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Assessment 3 Cofa1002 Publication ~ Surrealism ~ Mariah Pollous, Rachel White, Cho Chao Hon, Christiana Liang Liang Huang.

Unable to upload PDF or Hyperlink to Tumblr so here are the screen grabs.

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Surrealism is where you let go from conscious control and let your imagination and dream like state take you to unimaginable places.

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Dictionary Definition ~ Surrealism~

surrealism

səˈrɪəlɪz(ə)m/

noun

noun: surrealism

a 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature which sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, for example by the irrational juxtaposition of images.

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Cofa 1002 Final Project

For the final experimental process I just thought of random objects to ad to the spiraling portal. A gooey book, a hampster thing? I’m not too sure what it is, but he is also a little gooey and a creepy head with a melting face dripping onto the guy perched on a broken ledge floating above the portal.

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Experimental Approach 3

Ok so after I started thinking up a concept of how this should work since it’s surrealism nothing would make sense. Its just the imagination free from the conscience control. So now I know how I want it to somewhat look I can add the little details afterwards.

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Experimental Approach #2

After meeting with Christiana and Amy we realised that there were a lot of floors with our idea primarily with consistency, so we changed our concept from possible futures to focus mainly on one art movement; Surrealism. Anything can be your future. Nothing is set in stone and anything is possible. The sky is your limit and beyond. So for this notion I was given the duty of sketching concepts of a notion of surrealism involving a person and also the invitational missive for idealising a surrealistic world. So in other words, we ourselves can choose out our own colours for building our world. We want to keep it to a black and white or a white and black feel to make the book more of a colouring in book. Viewers can then choose how they want their surrealistic world to look. But this was my first rough concept sketch to get things moving.

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Inspiration Process #1

For our group assessment we decided to go with the concept of 4 worlds via the guise of doors. The possible futures were- Environment Water Tech Junk Each door was to represent a possible future to inhabit and what it may look like. The door of choice for me to work on was Environment. However this was still early days so key concepts to work on were still rather hazy and we were just trying to find inspirational footing before we can get a leg up.

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Concept Statement Assessment 2 Final Work, Statement and Bibliography.

What is the human? When we look around what are we seeing, or rather what do or don't we see. Do we see mirrors of ourselves, just in different shapes and sizes, wandering this planet coexisting with the environment and ecology. Or are we seeing cloaked fragmented sneak-peaks of our darkest inner-selves as we wander around this world devouring anything we desire or want with disregard to the consequences. Some might see this reality as a rather enjoyable and fortunate one and some choose to turn a blind eye to the here and now in order to satisfy their inner selfishness of desires and wants. But, coming back to the point. No matter how you pitch it, our reality is a dire one. With our constant disregard for our ecology and the environment, the human relationships we have between these two are affecting and poisoning our habitat and ourselves. For example, seasons aren't the same as they were 10 or even 20 years ago. Everything is changing and it is because we, us humans, are slowly poisoning everything we touch. What also constitutes the human are self destructive tendencies. The bi-product of our decisions, known as consequences, I too do believe this is also what constitutes as part of a human. Actions speak louder than words. We see actions a lot clearer then seeing the words. That’s where the help of art comes in.

Contemporary art can visage art in new and profound concepts and practices and it assists by enabling us to visit the worlds in a different light and grants us power to communicate and convey messages and meaning via different mediums.

I personally favor symbolic narratives as I feel it gets the point across in a creative and engaging manner, rather than just reading articles and getting lost in the dreamlike vision of words or just getting bogged down by the facts. You don't always remember everything or the important information you have just read. Art is in a sense, what you see is what you get and quite often it can burn images into our brains. It also helps opens up creative and stimulated cognitive functions by making you think and engage with concepts and images. I find recalling the memory of pictures easier than that of words and sentences. Pictures can also hold a greater effect on the person. Colours, content, form. It all holds greater for an individual.

For my work I want to address the relationship we have affected upon the environment. To me this picture represents the affect us humans have had on the environment, resulting in an uninhabitable world which we are now to be consumed by. Drowning in our own poison which we have inflicted upon ourselves. The flowers are symbolic to the beauty of the world. Delicate and fragile. Yet, watching on as our fate is sealed, drowning in the consequences from our actions. Water generally represents a feeling of calmness, but contrary to the feeling it usually holds, this meaning is something more. It is to represent the engulfment of self, trapped and unable to be released by the cold grip of the water, with a hint of purple to symbolise a touch of poison, as it slowly breaks away our flesh revealing our bones to the elements.

