Week 14 Portraits and Summative Assessments
Portrait: a painting, drawing, photograph, engraving etc. of a person, especially depicting only the face or head and shoulders. From Memling to Picasso, Da Vinci to Gainsborough, Rembrandt to Van Gogh, we took an interesting look at the Portrait, including how the way we see things is affected by what we know or believe, looking at the relationship between things and ourselves. This took place in the same week as an article in the Sunday Times, ‘Here’s Looking at Me’ which discusses the Saatchi Gallery’s show celebrating the Selfie. “Painters used to be the only people capable of self-portraiture, but now we are all at it”. (Sunday Time Magazine, 22nd January 2017, Waldemar Januszack).
https://uk.pinterest.com/adjewellery/fine-art-practice-in-context/
This week was also the deadline for our Formative Review for IFAP which were discussed in groups and our work and journals were left for marking. I’m hoping in time this reflection will come a bit more naturally....it still feels a little uncomfortable!
Here’s the review should you wish to read!
There is more than I had considered to materials, their capabilities, implied meaning and suitability for a purpose, and especially what the material itself might inherently convey. Why might a certain material be used, and what does it bring? In 3D, we tested the capabilities of certain materials and processes when joining materials and there are multiple ways to do this using simple processes e.g. wire wrapping paper to give extra support and structure, creating a supportive relationship between 2 materials, or in the example of cable ties, just one.
In ceramics I discovered porcelain could be rolled\textured to be very thin, and that combining with other clays also created quite an organic look. It was interesting that most of the porcelain pieces remained intact, giving possibility to something fragile having permanence. Further experimentation would be interesting to see how thin and fragile this could become before total disintegration.
With collagraph printing, I discovered an element of surprise in this form of print, i.e. it is impossible to determine what the print will look like, but also quite dramatic effects and contrasts can be created from relatively simple materials and each material used creates its own impression, e.g. masking tape a textured trace image and parcel tape a negative space, except where layered. Screen-printing offered many techniques within this one area of printing. I did like the way a hand drawn image on grain mark resist could produce a repeatable print with the qualities of the hand drawing and its texture.
The Blur installation in the hall at College Road, used black butterfly netting which the artist believes implies fragile ephemeral things trapped within its folds and this was used to create a black space. A hard, scratchy material, by contract it created a safe cocoon like structure. I’ve investigated the use of different materials such as Karla Black and her use of everyday materials (although she argues this doesn’t necessarily confer meaning) and Cornelia Parker’s use of alternative materials (poison, dissolved film, blood), discovering connections between materials, their use and meaning. A lot of Parker’s work is all about the materials and processes. A material can be the start point for her work, e.g. use of graphene (2D material one atom thick), gold tooth filling stretched into wire, lead bullets made into wire mesh).
I also experimented with paint, enjoying the scale of the work and the layering of paint, particularly when this began to create texture. It was interesting to relate this to research I was doing for PIC1 looking at Tomma Abts, who trademark includes the ability to see layers of paint as they build up in her work, that this becomes part of the narrative of the work.
The Photoshop workshop provided an opportunity to revisit what can be done with digital images. I can see possibilities in using images from previous work to play with digitally, and used this to create a piece of work combined with wax.
From the textile workshop, I wanted to further pursue the possibilities of heat and wax, considering why you might use one material over another. Simple processes, such as the heat press, could transform everyday materials into something quite different – encasing, distorting and then moulding into a different object. I experimented further with this concept to the point of disintegration (a happy accident as too much heat). The disintegration of the materials, took on an organic look. I was keen to experiment further with wax, which is smooth, brittle, soft, and there are also associations such as ageing, preserving, smell. I most recently returned to experimenting with to see what could be achieved with this material, not least as at this stage I felt I had not kept up to date with my journal and although I had continued experimenting and researching, I had not pulled this all together. I combined with different materials: paper; wood; ceramic; digital images. I found further overlaps with artists researched for PIC1 including Jasper Johns’ Flag (which uses wax). My experiments revealed that wax can be used to add a 3D quality to work, can give a suggestion of movement, but unlike paint\ink does not soak in but solidifies quickly, (although under certain conditions I discovered it does and takes colour with it) and can give an aged effect. I considered Karla Black and her use of unusual materials (in my experiment pastels turned out to be chalky not waxy, but could be sealed in with the wax). There are associations with embalming, creating a permanence, preserving and connotations with tradition (mummification, waxworks, sealing wax). I experimented with pastels melted onto a digitally manipulated print of previous work onto acetate and this warped the plastic in the process. Much of the experiments seem to have more to do with transformation than disintegration. Used on a large scale and with deep red colour such as in Anish Kapoor’s work, the properties can take on all sorts of meaning (blood, wound, coagulation, drama).