Reflection on First Year.

Reflection on First Year

Above is my final portfolio for first year, all in one space it all connects and shows the theme just as I imagined it. But tell me a year ago that this would be my practise and I would of strongly disagreed. Only seeing my work as painting at the start to now ranging into sculpture, installation and showing signs of set design, I am starting to realise that I should own my style even if it's not messy, experimental or artsy. I now see my work as being design based and I am going to prove that set deign can be the same as art, earlier I came to a thought that my work is like pushing the set to the foreground and taking away the actors, to just show the piece in it's space as the centre of focus. I am pleased that this year I have stepped out of my comfort zone to do what my intuition was telling me and to not be held back by what I was taught beforehand. I am now looking forward to progressing and researching more of design over summer and then taking it to my art practise in second year. God knows what my final piece of second year will be, but I'm sure it won't be what I was expecting.

Drag Lab

Drag Lab

Over the past few months I have been working alongside the YEP Producers at the Everymann Theatre, here in Liverpool. Seeing that they were in need of a set designer to help, I contacted them and went for a small interview to show them my work and then I was on board. Gaining this experience is exactly what I was hoping for before attending university so that I can understand more of what goes on in the background and to see if it is something I want to carry on further in my career. So far we've had meetings about the design and the performance as a whole which guides you through the artistry of drag. my job is to design the set for the Dressing room where the actors will be getting ready whilst telling stories of their struggles and lives as Drag performers. My idea for the room is to have it laid out like a science lab but with spills and explosions of colour and glitter. Still yet to create the set, I cant say its given me all of the knowledge  I'm after, but so far it has lived up to my expectation of creativeness and the satisfaction of knowing that many are going to see my work encourages me even more.

Wednesday Visitor - James Gardner

James Gardner

The founder and curator of The Frutta Gallery, James Gardner explained his story of how he has got his establishment to be recognised and now international with one in Rome as well. By collaborating with other galleries he was able to gain knowledge that took others years to figure out and this gave him a big step forwards when opening. Building new relationships meant he could gain artists from their contacts and get word around about his ideas for the first gallery in Glasgow. With these new connections he ventured to Rome to create a recognisable name for his gallery. After two years his funds began to drain out and he moved the gallery to a new, but smaller space near the collesuem. One reason he opened a gallery was due to his interest in others art and how they develop, so it was essential that the artists he chose were going to come back and display their work for the years to come. It was also important for him to have a small connection to their work because the gallery is his reputation at the line. 

One of his shows that interested me was the one he described as proving the hierarchy of street art as wrong.

Showcasing the work of Gabriele De Santis it shows that graffiti is an art form and that it takes skill as much as another established artist has. Gardner sees this and wanted to break the stigma. He commissioned a street artist to paint the room and then she replicated it in some sections on canvases and then places them above to show that there is no difference. I also agree with this and have used graffiti artists as my inspiration as they should be accounted for as artists too.

St George's Hall Exhibition

St George's Hall Exhibition

Now on the last few days before the exhibition I was painting pieces for the installation like crazy. Having two other pieces for the show i felt more at ease, but not knowing if the main piece was going to work was stressful. installing the other pieces was simple and they sat with their surroundings well.

The Sea Goddess of St George's Hall

This piece turned out well for it being from the workshops. Using all my experiments I was able to frame them as a collection, and even though it wasn't their intended purpose it still turned out well. The placement of them next to my other piece and settled with some ruins of the tunnels showed a big contrast from a normal gallery wall that it would usually hang from. I like how this related back to my normal style and proved to me that i could still come up with these characters from just a building's history.

Ancient Pottery

Inspired by the floor from the Great Hall, I was committed to the theme of sea mythology and found that there was a ceramic plate created and designed with the floor's features to show the same story. Called "Magnificent Majorca", it inspired me to do my own pottery collection, but as if it was from the same times as the gods themselves. Working with pieces I found in a charity shop that reminded me of waves, I transformed them into relic by dabbing acrylic paints and layering them till they looked aged and cracked. This method worked well and changed them completely. I painted a design around the both of them with a crashing wave against rocks. I believe now if i was to do it again I would add a depiction of St Georges Hall to tie it in more. In it's place around the ruins, it blended in perfectly and worked much better than I initially believed it would. I am going to work with disused objects again in the future because it seems to be a common theme in the artists' works I like at the moment.

