Friday 30 April 2010

re:shoot exhibition

After asking a few of my fellow students, none of which wanted to go, I had to trundle off to the re:shoot exhibition on my lonesome. I got lost for a little while but remembered where the Beehive Mill was, I attended a music teaching course there a long time back.

It was an interesting diversion in my day...night and saw some great photographs. They were taken by second year students, which I was surprised about. One guy in particular caught my attention which was a Matthew Comer, very Architextural and not a lot different from what I'm trying to do. Of course, he's more a professional in his photography... I bought of book that he has brought out for a nifty fiftey quid...fuck, yeah-and fuck again...skint time. But I DO like his work.

Katie Beckinsale's work is intriging in a Joseph Cornell kind of way and contemplated buying one of her photographs. She's a nice enough gal and I have her card so I'll ask for a price. The photograph is of a lantern and wallpaper and is about 3 inches in diameter but I DO like it...I want it in the orginal casing and mearsurements.

So really, it shows the duality of my creative process. I love the monumental but equally the miniscule.

Thursday 29 April 2010

cmyk monolith one [white]





The first and the last photographs are of the monolith within the confines of the workshop, you can see the bottom half of cmyk monolith two [black] behind the upright one in the last photo. The middle photo is taken of the monlith in it's position within the gallery space. Dimensions are 6 foot x 2 foot x 1 foot.

The concept behind this piece is that way see colour as a mechanical process and use the colours Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Kroma as the main value in what we see. There are timbres within the natural would and I have juxtasposed our value system onto the Mother Nature.

Monday 26 April 2010

JISC-turnitin-submit

After much palaver, I've managed to upload my second essay to the Jisc-Turnitin-Submit people. Last lime I managed a 0% plagarism this time I've got a 4% plagarism rate. This is because I've included two verses of the Donovan folk song The Little Tin Soldier, but I'm alright with that.

My construction is nailed together, tomorrow, it will be finished and then I have to included the wording, COGS RUST in gold. It supposed have a concept based on the usurping of old memories and how they fade away, and then be replaced with new and fresh ones. The gold lettering means that old and remembered snatches of memories are never forgotten, because gold doesn't tarnish.

MEMENTO



This is a new kind of collage that I am undertaking. It is based on the fact that a house is a home to memories that are lost or forgotten. I have based the composition on what rooms look like when they don't have exterior walls.

Saturday 24 April 2010

Fleetwood Amusements Arcade






These photographs are from the only amusements arcade in Fleetword. This is a small seaside town in the North West of England. It was very grim and looked liked a place where arcade games and rides go to die. It was fun though and very cheap, all machines ranged from 1P to 30P.

A cafe in Fleetwood that's lost itself

Thursday 22 April 2010

Review of The Year

I suppose I hit the floor running when I started on the Interactive Arts BA (Hons) degree course this year. I was working on a project through the summer and during that time, I had been experimenting with wood, metals, collage and researching artists such as Joseph Cornell and Christian Marclay. These artists are what was recommended to me by course tutors Hazel Jones and Jon Biddulph.
When arriving at the start of the year, it was realised that I had not received any correspondence on the summer project or the Mail Art project. I am interested in Mail Art and I had already some Mail Art to post so, I was in the clear with this side of the project. I then had to devise a fun game that was to be played with at least 6 students, I made a game called The Spiral of Terror, I had fun devising this game and still play it with my pals.
We where given a brief by Hazel to start up and use a blogging system to place research, thoughts, artwork and other interesting information. I found this very informative and extremely useful within my work and philosophy about art and design. I always keep it up to date, get regular correspondence from China, upload images of my work and generally use it as a thought process.
What I rather have is a brief to work to and they didn’t come that much on this course. It is a free way of working but sometimes, freedom can be confining. We were given an outline and the theme was FOOD. This was a cross year (one and two) theme and I decided on making four collages that included painting and found lettering. There was an exhibition taking place on collage so I included my four collages into the show.
After the inductions, I decided to use the workshops to experiment with wood. I made some typography and some boxes for future thoughts. The lectures with Hazel were a little odds and soddsish but interesting as ever and the main Friday lectures were informative. The seminars, I felt, was quite so-so.
I have worked within my sketchbooks as much as ever this year and they show what my creative process and niches are. They include paintings, photography, diagrams, collages, studies and typography. I have managed to fill four large sketchbooks and now have started my fifth.
After Christmas, I began to feel ill and withdrawn and after a prolonged time, I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. This in turn with my Dilated Cardiomyopathy has made me wary about my health and reasons why I am doing this degree. The travel is a pain and with taking a varied amount of medication, this has made me quite unenergetic and too relaxed.
I had been devising my major sculptural construction for the final exhibition during the Christmas holidays and made mock ups, diagrams and drawings, and, these was shown at the first review of the year. I was given quite a good grading, a 2:1, and that made me feel that I was on the correct path towards the constructions. That is when I was took ill and with experiments with medications, I became erratic. Procastrination and apathy are bad bed fellows. I did continue with my research into Diebenkorn, Polke and Boyce and read books that was in the reader and that kept me active.
I am now on the right track health wise and already started work on the construction piece that I’ll exhibit. I’ve found a whole bunch of business text and these will be used within the construction. I have experiment with media and applications this year that include Polaroid photography, philosophy, plaster and sand, typography, rust, archival art and the idea of forgotten memories.
What I am not happy with is that I didn’t work more with lens based media such as film making and animation. I know we have the software but there isn’t anyone on a tutorial basis to teach us how to use it. This scope of work is a little alien to me and I need to get a grasp with this side of the course because I’ll just miss out on the joy.
I have began a series of paintings that include newspaper headlines and I have began to edit out large portions of data, there are also a series of paintings that included Russian typography and wordings that relate to my photography of demolished, disused places of work and habitats.

