Evaluation of Walker’s Arc

In this project I am attempting to move away for the mediums I have used so often in the past, I’m trying to branch out and explore new themes and new media. In this artist study I decided to explore a new theme but stick to an old media, I created this work as a study of Giles Walker. Giles walker use scrap to create his work and I did the same with my piece, I used a waste item few people think of but is extremely common, outdated electronics. It’s a fact of modern living that almost everyone has somewhere in their house a box of leads, cables and manuals for the various electronics they own, I have a drawer like this and I removed a few obsolete objects to make this study. Like Walker I used a bible story for my inspiration and combined it with the juxtaposed idea of using electronics. My research into Walker allowed me to gain an understanding of his underlying themes and methods and I replicated them in my assemblage piece. I think the work is successful, its only small and it’s not as detailed as my normal assemblages but the combination of moulding board, weaving wires and spray paint gives and authentic scrap art look to the final piece. If I wanted to develop this idea more I could fully embrace the ideas of Walker and motorise my work to make it more interesting and complex. Instead of this complex idea I kept it more simple and focused on purely the visual sense, in the future of this project I do plan to experiment with motion. Using electronic cables did have an interesting effect but they were hard to work with, fortunately the use of duct tape did match the look I was going for however on more refined works I would pass on wrestling cables into place. My next step will be more artist studies and evaluation followed by design ideas. 

Evaluation of Abigail's World

The intention of my collage was to explore the work of Andrew Wyeth and to experiment with what I euphemistically call ‘Flat Art’. As an art student who works almost purely in sculpture and what is loosely referred to as ‘Assemblage’ I rarely branch out into flatter mediums. To create a genuine interpretation of Wyeth’s work I created a collage using coloured paper and cuttings from magazines and books. My work shares several compositional features with Wyeth’s work ‘Christina’s World’ I also replicated his work by choosing an image which puts the viewer behind the subject meaning that they see what the subject sees. I placed the subject (I named her Abigail) in the foreground and used an empty background and midground to depict the meaning of my work. In wanted to create a visualisation of loneliness in a big city so I emptied out the scene by leaving out some aspects of the picture. By making Abigail the only person and by replicating her relaxed but distance posture I created an emotive picture similar enough to Wyeth to replicate his style but distant enough to make it personal. Through my research into Wyeth’s work and my critical analysis of ‘Christina’s World’ I picked up on subtleties in the work which made it effective and emotive, all in all the theory behind the work is very good but the execution could have been better. I've learnt from this experience that there's worse things than flat art, my creation of this piece was laborious and the final result reflects this, if I decide to do more collages later in the project I’m confident the would be technically improved. I learned or rather I practised two major techniques in this study: I explored leaving some elements out of an interpretation of a picture and how effective this can be in creating a mood. Also I practised creating a collage by starting at the back and layering forward until I reach the foreground, for this collage I began with the buildings in the background and finished by making Abigail. Collages are intriguing because they begin with the less important features and finish with the most important, this tends to be the reverse of how I work in sculpture, learning to think ahead is definitely valuable. My next step will be more artist studies and evaluation followed by design ideas.

Abigail's World

Abigail’s World

It took far longer to think of a suitable artist study for Andrew Wyeth than my other artists, partly because I have neither the skill nor the inclination to paint as he does and secondly because of a lack of inspiration. Wyeth was inspired to paint ‘Christina’s World’ based on observations from looking out his window. Unfortunately I’d have to wait a long time to see someone with polio crawl by my window, so for this artist research I’ll take inspiration from a photo I took a few Years ago.  It’s almost two years since I was in central New York  City and noticed a young woman sitting in Herald Square looking off sadly into the distance, I took a photo of it thinking one day it may make a good painting. Alas I cannot paint, however the image has stuck with me in the back of my mind, for my artist study of Wyeth I will create this image in paper. I've always enjoyed and had a knack  for collage and it seems to be a good way to capture this scene, I can be influenced my Wyeth’s imagery and thought provoking themes but not his chosen medium. Like Wyeth’s work the image puts the viewer behind the subject so it places them in the subjects mind-set, also like Wyeth’s the subjects face is obscured and she is looking away from the viewer. The work links to Wyeth’s work very well and also touches on my underlying theme in this project of the use of engineering in art because I’ll base my collage on a photograph taken by a machine to preserve a memory. Personally to me doing this artist study will give me a chance to complete a piece of art I thought of nearly two years ago and I’ll be able to branch out from my normal 3D mediums. The girl in my photo will need a name, unlike Wyeth I don’t know my subjects real name but to me she looks like an Abigail.

