Monday 30 November 2009

Piece for large scale collage







Photoshopped piece of advertising found in the street. The above photograph was taken from a bus shelter advertisement by the mighty MacDonalds corporation. I am interested in the use of language as both a visual stimulus and as a diversionary tactic.

Friday 27 November 2009

Assignment items part two.


















The valve is my original Image/Thing item and the C90 tape corresponds well with the whole scheme of things.

Assignment items number one
















These are five items for my Images and Things assignment and possible exhibition. They are to show how fickle we are with technology and the throwaway culture that has always been and not just a contemporary passing phase.

Tuesday 24 November 2009



This is the start of my printed collages that I intend to synch up with found materials and oblique text (again).

Final design for perspex cut out.


This is the final design and (I think) colourisation for my final sculptural collage. The perspex is about £30- a metre so A pretty penny will be spent.
I've been trying to get this cut out for about a week now and today is going to be my final chance to get to do it. I have meetings to get to tomorrow so I have now way in getting into Manchester.

Composition Number One


This is playful composition based on electric cabling at Oxford Road train station.

Alan Fletcher inspired collages




These collages are directly out of my sketchbook. I have used words in a magazine and remixed them into others.
THE PURIST - The Pursuit
WONTON - Out Now On

and me


This is a new direction in my approach to collage. I am attempting to be more precise and use less materials.

It was my...collage.


Two conflicting collages







These collages were produced using two different trains of thought and techniques. The Swap Shop collages uses a comedic device in order to bring forward the severity and blatantly dis belief of the pictorial subject. The photograph was originally taken by Tom Stoddart in Sudan, 1998.

Saturday 21 November 2009

Liverpool trip

Thursday, 19th November arrived and it was time for the Uni jollies to Liverpool for a round of visits to art galleries. The Bluecoat, Fact and the mighty Tate Liverpool was on the agenda. I arrived a little late due to the inadequate timings of public transport. It's like they have to live up to their public persona at times of emergencies.

I arrived in Liverpool at approx 11.30am (it only took two and a half hours for my eventual arrival) and met a few stragglers at the Tate. Nobody I really knew went so I had to stalk a couple of faces I usually say hello to. I then shifted around on my lonesome so I could see and do what I wanted. The first works of note was the obligatory GLORIOUS MACHINES that I think Jon B mentioned to us in one of our tutorials.

The work that grabbed my attention was the interactive collages of ... that worked with a gentle tap of a floor mounted switch. The collages at the start of the show were of (non-interactive) cogs that looked nice but the ones of note involved interpretations of Kandinsky and the Suprematists.

On the second were a rag-bag of sculptures on one side and another equally placed rag-bag of modern art exhibits. Mr redordead curated one that involved the wearing of headphones with cheesy Eighties African Hi-Life music in slot A and quite soft bassy electronica on the slot named B. The concept behind this was to show "youngandvibrant" DJ's and their mixtapes and er...have a dance on a brightly lit dancefloor. Oh! very mindblowing eh, Wayne and Son. I loved the Sarah Lucas Woman-Chair and Jean Arp's sculpture one that I had to draw in my notebook. I love how light has an integeral effect on sculpture and shadow.

The other-side had some notable inquiries, there was some pieces that I have only seen on the television screen or in books such as a Rebecca Horn, a Picasso etc... I enjoyed what I saw and some was quite inspirational such as work produced on stainless steel cubes, the Chapman Brother's castration machine (not really the castration bit but the use of trash to make sculpture) and a conversation that I overheard carried out between a few old ladies... VERY Pythonesque.

They was dissing the Modern pieces and commenting on how the skyline was more arty than any of the junk in the room. It was a good job that they didn't see the shit-in-a-tin exhibit what was standing body height right next to them. They would have had a fit if they new that worth of such an item.

What I really came fifty-odd miles to see was the cathedralesque Seagram Murals by what I consider on inspirational and affecting artist, Mark Rothko. Many detractors of his work has filed his work as rubbish, a con and much worse as easy to produce as a Pollock. What these critics don't realise is the passion and creativity that goes into the thought behind the genesis of such work.

The paintings didn't waiver my interest in Rothko and as I have already said previously, only saw these in books and the internet. I felt breathless when I stood in front of these beings and breathed in the primeval connatations that they embellish. I knew a back story of how some of them were hung upside down at the Seagram Building but that was put aside when I entered and exited the room.