Failure & Solutions

Now that my other pieces were set up and ready it was time to start installing the main piece. This was already a huge worry for me as i had no clue if it was going to work. Sadly after many attempts of layering and sticking to the wall, nothing was working due to the dust and lose brick work of the arch. with only a day left I had to think fast and I remembered on the site visit that the first space I saw was a disused staircase which took the old prisoners to their cells. It was perfectly lit for the shadows of my piece and meant they only had to be placed there and not stuck. However, it was a lot bigger than just the one small wall of the arch. Up all night painting more sheets for the piece, it all came down to how it will look now flowing down instead of a wave upwards. This reminded me of the Weeping window piece that toured the country resembling the memory of those lost in way and when it came to Liverpool it was constructed as a waterfall cascading down the hall and this was now my aim of impact for my won piece. spending hours placing them in different places and standing back to review, i finally came to a point that was finished and gave off the look i was after. in fact this place was much better for the piece and gave it a viewing platform. Learning from the stress, I know that for the next show it will be okay if something goes wrong and seeing all the positive reactions towards it from the public meant it was all worth it. never having any of my work in a huge institution or historical monument like this was a big jump from just doing art as a hobby. I am looking forward to where my work could end up.

Waterfall  

Wednesday Visitor - Mike Pratt

Mike Pratt 

Considering himself as an unconventional painter or sculptor, Pratt has a recognisable style or theme in many of his works. He thinks with his hands, experimenting is his form of research which I feel i should do more of and just throw out the ideas book and see what comes of it. His pieces are mainly three dimensional, but also paintings as they're hung on the walls. This is very similar to my own as they're usually on canvas, but I add three dimensional sections that give it form and features that stick out from the canvas. Working with Ghent gallery for two years on a show with Liza Valomue, he had the chance to and freedom to explore, no time constraints. I would benefit from this myself as working to deadlines always means that I miss something or i'll come up with better ideas too late on into the project.

Using his old paintings as inspiration for his new ones was a technique that I tried myself in the mini degree and like him, the outcome exceeded what I originally thought the piece would end up like. slowly adding and refining his work means that he is able to develop it, but adding too much can ruin a piece and it's hard to know when to stop, so his solution is to be working on a series that are closely linked and that can be left for a few weeks before being resumed. I have only ever tried this once with a big canvas painting, but in the end it annoyed me more it not being finished.

with a similar problem he sometimes doesn't know how to finish them so he just adds a meaning by text on top. This isn't the best way of finishing a piece that on it's own can work well, this is something i learnt last semester with my mini degree piece where i thought it needed a more detail painting on top, but my tutor told me to leave it as it was and in the end it presented itself much better as an abstract piece, rather than what i'd usually create.

realising that his pieces do not need meaning or text he ditched it in his post graduation work in Rome, where he sent the pieces off without it and it gave him relief. No matter the response. Continuing on with the unfinished look in his studio work he too it to exhibition level and found that they worked much better without the text, showing it's good to take the risks every now and then.

Wednesday Visitor - Maeve Brennan

  Maeve Brennan 

Working in a documentary style, Brennan has mainly focused on the Middle Eastern history due to her connections and interest in investigating different cultures. I connect with this too as I have focused some of my practise on cultures like Japanese art and have used history like the world wars as subject matters for pieces. Brennan uses interviews as her style of videography and collects information over long periods of time, mainly working on one piece a year. Gaining a special bond with people and their homes.The main piece she explained was titled "Jerusalem Pink", which was inspired by the Great Grandfather's journals as he was an architect there. He worked on project that used Jerusalem's stone as a facade to give off the historical look of the rest of the city which was built fully out of their stone. Brennan was interested in how this effected the history politically and she wanted to understand his journals and life more. Heading over there to create a piece which involved four interviews from a geologist, carver and architects resembling her Grandfather's role. Using his journal shows all the thought and process gone into just one scene and relates to my own work as I like to use history, facts or deeper meanings to create a connection to my work rather than going with the flow and diving into it.

