Contextual Review

I tend to be somebody who works in sporadic bursts when I suddenly become so inspired that I will not rest until my vision has been translated into a form I am proud of.  I find it difficult to come up with ideas under rapid time conditions because I become very self critical with the lack of depth and meaning they possess. I found the idea generation exercise for the Ideas Factory workshop very challenging and thus did not feel as confident as I had hoped to be during that lesson. However, after spending some time carefully coming up with underlying meanings to each idea, I ended up with successful results. Although the Diagnostic phase has introduced me to a range of artistic pathways and approaches to media, I have noticed a pattern in the way I approach these seemingly separate workshops. I am most excited when it comes to making artwork that is heavily conceptual and personal to me. For this reason, I feel I am more suited to Fine Art as opposed to Design, seeing that I prefer working from within and not for a client or purpose. 

I especially enjoyed the Fine Art 4D workshop due to the amount of scope that was available to me. The brief we were given was highly conceptual and allowed me to explore what I was interested in. What excites me the most about this pathway is that it isn’t limited to digital art. I chose to do the 4D extension project as a result of this and combined the acts of prop-making, painting and even applying makeup with digital media. Very much inspired by artist Rachel Maclean, I am interested in the overlap between moving image and fine art. Maclean has said that she often blurs the line between painting and green screen, shooting her films and then inventing her own backdrops to place them in. Adopting a similar approach in my own work in the future could open the door to endless possibilities; I believe that this is the power of mixed media. Drawing, to me, is an outlet I use to communicate my ideas as opposed to the final form of a concept. Although I am very comfortable with drawing and enjoy it, I feel that it doesn’t stimulate me as much as other forms of media do. I would be interested in incorporating drawing and painting into moving image however, because this would place it in a new context where I would be able to manipulate and play with the art form.

I am fascinated with manipulating the human face and body and feel that this is best communicated through digital forms. Whether this be performing for the camera like Rebecca Horn or crafting entirely new personas like Cindy Sherman, the complexity and layers within digital art are the most inspiring to me. The transformative masks Gillian Wearing creates ties into my fascination with the power of depersonalisation. I often find that once something has been altered to an extreme degree, audiences find it more accessible and easier to relate to because it is so confrontational. I find Shana Moulton’s video work very stimulating in that her use of special effects such as green screen and editing unlocks a whole new form of art that can be explored and played with. I am drawn to the way she presents intimate details of herself through her alter ego, Cynthia, as I realise I have a tendency to allude to personal anecdotes in my own artwork. 

Much of the art I am interested in centres around identity, the self, culture and taboo. I am drawn to the work of artists that are unsettling and at times considered grotesque. The work of performance artist Orlan is an example of extreme art that I appreciate. Oftentimes I find myself critically analysing why I am so fascinated with the audience response of shock and confrontation, questioning whether or not there is a degree of superficiality to ‘shock art’. I believe that yes, if an artist’s intention is simply to unsettle then the skin-deep nature of the work will be revealed, but if the element of shock is there to supplement societal commentary or underlying personal themes then that is when it has been successfully executed. Orlan’s various surgical procedures are a perfect example of societal criticism conveyed using a grotesque approach. The theme of cosmetic surgery and toxic beauty standards is being addressed through her work, and seeing as the procedures were filmed and photographed, it is perceived as performance.

Were you able to adapt your idea and visual language to the screen print process effectively? How did the restrictions shape your final image?

I think I chose the right idea to translate into a screen print. Some of my other sketches were weaker and less visually interesting in terms of shape. I found it harder than expected to create my stencils for screen printing; I had not considered the difficulties I ended up encountering (determining which pieces to cut out in order for the ink to show through). However, having to adapt my idea so that it translated well as a screen print gave me the idea to include water ripples/puddles in my piece. I wanted to centre the flamingo so that it was placed in a context rather than just being a shape.

What were the biggest challenges you faced during the workshop? 

 I found the actual cutting out of the shapes to be the most difficult – I think mainly because of the scale of the print. Some of my pieces were quite small as well which made it fiddlier. I think if my design had consisted of straight lines and not curved, organic ones, I would have had an easier time using my scalpel. I would be interested to make a screen print on a larger scale and to work with bigger shapes.

Describing the object’s form

The vacuum-formed plastic film fitted exactly to hold the eight individual capsules, creating a compact case. The base is thin, sealed with a material that is both paper and plastic-like. The fluorescent yellow and red of the capsules faintly show through, suggesting that the plastic is thin. Various dents have been made due to interference from other objects whilst being carried inside a bag.

Keywords

Fitted

Compact

Fluorescent

Thin

Dents

Interference

You sit and soak up as much sun as you can. You can almost feel it seeping into your skin, traveling through your body like a surge of warm energy and you break out into a sweat. This is nice, you think. You lie down, enjoying it. Seconds, minutes, even hours pass. It begins to feel slightly less nice than it did earlier. Suddenly, it feels too hot, too warm, and too intense. Your body is encased in a layer of hot moisture and the dull thud in your head turns into a pounding pain. You realise just how dry your mouth is so you reach for your water bottle but the water that you carelessly pour down your throat is warm too.

How can creative writing assist/support my creative practice?