Sunday 15 November 2009

IDEATION



This is an interesting piece of Instructional Design that is open to manipulation. I am considering this design in my final work.

Saturday 14 November 2009

camera experiment



The photograph here is an experiment using macro settings and slight movements.

Alan Fletcher at the CUBE

ALAN FLETCHER – FIFTY YEARS OF GRAPHIC WORK (AND PLAY) 21.01.2010 - 03.04.2010

Can't wait for this one its on in about two month but well worth the wait. This guy is a personal favourite of mine. I saw a documentary of his a few years ago and was instantly convinced of his genius.

> ALAN FLETCHER – FIFTY YEARS OF GRAPHIC WORK (AND PLAY)



These images were captured at the CUBE gallery on 10 November 2009. Me and another student, DWJ, happened upon an architects symposium/London 800 show. The grub was a-okay and filled a hole both in the stomach and time of day.
The work that interested was by another artist, Andrea Booker..., show finds old corporate/business signage and rearranges them into new meanings etc. What surprised me is the parallel between her work and mine.
Earlier on in the day I attended an induction in wood/foam and plastics and had already thoughts on using signage within my large collages.

Monday 9 November 2009

UU8 Valve

This the part of the packaging the UU8 Radio Valve that I am intending to use for my essay. I am interested in the design and textures of this items and now that I am ready to finish the preliminary stages of said work, the throwaway technological culture and what is considered trash is entering my thoughts.



Quick-sketch



This drawing is a study of a large work within the Cornerhouse gallery. I've reproduced it here with an alternative titled...Dormez-Vous.

Give me your heart-screen



This maybe not collage-work but it is of some importance to my work. I am taken by medical and anatomical imagery and have used the heart many times within my creative output.

With the image on the right, the process I used was inks, silkscreening and paints.

Bone



This collage was constructed using tonal elements and oblique text and characters. I may use metal, glass and wood when constructing my final pieces.

For this piece I have used an A4 sheet of paper which is of some interest because I usually work on smaller pieces. This may be an indication of working on larger formats.

it was my mother who butchered me


This is titled - Two Tiered Poem.
I am intrigued by the petite but violent aspects of this poem/collage.

New Spex


Check out these authentic 1930's spectacles. I'me trying to have them re-framed to my own prescription. I found them in this bizarre in Southport.

new book


This is one of a batch of Penguins that I found on a carboot market, a few days ago. I've started the book...very sage-like, elaborate.

Sunday 8 November 2009

Saturday 7 November 2009

Potential images/things

UU8 Mazda Radio Valve-Printed Circuitary Boards-Diodes-Transistor Radio-8 Track Tape-Betamax-VHS-Kurt Schwitters_Merz-Joseph Cornell-Robert Rauschenburg-Andy Warhol-Rubbish/Trash....

Friday 6 November 2009

Hazel L. Jones's Lecture Notes - a discovery of...

As I have had now several absences from Hazel's lectures on Creativity/Methodolgy, I have been able to locate and assimilate the notes applicable to my ongoing development. They were held in a filling cabinet in the vaults of the institution on the planet Zarzag. (A bit melodramatic I know, but...).

Instead of printing out the notes and reading them at my leisure, I decided to hand-write them all in doing this I could:

Read as I write...
Evaluate the data...
Converse meanings...
Debate with friends...
Analyse and research...

I've missed out on the presentation style of said lecturer but hopefully get the gist of what was said.

Thursday 5 November 2009

Various thoughts.

It is now 5th November and time for Bonfire Night. Yeah, what a great tradition to behold in this climate of terrorists, religion, etc.

There's going to be a Fire outside of my house again, well, it's the same neighbourly and communual thing every year. I love it, the noise, fireworks, heat, people and mess.

There is a few pieces of wood and metal that I've got my eye on though. The wood is piled up in the neighbour's yard and I've got a few infiltraters within the fire building camp, they'll keep some pieces for me. I can't wait for the burnt out metal that'll be left in the morning. I need to get there before the council come and clear up. They'll be great for either sculpture or collage.

We had Cross-Course Crit today. I was a little late so I had to give my talk without knowing anybody. It was a challenge but what the hell, I like things that way. They were favourable with me though, been given Sigmar Polke to work with.

The Maintenance Grant has come in so now I'll be able to buy copper and do my disintergration experiment thing and start work on the sculpture. That had a good response within the Crit session.