"The dome of the rock is alive, just like the man is alive", quoted from his journal, him referring to how it was fixed, Brennan saw this as a metaphor for a body being repaired and went to visit the dome of the mosque he was talking about. I believe it is important to visit these places that we make work about to understand it from another perspective, she also got to hear it's story from the locals and how much importance it has to them, taking hours, days and years to restore it to it's natural beauty. An art form of it's own. getting information off of these professionals she accessed data that she wouldn't of been able to find online. we also took this method when on a site visit at st George's where we asked some of the guides if they had any interesting facts and they had plenty that we hadn't found online. It's always best to find out from people with connections to the places.

In both her films she encountered incidental scenes that in the end gave it personality and a difference from just factual information. For example, in Jerusalem Pink the meeting of the geologists meant they could show off their collections to one another and share knowledge of their profession form two different lives. Random moments like when a temple guard's nephew went up to the camera to show a piece from the ruins, with a language barrier, he just smiled at it. these moments can relate to when I have accidents in my work or when somethings go wrong, but end up developing the piece.

Her work was interesting as I love documentaries, plus the topics she was exploring were new to me. However, I don't think her practise would work well with my own except for the research elements as mine is more physical rather than visual.

Gallery Visit - Yorkshire Sculpture Park & The Hepworth Gallery

Yorkshire Sculpture Park & The Hepworth Gallery

For a gallery visit we travelled up to Wakefield in Yorkshire to explore a sculpture park and then tour around the famous Hepworth gallery. Not being to a sculpture park before, my expectations were for it to be a few sculptures dotted around the fields, I'd say those expectations were wrong and exceeded. Especially with the Giuesppe Penone exhibition, it was a perfect balance of nature and art, contrasts between heavy and light, delicate and unbreakable. the way they looked so easy, effortless and simple, but knowing they take engineering and not just art to function. They looked as if they were always there, in their natural habitat. I particularly liked the way all of them were carefully placed, some framing views and some framing other sculptures in the backgrounds. Going around showed them in different viewpoints and sight lines, seeing them from miles away being a huge contrast from up close. This was very beneficial to me as my interest in sculpture has only recently begun. Seeing all the different styles and forms that solid materials can take by only being carved or chiselled.

Hepworth Gallery

  

After exploring the sculpture park we the went for a tour of the Hepworth Gallery. Holding many pieces from the infamous Barbra Hepworth's collection. her style being very abstract and bold with the solid yet smooth materials she uses. In the first room we were met by a huge tribal looking wall piece that instantly reminded me of what I am aiming to produce for the exhibition at St Georges hall with its scale and impact as you enter the room. It's flow and organic appearance like a wave, the colours showing the form off too. Not really researching her work before, I wasn't aware of her work and style, but within this building all her pieces looked perfectly arranged and fit in with their surroundings. I especially liked the room with the bigger scale metal pieces, just the scale of The Winged Figure at the back of the room dwarfed all the others, but didn't necessarily take the attention off them. The huge metal structure was by far my favourite sculpture of hers and just seeing the craftsmanship and how well it was executed to look so seamless, effortless but also powerful. After the visit I have researched more of her work and I want to take influence with it in the future, but with my aim of the St Georges Hall exhibition being solidly out of paper, I will only take her forms as inspiration for now.  

Wednesday Visitor - Dana Munro

Dana Munro

Like previous visitors, Munro keeps a sketchbook of all her ideas that she accumulates through conversations and general research. This is the method that I use and that gives me something to always focus on if I am having a creative block. She actually included these work journals, some from 2010, in a montage to begin the lecture. Her main practise is videography.

she considers her videos as living pictures which really came across in her piece above which was a still of the camera with a few birds flying around the room, using zooming and different angles she gave the feeling as if you were in the space, but using your eyes to look around the room to focus on new things. For me videography is an art form that I've never associated with my practise, but her work gave it a different feel and insight  to how it doesn't always have to give off an atmosphere or meaning. she is inspired by John Knight's work which is mainly site based. In one of exhibitions called Portikus.

She featured in the original team photo that inspired him, so she toke his exhibition and used it for her own work. Taking his pieces and making them into words. She believes copying transforms things into stranger things. giving it your spin and twist for another to change it and take it in their own style again. 

