myART - Jessica Rose Recas

Photography by Rosie Hartley

Set up is complete and I couldn’t be happier with my final image.  Naturally my degree show piece has changed from my original plan.  As my work has progressed and I have discovered that photography is what I wanted to focus on, film and installation became less prominent in my studio work and that was phased out my degree show plan.  As I have discussed in my critical evaluation I had wanted 3 images to go up but I am pleased with the outcome of the single image, it’s a statement piece and it works well in space.  I had been worried that it wouldn't fill the wall enough but it sits well in the space without the corner area being too dominative of it.  

For hand in I am choosing to hand in an A3 photography portfolio.  This approach seemed the most logical way for me to show off my work as my studio practice has developed into photography.  Handing in a presentation, printed and bound book would have been perfect if my work was sculptural and if my degree show piece had been a sculpture.  However, it makes more sense to display my work for hand in as photography, I think this makes it clearer that the work is the photograph and it’s not a documentation photograph of the sculptural work.  The only exception to this is the first image in the portfolio which is an exhibition shot of Staged.

Documentation photo of myself, painting the studio.

If I had a longer wall I would have chosen three images that showed the bags in the different states which they were photographed in. Firstly the image I have chosen, secondly an image of the bags on their own and thirdly the structure on its own without any bags filling it.  I think that this would have told a strong narrative.  Image two would solely represent the consumer waste of the bag and image three would solely represent the structural nature of the work and the image that is in the degree show would bring those two elements together.

Final degree show image.

If I had a larger wall I would have liked to display three A0 images but this will not be possible. 

Staged was an exploration into the use of the multiple with a change of colour in each image.  I have been exploring this use of the multiple within my practice as a business.  These multiples have become postcards which I wish to sell and are also on business cards which hold my website and contact details.  The multiple has become a way for my work to be easily mass produced and could be seen as my branding image.

These images are from a photoshoot done with Rosie Hartley a third years Photography student.  One of these images taken will become my final piece.

Norwich University of the Arts, St Georges, Project Space 1, 2015

This week has ended up being a key turning point in my work, due to the success of image editing I am no longer wanting to display my films, in the previous week i discuss the type of installation I want to make and I still want to do this but I do not think it is right for my work at this present time.  In my documentation file section of my film evaluations I will talk in more detail about my decision not to display the films.  The main reason being that I think the photographs will be strong enough on their own without the need for me to feel like I should fill a show with all of my work just because I can and not because I think the films are ready for this.

For my solo exhibition on April 27th - May 1st I want have a few monitors playing a film that is started at different points on each screen.  It will display sound, moving image and a blank screen at different intervals.  Therefore, when you walk into the space one screen might have an image of a plastic bag in a tree while the other monitors are black, a moment later all screens might be black and sound might start to slowly creep in so that at first you don't notice it becoming louder and louder, then silence and flashing images on all screens.  Another moment all black screens and no sound so the viewer is forced to engage with the other objects and photographs on display.  This will produce an immersive environment bringing together the show as a whole instead of random pieces brought together.

I’ve been struggling with what film means to me.  I feel overwhelmed with the idea’s I have and not knowing what direction to take.  Possibilities seem too endless.  I feel unsure of what a good film is, how I can convey my message or what my message even is.  I am still in the stages of learning what works with my footage and my style of work.  To overcome this I have been experimenting with editing some of my favourite clips to see how they look together.  Each clip is separated with a few seconds of black silence before jumping to the next clip. 

This film is an experimental mash up of many different clips from other films I have made.  I hoped through this piece I would be able to see what style of footage I prefer and what length of clip is most successful.  I much prefer these films which uses a variety of footage than one long piece as i feel it breaks up the viewers expectation of what might happen, the pauses give us time to reflect.

The five seconds of black screen in this film seem to stretch on for much longer than they really do.  They make a viewer want more, I have also experimented with the length of footage being shown, it varies in length building in time shown before cutting back down and only sharing a millisecond at a time.  I’m not certain about the sound that I have used as I think it puts too much association on people than on the bag.  It’s not necessarily a bad thing I just need to try out using the sound that the bags create to see if this is more suitable for the footage.

In order to successfully create an image the size I want to, roughly 3 metres tall, I need to photograph it in stages and then I will be able to digitally stitch it together.  I am not very good with the technical side of programs such as Photoshop so will have to have help with this.  I feel comfortable with the idea of having technical help for my art now as I want to be able to get the best from my work, many artists have a team of workers helping them with their creative process such Andy Warhol.  As long as you aren’t stealing somebody’s work then it’s fine.