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.

Subway art

When your out and about, in a different country or just travelling through your daily routine there is a lot of information to take in along the way. But if we stoped and took a chance to look there is so much more out there.

I find it a shame that some art can get trapped and only be avaliable to certain people for example here are some pictures from the New York City subway where above ground travelers wouldnt get the chance to veiw the work.

I find this work quite futuristic and abstract. I like the use of sharp yellow lines creating squares and corners and cutting inbetween the circular and cylinder shapes.

The wall was a huge mosaic and the yellow waves crawling up the wall remind me of chinease art and links in with the practical work im producing now.

From researching into subway art i came across the Moscow underground and made me re-think about exposing this kind of art in other places. This underground is beautiful and the unexpected feeling of going down and seeing such an environment is partly what makes this underground unforgettable.

Nikolay Shumakov is the cheif architect for the Moscow underground. He has been an architect for over 40 years and most of his career he has commited to this project. In the 1930's the idea of building places underground was imerging and one of the Soviet Unions main priorities was to make them exquisit, and they did just this through the means of architecture.

Several hundered people were working on the subways 24 hours a day and makes you apreciate that it wasnt knocked together, it is actually a complete work of art.