SOPHIE CALLE
"..it is all about capturing people's most personal moments."
Sophie Calle is a French writer, photographer, installation artist, and conceptual artist. Her art can be described as a record of her adventures. Each piece is a document of an event, of some kind of interaction in which Calle engages with the world in her unique way. She explores the boundaries of how we interact with one another and what is - and is not - socially acceptable behaviour.
I think that the uniquness of this project makes it interesting. The fact that she asked strangers to sleep in her bed is pretty weird and doesn't fit into the set of social norms and because of that her works attract some attention from the public. Without knowing the concept/story behind this piece of work I don't think people would appriciate such series of photographs. It is the unique idea that add some special qualities to the visuals.
Sophie Calle on what makes her talk to strangers:
'I started following them before talking to them, mainly because I didn't know what to do with my life. I was in Paris, without a job or any real energy to decide where to go in the morning, so I started to shadow people. Then I was taken by the pleasure of it and started to take photos and notes without consciously knowing why.'
In terms of this project, there is again an emphasis on the artistic idea. This time the artist didn't even take the pictures herself , she asked her mother to hire a detective to follow her and take pictures of her daily activities. The only thing that I have taken from Calle's works into consideration when I was working on the propousal was the process of documentation. Calle's most projects are based on the idea of recording something as it happens. She have followed peopel and took pictures of their steps. Her works are records of real life events. In a way she captures the truth. This encouraged me and my group to document the stages of the process of making a leather and trough this present the sad truth about leather production.
Invasion of privacy. Calle in her fine art pratice doesn't follow the social rules. As in this project she examined people's properies without asking them for permission. This why her works are often criticised. Many articles that I have read this week comment on Calle as being "too close and too personal". This however is what makes her famous.
Sophie Calle, Voir la mer, 2011
When Calle was in Istanbul, she read that there were people who were so poor that they had never seen the sea. She decided to take 14 of them to the coast for the day and film their reactions.
"I didn't have any personal connection with these people. I just wanted to see their eyes ? those eyes that just saw the sea," - Sophie Calle
References:
"Did you see me" by Sophie Calle
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/up-close-and-too-personal-a-sophie-calle-retrospective-1809346.html
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sophie-calle-2692
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/calle-the-hotel-room-47-p78300
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/oct/19/sophie-calle-review
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/photography/10475158/Artist-Sophie-Calle-bonkers-in-a-good-way.html
http://www.egs.edu/faculty/sophie-calle/articles/interview-with-sophie-calle-by-ossian-ward/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRx7nFVuLwA
LEATHER
Leather is a durable and flexible material created by tanning animal rawhide and skin.
- High tensile strength.
- Resistance to tear.
- High resistance to flexing.
- High resistance to puncture.
- Good heat insulation.
- Leather contains a great deal of air, which is a poor conductor of heat.
..because of the "documentation of truth" concept taken from Calle's work me an my group were more intrested in the actual production stages of leather. We thought first about leather in terms of clothing and how people wear leather accessories like bags without thinking about animals that had to die to produce those bags,shoes,clothes etc. By recording the process of leather making we could disclose the sad truth about an orgin of this material. Even though most people know that leather comes from animals, it is rare for them to actually imagine the dreadful process that is production of leather.
The leather manufacturing process is divided into three sub-processes: preparatory stages, tanning and crusting.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leather_production_processes
http://www.muirhead.co.uk/OurLeather/Leather-Properties.aspx
SUSPEND
Suspend
-to hang so as to allow free movement
-technique of hanging an artwork, typically sculptural, from the ceiling
-suspending a series of objects in space, giving the effect of them floating in air
-concepts: visual perception and interactivity, absent gravity
Suspended artworks:
Suspended Cloud Paintings by Joris Kuipers
The artworks are made from suspended and raised components of depron foam coated with acrylic paint, appearing like a storm of whirling clouds or maybe flowers.
In terms of pratical aspects of hanging an artwork, the process can be very difficult. Having read a few articles about the processes of suspending art pieces I certainly know that there are many things to consider. The most important ones are: exhibition space, the viewers and the way they will move through the space, the mechanics of how the artwork will be hung and the arrangement of the pieces. Precision and understanding of space and perspectives is crutial if the instalation is to be succesful.
