Words of art

 ‘We are all very disappointed’, Alice Hartley, 2013, monoprint on paper, 470 x780 cm

 Friday. Not only my first press review but my first experience of the Bloomberg new contemporaries; an annual competition where selected (recent) fine art graduates get a chance to show their work.

Receiving details of the exhibition my first thoughts are that the World Museum is a rather traditional venue for a contemporary show. Meeting a group of critics we question this choice while lost in the bug emporium a space designed to entice children with its bright colours, projections and soft play area. Then as if someone is screaming “Ha, told you so!” we pass through a door and are hit by the silence of a gallery, a white cube gallery. The space is grand, the long windows and high ceilings all part and parcel of the Neo-classical architecture. With an exhibition of different artists with no planned themes the space becomes an important factor being the one constant point for the show. Other Biennial spaces like The Old Blind School and its musty haunting corridors give the work a sense of trepidation, the World museum gives a feeling of tradition. This juxtaposition of traditional venue vs. contemporary art causes me to question how far artwork has become detached from historical methods? Which dominates the show, traditional or contemporary?

  Henry Hussey, 'The Guardian', 2013, Damask, cotton, yarn, velvet, silk, screen print, 200 x 150cm

For Henry Hussy there is a risk of being over shadowed by Alice Hartley’s confrontational ‘We are all very disappointed’ screen print piece, from floor to ceiling it demands your attention at the start of the exhibition. However ‘The Guardian’ is looming at my shoulder, telling a story and enticing me in. His grandmother? A pit bull? I am hooked, not only by the text but also the combination of prints on the tapestry. It is clever use of traditional techniques such as appliqué and embroidery paired with contemporary digital printing.

Plinth presentation of video work

 Around the rest of the exhibition an astonishing 24 video pieces account for almost half of the entries. So is this the medium of choice these days? Maybe, but as an art student I can vouch that video is a cheap way to produce and store work so as studio spaces are tight and materials expensive it seems to add up that there is such an influx of video. A traditional painting is best viewed in the flesh and doesn’t translate well to screen however in the age of social media a video is easily shared in its correct format, thus another reason to encourage the use of video. Of course videos are viewed in the gallery setting and turned sculptural as shown in the New Contemporaries as each piece sits on a plinth like a bust in a stately home. However this repeated 24 times causes me to lose focus of the videos deeming them samey and draws emphasis to the traditional works all presented in a variety of ways.

Miroslav Pomichal, 'Mismatched Couple', 2013, oil on canvas, carved, painted wood installation, 200 x 360 x 20 cm

   Traditional plinths may not be the captivating way to present every video but the reversal of taking a traditional method and displaying it in a contemporary manner works for Miroslav Pomichal’s ‘Mismatched Couple’.  Standing on the floor, the canvases lean on the wall like real people, a wooden rod sits between them and the yellow background draws attention no frame could attract. Through this installation the pieces take away the typical vantage point of the viewer insisting they interact with the work in an unconventional way.

Throughout the lecture Khan’s infatuation with society’s order and construction paired with humans’ responses (especially language responses) came across strongly.

Decoy, a piece concocted to reflect and engage with his position as an artist was the most inspiring.

Imagine this, a generic art opening, the type with lots of drink and a meal for guests. All this opulence a showcase for his piece, a sculpture. A simple wooden box in place of one of the dinner tables.  The guests know he has had a week to prepare this and find it quite confusing to see such a minimalist piece as the end product.

With many raised eyebrows the meal commences, four tables have guests who are believed to be networking with fellow art lovers, critics and curators. After all why wouldn’t a collector, a curator, an artist and a pleasant guest all be at this event? Suddenly one by one they give a toast making the other diners highly uncomfortable and confused. Then they all walk to the sculpture and form a human statue upon it. The façade is lifted and Hussan’s performance piece discovered.

Hussan described it as a “simple piece of socially situated minimalism”. The ideas explored are fairly straight forward. Stick a group of actors into a setting where they are impersonating the stereotypes of those around them, artist, curator, collector, guest.  Although simplistic it works to reveal the flaws in a system and the result is very confrontational.

Interestingly a tangent to the piece was that once the actors were revealed the sculpture element of the piece was forgotten and people viewed it as a place to put jackets. This sudden death of a piece of art work really ties in with the fickle nature of the art world.

My book on colour theory arrived. It is extremely informative, having read the first few chapters it is very science focused but it looks at why we see colour and how artists and different cultures view colour and name them.

