Helen Chadwick

She is one of the artist that Jo recommended me to look at. I borrowed this book from the library: Helen Chadwick, Essays by Mark Sladen.

One of her main work: the Oval Court, using photogram to present mythological bodies. I don’t know yet what is my work ‘s connection with her, but indeed it is a beautiful and impressive work.

P.10 marina Warner: “When she recasts Narcissus’s pool, in work such as The Oval Court, she is looking through herself to search out something on the other site. “

P13. Chadwick:" right from early on in art school, I wanted to use the body to create a set of inter-relationships with the audience.

What will I use to create inter-relationship with the audience?

P15. While the object, places and poses which feature in the sculpture had autobiographical resonance for the artist, the overall impression of the work is not confessional, and Chadwick’s decision not to show her face in any of the photographs emphasizes the work’s universal.

P16. Throughout her career, Chadwick used form of collage and juxtaposition-overlapping, fragmented and reconstituted images – to disrupt the representation of the subject and to demonstrate the inter penetration of the self and the world.

An artist I found recently has similiar attemp: Rosie Emerson, whom I found in an art fair.

 

Book-From Selfie to Self-Expression

Juan Pablo Echeverri, miss fotojapón http://juanpabloecheverri.com/

Juan Pablo Echeerri, a collection of ID photos taken from photoboots. Althought the person in the photos is the same one, but the quality of the photo paper, the style of hair and costume, all makes him look so different.

It’s an exhibition catalogue for Saatchi Gallery. I did not go to this exhibition, but it has much information of western artists on it.

“Artists were the first selfie-takes because they were the only creatives in the past who could actually do them. What is now easy used to be difficult. Before the advent of smartphones and mirror functions, only those who could paint and draw to a high standard were capable of preserving a convincing likeness. Not only did you need to stare into a mirror for hours, wrestling with your own reality, but you needed also to say something meaningful. Looking like you was never enough. (p18, Januszczak, 2017)

Nowadays, through the technology, everyone can do it. Just click, few seconds, no need to spend hours and stand still. The moment you are laughing is sincere, no need to make too much effort.

Note: great portrait artists from the past(from the book):

Parmigianino, self-portrait in a convex mirror

Diego Velázquez, las meninas

Rembrandt Van Rijm, Self-portrait

Vincent Van Gogh, self-portrait

Pablo Picasso, self-portrait

Egon Schiele, self-portrait

Frida-Kahlo

Cindy Sherman

Tracey Emin

Idris Khan, REMBRANDT…BY HIMSELF

 

DANIEL ROZIN

He is famous for his interactive art by using mirrors. It’s like CCTV but present the images in various material like mood, pumpum, toys…The “reflection" has become very obscure.

“The self-portrait" is unlikely any other form of portrait. It appears to offer an insight into the way an artist sees themselves or wishes to be seen and at the same time it is an artwork that, by its very nature, involves the viewer in an intriguing game of looking." p.45 Roberto Marrone

“Multiple personalities, doppelgangers and alter-egos also play out a major part in the self-representation of many ther twentieth century German artist: Ludwig Meidner, George Grosz, Otto Dix, later Sigmar Polk and Martin Kippenberger." p.45 Roberto Marrone

Film: Documentary of Francesca woodman + Sally Mann

It’s a documentary about Francesca Woodman by interviewing her family and friends. It is interesting to compare her works and she as a person and an artist. From the film, she seems like an introvert and melancholy young woman, but from her parents, she is more ambitious and brave and exciting to try new ideas. Probably from her childhood, she already absorb lot’s of nutrients and thoughts from her artist parents,  therefore she seems non stopped thinking.

From the document, we can see her parents’ art, too. Through, very different from Francesca’s.

Although I have seen some review of this documentary saying Betty Woodman (Francesca Woodman’s mother) is irresponsible and self-fish mother, for probably someone thinks her comparison for fame influence Francesca’s dead, I quite like her works. It’s playful, formed and deconstructed, transition between 2D’s and 3D’s, and it looks pretty much like painting on sculptures, or mix of them.

Her husband, seems have get more influence from Francesca after she died. Black and White photos and nude girls… it’s hard to not make connection with Francesca, maybe this is how he memorize his daughter. Different from Francesca, he is not the performance and the protagonist of his photos, he set up a scene, and let the models to post. He especially likes to compose the model and a/few photographs and make some connection between them.

 

Here I watched another documentary of photographer: Sally Mann.