She has also experimented with text on top of existing images which is a technique I also used in A levels. For example, she used the Playboy magazine images and placed contrasting text above them to give them a whole new meaning. This is something I have tried before with changing or transforming the mundane into something completely different, by not giving it it's intended purpose.

Gallery Visit - Manchester Art Gallery

Manchester Art Gallery

This semester's first gallery visit was the Manchester Art Gallery due to its great and large collection of both historical and contemporary exhibitions. Upon arrival we went in groups to learn about a few of the pieces in the gallery's collection. With the main portion of it being historical, I wasn't as invested in those pieces, but we did do some readings on the paintings which opened me up to how many of them had deeper hidden meanings. For example, in a group we had to do a reading on the painting of Ellis Cornelia Knight.



We found many iconographical readings such as her holding a pen possibly representing that she was an author which in her times would of been frond upon due to her gender. Doing readings on her gender and the possibility of her being gay which we took from the facial expression of her gazing deeply into the painter's eyes, who was a girl and how she is ignoring all the other surrounding portraits of men in the room who are all facing towards her. Also hidden in the belt is a portrait of the painter to show that it was a woman, which in that time was rare due to the portrait being the top of painting's hierarchy, females would usually be constricted to crafts or animals due to them not being allowed art education to understand analogy.
Moving on to the contemporary section of the gallery, we explored the new collections which held some artists that I had researched before such as Abigail Reynolds, who creates photo collages out of two contrasting images, revealing both through cut out window sections in the pieces.



It was a good reminder think of what I was interested in before university and how my thoughts towards art have changed. For example, this would have been a go to method for me because of its repressiveness, but now some of my work has become more abstract and less A-level, I can see why doing just copy cat art wasn't a development. Also in the exhibition was a piece that caught my eye due to the metallic appearance.

Created by Gilbert and George, this piece called Royal red was laid out in the style of old postage stamps along with Victorian landmarks that all coincide with the Royal family. Going past the meaning of the piece I preferred the look and style of it. I loved the shine of the metallics and how it gave a regal effect using the golds which tied it all together. I feel like my style would work well with this medium so I would like to experiment with it in the future. In one way I already have with the print workshop. 

St Georges Hall Proposal

St Georges Hall Proposal

Now on track and in the development stage of our exhibition it is time to begin planning what we are going to show. This is the opportunity to explain the piece, request a space and to give an example of what it should turn out like. In terms of the piece I knew I wanted  one of the main arches in the tunnels as it was ideal for my vision of a big sea wave made by the technique I used in the cross year crit. From research online I found several artists that have inspired my work.

Crystal Wagner

"Alluvion"

A beautiful example of Wagner's work is this huge installation for  the Virginia museum of Contempory Art. Standing at 20 feet tall and 60 feet long this master piece out of paper will o taken many hours of preparation and making to create and it shows in the results. Reminding me of a waterfall or a living organism that flows and grows around the room. she likes to use recyclable materials and odd ones too that create a whole different purpose for them once all together. All of her work is very inspiring and has given me a good idea for what I can  achieve with the space at St Georges Hall. Not paying much attention to the space could make the piece look out of place or not overwhelming like it should be. That's why when I was choosing this space I thought about how the piece will work from all the sight lines and visible points in the show. Then I found another great space that will work for displaying my prints and the main wave piece is perfectly framed in the background. All the colours she has used also gives me ideas for how I can give off a realistic appearance for the wave and to not just make it one block colour. she also ties her work in with printmaking, using her own designed patterns on some materials to add into the sculptures. 

Daniele Papuli 

   

Also using paper as his preferred medium, Papuli creates these incredibly intricate installations that look as if they're made out of silk. Using thin slices of paper and gluing them all individually in different directions, thousands slowly build up to a small section, until hundred of thousands have all been placed together to create pieces like the above. This gives me inspiration for my own as the more I put in the better and fuller the installation will look.

These artists have helped me to understand more about the practise of installations and how it's not just about what they're appearance is, but also factors like the construction, the safety, the space around it and how the viewer interacts with the piece, whether they'll walk under, around or above it. Now the next step is to begin painting the individual pieces of paper which will take many hours to complete enough of them for the installation. 

