Useful websites and work on projections:

http://www.woostercollective.com/projections/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Htt3Z4nZ4IU

http://antiadvertisingagency.com/project/light-criticism/ < not exactly a projection but I love this

Projections in the public realm

Homeless Vehicle

Today in Jacqueline's workshop we looked at artists who have projected their work in the public realm. In particular we looked at Kryzstzof Wodiczko, an artist who is driven to produce political pieces of work. His intention is the same as mine, to highlight issues that are kept in the dark. His first piece Homeless Vehicle isn't a projection but it is intended to highlight the issues of homelessness in the USA. It worked as this piece gathered a lot of media attention. As did the swastika he projected on the South African Embassy, video here.

Other pieces he has created are Tijuana, which deals with victims of abuse and rape. This makes for uncomfortable viewing but by projecting this publicly and on such a large scale it is forcing the viewer to confront the issue. You can view a video on the piece here. You can also see how much he has thought about the place he is projecting, the use of the architecture aswell as the video itself.

I love his War Veteran work which was part of the AND Festival in Liverpool 2009. Here is a link to his work in Liverpool. This video shows the exact location I want to project my own work!!

Contacting FACT

The ideal location for my projection would be the blank wall opposite FACT. This is located in a busy part of the city and I have seen artist's work projected on that wall before. Above is a photo of the location, the wall to the right hand side. I have emailed and telephoned FACT asking could I use one of their projectors to help me do this. They said they would call me back to see if this was possible, it has been a few days since that moment so I will call them again next week if I have no joy. I spoke to MITES who deal with the hiring of equipment and they said because I am projecting just outside that I wouldn't need to hire it (so hopefully it will be free of charge!).Next time I call I will ask if there is anyone I can ring myself, I have been given two ladies names Louise Latter and Laura Sillars. Aparantlly Louise Latter is very sympathetic towards the type of work I am doing, so I am going to try and push to speak to her as there is a better chance of them helping me. I have a few other options relating to the location of my projection if things do not work out with FACT.

Been a while..

Yes it has been a while since my last post, disasters of life getting in the way i.e my laptop crashing! However in the meantime I have been attending Jacqueline Passmore's workshop on Friday's and it has been a massive help. After my assessment I decided I wanted to do a public projection of my work using pictures of missing women. I CAN SAFELY SAY I AM NOT THE MOST TECHNICAL PERSON, so attending thses workshops has been a real learning curve and also a confidence boost. I have made my video ready to use for my projection. I used the images I previously used in my address book, these are the images of women who revieve little or no media attention. By putting these images of women in the public realm I am highlighting the issue and bringing it to the publics attention. Here is a link to my video I uploaded to youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAlx4Mbk5PY

I kept my video simple and effective and not using anything obvious to the subject (like I did in some of my previous work). I used the slow zoom in and out to add a feminine touch and I think it makes it very moving. I used black and white images as this reminds me of some posters and bad images released to the press.

Interesting site

Ihave been considering text within my work. I had a group crit yesterday where the idea of using the images of the current women missing in the UK and projecting them. The images may well stand on their own but the use of text may also enhance the meaning of my work, but without giving too much information away. I found this site that uses text and I think it is really strong. If I consider text I may use this as inspiriration on what i DO NEXT:

http://lostbutfound.co.uk/

Work for Assessment

Today I added the flowers and battery power candles to the piece. Spooky! Oh, and I also added a curtain on the other side so it is more closed off. It looks a lot better in real life, plus you get the smells of the flowers and them crunching under your feet!

Progress of work

I have finished putting the pictures on the wall, I have nailed them to the wall so that when people walk by them they blow in the breeze. This adds to the feeling of the piece. I have had quite a lot of feedback already, it seems to be getting quite a bit of attention. Some say they don't even make it half way down the corridor before they run back out! Interesting! The piece is not finished yet, I plan on laying dead flowers on the ground and using battery powered tea lights (health and safety!) I got my inspiration for this piece from Christian Boltanski who sets up 'shrines' for the lost.