Beach Beast

For this project I finally got to talk about one of my favourite artists and engineers, Theo Jansen, so i’m looking forward to doing artist study of his work. My idea is to attempt to truly understand Jansens designs by trying to build a scale model of one of his Strandbeests. This is an ambitious plan I digress, so I used ‘Lego Digital Designer’ to attempt to work out the intricacies of his design, after several hours I created a model that worked in theory. For my artist study I won’t be using lego because the exact sizes and angles which allow for motor function are too difficult to achieve. I have a model of a Strandbeest which I acquired a few years ago which I can scale up with some modifications. The work is directly related to Jansen because I am essentially copying his design, however I will make some modifications to add my own touch. The exact materials I choose to use are a matter of contention however I will follow Jansen’s mantra and use cheap, malleable and available materials. This study will link to my question because it directly addresses my interest in making kinetic models and will assist me in future creations. Also It link to my question of relationships because I want to see if i’ll develop the parental feelings for my work that Jansen has. From a personal angle this piece will allow me to create my own version of a machine i’ve admired for many years, also i’ll be able to adjust it with my own personal touches.

Da Hoadley's Sketchbook

Base on my research on Leonardo Da Vinci and his sketchbooks I've decided to do an artist study based on his work and ideals, I'm making the radical choice to create my own sketchbook. I’ll create an aged authentic looking sketchbook with mechanical drawings and ideas, the piece will function as an exploration of some ideas I can use later in the project and as a study of Da Vinci’s work. The work is based on the idea that Da Vinci explores different ideas to improve his work. I’ll create this artist study using paper and ageing techniques, calligraphy and ink; I’ll age all the paper using coffee, tea and other foxing techniques. As these artists researches are meant help me develop my art pieces in the future it makes sense to look at how other artists improve their work. This piece will link to my question and themes because I’ll discuss the relationship between artists and their methods as well as exploring engineering designs. From a personal aspect i’ll be able to practice my drawing skills which I admit I need to improve and the work will give me a chance to show my knowledge of engineering.

Walker's Arc

Based on my research on Giles Walker and his work ‘The Last Supper’, I have decided to do an artist study based on his work and ideals. For this piece I’ve decided to create a work of assemblage based on another biblical event, in doing this I’ll be creating a work in his style and his interpretation of religion and culture. Noah’s ark and the great flood is one of the most important biblical events other than the last supper and is ripe with imagery which I can exploit. The two major elements of Walker’s work is his use of found scrap objects and his commentary on religions relationship with culture. I’ll use a variety of scrap and found objects to create an assemblage work based on the story of Noah’s ark and the great flood. This questions links to my themes of engineering because the arc is a great work of engineering even if it is fictitious. Also the arc was crewed by Noah and his family so I can explore the family unit visually. The work links to me personally because of my religious skepticism, although I don't condemn religion, I’m not its greatest supporter either.

Formal Analysis - ‘Christina’s World’ by Andrew Wyeth

'Christina’s World’ by Andrew Wyeth is among my favourite paintings of all time, I remember seeing it at the MoMA gallery in New York and being transfixed by its stark beauty. The work has such a melancholy about it that it really draws you in, I was aware of the painting before I first saw it but seeing it in the flesh really brought home how beautiful and realistic it is. The work is a window into another place (metaphorically speaking) and a window into the mind of the subject Christina Olson. The work isn't blatantly obvious in its meaning and know the meaning behind it really changes  the few on the world, the bleak subdued tone of the landscape inform the viewer it’s not a cheerful painting however the sadness isn't readily explained. The woman lying in the field (Christina) is the first thing you notice, the landscape is bleak and almost empty except the two elements her, and the farm house. Knowing that the subject is trying to crawl to the farmhouse you appreciate why the artist used a low angle on the scene and painted the grass to look like an endless sea creating the effect of distance between Christina and the house.

The work reminds me of growing up and being a small child, I used to go for walks with my grandmother and  her dog in the fields and lanes beyond my house. It brings to mind being small and much closer to the ground than I am now so when I looked across a field it looked like a vast extent of nothing but grass and earth. Knowing the work captures the hopelessness of trying to get home when you are unable it bring to mind the emotion I've felt in my life of homesickness and wanting to be secure when the world is too big. The work serves from my point of view as a visual metaphor for life, because it represents the sadness of feeling alone and insecure but also the misery of not getting what you want even when it’s a simple thing like a roof over your head. I like the work because it captures a narrative and a set of emotions which are universal, also I like it because it’s one of few paintings which I really appreciate for their intricacy. I liked the work a lot when I saw it in the MoMA so when I came home I researched it thoroughly to fully understand it, the more I’ve learned about Christina and Wyeth the more I like it.

