Wednesday Visitor - Ariel Schlesinger

Ariel Schlesinger 




Taking this lecture more like therapy than to preach to us about his work, Schlesinger wanted to show how others captivate his work through critiques and social media posts of his works. "Two Good Reasons" The installation piece above that seamlessly spins in symmetry with the other two create a force that pushes them upwards and back to the floor on every spin. This to me was so effortless, but the mechanics and precision behind it were very difficult, and took many experiments to master. He went on to explain how paper for him was the initial material that he would use to manipulate, change, fold and form ideas with. This is a huge connection to my own work as I use paper for the same properties due to its many uses and it being a common everyday object. It is impressive that even leaving the blank on display can be so mesmerising to watch this has given me the idea to experiment more with leaving it as a blank canvas or piece of paper that can support itself just through its shape and structure. However, in some aspects like my waterfall at st.Georges it was needed to be painted for the emphasis of scale and shadows in the piece. I like the space that was given around the piece because it allowed the audience to see all sides and different perspectives of the installation and performance element of it. Most of his work is based on kinetic movement because this series comes naturally easy for him.

 Choosing sculpture ect provides him with more of a challenge. An inspiration for him was Charlie Chaplin's films as they created humour without the use of speaking. One where he smashes a window in slapstick comedy was recreated by Schlesinger through smashing gallery windows and then framing an image of said window with the broken glass from the original widow. This shows layers of meaning and a good link to his inspiration which is what I am for myself as the influences I choose are what I want my work to resemble but not be obvious or copping it either. He wanted it to focus on the glass crack rather than the view behind it. I like the idea behind the piece but I'd prefer to see the view unblurred as it may look manipulated or changed through the broken glass, compared to the original state. Another series of his works that is inspired also by narrative is the method of carefully burning Persian rugs into patterns. This was influenced from the same sort of rugs that were kept safe from damage in the world war in bunkers that managed to preserve these great pieces of historical and cultural art. However one bunker was hit, setting fire to these priceless rugs that took many days of hard labour to complete. The state the were later recovered in showed an odd pattern of burning in the carpets that contrasted with the original textured pattern. This inspired Schlesinger to recreate this accident through carefully burning holes and patterns into similar second hand carpets. This shows how his influences play a big part on the method of his practise because it shows the narrative in his pieces. However, sometimes with too  many ideas the pieces can become overworked. For example he explained that he was going to dip the edges in gold or start adding painted layers. This would have ruined the simplicity of the piece. I feel this too as sometimes I feel that I have to add extra elements to a piece if it comes across abstract or minimalist because detail is important to me in my art. However, stepping back and receiving feedback on the work helps to realise that sometimes it can be ruined and to maybe use those ideas on a completely new piece.

He then use this method by burning patterns into rolls of canvas' and then layering the pieces all on one to resemble the Persian rugs that became wanted. However, I feel that these lost the authentic and historic appeal of the rugs and it was trying to appeal too much to a commercial market. This is a worry for me that by selling work or relying on commissions as an income will change my style and practise to conform to the buyers which in the case did for Schlesinger's pieces. I feel that his work overall is very impressive and links well to my own. For his pieces are narrative based but maybe not as design based as my own. They show more of a factual and informative message than the theatrical type i am aiming for. however out of this lecture I did some research into other pieces he has done and there is one where he uses a real human skull and turns it inside out through breaking it into small pieces and forming it again just in reverse. This baffles me as a piece of art, but brought to my attention why is my work on skulls anymore artistic? Id say mine are more installation and prop based where as his are showing the possibilities and queries that people have without knowing until they see his mesmerising pieces.

