Artists and different pieces of work and exhibitions.

I loved Tenching Hsieh's work at FACT entitled 'One Year Performance 1980-1981 (Time Clock Piece)'. What Hsieh had done was for a year, he clocked in every hour and took a photo of himself every hour, and did this constantly for a year. When going around the exhibition you follow the journey of him, even though every photo is the same setting and has been taken every hour with the same expression, knowing that he did it for a year seems gruelling just to look at the photos themselves, and how we can see change in his appearance we walk around to each photo. Also the show reel of each photo allows us to see a sped up version of each photo created into a film.
I found this piece intriguing because it delivers more so the question of why did he do it?
When looking into his work more so, it seems to be around the idea of how the illusion of each photo is of working in a factory of some sort and clocking in every day was actually in his studio and how his he has done this piece every hour for a year because the art work is his life. So in portraying it as a factory working photo he personifies and questions what is important in peoples lives.

Tehching Hsieh - One Year Performance 1980 – 1981 (Time Clock Piece) from FACT on Vimeo.

Taken from: http://vimeo.com/16280427

Whitworth Gallery: Tuesday Talks- Wu Chi-tsung.

Wu Chi-Tsung 'Wire I', (2004)
Image taken from: (http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/artesmundi2006/chi-tsung/)

Today I attended the first of the Whitworth Talks at the Whitworth Art Gallery.

The Artist speaking today was Wu Chi-tsung. He spoke about his work from past years up to present. His work was interesting and seemed to portray a lot of manipulation in his work process using different means from video, photography and installation.

One of the pieces that struck me the most in his talk, was a piece that he created using a piece of mesh and projecting it onto a wall, and through movement the mesh changed and gave a different illusion every time it moved. He created machine type objects to make his pieces work, which seemed very complicated. This theme of juxtaposition in his work reoccured. The machinery creating an illusion that of something that looks quite simple, peaceful and organic.

It was interesting to see and listen to the journey the Artist had and is still on, and how creating pieces all the time moves onto different things. His work all had a similar style, very muted and peaceful, I thought. Also in context of speaking about your work an audience, preparation is key. When going through the different stages of work on his computer his lecture flowed quite nicely and was interesting to listen to all the way through.

When being shown the movement on 'Wire I', I liked how the simple the lines appeared on the walls and could see a connection in how they looked like a drawing, similar to the work I enjoyed putting together. Rather than be caught up in the mechanics of how it all works, what struck me was the the projection itself.

Struggling

Still struggling with the theme of 'Shelter' and how I can create a reaction to it within my style of work.

I have been creating some drawings in my sketch book, which are more about the idea of mark making as opposed to getting myself bogged down with the theme too much, I want to get into a flow of something that I am enjoying and incorporate Shelter into that.

Here are some of the mark making drawings I have been working on, they seem to appear and are based on fabric when looking at my legs wearing tights.

Shelter Project

We have been given a project to last 4 weeks with the theme of 'Shelter'. When going through this idea as a group and creating a spider diagram of different words we connect or could be to do with Shelter, a lot came out. From the literal sense of a Bus Shelter to an emotion sense of how we as people may Shelter ourselves.
This project already has got me stuck for ideas, and has not inspired me.

Today when having a group tutorial and asked what ideas I had come up with, I found myself really struggling.

How do I start a Project?

I am always thinking of ideas which often leads to too many ideas and I find myself putting pressure on myself.

When discussing this I found that ideas gradually started to come easier, and given the idea of Reflective (is it for a reason?) and Reflexive (just doing it), which one was I?

For the theme of Shelter, the idea I think i have invested in as a starting point is my room, the idea of being alone, I quite enjoy and having personal barriers up. This could maybe be what Shelter is to me. I want to carry on with the style of work I enjoy, which is linear style drawings and illustrations.

Recorders Exhibition vs Designed Disorder

Today I visited Manchester City Art Gallery and The Cube Gallery, to see two separate exhibitions.