The painting has a narrative, the story depicted is of Christina a woman suffering from polio and paralysed from the waist down who has fallen from her wheelchair (which is out of the scene) and is trying to crawl back to the farmhouse in the distance. Christina Olson was a real person and Wyeth witnessed this scene out of his window and decided to paint it, hopefully he went and helped her first. Although Christina is facing away her tense body language shows the turmoil she is in and her efforts to claw and the ground depict desperation. The work depicts in a general sense and feeling of loneliness and desperation which are emotions everyone viewing it can relate to however the work can be seen to have a more direct depiction of the misery which comes with a debilitating disease. The work is called ‘Christina’s World’ a name which reinforces my belief that the artist has used techniques to place the viewer in Christina’s viewpoint. The name seems to come from the idea that this is how Christina sees the world and this is just one situation which expresses her plight.

I think the theme of the work isn't cut and dry, I see it as about loneliness and desperation but also its got the more positive theme of putting the viewer in the less fortunate position. The work lets people bridge the gap between pity and empathy. If the angle was different and we viewed the scene differently we would pity Christina but not really feel her pain, by putting the viewer in Christina’s world they can empathise. The painting is both landscape and portrait, it need both elements to work and be effective, the two elements separately would not be as good as the sum of the parts. The work was create only a short distance from its subject, the scenes inspiration comes from an actual experience but Wyeth used his wife as a model to recreate the scene. The work is highly psychological because affects the way you think by changing your perspective on the world, the work also bring up issues of accepting people with illness or disabilities. The work was started in the late 1940s a time where the world was far less accepting of disability. Perhaps the work is created to draw attention to the trials of people with chronic illness in a time when the social attitude weren't as positive as they are now.

The work is very true to the style of Andrew Wyeth, his work is always starkly realistic and normally comes from real scenes as opposed to imaged ones. HIs work is normally painted in muted tones but is extremely realistic, from a distance the picture looks like a photo because it is some accurate to life.  The work is tempera on a gessoed panel a medium Wyeth uses again because of its tonal variation and flexibility. All in all for numerous reasons this work is one of my favourite pieces in one least favourite mediums, I like it a lot and plan to do my own interruption of the work as an artist study.

Box Explanation - The Squares Sketchbook

Box Explanation

The way I plan to go present this project differs from the way I’ve done in the past, and this is good I don’t want to do the same thing every time. Usually the format I present my written work is in is a lavish sketchbook which normally has almost no actual sketches. For the module before this one attempted a more interesting book style by placing a book in a dollhouse, before that I went for big always being better and created a huge presentation sketchbook which was only six giants pages. This time I have decided to present my written work as a blog for reasons I’ve explained but that leads me with the problem of how to present this work visually. For this project they’ll be numerous pieces, print outs, sketches, photos, maquettes and images, also they’ll be the pieces I create as build up to the final piece. Normally I fill my desk and much of Yeovil college with various pieces of loose work that fall into the above categories but this time I have decided to make a large trunk which I can then store the entirety of my project in.  I have several metal trunks lying around (I’m just that sort of person) so I picked out one which was large enough and sturdy enough to be the physical base of my project. Now a vintage trunk is quite a cool retro thing anyway but I decided to turn it into a piece of art, I scoured my workshop and house for a variety of images, I chose pictures of art works, quotes, cut outs from design books, art books and pieces interesting for their pattern and then encrusted the outside of the trunk with them. With this piece I took inspiration from Rauschenberg and Hocks collages and used found images and objects like Oldenburg to create a piece which could be called a piece of art in itself. Apart from being an exploration in media the work also functions  as a ‘sketchbook’ or storage place for this project, a presentations platform and as a sort of mood board. The images and papers I chose were to be used as a visual mind map and mood board offering  a variety of images to draw inspiration from and be inspired by, many of the images featured are from artists I can study for my project. It is put simply a place to store all the pieces for this project, but it is many other deeper things as well.

Picture to come soon....

Artist Research - Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci

Theres an old joke which I always think of when Da Vinci is mentioned, it’s regarding how long people spend in the Louvre in Paris. Supposedly a few years ago the Louvre did a study on how long people spend in the Louvre and discovered the majority of people spent about half an hour, twenty-five minutes of which was getting the ‘Mona Lisa’ and five minutes was spent looking at it. With this in mind I’m going to reference Da Vinci’s work without discussing the ‘Mona Lisa’ because theres nothing new to say about it. Instead for the purpose of this project I want to look at da Vinci’s numerous sketchbooks which show his genius for invention. When Da Vinci died in 1519 he was known as a great painter but his skill for anatomy, science and engineering were almost completely unknown. The many notebooks he created probably had their origins in the drawings he did of dissections and as a way to explore human anatomy, which he studied avidly to improve his drawing. What interests me is his many design drawings for the many machines he invented, by the time all these inventions where revealed other people had thought of them however so he doesn’t get as much recognition he perhaps deserves. The sketchbooks were given to his favourite apprentice Francesco Melzi when he died who kept them until he died in 1579, after this the sketchbooks where broken up into pages and sold or given away all over Europe. In 1630 a Spanish sculptor named Pompeo Leoni attempted to collate and organise the pages by subject into codices.