She lives in a country side and she uses this big giant camera to do her shooting. At first, She mainly photoshoot her children. She asked them to post, and set up a scene. When she wanted her dog does certain things and stand in certain place, she would even smear some jam to lure it.

She started some series, taking photos of human faces. In the film, she let her model lay under her camera, and it took long time to expose the camera. Because the monochrome and the film quality, they all have some sort of “dead atmosphere", or you can call it uncanny, I supposed.

Alice made something similar in the last term. They are all a bit creepy.

Later, she even visited a cemetery, where let the dead body rot and decay naturally.

The similarities of Sally Mann and Francesca Woodman are obviously they all use black and white photography, and they all deliver uncanny atmosphere. I like both of them, but I probably more perfer Francesca’s works. However, my own practice probably more close to Sally Mann, or maybe closer to Vivian Maier.

I don’t create a scene much. I am more like observing what is there already, and use my instinct and way to describe it, just that simple.

 

Lecture: Paul Coldwell – considering the matrix-Part 2

Rembrand

He made his works as a testing process, his goal is not making a single conclusion.  Therefore there are variation in each version. He painted and etching the plate together, by wiping the ink on the plate.

sees inking as a part of creation

Chris Lebrun(?)

four rides: Take each stages into a certain conclusion, addition it, and as a starting point for next print. A set of four.

he used the active erasure as a positive of drawingto be honest, I still don’t understand the process.

 

Piccaso

Lithograph

every conclusion is the starting point for another

 

 

Paula rego

She aquatints her plate, and here are the stages.

I think it’s bit similiar to what I am doing now, For this I think I print each stage is to check that each colour are the right stage for me.

My personally like her 3 stage

 

 

Jasper Johns Lithographs.

I am unfamiliar with lithograph, so I am not sure how does it work.

rewark the next number drawn, each subsquence print carris with a trace of the previous print.

 

alighiero boetti and Jennifer Bornstein

all used the ready-made to be the matrix

 

 

 

 

Paul Coldwell

playing the idea of matrix

mutiple matrix

a real coat’s x-ray from national gallery data, ;later

inject print

final print is 1:1 scale of actual original coat

 

Tim head

dustflowers, inject print

artist talked to computer, and inject print direcly.I don’t think there is a matrix, maybe it;s the voice. or simply just a technology.

 

Wenda Gu

forest of stone steles-retranslation and rewriting of Tang poetry. Size

vast installation, poems intaglio on granite blocks, monumental, rub to very fine japanese paper.

 

Toguo

Make the stamps himself as schupture and stamped them on paper.

the wood is like signature, finger print

Combine the 2D and 3D.

 

Disappearance

Eric Avery

can print on ass. temporary.

I think in here, we can work on not only the stencil also the objct we are going to print on.

 

Oscar Munoz

 

Lecture- Denise Hawrysio’s ‘Spotlight Project followed by reception.

Her works: Spotlight Project, was displayed in lecture hall in 14 Feb.

It is a short film approximately an hour. I did not catch it but I think she collected this portrait from year book from old book store?

At the beginning, there is a statement: Some culture thinks soul will be stolen from camera, so the photograph is prohidded. Therefore, she cut out the faces to free these souls.

All the film displays these people’s portrait one by one, and these faces are all cut out. Each portrait was showed about 5 second. Because it is cut out directly from the books, so from the cut out spaces, next layers which contain part of the next person’s body parts can be seen.

Meantime, there is voice in very low tone, saying something, because these words are too vague to reconise, I think it could be the name of these people.  Continued with the film playing, the spead of the voice is quicker and higher, until the very end, it was toned by computer and become very sharp tone.She says it is a reflection of time. I am still don’t completely understand why althought she explained.

I think this concept is very beautiful, and how she presented is, too.

These people in her works,  indeed seems like no soul inside the body. Are these souls removed from these photo, and return to their host? Is it we will feel safer when we see her work(althought the voice create disturbing atmosphere)? Or is it a process that artist heals herself from doing opposite things from the photographer?

Looking her other practice of “Spotlight project", she used those cut out faces and made them into installation works, fixed them on the walls, chairs, doors… It is astonished, however, if these works are meant to release the soul, (by removing the faces), these soul appear in some other space, gathering together, it reminds me with hell. Is the artist being God in here for placing the souls else where? It does not say much about the other works, so it is simply my feeling by looking at these photos.

