Test Exhibition Installation...

Today, I have been busy installing my exhibition work in the dark room.

First of all, I started off by putting a new light bulb into the mains fitting on the ceiling, to actually see what I was doing (also a bit of a challenge because I have never fitted a light bulb before):

I think the light fitting is quite cool, just purely because of the bars which are around it. I am unsure yet whether to use the main light yet within the show, as I think it would give off a better effect with the LED lights pointing at angles, making some pieces easier to see than others. However I will and have been trying out a few things with the lighting before the final crit group on Monday morning!

 

Here is a picture of the room: 

Not a really good photograph (flash of camera and mains light), but it shows the size of the room and how wide it is. I really do like the shape of this space just because of how narrow it is! Personally I feel quite uncomfortable in there, just because of how narrow and long it is, when the light isn't on it feels quite bizarre. The next step was to fit the LED lights, and see what sort of effects they have when you point them at different angles.

 

I thought that the above was the best way to position the lights facing inwards at an angle, lighting up the opposite sides of the walls, gradually getting darker as you go further in to the space.

The above is an image of how the room is lighter where the viewer would walk in. I think this would achieve discomfort, as you walk around the tiny room, it gradually gets darker then as you walk back toward the end it gets lighter again. The photographs shown in the image above are not the ones which I will actually be using for the show, these are just a test to see how the lighting will work. I have printed off some more images, of a smaller size (A4) and there will be 9 photographs within the room. I will photograph this when I put them up tomorrow on the final day of installation.

 

All in all, I think that this is going pretty well so far, however I have not had a chance to have a tutorial again before the show because of other commitments and workshops. I am really kind of nervous about this test exhibition as I have never displayed my work in a dark room before, but I think that I am slowly getting the hang of it, and it has been quite interesting to try. Obviously there will be a lot of room for improvement, and I am really looking forward to the crit group on Monday morning to receive my feedback.

 

Test Exhibition Planning.

So we have been given our spaces for the test exhibition and I got the space that I wanted. I asked for the really small dark space in the downstairs main studios, I was really interested in this space as it is really narrow and quite long, and this will give a sense of feeling claustrophobic/trapped as it is so narrow, I really like how it is not a typical space to work with, and the room is usually used for projections, so I am really looking forward to see what I can do with the space. There is also plenty of room to play about with lighting within the space, as there is already a mains light in there and it would be interesting to play about with LED spotlights and touch-lights within the room to give off different effects.
At the moment, I have lots of thoughts going around in my head as to what I could include within the room, and how to display my work etc, also feeling a tiny bit apprehensive as I have never worked in a dark room before, and don't want to get it totally wrong! However this is a test exhibition so I am sure I will have a lot of feedback to go on at the end of it.

I decided it was best to have a word with Michael Day about the space that I will be working in during the test exhibition, as this was the space that he suggested to me to work in. Some things to think about are:
- Look at Christian Boltanski - the way he lights his work.
- As it is the first time of me working in a dark room setting, play about with lighting, make sure I ask if I get stuck.
- The mains light was never meant to be in the room, it was once part of somebody else's work, and just left there - intervention in the space??
- I mentioned that the setup of the dark room seems more relevant than the images I will be showing in the room. More focused on the experience of the viewer??
- Really interested in the experience of the viewer in the space, as it is an awkward space, and I want to provoke feelings of the viewers.
- Think about how I can light the room - LED lights set at angles, pointing up/down/away from the images? Test out everything to see what works best.

There really is a lot to go on with this room, and I hope that I get it right! However as it has been said time and time again, this is only a test exhibition and I will be able to improve it massively if it goes horribly wrong and doesn't work how I would like it to work.

Photographs to follow really soon!!

Art and Psychoanalysis

Forgot to enter this at the time, these notes were taken from an interactive lecture with Graham on the 11th Feb.

Sigmund Freud:
Consolidates the notion of an unconscious that came to the fore in German romantic philosophy.
Jacques Lacan:
Using structuralism, consolidates the relationship between unconscious and language evident in Freud.

Freudian terms:
- Unconscious irrational drives (animal)
- Libido (desire) is a psychic energy motivating the drives.
- Polymorphous perversity (pre-oedipal)
- Repression (socialisation)
- Oedipus complex (socialisation)
- Part object (fetish object)
- The uncanny.
- Oral, anal, genital.
Related notions in art:
- Child mind.
- Savage mind.
- Primative/primal.
- The other.
- The body.
- Liberation of desire.
- Antirationalism.
- Expressionism.
- Surrealism.
- Dada.

