Group Crit...

The acetate images I produced before the group crit:

I made three copies in the style of my drawings and edit previously. the first is a simple outline, the second I have coloured it in with acrylic paint, carefully filling the lines but not worrying about the thickness or smoothness of the paint application. For the third I roughly coloured it in to give a suggestion of where the colour would be.

Before making a discussion on which one to show to the group I trialled each copy on the over-head projector to see which would best on a large scale as shown below:

Unfortunately the acrylic paint wasn't thin enough to let the colour be projected onto the wall so my choice was made for me. I went with the plain outline which projected clearly onto the wall (not shown as clearly in these photos). Although the colour wasn't clear on the wall, it was illuminated on the over-head projector, the best in my opinion being the solid colour. In the future, if I didn't want a projection, I could light a piece of acetate/perspex/glass etc with my image on the front. 

Whilst setting up I noticed a chair that was similar to the one I had drawn, so I put it in place and hung my coat on the back in the hope that this would add the illusion or installation in the studio rather than a 2D image hung in a gallery:

So for the group crit. Without explaining what my work is about this is what they got from the piece and their thoughts when looking at it:

• Is it my room?
• Is it personal to me?
• The projector makes you think of your own personal space that you can pick up and move around.
• Seems to have a light context/not too serious.
• Not cold.
• Cartoony/has an animation feel to it.
• The soft lines suggest a hand drawn quality.
• Reminds them of illustration in a magazine cartoon, like the Daily Week
• Telling them a story?
• The chair gives the illustration a fine art quality.
• Different fields of design (graphic, illustration, art), the chair makes it hybrid, fine art and into an installation.
• Bit of an illusion, with the chair it looks like you could just 'pull up a chair' and sit down at your desk/ inviting.
• Brings the virtual (the illustration) into real space.
• Could do some work on the chair to make it look more like an illusion?
• The drawing of the chair on the image is noticeable behind the actual chair which made them realise that was the place it was intended to be in that position.
• My everyday.
• Snapshot of my studio space.
• Mundane/everyday.
• Site specific.
• Works with the other things around it/ fits into the environment with the other studio space being around it/ could be walked past/ ignored.
• The natural vibration of the old projector makes the image move a bit.
• Noticed the blank posters, book and laptop.
• Could be a flat pack desk that is ready to use.
• The objects in the image make it busy yet the blankness of personal object make it empty.
• The chair is empty to.
• Everything is there ready for someone to use it.
• Part of my life in the most simplistic form?
• Projector feels childish because of the memories of it being used in primary school or at a young age.
• Could paint the chair white with solid black lines to look like it's part of the image coming out from the wall.
• Two people in the group (of five) liked the fact that I had used a real chair as it makes it seem more like real life/ brings it into reality/ painted would be too obvious.
• The busy yet empty feel could be a comment on life in general/ everyday life.
• Ignorable image/ ignorable spaces?/ in between spaces?
• Everyone has this space, a desk, chair and their belongings, but arrange it in their way/ easy to relate to.
• Tate Modern had an show a scale model of a fashion office which felt like a behind the scenes/ transitional space?
• Empty space is evocative.
• Artists that relate to it; Michael Craig-Martin, Paul Caulfield, Michael Landy (illustrator who draws mundane situations).
• If it had a title would it be called 'Everything I own'?
• The over head projector showing the acetate talks about the process of it's own making/ construction of the image/ projector is a blurring of the boundaries.
• Hand drawn quality juxtaposes with the sharp lines of the chair.

In conclusion I was very pleased with comments, without any hints or being provoked they seemed to understand what the piece was about and get a real sense of what I was trying to achieve. I agree with the people that said they prefer the chair being real but I think it could be interesting to try it out. Also looking at light up clear pieces instead of projecting. I also want to research Michael Landy and Paul Caulfield. 

Grand Union...

For my professional practice module I had to visit Grand Union a gallery found in Digbeth (5 minutes walk from where I live). As a tutor group we had to analyse the exhibition Before the Revolution by Torsten Lauschmann and then create a 45 minute presentation based on our criticisms. Below is the slideshow I put together for the presentation of the photos I took on the day we visited:

For my 5 minutes of the presentation I had to answer (which I've provided) the following question:

1. Of the selected works for discussion, what are their physical properties, for example, what is it made from? How big is it? How has the material been treated?