Seeing how much consideration went into colour mixing in the past I am going to start making a record of colours I mix and how they are mixed. Colours I have mixed for years without consciously considering what I am doing. Documenting this will hopefully help cement my knowledge of colours.

 I have started painting in the grey scale of the skirt on the dancer. I have never done a complete grey scale but I always block in darker colours first and then build on top of them.

I painted the base of the skin tone and decided it was too bold, I usually build up paint in really thin layers. I am unsure if I should be bolder with my use of paint, I don’t want to risk my paintings looking very flat and dull. However as I hated this attempt and took off the paint the next day I decided I don’t like the way paint builds up in thick layers. This could also be because of the contrast with the rest of the painting in thin layers. I will try a painting that is thick over all and see if I prefer it then. Now I have removed the skin tone I did originally I am going to research into skin tones and then repaint the figure. 

I started to paint a thin blue wash over the greys in the skirt to start building depth and movement into it. 

I watched a Henry Moore video from the BBC 4 collections on iplayer first shown in 1960.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00drs8s/monitor-henry-moore

The things I took from this were…

He has a space big enough to test his sculptures. Important to view work from a distance and in different surroundings. .

On why his subject is the female figure.

“I don’t know, that’s just what I am interested in, but why I wouldn’t, I don’t know and I don’t think I want to know.”

He is worried if he understands why he will stop “ticking over” and “to try and find is motives and reasons might stop one from wanting to go on.” He never wants to stop being a sculptor and is scare of losing that. Needs his “tension” to be able to create.

On a cezanne painting he owns

It isn’t perfect but “one should make a struggle towards something you can’t do, rather than something you can do easily.” Believes  Cezanne was always struggling/aiming to extend himself/painting/art in general.

I glazed the backgroud of the painting, ahh! As I was careless with my brushstrokes ( I now realise they must be thin and all in the same direction to be unnoticeable) I found that the glaze came out thick in paces and then this became hard to cover. If I was to glaze again I would definitely wait until I fet the background was good enough and not hope to rectify it with glazes. I think one or two layers of glaze is sufficient with the alkyd medium I am using as it is quite thick. 

With the background mainly finished I decided I wanted the next step to be glazing. Having never created an effective glaze before I began searching how to make one and what materials to use.

 My research started by watching a video on YouTube by artist Thomas Baker where he discusses oil paintings and glazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7PJ52L4H7E 

  Points I have taken from this are…

A glaze is an almost translucent layer of extremely thin paint.

It won’t affect the paint below and all shading will still be visible.

It adds colour, deepens/enriches colours, adds shadows and darkens sections.

Must go on to a dry painting so it doesn’t mix.

Each layer of glaze must be dry before you add another.

Must use some form of thinning agent to dilute paint. He uses alkyd medium-makes glaze dry faster aswell. The alkyd medium is thick, want lots of medium to a small amount of paint.

Mix your glaze and then dry bursh it on/use a cloth etc. Cotton is absorbent, good to remove glaze if you don’t want it on.

If you want it darker you can add more paint to your glaze however if you want to keep it really transparent then keep it think and do layers instead.

Picking a shadow colour=Look at your base colour, find it on the colour wheel, find its opposite, use this to make a shadow. This is because the human eye is most pleased when it sees all 3 of the primary colours together. Using the colour wheel you should get the correct mix of all 3.

Aka using violet (mix of red and blue) to shadow yellow…all three colours are then present in the painting.

Colours directly opposite aka blue and orange will mix to make a rich black colour.

Zinc white is the most transparent white paint.

To slightly dull down a colour takes its opposite/compliment colour and add a small amount (don’t want to make it black.)]

 I found this video to be very informative but it also made me realise how little I know about colour theory. I now want to explore this area as I feel it will benefit my practice.

 I searched online and found the book ‘Bright Earth: The invention of colour’, Phil

ip Ball. I think this book will benefit me as I enjoy chemistry so I hope that it will help teach me colour theory at a deeper level. My next steps are to start studying the colour wheel in relation to my painting, documenting my findings.

I have started my research by looking at the works of Andrew Atroshenko. Many of his works feature beautiful deep brown and red backgrounds. I found that this colour combination made the white of the ballerina’s clothing and pale skin stand out on the canvas. The visable brush strokes also help to bring movement and life to the painting. These strokes are extremely bold and the sign of a confident artist. I am unsure if I will learn my paint as obvious on the surface as I am more self-conscious of my mistakes. However I do want to attempt to get a good fluidity to my paintings as shown in his. 

