Over the holidays..

• Practice on scratch film
• Collect found images and photographs
• Produce more over paints
• Draw onto images
• Research installations
• Research film

'Do Not Abandon Me'

'Do Not Abandon Me', is a collaboration between Louise Bourgeois and Tracey Emin consisting of sixteen intimate works made over the past two years, presented at Hauser&Wirth in London. These drawings articulate physical drives and feelings, candidly confronting themes of identity, sexuality and the fear of loss and abandonment through joint expression.

I came across this collaboration in a magazine a few months ago and was really excited to see that Bourgeois and Emin have both worked together (because I admire both artists) and created some truly beautiful work.

'Looking For The Mother' 

'Just Hanging'

'And So I Kissed You'  

'A Sparrow's Heart'  2009-2010

http://artisnotdead.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/do-not-abandon-me-collaboration-between.html

Louise Bourgeois- Inspired Ideas

Over the weekend, I watched a documentary about Louise Bourgeois' life and work. I found the film very interesting and her life, work and mind to be equally as inspiring because of the way she explains her art and experiences and views on life. I feel I can relate to pretty much everything Louise says. 


“It is necessary to recreate the past, in order to get rid of it” -Louise Bourgeois

I do this in my own work; repeat processes in order to forget about the problem or memory. As my sketchbook is where I do most of my work, I am constantly flicking through and looking at the same pages almost everyday, so in a way, the pages are 'worked to death' and the topic on the page becomes boring and something I don't want to remember anymore.

I anticipate my final piece to be an installation. After watching the documentary, it has given me ideas for how I might want my installation to look after seeing the 'Cell' installations Louise Bourgeois made. 
The 'cell'/installation becomes one place I could put each memory into, instead of scattered around in my mind. Below are some examples of Louise's 'Cells'. 

Bruce Nauman

Nauman remains one of the most influential contemporary American artists. His innovative and provocative ideas are expressed in a wide range of media and materials, which makes it difficult to categorize his work as inhabiting a single style. Even throughout his sixties, he has continued to work primarily in sculpture and video, exploring language and the physical body with unusual themes based on animal and human body parts. He has influenced countless young artists, including the Young British Artists movement.

Nauman's work influences the work I would like to create for my final piece because he uses a vast range of media including film; which is something I am potentially interested in making as part of an installation piece. I am particularly interested in the style of film which is directed in the way of 'self discovery' or discovering and experimenting with things. I think this is an important aspect in all mediums of art and is definitely a subject to rely on if I create a short film. 

Upon researching Nauman's other work, I was also attracted to his work involving text and enjoy the poetic charm I feel he has in his work. I feel it relates to mine and seems to be an interesting format to use neon lighting or some form of lighting incorporating words. I enjoy this style of work as well as Tracey Emin's 'neons', too.  

Bruce Nauman at London's Hauser & Wirth gallery - Sexual positions brought to life in neon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPJa5pRPSJY

FILM:

'A'  1970  Studies for holograms  

'B'

'C'

'D'

'E'

'Good Boy Bad Boy' 1985

'La Brea/Art Tips/Rat Spit/Tar Pits' 1972

MAPPING THE STUDIO II with color shift, flip, flop, & flip … 2001

'Three Dead End Adjacent Tunnels, Not Connected' 1981

'(title not known') 1990 Frankfurt Portfolio

'VIOLINS VIOLENCE SILENCE' 1981‑2

'Run From Fear, Fun From Rear'  1972

'Trust Me Only'  1984

SOURCES:
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/bruce-nauman-1691
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-nauman-bruce.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkfOgavdhak&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOB5L89cC8A&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qml505hxp_c&feature=player_embedded

Pitch

Today I had my pitch with tutors- Jamie, Jo and Kim. 

DISCUSSION: 
Create more work over the holidays ready for my proposal. (Create work in-line with future ideas and works. Explore new media.)  

Decide on the elements of my installation (final piece)-
ROUGH IDEAS:
scratch film using text projected onto a piece of my art work? over-paints/sketchbook work on A0/A1 hung up on a scaffolding or frame.coat-hanger? sound piece in a box in the corner of the space? drawings of nudes? a short film? (using 'the juxtaposition')- and working with scale. using works/subjects you wouldn't expect to be presented in a certain way, i.e a censored film on a small screen/television on the floor.  

Research, plan and record what I have done.  
PROBLEMS I MAY HAVE: Finding and constructing a frame, finding subjects to talk about, working out of my comfort zone.

-Find an alternative for a frame or scaffolding in case I can't find/make one! 



The reason I have chosen to use a diverse range of media in my installation is because I want to challenge myself in ways I haven't before. I have never made an installation or made a sound piece and have little experience with scratch-film. I think this would be good practice in time for University which will hopefully, by then, give me a better understanding of these media. 

Arnulf Rainer

His early works, mainly drawings and prints, were inspired by the fantastic vein of *Surrealism, and after a visit to Paris in 1951 he was influenced by *Abstract Expressionist and *Art Informel paintings that he saw there. Although he met André *Breton in Paris, he soon moved away from Surrealism, and in the mid-1950s he began producing Overpaintings, in which he took as a basis a painting, drawing, or photograph (either his own work or someone else's) and partially obliterated the image with monochromatic colour. A similar concern with reworking surfaces occurs in many of his prints, in which he sometimes uses the same plates again and again over a period of many years, during which the plates become more and more scratched. Overpaintings dominated Rainer's work for about a decade, until the mid-1960s, but he also produced a series of cruciform pictures during this period (Black Cross, 1956, Lenbachhaus, Munich). In 1963 he began collecting *Art Brut and the following year he began experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs—indications of his interest in extreme emotional states.

