Action and Place Photography!

So at college today we had to write an action on one piece of paper and a place in the room on the other and put them in different piles. Then in pairs we had to pick one of each out and one of us do it while the other photographed it. Here's what happened with mine...

Stroke the wall

Hug the ladder

Francesca Woodman

I think this image is very interesting because of the interesting angles used. This is by no means a conventional portrait. I also think the contrast between the real cutlery and the designs on the paper adds a very important element of humour and surprise. I also love the dreamy looking tones and slightly blurred effect as it gives a sense of nostalgia.

Nan Goldin Photography

This is from the series Memories of Rodarte. I love how the the design of the wallpaper and fabric evoke each other. I also think the use of the mirror to show the other model and the main model from a different perspective makes this image very interesting and striking. I also think the brown tones work well, creating atmosphere and referencing sepia helping make the image look timeless and classic.

Walking Project

We also had to go for an hour long walk and record it in some way. I decided to use photography and take the dog with me. That meant that the walk was more from her perspective than mine, because she walks quickly and you don't have time to carefully set up each shot etc. The aim wasn't exactly to produce good photos but just to make an impression of the walk. If I had been on my own I would have probably ended up with completely different photos. 

It was really foggy which made it very atmospheric/blurry. Anyway here are a lot of photos.

 There is normally a good view here but not today.

Out-takes/not following brief

So for the actual homework we were only meant to use our two pound shop things but I did some extras with different objects so here they are

 This one is blurry eww but I like the composition. ^^

Pound Shop Project

For one of our independent study projects we had to go to a pound shop and buy two things and explore different ways of joining them together. I bought a pirate skull mask and sword set, and a purple 'wig'.

I decided to use photography to do the brief because I felt that it would suit my objects well.

Drawing with different methods

Today we were looking at using experimental drawing techniques. For example, drawing with boot polish, thread, masking tape and paper etc. I'll probably put some pictures of what I did up soon.

One artist who uses experimental media to draw with is Gavin Turk. Here he has used overlapping tea stains to create cylindrical looking forms. I think that this works well as it is reminiscent of woodcut or potato printing and yet it is subverting the genre of what constitutes art. I also like the varying tones of the tea stains as this gives an interesting effect.

Sophie Calle, The Hotel, Room 29

This series intrigues me because it is artwork created by such an unusual process. When people think of art or photography they are unlikely to think of a person elaborately pretending to be something that they are not to gain access to information about people they don't know. In this way creating this series Sophie Calle seems more like a spy or detective than an artist. Also the fact that she was working as a cleaner in order to build up this series and had a role to perform adds an element of performance art.

All of Calle's work that I have seen I find very interesting and original. This may be partly down to the fact that after leaving school she travelled for seven years which may have given her a unique perspective on the world.

I feel like it would be interesting to have a film of her life.

Damien Hirst, This Little Piggy Went to Market, This Little Piggy Stayed at Home

We've moved on to exploring Fine Art now so today we have been looking at some Fine Artists. We've already established that Fine Art can basically be anything as long as there is a concept behind it.

One of the artists we looked at was Damien Hirst. I've never quite been able to understand his 'Natural History' series with the animal suspended in formaldehyde but I think it's clicked more for me today. I realised that it is basically a natural extension of anatomical drawing and could have its links to this. In this way it could be seen to be making a connection between past methods of art and modern ones. People are often shocked by the use of animals in Damien Hirst's work but if you think about it all the great animal painters of the past were experienced in anatomy which involved dissections and such like. For example George Stubbs dissected a lot of horses to be able to do the paintings he did but because the direct result of his work is merely a painting of a live horse and not a real dead animal, people would tend not to think of the fact that animals have died to create that work too.

I don't know if that paragraph makes any sense.

But anyway the concept behind this piece is being in two minds about something. The two cases slide backwards and forwards from each other so sometimes the pig will look whole but at other times in two halves. This definitely builds up an idea of the pull between two different ideas or plans when you can't decide something. However did this concept really require a pig in formaldehyde? I would argue, probably not.