 Andrew Atroshenko, Vibrance, Oil on canvas, 30 x 18

(http://www.lamantiagallery.com/atroshenko/)

Andrew Atroshenko, Ballerina, Oil on Canvas, 40 x 30

(http://www.lamantiagallery.com/atroshenko/)

I started by mixing various combinations of the brown, red, green and yellow to try and recreate the colours in his backgrounds.

I built up my own background slowly using firstly layers of thin wash. Yellow, then red and finally brown. Once I had a base of varying shades I began dry brushing on thicker paint, adding in highlights to give depth and a vague presence of a room or space around the dancer. I am unsure if it is too red at the moment, or no actually…maybe it is too dark and not varied enough in colour. This is something I will have to come back to.

New project…learn to paint!

Being commissioned to paint a ballerina has made me consider a few things! (especially as it is my first ‘real’ commission)

Am I good enough at what I do to be hanging in someone’s home?

The scary thought of trusting my own judgement when given such a loose brief. Will they like what I paint? Style colours etc?

Is my art good enough or do I need to learn more?

 The final question has made me realise I feel once again(this happens every few years) that I find my style has become significantly immature and before I can move forward, especially before I tackle anymore art with a ‘meaning’ or challenging topic, I must simply learn new techniques and find out what pleases the viewer.

After the writer and theologian John Hull became completely blind in 1983, he kept an audio diary of his experience. This film is a dramatization using those recordings. 

So first year of University is over! I am going to use this post to look at how using blogs have benefitted my practice...this was a requirement of the course. I will add lots of photos so you can just look at them if you wish!

Throughout the last few months I have put my blogs into sections making them more organised and informative for the reader. It has helped me to see clearly what I want to write about. My interests have become more apparent; more often my blogs are focusing on the layout and presentation of work.

Paul Seawright, ‘Camp Boundary’, 2002, Cibachrome print, size unknown

Steve Mcqueen, ‘Queen and Country’,  2006, mixed media, size unknown

I feel the most influential exhibition I have written about is the Contemporary Art and War exhibition at the IWMNorth. Not only was it mapped out so that you walked from piece to piece in an organised curve, it had a variety of works shown and many were effective. The simple power of Paul Seawright’s photography in thin frames and Steve Mcqueen’s ‘stamps’ organised in a coffin like sculpture had me thinking about presentation. Mcqueen’s piece in particular as the presentation felt so ominous and took over the whole space, it also made me want to work with other materials so I experimented with wood work and I have used the C2C machine to create graves.

Abigail Stokes, ‘Graves’, 2014, Wood, 130x70cm 

Another artist that stimulated my practice was Benedict drew at Matt’s Gallery. His installation and video work made me to look further into installing my work, this has resulted in my work hung inside a church which I felt was really effective. The noise and use of light added something to his work and this is a step I want to take next. From this I also attempted video work, I found it much harder to make an impression than I thought it would be. This has made me appreciate video more and also study it closely for camera angles and lighting etc.

Benedict Drew, ‘Heads may roll’, 2014, photograph by Peter White  

The popups have been really helpful to me for putting installing into practice, especially for my work in relation to other work and finding links between them. However the most beneficial was considering how my practice is viewed by the outside world through the promotional flyers exhibition at Metal. I began considering what is effective to the viewer and how can I intrigue people through advertising. I also maintain a blog on Tumblr, this has made me more aware of how much art is on the Internet and therefore how important having a strong promotional side to my practice is needed. With the affluence of art online it has also made me consider things like managing copyright and ensuring I reference sources of artworks and quotes.

Selection of artists' flyers, Metal, 2014, photograph Abigail Stokes

Another strand of online blogging and art is twitter, I have set up a twitter account and found it useful, for example I tweeted about researching the Chapman brothers and ‘DHC/ART’ sent me a link to a live Q&A session with them. I would never have known about this event if I wasn’t using Tumblr and Twitter accounts for my art practice. This entire experience really has added to my work and made me consider new approaches and taught me to utilise the Internet as a resource aswell.

Over all I feel writing blogs has helped me to articulate ideas and see strengths and weaknesses in exhibitions I would have originally just walked around. It has helped me develop an understanding of my opinions on exhibiting and how I would like to exhibit my work. All this has highly influenced my practice as I have spent a lot of time rearranging work and considering how it will be viewed and the strengths of different mediums in different spaces. 