Suspended charcoal installations by Seon Ghi Bahk
I love the fact that when suspending objects in a space different sorts of illusion can be created. Like in this instalation pieces of charcoal appear as if they are structures in the process of being formed, or disintegrating. These still moments create contemplative spaces.
http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/bloom-bookcase>
This book instalation in particular made me see ways of combining the process of suspending with our group's initial idea. In the similar way to the books, we could hang the photographs of leather production on strinks. This could create an intresting spacial composition. We could design a simple and delicate composition which would possibly shape the mood of the space and therefore create a nice contrast between the overall message and environment.
References:
http://www.mbandf.com/parallel-world/amazing-suspended-charcoal-installations-by-korean-artist-seon-ghi-bahk
http://www.trendhunter.com/slideshow/flying-object
http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/bloom-bookcase
Richard Wentworth
Galvanised steel
with tin cans
An aspect of this works that interest me the most is a relationship between the textured surface of the steel and shiny, smooth inside of the cans. These features contrast well with each other creating balanced composition. I think that if the steel was left in its orginal form then this work would be less exciting and I would probably see it as just collection of trash. The surface actually has abstract qulities that makes me think of brush marks on a canvas. Without the tin cans such surface could be seen as a painting. I think that the idea of painting the objects that are used for creating sculpture falls into the subersion/defamiliarizetion theme in a way that painted object can be perceived differently to non-painted object.
Wentworth's work, encircling the notion of objects and their use as part of our day-to-day experiences, has altered the traditional definition of sculpture as well as photography. By transforming and manipulating industrial and/or found objects into works of art, Wentworth subverts their original function and extends our understanding of them by breaking the conventional system of classification. The sculptural arrangements play with the notion of ready-made and juxtaposition of objects that bear no relation to each other." <source:http://www.lissongallery.com/artists/richard-wentworth>
References:
http://www.lissongallery.com/artists/richard-wentworth/gallery/3850
https://artimage.org.uk/news/2015/agora-richard-wentworth-in-conversation-with-artimage/
https://theartstack.com/artist/richard-wentworth/world-soup
https://www.artsy.net/artist/richard-wentworth
Jim Lambie
Wooden chairs, handbags, mirror, gloss paint
Dimensions: 216 x 350 x 270 cm
This work is similar to Gander's steel sculpture as it includes objects of same features combined together. The structure form the left give me an impression of stability and steady arrangement whereas the other structure looks more unstable and chaotic as if bieng in a state of collapsing. I prefer the image from the right as it is in opposition to gravity force which I find more visually exciting than the cube-shaped structure. Both arrangements makes me think of the stages that the artist went through to create such composition. I guess that a bottom-up approach was used for both. However, the structure on the right appear to be done in a more careful manner and has a feel of hirachical levels. Wheras the composition of left sculpture has no hierarchal order within itself, its elements are evenly spread on each level.
Phuture, 2001
10 x 5 x 4 inches
Bedhead 2002
- decorative style; how the use of buttoms changes ordinary objects into nice decorative artworks
- understanding of the process that the artist went through
- repetition: process of sewing hundreds of multi-shaped and multi-coloured buttons onto a mattress
- theme of covering
References:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXweVvuU-MY
http://generationartscotland.org/artists/jim-lambie/
https://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/artists-a-z/l/artist/jim-lambie/object/bedhead-gma-4675
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0f3SkoxoAo
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/3647142/In-the-studio-Jim-Lambie.html
Phyllida Barlow
untitled: dock: emptystaircasehoarding, 2014
Timber, paint, plywood
900 x 400 x 1000 cm / 354 3/8 x 157 1/2 x 393 3/4 in
- huge scale and quantity makes basic medium like wood look spectacular
- balance between standardisation and disorder
- the significance of the artistic process
- raw process of experimentation apparent in the sculptures
- lack of context; is not representative of anything
- symmetry vs. asymmetry
References:
http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/tate-britain-commission-2014-phyllida-barlow
http://www.hauserwirth.com/artists/50/phyllida-barlow/images-clips/
https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/artist/phyllida-barlow-ra-elect
Ugo Rondinone: 'clouds + mountains + waterfalls'; Exhibition
- some of these abstract forms remind me of human figures. Each sculpture consists of few rocks and it seems to me like a rock represents one part of human body. For example, the sculpture made of blue, black and white rocks has some human like qulities; blue rock-legs, middle-chest/stomach and rock on the top-head. There is no direct representation of human figure but these could present abstracted human forms.