Printmaking Workshop

Printmaking Workshop

Following on from the print introduction, we were invited to do an advanced printmaking workshop that took place over several weeks. Each week we experimented with different techniques that we could then take further into our studio work or exhibition. Starting off with the basics we etched a design and pressed it threw the roller, very basic but a good way of reproducing a drawing or experimenting with a design before printing. On the second week we moved on to intaglio where we had to make textures and use found items to get a relief pattern after it being pressed. I found this method to be a  good use of recycling and meant unused items find a new purpose. For example I made an abstract collage out of the small wooden pieces that come along with canvas's that I never find use for. They came out showing texture through the grain and would be ideal to experiment with further. However, as with all experimenting somethings don't work out, I tried using scrunched up newspaper to create texture, but it didn't come out as I expected. The next week we finally experimented with print screening. Going through the process and all the options we could take further into our studio work. From using foils to layers and velvet, there are so many ways of recreating the same piece. before the next week we were asked to draw or find an image to print using the techniques we had learnt over the weeks. Going along with the theme of water mythology for the exhibition I saw this as an opportunity to begin making and testing out ideas. In response I created this sea goddess that I then produced and repeated on the print screens with different colours, backgrounds, layers and metalics which then gave it the appearance of it being valuable, as if it was hand painted by worshipers, like in many religions. Creating illustrations of their gods in golds and rare materials shows their importance. It gave me the idea to transfer the Goddess on to a detailed book that I found in an antics store, but the result didn't show off the details in the piece so kept all my experiments and I'm planning on exhibiting them as a collection.

Wednesday Visitor - Louise Giovanelli

Louise Giovanelli

Upon reflecting from her foundation course at Manchester Met, Giovanelli felt it was time to experiment more with her process of thinking through making. In her first year she used simple materials and resources like photographing her surroundings and things she found in her room. This developed into an interest in how figures work with objects, especially ones that aren't here long such as balloons. This process helped her to come up with the concept of painting these objects using oil paints to create a form of permanence. I found this to be a very clever subject matter and shows that her process of thinking through making really works.

Developing it further she then painted objects that are manipulated by figures such as origami and party poppers. This series made her think more of the materialism of paint like it's form, colours and texture which I have too noticed due to practicing in painting for years now. Even with the failures your'e still learning the process and what is achievable. as response she started to really delve into the practise and began repeating her paintings to gain experience, to fully understand what she can improve on and to know that the final result is her absolute best. I have tried this myself before and testing and repeating before actually creating the final piece.

In her second year she began  to experiment with making her own mediums and testing with pigments, this isn't something I have done before but after her explaining how it helped her to connect more to her work, I feel that it would be a good step in the right direction for my own studio practise. Instead of repeating the same pieces, this year she changed the compositions, lighting to get to understand what works best with the object while also gaining more practise. Also gaining more interest in art history she began to look at the influencers and the masters for inspiration and not her surroundings. This is the stage I feel I am going through now as I have only just began to look more into art history since the lectures on Mondays. Especially the meanings hidden in some paintings through iconography. This interest took her further in her third year to look solely at old master paintings of flowers such as the dutch masters. Creating and developing her own style of these paintings, she wasn't interested in the artist's biography, but their methods and obvious knowledge of how to accurately  paint objects. She explained that learning off books and the real thing was more intuitive and beneficial than learning off social media. I have to disagree with this as this is  where many of my ideas are developed and it is a great tool  to share and learn knowledge like tutorials on specific methods.

from this she began a series of going to galleries and taking inspiration from their collections to make her own versions and then have them installed in the same situation to show the similarities and contrasts. She continued this at three different shows and  created a name for herself, even publishing a book on her method. Even though this was some of her best work, she felt like she didn't want to just be known for recreating historical pieces. In response she moved onto her own work and experimented within residencies so it was only her focusing on her practise. With no pressure in some and stress in others, she gained valuable knowledge and learnt how to critically analyse others and her own work to develop. 

Ending the lecture with her belief that the apparent necessity of having meaning has meant that painting has moved on from actually being about the practise, colour, form and textures. It's ideal to step away from the constraints and to go back to the basics before moving on too fast. This connected with me as before first year I would have to have meaning in a piece for it to be developed or produced, however at the start of the course I ditched these ideas and created for the benefit of painting and experimenting.  

