Wednesday 24 February 2010

Shit

It's officially thursday and Ive just messed up this week. I don't know where it has gone.
Today I tried to make a piece of work for another idea of mine to very little success. The idea was to have a stringless guitar with a projection over the top of a guitar with strings, same guitar just before and after I've taken the strings off. I felt this would hopefully make a strange piece of work where the viewer at first would be unaware what is real and what is not, as everything would seem fine to begin with.
Is it a projection of a guitar?
Is it a projection of a guitar on a real guitar?
What am I supposed to be looking at?
Hopefully with further studying it would trigger that there was that slight change and what was real was a stringless guitar but you where made to believe it is a guitar with strings.

I went to uni with the best intentions of making that today, but something just didn't click for me, I got in and just didn't feel very welcome, the less I go into university (I do kinda do my work at home) the less space I get in our studio and my space is starting to look like a bit of a dumping ground. I suppose it's my own fault but there are other people who do the same as me, I'm just not a studio type of guy, I go into university for tutorials, seminars, lectures and then either go into london or do work from home, with work at the weekends aswell, my time goes quick so It never really fits into my life does studio time. I have been in the studio more recently but still I'm never really in 'my space' and something just doesn't flow well for me there.

So anywho, I took some pictures to make a small loop of the still guitar with strings and went ahead un-stringing the already broken guitar which I got from a charity shop. Greatly being rusted and without some tuning pegs, that was a lot more difficult than I intended. When I got around to going to get a projector so I could try it out, the moving image lending department was closed, I was ten minutes late, It opens for just one hour!  Which to me seems odd...

So I wasn't really feeling it and I just went back home, not very constructive really.
Oh and then I found out I had a tutorial this afternoon like 2 hours later, which I also missed. So really quite a shit day.

Somehow tommorow I have got to fit in a seminar presentation group thing (which I'm not showing in) a tutorial for 'history is no longer real' which is half way through the presentation group thing and I have to be at work for 12:30 till 7 o clock!! Great!!  I really planned that one well...

Tuesday 23 February 2010

Windows Part Two

 

So I mentioned my idea for this work maybe sometime last week, maybe even before that and I've finally got round to playing around with the idea. I started by using my DSLR and my tripod, but found I was getting to no avail, trying to be sneaky with a tripod isn't good and it was too dark to work without one and it just wasn't getting anywhere. So I tried some images with my iphone and even though it has a lousy camera the loss in quality in my opinion works to the images favours, I still had to be pretty sneaky as it does seem a bit odd still walking around holding a phone in the direction of someones house but it was much easier and I felt the images where coming out better. Because theres no flash it made much darker blacks and just picked up the colours, which is much more what I wanted to achieve. The images don't look amazing on the computer but put together like this I think they make a good piece of work. 

Monday 22 February 2010

Chris Ofili - Tate Britain - A Review...

I've heard a lot about the Chris Ofili show in the last few weeks, all very positive aswell so I bucked up my idea's and payed the £8.50 (rip off merchants) to get in to see the show at the Tate Britain. I must admit, I knew nothing about his work prior to going to the show, I often don't. I'm not the most clued up of fine artists to be honest.

The most striking thing when you enter is shit, literally loads of elephant dung, every painting has some on and is held up by the stuff, there's even a sculpture. It's difficult not to find his work funny, when you first see all this but then you actually look at the pieces themselves and ignore the shit and you realise just what great work you are seeing. Each piece is meticulously done with dots and dabs, collage and random items like pins which add to a massive layered effect which is quite startling. The connections with hip hop are amusing and intriguing but add a lot to the work, if you manage to see the video of him explaining his work which as at the end of the exhbition aswell you really start to see how the hip hop and its connotations make this work tick. The picture below, is of a penis, is it needed, probably not, is it quite amusing, yeah, it probably is.