The four pieces in the exhibition are either made from different properties or shown in different ways, ‘Before the revolution’ is a two minute video shown on a monitor on loop, ‘Life like’ is an installation of ten working metallic desk lamps, a switching unit, computer soft and hardware and mixed media, which is pretty much an assortment of different sized rocks, the dimensions of this piece vary every time it is installed. ‘Thaumatrop No1: Bird in a cage’ is a two minute video Projection on loop and ‘Skipping over damaged areas’ is a ten minute HD video projected onto a free standing wall, with a wooden seat placed in front for viewing.

2. How does it’s scale, material handling and installation have bearing on its meaning?

The monitor and lamps are normal domestic objects that can be found in any household making them easier to relate to and perhaps understand, for example with ‘Before the revolution’ the use of a monitor, probably around the size of a 28” screen, can be instantly linked with a computer monitor, which would push people to believe that this is a loading image rather than a functioning piece of work. ‘Skipping over damaged areas’ being projected onto a large floor to ceiling screen with a small wooden seat placed in front invites the audience in and makes it appear like a cinema, setting up the viewing for the content of film titles shown.

In a lot of cases the evidence of technology was left visible to the audience. In ‘Life like’ wires being tangled and grouped together in a corner, whilst clearly attached to a machine that turns the lamps on and off to a set time takes away the mystery of the functioning of this piece. Projectors are not hidden away and the screen on which the film ‘skipping over damaged areas’ is projected onto can be walked behind. This leaves the questions of intention, where these things left out to make the viewer consider the workings of these piece or to take away the fascination of the mechanisms so your focus is solely on the work only. Perhaps there was no intention at all but just laziness on the galleries part. The lamps being made out of a metallic material and with lots of lights around it means that the large amounts of dust that have been left on it are easy to spot, tape is still stuck on the floor and a stepladder is left behind the screen, but all of these things could be part of the galleries laidback approach suggested by it’s urban, industrial environment.

3. Where does the work come from? Does the object have a different relationship to our culture than to its own, if different?

All of the works in the show are created by Torsten Lauschman, a German artist that has previously studied in Glasgow. Originating from a country that speaks a different language there may have been concern of miscommunication in the pieces when being shown in England, However Lauschman  has chosen to show his work with English titles, even the film ‘Skipping over damaged areas’ shows film titles written in English. Although having studied elsewhere and travelling a lot, the period in which Lauschman make all the works shown, 2008-2011, a lot of his time was spent in Glasgow, this could explain his choice in using a more universal language than German, making his work more easily accepted by a wider audience.

Even though Lauschman is from a different country, he is still part of Europe and the western world, so the use of modern technology (the wires, projectors etc) can be accepted and understood, this, along with the choice of language, would mean there would be no difficulties with the communication of the pieces.

Preparation for the group crit...

So this is what I'm thinking of showing for the group crit, if I can get a projector confirmed then I will draw this onto an A4 piece of acetate and then paint the colour onto the back using acrylic paint, which will then be projected onto a blank wall, hopefully full sized. The only problem with it will be how the bottom of the wall in this image won't match the bottom of the wall in real life, but if I did match it then half the image will be projected onto the floor, I'm not going to change it though as I'm interested to see what the group will think of it and these are problems I'm already aware of so they can be changed in the future. 

Some practical work...

Something that I've been working on is collecting some sketches around my area that I currently live in as a student. All of the locations I've tried to capture the same presence of life that the image from my living room original caused. Moving forward with the same style of simple graphic lines like a stain glass window but also focusing on the idea of the hand drawn approach that my tutor liked in one of my examples. With my sketches I used a thin fine liner to get the initial sketch and then a slightly thicker brown fine liner to get a more defined line, however I wanted it a bit thicker to make a clearer more graphic mark which annoyingly took a bit longer but also made me concentrate more on detail. Below are my first six drawings (click to enlarge):

 

 

I wanted to do the same with these drawings as I did with the kitchen drawing/edit that I did early on in my first term by filling it in with flat colour in Photoshop, but I thought before that I'd also show the in between in case I decided to do anything with just the line drawings:

 

 

 

Here are the edits with flat colour:

One of my ideas is to project an appropriate scene in a space relating to that image using a projection from acetate. I like the idea of being able to draw with clean lines on one side and then give a suggestion of colour on the other side to see if it makes a difference to the clean-ness of the above picture. So I've edited the same line drawings with the same colour schemes but without worrying about going over lines or filling in white spaces:

On Monday 5th March I have a group crit where I have to show a piece of work as though it is being exhibited. I think I want to set a scene which would be found in the studio space that it will be shown in  and create a similar line drawing to those above on acetate and then paint the colour on behind and project it onto the wall.