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.