Month: December 2017

Gŵyr/Gower – psychogeography drawings, panoramic drawing and macro micro drawings

On out trip to the Gower, we were asked to create a drawing machine that would enable us to create one huge strip of drawings form the strip. I decided to use pencils, colourful pens, highlighters, dirt, etc. to create fascinating pieces of the landscapes around us. They then let us see similarities in our drawings and we could clearly see our 5 motifs that we then chose to create work with. The pictures of my group’s final outcomes are below;

 

The other pieces we created on the trips were panoramic drawings and macro micro drawings. The panoramic was challenging in the wind and rain, and even ended up creating an effect with the chalk that I was using and made it look rather smudged.  This was interesting to me because it made me want to look further into how the weather changed out drawings and made the landscapes appear completely different. The micro macro drawing was to make a small drawing of a larger landscape, and a larger drawing of a smaller object. I thought the way I always put the smaller drawing in the corner was fascinating to consider because I always put it into the top corner, as if I wanted to tuck it away and not ruin the larger drawing I made. This made me realise that I definitely feel more comfortable creating larger pieces and that I should probably experiment more with smaller pieces and perhaps make them more abstract in the future.

My five motifs from my Gower drawings

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From my drawing machine, I was able to pick out 5 different motifs that I could see in most or all of my work I created during this project. I then transferred these quick samples of lines and ideas into the print room and created abstract landscape etches and prints. Here are a few of my motifs;

All are organic looking, but also definitely abstract, creating an idea of what I see when I look at a landscape. They also, In my opinion, reflect the weather as they all have rigid, long lines that almost create the sounds of bad weather. I wanted to look further into this by using monochrome because black and white is mostly what I saw from the clouds, sea and overall tones.

I developed this idea by using plaster, as the plaster was quite unpredictable and white like the clouds, creating a similar atmosphere for my print. This worked out well because the black lines were fairly faint and washed out, almost creating misty prints.

Print studios – Things Behind The Sun

I was mainly in the print studios for this project, where I found different ways of experimenting with my ideas and motifs, including etching, plaster and paint.

I started by experimenting with my five motifs by using scalpel knives, tape and various other tools, which created an interesting mix of organic and geometric shapes, allowing me to look at artists that created similar landscapes, like Vija Celmins and Eduardo Chillida.

 

I wanted to use the plate I drew on during the Gower trip, and decided to use plaster to print onto, which created an interesting “misty” look, reflecting the weather we experienced there perfectly.

I also took it to the print studio and added geometric shapes, further developing my ideas from my first print.

I also thought that using my first print to play with would be interesting, so I added colour to the original print which helped create depth and somehow made it even moodier, which went with the landscape and weather of the Gower. The plaster prints are just corners of the plate I used to make the first print, which has most of my motifs in, but it’s still simplistic and included the organic and geometric shapes.

I found that only working in the print studios was hard because we only had a few lessons in there, therefore I decided to create quick monoprints to work on top of at home. They started out like this;

Here they are after abstracting them further with the use of colour;

These are my final plays with plaster from this project, and is of the objects I found on the beach in the Gower. I made it using clay to create imprints of the objects, then poured plaster on top.

I also made a film from feeling nostalgic on the trip. The landscapes and weather took me back home and being outside in the cold, but there really was something quite comforting about it. I used a VHS type camera and used all the sounds from the clip because you can really hear the wind, alongside the laughter and chatting we were all sharing.

New contextual approaches I have developed through the project

My work has always revolved around politics and are never abstract, which can be quite restrictive after a while if I want to go outside my comfort zone because I find it difficult to know how to do that. Things Behind The Sun let me do this easily by letting me look at landscapes and draw extremely quickly in challenging weather, forcing me to draw what I saw, which enabled me to see my drawing style and came out with 5 drawing motifs to work with in the print studio. Being able to see these abstract new styles led me to look at artists that I had never considered before, including Vija Celmins and Eduardo Chillida. Vija Celmins uses monochrome and simple objects in her work, like the sea, but they can offer incredibly deep meanings that are open to interpretation, such as man-mad waste within the sea. This let me think more about how I could create work that doesn’t have to be obviously at politics, but more about letting people look at it for longer to offer a meaning themselves. This would in turn perhaps make my work even more political. Chillida uses simple, geometric shapes, which is something that came out of my motifs and helped me create more abstract pieces. I’ll definitely be using these techniques in the future throughout all of my modules, especially in subject and field.