I have decided to re-visit the art-works of Arnulf Rainer because I feel I can produce more work as a result of being influenced by his technique and style.

'Self Portrait'

'I Will Give You' 1970-79

'Sharp Cries in Bright Lights'

'A Nose Adjustment (Face Farce)'  1971  Oil pastel and photograph on paper

'Untitled (Body Language)'  1973  Oil pastel and photograph on paper 

'Untitled'  1969-74 Oilstick on gelatin silver print

'Crooked Departure (Krummer Abgang)'  1976  Photogravure and drypoint

'Among the Troubadours of Gold, a Women's Language'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/rainer-arnulf-b-1929

John Stezaker

'John Stezaker’s work re-examines the various relationships to the photographic image: as documentation of truth, purveyor of memory, and symbol of modern culture. In his collages, Stezaker appropriates images found in books, magazines, and postcards and uses them as ‘readymades’. Through his elegant juxtapositions, Stezaker adopts the content and contexts of the original images to convey his own witty and poignant meanings.' 

'By adjusting, inverting and slicing separate pictures together to create unique new works of art, Stezaker explores the subversive force of found images.'

'Mask XIII'  2006  Black and white photograph on paper and postcard on paper 

'Untitled' 1989  Colour photograph and digital print on paper

'Third Person'  1988-9  Photo etching on paper and printed paper

'Marriage (Film Portrait Collage) XXVIII'  2007  Collage

'Sense II'  2006  Collage

'Marriage IV'  2006  Collage

'Mask XXIX'  2006  Collage

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/john_stezaker.htm
http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/john-stezaker

Louise Bourgeois

Although Bourgeois exhibited with the Abstract Expressionists, she never became an abstract artist. Instead, she created symbolic objects and drawings expressing themes of loneliness and conflict, frustration and vulnerability.

She has exhibited and known artists from Duchamp to Pollock, and has survived to see the influence of her own work manifested in feminist-inspired art, as well as the development of installation art. Her artistic career, now spanning 80 years, has varied widely in her use of materials, which has constantly explored the sensuous properties of those chosen. Themes of the unconscious, fear, anger, and betrayal have also persevered throughout her work.

'Fillete'  1968  Latex over plaster

'Mapplethorpe took a photograph of that sculpture, Fillette, in which I'm holding it in my arms. Which means simply that from a sexual point of view I consider the masculine attributes to be extremely delicate; they're objects that the woman, thus myself, must protect. It's a very, very strong thing, because I was considering the masculine genital parts as attributes that I have to protect.' -pg 48

'Red Room (Parents)'  1994  Mixed media  

'Pink Days and Blue Days'  1997  Steel, fabric, bone, and mixed media

Detail from 'Cell 1' 1991

'She Lost It'  1992  Embroidery on clothing

'Self Portrait'  2009  Drypoint, archival dyes, ink and embroidery on cloth

In her 98th year, Louise Bourgeois presents her last work, Self Portrait.

All the major topics of her art, like birth, childhood, maternity and selfportrait, take shape in this last work.

On a white linen sheet, embroidered with her initials, Bourgeois has created a clock of 24 hours, representing her life. The hands of the clock stand at 19h11 – the year of her birth.

“It is necessary to recreate the past, in order to get rid of it”, says Louise Bourgeois.

SOURCES: LOUISE BOURGEOIS TATE (BOOK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/louise-bourgeois-2351
http://www.galeriepieceunique.com/special/Sept-2009/LouiseBourgeois.htm
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-bourgeois-louise.htm

Pitch Presentation

Another theme idea?

Since researching meanings behind some of Jenny Holzer's work, it has got me thinking about possibly using other themes and backgrounds to my own work; in particular war. I am going on a trip to Berlin in April and because of the history it has with war, hopefully I will be able to gather inspiration and ideas for this new idea as I think it is a continuous and boundless topic. 

Jenny Holzer

In many of her works Jenny Holzer explores political themes, in particular abuses of power and atrocities of war. In her series ‘Lustmord’ (1993-94) – meaning rape murder in German – Holzer created a number of works addressing war crimes in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990’s, in particular the violent physical abuse, rape and murder of women that occurred. In this series Holzer displays photographs of text on human skin, some of which includes women’s blood mixed with ink. 

from Lustmord, collaboration 

with Tibor Kalman 

1993-94 

Photographs of handwriting in ink on skin

http://www.accaonline.org.au/Assets/2172/1/JENNYHOLZEREDKIT.pdf

Working towards the pitch

Working towards the pitch, I have been asked to think of a theme that I am passionate about and will sustain me throughout the whole project. 

Potential themes: 

• Perception
• Contrast

Areas I can explore within these themes: 

• Feminism 
• Sex
• Relationships- Expand 'relationships' -relationships between other people, relationships between actions, relationships between things and objects
• Aesthetic context- contrast between colour, texture, etc
• Social situations 
• Self identity/self portraits
• Confession

These themes are areas I have studied in the past and would like to continue exploring, but plan to develop them more maturely. 

Research: 

Research these themes briefly for the initial research. Keep visiting galleries for inspiration, read books, research online, talk to tutors and students. Record thoughts and ideas in my sketchbook and blog.  

The pitch(26-28/03/2013):

5 minute presentation- inform the audience of your concept, synopsis, starting point, research and anticipated outcomes.

Practice my pitch with other students in my class and receive feedback. 

Introduction

• Lecture introducing us to FMP.