Under the Microscope - continued development of work

Specimen of heart

Dried Yoghurt , Bronze, Wax, Wet Fabric, Ice, Jelly growing Mold and Silver 

As part of the destruction process of my work i have been collecting specimens or the remains in tiny glass jars, but with the further development of my project i have decided to use petri dishes in order to collect samples of the remains. Some of the samples will continue to grow for example the mould taken from my jelly heart and other will simply be the small remaining pieces of the creating into destruction process. 

kiki smith

Her works aesthetically has a presence of feminine fantasy and fairytales whilst undermining the traditional representations of women by make artists, often using inner biological systems of females as a metaphor for hidden social issues portrayed with both a vulnerability and strength.



Nest and Trees


“My work has evolved from minute particles within the body, up through the body, and landed outside the body. Now I want to roam around the landscape.”

In pieces that merge human and animal, she creates new mythologies, finding in the mortality that has pervaded so much of her process the possibility of rebirth. In her art, Smith has staged a persistent inquiry that has resulted in works of uncommon power and beauty, inviting us to reexamine ourselves, our history, and our place in the world.

Specimen Bottles

During the destruction of my was pin pricked heart i caught the drips of melted wax into tiny specimen jars. This is something i could do for each heart in the destruction process resulting in a series of heart filled specimen bottles.

Heart Filled Jars

Destruction and Decay 

lingering in memories. 

My imaginative play. 

Blemished. 

Bruised. 

With Each day - weak. 

Months, 

Years pass

Internal wounds 

Ageing, breathing deep

in this blood filled vessel - exquisite pain. 

Seeping through these pinpricked walls

Tragedy and beauty 

does fall. 

Caught up and trapped in inside hollow jars 

for these empty eyes 

from which silent tears 

cease to cry.

LIFE CYCLE OF MATERIALS - current project (creative strategies)

 Using an animals heart to cast from i have been exploring how the heart can be used as strong visual imagery in order to represent or communicate loss, fragility of life and mortality.  The importance of my process and materials hold great significance to my childhood behaviour and the transition into adulthood. Looking at the idea of life as  cycle i have been experimenting with how to visualise the different stages in between birth and death such as youth, growth, destruction and decay in to rebirth. The materials i use are chosen specifically to the emotion or stage i am trying to portray in my work, as well as materials having a life cycle of their own. For example copper self oxidises in the air. 

Using my own personal experiences with loss i have been exploring the idea that the heart could be seen as a vessel in which the mind could be located, and that our brain a physical organ like the heart is the container of all knowledge and  logic. Therefore making the heart emotions unpredictable and the heart the greatest bearer of both physical and emotional thought. Initially i wanted to explore the idea that the heart could be in fact be imprinted with the emotional strain of life, every bruise and scar and using this idea to visualise it. But with the development of my materials i began focusing not on a final finished piece but the destruction of the beautiful work i have spent careful time and consideration making. And that through the destruction of my work i plan to use film and photography not in a documentation sense but as a media itself to portray a emotional quality which the viewer is able to experience and interpret in their own way.

In Destruction, Tragedy and Beauty are created

"My work is all about the potential of materials, even when it looks like they have lost all possibilities."

Cornelia Parker
In the course of making her work she has shot at objects, thrown them from cliffs, blown them up and rolled over them with a steam roller. Her sculptural processes have been described as mimicking cartoon deaths making her works both dramatic and delicate.

Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View 1991 (mixed Media)

Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View was originally an ordinary garden shed. Filled with junk Cornelia asked the British army to blow it up, then collected the remains and reassembled them as suspended fragments frozen as is at the moment of detonation

Recording Time

Through looking at childhood behaviour into adult hood and linking method of making and the importance of the material it occurred to me that my current project is highly associated with time.
I began researching in to the idea of how I might collaborate with time for my next project, taking what I have learnt so far in my current project (creative strategies) into the next; Pushing and developing my experimentation with materials in order for the viewer to experience there own interpretation of my work, in relation to the life cycle and our physical and unphysical connection to the world. At this point in my project I have started to question our mortality and where the mind is actually located with in the body and if in fact it can be contained at all.

On Kawara is a Japanese conceptual artist whose work is a question of survival; a matter of life and death and the existence of pure consciousness.