Lacan. The gaze:
- Mirror stage.
- Anamorphosis (dysmorphia)
- Symbolic order (language, society, culture)
- The real (beyond what we can conceive)
- The imaginary (imagination)
- Lack (in language, in self, in desire)
- The other (that which is not self, that which is beyond our symbolic order)
- Petit object 'a' /object of desire.
- Unconscious is structures like a language (not animalistic), creates a bridge between primal and civilised.

Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893) - A French neurologist - very relevant to my studio practice.
___________________________

I found this lecture to be really helpful with my studio practice, as in level 4 I was really interested in the unconscious mind, however the work never stepped forward and sort of faded into the background. After realising that my work was about the decline of institutions, and also finding a way for the viewer to feel awkward, I have become really interested in the unconscious mind again. Within my work I purposely want to make the viewer feel like they are in an awkward situation, feeling lost/trapped and possibly maybe provoking thoughts of complacence. According to Freud's theory, most of the thoughts of the unconscious are unacceptable or unpleasant, such as: feelings of pain, anxiety or conflict. Also Freud said that the unconscious influences our behaviours and experiences, even though the person may not be aware.
After a chat with Michael Branthwaite a few weeks ago, we were discussing how everyone has a place which they don't like, which makes them feel uncomfortable. This is something I am interested in making work, within my studio practice most definitely, and Freud's theory of the unconscious mind being not pleasant fits in well with my work which I am producing at this moment in time.

I am not really sure at the moment why I want the viewer of my work to feel like they are trapped/lost or even awkward, but I guess this is something which I will be able to answer very soon, as I feel like my work is moving on massively.

Tutorial with Michael Day 19-02-13

With the test exhibition coming up at the end of next week, I had a tutorial with Michael Day, as I really did not know what I was planning on doing for the test exhibition, or even what my work was really about, and what to include in my PowerPoint presentation.
Here are the main points from the tutorial:

• Watch "The Night of the Hunter" - Internal shots - heavily constructed scenes - subtle.
• Psychology of the person viewing my work. Dark themes - how can this be depicted?
• Sense of compression/claustrophobia.
• I need to lift the tone in my images - to reveal the detail in the darker tones. Also need to alter the contrast/brightness to take into the cyanotype printing.
• Works seem more uncomfortable than confusing. Fear/anxiety.
• Textures and colours foreboding.
• Fearing being lost/trapped. Losing freedom/imprisoned.
• Ask why.
• Why do I want the viewer to feel lost/trapped?
• Existence complacent.
• Experiences not to do with pleasure/beauty.
• Beauty - moral function - imposes moral.
• Chapman Brothers - altering works.
• Beauty and it's opposite. Different functions.
• Low tonal, textural - my visual preference.
• How can I make them meaningful?
• Anselm Kiefer talks about specific events. Rehabilitation, revealing trauma.
• Alerting the viewer to the world.
• Stallington Hospital still relevant.
• Psychoanalytic therapy - Sigmund Freud.
• Unconsciously revealing, reconciling trauma.
• Clarify how the participatory drawings with service users fit into my work.
• Clarify whether my work is about my experience of working in care? How to manage that/to do that?
• Is it historical? About that specific environment?
• Psychological spaces, characteristics. Obsolete is key within my work.
• Idea of obsolescence. My feelings/mixed feelings about my work/being left behind.
• Institutionalised - concerns me, invisible institution.
• Paul Winstanley - anonymous spaces in institutions. Cold and distanced.
• Not just psychological institutions - factories/offices also institutions that won't last forever.
• Abandoning and left behind.
• Institutions coming apart. Space.
• These ideas getting into my work.
• Maybe display my work as an installation? In a really small space. Play with sound, image, projection, painting. Dark space with lighting techniques?
• Tiny spaces in shows - gives viewer position of feeling awkward - will fit in with the meaning of my work - uncomfortable.
• Is my work more about institutions collapsing? Power distribution?
• Charcot - French photographer. Studied mental asylum inmates. Photography asserting power.
• For presentation, bullet point these notes and constantly ask questions. Fit into PowerPoint presentation.