- the most intersting aspect of this collection is an artificial arrangement of the rocks. It is ironic that the smallest rocks are placed at the bottom or in the middle of the structure holding much bigger rocks. This makes me wonder of how the artist achieve to create "unstable" but stable works. They all look very solid and steady but I would think that huge rocks on the top would naturally fall of. So even though, this collection is visually simple, this ironic compositions add to it exciting andintriguing qualities.
Reading "Sculptur in the Expanded Field" by Rosalind Krauss
- the meaning of a word "sculpture" changes over time; i think of a sculpture as social constraction (a concept that has different meanings in different time periods and societies; created and define by society)
- "physical manipulation of sites" seems to me as a very organic pratice; the artist uses natural resources as his medium and by manipulating them he/she adds artificiality to the nature
- Rihard Lond; "mark making" is considered as a part of sculptural pratice but for me is more of a drawing discipline as the artist draw/mark the surafce of a landscape in the same way as drawing on a piece of paper
- I see "the expanded field" as sculptural theme of endless possibilities, a theme that is about finding the right balance between "architecture" and "non-architecture", "landscape" and "non-landscape"
Manfredi Beninati
Untitled, 2008,
oil on canvas,
cm 120x90
Untitled, 2008, oil on canvas, cm 90x120
- dripping streaks of paint is what attracts my attention; they blur the backround in a very delicate way creating this amazing illusion of space which makes me feel like I'm looking through the streaks of paint to see the rest.
- first painting makes me think of a peaceful night and a moonlight shining through a window
- perfect balance between the subjects in the painting; variety of things painted but they have been somehow united and nothing specific is distracting my attention
- I would take from this work the idea of layering and overalapping as these techniques can help me achieve a illusion of space which is what usually keep me interested in many paintings
- Also, I think that developing a collage under a theme of imagination could be exciting because it is a very open topic that allows to create anything and possibly encourage more creative thinking and consideration of unique ideas; imagination fit well with the project brief and is all about fiction which could be explored in spacial aspects of the collage
"While juxtaposition can be used in terms of formal elements - for example, the use of agressive mark-making in contrast to an area of very controlled shading, or an area of crisp detail against something softly handled, it more often refers to concepts or imagery."
References:
http://www.thewhitereview.org/interviews/interview-with-manfredi-beninati/
http://www.manfredibeninati.com/works.html
http://www.re-title.com/artists/Manfredi-Beninati.asp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzWVLh7lSTM
Peter Doig
- question of perspectives; I know from the paintig that there is something wrong with the spacial arrangement of two subjects: a human in a boat and the sea landscape. a interesting thing is that I can't say which one was painted in a wrong way;
- the longer I look at the painting the less I think of this awkward positioning of the subjects; after time the composition seems to be right
- I could explore akward positioning in my collages very easily as all of the found images include signs of perspectives; akward positioning can also lead to creation of fictional places which is relevant to this project
References:
http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/peter_doig.htm
http://www.victoria-miro.com/artists/30-peter-doig/
Anj Smith "Phosphor on the Palms"; Exhibition
1.Performing the Levade, 2015
39.2 x 31.7 cm / 15 3/8 x 12 1/2 in
2.Landscape with Lunar Rainbow, 2015 Oil on linen
Desert Epochs, 2014 Oil on linen 30.7 x 38.2 cm / 12 1/8 x 15 in
Matthias Weischer
- space within a space
- imagination; wall that give you access to another world/place
References:
http://www.matthiasweischer.de/en/2015.html
Paul Pfeiffer
based on Paul's video making technique I would like to explore how erasing/removing fragments of an audio or footage can subvert the message and meaning of the video
Refernces:
http://listart.mit.edu/exhibitions/paul-pfeiffer-long-count-rumble-jungle
Prem Sahib: Side On / Exhibition at ICA
- space; uncofortable,
-fake space behind the window, fiction, a spacw within a space
Noemie Goudal
Les Amants (Cascade)
2009
C-type, lightjet print
168 x 210 cm
Noémie Goudal
Les Amants (Promenade)
2010
C-type, lightjet print
168 x 198 cm
Text box
Slinkachu’s Miniature Street Art Installations
The Last Resort by Slinkachu
- Interesting how his tiny figures occupy the ground. The ground became like a whole new world. Space being divided into section. The space near the ground is a home for many small animals and we don't really think about it. As people we tend to pay most attention to the space at level of our eyes. This is our focus. So I find it interesting how the space near the ground is ignored by most of us (to an extent).
Inspired by the artist, I am going to explore the concept of spacial occupation and see how my model presents in relation to the environment around it.
- imagining how the world would seem if you really were just a few inches tall