The Today series is an ongoing collection of conceptual paintings began in the 1960's, each created on the date indicated and in the language of the country of which it was painted. Each painting takes a whole day to create and can therefore been seen as a literal object to represent that particular day in the artists life.  His work highly reflects his separation and isolation from the world, never agreeing to be interviewed or photographed and always absent from private viewings of his work. His whereabouts and even his existence has become somewhat questionable, is he even still alive?
On kawara's art practice also includes sending daily postcards to his friends indicating the time he woke up or the fact that he is still alive referring to the "reading of days" - an ancient Japanese ritual that is practiced in order to predict the arrival of the gods.

Viewing On kawara's work, some people might be disappointed or confused by the simplicity of the works, but this is what intrigues me most, along side his seemingly self isolating persona and artistic behaviour. He continues to paint the today series yet is reluctant to be acknowledged or associated with his practice in the media. I think this holds great importance when viewing his works, is he counting down/up the days? If so to what? In his own way is he perhaps trying to control time? What’s engaging about his works is that depending on the year or time or even the viewer themselves each piece of work could be interpreted as something entirely different each time. Perhaps they are unique in the sense that when a day passes we are unable to physically experience it again. Everyone has special and memorable dates which when reminded of them or upon viewing them often thinking of a particular memory or person in time. Is On Kawara then, through creating these physical objects of time suggesting immortality? Time is often considered as precious, that we only have one life to physically live and breath but is it perhaps possible that through physicality of our minds at a particular time in relation to our connection to the world that we can in fact live forever?

BILL VIOLA

Established video as a vital form of Contemporary Art, in which he has created works including videotapes, architectural video installations, sound environments and flat panel video pieces. His Works focus on the universal human experience such as birth, death and the unfolding of consciousness. Using inner language of subjective thoughts and collective memories his videos communicate to a wider audience, allowing the viewer ti experience the piece directly and in their own personal way.

Alice Maher

Her works are somewhat subversive

 but still remain highly personal. 

Her works express her own doubts 

and memories of childhood. 

Annette Messager

French Artist Annette Messager ' My Boarders' is created by knitting sweaters 

and scarves for these small dead sparrows. 

There is a deep sadness in the metaphor of knitting garments

 for these little dead birds,

Annette Messager has obtained a motherly role 

in where the sparrows act as surrogates for children.  

This piece is personal and moving in the way of Hemingway's six word story

 'For sale:baby's shoes, never worn.'

Light Night Exhibition 2011

For the light night exhibition at Leeds Public library i created a book 'doll house' type structure from within side the book without damaging the pages. At this particular point in my current project my main theme was based around childhood; exploring imaginative play along side behaviour and everyday tasks that require patience and that appear to be somewhat tedious. I also wanted to incorporate the importance of visual language and communication without the words holding much significance; reminiscing on my own memories of finding out i had dyslexia and the techniques my teacher used to help me visualise the words i had difficulties with. From using carefully thought out lighting and a 'theatre' set i was in fact able to visually communicate my imagination in a way which left viewers intrigued but also became a trigger for their own memories and imagination to take flight.

past project - Architectural Mind

 Using the body as an interchangeable architectural site I tried to step back from myself and see my body not as it appears through my perceptions but to use it rather like an architectural object. This enabled me to use  photography as a medium to try and capture the emotional quality of the mind and the effects percevieved stigma or perceptions has on not only our mind but our physical body. By taking the idea of a 'label' that we do not necassarily choose to wear and literally placing them on the body i was able to make the body less dominate inwhich the thoughts and feelings of the mind became much more present.

my prezi

Fantasical Worlds where anything is possible

Little Theatre of Dolls by Raisa Veikkola and Frida Alvinzi

The little Theatre of Dolls are created out of doll parts and found objects immersed in a warm, pink, very 'doll-up' in style using puppets in aesthetically pleasing 'kitsch' environments. These works incorporate the nostalgia of the imagination in a fantastical world where anything is possible. Works include installations and live performances as well as numerous films on their website. Raisa Veikkola and Frida Alvinzi explore the depths of their imaginations indulging in the innocent of play in these highly feminine, detailed and intriguing magical worlds. 

Unearthed Potential

altered book by Brian Dettmer

The age of information in physical form is waning. As intangible routes thrive with quicker fluidity, material and history are being lost, slipping and eroding into the ether. Newer media swiftly flips forms, unrestricted by the weight of material and the responsibility of history. In the tangible world we are left with a frozen material but in the intangible world we may be left with nothing. History is lost as formats change from physical stability to digital distress.

