The New Years Resolution

So the holiday season is over, and its time to get back to work and stop drinking so much (well, its time to get back to work at least).

I must admit when we finished for our Christmas break I had a massive action plan which in no way was going to be ignored. I wouldn't say I ignored it so much as over thought it, and from then on I started, once again to question the what's the why's and the how's in far too much detail without really achieving that much.

And so my new years resolution (cheesy as this may sound) is to Think, Create, Evaluate, because I feel that the only way to truly understand how something will work out is to attempt it and see how it works in reality. I hope this is a good strategy because nothing ever seems to work exactly the way you imagine it.

Last term I had been trying to relate the contour lines of topological maps with the volume of facial features. I also experimented with the idea of creating volume by bending the canvas boards I had worked onto after becoming aware of Serra's sculptures. The possibility of a multi canvas image was also considered, and over the holidays I created a few photographic maquettes in order to try and get a feel for how a composition could be reached and its effect. The two options vary immensely, the atmosphere and meaning would be totally different.

Freelancing and Self Employment in the Creative Industries' Event

Freelancing, I think is a route that the majority of we creatives (including me) must aspire to, because it gives us the freedom to do what we love and develop our career around it. Which is why when we received an email the other day about this event I was really excited to attend.  


Yesterdays (12th Jan) event began with introductory speaker Kevin McManus, (Director of Merseyside ACME), giving a talk about ACME, a body which was created in 1997 to support and develop the Creative Industries Sector in Merseyside. He spoke about other start up schemes such as 'Vision and Media' who help to grow the digital and creative industry in England's Northwest by delivering projects and programmes that help creative companies and individuals. Beforehand I didn't even know these organisations existed. As far as I was concerned, after uni I would be alone. So to find out about this was really very comforting! I hope that one day I can make use of these opportunities. 


The prospect of the Kin 2 Kin network was something I found really exciting too. It is a professional 'Myspace', where entrepreneurs can create their own profile about their business, something which would work well as an online portfolio or even as an advertisement to sell work and to inform people of events  one may be organising.

The next talk, 'Top Tips for surviving as a freelance' by Neil Lewis (leader of Media Modo) was mainly about networking and creating a business plan. Yet another thing I hadn't given much thought to, but I am certain this information will be an invaluable resource in the future. One piece of advice he gave was to create your own website This is something I would really like to learn to do for myself. Another was to consider how you will be paid, by hour? or by project? I think personally I would choose the latter.

  

The afternoon's session was ‘Speed dating’ with industry experts Lucy Byrne (from Dot-Art) and Alex Corina, ( Freelancing Artist). It was very good to get an insight from people who are actually in the business and to hear their thoughts on how it works. Although after listening I realise I may have been seeing  the life of an artist through rose tinted glasses, but it has by no means put me off pursuing such a career. It has, however, furthered my intentions of getting a more stable job as support to begin with.

The finale of the day was a a panel questions and answer session with people and agencies that are avaianle to help starting businesses.  Again it was very interesting to hear the ins and outs of the industry from a variety of perspectives. 

Overall the day really helped me to think about the furture in a more realistic manner. I plan to visit the carrers adviser to discuss what is possible for me after univertisy.

Biennials

There are many biennials around the world. I have been lucky enough to have visited two - the Biennale Di Venezia and The Liverpool Biennial. Biennials are often brought into cities as a means of regeneration, attracting tourism and revenue. The Liverpool biennial was initiated in 1999 and contributed to the accolade of European Capital of Culture 2008. The Liverpool Biennial was devised as a ‘collaborative model for engaging art, people and place’ and claims to bring ‘art that is challenging, uncompromising and free thinking’. I would definitely agree that our local biennial achieves this. Pieces such as Ai Wei Wei’s ‘Web of Light’ 2008, A-APE’s ‘VisableVirals’ 2010 and Cristina Lucas’ ‘Touch and Go’ 2010 break out from the conventional gallery settings and move into the public view. ‘Web of Light’ was art as a spectacle, an innovative new form of art to attract and engage the tourist. ‘Visible Virals’ were art in the public realm, regenerating the city landscape and involving the people of Liverpool and its visitors and ‘Touch and Go’ again built on the fabric of the city, making visitors aware of its economic history but also making them politically aware. This aspect of Biennials is something I feel is very important for the progression of the art world. It gives a chance for innovative art to advance and also generates a festival form of art, which attracts and involves people.

However the Liverpool Biennial follows the conventional rules more than the Biennale Di Venezia. The rigidity of the Giardini exhibition area in Venice means that the biennale is more static rather than engaging the general public.

In my opinion the Liverpool Biennial is more successful because it infiltrates the public awareness more, not relying on national kudos but involving a truly international audience.

I have enjoyed exploring this year’s biennial, and have found it an invaluable resource. I feel that by having such close contact with an event such as this helps you understand and appreciate the art more, and helps you to relate/ link works that you might have missed otherwise.

Late Night at the Bluecoat

I went to The Late Night on the 18th November. It was the first time I had visited the Bluecoat. I went to the printing workshop for a while and watched the performance in the courtyard, but I was most interested in the current exhibitions there.

Ranjani Shettar’s beautiful cast bronze sculpture fascinated me. She has used an unconventional method of bronze casting to express her interest in the collision of industrial and the organic. The method used is called wax casting. It is actually an traditional/ outdated form of casting where the molten bronze is poured into channels leading to the ‘cast’. The works we are shown here would be remnants of those channels and, sadly would traditionally have been disposed of.

I think that she is wise to have used the wax casting method as it has more of a organic, human touch, yet her use of the metallic material give us an essence of the industrial.