Wednesday Visitor - Joana de Oliveira Guerreiro

Joana de Oliveira Guerreiro

Artist originally from Lisbon, she saw art in her daily life since she was a child. However this was limited to a hobby as her parents did not see a career potential in the art world. Due to this Oliveira Guerreiro missed out on the time to experiment with art in education and focused her efforts on political science to impress and satisfy her parents expectations. However in her master studies she decided to move overseas to London studying Brazilian culture. After this she took another change to military strategy working in the Portuguese Navy and she really enjoyed these opportunities and the importance of the work she was doing for civilians in war zones. However she would always revert back to art as a hobby or coping method. She took up photography as a practise that she could do while travelling for her career. She really enjoyed using basic and old cameras that give the low resolution and imperfections that related to the scenes she was in. Using disposable cameras was a more exciting process that she couldn't reveal until they were developed. This encourages me to get back into photography as during the course i have only seen it as a means of documentation and source images, however the compositions and effects of her work gave me the feeling that it was art again, that it can be manipulated, changed and improved like any other medium. She was capturing places and environments that don't appear beautiful and showing them as still homes, cities and places of life hopefully to be restored. I see this to be a good topic for art as it can be a conversation starter that encourages good action.
Since then she has made the move back to England to focus on art and catch up on the years of experimenting and defining her practise. Choosing Liverpool for its great art connections, vibrancy and diverse culture. This encourages me to explore more of what Liverpool has to offer as inspiration or opportunities. To access professionalism she enrolled on an art course at a later stage in her life than anticipated, but nether the less began to develop more of a style. Painting being her main medium she went large scale utilising materials from scrapyards and recycling what ever she found. This is a great idea to use industrial waste of large decorating companies ect that can also link further into the meanings of pieces. Using narrative in her paintings helps her to connect to them and be more passionate and involved with the process. This is a way that many of us, including myself, gain an emotional attachment to our pieces. For me it is usually my favourite and most technically impressive piece which I don't feel I can sell as it shows my progression. This is what I imagine her feelings are towards the piece that tell the story of her life in London being a chef through accident, but developing passion. She took this connection a step further by promoting her first exhibition with free food and she had a huge turn out because of it. Utilising and being clever is the best way to gain attention, not luck in the art world. I am not impressed by the overall appearance and technique of her pieces due to the simplicity and humour, but her story and method of developing her practise is beneficial to my own as it gives me a more appreciative aspect on the support I have for my passion. To catch up on lost experimentation she is living in her studio space which for me is not a great way to develop as you need the space and divide between life and art to have a fresh look at your work to see what needs to be improved. This for me takes weeks sometimes where I'll leave a project and get back to it in time with the fresh ideas that have most likely sparked from another part of my life other than art. I feel it is dangerous to mix both like she is as it can halt you and add pressure to succeed.

Wednesday Visitor - Matthew Merrick

Matthew Merrick

Interested in sound and performance art Merrick took me by surprise as these two categories of art least connect to my practise. Usually I am not fond of performances due to it being more dance based and sound art not being visual usually effects how I connect with the piece as a stand alone work of art. However, his methods of working were very similar to my own whereby he gathers inspiration from documentaries, books and social media. This for me is the most accessible way, especially in our technological age, to gather important research inspirations that doesn't mean us travelling to all four corners of the world to see another culture's form of art. Documentaries give an even wider range of information as it provides visual and academic findings that can further your topic of influence to another section of the art world that previously you may not have thought to have explored. I see it as being a brain like way of research because one piece can spark another to find more about a new range of information. Another connection I had to his practise was the efficient use of his travel time. For example most days he would be doing three to four hours of travel on trains to and from university which accounted for a lot of wasted time. To vitalise this he used this unconventional space as his studio space and for him this allowed him to produce multiple times the amount of work he was doing beforehand. He carried this use of his empty time after university in his job at a gallery in Leeds that enabled him to read several  books a week during his time on duty. This clever use of time has encouraged me to do the same whereby I have started to use my trains home, Usually two hours, as a means of getting work done too. This has been a very effective method as all I bring is my sketchbook and laptop which has kept me on top of my research and new experiments. However sometimes too much time on practise can lead to poor quality and an overload. This happened to Merrick though his quality of work dropping due to the sheer amount of pieces he was producing, whereas for me I have had an overload of research this semester as we have been free to experiment with our practise. Thus my mind and research cant link and keep up with all the inspiration and ideas I've been having through social media, books, documentaries and travel. This in someways has constricted my practise as I am not used to the freedom, however from this lecture I understood that I can set myself tasks and topics for my work like I am used to, all my ideas do link in someway, but forcing this can lead to going a step backwards. In the last few sections of his presentation he explained how his new work is now based off the production value and the visual impact rather than fighting for a political message. This excludes the meaning of the work which is something I am interested in doing within my practise as set design and props have more of a purpose than a meaning, it is more interesting to me the process and overall appearance and feeling of the audience rather than a meaningful message that they can read from the subject.