 Creative writing helps stimulate the mind and encourages ideas to be further developed. Personally, I find that creative writing allows me to be introspective and focus only on my ideas and thoughts in a non-judgemental way. It stops me from being so self-critical and allows me to further develop my own ideas. Typically, the ideas that I feel comfortable voicing/sharing are ones that have been filtered down in my head. Stream of consciousness writing does not allow for this type of censorship which means that I write down the first ideas that I am able to think of whether I feel they’re good enough or not.

How did you respond to the process of translating the text from your conversation into a typographic communication?

At first, I was worried that a lot of the messages that my anonymous texter had sent me were too conversational to be included in my piece. However, the more I looked around and what others had chosen, the more I realised how each person’s texting style made a difference to the meaning of each piece. I was slightly nervous during the process of texting and found myself looking around the room to see if I could telepathically communicate with anyone to find out who I was texting. I was unsure which part of our conversation to focus on and incorporate into my piece because there wasn’t a phrase or sentence that really caught my attention. Instead, I picked up on an idea my partner had described, the fact that although she is afraid of clowns, she likes to scare herself now and then by googling pictures of them. I found this both amusing and highly contradictory which is why I chose to bring it into my piece.

How did you use location to help communicate your idea?

 Seeing as my text communication was very technology-based, I wanted my piece to be placed somewhere that looked clean, sterile and even scientific. I found that placing it beside door signs marked ‘STOP’ and ‘WARNING’ brought it into a different context and even introduced a sense of urgency and fear which I liked. I didn’t want to place it anywhere that would distract viewers from the sign itself.

What were your considerations in relation to choice of type, materials and placement of your text?

My choice of type standard seeing as I wanted it to be reflective of Google and its default font. I included the recognisable Google Images logo in my piece due to its identifiability and bold colour. The search bar I drew below the logo was intentionally made smaller than the rest of the text because I wanted viewers to have to come closer in order to read the phrase ‘killer clowns’. I wanted to play with the idea of something seeming harmless from far away but unexpectedly dark up close.

How successful do you think your text communication was?

 I feel that my concept was strong, but the execution could have been more effective. Perhaps I could have enlarged my text, placing it on a bigger scale for more impact. I found that from the photographs I took of my work placed in different locations, the text within the Google Images search bar was difficult to read.

10th September 2019

Have you changed your perception of what textiles is? If so, in what way?

 Today was definitely an eye-opener for me because prior to this session, my understanding of ‘textiles’ was purely materials based. All the preconceptions I had regarding textiles were challenged when the use of technology was integrated into the process of generating patterns. Being somebody who struggles with construction in the context of fashion, I was pleased to learn about the alternative ways of constructing textiles that didn’t include sewing. I feel as if the day reinforced the idea that each course is what you make of it and there is a lot of scope for exploring other mediums within a specialism.

I get excited when I am given the opportunity to combine different media and I am most interested in the overlap they create. Projecting my acetate drawings onto the body was something I had never done before and it played with the idea of technology merging with textiles. This innovative technique was exciting to work with due to how easy and efficient it was.

30th September 2019

Project title: Your Interpretation

In your view, how beneficial was your group critique?

Today's group critique was more insightful than it was helpful, mainly because it gave me an idea of which of my drawing styles people appreciated the most as a collective. It was interesting to find out that my simpler line drawings proved to be more popular amongst the group, which was something I had not considered before. When drawing, I can be quite meticulous in capturing detail and am sometimes afraid to leave a drawing too blank if I don't feel it looks complete. The continuous line and silhouette drawing exercises really helped me loosen up and enjoy the act of drawing as opposed to being preoccupied about the end result. 

What was successful about the installation?

I feel like my group's installation only really came together once we identified a purpose/meaning for it to be set up the way it was. It's one thing to construct an installation piece but another to justify the artistic choices that have been made during the construction process. Our piece was originally set up as a play off of a crime scene - we mimicked a chalk outline on the floor using masking tape around the body and the uncomfortable half sitting, half lying down position we put Jay in suggested that he had fallen into that position. His suggestion of cutting out eyes from a magazine to place over his own pulled everything together. From there, I experimented with placing eyes around the installation to draw the eye in and immediately entice the viewer. Other group mates identified the theme of gender within the piece and we split the model's body in half, one side representing the masculine and one representing the feminine. While the masculine side organically fused into its surroundings, the feminine side was obstructed by various objects, including a broomstick handle which we placed on the sculptural breast we created in order to represent confrontation and invasiveness. The eyes I cut out were strategically placed on the body and on an underwear advertisement we ripped from a magazine (breasts, crotch area); this was to represent the public eye and the points of focus in regard to women. I was impressed by the way we were able to extract an underlying theme from what we had created and exaggerate that. 

Can you make any connections between the work of Maurizio Cattelan and your own?

Much like Maurizio Cattelan's A Perfect Day, 1999, our installation piece focused around a body being restricted amongst its surrounding space. Although Cattelan’s makes this the focal point of his piece, the idea of constriction and being entirely helpless in a situation can be translated from the group work I did today. Cattelan is suspended in the photograph of his installation but from a different perspective it could be interpreted as a lying down position, which is something we opted for in order to achieve the chalk outline effect. If I was to imagine that Cattelan’s piece was taken from a birds eye view, the silhouette created by the strips of tape encasing his body is similar to that of a chalk outline.