 

artist’s website

http://hawrysio.com/the-spotlight-project/

 

 

 

 

Bill Viola-Artist Jo recommended

Having tutorial last week, here are some artists that Jo suggested me to have a look, I feel shameful that actually she already recommend me to check this artist out in the previos tutorial, I really need to focus more.

This artist focuses on video art, and Jo recommend me to try video. I am unfamiliar with contemporary video arts, and to be honest, I don’t know if I would like it. The video artist I know is mainly Matthew Barney, however, the reason why I wanted to know about his work is simply he was Bjork’s husband, and I am a fan of Bjork. However, I went to cinema to look at Matthew Barney’s work, I can’t help but fall sleep many times. I have read some of his idea, however, excepting the money invested big budget, complicated mix with mythology, history, commese, and delicated schulpture and making up, I am not sure how do I feel about it (probably it has not much connection with my life experience).

I have to say I really love Bjork’s music video, and for me, it is art. On the other hand, it is like illustration, the visual is attach to the music. If simply just talking about “visual arts", in nowaday technology, many movie and tv series have already using lot’s of state in the art visual affect, it will be really challenge for artist to tell a feeling by only using visual effect.

OK, that’s back to the artist that Jo recommended me twice to study, and the reasource is from internet(youtube).

Bill Viola

Dreamer:

this is an arwork composing by 7 series of individual video, and there are 7 people in each video, who have different races, gender, and ages. These seven people have their eye closed, look like in water, peacefully.

At the beginning, I was wondering how they don’t need to breath in the water, are they dead? However, there are some slightly movement from the fingers that prove they are alive. From the hint from title, they are sleeping, and because they can sleep in the water (which is impossible in reality), so it’s a dream.

I guess the way he make it, is to set these people standing, and used big fan to spray on them to make their clothes and hair move like it is not subject to gravity, and later used computer to do the rest of visual affect.

One thing I noticed that our common is the faces in his work and mine are distorted. His “faces" are twisted through the water, and mine is the reflection throught the not flat mirror surface.

OK, here is his interview about this video work:

Bill Viola, The dreamer

His works actually come from his experience of childhood. Seeing beautiful scene while he was drawn.

This scary but unique caused his attraction into water.

few things:

1:He said our acenstor found out their reflection through water, therefor they learned self-identity.

2:While sleeping, body is making is’t reconstrucion, and dream resemble lot’s of things during sleeping. It’s huge inner world, mediated by water.

The floating water in the video represents dream activity in mind, it does not tell you what they dreamabout , but shows that they are dreaming. It is also a series of portrait. Now I see why Jo recommend me to read his work, because my work is also connect to portrait and dream.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lithography

It’s my first time to have lithography induction

I was thinking it was relative to “stone", need to curve on stone, but actually the process quite like drawing, and now a stone can be replaced by a thin plate.

Here are some lithography art works, I think it can create some creepy atmostsphere, I would like to try it.

David Lynch’s lithography works

 

Vivian Maier’s self portrait

Maier, V., Avedon, E. and Maloof, J. (2013). Vivian Maier self-portraits. Brooklyn, N.Y.: PowerHouse Books.

I knew this photographer before, but I did not expect that she had so many self-portrait. I borrow a book call “Vivian Maier-self-portrait", written by Elizabeth Avedon.

Vivian’s works was found after her dead, so she left only these films but nothing, nor words describe her ideas.

I am surpriced for her works, for it is so close to my idea. At the same time, I think we have very similiar personality: we are extremly introverted, and we are not so enjoy social life, and perfer enjoy ourselves alone. Everytime when come to social situation, I feel overwhelming and nervous. She also reminds me a poet Emily Dickson, who also did not publish her works while she was alive, having a life as hermit, and have no interest to explan, and has intention to hide their talent.

Vivian’s work is seldon with her friend, just sometimes with children she took care of. In my opinion: strangers, herself, and children could be a genre of people that will not rise her tension, for me, she is not so mysterious.

She had two kinds of life, one as a nanny, one is her private, secret, creative world. This is one point that I am interested about. I am interested about similiar theme, two binale kind of life, inner and outer… (I like series Dexter a lot, it is talking about a laboratory staff who works in daytime in a police station, but in day time, he is a series killer who specialize to kill series killer)

Another contradition of Vivian I found interested is, she took most of the works on the street, but lock them in her private room.

 

 

other relative links:

Documentary: finding Vivian Maier