Wednesday Visitor - Adam Carr & Peter Appleton

Adam Carr

Curator, Writer and Lecturer

For Carr his art practise is a blend between art and curating. He likes to question what constitutes an art exhibition and the social aspect of them creating norms and stereotypes for the art world. Recently he has worked with a young artist, called Caine, famous for his arcade built solely out of cardboard and found recycled items that as a child brought him hours of fun making, engineering and creating these intricate arcade machines for him and the local area to play. This act of kindness and the impressive innovation of this arcade from such a young boy gained attention. This is what another artist wanted to recreate in a more professional standard to showcase the possibility of using recycled materials and some imagination. Carr's role is to recreate the atmosphere, homemade and sweet aspect of the original but to showcase and select how to show off the skills and methods used in the pieces more as art than for practicality. This is the blend that he speaks about when performing curator-ship as an art practise because its his role to get the message of the pieces across in one show. I connected to the way he spoke about his use of graphic design in the marketing of his shows as art too because I also agree with how commercial design can be art that is more likely to be seen by more audience than your typical art exhibition. This encourages me to still use illustrations in my work as it keep my skill level and in future will allow me to use designs in commercial companies that to my opinion will be seen and read by more people than my work would in a gallery space. Carr also has a style to most of his shows that connects them with a theme and allows his shows to be recognisable as not just the artist's work but the curators too.

Carr's first hit show involved a clever and more practical way of making a collaborative exhibition. Entitled,"Post It",the show began with Carr sending out just the average sticky back notes too several well known artists for them to create some art upon and then send back to him for the show. This simple, yet clever idea meant it got rid of extortionate costs of shipping art from all over the world to a minimal postage due to the size of the 'canvas' they were given. This freedom too for the artists meant that Carr was offered a wide array of pieces that gave me a good impression that the works size doesn't mean it is better or more impressive in any other way, it is more about the content and message that the piece is getting across. The way Carr displayed this show was creative in that he chose the office space above the intended gallery because it made more sense for the post it notes to be in their natural environment stuck to windows, desks, doors and the kitchens of these used office spaces that when the audience attended gave a more authentic appeal than the blankness of the white wall. This connects back to my own practise in that my work often is based off the location it will be placed in. The surroundings give more story telling elements to the piece and allow for viewers with little art knowledge to understand in more detail without having to read about the description, its an aid to help them create their own interpretation of it.

Peter Appleton



Appleton has had many years of experience developing and understanding his practise. Mainly working with the medium of sound he creates sculptures that use the natural elements to make very alien like sounds. This passion developed from his youth being introduced to new industries such as oil rigs. These huge structures  contrasting the natural seas surrounding them interested Appleton. With further research he started to observe the sounds the these beasts created, mechanical bangs and crashes, the wind passing through all the pipes and the fluidity of the oil being dragged up from the depths. This research is similar to my own whereby observing new and perplexing environments gives us inspiration. For example, just my new location of moving to Liverpool got me interested in the history of the place that I knew nothing about, but slowly developed knowledge that later turned into my final piece of the year. Using this Appleton started to create work on beaches and vast planes of land that gathered the wind and different weather conditions for him to experiment with. He quickly began to create a dictionary as such of noises made by different arrangements of materials and conditions. This gives the impression that he really focused on one piece at a time, to truly master it. he could of simply banged a few pieces of metal, however upon the use of wind and vibrations he found that the metals forms would give him different pitches of sounds. This later inspired some of his well known pieces that are both sculpture and instruments. this interaction with the audience connects to my work and upon the reaction of his pieces I have decided that the element of sound would help to give another dimension to my installations and would link it more to the theatre aspect of my practise. The piece that resonated most with my practise, pictured above, The link between two cathedrals shows both a well developed piece but also simplicity. It used the beam from a laser to transfer one signal of sound coming from the metropolitan cathedral to the anglican cathedral with it being echoed across the vast space. The laser that travels from the one to the other is on such a large scale that it becomes impressive on its own, its simple yet unusual because it's not something the public would normally witness. However the mechanics behind it show such precision and years of developing just to get to this moment. I like the fact that the more you research into this piece it becomes more mesmerising and less simple from what you originally view. This is what I aim in my pieces that on further inspection the brush strokes reveal and the time it took on the work becomes more aware and therefore more impressive. Another of his works, Shangpool 2010, also connects to my practise and reminded me of what my intentions of the installations are. This piece involved a collaboration of him and a group of IT technicians that helped him to create a virtual experience of riding a canoe in the peaceful Sefton park. This was exhibitioned both in the university and in our partner shanghai university. This ritual experience allowed for them to get a feel of what ur natural landscapes are like compared to there own and it connected them both by experiencing the same activity and emotions at the same time, place but thousands of miles alway from one another. I like the idea of art connecting these two far apart cultures in an activity that is similar to both. This for me is the reason in art and how it can start and connect people through topics and conversations that I'm sure happened on the night of the exhibit because it is works like this that spark these emotions and questions of how was it achieved etc. This would be ideal for my own practise as the idea of set design is to hide how it was made, the behind the scenes and construction of the sets, however I see that part of it to be more interesting sometimes than the perfection on the other side. Appleton work inspires me to show these aspects like he had by showing the mechanics of his instruments and all the technology behind the pieces that later interest people more after the small performance beforehand.