The richness and depth of the book is universally respected yet often undiscovered as the monopoly of the form and relevance of the information fades over time. The book’s intended function has decreased and the form remains linear in a non-linear world. By altering physical forms of information and shifting preconceived functions, new and unexpected roles emerge. This is the area I currently operate in. Through meticulous excavation or concise alteration I edit or dissect communicative objects or systems such as books, maps, tapes and other media. The medium’s role transforms. Its content is recontextualized and new meanings or interpretations emerge.

- statement by Brian Dettmer

Laurie Simmons - Geisha Song

Laurie Simmons most recent work includes the use a 'Love Doll' inwhere she transforms her own home into a 'Dolls House' and uses the doll as a giant toy depicting a diary from day to day as 'she' becomes more familiure with the space and the environment. 'Geisha Song' promotes the same quality of sadness of her earlier works but engages adult fantasies  in a seemless reality which is neither home nor theatre. Her works are quite feminist in focus indicating to the fake, 'Plastic' icons in the media today but in a playful subtle yet meaningful way; after watching the 'Geisha Song' you feel sympathy and compassion towards the 'love doll' in a very realisticly human way, forgetting she is in fact just a doll.

Brothers Quay

Probably most famous for their animation 'Streets of Crocodiles' although most of the Quay Brothers animation films feature puppets made of doll parts and other organic and inorganic materials. These beautifully dark, moody yet somewhat highly emotive animations are created using by the use of a series of 'miniture' sets (although not life size some are in fact quite large), Most of which have no spoken dialogue and therefore highly reliant on the music.

I have admired the Quay Brothers works for quite sometime, highly captivated by these quirky and somewhat distrubing animations that pocess so much life and prevoke not only an emotional quality but a sense of experience. For the Light Night exhibition (2011) i was able to view these magical creations in person, fascinated by the tremendous detailing of these carefully crafted works and left with a feelings of pure inspiration.

Frida Kahlo



The Broken Column (1944)

Artists such as Frida Kahlo used visual analogies and metaphors through text and illustrative paintings. Her artworks were often considered unconventional in subject matter for the 1940s due to these somewhat surreal paintings often depicting internal organs outside the female body. This not only relates to Frida Kahlo’s interest in science and art but can are symbolic representations of her emotional life experiences; traumas associated with miscarriage and accident related health issues. Her public artworks have combined a traditional Mexican method of artistic practise alongside metaphorical and symbolic Christian Iconography, making them appear surreal where the figures are suspended in vast imaginative scenes.  For example The Broken Column (1944) is a self-portrait with clear metaphoric reflection regarding Kahlo’s health and the pain and emotion she bears but it is also referencing the Crucifixion of Christ; she is naked and alone, the skin punctured with sharp nails.

However in her personal journal Frida Kahlo’s self portraits express anguish and pain of deeply felt loneliness, appearing more human than that of her public works. They are highly contrasting in the sense of her journal being private and only for herself clearly reflects her emotional psychic compared to the public works which have a strong element of self control. She is conscious of the perception of self through the eyes of the observer and they hold an element of feminine mystery; distorted windows into the artist’s soul? This honesty in her journal perhaps is an indication to the criticism of female artists and their progression up until this particular time. I find myself asking the obvious, why were these highly emotive intimate portraits, exploring identity, purposely hidden within the protective pages of her journal? Perhaps these artworks are an honesty of self that the world was not ready to understand? Frida Kahlo is often associated with Virginia Woolf, using expressionism as a means of a story in an immensely emotive and complex way:

“Who used mental illness, psychiatry and her husband to fashion for herself a life of her own choosing (madness) was her property, her treasure, her identity she transformed into the triumph of literacy-psychiatric immortality.”

(Szasz, T. 2006 My Madness Saved Me: The Madness and Marriage of Virginia Woolf) 

Creative Imaginings of Youth and Ignorance - Exhibition Review

Colette Reid is a 3rd year studying BA (hons) Art and Design Interdisciplinary at Leeds College of Art. Her Interests in recycling, sculpture, adornment, fashion, plastic and ceramics inspire her current and developing practice.  

