Sunday, 26 March 2017

Roger Hirons (Main)

Roger Hiorns was born in 1975, Birmingham, England. Hiorns is an artist whose sculptures explore material and form in the largest sense. Furthermore, he uses methods in his work that allow himself to have no influence on the concluding form and appearance of the work. A typical characteristic for Hiorns exploration is the blend of two components that are at the same time opposites and complementing, such as the movable and immovable. Hirons throughout his work transforms items and substances by presenting new purpose and meaning. 





Untitled 2013 



Roger Hiorns' Untitled sculptures that have made an international presence at(Augustine) New York, (IKON) Birmingham and (Lighthouse) Spain. The plastic and metal parts that appear to have originated from motorbikes and cars, such as the bowels, exhaust and water tanks are hung from the ceiling using transparent wire. The vessels produce a foam that slowly travels downwards towards the ground until it breaks apart. The foam seems to occasionally stain the floor, leaving behind a small mark of its existence. This continuous production of foam and influence the gravity has on it enables the concluding form to be produced with little influence from Hirons. 
When I visited the IKON to view this piece on display, I found this method of producing the final composition interesting and enabled myself to become more connected with the piece. I liked the idea that I was one of few individuals viewing the piece at the stage it was, and that the piece looked completely different the day and hour before I visited the piece. This made me view the piece in a completely new perceptive, I viewed the piece as if it was a creature growing, not a collection of inanimate object. 

This installation is no exception to the exploration of two components being combined, I find this is evident by the use of formless, growing foam and inanimate transport parts. From my visit, I found the discarded transport parts, to possess a humanness likeness, this might be because of the composition, by this I mean that the objects have been assembled in a manner that has a human figure similarity. 

Information gathered from IKON exhibition guide. 






Seizure
In this installation 'seizure' created in 2008, he crystallised an apartment in London that was scheduled to be demolished, with copper sulphate crystals that were formed through a chemical process of copper sulphate solution. This installation in 2013 was moved to Yorkshire sculpture park. The floors seem to be covered with crystals which emphasise the idea that the artist intended for the visitors to interact with the piece, similar to others, such as the previous untitled 2013. The reason behind this is because the visitors involuntarily have to break the crystals on the floor to view the exhibition, further supporting the idea that the eventual appearance isn't influenced by the artist, instead it is heavily influenced by the people viewing it. I believe 'Seizure' was the start of this journey for the artist, in exploring new materials. 




Robert Rauschenberg (Main)

Milton Ernst Rauschenberg an American artist was born in Port Arthur, Texas on October 22, 1925. In his early years, the American artist worked as a stage and costume designer in the city of New York, America before he decided to move to sculptures, painting, music and college. The artist is most known for bringing about the pop art of the 1960's, along with artist Jasper John because of the use of unusual, non-traditional materials and mediums. Furthermore, both questioned the dissimilarity and similarities between everyday items and art. Typical examples of paint and sculpture is is Rauschenberg's "Combines" that he produced around the 1950's and 1960's. After this, the artist started to use motors and sounds within his work, such as 'Broadcast' (1959). Rauschenberg continued to develop his work until the 1980's and 1990's, where he began to experiment with ways to transfer photography and collage. His work in 1997 his work was presented in New York City and Solomon R.G Museum. 








BED. 
'BED'

In the 1950's Rauschenberg's "combine"  piece named 'Bed', was one of the first of its kind. The invention of the "combines" is said to have started when Rauschenberg ran out of canvas and decided to turn his bed linens into art instead. The artist began by drawing on the pillow and quilt with pencil, then he quickly dropped and slopped paint onto them. He then placed the bed linens to cover a rectangular wooden backing. The BED appearance was further emphasised when the artist fixed the quilt and pillow in the way a BED would typically look if one corner was un-tucked. It is believed that the artist was inspired by Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning because of the similar style of loose dripping of paint. 





Jackson Pollock 'Autumn Rhythm'

It's clear that the artist was showing the relationship between his own daily life objects and his art interests in one piece. Rauschenberg almost intensely created a split down the middle showing that art (above part) is much brighter and exciting than typical everyday objects. From my opinion, he's stating that art has improved his daily life because I find the art part more interesting than the plain, untouched bottom part. The paint seems to be concentrated around the area the head rests whilst sleeping, so I assume that the artist is trying to state we are most artistic when we sleep in our life.