 In the Upper Room series, Ofili has painted a series of 12 or so images in different tones of a monkey based on an Andy Warhol collage. Some colours work better than other's but within the enviroment it works really well. Its a very dark room with only lights on the work and its very chilled out, I liked the space more than the work in it. Over all though theres a maturity starting to turn in his room, the repetition like they had been printed work's really well and as a series it is interesting to look at. Sadly the dung is still there, which for me, ruins it somewhat, It just doesn't work for me. I can see it links his work together and in some peoples opinions makes the work more earthly but for me I think its a shock and awe type of thing.
In the fourth room, the Red, Green and Black paintings, their are 3 paintings which only use the colours of the pan-African union flag, the work has got considerably more intricate and considerably bigger and they are very, very successful pictures. Like throughout the exhibition there is a very sexual motif going on, but it doesn't hinder these pictures, like it could have started to do in the first series of paintings. My favourite image is Afro Sunrise which surprisingly I also do like the dung in, it acts as a motif showing the viewers the colours used and it does actually start to work a lot more on these images.
His paper works in the next room, do nothing for me, they are quite immature and I don't think they needed to be added to this retrospective of his work. But the room along from that with the 'Blue Rider' works is my favourite room, quite a darkly lit room they have a luminosity which strikes you, the images are not that coherent, all the pieces are done with dark blue colours and so its in slight tones that you see differences but this works to the pictures favors. The dung is gone and the works are large and hang on the wall, you have to stand quite far back to see the images well and get everything out of them. I spent the longest time in this room, getting my moneys worth looking at these fantastic images, I can't put my finger on what brings me to like them so much, but something clicks for me.
 
Lastly Ofili shows his latest works, vastly different, if you saw these images next to his first pictures you would not think it was the same artist, he has lost the exactness of the dots from his work ten to fifteen years previously and there are more interesting figures and shapes, vivid colours, which is a stark contrast too the blue room that is next to it. Unlike that room where you feel you have to stand back to take the work in, these pieces literally only look good if you stand far back, when you get close they look quite clumsy and in my opinion, not amazing. I feel if he had shown this as his work to begin with he wouldn't have the reputation he does today, it is good that he is moving on and experimenting but something doesn't quite work with these images. I do like the use of colour and I enjoy the images in this room but not as much as some of the other work. Overall this is an interesting exhibition, My favourite pieces are the 'Blue Rider' series but I can see why the images at the start of the show are taking the headlines, they are very, very good.



Saturday 20 February 2010

Exhibition

It's been a stressful week or so, putting on our first group exhibition, there was a lot of tension in the group and last minute difficulties, but really looking at it last night, you really wouldn't have known. In fact, the day ran pretty smoothly, it all clicked at the right time yesterday and I feel everyone was proud of the work and the space we put it into. I think the space, being in Wimbledon (us being in Kingston) did cause a lot of difficulty, just because we really didn't know if it was going to be big enough, but actually there was plenty of space and it looked really, really good. Another tension was getting the work there, but overall that was pretty flawless aswell, it's a damn shame that it took so long for all of us to realise it was actually going to work very well, there was negativity from within the group which I know other people on our course knew of and it's a shame that it kind of took away from the exhibition itself.


'Mostro Dagli Occhi Verdi'

'Caterna Montunosa'

'Arte Rupestre' 

The exhibition itself, was called 'Routes' and was to do with a single tree in Bushy Park, in Kingston which we all went to and then went off and created work from. Most people only saw the tree once, which meant we all had a quite blurred vision of it and created vastly different pieces. A lot of them were to do with childhood and how we all felt when climbing about on the tree, that sense of not caring and being free. 

My work deals with illusion and imagination, the photos are all images from part's of the tree itself, but apart from the top photo, I feel you wouldn't get that at first glance and even as a set you wouldn't necessarily see the link, I want you to look at the photo's and get your own vision of what they are, taking of your adult glasses and just looking at the images and imagining. The titles of my pieces are what I saw when I first looked at them, but translated (hopefully well, but it only adds to it if not) into Italian.

Wednesday 17 February 2010

iphone photography

I've taken some intresting photo's with my iphone and its 'morelomo' and 'camerabag' apps. For a 3.2 megapixel phone camera it really isn't too shabby....in the light, probably for the best if you don't open them for a further look though, they loose quality fast.
 
