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.