I've been focusing a lot more on my own
work this week, so haven't been to as many galleries as I usually do, which is
a shame, but there's always next week.
On Monday I went into uni for the day
to continue to work on my gifs that I've been creating. Over the course of the
day I began to think about the addition of colour to the work, which takes away
from the bland aesthetic that I've been attempting to create. On the other hand
the use of colour adds another layer of meaning to the image, as I can
reference a number of things with colour, and it adds to the idea of losing a
sense of reality and makes the work a little glitch-y. These are a few of the
initial mock-ups that I started to make on Monday using Photoshop:
In the afternoon there was a lecture on
Minimalism, an art movement that I'm particularly fond of. Lots of artists'
work was discussed, including some of my favourites like Donald Judd, Robert
Morris and Sol LeWitt. One of the things that stood out for me was the idea of
'serial art', work that is imagined and then created, with no re-thinking of
the initial idea throughout the process of making the work. A famous quote from
LeWitt looks at this movement "The serial artist does not attempt to
produce a beautiful or mysterious object but functions merely as a clerk
cataloguing the results of his premise." This made me think of a project
where you literally had an idea and followed through with it to the letter.
Obviously I have no idea how you go about doing this, but it's an interesting
notion to consider. Dieter Roth's 'Flat Waste' was also brought up, which made
me think about Michael Landy's 'Break Down' project, where he made an inventory
of everything he owned and then destroyed it all over a two week period.
Overall it was a rich and nourishing lecture, and I can't wait for tomorrows
one which is going to be centred around conceptual art.
In the evening I started to create the
colourful gifs, thinking about the RGB colour model and how to use those
colours to reference the electronic systems that I'm using within my artwork.
Whilst working on these pieces in my room in the dark, I began to notice how
the continuous array of colours was reflecting onto my arms and face, and how
you could see that as reflecting on oneself in a conceptual way. It also made
me think about how work is changed when you see it in different environments,
which led me onto considering whether the different gifs could be downloaded to
the viewers phones, to be played whenever they feel like it, changing the way
in which I control the continuous aspect of the gif in itself. This would also
be a form of interaction within the work.
On Tuesday I began to work on my two
part mould of a controller; something that I've been meaning to do for a while
now. It was a relatively easy process that I was able to complete on Thursday
(as the workshop were closed on Wednesday). Unfortunately I didn't go to the
Tuesday Lecture, as I was too enthralled with work, which is a definite shame
as I liked the look of the work of the visiting artist (Daniel Sturgis). I was
shown an interesting artist called Cory Arcangel however, someone I was only
slightly aware of before, but after watching an in-conversation with him on
YouTube I began to really like the post-conceptual artist and his work. A
definite favourite of mine is a piece titled 'Working On My Novel' which is a
book that features 127 tweets by people tweeting that phrase. The amount of
mocking involved is hilarious.
I also made a few more gifs, looking at
a part humorous, part painful way to play around with text as well as the
ongoing repetition of the gif. At first I laughed at the thing that I had
created, but as it continued I began to feel slightly distressed by it, the
combination of colours and content begun to slightly overwhelm me. I don't know
where I plan to go with this, as it was intended as a throwaway thing, but I
kind of like it now. I'm just going to see how I feel in the near future when I
return to it, and think more about the use of text and what it can actually do
for the work.
The group had to meet at the Tate
Modern on Wednesday morning to go to 'The World Goes Pop' exhibition, which I'd
already been to many weeks ago. Going again just reinforced how much I like the
political ideas behind the work, but not how the final product looks on an
aesthetic level. I did find one piece that I did like by Peter Roehr which was
a multitude of film montages, where the clips started with the title and how
many repetitions of the very short film would be played. This made me think
about the gif making that I've been doing, and the contrast between the two
types of repetition. It was interesting to go back to it though, as it was the
first exhibition I actually went to when I arrived in London, so it's
intriguing to consider how much I've seen since then, and the contrast of how
I've changed and how little the exhibition has, in my eyes. Or maybe I should
see more in the exhibition now than I did before, I don't know...
I did get to see Abraham Cruzvillegas
'Empty Lot' though, which was a fun idea - taking different dirt from every
park in London and seeing what happens. Although it was quite simplistic in
nature, it was still enjoyable to see. Unfortunately it didn't even come close
to Rachel Whiteread's 'Embankment' or Anish Kapoor's 'Marsyas'. Both of which
were incredible.
After that I decided to go the Barbican
to see Eddie Peake's 'Forever Loop' at the Curve. This was a really
thought-provoking exhibition of sorts, that was a mixture of live performance
with video, sculpture and installation works. I'd recommend going to see it, as
the experience is a lot better than the description. Throughout the space there
is a roller skater who interacts with the viewer, which made me painfully aware
of how people act in a gallery setting. There was a lot more thought-provoking
aspects to the work, but I won't talk about that here.
I then went to the exhibition
surrounding Charles and Ray Eames that was going on upstairs with Rosie Abbey, which was vaguely
enjoyable. The chairs are obviously awesome, but they are simply chairs when it
comes down to it. I did like the educational films a lot though, especially the
ones looking at the universe and different cultures.
From there I went to a few more
galleries, as I decided it was too late to go to uni to attempt to work. I
walked to BEERS London, which had some incredibly intriguing work by Jonathon
Zawada on show. I'd previously seen his landscape images which were nice but
not that great, however the mesh (I don't really know which medium they are)
wall sculptures are intensely enjoyable to see and read about. The pieces are
created using noise generation algorithms and seem to be continually pulsing
with activity as you manoeuvre through the gallery space. The work that was
shown was definitely enriched after I came home and read up on the pieces a
little more. I'm definitely keeping the name bookmarked for future reference.
