Thursday, 21 February 2013

Thursday 21st February

Hello, Its Rachael instead of Nadja as we have swapped our days around. I will post on Thursdays and Nadja will do Fridays. I haven't got much to update you on for my research practice as I have been away on the trips to Margate and London and have also been trying to make progress on my studio paintings.

Here are some of the photos I took in Margate on Mon of the Warpole Bay Hotel. I thought it was a unique and quirky place with lots of historic items and artefacts to look at. The atmosphere was warm and cosy, and we had a nice relaxing tutorial drinking tea in the lounge watching the sunset over the beach. 

Dining Room area

Postcard exhibits

Lounge area

Furniture display

Prop cupboard

Costume room
Hotel room

Old toy display in corridor

When walking around Margate Old Town, Nadja and I also saw a random textile 'installation' on a tree. I think Nadja liked the knitting....reminds me of her sleeves.



Rachael

Wednesday, 20 February 2013

Wednesday 20th February


To day has been a make or break day. With posters saved in the wrong format and an extra page to add to my booklets I was feeling a little overwhelmed. But with lovely technicians helping things got done. I will have to do final touches on Saturday morning to the house. And tonight I will set up the equipment to see if I can master it on my own. Quite a big step for a technophobe like myself. All of the practical details that surround a public showing rather put the creative juices on hold.  I am looking forward to getting back into the studio on a regular basis and have put two new canvases on the wall in ready! It will be great to work as a group when we get together as a group to do our final show. There are so many details to think of and things to do.
So my posts are not as creative as Nadja’s and Rachael’s but Oh how I have been enjoying looking and hearing about their gallery trips! I go to London next week with my tutor so we will have some exchange of stimulae then.
Well here is a little preview of my pamphlet. Created as a result of a project that I did at the end of last year. It relates to one of my films.
Below is the brief summery of this project.

Burqa PROJECT

My interest in the burqa and the environmental and social world around it, evolved primarily from my interest in trying to do develop my art and research practice. I wanted to try and understand a very foreign subject matter, and to learn to overcome a taboo subject matter in a sensitive and considered way. (In a liberal society I feel that many are in denial of taboo) My starting point was feminist, however during my research I came to understand the many subtleties surrounding this subject. There came a point in my studies that I needed to wear the burqa in order to understand what it meant for the women who wear it. I also needed to understand different perceptions that others might have when confronted face to face with some one who was both wearing it and willing to talk. I also needed to experience what it was like to be a minority in this culture.
I wore it anonymously in UCA for one day. I also spent a few hours walking around Canterbury wearing it. On both occasions I collected peoples comments, or a single word on either their reaction to being confronted by me in Canterbury, or about how they felt about some one wearing it. These labels are some that I collected. They were all collected anonymously by posting them in a box. Some people saw it as a chance to have a debate about their feelings or thoughts, some wanted to get their unease off their chests, and some just did not care. (Those who had lived in London thought it was no big deal)
I was the only person dressed like this and in fact the Burqa (especially a black one) is rarely seen in Canterbury.




These are two pages of the pamphlet to give you an idea of peoples responses to the Burqa. That is if they are showing up. We did the booklet in idesign and nothing seems to load up onto the blog.




Finally I got the projector to work. But the monitor will give either sound or visual effects!! Thank goodness I had the sense to be on the cautious side.

Tuesday, 19 February 2013

Tuesday 19th February


Today has been a tiring but inspiring day, jam packed with enough art to last the next month! Nadja and I went on a trip with uni to visit some art galleries in London. When I say SOME galleries, I actually mean we went to quite ALOT, 8 in total! We started our day looking around Tate Britain. We could have spent much longer in here as there was sooo much to look at, it was like a massive maze of rooms with a variety of different displays, it was easy to get lost! 
I was personally fascinated with the ‘Family Matters’ exhibition since the theme linked to my current studio work focusing on portraiture of my friends and family. I Loved seeing David Hockney’s  painting ‘My Parents, 1977’ in real life as his brightly coloured portraits are influential to my work. I also liked seeing George Clausen’s paintings up close as I think his portraits are really convincing in portraying the humble character of his subjects.

Tate Britian

David Hockney, My Parents 1977

John Singer Sargent, The Misses Vickers, 1884


George Clausen, Brown Eyes 1891


 

Vija Celmins painstakingly beautiful works were on display in Tate too. There was something quite eerie and disturbing beneath the surface of her small scale monotone works, the obsessive techniques and highly skilful process evoked questions to the meaning and reason of making artworks.

  
In the afternoon we were marching from one gallery to the next. We went to the Bernard Jacobson Gallery, Bischoff/Weiss, Timothy Taylor Gallery, Spruth Magers, Hauser&Wirth, Pace London, and Marlborough Contemporary. The Marlborough Contemporary was showing works by Jason Brooks which were really intriguing. He created photorealistic paintings of impasto surfaces which looked so 3D from a distance, yet were actually flat on a close inspection with apparent lines and brushstokes. 

The Timothy Taylor Gallery had a solo exhibition by Fiona Rae, which received mixed reactions from our group. I thought her large and small scale canvases were a lively and cheerful mix of spontaneous abstract marks and colour, combined with fun and quirky panda motifs. The recurring stars, flowing patterns and cute pandas were visually pleasing and had an obvious decorative purpose. However, I did think that the paintings felt empty of any deeper meaning and were just purely aesthetic works. 



I think we definitely made the most of the trip, and bet we all came home exhausted with aching legs, sore feet and heads exploding with art!

Rachael

Monday, 18 February 2013

Hi!

Today I went to Margate...again! Third time for me within two weeks. This time I visited Walpole Bay Hotel together with Rachael's and mine seminar group. We also saw Crate(again) and had a stroll through old town to see Pie Factory, which unfortunately was not open. But we saw two small galleries, Rachael took some photos which I can post here later when I get them.

For now I will leave you with some inspiring artists:

Paul Benney

Focal Point Gallery--Tarot Card Exhibition

Tarik Hardaga

Spartacus Chetwynd


Nadja

Sunday, 17 February 2013

17th February


I have left it rather late this evening. It has been a good week. I have done the poster for my open house and also created a small booklet to accompany the film. That has meant new skills to learn. Still room for improvement though!
On Saturday I went down to Margate. There was a show closing at the Margate gallery that I wanted to see, also I wanted to have a second look at the new Exhibition at Turner Contemporary. I met up with Nadja and we went together to the private view of Petra Ried's work. You can see photographs in Nadja'e entry yesterday.

To-day I managed to see Brenda to get permission to show the film clip with her in it. Also Bill kindly played a piece on the organ at church for the sound track. That is so great that now I can show that little film on Saturday. And I have started to rearrange the furniture to convert my living room into a mini cinema for the film showing. That involved a lot of going through piles of neglected papers, and residue from the assessments at the beginning of term!




HO! HO! Where is Here? Follow the Red Thread Trail!