  

The sun is shining

Well that has made me happier, there has been blue sky today, the sun has been shining and suddenly everything doesn't feel so bad. It also helps that I've had a successful day I went to the introduction to our 2 month workshop with Serena Korda today, it's called 'history was no longer real...' and will cultivate with a exhibition at the toilet gallery in Kingston. We will all be working from the idea's raised, of which it is hoped that we already are interested in.

I really feel positive about it, what Serena talked about today is how I would like to work, they are ideas which have been loosely bopping about in my head and things which I am very much interested in, in general. This group project will just mean that I will have to work within certain constraints which will hopefully ground me so I can create better work. Obviously everyone's finished pieces will be different, but as a starting point it very much excites me.

There are ideas of hyper-realism and questions of where the lines of the real and un-real are being blurred. What we see in the news, isn't neccessirily the truth, but rather its what we are told is the truth. I am quite a conspiracy theory nut, so this sort of thing really intrigues me. Aswell I have been watching a lot of newswipe recently (the charlie brooker program, one of the only shows I rarely miss) and I a lot of the things said about the media in that program relate to these idea's.

Photography is a key element in Korda's ideas, especially how it can be effected and how photography can show you something which actually doesn't exist, I had a tutorial yesterday with a tutor called Jeff and a lot of similar artist's and ideas for where I could go with my stop motion work were raised, this is the nail in the coffin really, I feel this is definitely the start of where it should go.

There's too much for me to write really, I'm inspired and that's important.

Tuesday 16 February 2010

Sunday 14 February 2010

Windows

I was walking back from work today and I couldn't help but look through people's windows, I think I do it often I might have just been more aware of it today, I really didn't realise how much I do it. I swear more people than usual had bright lights on. I would like to do a photo project of peoples windows, Im aware it's pretty darn rude and about as far as you can get from the done thing but at the end of the day its really quite a common thing, everyone has a little sneaky nose into a strangers house. It's kind of fun to see what stuff they've got and to be honest if its a brightly lit living room, surely you are kind of showing off your belongings anyway. Somewhere in your sub-concious you must put the 50 inch plasma screen in view of the outside world so you can show of a bit.

It's weird how ettiquette can get in the way of art, or more specifically it gets in the way of my art, I felt really strange when I tried to do work on the underground and couldn't get a lot done just due to how people may react. Overall though, its a public place, if your in a public space why can't I take your photograph, most the people on the tube are reading papers full of pictures from the paparazzi, so if we can stare at people just because they are 'famous' what's wrong with me taking a picture of you.

I am aware it is different and isn't all that plain sailing, I would feel uncomfortable with someone on the train taking a picture of me, but its weird how these things work...

Obviously taking a picture of someone's house would be considered extremely rude and if I caught someone doing that to me, to be honest I would feel a bit worried, scared and I don't really want to do that to people and I don't really want to do it incognito either, if people see you doing that, then you really are buggered, you could only really be fairly obvious about something like that. I would really like to try it, maybe as just a one day thing, just to try it out and see how it goes, I think I would have to be confident in how I take the photographs otherwise they just wouldn't come out very well so I would have to decide exactly how I would do it and stick to it.

I don't really know if I will go any further with this idea, people are entitled to their privacy and that's only fair, but I do think I could create some intresting work and also some intresting writing's on the subject, maybe I could just do some writing about it, in a similar flavour to 'the flaneur', whatever I do do, its nice to feel a bit excited about an idea, and I do feel it could go somewhere, I could link it in with my videos aswell, although standing outside someones house taking 500 photographs would definitely be odd...

Saturday 13 February 2010

Look, this isnt cheating

So yeah Im going to re-post a video today from a while back, its still my favourite video, not in terms of content but just in terms of how i filmed it and the fact it actually worked. I think I need to make more videos like this, showing the monotony of life, because I've gone down a different field recently, which isn't really doing it for me. The different angles make it a lot more interesting but because they are all still there is still the definition that you don't get in some of my newer videos.