There was definitely a lot to go on from this tutorial, especially how to display my work and make it more meaningful, which is something I am really looking forward to testing out during the test exhibition week. I am also feeling more confident with what my work is about and it's meaning, as there was a lot that I did not realise before this tutorial. I have asked for the really small dark space to test out my work during the test exhibition and just need to wait until Monday (24th) to find out whether I can use this space or not. After realising what my work is about, I am really looking forward to testing it out by using the dark spaces and smaller spaces, as I have been looking for a way to make the audience feel awkward for a while, and I did not think of the obvious.
I am also still looking into other printing methods such as the cyanotype printing, as there is a workshop within the next couple of weeks on this. Obviously I will not be able to use this for the test exhibition, but this is something that I can note down and if  it suits my work, will be something I will definitely be trying out before the final exhibition at the end of the semester. Lots of exciting things ahead!

Thomas Bolton Copperworks - Froghall

As last semester, I was looking at the now abandoned Stallington hospital, I could not access the building in order to take my own photographs. Fortunately, I live just down the road from a disused copper works factory, which I can easily gain access into, to take my own photographs. Even though I had been focusing on a "mental hospital", I have decided to take photographs of other disused buildings in order to create my own psychological spaces, in attempt to make the viewer feel uncomfortable, as everyone has a place where they feel uncomfortable, and I am hoping to recreate this within my studio practice.

The photographs I have taken so far are more research-based, as I went at a time of day where there was not much daylight hours left, and I certainly didn't want to be in a disused factory in the dark. I am planning to go again during the day and spending longer there. I will also take out a camera from the University with different lenses in order to get a varied number of shots to see what I can do with them and how I can develop them into my studio practice.

Cyanotype prints

Cyanotype is a photographic printing process that gives a cyan-blue print. The process was popular in the engineering circles well into the 20th Century. The simple and low-cost process enabled them to produce large-scale copies of their work, referred to as blue prints.

 

There is a workshop being held at University on the 27th February, and I have signed myself up to go along to this, I am really looking forward to going to this and hopefully will be able to come away with a better insight into cyanotype printing, also being able to make my own prints!

Meaning of colours in psychology

After looking at the work of Catherine Yass, and realising the colours which she uses are quite calming colours, I thought it would be beneficial to look into the meaning of colours in psychology, and colour meanings.

Obviously meanings of colours can vary between circumstances and culture, and all colours have many aspects to them. There however a few connotations to each colour.

"Color is a form of non verbal communication. It is not a static energy and its meaning can change from one day to the next with any individual."

Red: is the colour of passion, or again it may mean anger.

Orange: is the colour of social communication and optimism. It is also a sign of pessimism and superficiality.

Yellow: yellow is the colour of the mind and the intellect. It is optimistic and cheerful. However it can also suggest impatience, criticism and cowardice.

Green: is the colour of balance and growth. It can mean both self-reliance as a positive and possessiveness as a negative, among many other meanings.

Blue: is the colour of trust and peace. It can suggest loyalty and integrity as well as conservatism and frigidity.

Indigo: is the colour of intuition. It can mean idealism and structure as well as ritualistic and addictive.

Purple: is the colour of the imagination. It can be creative and individual or immature and impractical.

Turquoise: the meaning is communication and clarity of mind. It can also be impractical and idealistic.

Pink: the psychology of pink is unconditional love and nurturing. Pink can also be immature, silly and girlish.

Magenta: is a colour of universal harmony and emotional balance. It is spiritual yet practical, encouraging common sense and a balances outlook on life.

Brown: is a serious, down-to-earth colour that relates to security, protection and material wealth.

Grey: is the colour of compromise - being neither black nor white, it is the transition between the two "non-colours".

Silver: has a feminine energy; it is related to the moon and the ebb and flow of the tides - it is fluid, emotional, sensitive and mysterious.

Gold: is the colour of success, achievement and triumph. Associated with abundance and prosperity, luxury and quality, prestige and sophistication. Implies affluence, material wealth and extravagance.

White: is colour at its most complete and pure, the colour of perfection. The colour meaning of white is purity, innocence, wholeness and completion.

Black: is the colour of the hidden, the secretive and the unknown, creating an air of mystery. It keeps things bottled up inside, hidden from the world.

(Taken from: http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/meaning-of-colors.html)

Before reading the above named website, I did not know the meanings or connotations of most of the colours named. It has been really beneficial to me, as I can start thinking about what colours I can play with in my paintings and photography pieces, in order to unsettle the viewers of the works.

