5'O SKETCHBOOK

working title "The Fridge"

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exhibition statement

‘…a subconscious poetry of objects is something new, something intriguing, something that is accompanied by a world of associations and references.’

- Ann Gallagher

‘Fridge’ is an invitation to a dialogue between the viewer and the object. It is a study of things and products found in the kitchen space, deliberately taken out of context and put together in a space free of familiar connotation. It is a play of form and visual metaphor, of the plastic and the natural, with no right or wrong ways of understanding it. It is for the viewer to define and decipher the meaning behind each photograph, the relations within each arrangement of objects, which will differ for everyone depending on personal background and cultural memory, imagination and associations. ‘Fridge’ is an ongoing practice of exploring the world from a different perspective and discovering the narrative potential of things that people are too used to ignoring.

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the final 7

I’ve collected my final 7 prints and I’m quite happy with how they turned out. They’re all printed on 308 gsm fine art photo rag paper and mounted on thick 5mm PVC white foamex, have a solid and finished feeling to them despite the light weight. The colours came out nice and pastel as I hoped they would - from my testing, none of the other papers apart from fine art ones could reproduce the colours on the screen. I’m planning to put them up with command strips although I got some velcro from the lab for free - the problem with velcro is that is damages the print once and for all and command strips are easily taken off the back of any surface.

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instagram countdown design

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work in progress

photos by Sarah

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a couple of poster examples for the student exhibition we made

there were a couple of other versions but they’re on Sarah’s computer - we knew we couldn’t possibly please everyone but we thought that it’d be better to have a variety of posters to choose from when sending to people you wish to invite to the exhibition than just one

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exhibition plan

- 6 or 7 images

- A5

- fine art paper (hanhemuhle photo rag 308 gsm)

- order has not been finalised yet

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needed more greens in the series’ diet

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editing new work

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7 March, 2016 evaluation

After finishing my dissertation on the topic of the ways in which still life affects us as individuals and a society, I became even more interested in the relation that we have with objects. With my major degree project “Fridge” I want to invite the viewer to a dialogue with compositions of things and products that can be found in the kitchen space, to let them explore the connections and associations they might get while looking at different shapes and colours brought together. Working with visual language, I leave it to the viewer to define and decipher the meaning of my photographs for it is different to everyone, depending on their life experience, imagination and cultural memory. I think it’s quite a great exercise to ask other people what they think about my work: curiously enough, one of the fine art students I’ve approached with this question imagined a whole story with each product as a unique character with its own set of personality traits and characteristics. I was very excited to get this kind of feedback for as Paul Outerbridge used to say it takes great imagination to put life into inanimate objects.

I work with things at my own pace, approaching them, experimenting with them, playing with form and visual metaphor  while trying to learn more about myself – what I find visually pleasing or not and why. Throughout semester A I tested three different approaches to my models, different sets of lighting, environments, looks. I started with the kitchen space with its anarchy and untidiness and character, then moved locations, walked around, tried the outside, eventually stepped inside the studio to work in peace without any distractions. I felt the need of more negative space to bring out the contrast of gentle colour on white background.

For now I stick to the clean, minimal style that lets the viewer focus on the objects themselves rather than the space and chaos that usually accompanies them in the kitchen in our everyday life. I’m taking things out of context deliberately – I hope people can see how quirky and interesting objects we ignore on a daily basis can be. I find the process of getting to know things quite personal, almost intimate, and I am eager to communicate my own fascination with objects, the plastic and the natural, to the viewer. It takes time to discovery things that draw my attention and sometimes I get distracted by other, more fast-paced projects and loose inspiration for the “Fridge”, but it seems that in the end I always come back to it. For me, personally, it’s an ongoing practice that already helped me look at the world from a different perspective. In the time of iphones and tvs and tablets it’s easy to miss simple and curious bits of beauty, colour, shape or form here and there and sometimes it’s up to photographers to elevate mundane things to something extraordinary or simply peculiar, to remind people to look up from the screens.

I believe that objects are bursting with narrative potential and it is a waste not to let them speak out.

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another day in Indesign with Sarah

We started thinking about creating an aesthetic for our graduation show and I thought it would be nice if all of us had profile cards next to our work to describe the project - the reason for having a profile pic with your face in the left corner is meant to help people in the exhibition find the right artist to talk to if they’re interested in your photographs - we plan on spending a day at the studio, getting everyone to take a mugshot on the same colour backdrop.