Ive came to the conclusion that it needs to be the content that moves and not the camera for it to be a successful stop motion video, or at least if the camera did move it would have to be gradual and something that takes more time, maybe that's my problem when adding movement, I get bored and distracted easily so I tend to do things that won't take that much time so I will pay attention and hopefully do them well. So maybe until I can give it the time to do it well, I'll keep the camera still with just different angles.

Anyway, I'm reposting this video with music, from burial and it adds a lot more to it I think, giving it a different feel. What I also like about this video which has been pointed out to me, is that my reflection in the kettle, is like a self portrait and I like that a lot.

Friday 12 February 2010

Another Week, Another Blur

Seriously, how the hell is it Friday? What have I achieved with my week? I really don't know, It feels like recently the weeks are getting much shorter. I have made a few stop motions this week, but they were featured on my last blog because they weren't very good so overall there isn't a lot of positivity about this week. I could try and do one more today, but I also need to try and get my work printed for next week's exhibition, there's a week to go but I can't leave it till the last minute.

Couple of first's this week:
1. First day I've gone without dinner (as in evening meal not lunch) since I've been here. I'm usually a very hungry person, but I actually skipped a meal. Not really something to be proud of... but its a first.
2. First time I've ever cooked a steak, and I did a fairly good job.
2. First time I've successfully napped since I've been here. (This could be disputed, but I think I've only rested in the day previously)
Now the Third caused a very blurry day, after going out Wednesday night and actually getting up for a 10.30 seminar group show and tell thing, I got back slept and then was completely and utterly confused as to what day It was, what time It was, when I had gone to the seminar/if I had gone to the seminar and why I was clothed in bed (bad idea, I get warm when I sleep!)

But I still managed to go and see British Sea Power at new slang last night, now I won't lie, I didn't know a lot about these apart from they were mercury nominated, play very well live and I had a recollection of Waving Flags, but I checked them out on spotify yesterday and managed to convince someone to come with me and I'm really glad I went. They played extremely well, they have two singers which took around half a set each, which I really liked. Even though the crowd was a much more mature audience than usual for new slang, people still went fooking mental for them, which was good to see, due to tiredness, and not knowing the words, I stayed on the sidelines. The singers both have a weird creepy look as they stare out to the audience during songs, It was weird, but I liked that they were weird. The last song was madness, two of the band crowdsurfed whilst still playing instruments, they were climbing up on the PA's (that the staff weren't too keen on) and all in all looked to be having as much fun as we were watching them.
I'm definitely going to get more into them and hopefully watch them again some day.

Here's some random photo's from a while back cause I have nothing else to show for my day's. 

Wednesday 10 February 2010

Epic Fail

Short and sweet today, a couple of videos, I've been trying to put more movement into my stop motion videos, and the reactions I've got haven't been good and I dont really like them either. But its good to admit your downfalls and show your experimenting. So here's some experimenting. Two of them are from today, one of which shows the journey to get from wimbledon train station to our exhibition next week :)



Next was also from today, on a train, lovingly you can see my shadow for the whole video:



And last but not least, that awful one I talked about yesterday:

Tuesday 9 February 2010

Finally got my 8mm Camera in today and it looks great, even if I cant get any 8mm film to use it its a real cool collectors item, it comes in its own leather pouch and I can't get over what a good condition it is in considering it was so cheap. So thank you very much ebay.

Haven't achieved a lot with my day really, got woke up by my lovely housemate who decided she was doing work on a bus so I should go on the bus with her and do a stop motion video, it was a good idea, but it just didn't work. The bus was crowded, went on a boring route and when I finally did do a video, it came out appaulingly bad, unfortunately the light was all over the place so it completely ruined the exposure which once I've set it off can't be changed unless I stop the camera taking photos and start again, which simply doesn't happen when you are in a moving vehicle not controlled by yourself as the video would have leaped. So that was a shame, as a plus it was the first time one of my video's has gone badly.