My interest in Da Vinci spawned when I was only eight, as child I was heavily dyslexic (before it was cool) and wrote backwards, called mirror writing this is common in many left handed and dyslexic people. My mother told me that it was fine, lots of people are dyslexic, even Leonardo Da Vinci and that he wrote backwards. Researching this project I found this fact was true, Da Vinci wrote much of his notes in his sketchbooks backwards which was another reason he was uncredited for his inventions because nobody could read all the notes he made about them. Many mysteries remain surrounding the sketchbooks and this is in no small part due to the massive quantity of material there is, for this project I’ll focus on only a two of the codices that most relate to invention and art.

Codex Atlanticus

One of the largest codices is the Codex Atlanticus, it is 1119 pages over twelve volumes, it contains some of Da Vinci’s most famous drawings of bird like flying machines. He studied birds to learn how they flew and replicated this in technical drawings, he stated:  "the bird is an instrument functioning according to mathematical laws, and man has the power to reproduce an instrument like this with all its movements." According to his notes he did create a flying machine however the details of how well it worked remain unknown. Also in the codex are several drawings and studies on war machines including a giant crossbow.

Codices of the Institute of France

The twelve documents which make up this codex cover a variety of subjects including hydraulics, military war machines, military tactics, optics, geometry and bird flight as well as one of Da Vinci's most well-known-designs, a primitive helicopter. The primitive helicopter used a spiral instead of the modern aerofoil blades, the design he drew up worked in theory but no engine powerful enough existed in his time period.

Other than these major codex there are numerous more which feature, tanks, studies on celestial flight, submarines and several other areas of engineering. The question now is how any of this relates to my project, bear with for I shall elaborate. The relation to this project is Da Vinci’s appreciation for the relationship between art and science, also the fact he was clearly an inventor and engineer as well as being one of the most famous artists to have ever lived.  When looking at him I’m not looking at the relationships between people like with Wyeth or at the relationships between artists and their art like with Jansen, but the relation between art, science and engineering which is what I wanted this project to be about. 

Artist Research - Theo Jansen

Theo Jansen

"The walls between art and engineering exist only in our minds."

Rarely has an art project sprung from a BMW commercial however it was this quote that prompted the idea of doing a project which combines engineering and art. Theo Jansen is a Dutch artist and engineer who has the very simple life goal of creating artificial life from PVC. In 1990 Jansen begun his life's work which has made him world famous today, he has created large animal like art works called Strandbeests, the works move on their own gaining power from the wind and have a degree of artificial mechanical intelligence which allows them to move around obstacles. 

Strandbeest is Dutch for beach beast, these machines have been call kinetic art and artificial life, the first few Strandbeests were unable to move on their own but over the last 25 years they have developed to be able to move on their own and react to their environments. Jansen’s long term plan is to release herds of Strandbeests so they can live on after his death. Now I grant you that it seems unlikely that new life will come from  intricate assemblages of piping, wood, and wing-like sails however the most recent Strandbeests can detect when they enter the sea then change direction and sense oncoming storm then anchor themselves. What is perhaps the greatest feats of engineering is that Jansen has developed a way of storing wind pressure in recycled bottles so the Strandbeests can move even when there's no wind. His website states:

‘Since 1990 Theo Jansen has been occupied with the making of a new nature. Not pollen or seeds but plastic yellow tubes are used as the basic material of this new nature. He makes skeletons which are able to walk on the wind. Eventually he wants to put these animals out in herds on the beaches, so they will live their own lives’

The works explore humanity's relationship with life, to be scientifically alive it is required for a living thing to be able to create new life. Jansen talks about his works as though they are alive, and to an extent like they are children which I’m choosing to think is charming as opposed to creepy. One of the oddest human traits is our attachment to objects. The scientific term for someone who loves an object is an objectum sexual, we've all heard stories about people who marry objects and at some point everyone has declared their love for an inanimate object. I can understand Jansen's relationship with his life like work because I feel massive paternal instinct towards my work. Jansen's work discusses the relationship between people and their desire to create life but also comments on the relationship between people and art as well as artists and their art.

Lego as a Sketching Medium

In any art project there's a need to sketch down Ideas, in a project like this where I want to explain, explore and create complex machinery and explore engineering elements I’ll need to do a lot of sketches. The problem with this is I’m not really any good at sketching with traditional mediums like pencil or pen, or at least I’m not good enough to create sketches at the kind of quality I want. I will do some drawings later in the project, partly because I have to in order to show I’m not a one trick pony and partly because I do need to face my anguish. Instead of traditional mediums for the majority of my sketches and designs I plan to use Lego either real or through a digital Lego modelling software I’ve been using for a while now. I was remember watching a programme on architecture and Lego was described as ‘A 3D sketching media’. Using the Software ‘LEGO Digital Designer’ a free download off the Lego website I can create an model I like with unlimited pieces and colours, this software means I’m not limited by the size of my own Lego collection. Now I can understand that some people won’t think using digital Lego building software is a valid art medium. However personally I would argue there are many people who use Photoshop as an art medium, surely there is little difference between the two pieces of software.