Wednesday Visitor - Dan Howard Birt

Dan Howard Birt

Being a painter as his hobby between jobs. After seven years of conforming to a specific brief he got tired of being restricted. Now with more freedom. His exhibitions are conformed, highly organised and professional. Which for him is the main reason for him falling out of passion with his recent pieces. This is common within the art world and in my situation has happened since I no longer have a location to install my work with meaning about the place it is presented in. To over come this I have been looking at how Dan Howard said he rather have his in a junk yard sale, which gave me the feeling that a normal blank gallery is not suitable for my work. Giving art context through the place it is shown helps me and artists like Dan to understand the meanings and maybe to see something else that other viewers can't. One of his pieces was exhibited in the show

 "Ingredients, Method, Serving Suggestion  brings together an inter-generational group of artists to explore the relationship between contemporary art and the everyday, through the conceptual framework of the recipe"

this suggests that the format of a recipe being repeatable and to interpretation was like his work. This brought to my attention that my own practise is based a lot off what the viewer takes in to interpretation. For example, the cross year crit was a good way to hear what people felt about my work without explaining it. Some suggested meanings completely different from the one I explained after. These suggestions, like the show Howard-Birt exhibited in, were open to interpretation and like a recipe is up to the viewer/user to take what they want from it. These can lead to improving work by using ideas that you may not have thought of, that may work better.

In his curatorial career he used the concept of unconventional galleries to display work such as the "After Party" This was a way of not conforming to the white blankness of common gallery but to instead, as he put it, use a junk yard sale. This example was in the display case outside the gallery itself, which for most artists would not be a conventional way to show their work, but Howard Birt saw it as the best way to make sure the work was seen by all visiting as they would have to walk past it to enter. This to me is similar to how I exhibited my installation at the St.George's Hall gallery because my piece was upon entering the building, before the gallery space itself, this meant that I knew it would be seen by all the visitors and become the first impression of the show. Relating to Howard Brit's work I like how he uses these unconventional spaces which then frames the pieces and becomes part of the story of the art and can help to make the meaning more readable to viewers outside the art-world. However, from his actual practise I did not like the overall appearance of the pieces due to them being the colours being overly rich, deep and not complimenting one another. To combat this I would use the colour wheel to make sure if I wanted contrasting colours that they would at least work well side by side.

Mood Boards and Research

Mood Boards and Research

Burning Man

Over summer I have been collecting pieces of work and inspiration to draw upon for this semester. Narrowing it down into different categories helps with the amount and to find connections to combine them into a series of works. For this board I focused on the festival of the Burning man situated in the Nevada desert in america. Each year in this vast alien like landscape artists from all around the world are commissioned to create large scale sculpture in themes of punk, neon, metals and wood all surrounding a centre temple that is then set a light for the final ceremony of the festival. The theatrics of all these set in this wild location all comes together with the attendees costumes that are just as crazy and dramatic as the scenery around them. I have chosen a few images to represent these few days with many resembling a figure or geometric patterns. This ties in with my own style as I like to use silhouetted figures to show different emotions and previously have worked with geometric shapes for backgrounds, but only in the two dimensional sense. To branch out into something that gives such impact as these is difficult. My main idea I take from this research is the use of fire and colour, but mainly scale. Giving something such large scale in a barren area makes it seem more impressive then it actually is. The main link I have found between these sculptures and my research into death traditions around the world is that they resemble the effigies that are the burnt as a cremation for the lost.