Using material experimentation as a starting point she uses discarded materials and reworks them for a new purpose closely connecting the body to create fragile and organic structures. 

For her chosen piece for the end of year exhibition she has created a sculptural dress made from super market tabs, which she recycles by ruffling and dipping in plaster. The method of her working practice is often time consuming and requires care and precision due to the fragile nature of her material, to create structures within a space that can at times be quite tedious. Her main focus of this piece is not the dress itself but the sculptural form in relation to the body. The dress is suspended from the ceiling at a height that people find easy to relate with, experimenting with lighting (which for this piece she has chosen not to use). 

She creates a corset like body to connect and represent the idea of an idealized female form, exploring ideas of presence and absence and then using fishing wire creates a dress like structure for these delicate 'tabs' to sit upon. 

The dress implies human activity and a natural, free growing quality taking over the floor and the walls, which is contradicted by this rigid like structure of the corset which could imply feminist restrictions throughout history and the society we live in but could also suggest the over polluted world we live in today. These tabs man made and manufactured once removed from the plastic bags serve no other purpose, this installations could be seen as a representation of the ever-growing need and importance of recycling as well as a women breaking the boundaries/barriers of conformity.

Colette's interests and influences have similarities to my own, such as Su Blackwell 'while you were sleeping' (2004) shown on the left. 

Both Colette and Su Blackwell's installations are quite imaginative, using subtle fragile methods to make a space both dramatic and captivating that possesses a very feminine quality. 

Colette's other inspirations are closely linked to Fashion, such as Susie Mac Murray and Stephanie Voegele. 

Another artist in this exhibition who i found very interesting was Alexandra Oddie. Her work is site specific based on which she usually finds inspiration from a particular site. Like Colette she then explores ways of incorporating discarded materials and recycling them to create a particular piece . For this exhibition she has created a wall of 169 unique plaster tiles which are structurally presented in a grid using artistic lighting. 

Her work is very intriguing so much so that instantly you want to touch the wall but cautiously stop yourself, as unsure if this is allowed. In her exhibition she will allow people to touch the tiled wall to explore the full extent of the textured surfaces and satisfy this desirable need to touch. 

Although Colette's and Alexandra's work is very different, they have similar key methods of making, both exploring organic, fragile materials and incorporating structure and recycling. Both have bee very inspiring for my own practise (which although again very different) for i am keen to explore new areas of interest, such as working site specific and responding to a material as well as a space, and break the boundaries of my own comfort levels. 

Sheffield Exhibition - Spectacular Crafts

I first saw Annie Cattrell's works at an exhibition in Sheffield and instantly liked her work. I think what captivated me most was the almost perfectness of her work, highly detailed and fragile yet subtle and without knowing much about her artist practise initially i found her pieces aesthetically beautiful but also appreciated them for the careful care and time it must have taken to create them.

Her works capture moments in time such as clouds on a particular day, the breath inside a human lung. She pushes the boundaries between the visible and the invisible giving the viewer an ethereal solid, a view of what is inside and around us.
She is fascinated to the fusion between art and science and in recent works has explored MRI scans and areas such as neuroscience and anatomy, exploring and pushing the boundaries between logic and emotions we feel from these fleeting things.

Moments in our Lives

Alice Kettle textile works incorporate stories, marking themes in our exsitance referencing mythology. She uses the line of thread to connect relationships and define emotions, revealing the sense of self within her work and making connections between the touching and the tactile quality of the textiles. Her artworks can be viewed as an expression of feelings.

Caroline Broadhead

"Art should happen in the Mind" - Marcel Duchamp-

This is the essence of Caroline Broadheads work. I find her work very interesting as the works are not so much about the dresses but about what they imply. Their translucent, ethereal-ness suggest human presence and the overlapping of the dresses adds a muddled depth which work well to represent her interpretation of the borderline between presence and absence. The dresses become almost like a delicate symbol of self and the presence it has on the space it inhabits but can also can been seen as a representation of self in the world around us.

Her works often include these fragile installations incorporating these delicate dress structures and their shadows, using light and space effectively and have a ghostly quality to them yet i personally think they have a very living/alive quality to them.

Breaking the borderline's between presence and absence, and self and the world is a particular interest of mine when it comes to expressing my own thoughts and emotions through my work. Like Caroline Broadhead i often stick to a pale/translucent pallet to try and enhance the fragile-ness of life in a very subtle yet captivating way, that becomes, because of this subtlety, strong in impact and an expression of self and identity.