Trough of Bowland



A beautiful Spring day in the Trough of Bowland.

found business letters and new work




The cogs rust phot is going to be part of my final construction. The other photo is a detail from my new painting-collage that is going to be part of the exhibition this year. The wording is Russian for MEMENTO.

new monochrome Polaroids and construction update

I went ahead and bought two boxes of the new silver shade/mono-chrome [black and white] Polaroids last week and they finally came yesterday. One pack from eBay and a post my the postie and another delivered by DHL. They came about a 1/2 hour apart...synchronicity.

I've used up one box yesterday on my jaunt into town and photographed some buildings and other close-up subjects. The first photograph didn't have any image developed onto it, on which I was a bit miffed and the rest came out in an abstract style. The better one was the last one. I will upload some examples when I get the chance.

They are super temperamental and have to be covered up for at least three minutes. If these stict guidelines, which are on the The Impossible Project website, you may have under-or-over exposed photographs.

My structure which I have procrastinated over since Easter has now been started in earnest. The front and backs are now cut up and bolted together and just needs to covered in my fruit-box wood. I may have trouble in leaving it within the confines of the workshop. They are a funny about work being left in the space. What I am having to do I lug it up and down and to and fro until it is finished. Bah! humbug.

Tuesday 20 April 2010

sleep and finding a prize

I fell asleep on the busride home tonight and after the motorway part of the journey, and with activity shifting my consciousness, found myself at the traffic lights at Haslingden. When I looked out the window, I saw a Builder's skip with a pile of business lettering chucked on top like a set of golden text[ural] cherries.

I had to get home and soon as I reached the phone, I went straight over the builder's skip in my friend's car. He helped me with the haulage and I had to put some juice in the automobile. The letters that I found are:

S E O C G U T S R O

I just need to develop a profound word or phrase and hopefully have a good piece of art to exhibit. I just want to have my own exhibition. Not saying that I'm selfish but, as in the Goldsmith's programme last night, the gist is self-promotion. If you can't sell yourself or have belief in your work...you're screwed in the art world.

too much to do in so little time...

Well today is the last day for the journal hand in. This document has to have the blog, a CV, Personal Maps, Review of the Year and other things to bump it up. I have printed this blog and it is costing me a small fortune. I've had a chat with Hazel and she has given me a little extra time, good stuff.

The end of the year exhibition is pencilled in for Monday 29th April and the deadline is 26th April, next Friday. After the chat with Haze, and a mini tutorial, I have decided to complete my nine foot sculptural construction and after another rendevous with Mike from the Workshop, that will cost me around £30-.

I watched the second have of The Goldsmith pogramme [Is It Art]. It was kind of okay to see a erm... prestigious art school and their graduates. Their work was 6 of one and half a dozen of the other in the wow , great art guys, stakes. The better programme was the one on Art Schools...quite informative and generally interesting in a matter-of-a-fact way. The photographer, Duffy, was well worth the wait and I really like the guy.

Polanoid is still on my mind, and then there is Polarnoir a website dedicated to Polaroids. Some of the work are on offer for grands a piece...Grant Hamilton is one to watch and I want to buy one of his pieces. I am getting a little better at my composition and wondering on getting three printed up on to A2 size. Hazel has said that I may have another space at the end of the year show. I am going 9 foot in the foyer of the Link Gallery and going to have a place in the studio.

Sunday 11 April 2010

heart[shatter]


A painting collage based around my heart condition...Dilated Cardio-Myopathy.

Thursday 8 April 2010

polaroid 600 film

The prices for Polaroid 600 film is so high they must be on the same level as gold or crack. For 10 films it's usually £28.99 or for 20 films, I have paid £54.99. This IS the going rate and having used up a pack of ten and most came out with a purple twinge, another pack has only three usable prints, I had to buy two more packs. I've used a pack on the rust, debris theme and they are okay and saving the other pack for a sunny-rainy day.

Don't get me wrong though, I have at least ten that I am going to use within my project but they are so expensive. I haven't used a Polaroid for years and needed practise but at near thirty quid a pop, that is a damned money pot waiting to happen. I'll upload my Polaroids when I get the chance, they are the colour-field end of the art historical spectrum.

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STOP - PRESS
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I've just bought a pack of 8 Polaroid films that are Black and White from eBay. I think they are a new batch, so hopefully they are bringing them out once more. I'll be using them for the demolished night-club/graffiti site project.

the phone rings and there is no one there





catch-up

I went to the Collective Vision art-space [exhibition] last night at the noiseLAB pop-up gallery/cafe/shop thing in Manchester Arndale. The map on the link on the Facebook page directed me to a side street in Farnworth, Bolton and that was where I was heading. After diligent research on my part, I realised at the eleventh hour that it's in the town centre.

I was about an hour late, no shock there really, but I DID turn up. There was some good stuff and it was about time that there was some involvement, on my part, in outside Uni sociology. There was work mainly by the third years and a splattering of work by second and, I think, a first year.

I've noticed that there is a project called 36exp. It is a project to find 36 photographers/artists/etc to take 36 photographs. An exhibition is being set up where the final 36 [winners] have their contact sheet, photographs and etc shown. I'm doing a project on rust, remains and debris so, I'll get involved.