MONOGRAM (1955-59)
Rauschenberg's combines further developed, and with that the world became amazed by the strangness, unqiuness and challengin the ordianry nature of them. Monogram is one of Rauschenberg's most famous pieces, becuase he took the combines concept and further developed. The merging of painting and sculpture went from the wall e.g BED to a pedestal. He began trying to be traditional with the use of materials such as using oil on a streched canvas. However, soon left that idea and turned to adding a wide variety of unsual and eveyday objects on top of the painting, to create a far more three-dimensional combine piece, then the BED. Rauschenberg often told people that his artwork was lot of the time based on walking around New York City and finding abandoned items, such as this stuffied angora goat that dictated this piece entirely. Paint was applied to the goat like the BED combine around the snout in a abstract expressionsit manner. More objects, such as a tennis ball, metal, wood plank and a tire was added, further removing any trace of ordianry from this piece. 




Saturday, 25 March 2017

Lucas Simoes (Main)

Lucas Simoes is a Brazilian artist that was born in Catanduva in 1980. Simoes after studying Architecture, went on to study at Politecnico di Milano, Italy's largest technical university. He later moved to São Paulo in 2002. His artwork has been present in galleries in Brazil, Argentina, United States, England, Spain and Germany. His use in media such as books, photography and maps, are created into new forms, through cuts and folds. More presently, however, the artist has experimented with burning and other forms of producing distortion within his work. 

"What I want to show to the world is that we all are free. That's why my work is abstract - I don't want to be imprisoned by real forms." I found this inspiring because, it opened my eyes to viewing photography as having a abstract element. Originally, I had only been single minded and believed that abstract was the traditional expressive painting, I occasionally find at galleries. I have been inspired to create expressive photography work. In all Simões’s pieces from the deeply layered to his distorted work, his meaning is to interfere with the existing meaning of an object or photograph and produce a new one that alternates between depth and movement, weirdness and exquisiteness. The photography seems to be used a instrument that allows him and the viewer to fixate on a illustrative memory. 

http://lucassimoes.com.br/About-lucas-simoes
http://facesbythesartorialist.com/content/lucas-sim%C3%B5es
http://www.arttech.ab.ca/lucas/default.html

Absence
Simoes created a series titled "Absence", this series is meant to depict that a burn to picture, is a manner of physically erasing a memory. He stated that these photographs aren't his own, so to give them such personalities and trigger memories of the past, takes skill. It bring to mind emotions of fear, melancholy and sympathy. I had originally interpreted this piece as representing the missing people from war, disasters and other forms, because of the slow erasing of their presence within the photograph, hence individuals lives. I felt this was further influenced by the title "Absence". I find that his aim of strangeness and beauty is clearly portrayed within this piece because I surprisingly find that theirs beauty from letting go of people, which is physically shown via burning. 






Truth is a Continuous Collage







Within this series, titled "Truth is a Continuous Collage" the artist wanted to present a landscape where buildings are placed side by side, all that were from his opinion commissioned with very disparate concepts. An example the artist likes to bring up is the Nationalist building of the former Yugoslavia. Simoes within this series aimed to make movement the manner of truly viewing the piece, because some stretch more than 4 meters in length, making the observer to walk along the work in order to truly observe the piece. These continuous collages are created through multiple photos placed next to each other, which seemed to expand the photograph outwards, creating a feeling that the buildings are growing or shaking. 

My first beliefs of this piece was that the artist was presenting buildings in a distorted and glitched manner that represented the growth and improvements in architecture, because of the skill gone into creating these marvellous creations around the world.I also understood that he studied architecture, so I assumed he was emphasising these creations through his photography and work. My interpretation of these pieces was correct, because he wants to capture the contrasting and dissimilar appearance of the utopias. 

The photographs seem to be sowed onto a fabric base in order to hold them together. The images are then folded into a tear-drop shape creating a curved effect from the front of the piece that gives a semi-3D form. I find that this artist challenges the ordinary by the unusual use of photography, by this I mean that from my own experiences photography is typically flat and in a frame on the wall. Simoes creates shapes and new forms with the use of photography, which in the end creates a more improved photo, by making it more interesting. However, the photograph it self doesn't seem to be the strength, instead its what he does with it that is. The curves create a tonal difference on the surface of the photograph, that makes the form appear more 3D. 

Within this example, the large scale of  400 x 8 x 6 cm would allow the viewers to see the building from different perspectives that would create a different piece from each perspective point. I'm finding myself interesting the fact that the artist has created these once flat images into semi-3D images, as a result of bending and curving them. 

Quase-Cinema

Simoes produced another series of continuous collage that was based on the movement of cameras within films. This is different to the previous continuous collage series, because he presents more movement, through multiple images being placed next to each other that show the progression in the object moving. Simoes said that this interest in camera movement was inspired by the films directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and Wim Wenders. Hence, being the reason why Simoes named the series "quasi-cinema". 