Wednesday Visitor - Tom Railton

Tom Railton



Inspired by Brian Aldiss' book covers, Railton explained how he loved the colour schemes, the fades and the  overall atmosphere the covers give. Wanting the same appeal, Railton experimented with using social media to recreate the same fades, but using different colours to get across emotions. Cold blues representing sadness or depression. Relating to this, I have used social media as a subject for my own work and how it effects teenagers image and daily lives of being fixated within it. Railton used an analogy that I believe truly describes it, "Phones are similar to slot machines", this illustrates the serious problem of addiction to technology.

In response he created these sculptures made from obsidian they show the contrast of technology from the stone ages. The one half being chiselled and chipped to show the raw material and how cavemen used it the car and create the backbones of history, to the other side of it being perfectly moulded and beautifully smooth to resemble a modern day phone. This is a very strong message of how our hands are no longer needed for producing and survival, but only for leisure and the constant need to be occupied by technology. 

Using old master's painting, Railton created a series of works based off the themes included in such painters work as Hogarth. The common theme of the seas and skies interested him, turning it into a more three dimensional concept Railton created a ship mast and a sculpture made from fishing nets. However, he felt he could develop it further by creating his own nets, which tied the craftsmanship and the piece together. Still unsatisfied with the results he moved the piece around into new locations, looking at it with fresh eyes meant he could  make new amendments and completed the piece. This was the exact same situation I was in when doing the Cross Year crit when we experimented with moving my work around and separating them to give it a new appearance, it made my work look very different and more professional, rather than just an experiment.
This was an example of how he feels embarrassed to show failures or mistakes, which I relate to because I sometimes just throw away my failures or cover them up, but I have now realised that it just shows the process and steps to how I finalize a project.  

St Georges Exhibition Update

st Georges Hall

Exhibition

The Grand Hall

This is the Grand Hall floor of St Georges and dates back to the Victorian era. Using 30,000 tiles this floor is highly detailed and tells a story of it's own. Back in the 1850s these Minton tiled floors we hand painted by only the best and really showed the wealth and importance of the building it occupied. This specific example, when found, was the largest and most pristine example of it's kind due to it being covered up for a dance floor in the 1900's.
Upon research I found that the story of the floor is based off the maritime history of Liverpool and ties in with the building's deign based off of water mythology. With five bands/circles each one has a section to tell. One with the Liverbird at the center and the others containing symbols of the United Kingdom. They're all tied in with sea elements like the trident, Persidan, the same dolphins as the ones outside and ships to show the sea port and trade of Liverpool. This floor holds so much history with all the banquets and famous people that have danced upon it. For this reason I want to use the floor as my inspiration for the exhibition. My thoughts so far are to create something like my cross year crit, but on a much larger scale to create an installation, next thing to do is to research artists that have done paper installations before to learn more about the practise as  it is still new for me and I am currently experimenting with my practise now being three dimensional.

Wednesday Visitor - Jasmir Creed

Jasmir Creed

Manchester based artist, Jasmir Creed identifies her work as expressive mark making and collaged imagery. Working with the Tate Gallery in 2016 on the exhibition, "Who Am I?" using Liverpool to make physco geography. This reminded me of the carousel project where we experimented with physco geography which is where we use a specific location, such as a district or a building as a subject matter to create art. I really liked this method as I had already done it before in my previous travels.

"Smog"

This one piece of hers resonated with me because of the meanings and techniques involved. method wise she's used inks and watercolour here which  are some of my favourite mediums due to their fluidity and sketch appearance. She actually chose these because of the subject matter in the painting, using liquids because of the water in the scene. I also do similar methods when choosing my mediums where I'll use ones that coordinate with the meaning. For example, I painted a coffee shop scene using only coffee as my medium, which also added a connection with the scent too. Creed's work includes well though out meanings behind them. Within this piece above she has  chosen London as her area to base her series off due to the pollution of our capital. She wanted to show how our environment is crumbling around us with the similar situation of our social economy. For example by including the famous Shard, a symbol of power and capitalism, she has shown how the richer are getting richer due to huge investments in the wrong sectors. This was a great subject to get across in her work especially because I studied sociology and the points she was aiming to get across made more sense after knowing more about social inequality.