Artist Research - Giles Walker

Schools and Colleges are called a place of learning, I hope one day to experience this first hand. This is my unshakable opinion however I recall being shown a video in a GCSE art class and it has stuck deep in the back of my mind for the last few years. Trying to find this video on the internet took quite some finding but it was worth it because I knew this artist and his work would be perfect for my project. Giles Walker is a English scrap artist, the work that so embedded itself in my memory is his dark, mechanical rendition of the last supper, an image that is rife with relationships which has been

interrupted through art countless times. Giles walker has spoken on numerous occasions about his work which explores the relationship between society and religion. Works that explore the relationship between people and their god have always interested me, I myself am a godless rogue and although I’m not outwardly anti-religious I’m of the unflappable opinion that the world would be better off without it. Walker is still something of an unknown, perhaps like so many artists fame will come to him after his death. His website describes him more by his work than by his personality. In a world full of artists who also are huge personalities like Ai Wei Wei or Jeff Koons it’s refreshing to find someone whose focused my on their work than who they are. The last supper interests me for its underlying themes, use of scrap objects but primarily because the whole instillation is animatronic, it’s one of the best truly kinetic modern art pieces I can find. His kinetic sculpture are made from materials he’s found in scrap yards across Europe, he’s also a member of the guerrilla-art group ‘The Mutoid Waste Company’. It would be nice to think that he is an upcoming artists but seeing as he is close to fifty he had better come up pretty quickly, he has however exhibited all across the world and is well known enough that a bumpkin art student like me has heard of him. I’m thoroughly smitten with his work, the use of found retro objects is really interesting, combined with complex themes, animatronics and audio each one of his works is inspiring. How Walkers work relates to the question of Relationships isn't as simple as how Wyeth’s work does. Walkers work looks at the relationship between people and the things we throw away, much of his art comes from waste items so perhaps he’s adapting peoples relationship with the stuff we throw away. His work explore the relationship people have with their deity, several articles I found on the work mention that the work was offensive to people of the Christian faith. The work reminds me a lot of when I researched Gunther Von Hagens pieces on religion, so often starkly realistic depictions of the bare bones of faith are the most offensive, it doesn't take a scholar to realise why. In a lot of Walkers work he draws attention to the plight of the homeless, when his work ‘The Last Supper’ was on display he organised a feast for the homeless with the proceeds. The relationship between financially secure people and the homeless is a hot topic in art, the work of Banksy often touches on the subject. Part of why it’s such a good topic to discuss in art is the complex series of emotions which lead to people helping the less fortunate, I often wonder if its guilt, altruism of obligation which drives people to empty their pockets of loose change. I’m without any doubt his work will have a big effect on my project. I’ll analyse his work ‘The Last Supper’ at more length later.  

Artist Research - Andrew Wyeth

I want to look at a true variety of artists for this project, just because I have quite set ideas of what I want to do and where I’m heading doesn't mean I won't explore a variety of mediums and artists. One of my favourite artists is Andrew Wyeth, although I’m not big into painting I really appreciate the dark undertones and haunting beauty of Wyeth’s work. Andrew Wyeth was an American visual artist who mostly created realist painted works in the regionalist style. He was one of the most well-known American artist of the twentieth century but has rather been overshadowed by the likes of Pollock, Hopper and Warhol, Like Hopper he painted the scenes around him in Maine and Pennsylvania. I was tempted to talk about Wyeth when I explored the question Particular places because so much of his work is images of his local area however I wanted to save him to use later in my project because him and his work deserved more explanation and discussion. His best known work Christina’s World seems whimsical at first you could almost see it as romantic scene of a young reaching out to her lost love over a sea of grassland; the truth of the matter is actually the depicted woman suffers from polio and is trying to drag herself home. The painting was inspired by Wyeth seeing a women named Christina Olson crawling on the ground suffering from polio which had led to her being paralyzed from the waist down. Most artists can be referred to comfortably by their second names however in the case of Andrew Wyeth I am remiss to do so because both his father and son were also notable artists, His son James paints everything from pumpkins to presidents and his father N.C. is just as talented and diverse.

“To me, pencil drawing is a very emotional, very quick, very abrupt medium... I will perhaps put in a terrific black and press down on the pencil so strongly that the lead will break, in order to emphasize my emotional impact with the object. . . . Pencil is sort of like fencing or shooting. Yet sometimes my hand, almost my fingertips, begins to shiver when I start.”