I think, though the earth may be beautiful, it will become our nightshade. When the air that we breath becomes the air that we choke and the water we drink becomes the water we drown in, only then do I truly believe that that will be the time for when humans finally come to understand what and who we are and the affect we have on things. When we have no where else to run to. For being human, to coexist, we have a negative affect. Even the simplest smallest things we think can be harmless, have an affect.

An inspirational artist, no matter what the age, cannot release his grip on what he feels is important. 83 year old artist Gustav Metzger, and also a political activist, incorporates his passions and concerns into his artworks. In 2009 at England's Manchester Peace Garden International Festival Gustav Metzger installed a forest of upended willows and trees in the city center. This was his powerful statement about our damaged world and representing man's destructive capabilities and violation of nature.

Art enables us to see and to feel any problems which have come, may come to be or are currently facing. It gives us tastes of what is we can and cannot see, be it good or bad, and provides a vision of a life we may or may not want. Everything we do has an affect.

Bibliography

http://greenmuseum.org/c/aen/Earth/Changing/second.php https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Metzger http://guyabrahams.com/home-page/what-has-art-got-to-do-with-the-environment/ http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2009/jul/05/can-artists-save-the-world http://guyabrahams.com/environment/ http://www.treehugger.com/culture/top-5-environmental-artists-shaking-up-the-art-world.html

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Nils-Udo Nid d'eau, Chiemgau High Bavaria, Germany 2001

His artwork ~ Potential Utopias~

Bavarian artist Nils-Udo works directly with nature. Nils-Udo is aware of the fragility of nature and the paradox he finds himself and his artwork in. He works parallel to nature, incorporating berries, twigs, sticks and leaves and he intervenes with utmost care and makes his artworks from the environment around him. Combining ephemeral sculpture and installation, his works are derived from nature and are also incorporating the notion of bad weather and natural degradation as his a part of his process. He designs his works to reveal the poetry in nature. He says “It is a contraction that underlies all of my work, which itself can't escape the inherent fatality of our existence. It harms what it touches: the virginity of nature.”

This is made me think about the human in a more direct, yet abstract way of thinking. Everything we touch we do destroy, but the destroyed things are quick to be concealed. Like, for chuck of land, rich with nature, we bulldoze and hastily erect luxurious apartments or something just as justified in its place. But what happens when everything catches up to us. What then. What does being human mean and what will become of it. I think we all know the answer, but aren't to hasty to throw ourselves into that murky notion of thinking. We are self destructive. It's that realistic thinking path I wish to take upon me with this project.

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Inspirational artist.

Rowan Leaves and Hole by Andy Goldsworthy

Andy Goldsworthy's work incorporates into his works; colourful flowers, leaves, mud, twigs, snow, icicles and stones. His pieces are designed to decay or disappear due to the nature of his materials, thanks to the flow of nature. Goldsworthy characterises his art as “Movement, change, light, growth  and decay are the life-blood of nature, the energies that I try to tap through my work”. When I first saw this I saw it as something with beauty. The way the colours blended and the arrangement really caught my eye. But the black circle is what really grabbed my attention. What does it symbolise. New beginnings, and end of things. Where there is life, there is decay. Ah I get lost in things just thinking about them. But this artwork is something which has inspired me for my project. Where there is life there is decay. So now. What happens when life catches up to us.

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Experimental Concept/Attempt 2:

Hmm for this one, I didn’t know what to make of it. It just sort of happened and has a wonky alternate way of thinking. After I first drew this, I knew, no doubt about it that it was going in the reject pile. But after casting it aside and coming up with 0 ideas, again, and after reflection, remembered everything happens for a reason. Instead of nature being at the mercy of man, tables have turned. Now it is man who is at the mercy of nature. Working through this problem it generated the idea of reason and consequence. What is human and the consequence of being one. Thank-you me, for not being too rash in decisions, I think I have stumbled on a leading concept for the assignment :)

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Cofa1002

For the second assignment I'm not 100% sure where to go with it. For the first one I took a general sweep of the topic since the question 'human' is quite a broad one. Makes it a little tricky. But now I know I ~need to be more specific. Get to the guts of it. What am I trying to say? ~ I say those last three things to myself I swear for every minute I brainstorm this question. How. What. Why. Reasons and consequences. What then. These are the things I am asking myself constantly. Maybe I'm being bogged down again and am thinking to broad, AGAIN. Not hard to do either :/ But these are the questions which I really hope will light a fire under my bum and get my brain into action. Sometimes writing things down can help the thinking process. Never liked mind maps. But, just for this, I will give it a try :)

