Afro Modern at Tate Liverpool

I found this exhibition really interesting but wanted to find out more. On their website they have some great talks about the work, artists and culture of the exhibition and i really recommend taking out a few hours to have a look!

http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/exhibitions/afromodernism/default/shtm

High Tide - at Liverpool John Moores University

'High Tide' is an exhibition showing 12 UK based artists with work based around issues of flooding, rising sea levels which links in with climate change. This is a popular issue at the moment so is a subject that really interests me. The artists involved were: Agata Alcaniz, James Brandy, Stuart Carter, David Haley, Gordon Maclellen, Jaqueline McCormick, Janette Porter, Tim Pugh, Scott Thurston, Elizabeth Willow and Robyn Woolston.

In a way the artists in this exhibition have looked to the future using art instead of science to try and predict what is going to happen in later years. I think its a great idea to use art to get a message across in a new and creative way.

The picture above is a piece from the exhibition i loved. It looks natural yet man made and reflects on the damages men have done to the planet. I love installations that are on the floor which made this exhibition flow from one piece to the other.

This exhibition shows that collaborations have a high creativity. More heads = more ideas and knowledge. Collaboration is a thing i haven't fully experienced yet so would be a good idea to rope in some of my friends and get feedback on my work and here their ideas and just get people involved!! The more people involved, the more people are likely to know about what your doing and may get involved themselves. It does show connections in the art world will pay off.

Sonia Boyce: Like Love- Parts One & Two

Part 1 of this exhibition was Sonia Boyce collaborating with young parents. She showed students videos of young parents talking and the show is based around their reactions. I like how she has asked people the same age to comment on each other because this could be a touchy subject. She created a range of work from words on window panels, to words on canvases, with the words being quotes from the students. One white canvas showed tiny letters scattered around saying, "I'm not a boy.. shhhh" to another one saying, "I think she wanted it". These quotes are quite hard hitting because at the end of the day a baby is life, where ever it came from and whoever id the parents.

For part 2 of this exhibition Boyce worked in collaboration with the Blue Room at the Bluecoat. She was working along side people with learning difficulties and talking to them about their love and life. The layout of the room was 3 TV screens on the wall showing 3 people from the Blue Room. The TVs start and stop to take it in turns for each person to talk about their love. While this is happening and you start to get to know these people there is a big projection on the wall with all of the collaborators dancing and having a good time on Crosby beach. The whole set up makes you feel enlightened to see people, previously discussing first loves and so on just simply having a good time.

There is many contrasts in this whole room to the stillness of TVs stopping to then the sudden movement and talking. The naivety of the people with learning difficulties to them knowing a lot. The dancing brings up the rehearsed and natural and from having a conversation to it being staged.

Action curated by Sonia Boyce

In the exhibition 'Action' curated by Sonia Boyce was an interesting mix of artists. There were two artists in particular who caught my eye; Appau Boakye-Yiadom and Beverly Bennett.

Appau Boakye-Yiadom's pieces were about objects having an inner-more. He makes such objects as jelly, melons and bubble gum have a personality and makes them come to life with no human characterises backing it up which i think is very clever.

The piece to the left is called 'Melon n ball' parts 1-4 which is a video showing the melon in four different scenario's. In this particular one the melon is hiding behind the ball and slowly starts poking out, as if it is shy.

Beverly Bennett is an interesting artist because her work is all about gestural marks. She wants to put a sense of unease to the viewer from scratching, dragging, piercing and cutting paper in a way that makes you almost feel sorry for the treatment of the paper. She uses pin, forks and knives as implements to create these pieces which once know makes the work make you feel even more uneasy, as if these implements were present.

In the picture to the left Bennett has cut tiny pieces of paper and pinned them in different arrangements on boards. The piece is disturbing because its almost as if shes torturing the paper; dissecting it into small bits and pinning down in a decorative way. I can honestly say this piece made me feel uneasy!