Olafur Eliasson

This Danish based artist gathers his inspiration from nature by recreating natural phenomenons such as a rainbow due to the perspective of light, he has also recreated the feeling of the sun in a room with powerful effect just using light, mirrors and wind. The main impact of his work makes the viewer feel something rather than just looking at a piece in a blank room. Many times he has collaborated with architects to include his style of work in building's as an installation on a large scale. One of the pieces I am particularly interested in is "The Weather Project", as it gave off the feeling of being there in real life, reconstructing the atmosphere of reality using little tricks and illusions. The main way he does this is through mirrors and light, given the problem of the space not being tall enough, his solution was to mirror the roof and to use a half light to the appear as a full circle. it also allowed for the viewers to see themselves experiencing the exhibition. From his work I have took the ideas of basing my work off nature and its own artwork, to show how somethings, if isolated, would appear more like a piece of art. several of his pieces have also been based off showing awareness for global warming with the work of "Ice Watch" where he shocked hundreds of viewers with massive ice blocks shipped from Iceland for people to witness the melting process and to see the dramatic change for themselves. i like that this would have started off conversations and different views of the topic, i see this as the purpose of art and it shows if the piece is successful or not. My favourite aspect of his work is how polished and precise it all is with it appearing effortless. For example in the pieces that refract light in the spectrum of colours it takes hours to get the perfect angle to achieve. My work has the same sort of effect whereby the end result seems to flow but in reality I have to individually set up an installation piece by piece. his work gives off an atmosphere of drama and theatrics which is my aim this semester in my own practise.

Light Art

In this mood board I focused on one theme that ties the last two together, Light. Within the festival and Eliasson's work is the main use of light. This common theme came to my attention when researching closely at the several artists who have exhibited at the festival and within Eliasson's work especially. This board shows many different ways and techniques that I am keen to explore using as even a medium. To narrow down upon the thousands of results of light art, i chose to look mainly in to figures as it was another key feature of the Burning man Festival that I was drawn to. The use of mirroring silhouettes in nature showed close relation to the artists as it brings the attention to the surroundings but also the main subject itself, several meanings can be taken from this such as someones presence, loss of a loved one, our impact on nature or even mental well-being and the emptiness of what takes place in millions of everyday people. just from this one piece I was able to gather many meanings but what I took from it was our general presence on this planet and how the mirroring has to show us to be more aware. This illusion ties into the more theatrical side of my practise as it can be seen as a stage set with actors and the play in action. Another few pieces that I was interested in on this board was the silhouetted figures appearing to come out of surfaces with an ominous feel. The contrast of light shown just by deep shadows which reveals the forms of the figure. Death like is what I took from these as they bring many questions and the hooded figure giving the sense of darkness or someone always present watching. it would be interesting to incorporate something similar in my own work because it would give context to the more theatrical side and could possibly be interactive too, maybe allowing the viewer to get the perspective of the figure. Light in general allows to set a mood with just a few colours meaning completely opposite things together to when they're singular, dark spaces contrasting with spotlights highlighting what the viewer should be looking at, it guides them and encourages them to feel something. For example the powerful image of the elegant figure with the raging fire in the backdrop shows how the intense glow and colour of the light behind gives such power and emotion to the figure in front, which without it wouldn't have the same impact. 

McQueen

   

   

Wednesday Visitors - John Barker & Ines Doujak

John Barker & Ines Doujak

Collaboratively these two artists have worked together to produce political artwork that looks at the economy, society and hierarchy. One of their projects took the form of 48 posters using the old method of weaving art that then involved a dying process and a lot of manual labour to produce small amounts of work. The given nicknames for those dyes were then the titles of each piece. These pieces all had several different meanings ranging from research into class struggles at the time and the feminist movement which I find to be an interesting topic to base work off as it is still unequal and has many factors like pay gaps, abuse, and double standards to address though imagery that helps people to relate to it and to possibly gain awareness of a situation they or others are in. One titled "dye Spy" showed Britain's key part in the dye trade and how after WW1 USA and Germany had competition in this new found industry. Many of these had meanings but I didn't feel connected to these as they had been done so many times before or they didn't stand out as original and impactful, aside from this visually many I liked due to their graphical appeal like these below with the layering. 

  

In terms of my own practise their methods are similar to mine as they have connected their work back to historical connections in this case through imperialism and textiles. From this i may experiment with text on my own work as sometimes it ranges into the style of graphics. This is the main reason why I am moving away from painting and canvases because they make my work more two dimensional and in my mind, not impressive enough. My practise is taking a development and changing, but as Barker and Doujak explained in this lecture it is only natural for this to happen, but with the same elements from your practise before. For me I still have the same thought process as before whereby I base my pieces off of history or places but now its turning more to my interest of set deign and more theatrical which I see as a good connection and development in my work.