Anish Kapoor : Flashback Exhibition

Anish Kapoor - Flashback

- is a series of Anish Kapoors early works and two of his most recent works made from wax.

Through-out the exhibition I found myself gazing in almost amazement as these somewhat perfect objects, mesmerised and getting lost inside them.

The interaction with the pieces, through colour and their emotive  qualities, light and reflections  i found very rewarding and satisfying as with each movement that of myself or others viewing the exhibition the objects appeared to change, this interaction and movement within a still is something that interests me within my own work.

'Conversations without words'

Using  Leeds city as a site i focused my time observing and investigating forms of communication between strangers and experimented with ideas to fulfill my own need to communicate to a space. I came to notice that through hand gestures and exchange of hand that communication does not have to be vocal. I researched body language, sign language and meaning of hand gestures to create my own typography (silent language) in which i later turned into jewellery. Each link is a small handmade hand, each slightly different to the other. Some of the links consist of hand gestures where others represent letters to communicate a hidden message. (which depending what words the purchaser desired would vary in length and size for example 'i love you'). The hands are linked together to represent this silent often unnoticed form of communication within everyday life.

Through my developing practise i often use text and typography trying out various ideas as well as questioning and exploring the boundaries between words and meanings/ the invisible and the visible, trying to communicate with the audience in a non obvious way exploring thoughts, emotions, and interaction between people such as body language, touch etc.

Typography

Paul Elliman: His work explores the mutual interests of technology and language - the human voice- often referring to forms of audio signage that mediate a relationship between both. His typography is drawn from objects and industrial debris in which no letter is repeated. 

Fleet of Folded Thought (reflecting upon my work)

Taking paper as a mundane object focusing on letter writing -  now considered 'old fashioned' 'un fashionable' due to advances in technology, to create a fleet of over 500 hand made porcelain boats in various sizes.  




I became interested in constructing flat sheets of paper into 3D forms, researching origami and using my own personal experiences came up with the idea that handwritten letters not only the contain the context of the letter but a trace of the writer. 
When reading hand written letters although a silent form of communication you can almost hear the persons voice carefully folded into each word. From this i decided not only was the paper important ( paper contact from both the sender and receiver) but the actual thought contained within it, taking discarded or found paper to make casts i created my 'Fleet' of porcelain boats to visually represent/communicate the lost thought and the un-appreciation of paper in our society today. 


In some of my photographs it looks almost like a grave yard/an abandoned wreckage. To represent discarded and lost paper i chose to use boats which were damaged and broken and exhibit them of the floor. The boat is symbolic, alone a solitary and isolated, as a fleet these fragile paper like boats become powerful and have a large impact not only on the audience but on the space in which they inhabit. 

" I use paper to cut this little red figure to demonstrate the delicate fragility of human being. Ephemeral. A humans life is shorter than a papers thickness."

                                                                       Lu-Shengzhong 

Rebecca Coles

 'Wood White"
I find Rebecca Coles work very interesting as aesthetically it is very delicate and beautiful whilst recycling a medium that otherwise would be discarded and lost. Her fascination with paper is closely linked to my own; by transforming an everyday object into a piece of work that is inviting and intriguing to the viewer, allowing them to see beyond the original  source.

Su Blackwell

Su Blackwell works in the realm of paper incorporating fairy tales and folk-lore into her work. Her works include book structures, cutting out images to create 3D dioramas and displaying inside wooden boxes. 


Like Su Blackwell i am intrigued by paper as a medium due to its easy accessibility and fragile, delicate qualities. Su Blackwell employs this delicate medium to reflect on the precariousness of the world we inhabit and the fragility of our life dreams and ambitions. 


The use of paper in my own work, whether it is by means of cutting out, layering, making paper, applying the paper to another surface or creating 3D forms, has become a recurring non intentional  theme throughout my work. My attraction to using paper within my work mainly comes from how much paper is used in our daily lives yet seems to go unappreciated and to many does not hold great important. My interests lie in the fragility of life, presence and absence, boundaries of space whist exploring a sense of self and identity, enables me to use paper in various ways in which i aim to visually communicate emotions, thoughts and unanswered questions.