I feel this opened me up to using more of my previous studies because they can actually help to give more social background that the viewer can relate to as well. However, I would have used a different colour pallet for the smog in the background instead of yellow because it gives it more of a happier atmosphere.

All her work actually ties together with the sociological concept of Marxism, due to them originally creating the term "physco geography".

I also found one of her other methods to be a great way of research. She explained that at different times of the day she'll go back to the  same location and record either by photography or sketches what she observes. I feel that I have already experimented in this way before with photography, more of the light changes, so I could take it further into sketching what I observe. My plan is to now go down to St Georges Hall at different times to spot changes in the light and crowds surrounding it.

St. Georges hall Exhibition Plans

St Georges Hall

Initial Plans

In this semester we have been the task to exhibit in one of two public spaces. Either St Georges Hall or The Walker Art Gallery. This decision will determine what sort of work to produce over the next few months. After weighing up the pros and cons of each I resulted in choosing St Georges Hall because of the unique nature of it and its interesting history which will be the subject of my art. I left  the Walker Gallery because of its restraints even though it has great reputation within the art culture in Liverpool.

Our first step was to research the background of the building because we didn't do a site visit first. In my opinion this will help because we'll know what to look out for when we do visit, such as locations associated with our research. In groups some went do to look around the building and others, like us, stayed and tried to find out as many odd facts and anecdotes as we could so later we all could share ideas and bounce off others findings. With it's rich history such as it's murder trials and lavish events, over the years the building has seen it's fair share of Liverpool's stars like the creator and the captain of the Titanic. Even though not all the stories can be proven, they gave great inspiration for ideas on what to exhibit.

From my own research I found the building's architecture to be the  most interesting part of it's charm. Built in the 1840-50s, it holds a Victorian style mashed up with Greek temples towards the front. The actual details and design of it was based off water mythology. This can be found in its surrounding statues, the dolphins on the lamp posts and most of all in the Great Hall.

This is what I will be basing my work off for the exhibition.

Wednesday Visitor - MA students

MA Students

For this Wednesday's lecture there was a presentation of the MA students who went through their experience of the course and their practises.

Charlotte Hill

she explained that her practise is painting, similar to mine. Her work is based off of image making, lines, space and colour. I relate to her work due to her thinking she can't "break new ground", as she put it. we both see it as out of our comfort zones to experiment with new ideas, but since university I have delved into many new areas and have found experimentation a great way of developing my practise. She went on to explain how she applies a narrative to her abstract pieces to make it easier for her to focus on painting. I can fully agree with this method because I would find it hard to dedicate time to a painting with no meaning or intention. she uses a method of moving on if it gets boring which I found clever due to having a fresh mind when returning to it at a later date. she found that using new materials was the only way to experiment within her style, for example working with different shapes and glossy sections contrasting the matt. I see that this is a good technique of developing her practise, even more so when she said she had began experimenting with different mediums other than canvas. I have noticed this from my own work by trying a more three dimensional approach. Experimenting is about testing out new ideas and with this it doesn't have to be a finished high quality piece. Like her I find it difficult to not end with having an accomplished piece.

Ami Zanders

Originally from Bermuda she came over to study here to escape the mundane. She went on to explain that she has been inspired by the book,"My Life as a Goddess", which allowed her to see herself as a powerful woman and to really delve deep into feminism as a subject for he art. She also takes influence from tribal art with her background being from Bermuda. Methods such as weaving, using natural materials and bright colours to really relate to rituals and her cultures. This has ranged her work into a three dimensional aspect which allowed me to take advise off what she knows as I have only just started to experiment with sculpture. She advised that to have a reason for actually making the piece is a better start than just making an aesthetically pleasing sculpture. For example she uses these methods whereby she gathers words people comment around her and then crosses them out in a circular pattern with her weaving skills to create these disks. The first thing i felt when looking at her work was the colourful impact it has and how even though she uses a wide range, they all work and blend well together. It also

reminded me of the work of Crystal Wagner, who creates work out of recycled materials that flows and grows around a space, which is why it links to Zander's work because hers also develops around the space and takes a key role in her pieces.