This series seems to be produced in the same manner to the previous series. This image makes clear the process the artist went through to create these pieces. The photos each represent a frame from a film, each being moved slightly to create this moving image. They then are aligned to form a wave and then fixed to a base made of a layer of cloth and wood. Each one is woven to the base. 

http://lucassimoes.com.br/quase-cinema








Desretratos
Desretratos was based on the emotional expressions some volunteers experienced from telling the artist a secret told about themselves. However, he said he didn't intend on listening to their secret, so they chose a song for him to listen to. After the shoot, each person chose a colour to best suit their emotion. I had originally believed that this series of cut out and overlapped images was based on the mental state of individuals experiencing stress or anxiety, I believe that this idea was due to the confused shapes cut out of the photography as well as the dark tonal colours used through out, that have connotations of sadness and anger. 

http://lucassimoes.com.br/desretratos














Eye Wear


A more recent piece, caught my eye the most out of the rest. The artists unusual use of eye wear as a medium within this piece, is very inspiring because it brings together both vision impairments and challenging the ordinary. The spheres on this piece are meant to symbolise eyeglasses, which is because the artist has a vision impairment that makes him require glasses in order to fix his vision. Simoes calls his glasses another part of his body, because without them things would be blurry, unclear and unnoticed. This has inspired myself to doing something similar with my own vision. However, my impairment cannot be fixed with glasses because its due to other medical reasons. 









Monday, 13 March 2017

Observations from the IKON visit

From my visit to the IKON gallery, I recorded further evidence of interesting and inspiring objects and artwork through observation drawings. All work at on exhibition at the IKON during the time of my visit was Roger Hiorn's work.


















During my visit, I found the lights that had been selected to light the stairways interesting because of their unusual and unique form created on the sphere. I had unintended took this video, by accidentally believing I was taking a photograph. After realising I stopped the video, and played it. I found that this light was affecting the camera by creating a glitch of some sort. I found this inspiring because I could have only witnessed this glitch through my camera. I feel that representing the world through video and photography could be a successful route to undertake for challenging the ordinary. I would be using a ordinary and common medium to challenge the ordinary



To further understand the lights used, I produced observations using biro pen and pencil. I cant understand my fascination towards the lights, however, thinking back on the visit I believe it was my aim of discovering objects that challenged the ordinary, I believe that this object meets that aim, because from my personal experiences It was unusual. 

A lift that produced a sound based on the direction of the lift moving was located next to the stairs. I had used the lift to get down from the top floor. As I went down, a sound starting at a low pitch slowly turned into a high pitched sound. 












My first observation was of the one of the pieces that made up, "A Retrospective View of the Pathway". This observation was drew near the doorway that I had entered through to get to this piece. I had believed that the artist had intended on created this view as I entered, so I felt the need to take evidence of it. 

This observation captured both a large amount of the installation as well as the unique shapes formed by plastic and metal items being combined together.













After producing the previous observation that captured the whole installation, I felt the requirement to focus on individual pieces that made up this installation. Next to the entrance I found some brochures about future exhibitions and events occurring at the gallery. I came across this image of an elderly man, that appeared very similar to the object hanging down from the ceiling, it had foam on top and face of some sorts created by dried up foam, so I decided to draw a close up observation of the piece on top of the brochure image. 

I decided to not to draw the foam on top, as I had the idea of creating the foam using materials that challenged the ordinary. Within this piece after the visit, I decided to use cut up pieces from a unused micro-mesh showering object, because it had the flexibility and form similar to the foam. However, this material was challenging to stick on to the observation drawing using PVA, I could have used metal wire or blue tack instead, so that I would have had more control. 





Upon completing the previous observation drawing, I felt interested in creating this focus on the foam I had experienced at my visit. I believe this was created by the fact that the artist, Roger Hiorns combined the moving and the non-moving in one piece. I further captured this feeling through the contrast in materials used to capture the part of the installation. I decided to create the foam using cotton-wool, because it has a similar soft texture the foam would have been expected to possess. 














I had intentionally left pages for photography I had collected from the visit. However, once I printed and placed them inside this sketchbook, I felt that they could be developed with observations. From my close-up photography I produced this oil pastel drawing that was created using an usual colour selection, for this vehicle part. I would have chosen dark grey, black and white oil pastel if I hadn't intended on it to be unusual, because of the industrial feeling of these colours, would match the aesthetics of the item. 

