Planning, Experimenting & Reflecting
After researching and considering both briefs, I decided on the Stranger brief. The stranger brief relates more to my practice, as I create more abstract work, and I find working based upon the stranger brief challenging at times. Furthermore, the Critical Practice module introduces index, meaning I have the opportunity to look into that further during the course, keeping my options open. The stranger brief forces me to think about my environment in the broadest sense, allowing me to go outwith my comfort zone. I’m eager to learn and grow, rather than doing what I’m comfortable with, and the stranger brief will allow me to do just that.
For the Visual Language module, I will plan, experiment and reflect to create work at a high standard. To begin creating work outside the workshops, I will create a “Strangers Scrapbook”, inspired by Thomas’s scrapbook in the movie called “The Man Who Fell to Earth”. In this scrapbook, I will attempt to record and understand the world around me using photography, depictions, words and objects (like leaves), relating to the brief. Moreover, I will attempt to draw using string on acetate, and experiment with different materials to work on and methods, relating to the “Map” workshop. To help me begin, I will focus on architecture, and attempt to illustrate the detail and the way I view it as a “Stranger”.
Link to view: https://1drv.ms/p/c/d2180a4fcabf16f2/EYIsDZexhYVGg5WDoo_TxdUBEBdL5Iw5-p4R0VBQBdVJ6w
Where I landed as a stranger, beginning documentation
Attempting to understand string as a material, aesthetic & source
Map workshop print collage
Attempting to understand the world through string
Upscaled work from scrapbook
Photocopy of upscaled work on acetate
To begin my “Stranger’s Scrapbook”, I placed myself in an unusual environment playing the role as a “Stranger”, who doesn’t understand the world around them. I documented a walk at night, taking pictures of places that caught my eye. I experimented with photography edits in attempt to make sense of the pictures that represented the places I was documenting.
I’ve decided to use string to attempt to draw and understand the world. As a stranger, I don’t know how string works and use it as a material to experiment and express myself with. I used a picture as a reference to draw from and understand the environment, portraying how it makes me feel as a stranger. I upscaled this to take the work further, on an A3 size of acetate.
I will continue to document the world around me within a sketchbook as I’ve found it helpful to progress within this module in accordance to the brief. To take my upscaled work further I will photocopy onto acetate and project.
Contemporary artist Nike Savvas, born in 1964 in Australia, is currently based in London, where she works. Although Savvas was trained as a painter, she works in various sectors within the artistic world, including sculpture, kinetic and light-based media, and installation. Savvas is a successful artist, having exhibited installation works throughout her career and completed numerous commissions. Examples of exhibitions and commission work are "Quicksilver" (2016), "To Make a Work of Timeless Art" (2011), "New Contemporaries" (1998) and "Paradigm Store" (2014). Savvas has a background in art theory and teaching, which she utilises within her career.
Savvas tends to push against traditional artistic norms in her work, often challenging boundaries. The majority of Savvas's work consists of large-scale installations, transforming paintings into 3D depictions. Savvas's 2D work takes inspiration from pop culture. Her work incorporates various techniques, including repetition, to create spontaneous or abstract atmospheres. Examples of artworks and installations that emphasise abstraction are "White Sinner" (2008), "Full of Love, Full of Wonder" (2005), "Simple Division" (1994), "Diamond Light" (2022) and "Sliding Ladder" (2010). In Savvas's large installation, "Sliding Ladder" (2010), she uses wool, wood, and steel to create three-dimensional web-like structures. Savvas took inspiration from the Caribbean skyline and used similar-coloured threads, such as teal, orange, and pink. She created geometric patterns using the thread to create carefully constructed tunnels and structures. This way of working catches the viewer's eye and draws the viewer's attention to detail, using the thread. Many shapes within the installation are visible, such as triangles, squares and hexagons, emphasising a mathematical look. The colours, strange structures and playful repetition emphasise a sense of abstraction and contrast within a calculated environment.
Nike Savvas | MCA Australia
Artworks | Nike Savvas | Artist
Sliding Ladder by Nike Savvas - Gessato
I love Nike Savvas's way of working, and it is relevant to my work within this module. Specifically in her series installation "Sliding Ladder" (2010), she uses thread to create environments that the viewer can interact with, much like my work in accordance to The Stranger brief, i.e. projection. I may take inspiration from her way of working and take a three dimensional approach to attempt to understand the world as a "stranger", and create an environment that's comforting to me.