Henry Chan

with a background in graphic design, Chan moving to fine art was a big move out of the comfort zone of design and technology. He took pottery classes which grew his interest in the practise and how he could develop it. Being bored and confined to pots, he took his new hobby into sculpture. Experimenting with busts of super heroes made him realise that he should do a fine art degree. I can relate t this because I looked into doing graphic design, but felt that art gave me more diversity and freedom to do all practices. In his first year he used metals and was inspired by the work of Michael Angelo's Creation of Adam. In response he created a contemporary sculpture of this work and it gave me the thought that I do a similar research method, whereby I'll use a previous piece of my own or another artists' to inspire a new chain of pieces for me to experiment from. However, Chan did add controversy to his work by having the hands swearing at one another to represent life's unfairness. I felt this was a strong and powerful message that I would like to get across too in my new pieces. He took inspiration for this from the media and Trumps recent antics within the political world. I like how he mashed up the old with the new and how it contrasts from both of them being powerful within their own times and the more modern media most likely going down in the history books too, just like the story of Angelo has. Relating back to his first year works, In his degree show Chan used religion again as a subject because it's filled with negative press and has a false facade. Based off the news story that a Bishop in Switzerland invested £10 million into his own properties, Chan created a new sculpture that of the bishop showing how money and wealth was his real God to worship to. This shows a clever though process and helped me to understand that the meaning behind the pieces really do explain it a lot better than just observing them.

Angelo Madonna



Specialising in sculpture, Madonna focuses on sounds, landscapes and materials. This all began his interest in the project "Materials Matter", this was a photography based project that looked at markings left from industrial machinery. Such as the abstract appearance of the reminiscence of the sacraficial bed showing the templates of  the pieces. I can connect to this work because in some of my previous photography I have used the subject of random, disused and the mundane to create a series of letters and typography. From the image above it reminds me of one of my own and inspired me again to get back into photography as a medium for my art practise. However, his work wasn't varied and I feel  that he could of taken it further. For example, into what we leave behind and our wastage.

Serah Stringer

Utilising anything to create her work, Stringer explained to us that she loves the freedom of her art from working with any size to  any material. In this  piece she used resin to allow it to flow around the canvas, very similar to why I used melted crayon in my mini degree piece because it created a piece in itself. The  colours she used also relate to my wide range of pallet and shows her willingness to experiment. Her method of the thought process is also very connected to my own because she uses a sketchbook to jot down ideas she may get just being out and about, which is when I gather most of my own inspiration. I am wanting to experiment more like she has done too.  When she told us an anecdote of how she came  across a chameleon on a beach walk and just used all the colours and random objects found in nature to create a series of three dimensional work that encased it all in resin. She just went for it and if it doesn't work then she'll move on. This is a great way to develop my own practise and is something I will aim for in the coming weeks of the St. Georges Hall.
     

  

Wednesday Visitor - Chris Evans

Chris Evans

As a cover lecture, we had Chris Evans. starting with a reading of "Dear Job Interview", which in summary was about the stress levels of the process and how it sets you up for failure. This inspired him to look at team work and how it defeats failure because of doing it for others and not just yourself. Creating work where he got artists to write their experiences and making collaborative paintings from those. This sparked an idea for my own work as most of the stuff I'm planning for the exhibition is labour intensive and could be done more efficiently with others involved.
One Way Karma
This project of his was to produce work for the individual, not the mass. Sent by fax machine to 10 various, some well known locations such as 10 Downing st and The Vatican, he aimed for high organisations to receive his work. Others included the benefit agency and he even placed it above an ash try to see that if it's not burnt then its deemed good enough. All of these locations offer some form of criticism and if they accept the work then he knows it was a success. This is a high level of experimentation and shows that he isn't afraid to go a step further to gain more.

Anonymous Philanthropist

This is one of my favourite pieces that he went though due the depth of the meaning and how it represents it successfully. The story behind this piece is that Evens commissioned a philanthropist to create a drawing expressing the facial expressions of their recipients, managing to overcome the fear of being exploited. This was then turned into a sculptural piece where one head faces outwards and in contrast the other inwards to show what the drawings intended. These were placed on high status banks in Rotterdam and these were chosen due to the act of the public going to retrieve money and the bank owning it as a philanthropic act. Even though the subject isn't what I'd usually research it was compelling to see how much background and knowledge had gone into making these sometimes unnoticeable pieces that most of the public won't understand due to their in depth meanings.