Unpacking the Box (Written 03-10-13)

This has been an interesting week of learning about the course and how it is to be taught. I don’t think it differs vastly from foundation in terms of going to lecture, seminars and tutorials etc, but there does seem to be a greater emphasis on crits and opportunities to analyse/talk about each others work in a group. I have found this a little daunting because I am not used to thinking about work for so long and it worries me that I can’t talk about the things I am seeing in as much detail as some of the others in the group.

In unpacking the box, I have continued to think about habitats and natural environments, but using materials that are man made or processed. It has turned out to be a little tricky to focus my ideas because I am trying to do everything quickly… I would usually spend a lot longer researching and developing ideas, but I want to have some work to show at the end of the week.

I have used my space as a sort of mood board.. I find it quite useful to have lots of images in front of me that might inform what I am doing or remind me of certain things. It was also nice to use this as a way of explaining my work to people, as we are still getting to know each other. I enjoyed seeing for the first time the type of work that the others are interested in. I can already see that the people I am on the course with will be very useful in helping my development as everyone is already discussing and sharing ideas quite a bit, in crits and otherwise.

 

I was thinking a lot about the use of cardboard this week, it seems to tie into my project in lots of different ways... Firstly, in how cardboard boxes become the environment for whatever we put into them (the brief itself is of course 'Universe in a Box - perhaps the box itself is the universe). Cardboard is associated with a certain transience, a temporality because they are often used to carry things from one place to another and house things for a short amount of time. I was reminded of London's 'cardboard city', where homeless people set up temporary shelters with cardboard - this runs parallel with how wasps make their nests, constructing it from cardboard and wood. I was also reminded of an installation work I saw at Glastonbury Festival in the summer by French artist Olivier Grossetête, who builds giant cardboard buildings as a collaborative effort. Of course, the sculptures only exist for a short time, but the buildings they replicate are grand and study monuments.

 

 

After this week, therefore, I think of cardboard as a much more poetic material.. I made a few maquettes using it but I would really like to explore it further in the future.

Week One drawing Project (Written 26-09-13)

I would just like to quickly observe how art, and specifically drawing, was used this week as  a unifier and a conversation topic… it is of course something we all have in common on our course and I am really enjoying getting to know people through their art, and through talking about their work.

The Drawing Project was really fun because none of us felt too precious about the work we were making and I think this gave us some scope for experimentation and working freely. Indeed, I really enjoyed working in a style so different from what I am used to - painting in bold colours, very stylistically and very quickly - I really would like to do this again because it was fun to do! The brief seemed so loose that we were able to follow lots of different ideas, and ended up with quite a strange, but interesting result.

 

 In re-interpreting Pierro De La Francesca’s ‘Flagellation of Christ’ (1455-1460), we mainly focused on changing the perspective, removing the depth of field and distorting the mathematical ratios and proportions that were so considered in the original.

 

 

I both enjoyed and disliked working in a group. On one hand it was exciting and spontaneous to work with other people’s ideas (that were usually very different to my own)… when we were painting together, we moved around the work so that it was truly a collaboration and areas would be worked and re-worked in different ways. On the other hand, however, I don’t think I would want to work collaboratively in my own practice because I found it hard to put across my ideas, and am not confident in enforcing my own ideas.  

Universe in a Box Reflection (Written 15-09-13)

I feel I have an interesting collection of things in my box, which I am keen to explore further. I have found that collecting materials and objects has provided me with quite a few ideas - I haven’t really done this in such a defined way before, and only did so at the suggestion of the brief but I will certainly do so again in future. I have found keeping a sketch book the most coherent way of documenting my ideas; I think this is probably because I am used to doing so. Keeping a sketch book seems to allow me a space to look at images and take them further with drawings and collage, as well as making visual associations… the juxtaposition of images I find really useful in coming up with new ideas, different concepts can be linked together in their aesthetic similarities and I find this inspiring.

From the work I have done in my sketch book, I feel that to continue this project I might want to investigate habitats. I have been looking at a lot of natural structures such as tree roots, plants and wasps nest and these have led me to consider growth in nature, and how animals and humans build things around them to live in or amongst.

 

 

'Universe in a Box' Development (written 30-07-13)

Two main things have influenced the way I have now decided to take the project. Firstly, I have been thinking about the connotations of the word 'Universe' and trying to decipher what it can mean. I always find looking up synonyms and definitions to words gives me a lot of new ideas to work from. I have been thinking about the meaning of 'Universe' as a habitat, environment or surroundings.

 

 

Secondly, I watched a documentary about British artist Cornelia Parker ('What Do Artists Do All Day?' - BBC4), in which she photographed things she encountered on her journeys through London as part of her day-to-day life. It makes more sense to me that people make art about things they have experienced, and the world around them and so I have come to define 'Universe' as the world that we encounter.

 

I have a fascination with what influences people, the things that mould someone even without their knowledge or consciosness. It is exciting that everyone's blend of encounters is different, making up a universe unique to them.

 

With these things in mind, my aim is to document my encounters by the things I collect and put in the box.

'Universe in a Box' (written 29-07-13)

This is from my written journal that I kept prior to this blog.

'Universe in a Box' - My initial reaction to the brief was that the box was the important element - that it would be necessary to install a work in the box and use it like a habitat. This was very daunting for me because I am looking to work on a large scale with 3D materials, which would look twee and craft-like if confined to a small box.

Reading over the brief slowly several times was a useful technique to understanding it in a way that I'm more comfortable with and that allows for plenty of experiment. My aim therefore for this project is to collect lots of different things e.g. objects, drawins, photos, materials and to simply store them in a box. I am not going to display them in any particular way because I don't think it is necessary.

Etching 2 (Aquatint)

Another successful, and enjoyable, day in the print room. I am really pleased with the aquatint print I made - I think using tone worked really well with the composition I chose, and it is a far more interesting image than my first hard ground etching.

I found myself perhaps more interested in the look of the plate as I was preparing it - the different surfaces bitten into it were fascinating and I would be quite interested in experimenting with what can be done with metal itself (and forget about the print). Another student from a different year was using the acid to corrode a metal box, which was making really beautiful colours on its surface - I'd love to investigate something similar. ...I think perhaps this points towards my interest in materials over making marks (drawing), which I view as more of an ideas process.

Drawing Development

 

 Developing ideas was momentarily tricky because I kept on coming up with the same ideas - I feel my drawings all have quite similar qualities because I have used line a lot, so they were not providing me with much variety with which to develop my ideas. Sticking to a particular 'style' is something I know hinders my work quite regularly, but I think perhaps I am learning to overcome it with set techniques. My second conversation with the tutor was needed and very helpful as we discussed how I should bring random elements from my environment into the drawings, introducing new motifs or exploring juxtaposing the qualities from different drawings. As a result of this conversation I began to use the cereal boxes and masking tape that were around my work space, as well as making cardboard maquettes and playing around with inverted images.