Rise of Women Artists at the Walker

This was an exhibition full of influential pieces through the times from women. The funny thing was some of the pieces may have been made by men.

I was really intrigued by the embroidery pieces you come across at the start of the exhibition. One by Edit Waterworth called 'Panel for fire screen' 1920 which gave the piece purpose as a household object. Waterworth was a student at Liverpool School of Art so its great to see local artist taking part in such an important exhibition. There is a very strong symmetrical pattern which makes this piece charming and can see past owners getting a lot of please out of it. The dears are a symbol of women, brings up roots in the past and screams British heritage. This piece is so close to home i love it but i wander if international artists would look at it as such a gem.

This piece to the right is 'English Family China' 1998 by an artist called Christine Borland. In this picture is porcelain skulls of different sizes with Chinese style paintings on them all laid out on tables. This piece is about the import and export of cotton slaves to help Liverpool's industry which reflects with the material of porcelain. The way the skulls are arranged on dissection tables symbolise the breaking up of families during the slave trade. This shows that the way artists arrange their work in a space is important and can increase the meaning of the work. I think the skulls are beautifully made and are very British.

In my work i need to start thinking of how to present my work a bit 'mad'. I have always been interested in how canvases are hung so i drew a canvas that could be hung any way but it depends on which way you see it to what you see in the picture and which bit stands out.


I these pictures you can see different things more prominently when the canvas is turned. See if you can spot where the train and smoke is coming from, the penguin, octopus, and the silhouette of a person smoking.

Janek Schaefer: Sound Art (at the Bluecoat)

Janek Schaefer's exhibition: Sound Art was very interesting and inspirational works. In this exhibition Schaefer had 6 different works on show from his past 20 year career as well as his newly commissioned pieces.


Two of my absolute favorites are:




"Recorded Delivery" 1995 where Schaefer posted a self editing recorded (it only turns on when there is noise) in a parcel from Exhibition Road post office and recorded all of the sound till it reached its destination at Acorn Self Storage Centre, Wembly, London. I think this piece of work can be used to show how clever Schaefer is. The noises that were captured were singing, radios, doors shutting and captured workers in the post office having a rude discussion. I think this piece worked out better than Schaefer may have expected with the added humour at the end. The simple presentation is all that it needs to set the scene!






"Pickup Putdown" is a single helium balloon attached to the needle on a turn table. The turn table is on and is spinning a record around. You cant hear the record because the balloon has control of the needle. This is a kind of situation when the temptation is too great. To find out what is playing on the record you have to pull the helium down. It has a sense of surprise to listen what song you have landed on. This is a cheeky piece tempting in the viewer to touch which is different to normally being restricted in galleries to touch the work. The whole look of "Pickup Putdown" puts an instant smile on my face and makes me think about my childhood and the excitement of helium balloons!

(That's not actually a picture from the exhibition, just an example for you all!)

Wrong Love volunteering - 13/02/10

On the 13th of February me and a few others volunteered to help out at 'Wrong Love' an A Foundation live art event. It was a night of performances and installations from different artists dealing with unconventional love (and believe me it was very strange).

We all view love and Valentines day as hearts, and roses, nice gifts, couples going out, kind of sunshine, lolly pops and rainbows. This exhibition made me open my eyes to the fact that there is more to this commercialised day, there is more to love and how it works. And love does have a bad side.

What fascinated me about this night was the layout. There were different artists and performers hid in small rooms and up stairs and people were cuing to get to the 'Kissing Booth' which was an installation. So it felt a bit sneaky and private to look into these rooms which added to the atmosphere of the night.

However there were also installations sharing a big warehouse space. At the center of it all was Richard Profits Indian house. The performers shared the space and it felt almost like a free for all because the audience was very much involved which was very exciting. I've never considered performance art but i am really interested in film and advertising and after this exhibition i find myself wandering where my work could go with some performance. If i experimented with atmosphere in spaces, i think to fill one with people and have random performances happening from people in the crowd would bring everyone together. Nobody would know who was an artist, but are the audience also the artist just for being there and taking part?

