Jasmine

Assessment 3 - Chinese Whispers 

For this assessment, my group and I chose the concept of glitch and reflection. We demonstrated this through a game of Chinese Whispers where one person from two groups picked a ‘stimulus’ and whispers it to the next person. In the end, we got the last person to draw the phrase they heard as well as say it out loud. We framed these drawings on the spot.  

The main topics we addressed:

-     Miscommunication and the notion of information being influenced by different things

-     The notion of information being skewed and twisted as a result of external forces i.e. media, social media, spoken word.

-     The combination of different media (e.g. drawing, oral) represents the overwhelming influx of media communications in our present social landscape

-     The idea of rumours

-     Racism (a point which we looked at during research)

-    The reason for the jar and the multiple pieces of the same stimulus (The illusion of the jar and telling them to believe that they are given different stimuli represents consumers’ vulnerability and accessibility of false information in the media which largely contributes to miscommunication)

-     The reason for the Stimulus (mundane phrase being skewed)

-     The reason for the Drawings (representing different forms of communication, a visible process of translation and interpretation)

Assessment 3 - Brainstorming

‘UNTOUCHED’

Assessment 2 - Final Work

Artist Statement

A natural landscape is defined as an environment that has existed before being transformed by humans. It is totally unaffected by human activity and interference. The natural landscape is under control by all natural forces and free from any human modifications. So, what do we consider a ‘natural landscape’? Today, everywhere we go, we encounter a certain experience that we regard is the result of ‘nature’. However, what we see or believe is a natural landscape, has been carefully designed and planned to deliver an immediate response from humans. A landscape that is deemed to be ‘natural’ is only a result of a man-made creation. This questions whether anything we see or experience in a particular time and context is ‘natural’ or ‘authentic’ anymore.

'Untouched’ explores the binary between the natural and man-made. It is a two-minute and sixteen-second video depicting multiple screen recordings of me forming and constructing my own landscape designs. I aimed to create my own landscapes based on my own time and experience within the context of the location. Each landscape I begin to create and finish follows a surrealistic theme, which is my vision of the landscape I want to view. The final work demonstrates how the environments we encounter are controlled, creating an ‘idealistic’ image of what a ‘natural’ landscape should look like. This defies the purpose of anything natural as it is already man-made. Taking on a rather satirical approach, I cut, crop and combine all the ‘raw’ and ‘natural’ photos that I have taken and found interesting of landscapes, nature and architecture, immediately turning my landscape into a man-made solution. The process of creating these landscapes and adding effects, filters and adjustments, ultimately depicts how these are deliberate decisions taken into action just like the landscapes we see in the world. Each edit made onto the landscapes is unusual and interruptive, being the result of ‘nature’ being influenced and altered by mankind. This further links to my experience with these landscapes through the background sound of city traffic, chatter, typing and clicking.

In the beginning, I had decided to formulate a binary that questions the world and surroundings. I conducted research on artist Pamela Rosenkranz who reflects complex issues related to human existence and scepticism through a range of mediums; video, sculptures and installations. Her work inspired me to look deeper into ‘anthropology’ and include an element in my final work that displays human behaviour towards certain environments. I also researched René Magritte who is a surrealist painter depicting ordinary objects in uncommon contexts. This encouraged the creation of unusual sceneries in my final work. Toshio Shibata transforms existing landscapes by skewing perspectives and pushing a composition towards abstraction. He is another artist that inspired the surrealist theme of my landscape designs in my final work.

My first experiment consisted of taking photographs of fake, plastic flowers placed in real shrubs and plants. This projected the difference between what is natural and what is man-made is uncertain, which questions the realism of our experiences in a certain time and context. Taking these images, I began to further experiment with ambiguity and surrealism by layering repetitive cut-outs on top of each other to reflect the experience of capturing photos and the multiple takes to achieve an ‘ideal’ or ‘perfect’ shot. This led to the final experiment, which is a gif of moving cut-outs that bring the concept of natural and man-made constructs further. The clip in the background is the original footage of the plants (natural) and the cut-outs that create an interesting pattern is a result of me adding my own experience using colour filters (man-made).

Assessment 2 - Experiment 3

Assessment 2 - Experiment 2

Assessment 2 - Experiment 1

Artist Research - Toshio Shibata

1) Concrete Abstractions, 2015

2) Nikko City, Tochigi Prefecture, 2008

3) Kawa Village, Tosa County, Kochi Prefecture, 2007

Toshio Shibata works with images that mix landscape painting with documentary realism, moving beyond just the physical description. His photographs show the extent to which humans have shaped the world. He aims to deliver creative as well as destructive elements into his photographs, allowing the viewer to draw their own conclusions on the impact of humanity on the world. He transforms existing landscapes by flattening perspective, emphasising geometric lines and/or panels of colour to push a composition towards abstraction.

References: 

Lens Culture, ‘The Constructed Landscape as Art’, viewed on 12 September 2018,  https://www.lensculture.com/articles/toshio-shibata-the-constructed-landscape-as-art

Artist Research - René Magritte

The Son of Man, 1964

René Magritte is a prominent surrealist painter, who is well known for creating thought-provoking images that often depict ordinary objects in an unusual context. His work challenges the viewer on preconditioned perceptions of reality, which has had a further influence on pop, minimalist and conceptual art.

The Son of Man,1964, is a painting of a man dressed in a dark suit wearing a red tie and a dark bowler hat. In front of the subject’s face, there is a striking green apple, blocking his features as well as his view. This work explores feelings of human curiosity, where one seeks to see what is beyond the visible. It speaks of human conflict of wanting to hide one’s true face from the eyes of others, the idea of not seeing the whole picture, leaving a sense of mystery.

References:

Wikipedia, ‘Rene Magritte 1898-1967’, Tate, viewed on 12 September 2018, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/rene-magritte-1553

Art Pieces, ‘The Surrealist Work of Magritte: The Son of Man’, viewed on 12 September 2018, http://www.artpieces.net/son-of-man.html

Artist Research - Pamela Rosenkranz 

Stay True from the series Firm Being, 2009

Pamela Rosenkranz is an artist who deals with complex issues related to human existence and scepticism. She works with the deception of light and liquid to capture her conceptual ideologies, often projected through a range of mediums, including video, abstract sculptures and installations.

Stay True, from the series Firm Being, 2009, depicts a branded plastic water bottle filled with flesh-toned silicon pigment and acrylic paint. This “product” contains chemical compounds both actual and fictitious that question the ‘naturalness’ of these seemingly unnatural materials that were all produced by a human. This work expertly mocks water company advertisements like Fiji’s: ‘Untouched by Man. Until you drink it’. These branded bottles also reflect figures with no personality, an empty whole, human beings as branded containers.

References:

Q. Latimer, ‘Water bottles, pills and emergency blankets’, Frieze, 27April 2011, viewed on 12 September 2018, https://frieze.com/article/pamela-rosenkranz

Artuner, ‘Pamela Rosenkranz’, Artuner, 2018, viewed on 12 September 2018, http://www.artuner.com/artists/pamela-rosenkranz/

J. Stromberg, ‘What is the Anthropocene and are we in it?’, January 2013, viewed on 12 September 2018, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-is-the-anthropocene-and-are-we-in-it-164801414/?no-ist

Brainstorming

Week 8 - Value