PDP Goddesses and Monsters

What difficulties did you encounter filling in the second and third columns and how did you overcome some of these difficulties?

Description comes naturally to a student studying art, as we subconsciously do it all the time through our painting, illustrations, making, etc. But I, as do many other artists, slightly struggle with the analysing and theory behind what I was exploring. My thinking process is fast-paced and quite chaotic, therefore I find having to put them into written words rather difficult. Cath’s columns really helped me piece together my ideas, by first starting with the description by only using a few words, which enabled me not to overcomplicate things at the very beginning. As I moved to the analysis, I used theories I had discussed in my Constellation classes, which broadened my way of looking at images by knowing what to look for. For example, I could use Freud’s theory of castration fear (1938) to analyse almost everything I chose to look at if I picked out and argued the right things from the image.

The theory was a little more time consuming and a lot more difficult, because the books I needed were all taken out at the same time due to other students writing similar essays. I overcame this by using Cardiff Metropolitan’s ‘metsearch’. This enabled me to look through books (if they were available online) at the comfort of my own home, thus also resolving the amount of time I was taking going to the library to find the books. I found that Cath’s columns also helped me here because I knew exactly what I needed to look for because I already had the analysis ready. I also decided not to only use books, but to look into magazines and articles for examples, in order to not limit my research.

What are significant concept/theories that have emerged in your columns analysis? Explain why these have interested you.

It was Sigmund Freud’s theories and concept that interested me the most, and how women in the art industry tries de-bunking them and/or use them ironically. I was most intrigued by castration fear, vagina dentata and phallic women (1938) and how they can all be seen everywhere in the media, films and advertisements, if you chose to believe his theories. I wanted to explore this further by finding photographs I had already come across and try to argue how his theories are used, whether it was the artist’s intention or not, and if they might have played on them.

I looked for obvious imagery first, for example, genitalia and phallic imagery, such as guns, all the way to lesser obvious imagery, including materials, colour, skin, hair, etc. I also wanted to use an image that included imagery that were not difficult to find his theories in, as well as one that we see all the time in media and cinema, and that would be more challenging to dissect, but just as full of Freudian concepts as the first image.  This includes Penny Slinger’s Vagina Dentata, 1970 (Photo collage on card) and Lana Del Rey, Vogue Italia, 2012, photographed by Ellen von Unwerth. As we see, Freud’s theory of vagina dentata is the title of Penny Slinger’s piece, making it easy to find examples to argue. However, Unwerth’s work was for Vogue which is a professional and established magazine, creating a fantastic contrast to argue the same question I had chosen and how they both offer similar and different ideas to challenge Freudian concepts. I did this by looking into different theories, such as glamour, social class and feminism.

How can approaches in this study group help with the development of your ideas and ways to progress next term?

Looking into a wide range of different theories and concepts, I realised that I was already using most in my work if I were to analyse them individually, as I am already looking into feminism and female genitalia. However, the Goddesses and Monsters study group has enabled me to really think about the third column of my work, which is the theory, creating further analysis and development in my work as well as help me broaden my ideas. This includes, for example, what materials I could use, such as shiny and soft fabrics to correspond with Ovid’s myth of Pygmalion and his ideal woman, and contrast them with harsher materials that were used for the prostitute’s imagery, which would then challenge his ideal. I could also use colour and paint strokes, to full on genitalia imagery, then use similar theories to explain their significance. I want to develop my research into Freudian theories even further by using them ironically in my studio practice as well as taking this essay further into my dissertation. I will be doing this by reading into more authors who have chosen to challenge his ideas and use these examples as inspiration for future pieces.

I will also want to look back at what I have done in preparation for future assessments by realising the blanks I need to fill in the analysis and theory, and how I can perhaps change them to be fully developed pieces. This will then enable me to think about theory naturally, whether it be in my work or another artist’s work.  My dissertation research will certainly help with this because I’ll be doing it in both my subject and constellation, enabling even more practice in using theory in all aspects of my degree. This will also help me develop my own ideas and theories, and how I can challenge them in future briefs, thus creating unique and well thought-through pieces. My dissertation research will then simultaneously plant the seed for as far as third year work, because theory is constant and I aim to always read and develop my ideas in my chosen area of work. This extensive research in both subject and constellation will let my dissertation flow naturally, as I hope by then I would have overcome most of the challenges I have faced.

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