#30daysoffailure

(Katarina Lia Sallem)

Day 8

Create a fantasy animal. 

A microorganism is an organism that is too small to be seen with the naked eye. This includes all unicellular, like bacteria. Inspired by these wonderful creatures I made my own, for todays briefing. 

Looking at the different microorganisms and bacteria it struck me that they all have a fuzzy-like and molded texture. The colors were most of the time warm and faded. They all have different motives that repeat themself constantly.

- While being in my room, surrounded by different objects, I got inspired by my candle lights from glass. Hard but fragile material, that is perfectly even and comes in many forms and shapes. 

I took photo’s of different candle lights and other objects from glass and made from these constructions digital sketches. Which lead on to these ‘organisms’ and bacteria-like shapes. 

With these forms I created ‘PRAESIDIOS’, also protectors of humanity. An opposite bacteria that helps people heal. Unfortunately, it is a rare species hardly found in the desert of Utah... 

Write an ode to your body. 

I found it hard to perform this assignment. I discovered that I'm not really good at creative writing and I'm most of the times not happy with what I'm making. So this is what I came up with for now, but it could definitely improve. 

First I did research, chose ideas, found inspiration etc. And then started writing the first things that came to mind. I decided to do this assignment in Dutch, because I find writing hard already... 

By using a technique that we learned in Rogier’s class, I expended my word choice and my inspiration. By doing this is started writing down everything that came into my mind. 

_ 

What is an ode? 

a lyric poem, typically one in the form of an address to a particular subject, written in varied or irregular metre. A classical poem of a kind originally meant to be sung.

Eventually I came up with short sentences about ass. 

oh kont, wat ben jij toch een bofkont!

Als er geen billen waren, zou ik er dan mee zitten? 

make a postcard.

For this briefing I paired up with Eliza Melachropoulos. We started by sending photo’s to each other that represented our home or a the feeling of ‘home’. From there we edited each others photo into a card or print. 

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“Each location has its own aura. Thats why I thought it would be nice to edit the photo into a more abstract shape.” “Using different buildings from both cities I created a brand new series of prints.” 

Dress as a child. 

Growing up as an only child can be boring and sometimes lonely. I used to play with my imaginary friends, my crowd. We got dressed up, played with toys and got creative together. 

For todays briefing I decided to remake pictures of my youth with my imaginary friends dressing and posing as I used to do. 

Day 9 

Unravel Me Collection

Copywrtiting: Why did you come to art school. Write down your answer in exactly 100 words.

Take a self portrait. 

Gillian Wearing is a contemporary British artist whose conceptually driven photographs and videos investigate power dynamics and voyeurism in everyday life. 

Wearing’s photographs explore how public and private identities of ordinary people are self-fashioned and documented. In her portraits and self-portraits she blurs the line between reality and fiction. For her series Album 2003, Wearing reconstructed old family snapshots using silicone masks fabricated with the help of experts from Madame Tussauds. By putting a version of someone else’s face on hers she is metaphorically ‘seizing’ their identity. Here Wearing wears a dress her sister wore in the 1980s. The only bits of Wearing that can be seen are her eyes and teeth.  

From researching the artist, I went to my own family. Who are they, what do they stand for and how could I portray them?  To know this you have to start observing noticeable features and characteristics. 

Eventually I decided to take a self portrait as my little brother Nathan Brice. We have never been very close, due to the large age difference (8 years). Yet we have many similarities. However, our youth has turned out completely differently. My brother is and was often sick, and spends his childhood more in hospitals than outside. Sometimes I forget how bad that must be for him. In this photo series I try to induce the feeling that my brother experiences in his world of medication and doctor's appointments.  

But how could I capture those moments and his youth? Looking back at my notes I think it is horrible that my first noticeable feature about him was ‘sick’. Yet it was an interesting fact for me. How come that his sickness took over his personality? Sometimes we focus so much on the bad stuff that we forget about the good things. For me this was an eyeopener and a point of view to work with. 

I want to portray myself als the brother I knew from then. The sick boy, the patient. The pills. 

Precisely because I am so sorry that I ever looked at him that way. He's more than his illness, he's my little brother. A super intelligent boy, who is interested in creativity and nature. Laughs at the loudest jokes and likes to try new things. My little brother, more than his medicines.