The link to Relationships in Wyeth’s work is obsession with German born musician, baker, caregiver, and family friend Helga Testorf. He painted Helga 247 times in his life and kept all of this works secret from his family and Helga’s husband, many of the portraits where full or partial nudes and when the work was discovered after his passing the was a scandal and much suggestion he had been having an illicit affair with Helga. She is nearly always painted as unsmiling and calm, she was not a model but a nurse however with time she settled into being a model, with tiny facial touches Wyeth portrays different elements of her character and mood. This extensive study of a single model in various poses and contexts is almost unique amongst artists. The series of work was not critically acclaimed and rumours of scandal died out, Wyeth’s wife was very excepting of the circumstances and she even received a painting of Helga as a present. The strange in depth yet platonic relationship between Wyeth and Helga is an example of the kind of strange but functional relationships which I hope to explore in this project.

“To me, pencil drawing is a very emotional, very quick, very abrupt medium... I will perhaps put in a terrific black and press down on the pencil so strongly that the lead will break, in order to emphasize my emotional impact with the object. . . . Pencil is sort of like fencing or shooting. Yet sometimes my hand, almost my fingertips, begins to shiver when I start.”

Wyeth is a pure artist and creates art almost entirely for himself and believes in art for art's sake. This philosophy is one I can utterly relate to, my own reasons for creating art is because I use it as therapy and because it make me happy, whether others like it isn't massively important to me, the fact a lot of people do is just a happy coincidence. Much of Wyeth’s work is based on scenes he accidentally witnesses, he certainly sticks to the theory if you wait in the same place long enough all of life will pass you by. He isn't an obvious choice for a project about relationships but his exploration of human nature and his exquisite depiction of emotion shows a relationship between his models and his surroundings.

Refinement and Choosing a Question

 Unfortunately I have to decide on just one of the three questions I've explored to continue on with in this project, so in this small section I’ll do a pros and cons list in a paragraphy sort of way. Particular places seems like a good option because of the vagueness of the title these a lot of room for development and experimentation however out of all the question the relevance to what I had hoped to do at the beginning of the project is the most vague. Although I can link places to my themes of engineering and invention its rather fluffy as links go so I’d be at risk of creating a very linear project. Everyday object is seemingly a perfect fit for my style of art and links very well to the theme I want to explore in this project. The problem with using this as my starting point is it’s too easy the links are too obvious and it’s too samey to the work I've done in the past, I want this project to stretch my ability and I don’t want to just repeat Ideas and Concepts I've already done to death. It because other two questions have these fault that I find myself deciding to make my starting point and chosen question ‘Relationships’, what I really want to do with this project is explore the relationships I have with the people who have taught me all the skills I’ve used to get to this point in my art education. I like the idea of creating a really personal project about my grandfathers and all I’ve learn from them, all the work I’ve just done on the other project won’t go to waste however because the themes of places and everyday objects can still be linked into my project under the umbrella of Relationships.

Paper Questions - 8 Particular Places

Particular Places

Canaletto

Some people credit photography as being the catalyst for changing the art world; when the photograph came along the world had a way of recording things except through artistic media so artists had to reinvent and branch out into modern art and other diversions from realism. But before cameras it was up to great artists like Canaletto to depict the world. Canaletto is famous for his paintings of canals, few artist’s names feature their muse, artists can rarely have aptonyms. Canaletto painted hundreds of pictures of Venice and the two remain intertwined to this day, although much of Venice has hardly changed from Canaletto’s time his paintings are so vast and complex they are like windows into another time. Unfortunately had it been my job to aptly depict Venice we would have no idea what it looked like for I have as much talent for realism as a stone has for blood donating. So what can I learn from Canaletto’s work? Perhaps the philosophy that an accurate representation of the world isn’t necessarily a boring one.

Toulouse-Lautrec

Toulouse-Lautrec and numerous other artist all painted a particular place in the seedier part of Paris, The Moulin Rouge was the subject of many of the greatest examples of French paintings and features in works by Renoir, Seurat and Degas. The Moulin Rouge dance hall in Montmartre Paris (the French one) was frequented by middle class gentleman and women of dubious character. The rapid impressionistic style of the painting ‘Dance at the Moulin Rouge’ describe the pace and character of the place as well as the imagery.  Toulouse-Lautrec would spend long nights painting and drinking in this very particular place, I’d be curious to know if his works quality raised with his blood alcohol level.  What really interesting about Toulouse-Lautrec as a person is that he was by birth an aristocrats but found more happiness in the company of the marginal classes in places like the Moulin Rouge, some people really are happy surrounded by drunks and harlots. The Moulin Rouge was a place which served and a cultural hub few things except Absinthe had more of an effect on the 19th century French art scene.