Work so far

This is a piece I am doing which will hopefully be completed for the assessment coming up. I want to make the space feel uncomfortable and almost claustrophobic to the audience. The work basically comments on the exploitation of an image and how missing people can fade out of our minds. I used the image of Madeleine as this is a well recognised image and I think she is the perfect example of MWWS (Missing White Woman Syndrome). The narrow corridor and the repitition of the image will hopefully rouse some emotion of the viewer and make them feel rather uneasy.

Christian Boltanski

Patricia showed me a book containing the works of Christian Boltanski in my last review. I believe he will be a great source of inspiration for me as he deals with similiar themes. His work is all about loss and I find his work extremely moving. Especially his 'shrines'. After reading through the book and seeing his work I had a flood of ideas, which is always good for an artist! I can't convey enough how much I love Boltanski's work. I remember coming across his work that uses clothes, although I had never looked into anything else he had done. So I am pleased and greatful that Patricia showed me that book. I will do some more research on the artist's work and hopefully the ideas will keep flowing.

Work so far

This piece is coming along slowly, it is taking me a little longer than expected! I have had a few people come up to me and ask me about it and to say it's looking good. The cleaning ladies in the studio asked my mate about it and when she explained the MWWS they said 'oh yea, she's so right!' so at least it's gaining interest and people are becoming aware of the exploitation and the ignorance of other missing women. Jagjit also said she liked the piece and found it very moving. I understood what she meant by that, because the more I work on this and stand back from it the more of an impact it makes. Others have said they find it rather creepy and it makes them feel uncomfortable. I am glad people are getting feelings and emotions from this piece, as that is what I intended to do. At first I was a bit skeptical about this piece but after gaining more feedback I realise that it is touching people in some way. Now I just need to complete it and put the table inside to see how people engage with it.

Work so far

I set this up using my table I created over the summer. I have added a few more items to the table like the lamp and ashtray. I also added the vase and the mirror, hoping the colour of the flowers and the sky seen in the mirror contrast with the dull and boring items. I have been photographing this set up everyday that I am in the studio, and will continue to do so until the flowers wilt and die. I will print every photo I have and will think about some way of displaying them. I may also create a video piece using these photographs.

Biennial : FACT

One Year Performance (1980-1981)

A few days ago I visited FACT to see the biennial work in there. I was very impressed by it.

The exhibition focused on the documentation of his performance ‘life work’, One Year Performance 1980-1981 (Time Clock Piece). I thought this was documented very well and the way it was presented in the gallery was amazing.

For one year, the artist punched a worker’s time clock located in his studio, on the hour, every hour. Marking the occasion by taking a self-portrait on a single frame of 16mm film, the resulting reel documents a year in his life at approximately one second per day. For me this represents the mundane and the repetition we all experience in life. By the end the artist looks haggard with his long hair sometimes falling into his eyes. This is a very interesting piece. It also reminded me of a documentary we looked at in second year about consumerism. It showed Chinese factory workers and the sheer amount of workers, plus the long hours they worked everyday. This was a good piece to see as I am looking at the passage of time for one of my pieces and plan to make a video piece.

I also loved Yves Netzhammer's work in Gallery 2 that reflect on fundamental, even subconscious, aspects of the human condition. His work contains a three-dimensional animation that focuses on characters who are struggling to remember situations that are lost or strangely misshapen by the memories of the collective consciousness. The result is an eerie and surreal atmosphere which made me feel uncomfortable at times. I think it is amazing when you feel such a strong reaction to a piece of work.