Catherine Yass

Stephen suggested that I look at the work of Catherine Yass, as her images are quite disorienting, especially the series "Corridors"

"Corridors is a series of eight photographic transparencies displayed in light boxes. Featuring mainly luminous blues, greens and yellows as a result of the artist's manipulation of photographic film, they depict interior spaces in a hospital. The photographs are in sharp focus only in the foreground of the image, at the level of the corridor walls, and have been taken with a shallow depth of field. This results in dissolution into more abstracted forms in the areas further away from the camera. In most images this is in the centre, which dissolves into an intense blue glow. Blue light, similar in shade to that of 'Chartres blue', a long-lasting blue stained glass developed in the twelfth century in France for church windows, has become a signature element to Yass's work. Her technique for making images involves taking two photographs of her subject and superimposing them. One is a 'positive' image, the normal form of a photographic image, and the other is a 'negative' image, where light and dark are inverted as on the negative of a photographic print. The photographs are taken within a few seconds of each other. Yass has explained: 'The negative image makes bright areas blue, so bright or transparent areas get blocked by the blue. The final picture is produced by overlaying the positive and blue negative images and printing from that. I think of the space between positive and negative images as a gap.'" (Taken from the Tate website)

Immediately after looking at images of Catherine Yass's work, I was captivated by the colours used, and how the images do, to me, look quite disorienting, I think there is something wonderful about the colours in these images, as they are mainly yellows blues and greens, there are certain connotations to those colours, with all three being quite calm colours. Even though the colours used are "calm" colours, the colours make the photographs have an air of confusion about them, like there is something not right about the colours used, maybe because the series "Corridors" is set in a hospital.

I like how Yass's photography has a sort of "trippy" feel to them, with atypical colours, teamed up with the chemistry behind the development and the way that they are produced may be representational of the chemistry of the brain.
 
The technique Yass uses it quite interesting also, as it states above that she takes two images, overlays them and then develops them, this is something I will definitely look into trying, as Stephen suggested that I should alter the film then develop the photographs from the films, instead of using Photoshop to do so. It will be really interesting to try these techniques, also I will obviously try other techniques like adding parts of bleach to the negative films, and drawing on top of the films before development, in order to alter the image.

"I think of the space between positive and negative images as a gap" - this is a really interesting quote by Catherine Yass about her work, as she is talking about a "gap" in the technique that she uses, it also might relate to a gap in the subject that her work focuses on? - something to look into.

"Yass's first publicly exhibited works, in the early 1990s, were portraits exploring the relationship between the personalities projected and the environments against which they were set. In 1994 she was one of three British artists commissioned by the Public Art Development Trust (a London based charity aiming to promote art and education about art in public spaces) to make a series of images for Springfield Hospital in south west London, a psychiatric institution built in the nineteenth century ...... Yass became interested in the empty spaces as images in and of themselves, perceiving them as even more disorientating to the viewer without their intended subjects. She uses light boxes to enhance this effect. She has stated: 'The work is not only about the image but also about the light boxes in a physical space. This produces another doubling or turning as the viewer switches between the space of the image and the space they're in. There is a disorientation as they are caught in the gap between them.'" (taken from the Tate website)

Just a little bit more information above, about the series corridors, as I thought this would be useful for me to read.

It is also interesting to find out that Yass's photographs were taken in a psychiatric institution, as the main focal point for my practice last semester was Stallington Mental hospital. I focused on the abandoned state of Stallington, as it was something that had been left behind and forgotten about but had a big history behind it. Mental health is something I am really interested in at the moment, as I work with people who were once in the Stallington hospital. I am interested now in moving away from the focus of mental hospitals and psychiatric institutions, and photographing other spaces which have no connotations with mental health, (like abandoned factories for instance) as there is an air of awkwardness about abandoned places, which hopefully will make any viewer feel uncomfortable. Obviously this teamed up with altering photographs before they go into the gallery will hopefully work well together.

Above are some photographs from the "Corridors" series.

Tutorial with Stephen Boyd 29-01-14

Main points from tutorial:

• On pictures where I've painted "light" into the photographs - it displays a choice for the viewer.
• What question am I trying to answer within my work? Confusion - this is not coming across in my works - the linear paintings look more decorative than meaningful. Not responding or thinking or asking.
• Go to as many work shops as possible on photography and printing. 18th/19th century cyanotype could be interesting in my work.
• Look at psychometric/psychological spaces.
• The "bars" in my paintings - display containment/constriction.
• Plain black canvases - place anywhere in gallery/rooms. Wide angle lenses for photographs. Disorienting/ruptured.
• Motifs on fabric? Dalziel and Scullion "Home"
• Work with film cameras. 2x2 negative. Draw on films, burn etc. when they print they will look disorienting.
• Could play about with the scaling of photographs, smaller scale or environmental scale. Think about alternate spaces also.