Adam Chodzko lecture 10/02/10

Adam Chodzko talked about a range of his work but one particular piece really stuck me as being creatively different. He has a very global/local approach to his work for e.g:
"Better Scenery" 2000 is a sign in a Sainsbury's car park in London with directions to get to a particular spot in Flagstaff, Arizona where there is a sign with the directions on it to get back to the same Sainsbury's car park.


























I think this idea is brilliant, clever and one of those pieces you think, 'I wish i thought of that'. It is dealing with globalisation in such a different but straight to the point way. It feels quite surreal to have these directions that will take you to a completely new scenery, from an industrial, busy London car park, to a desolate, quite spot in the Arizona. It got me thinking that if i followed these directions not knowing where i was going to end up, which one out of these scenic places would i prefer and which place somebody from Arizona would prefer.

The piece is potentially claustrophobic for sole purpose would be to travel to see the other sign which also makes them dependant of each other. This got me thinking is my own art work dependant on anything or anyone. To live without my computer and camera i would struggle with the process of my work. I wonder if it would be a good experiment to leave technologies alone for a few weeks and see where my work would go. Be dependant on myself and my surroundings.

Space Invaders Exhibition At Fact

Space Invaders is a exhibition for everyone. It was very inspirational to see a game in the exhibition, "Flower" by thatgamecompany and Sony Playstation that i have already completed at home on the PS3. It is a very beautiful and relaxing game and it makes me think how other passions in my life can be used in my art work. Even the littlest of things. I used to think that to have a passion for something it would have to be something profound such; being a gamer and knowing all the new releases (which i certainly don't) and playing all the games, but i only had a passion for one particular game. How ever small something is there is still room for becoming obsessed.

Ive started think about other things which are passions i may have never noticed before:
1. Saving Christmas and birthday cards (who doesn't?!)
2. Tea (i love tea!)
3. McDonald's (its an everyday habit)
4. Wind turbines (love the structure and landscapes their found in)

.. etc.


I have become much more aware of ways in which to bring things i will enjoy into my work.

Up For Arts

On Saturday 30Th January i went to 'Up For Arts' day hosted by BBC Radio Merseyside. It was a really fun and was all hands on. I had a go at wood turning and made myself a very snazzy egg,

learnt the a great way of making ceramic pots and tiles,

and had a go at doing some origami jewellery.

Learning new skills is a fulfilling experience. Especially when you find a skill you love which for me was making the origami jewellery. I am definitely going to experiment with other ways i can use this skill in my work. For example i am thinking for some of my collages i can use these beads with poems and hidden messages on them, which is where my work was heading. It will be fun to see what word on the bead will display once it has been made as well having a relaxing session of work!

Mark Lechky Lecture At The Cornerstone 14/01/10

Mark Lechky is an entertaining lecturer. He had me engaged from the start. One of the things he was discussing was how he thought art is no longer engaging with the physical object. He explained how he thinks walking round a gallery with paintings and objects is a thing of the past. His argument for this was once something is digital you can copy it, paste it change it and make it with little cost compared with having to spend for example, to make a painting will come with the cost of the paints, canvas, brushes e.c.t. Once something is digital for example, stop start animation will involve a camera, the pictures you take cost nothing, to load them up to your computer and arrange them will cost nothing and then posting your video on YouTube or a website will cost nothing yet the exposure is still there. It brings up the question that is exposure for an artist over the Internet greater than exposure in a gallery? To make it far in the art world you may not even have to leave the house!

This made me start to think about how far is digital media going to go and how fast it is growing. In my work i tend to go towards traditional techniques, such as sowing by hand, printmaking and knitting but am going to start using more digital processes as a change. I am excited to see where this will take me with my project to date. I will always love traditional techniques but for some processes this could make my project develop faster which is a great skill to have when your working to a deadline.