Wednesday Visitors - Rory & Mark

Mark Wright

From this first lecture of the year we had two current tutors give us a talk about their practises and how they perceive art differently. To begin with Mark Wright spoke about his methods. From a scientific background, Mark wasn't educated into the art world. Instead he came to the decision to move to to art through the similarities he saw in it and science, embodiment. He described embodiment to be two entities, the soul and body. Known as  the theory of Dualism. In modern versions they look at cognitive theories which he saw to be a link between how viewers of art interact and perceive it. Using the example of the rubber glove experiment, which uses one fake hand and the participants own to trick them into believing the pain inflicted upon the fake hand was their own. mark uses this to show how the cognitive brain can be tricked and split in two. In my opinion this isn't a meaning I would ever use within my own work, but I find it interesting how he can see similarities between art and science and how they can be used to further each others fields of work.

Through research into design he used architects, designers and artists to do their practise without notice and meaning, no purpose or libraries too. By doing so he was seeing if they could find solutions to fields of work. Example being archaeologists having the issue of losing contact of the artefact behind glass and special lighting which takes away the context of the object and makes it just another exhibit, no purpose or use. I liked this due to it conflicting ready made pieces because they also lose their context and purpose by being placed upon a plinth. Their solution was to create immersive versions of the objects through virtual reality to create the feeling of being their in the origins of the artefact. this to me shows being innovative because it uses today's science and technology to make visuals and education one thing. This has given me the idea to experiment with digital modelling for my own practise due to the possibilities of making installations seem bigger, smaller and more impossible than they can be in reality.  

Connecting Cities - Binoculars to binoculars

The viewer of this immersive art looks through the binoculars which show another city somewhere around the world which, in which displays a live image of their eyes on a screen, and visa versa for the other city. This shows how science can connect with art to show and educated others about the world we live in. This piece really impressed me with the scale of knowing that when you peer through these binoculars, people form thousands of miles away are spectating you. This gave me many ideas for how using our connecting world through social media and technology can share experiences. This reminded me of how when I was living and working in america over summer, I could still share my travel experiences through video calling my family and friends showing them the environment I was in. This could be developed into an installation through making the viewers feel as though they are there through feelings, touch, smells and sounds. All through science and tech.

Another piece Mark spoke about was his work with Be Another Lab, who specialise in VR systems, together they created work that explored identities through simulating and making the participants believe they have swapped bodies with the person in front of them. Having a perspective of someone else which then gave them the feelings that they were in that body by seeing themselves touching body parts. This relates back to the rubber glove experiment which showed how the cognitive brain can be fooled. I particularly liked this piece due to its complexity and how it makes you really think about whats happening in front of you.  

Rory Macbeth

Beginning as a street artist creating realistic copies of renaissance portraits 12 years before eventually starting an art degree. he explained the big change from this medium to his practise today. Showing his meaning through two classical paintings, point being that many have the main subject of the painting looking at the viewer. He took this concept in his own practise but messed around with it a little. Examples such as dj-ing phone hold music, a fake tour of the Tate giving false information which the participants believe and him being the subject interacting with the viewer, a wax work of someone pretending to be a statue in public giving the perception of it being a real performer which shows the connection through the subject looking at the viewer and the one I liked most being the object, made from the object itself. In this he created trees and rocks made from sculptured branches and stones scaled down. This trickery blends in with mark's work of tricking the brain. The work that I see being similar to mine was his installations, for example No Place, where he wanted to take a political meaning into his piece but ended up with people seeing it as beautiful instead. which resonates with pieces I've done in the past where the message is ignored due to the overall aesthetic, but on further inspect it reveals itself. This piece of his takes scale into play too which is something I want to experiment with because it gives the spectacular overwhelming feeling when viewing it. I relate it back to my work of typography photography where I created the image through using context writing that related to the image. similar to his work of creating things with said things.    

   

The pieces of his that I see as silly but effective take his personality into action as you can see its his work. The square leaves on the tree, "self standing sculptures" being paint brushes struct in place from drying paint and taking crash barriers from accidents to show the story of what happened, they seem simple and complex at the same time. Thought provoking is a term I would describe Rory's work as being because of the time and meanings taken into consideration when making the pieces as he still uses the concept of the subject looking at the viewer from the classical paintings.

From this lecture I got inspired by how both their work relates through not obvious connections which I see in my own practise due to the range of themes all relating in one way, its just difficult to see. For this reason I went along to the Q and A to learn more about their concepts, especially embodiment as I didn't understand it. Now I get that embodiment is more philosophical than it being taught through educating. I found the concept that virtual art and realism can blend together, after all their aim is to recreate whats only in reality, just in different environments ect. I found the idea that this can be an escape and addiction to be interesting and maybe a topic to look into as in our social media age we are trapped in norms that previous generations weren't. Bringing questions of why are we trying to recreate reality when its all around us? 

2nd Year

2nd Year Begins 

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.