#context2

Evgeny Antufiev is a Russian artist, who uses his art to craft his own mythologies through making artwork for exhibitions mixed with a kitsch aesthetic. He takes inspiration from shamanic practice in the Siberian region of Tuva.

His sculptures are often made from different materials, the ones most interesting to me are his fibre-textile pieces that look as though they have been sewn together with found materials and contain hard materials on the inside. This sculpture takes form of an animal with four legs and either numerous heads or something that resembles heads. It tells a story, but I am not quite sure what the story is, they are interesting to look at and remind me of John Powell-Jones’ artwork where he fixes fibre together to make obscure costumes. The unusual forms and what the sculptures suggest seem to relate to my work, especially my performative pieces with the fibre-textiles.

For me, the idea of ​​following only one particular artist is simply absurd. I even can imagine how can be it possible. I am influenced by many artists. Their visual knowledge often engaged multiple senses and requires the interaction of me as a viewer. One of the many artists that inspire me is Andy Warhol. Warhol's practice and his ability to manipulate popular tastes and gain recognition. His ability to learn as he moved through rapidly challenging movements. His drawings were often comic, decorative and bizarre, and their tone was completely different from the cold and impersonal mood.

He said: “How can you say one style is

better than another? You ought to

be able to be an Abstract

Expressionist next week, or a Pop

artist, or a realist, without feeling

you've given up something. I think

that would be so great, to be able

to change styles. And I think that's

what's going to happen, that's

On researching the juxtaposition in art, I further research abject art because I feel it is quite similar. I discovered Francesco Albano; he creates sculptures that resemble human form in unexpected ways. Skin, flesh, and bones are given rotting textures that result in grotesque sculptures.

His work is about disorder. “I have a strong attraction to deformity as the expression of the physical and mental decadence of the human body. I strive to depict those fleeting moments of personal collapse that modify the mind and the body, causing a breach between muscle, bone, and skin. An emotional breakdown, witness to a division caused by external pressure, is a collapse of intangible weight, and yet so overwhelming that the body is modified and crushed. On a visual level, deformity has its roots firmly planted in reality, in the memory and sensation of the tragic and ironic condition of human existence.” Albano’s work is abject, it makes the viewer feel disgusted and questioning what the material really it could be, because of the uncanny resembles of flesh.

Albano speaks about his practice and how playing with the material is important in his practice, he also says the necessity to record people and experiences of his life influences his artwork. Albano’s work is very interesting, the material he uses is fascinating and the results even more so. It looks so much like skin, it would be useful to experiment with similar materials to see if I could create similar work but of animal instead of human.

These also represent the abject in art.

In my pre-assessment feedback, David said that I had maintained my practice throughout the lengthy winter lockdown from home, I did this through my performative pieces and film project that I started and experimented with. Continuing to experiment with various materials and techniques, attending the workshop and making an animal hide out of Latex shows the level of ambition and commitment I have to my practice. David mentioned this in my feedback, saying that I had considered other methods of presentation throughout the semester – especially with my large-knitted piece. He said that by doing this, it fed into my work and created an interested dynamic between the materiality of the work and the methods of display and presentation. This is due to taking my work out into different environments and photographing these as separate works. The fibre-textile work is immersive, David said that the materiality of it has given my work a significant presence. He said that the time and effort of construction is engaging and should be emphasises, therefore I went back over the annotation on my posts and went into more detail about the process and why I chose the materials/techniques. David said I should consider the methods of presentation for my proposal; I did this through experimenting with the Latex against natural and artificial lighting and researching more into the framing of the Latex piece. David also mentioned emphasising the performance elements and the documentation of this, I did this by doing more research on performance artworks and how this feeds into my practice. Researching artists that also use juxtaposition in their work, referenced the photographs I took of my knitted-piece and tights in urban and rural settings. David mentioned this being the way I present my work at the exhibition, I did consider exhibiting photographs or video work, but wanted to make something physical for the exhibition. However, I can exhibit the digital work when showing the physical work is not possible (digital exhibitions, etc.). I agree with David on this work bringing more flexibility and potential.

When I had my pre-assessment tutorial, I had not put my contextual research on my blog yet – I had queued them and written some research out but not uploaded them. David said this must be significantly developed, I undertook a rigorous approach to this by using all resources to find artists and artworks that share similar interests of subject or theme and that also have good historical context. As David suggested, I researched Ernesto Neto, Caraoline Achaintre, Evgeny Antufiev, Phyllida Barlow, Barbara Chase-Ribour, Channing Hansen, Maria Nepomuceno, Shelia Pepe, and Shinique Smith, which I evidence on my blog. David also mentioned my portfolio review with Ann Bukantas and how she suggested looking at sculpture in 1960, 1970, and the 1980s. David also said how Ann had recommended the Arts Council Collection because I could use this to expose lots of work at one time. I used this as a resource to find sculptures from around that period and relating it back to my practice. David said I should look at artists who deal with similar issues in their art regarding animal rights, although I have researched these artists quite a bit when first experimenting with this theme, I did some more research. I found artists and artworks that were interesting, some not necessarily sharing the same view but have a unique approach to sculpture. David spoke about reflection and describing my processes in detail as a key to determining my grade and criteria for assessment. I understood this completely, so looked back through my annotated posts and went into further detail.

After researching animal hide sizes, I did some research on the type of material I could use. I think PVC plastic sheeting would be the best material to use because it is flexible so I could roll it up and use it for the future, and it would also make the Latex less stiff when I paint it on to the PVC. The typical size of a cowhide is 147cm x 183cm, so I bought 138cm x 200cm which was the closest size I could find. It is a little smaller width and a little longer in length, but this should be okay because it will still (roughly) be the shape of a hide.