Ive also started (rather lately) looking into studying abroad next semester, it really intrests me as I think it would change how I work, for the better and give me a massive bit of life experience, it would also put travelling and working into one so it beats a gap year. If that doesn't happen then I think I will definitely have a gap summer, I'm thinking of either treking it around europe or going a bit further a field, like a small few stop round the world trip or going around a big country like the USA. I'm not sure yet, but I've just got the travelling vibe and really want to do it.

Here's another video from yesterday:

Monday 8 February 2010

I went in a car today



I carried on with the car and motion themes today, by driving around and doing stop motion videos. I put the camera on the dash whilst my friend drove around Kingston. We managed to be taking the same route as a large van for quite a majority of the trip, which does effect the view a bit, but I like the idea and think im going to carry on with this transport route that I'm taking.
I'm still trying to think of an underlying concept and I think transport may be what I do for the moment, I feel like I have worked in similar ways before though so it would be nice to do something a little bit different to be honest.

I was thinking (and I don't really know where this would go) of working in quite a high concept way, by putting my life into blocks, a little like how I used to log my life. Working out how I live my life, or working out a way to live it best and then putting it into a rigid timetable. I kind of got the idea from a mix of talking about post modernism in art history today and thinking about the movie about a boy, when hugh grant says he puts everything he does into half an hour blocks, would be weird to see how that would work and how a rigid timetable would effect my life. But if my work was making and sticking to this timetable, what would I do with my life, as I would be the work. It would be like some crazy truman show with just one person.......

Its an idea....

Sunday 7 February 2010

in a roundabout way

Went to Jamie T at brixton last night, which was a really crackin night, he played impecciably well, played all the songs I would of wanted to hear, had loads of energy and a great crowd. I had heard good things so I knew it was going to be a good gig and he definitely delivered. It was nice that he played a lot of material from both albums, ending with the best songs from his latest album, 'Spider's Web' 'Sticks n Stones' & 'Chaka Demus' the last two of which were inevitable but great. One dissapointment I did have was 'Sheila' I think they played it perfectly well but for some reason It didn't do it for me, which is a shame because it was the song I first heard of his, long before his album came out, when it was a rough demo and even though it's been overplayed there is still a big place in my heart for it. I was glad he didn't focus on either album too much, although It did feel like a lot of the middle of the set focused on his first LP and they where possibly more of the ones that got the audience going, he did manage to play a majority of both albums of which I was very glad about as both are great.
With 'the pacemakers' it's like Jamie T takes a third branch, the 1st of which is a lone Wimbledon rapper with a acoustic bass, the second his new mature sound with a much more varied approach, in terms of instrumentation and vocals, whereas live with his band he kind of takes the best of both, the fun and freedom of his first album and the more mature full sound of his second. It works well and makes it very worth while seeing him live as you don't get a carbon copy of his album's material.
In all the getting into central london after work who-ha, I didn't get chance to post the 2nd video from the ones I did on friday. So here's the second one:


Friday 5 February 2010

Stop Motion

Although I've posted some stop motion recently I haven't gone out and made a new video in a week and a half at least, with other things taking priority and just having a lack of ideas. So I went back to basics today and just went and did something with it, I went into Surbition and shot some a lot of photos by the side of a roundabout, cause its always changing and also it was always busy I felt it was quite a good spot to do stop motion and I'm pretty happy with how they came out.

It was nice to do a bit of stop motion again, I think I'm going out to do some videos in a car next week, which should look pretty good, carrying on with the motion theme.

Surfer Blood

I saw Surfer Blood supporting Pete & The Pirates last night in Kingston and I am head over tails with them, I had listened to them before a few times and knew I liked their sound but after last night I can honestly say they are my top new band of 2010. Ive just bought their album 'Astro Coast' from 7digital and I didn't think was avaliable in this country yet, so im pretty excited about that. They are really worth checking out a lot of their songs are on their myspace. 'Swim' is probably there most infectious tune, but honestly every songs a killer, the album is a grower but if you get the chance to see them live, do so, because they really did kill it.

They've got a very surf, bluesy, american indie rock sound, I would say drawing comparisons with The Shins & We Are Scientists amongst others. I think with these and The Drums this could be the year of the surf rock revival.