We also brainstormed some ideas for kick-starter campaign. The thought behind “mystery print” comes from a story told to me by one of my tutors from the British Higher School of Art and Design who said that sometimes a secret is more interesting than the actual thing - and he himself once bought a print in an envelope and never opened it bc he really enjoyed imagining what could be inside. I find it quite extraordinary and hope that it’s a good idea - people who donate money can either choose a photograph or else get something that isn’t going to be showcased on our exhibition website.

I believe our goal would be around 3.000£ that is why we will only offer 30 limited edition prints numbered and signed by the artist - if 30 people donate (unlikely but possible), we will reach our goal.

David, I’m sorry for using your project description for this template, I hope you don’t mind!

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a day in Indesign with Sarah

some drafts for exhibition logo/poster - waiting for approval from Alex, he’s the boss

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exhibiting? selling?

I was thinking about print sizes for the degree show and thought that making them small (7″ by 5″ or A5) would be a good idea, because it refers to the name and theme of my project - we usually put little postcards of similar sizes onto our fridges. I also like the idea of having something smaller and more playful bc I personally pay more attention to such works in an exhibition - I want to make people come closer, step into the space of my series, and pay attention to detail.

Since this project is somewhat on the Fine Art side of still life, I wanted to print it on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308 gsm matt white paper to give it a more fine art finish - also I’m not that into glossy or lustre types of paper, they don’t have the same texture or feeling to them.

If I decide to sell these prints as postcards, I’d love to use the same paper and present them in archival polyester pockets or sleeves like prints I’ve seen for sale at galleries. I’ve found those that I liked at preservationequipment.com for £8.00/pack 25 which seems to be quite a reasonable price. I’m not sure if people would want to buy my prints, but I think it’s easier to decide to buy a 8-10£ print as a souvenir from a student exhibition rather than a wall-sized print that you might not even have enough space for at home.

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flash or no flash?

I really enjoy shooting with harsh lighting at the moment but I do realise that it doesn’t match any object combination.

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new work

Trying to stay inspired and keep going with the series but it’s not an easy task with so many things going on in each module. This time I was going for a slightly surreal look - I got some amazing feedback from a fine art student who said that they look like characters and have their own personality traits. It was a very interesting perspective, I really like the fact that different people have completely different assocaitions with these almost random combinations of colours, shapes and objects.

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black and white

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white balance

since most of my photos’ve been shot at different times and with a slightly different lighting, I’m trying to correct white balance in each one of them with saturation/selective colours masks so that they look good together

the brightness is still a bit different, but the tone overall is much more consistent

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Evaluation

Study Task 5

Uncertain about the theme for my Degree Project at first, I feel quite satisfied with the progress of it so far. The way the Concepts and Planning module has been organised helped me figure out what is that I wanted to do, to develop and expand my idea while researching contemporary practices in the chosen field of photography. I felt no limitations when it came to choosing my topic and started off thinking about the still life genre and working with objects, then narrowed down to the kitchen space and things that could be found there. I never meant this project to have any sort of political or critical underpinning, rather to be all about things, people’s associations with objects, and playing around with visual metaphor, colours and shapes – so I did quite a lot of research about contemporary practitioners who work in a similar manner, reading both classics and newer books on Dutch still life painting, traditional and fine art still life, commercial and product photography, etc. 

Lately I’ve been fascinated in the transitory moment that can suggest a possibility of an event happening before or after the photograph has been taken, the moment that invites the viewer to a dialogue with the objects in the image. I am interested in what kind of relations people can bring in to the photograph, what associations they get while looking at different shapes and colours brought together. So at first my project seems like a very playful and simple one, but digging deeper it can make you think why we like or dislike certain things.

I began testing out different arrangements of objects in the space quite early on and it was a good idea, because many of them seemed fine in my head and in sketch but not when it came to actually being photographed. Throughout the given time I tested three different approaches to my ‘models’ with different setups and lighting methods to figure out the way that suited me and my topic best. Right now I’m focusing on the clean and sterile aesthetic rather than what I started with – the chaos of the kitchen space. I haven’t worked too much with post-production in this semester (although I quite enjoy editing) because I wanted to see the series come together rather than look into details at this stage.

Working on test prints made me realise how many aspects I have to consider when thinking about our Degree Show – the size of the prints, mounting options, different paper selections from glossy to matte, from photographic to fine art, my own economic capabilities – what I can and cannot afford. 

I don’t have any final thoughts regarding my project because it is just the beginning but I am quite satisfied with the work that has been done so far - I feel confident talking about my ideas and I look forward to doing more experimenting in the upcoming semester B.