I found this observation surprisingly interesting in the nature of the photography remaining semi-visible through the oil pastel. Hence, the composition of the mediums work together in harmony. 












Producing a observation drawing of this piece, allowed myself to have a deeper insight into the shape of the object. I was interested in finding out what made the artist decided that this was the object for this piece. From my point of view, I found that the complex nature of the wires, pipes and valves reminded me of a human body lying across the floor. However, I understand that this wasn't the reason behind this object, from my gallery information booklet. 

I produced this observation on top of fragmented images of a car and car part I found in a newspaper. I found these relevant to this artist piece, because it further emphasised the transport related nature. 










During my visit at the IKON, I was inspired by Hiorns to also use unusual items to work with. At the gallery, I decided to use the train ticket, because I felt like it was a interesting surface to draw a observation on to. However, It made controlling the biro pen hard. 

Across the room from the Jet engine, lay this machine that was puzzling at first sight, however, with closer inspection I made out that it was a X-Ray machine placed on its side. This was truly interesting, because its a rare sight to find this expensive equipment not placed upwards or in a hospital. I feel that this was the true reason I couldn't make out what it was. 









Visually Impaired Artists

I began my research into artists that were visually impaired to gain inspiration for making my own visual impairment visible within my work. 

John Bramblitt
John Bramblitt, lost his vision in 2001 because of complexities with depression and epilepsy. This made the artist fall into further depression from being visually disconnected from the world that surrounded him. This permanent disconnection from the world has allowed him to become more expressive within his painting from his experiences of this almost new world. The artist capture both memories from the past of a time he once could see and this new world of seeing with other senses. Within recent pieces the artist has created life-like paintings of individuals he hasn't been able to visually see. 

Bramblitt was able to paint these vivid, textured painting by learning to recognise the variety of different coloured acrylic paints through their unique textures. Furthermore, he used his sense of touch to enable him to visualise his work, this naturally made him more expressive within his work. 


Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
Rembrandt was born in Leiden, Netherlands in 1606. At the age of 14, Rembrandt began attending the University of Leiden, however he did not find a academic life satisfied him. He later begin an apprenticeship as a painter. It has recently been acknowledged that Rembrandt might have been stereo blind, due to hints within his work. Rembrandt is famously known for his observations, such as "The Night Watch". Hazard University conducted a research into Rembrandt's vision further by analysing his work. The team wondered if the gaze angle of the eyes in Rembrandt’s self-portraits was random or whether the gaze deviation was systematic, as it would be if he were accurately portraying a feature of his personal facial feature. They found a recurring pattern of one eye looking directly towards to the viewer and the other usually drift laterally. 








Flóra Borsi 
Flóra Borsi is a Hungarian photographer. She is mostly known for her use of photo manipulation to produce surreal style images that are focused on relationships, emotions and dreams. Her work occasionally presents the female body and shows experimentation with revealing the face or eyes, thematically suggesting the exploration of the representation of females. 

Her latest project, Animeyed featured animals superimposed over self-portrait photography, to create the idea that both the beings are sharing one. 















Inspiring Materials Research



This research into possible routes inspired by existing artists for challenging the ordinary materials that could be explored. 

Chakala Booker
This artist known as Chakala Booker is known for her sculptures created out of rubber, tires, wood and metal that are converted into fluent material that holds and captures the materials typical smell, texture, burns and scars. Booker's indirectly brings to attention slavery, the working class and factory labour. Booker's is also known for making sculptures that she wears to art and fashion shows.



I've not only been inspired by the unusual mediums she decides to use but also by this quote, "When you’re working with found materials,
each one comes with its own purpose, history, and use."










Jennifer Maestre
This artist known as Jennifer Maestre creates pencil sculptures that were inspired by the body of the sea urchin and its function. She takes thousands of pencils, cuts them into 1-inch fragments and after drills in each section so that they can be sewed together. The spikes capture the dangerous, yet beautiful nature. 








Maurizio Savini
This artist is known for his unusual use of chewing gum. He admits that the gum is not chewed, instead, he melts it into a pink, sticky usable material. Savini applies the sheets of gum in a layering manner around plaster moulds that give the sculpture shape and stability. When he started the pieces disintegrated, so now he combines the gum with antibiotics and formaldehyde to preserve the piece. Because it stops the high sugar content further damaging the pieces of art. 





Thomas Deininger

Deininger is a 43 year old American that creates portraits out of found and recycled materials, from cigarettes to shoes and electronics. Deininger doesn't solely work in the medium of recycled/ found objects. However, these from my point of view seem the most powerful, in inviting the viewers to question environmental and consumer culture concerns. 
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