And yes that's right I bought the album I am one of the few remaining people of my generation who buys music and I'm bloody proud. If your more of a single song kinda person I recommend Swim, Floating Vibes, Harmonix & Twin Peaks.

Thursday 4 February 2010

Routes

Well I spent the day today posting around the university the posters for our exhibition, quite tedious work but had to be done, there looking pretty good and with any luck it will be successful. We have tried to create a bit of mystery with our advertising by having posters that simply have drawings like these on them...
These children's drawings play around with the child-like concept that our exhibition has took on and hopefully will intrest people into finding out more (we've dotted the main posters around so you should be able to see it after seeing one of these ones.) Its turned out really nice and hopefully will be a successful piece of marketing, we dont expect many to come and dont have the room for it really either but a big turnout would be fantastic. 

The exhibition is on the 19th February 6:30 - 9:30  at 229 The broadway, Wimbledon, SW19 1SD. 
Its about a 5 minute walk down from the train station. Heres a map: 







Wednesday 3 February 2010



This is my friend laura making a lamp, which is a bit weird, but I was getting stuck for ideas, its part of her product design course and is something I may re-visit as the product gets more advanced. Once again I have used different types of shots and experimented and it is this rather than the source material which this video is about. There were more shots that I took and wanted to experiment with but a lot had to be canned so this is the finished product. The middle section of the video which looks different to the rest has an interesting feel to it and is something I quite like by itself, I definitely feel like this video has sections which even though are based around the same premise hopefully keep up intrest and feel to me like different scenes within it.

I am quite stuck for ideas, I've done quite a lot of different types of video's and would have hoped that I would be at this point and thinking I knew exactly where I wanted to go next with this project, but unfortunately I still don't really know. I am enjoying experimenting but at the same time I want a defined idea now, a concept on which to wrap this method around and for some reason I just cant get there. It is really quite frustrating, There's a part of me that thinks I'm not trying hard enough but maybe thats because usually its not this difficult. I like work to be natural, and a natural progression, I think that's a definition of a fine artist, there work progresses, something might take your intrest (i.e. Stop Motion) and swing you in a certain direction, but overall you progress through work. I do wonder sometimes wether this is really what I'm good at and really what I should be doing with my life, but at the moment it's this or selling phones - and to be honest I'm not amazing at that. I'm paying a lot of money to be here at the moment and although I am enjoying life, living by myself, earning enough to be able to get nice things, being at university, being with great mates, something's missing and sadly - I think it may be the art. I definitley have enough method's going around in my mind but something to bring it all together is missing. Concept's on the back of a postcard please. 

Tuesday 2 February 2010

Trees

A week ago I had an unsuccessful trip to richmond park the only good thing that came out of it was this very short video, which has a very freaky look to it, like im running do to the amount of pictures I took and the blurriness of said images, It's a shame I didn't take more as it looks quite good I think as another way to display motion and also speed.



On other tree related business later in the month im taking part in a group exhibition called Routes, which has an original premise based around a tree in bushy park, everyones work has moved on to different angles from the base material and its looking to be pretty interesting. Im one of 12 showing work and we are all first year fine art students at Kingston University.

I've designed the poster as well, which I'm pretty proud of as I don't draw often. 



In unrelated news, I've finally got my iphone, how did I manage without one all this time, It's got it's flaws but it really is the best phone on the market, there is just something about it. 

Monday 1 February 2010

Logging

I think it's important to look back at old work and not just forget it ever existed, unfortunately I do tend to do the latter more often than not. Last year a project which took my attention was a project I called logging, I logged down my life in a diary whilst at the same time I took photos and videos of me doing everyday things. The photos would be from an eye level point of view and consisted of a lot of journey's and motion, I liked creating still images which displayed motion and that kind of became the main focus of the work along with logging down all the events in my life. I've still got batches of photographs from these works and a lot became unused, or just used to a small degree, now im creating motion out of still images rather than trying to show motion in a single shot I thought that it would be interesting to re-visit that work and see how it works.