From BEERS I went to the Parasol Unit
which had an exhibition going on titled 'The Gap: Selected Abstract Art from
Belgium'. I unfortunately didn't note down any of the artwork that was
displayed, but it was a really well curated show, blending new and old
abstraction together. Annoyingly there was no helpful text to elaborate on the
meaning of the work, which is always a shame.
I then went next door to the Victoria
Miro gallery, which had many many paintings displayed, which I was quite
neglectful of, as they were mostly simple and figurative. It was also the end
of the day and I wanted to go home, as I hadn't made any work for myself all
day. So that too, added to my neglect-fullness.
When I got home I started to use a
program within Google Sketchup to make the gifs, rather than using Photoshop.
Switching to this method made the quality of the image a lot better, but
reduced the ability to edit the image, so I was no longer able to change the
colour of the shadow. I can however change the environments colour within the
picture, but I'm yet to experiment with that. They also had to be videos,
rather than gifs. This takes away from the ideas surrounding the gif, but I can
still have those embedded within the videos, even if I choose to move on from
gifs entirely, something I'm yet to fully think about.
In the morning on Thursday I finished
my mould and was able to create a plaster replica of the controller, it came
out really well and slightly distorted already, as I didn't pour as much
plaster as I should have done into the mould, which obviously turned out to be
a good thing. I'm really happy with the outcome and have a lot of rubber left,
so in the future if I want to make another mould I easily can without going to
the shop.
During the rest of the day I was thinking
more about the gifs and the films, continuing to create a few more videos using
the Sketchup inner program. I eventually decided that I want to make 7
different videos in total, making a week in the day/night cycle that the clips
feature. I'm then going to make the 7 videos loop 988 times, which is 19 (my
age) years in weeks. This is a beginning thought though, so I may research a
better number for the work to be looped for, the average life span of a human
being perhaps. I'm yet to make all 7 of the videos though, which is something
I'll probably do this coming week.
As I've said previously, I intend to
display these on a handheld device, a PSP or similar to that. After thinking
about it a little more this week, I think I'm going to get a Japanese 'rip off'
PSP, as it continues on with the idea of a familiar but unfamiliar thing that
I'm attempting to consider when I'm making the sculptures. I've also thought
about creating a box for the console to be in, with a hole to put your face
into, so that you're inside a confined space when you're viewing the work. I'm
undecided whether this is going to be a temporary idea or a permanent one, I
need to think about it more. This is a (very) quick mock up of what I'm
considering.
Another aspect of the work to consider
is the spaces that I'm creating within Sketchup to film the controllers. At
first they were just the vehicle to create the gifs in, but now I'm beginning
to think that they're something more, and the idea of making these things
within a program on my computer in order to make a comment on how people spend
too much time playing video games is intriguing to me. I'm not sure of what I
want to do with it yet, but it's slowly becoming it's own part of this
multi-layered project of mine. It would be really exciting if I could somehow
make it so you could walk around the environment, but that's an idea to
consider at a later date.
Friday was spent darting to and from
the workshop, pouring a plaster and then coming back to work on my videos, this
process was repeated throughout the day. Through making the plasters I've
decided on what I want to do with them, as well as how I want to (maybe)
display them. This could obviously all change, but for now I want to create a
range of controllers in plaster, all distorted, but some similar to others
(considering the Fraud principle still). I then want to paint them in the same
colours as the original controller, but not in a precise way, so that there's
something slightly off about them, in an uncanny valley type of thing. On top
of this I want to chop them up and display them as if they're slowly sliding
into the walls/floor, similar to how the controllers in the videos are. I may
reconsider this though once I've actually experimented with it, as my original
thought was to simply display them on the walls in the exact same way for each
sculpture. I also started to take apart the actual controller, which I'm going to continue to do later in the week.
Another part of the project is going to
be casting the controller in a bunch of different materials, thinking about the
difference between the inner and outer self. Hopefully this week I'll get
around to doing this.
On Saturday I spent the majority of the
morning working on my videos, but in the afternoon I went to the Whitechapel
Gallery to a performance titled 'Oliver Coates plays Hanne Darboven'. It was an
engaging experience, watching a man play the cello for an hour and a half, but
it sounded a lot more interesting than it actually proved to be, the
description was along the lines of 'playing a musical instrument in response to
an art piece' kind of thing, which is usually fun.
In the evening I went to a performance
as part of the Spill Festival at Toynbee Studios 'FK Alexander: NO WHERE // NOW
HERE'. It was an incredible 90 minutes where ear plugs were provided and
definitely needed. It mainly consisted of a woman moving one huge pile of
charcoal from one end of the room to the other, alongside a video piece as well
as a swinging lantern and flashing strobe lights. For me it was a lot about the
over excess of our society, as well as the monotony of our lives. Obviously
there were many other meanings being conveyed, but after seeing someone take
about 50 minutes to transport a material from one end of the room to the other,
I couldn't really think about anything else. It was quite the experience.
I've just been writing this today, and
thinking about a few ideas that I'm going to look into in the future. One that
I'm especially curious of is to compile a range of jokes that don't work when
they're written down, be it because they involve a silent letter or otherwise.
The work would simply be a piece of paper with these jokes written on it, with
the title, 'Jokes That Don't Work When They're Written Down' at the top of the
page. Obviously this will be a short and humorous project that I'm going to
look into doing in a few weeks time.
This week is full of seminars and group
crits, which I'm really looking forward to, as it'll be intriguing to hear
people's thoughts about my work and what it's all about.
Snapchat:
bob.bk
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