Coco Fusco

After my tutorial feedback I looked into the talk that Coco Fusco gave about the strength and power an image can possess. She talks about the image shown above on Time Magazine. Fusco deals very much with political art. The image above was created to recognise the war effort in Afghanistan and to send out a liberal message, or so we were meant to think. It was actually employed by the CIA to gather sympathy.
I think the use of Madeleine McCann in my work is a well recognised image. I have already had the cleaners in the studio asking me about my work after seeing Madeleine's face. The power of an image can be very strong. I explained the meaning behind MWWS and they said 'oh yea, you are so right!'.

Bold Street Festival

World's smallest nightclub
Julien's pavement art


On the 26th September I went to the Bold Street Festival, small events like these make me love living in Liverpool. It was a fun day that contained culture, energy and fun. I think Liverpool is a great city to be in when studying a creative subject. I espicially loved the pavement art competition (which fellow student Julien took part in!) and the alternative music combined with photography by the fab collective in the bombed out church.

Caravan Gallery

The Carvan Gallery at The Bluecoat

On Monday I went back to The Bluecoat to look at The Caravan Gallery (it was leaving that day so I had to visit again!) I thought it was quirky and original and was perfect for the Liverpool biennial. Inside it contained many images from around Liverpool. As I have lived in three different locations in Liverpool I recognised many of the locations. Some locations in the photographs I pass everyday, however thay have gone largely unnoticed by myself until I looked at these photographs. These images brought back random memories. I think it is a interesting link to my work, as with my table I am making the unnoticed somehow noticed. Just like the images in the caravan. I had a long chat with the artist who had captured these images, she said some images were just random sightings and that some things we deem as normal up here in the North would not be viewed the same in the South. (For example 'shrines' on lamposts were people have been killed in an accident). I love this little caravan, it depicits the desolate but also the satirical nature of Liverpool (along with a few other places in the North).

Artist Research

Do Ho Suh, Someone 1998
Coco Fusco, Couple in a Cage 1993

With Couple in a Cage people were convinced that they were real 'savages' believing the artist's fiction was in fact real. I love this social experiment. It reflects on the morality of treating human beings as exotic curiosities. It links in some way into what I'm doing, human exploitation. Fusco is very much a political artist, and I think her work is very interesting and informative.

Here is an interesting talk by Coco Fusco (scroll futher down for her video)

I also discussed with Juan the notion of loss of identity. My work at the moment (dealing with missing people) very much reflects that. I will perhaps look into that side of it more, as no-one likes to be forgotten about. The first image that popped into my head when thinking about loss of identity is Do Ho Suh's Someone. This is a very poweful piece, and the empty space within the jacket very much reflects a loss of identity.

Work so far

I have added some more things to my table, the lamp, the ashtray and the vase. I need to ask myself if this piece stands alone? Should I use it as part of an installation? Use it in a video piece?? I am still keen on using it as part of a video piece, I will probably need some help as I have never made a video before!! I plan on adding some flowers and maybe a red light bulb to the lamp. As part of the video I hope to capture a cigarette burning down in the ashtray. I need to think on it, as it is still early days. But you learn from any mistakes and hopefully this will progress into something better!!

Tutorial with Juan

My work so far

Today I had a tutorial with Juan. I have started to create the piece above, however I do not know what Juan made of it. There were many points made in the tutorial, like how people would interact with the piece and whether the use of Madeleine McCanns image were too exploitative. I had chosen Madeleine because it is an image that everyone would recognise (strenghtening my point about the use of the media and MWWS). It is showing how this image is being exploited by the media. Once this piece is finished I will put my address book of British women currently missing (who do not get enough media attention) inside the piece. This is where I will observe people and see if they actually go inside and look through the book. Until the piece is finished I will not know how successful it has been. I plan to ask people for feedback, but for now I just want to get stuck in and create work.