Frieda Kahlo

In the past talked at length about the work of Diego Rivera however for a change I’m going to talk about his far more famous wife, Frieda Kahlo. Kahlo is an extremely famous artist and her life story is as interesting as her work. She was of course Mexican and her work and life is celebrate all over her country. Her work is so heavily influence buy her surroundings that it does really show the zeitgeist of Mexican culture.  In all her works little elements of Mexican culture creep in, all sorts of bright fauna and flora contrast the generally sad morbidness of her work. The truly wonderful thing about thing about Kahlo’s work I the true diversity of themes, you can link her work to any of the questions on the paper because she is so diverse. Artists are often assumed to be interesting people and this isn't always true but the massive amount of emotion that Kahlo can mine in her work gives it so many depths and layers. Frieda Kahlo is a massive cult figure and it is genuinely hard to think of any single artist so connected to one country, you ask anyone to say ten things about Mexico and most likely she’ll be on the list, right between guacamole and drug cartels.  

Particular places is such a wide and varied question I am quite smitten, when I think of all the places I've been in my life I brim with ideas. It hard to think of an artist that hasn't been inspired by where they live or grew up people are often defined by their background environment and culture. In past projects I've discussed the resonance we place on buildings and places as vessels of memories, everyone has place which are special to them and very often we remember the place event in our life’s happened as much if not more than the events themselves. Particular places is such a vast question because its anything from a patch of sun on a summers day to a continent. Now where I grew up may not be as inspiring a landscape as Mexico or China but there are certain places which have defined my life. There are two places which have had cataclysmic effects on my art and my life, my grandfather workshop and my own. Many children want to be rich and famous when they are young but I always wanted to have my own workshop and now I do even if it is a converted conservatory. I honestly believe that my artistic seed was planted from spending time in my grandfather’s workshop so it would be interesting to look at my interest in engineering through the places I’ve been which have inspired it and the places in which I honed the few skills I have. As much as emotional attachment to place is interesting however I've always preferred things to places and people to memories. 

Paper Questions - 4 Relationships

 

Dieric Bouts

Art changes radically from one century to another, art a hundred years ago is radically different from now and I've no doubt art in 2115 will be just as different. Only a few hundred years ago almost all European art had religious motifs or was out and out biblical. Religious paintings tend to be something I loathe however the subject of the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus has been interpreted in many ways by many people it’s hard to ignore as an example of relationships in art. Dieric Bouts depiction of the scene, unimaginatively named ‘Virgin and Child’, caught my eye as a good example because of its bright yet subdued tones. Bouts did several renditions of the scene in his lifetime it’s impossible to know but it would seem to fit that these works came from him having a strong relationship to his mother, as a mamma’s boy myself I can relate.

Hans Holbein the Younger

Hans Holbein the Younger is famous for many things, first his impressively long name which is unlikely to fit on any placecard and also his painting ‘The Ambassadors’. The work isn’t immediately obvious as a depiction of a relationship however it is one of the best paintings I could think of which depicted friends. the picture is a double portrait of Jean de Dinteville, a landowner, and Georges de Selve, the Bishop of Lavaur these two people were friends and jointly commissioned the work. They both acted as ambassadors in their lifetime which is where the painting gained its name. The people in it are surrounded by Vanitas objects which represent discord through a broken lute and death through the massive distorted skull. This work is not often cited as a piece about the relationship of two men because this aspect is over shadowed by the  huge anamorphic skull photo-bombing it. However the work is a good symbol of friendship, a painting by Holbein would have cost a lot so these two men were obviously very close to warrant such expense. Holbein himself didn’t focus so much on the friendship as the symbolism of death which probably says more about the older Holbein’s relationship with the younger men depicted more than anything else.

David Hockney

So I've talked about parental and platonic friend relationships so for my third artist I’ll look at David Hockney. Hockney’s career has been so prolific it’s easier to name things he hasn't painted rather than all the things he has, the work I’m interested in as an example of a married relationship. His work ‘Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy’ depicts Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell both prominent in the fashion world and friends of Hockney’s. He met them whilst studying at the Manchester Collage of Art and was best man at the wedding in 1969. What is most interesting about the painting is that both the subjects stare at the painter (or viewer) rather than having any interest in each other. The distance between them seems to suggest they are both still individuals and that a married couple can still live their own lives, or it may suggest they are unhappy, but I’m an optimist.

The three artists above whose work I explored to research this question demonstrates the variety of ways artists have scrutinised relationships in their work. Every relationship is different and they are extremely hard to group. It’s hard to group them by any external means due to their innate differences, often relationships are labelled as romantic or none romantic, positive or negative the lines can be so easily blurred or simply moved. Relationships are however unifying, an artist can depict their relationship with a person and any viewer can relate it to one of their own relationships. Because the core emotions of relationships are universal the exact parameters don’t need to be the same for a work to be appreciable. Myself I am perhaps qualified to create art about relationships based on my own experiences, I love many people and have impressingly fractious relationships with others. Out of all the questions If I chose to do relationships it would be the most revealing avenue to explore because I would look at and discuss my own relationships. How on earth this relates to my stated aim of doing work about engineering, machinery and design is vague but tangible, part of my interest in the aforementioned subjects comes from my relationship with my grandfathers. My grandfather on my father’s side as I have mentioned earlier taught me a lot of what I know about making things and engineering. My grandfather on my mother side was a skilled metal worker and engineer and although he passed before I was born I still use some of his tools and have gained from his knowledge which has been passed down through my family.  