At the Manchester City Art Gallery was the exhibition 'Recorders' by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. I had not heard of him before went into the exhibition without any information at all. When looking around the pieces, it seemed to me that they may not be classed as pieces in the traditional art sense. They were very audience based and it was the audience that initiated and made the pieces work and what they were. When walking around the space, there were different objects around the rooms that you had to interact with. In the centre of the room were a circle of microphones on stands which invited the viewer to speak into them. There was another piece in which you placed your personal items on a scanner that gave the illusion of scanning objects at an airport. In the entrance of the exhibition it also appeared that the first piece was a screen with blown up finger prints on, in which the audience placed their thumb in a scanner and it appeared on the screen, getting smaller and smaller every time one was scanned until it could not be seen anymore.
The exhibition was very enjoyable, but I didn't really know what the work was about and found myself just giving into interacting with the pieces as if it would give me some kind of answer.

Following on from this, I went to The Cube Gallery to see the Designed Disorder Exhibition.

This Exhibition, was part of the AND Festival, (Abandon Normal Devices) in which different events were held around Manchester.
Immediately I found myself dismissing the work and not really taking it in. Again, I didn't take the time to find out what the work was really about and I found that in this exhibition the lack of information I chose not to gain, really effected my opinion on the work to begin with.
James Gilpin was an artist there who spoke about his work, and how he created whiskey from Diabetic urine. His talk was interesting about his piece and how he created it, through distillation and other means. It also invited the audience in as they could taste a sample of the whiskey. It became clearer after hearing James speak that the work for Designed Disorders was about science and products, not art pieces.

When discussing the two exhibitions back at University with the course, they both unveiled different outcomes that were not expected. It appeared at first that the majority of the course enjoyed the Recorders Exhibition more so than Designed Disorders, because we found it entertaining and easy to interact with, it didn't matter that we didn't fully understand what the work was about, because we seemed to be too distracted by the things we could touch and speak into or scan.

Carrying on from this, to me out of the two exhibitions this one was more memorable. It didn't strike to obvious to me at the time, but everything that had gone on in the space was recorded, if you scanned your thumb, it was now recorded, same when speaking into the microphones. This idea seems quite un nerving and intrusive, but because we are so blind sighted with the fact we can touch things, and in an art gallery you usually can't, we don't realise this. This seems quite an intelligent aspect that may have been deliberate by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer.

Comparing it to the Designed Disorder exhibition, it became clear that the pieces were not art pieces but products. Each designer had created something that questioned something or experimented with an idea and changed it. It became evident through the discussion on the course, the Recorders exhibition was momentarily fun and entertaining which is why it seemed more preferred. The Designed Disorder was less obvious and allows the audience to take it upon themselves to find out more about the work when looking around.

It could be said Recorders was more popular because it was entertaining as opposed to Designed Disorders where the audience had to think, and in reality we didn't really want to. We expect to be entertained, and have become ignorant to Art. What we gained today, from discussion is that we have to not judge as quick and under the layer of work.

Summer Project

Over the summer, I was given the project of creating a wearable gallery, portraying where we had been over summer and create something out of it. In summer, I had travelled to Rhodes, and it was there I received the email for the project. When looking around I didn't know what to do.
I found that the area I was staying in was very British Friendly, and catered a lot to British taste, making sure that when they were on holiday they were at home, away from home. I found this quite tacky and embarrassing being English myself. The idea of going to Greece and being able to get a Yorkshire Dinner there seemed really bizarre. The tourist shops were very interesting. They sold traditional things to very novelty things, such as rude postcards to phallic bottle openers.
It was this home away from home idea that I wanted to make a piece out of. I bought adult themed playing cards and knew that was the item I wanted to do something with.

I created a playing card bikini, and covered all the rude images on the cards with novelty items, such as objects and food, in a touch in cheek playful way, because it was still obvious what I was trying to cover up on the cards. I thought the idea was quite interesting and was a lot of fun to create. I looked at artists work such as Martin Parr and Jeff Koons. Martin Parr's photography work captured British Culture beautifully, and also in a quite endearing way. The cards I had bought were very seventies-esque. I saw a connection with the highly saturated colour in Parr's and also Koons' work. Jeff Koons' work also had a very sexual theme in some parts but also very tacky.

When making the bikini it became a challenge in itself to come up with ideas to cover up these adult themed cards.

It was a very light hearted project and was fun to show the rest of the course. Sharing ideas in which it had came from and the piece itself.