Biennial opening

Myself looking rather scared in The Bluecoat
Ndize, Nicolas Hlobo
Inside the Open Eye Gallery


When I arrived at the opening of the biennial on Friday night I was rather taken aback. There, outside the Open Eye Gallery was a queue. The first time I'd ever seen a queue to get into a gallery! There was a certain buzz and lots of odd looking people drinking glasses of wine. Definately an art event. Once inside the Open Eye Gallery, there were even more odd looking people drinking wine. Lots of people. It was a good atmosphere but unfortunatly I couldn't appreciate the two film pieces in there because there were so many people around. So I vacated the gallery and went to the next venue The Bluecoat.

I was anxious to get to The Bluecoat, because I have always either loved or hated the work that was in there. The first room containing Carol Rama's work was brilliant. I espicially loved Wedding Dresses. What I love about Rama's work is that it was ahead of it's time. Over sexualised and not afraid of being controversial. The other piece I loved was Nicolas Hlobo's Ndize. I do not think you have to be an art lover to enjoy this piece. In a way it takes me back to childhood playing hide and seek, and the anxiousness and excitement you feel about getting found. Again we had to queue up to see this piece, if everyone would have gone up at the same time it would have been chaos.! As with Rama's work I also founf Hlobo's Ndize rather sexualised with the materials he used (such as rubber and the outfits the models wore). Overall I get the feeling that the work in The Bluecoat is about sexual identity.

The last venue I visited was The Tate. Unfortunatly, the work here did not get my creative juices flowing. In fact I had taken a real dislike to the room on the ground floor. This article sums up how I feel about Magdalena Abakanowicz's installation http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/sep/20/liverpool-biennial (under the heading dimly lit potatoes). As for the rest, it didn't do anything for me either. I didn't get to see all the work on the top floor, so I do hold out some hope for my next visit!

Other blogs covering the biennial:

Liverpool Confidential
Feeling Listless

First Tutorial

For some, group tutorials can be rather daunting. For me, I prefer them to one on one because we can bounce ideas around, gain confidence in public speaking plus gain more feedback. However, I do admit I was rather nervous about my first group tutorial. Not only was I showcasing my summer project (which could have easily been shot down), I was also 'pitching' myself to tutors I have never shown my work to. I could also sense a certain tension in the air from other students, that made me feel uneasy. Topped with the fact that this was our final year. 'The year that counts'.

I had made the piece above to show at my first tutorial, and when Juan Cruz started to say 'I think this piece is boring' I almost sunk right down into my seat and hoped to melt away. But he carried on talking. This in fact made me feel better because I think he was seeing the point to the piece. It wasn't made to stand out. It was, in a sense, made to be overlooked. At the moment I am considering to add more objects to the piece and hopefully create a short film. This is my first attempt at film, hopefully I won't get too stressed out!

Ideas

Looking at missing posters is where it all started. I have already started to create pieces of work using these. On this blog I will load up pictures of my work, any explinations for my work or processes' will be explained in sketchbooks. This blog will give a brief summary of where I am up to and hopefully record how my work will progress. I will also use this blog to record any galleries I have visited or relevant artists that have inspired me.

Start of Third Year

Natalee Holloway

Madeleine McCann

So here we are at the final stretch of my Fine Art degree and I must admit it's rather terrifying. But at the same time it is exciting and it seems everyone has come back motivated over the summer which is brilliant! The tutors are engaging and seem engaged with our work so I feel really positive at the moment. I have "hit the ground running" to quote John Byrne and I already feel a big difference compared to the start of last year, which to be perfectly honest, started off a bit hairy.

My focus is on the notion of beauty and femininity, taking off from last year. However I am looking at it from a different angle, looking at the cruelty conveyed by a culture obssesed with image. In particular focusing on media and missing people. Not everyone would have heard the term MWWS (Missing White Woman Syndrome) but I guarantee people would have seen it. This means that usually young, pretty,middle-class and usually blonde girls/women get the most media attention when it comes to missing people. For example, the most well-known missing person in the UK Madeleine McCann. Plus for many Americans missing person Natalee Holloway.

I hope to create works based on this idea and to bring it to the attention of others.