Paper Questions - 7 Everyday Objects

Peter Blake

Peter Blake creates works by combining collage and painting, the collage materials he uses are normally everyday ephemeral commercial items like magazines, food packaging and cigarette packaging. For this reason he was one of the first artists I thought of when I read this question. One of my favourite works by Blake is ‘On the Balcony’ a piece which has great visual impact by confronting the viewer with the popular imagery of the 1950s. If I decide to continue with this question for my project I would explore Blake’s direct use of everyday object and combine them in meaningful and intriguing ways.

   

Cellini Benevento

Thinking about this question I pondered the idea of an everyday object being taken to the absolute extreme. When a men’s watch can range from five to a million pounds the vast variety in everyday objects becomes apparent. Also great works of art and design are often simple objects take to the extreme of beauty or interest. Cellini Benevento was a celebrated goldsmith and sculpture who created works of massive beauty and value for kings and emperors, he took everyday Items and made them as lavish and beautiful as possible. The best example of this is his famous salt cellar which is almost solid gold and feature beautiful figure of Ceres and Neptune. The over complication of objects could be related the engineering curios like ‘Rube Goldberg Machines’ which do simple acts in complex ways.

Roy Lichtenstein

Lichtenstein is one of my favourite artists and looks at everyday object in a very interesting way. His most famous works are giant paintings based on small comicbook cells, he turns everyday images from comic books (everyday in themselves) into fine art.  He works in an interesting was because his work drew the art world’s attention to everyday simple object like comic books and begun to spin the idea that anything can be art if it is created to be. One of the main things I always remember about Lichtenstein is his use of Ben-day dots to create light, shadow and colour tone this powerful use of such an everyday object as a dot is intriguing in itself. His work links to my own idea because of the crisp colourful way he depicts machines like planes in his work, perhaps the best know example being ‘WHAM’.

The three artists above whose work I have touched on demonstrates the variety of ways artist have used everyday objects in their work. The subject of everyday object is close to my heart, much of my previous works have been assemblage of everyday objects. Some of my favourite work is by people who use everyday objects in abstract ways so this question would be good for me. How it links to the theme I want to explore require something of a stretch. The complex mechanisms and the massive engineering which goes into simple everyday objects like cars or mobile phones is all around us but remains a mystery to many. I haven’t yet learned to drive a car but I know a lot about how they work, I can easily explain a limited slip differential and the intricacies of internal combustion. I could see how I could create work based on the hidden engineering in everyday life so this is a viable question to explore. My past work has often been me using everyday objects to create pieces of art, I could easily use this question and create work similar to what I have in the past however I want to branch out more in this project. Because so much of my past work has been based on the idea of using everyday items in interesting ways I would like in this project to still use elements of everyday objects but link my work to other complex meanings.

Introduction and Best Laid Plans

Today is the second of February, it is just after midday and I received my question paper for my final art module of a-level a few hours ago. Depressing as it is I have greatly looked forward to getting this paper, this is due in no small part to me having no life. Ever since I finished my last project over a month ago I have had a long time to develop an idea for this one. There is much emphasis on creating a project which is personal to me, with this in mind I plan to create a project about my life before an art paper became such an exciting thing. When I was a younger I did not want to become an artist as I do now, instead I wanted to be an inventor, a job title as vague and uneconomically viable as artist. I attempted to immerse myself in all things engineering and scientific and learned from the teachings of my grandfather who maintained planes for BA (British Airways) before he retired and made trophies. With the passing of my grandfather I lost my interest in being an engineer/inventor and drifted for a few years, I spent a brief while wanting to be a dentist or doctor. However studying art at GCSE I rediscovered my skills for making and focused them on art. This creative reawakening set my mind on being an artist. It remains to be seen if I'd have been better healing than arting. The fact remains that although my life plans have changed I still have the knowledge I acquired when I wanted to be an inventor. In this project I want to use this knowledge for artistic purposes. How? Well I think that mechanical devices are beautiful in a functional way and the tools I and other artists use to create art are as intriguing as the art created this and the influence of the questions on the art paper will form a project. I once read in a book on architecture that an architect knows something about everything but an engineer knows everything about one thing. I'm currently reading a book on Jeff Koons, much of work is impressive but his part in its creation is more the ideas than the actual making. With these two things in the mind I’m going to explore the relationship between design, manufacture, engineering and art.  The question now is which of the questions set on the paper which thrilled me so much links best to my ideals, in the next post I explore how some of the questions can link to all I’ve just discussed.