There is a lot to go on from this tutorial and a lot to research! I found this really helpful as I was stuck with my work, and did not know where to go next, as I felt like the smaller paintings had come to a halt. One thing that was mentioned was to make sure that I am making work that I enjoy and am interested in. Something exciting to me will more than likely make the audience interested. Something I am not interested in will disinterest the audience.

Mixing black and white paints...

As I work primarily in black and white (paint), I decided to mix my own varied shades of black and white, as I had mainly been using ready made shades last semester. I found this exercise really interesting creating the different shades. I started off with pure "Mars Black" and ended up with pure "Titanium White" I only mixed 20 shades, but I definitely am going to do this again, to get a more varied amount.

Outsider Art

Another thing suggested to me during the feedback tutorial was to look at Outsider Art, as I did a participatory project with some service users at work last year. I never really expanded on this and the drawing outcomes in a way became useless. I am planning on doing another little project whilst at work, with the same service users on the side of my studio practice, in the form of a research project, and aiming to make something out of their works.

"A label created by Jean Debuffet to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture; Debuffet focuses particularly on art by those on the outside of the established art scene, such as insane asylum inmates and children" (Wikipedia)

Above is just a quick description which I copied from the internet just to explain Outsider Art, as this is a term I had never heard of before. It is interesting that Jean Debuffet focused on art created by insane asylum inmates, as the service users which were involved in the participatory project last year, all used to live in Stallington Mental Hospital, and I will carry on using these people. I will have a better look into Outsider Art later on, to gain a better insight to aid my research project. However this is not needed immediately, as it is a small thing which is running alongside my studio practice.

Op Art

I decided to have a quick look at Op Art, as I initially thought my linear paintings reminded me of optical illusions, where I had been looking at thin black and white lines, especially on the paintings with a plain white background.

 

"Op Art is a method of painting concerning the interaction between illusion and picture plane, between understanding and seeing. Op Art works are abstract, with many of the better known pieces made in black and white. When the viewer looks at them, the impression is given of movement, hidden images, flashing and vibration, patterns, or alternatively, of swelling or warping" (Wikipedia)

 

After having a quick browse on the internet, I realised that my work is nowhere near related to Op Art, as I do not aim for my paintings to be an illusion, however it was quite interesting to look at, and has given me some ideas of how black and white work together, if I did want to ever create illusions.

 

 

 

Luc Tuymans



Luc Tuymans "Within" (2001) oil on canvas.

 

 

After my feedback for semester one, with Liz, it was suggested that I look at the artist Luc Tuymans and in particular the piece "Within" (pictured above).

 

"Luc Tuymans paints the indescribable. His dark muted scenes seem vaguely familiar, distant, like haunting memories. Drawing his inspiration from grand themes, Luc Tuymans taps into a universal social guilt: from the Holocaust, or Imperialism, to child abuse. by minimalising his images, he created raw emotion through paint; each painting linking spiritually, somehow instinctively, to the rest.

 'Within' is a tranquil vermin metaphor for contamination and disease. A close-up detail of a bird cage, this painting more than conveys feelings of hopelessness and isolation: through its sheer size and potency, it literally traps the viewer, swallowing him into a prison of collective consciousness" (quote found on Saatchi gallery website)

 

Immediately after looking at "Within" by Luc Tuymans, I seen why this artist was suggested to me. As the paintings which I produced at the end of last semester were quite linear and looked like they were representing bars, also I was aiming to make the viewer feel trapped within the image, confused in a way. The 'bars' present in my work stemmed from a motif which I created in previous paintings, toward the end of last semester I started developing this motif so the lines were extended, I also started playing about with the 'bars' to create a form of confusion for the viewer. The canvases which I painted on were rather small, in attempt to draw the viewers in toward the paintings, then the 'bars' being there to trap the viewer. I really like the sizing of Tuyman's "Within", and I am planning on possibly producing some work on a larger scale of the same subject I have been working with, in order to test out if it would still work like I have been aiming.