The academic year ends and I have a variety of works which I have tried to display in a visually interesting way. Here are a few of the photos from installations....

Influential work

The first piece I saw claimed its space in the small side gallery. Beatrice Haines ‘Heavenly bodies’ had three boards showing just the hair and forehead of three people with scanners infront of them.  The scanners were in purpose built boxes in the middle of the room, they obviously connected to the pieces as the light came from them and the noise and clicks of the scanner really caught my attention and made the piece seem like it surrounded me in the space. Paired with Steve Mcqueen’s coffin like presentation I had seen earlier in the year this piece made me very intruiged to try my own wood work and see how it filled the space. I used the C2C machine to create graves and photographed them as 2D and 3D pieces to test this effect.

  Beatrice Haines ‘Heavenly bodies’ backlit scanning electron micrograph 85x85cm

Abigail Stokes, 'Graves', 2014,  wood,  130x 70cm 

I was immediately drawn to was the Helen Chadwick piece ‘Viral Landscape’. It was interesting as I instantly knew I had seen these pieces before in the Walker Gallery. The difference here was that it was much more immediate as they were directly in front of you in the space however in the Walker they are on wall in a narrow space so you walk along them rather than viewing them head on. I felt they were more captivating in the Bluecoat because of this. This was very beneficial for my research into gallery spaces and impacts as they are both white walled gallery spaces but the immediacy of the pieces in the Bluecoat really sold them.

Helen Chadwick pieces ‘Viral Landscape’ C-type print photograph, powder coated steel frame. 120x300x5cm.

Variety of Work

I felt the exhibition had good balance, of varied sizes of work. From the tiny Thomas Bewick ‘tale-pieces’, then right next to it Nicky Coutts ‘Another Land 3’  at over a metre high. The variety kept the show very dynamic but it wasn’t sporadic enough for the mind to lose focus as it wasn’t over crowded and the pieces had enough space for each to be viewed separately.

Thomas Bewick ‘tale-pieces’, 1790, wood engraving on paper from a general history of quadrupeds 37x 31.9 cm

Nicky Coutts, ‘Another Land 3’, 2006, C-type print on aluminium, central panel 132x119cm, wings 132 x53cm each.

A further demonstration of how well the space was used is when walking down the stairs I noticed a sculpture hanging from the ceiling, I had walked right under it and not noticed it, it was a clever way to encoroprate the Marilene Oliver ‘Fallen Purga’ sculpture.

Marilene Oliver ‘Fallen Purga’  2010, corrugated plastic 220x55x40cm .

  Over All

Inspiration

Our muse for the pop up exhibition was the current exhibition at the ‘Exhibition Research Centre’. This exhibition shows promotional flyers from various artists to their shows. The variety of style was outstanding and there were many approaches including humour, simplicity, photography, illustration and many more. I looked around the exhibition a few times and realised the pieces that drew me in and held my attention the most were those with black and white block lettering. Many were simply paired with a black and white image or just left as writing.

  My work

I tried a few attempts at putting an illustration on the page paired with writing but found they didn’t appear to belong together. I decided maybe I was using the wrong image and felt the need to create more work before making my flyer.

I began a piece that included words, looking at an A2 sized piece of card with a few words ‘fear’, ‘death’, ‘war’ and ‘terror’ on it I felt it was much more powerful than any of the images I had created before. Originally I was going to draw a face around these letters so I decided to cut out the size of the flyer approx A5 and continued with the face. This way the flyer could be placed back into its frame and become part of a larger promotional piece too.  I feel the lack of eyes on the face, due to the cut out, gives it a soulless feel and therefore it could be anyone. I hope that it makes people question what their fears are.  Even though it is a very simplistic flyer the ridged angry marks made by the letraset transferring link well to the message and I felt it needed no more, not even an image.

  Exhibition

When we created our pop up exhibition there were a massive variety just as there had been in the ERC. We displayed them at first around the edge of the rectangular table. This was also a simple but effective way of seeing the pieces juxtaposed with eachother.  We also arranged a few pieces so they were facing away from eachother down the centre of the table, this was effective if you wanted to walk from left to right and get a break between each piece and then walk down the other side of the table.  I thought these two methods of presenting were more effective than the final mash up of all the pieces. Even though this gave a good dynamic feel of sizes and heights of pieces I feel it lost some of the pieces in the disorder.