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Everyone's class works poster presentations were intriguing. I could have taken photos of all of them but then I would never stop typing so I narrowed it down to two. The first poster is aesthetically appealing. The symmetry and contrast just grabbed my eye and upon a closer look the detail is intricate. The second one after much thought about what it could be was fascinating. For me it really looked liked hummus. I think that's how you spell it. But after the presentation it turned out to be a torn up pad. What is considered art can be quite vague and its on a broad spectrum, but for something so personal to be an artwork on the wall I thought was like a slap of reality thrown in your face. I quite enjoyed this piece.

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Concept Statement and Poster.

To imagine what can be, new possibilities, we need to know what has come before. To imagine a world where political and social will, social inclusion, equity, progressive movements, and sustainable technologies seismically shift the balance towards the existence of a global culture that is at peace and in harmonious coexistence with other species and the environment. There is danger the future possibilities are bleak. But the tendency for survival will prompt new possibilities, new relationships, new interactions between humans and the environment at large. Whether the possibilities are viable or sustainability is unpredictable. Contemporary art and design can offer visual representations that communicate such progressions.  In this way art gives voice to the possibilities that can be. The tree construct is a stepping stone that symbolises where we find ourselves and gives rise to possibilities. The hand symbolises human control, a sense of domination and direction over the planet. Not being able to hold all things constant or exercise control as a single point, the fingers mesh into pathways, a sort of glomerulus that filters and weaves the issues. Each issue is akin to a vessel but not independent. It is drawn from Issac Newton the founder of modern day Physics that each action has an equal and opposite reaction. Each issue is a dynamic force capable of volatility and change and reacts with other issues and gives rise to chain events, circular or linear. The environment tempers the glomerulus with its earthy hues. It is sometimes forgotten that the Earth supports humanity and not the other way round. This lends itself to the possibilities resulting from political, social, economic and cultural considerations that of continued existence or extinction of species including human extinction. The former is shown as an intersection that leads to a continuum. Streams of light and aesthetic tones flow and overlap, headlining in one direction that embrace new relationships between humanity and the environment at large.  The latter possibilities are represented by a dripping tap that drain positive possibilities and lead to self-destruction. The black background represents the universe and reminds us of our fragility in space.

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In trying to reach a dynamic about new possibilities my thoughts turn to the imbalance between human interactions on one hand and the ecology/environment on the other. The imbalance is an inequality and is represented by a worn tree. The tree hangs low, weighed down on one side indicating the greed, the rape and pillage of land and species by humans with disregard. The prominence and sheer number of branches represent destructive dark human forces. The branches on the other side hang high symbolising positive forces at play, though slimmer in number but beaten by negative power. Yet in being exceeded a space is created that potentially can give rise to the possibility of achieving something higher, something better, more valuable, a grander scheme with new possibilities for humans and the environment. The trunk itself joined as one to the earth represents the choice humanity can make and the new possibilities for growth.

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For the first assignment I chose to work with Humans and environment. In thinking about the evolution of humans and what we have become, as a species, a race of people, the relationships we have formed with ecology, the environment and non-living things have been documented through literature and images (photography, etches, paint sculpture and so on). Such images are a powerful reminder of the impact a single species has made to the world around us. Our impact has led to our survival but it has come at great cost in terms of suffering and destruction. Our once domination over nature and our man-made constructs depict a civilisation in decay. In exploring this theme, I present the images on a section of a wheel, a wheel that keeps turning, perpetuating the suffering.

Humanism prompts thought that 70 years ago humans thought it was acceptable to use an atomic bomb on whole cities: Hiroshima and Nagaski, that vaporised people, destroyed whole communities and obliterated ecosystems, and in its wake irradiated the soil and land for generations. Chemical weapons of Napalm dropped from planes upon Vietnamese people caused immeasurable suffering. Animals are regularly subjected to cruelty and then there is more needless death through trophy hunting. Land clearing degradation and deforestation and contaminant pollution of waterways. The contempt continues to the burning of fossil fuels and their contribution to climate change. Species have become extinct, never to be seen again whilst many other species are now endangered. Retelling through images calls attention to the possibilities of what could be.