I also made a point to go and see Nicolas Hlobo’s ‘Ndize’. I was made aware of his work a few days previously when curator of the bluecoat, Sarah Parsons, came to speak to us. She told us how most of the communication about the exhibition was made over the internet and how, originally the plan was that the piece was going to be hung from the walls. It was only a few days before the opening when the work was brought from overseas into the gallery that they realized the brackets and walls would not support the weight. So they had to rethink the presentation.

I found the story really interesting and wanted to see how their problem was resolved. The colourful objects were placed on the floor with ribbons leading up and out of the room. I see how the piece has changed. It is possibly more static than planned, however I imagine the effect is quite similar due to the ribbon gives fluidity and elevates our view.

Andy Holden Performance

I just wanted to mention the performance by Andy Holden at the Victoria Gallery a few weeks ago. Until then I had never really experienced a performance piece, so I didn’t know what to expect. But I enjoyed it very much! The performance consisted of six pieces of experimental music played with a live string quartet. As the quartet played the first piece, a film of one of Holden’s sculptures rolled in the background. It was amazing how the film and music linked together so well, and how the music affected the mood of the film so much.

Holden had performed the first three pieces at Tate Britain, however we were very honoured to be the first to hear the newly composed second half. I feel that these were more enjoyable, because of their more experimental qualities. For one piece Holden, the conductor and the string quartet simultaneously read out information about the geology, geography and history of one particular rock. It was impossible to understand but the information was all nonetheless there. This reminded me of the internet. There is so much information given to us everyday and when its put in front of us so blatantly it seems quite humorous, shocking but definitely humorous.

John Moores Painting Prize... The Oscars Of Painting??

At the beginning of the year I visited the John Moores Exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery and I must say I felt a bit scandalized by the winner. I wanted to know why this painting had won such a presigous award, and so when we were asked to do a literature review for our LSA2003 module I decided to vent my anger by doing a little bit of research.

I really enjoyed what I learned and just wanted to share this with you too.

‘Spectrum Jesus’ by Keith Coventry was the 2010 John Moores Painting Prize winner. The piece depicts the face of Jesus Christ. Coventry, who was inspired by the art forgeries Han Van Meegeren produced of master Johannes Vermeer, has in turn taken Meegeren’s ‘Christ’ and forged it in the style of German Expressionist Emil Nolde. This renewed image ‘offers subtle contemplation on the notion of the original and the copy’ – Stephen Deuchair (director of the art fund). Although the contemporary piece does have similarities to the original in composition and choice of subject, in my view other aspects such as palette and quantity, and thus meaning have changed.

Spectrum Jesus is just one of a group of around forty images from Coventry’s ‘Repressionism series’. The works were originally intended to be viewed as an installation depicting Christ in the form of a spectrum. Coventry embraces “the literal idea of Christ as 'I am the light'”, and maintains that “the display of these paintings in a row is a way of showing that element." Coventry claims that the main element he admired inVan Meegeren's fake Vermeer was its expressionist quality, yet felt unable to capture “that kind of spiritual look.” He therefore decided against expressionism, “to go for an idea that I have called 'repressionism', meaning that, as I worked on each of the canvases, bringing the tones closer together, eventually all the expressiveness of each one would be completely wiped out, leaving little except the texture of the paint." Both these statements speak of the work as a whole but for practical reasons the installation could not be exhibited in its entirety. However, analysing just one piece out of context we cannot evaluate the work in such a way. In my opinion, the rest of the work is undone and the singled out piece affects us in a different manner to that originally intended. We find ourselves looking more closely at the brush strokes and aspects such as the reflective glass for extra meaning.

The reflections of the glass give an added dimension to the piece. Coventry’s work often shows an interest in the dark flipside of idealism; urban decay, social failure, drug abuse and alienation. The reflections are said to ‘slow the experience down’ which allows the viewer to take in the image. I feel there is an added dimension of the viewer seeing his own reflection in the glass and therefore seeing himself within the image alongside Christ. In my view, associating a religious icon with such negative contemporary themes may be a judgement on society. This may allude to the loss of morality in modern day life or possibly the loss of spirituality.

I agree that the piece, when viewed as a whole series, has achieved meanings on many different intellectual levels. However, when the single frame is separated from the series it loses its impact.

In conclusion a painting that relies so much on external props for its relevance - the reflective glass in front of it and its inclusion in an installation – cannot be judged as a painting in the purist sense. Moreover I question whether an exhibition, described by some as ‘the Oscars of painting’, should so readily accept recycled art.

Han Van Meegeren

Emil Nolde

'Spectrum Jesus' series by Keith Coventry

Painters at Renshaw

I will discuss the biennial exhibition at Renshaw Street once more. This time I will talk about the pieces of work I felt the strongest attachment to when walking round, and still weeks on remain strongest in my memory.

Those who know me best will know that these are of course, the paintings. The first painter whose work we are introduced to is Zbyněk Sedlecký. These pieces are very large in scale and despite his use of acrylic on canvas he chooses to water down his paints like water colours. His quick style depicts vaguely recognisable features such as tall buildings and people. Because of his gestural style his work has a sense of time, much like a long exposure on a camera. He has also incorporated the use of linoleum and wooden panels into his work, this has the effect of distorting the view point. Are these part of the image, something obstructing our view or something else?

Another artist whose work interested me was Aime Mpane. His work is not strictly painting but his choice to work on a 2d surface and system of creating compositions lends itself to this section.
The biennial handbook tells us, ‘Mpanes work focuses primarily on the legacy of colonialism on the African continent’. The violent action of hacking portraits into wooden boards represents the scars left behind, even today, on the indigenous people.
The work is quite political and in my eyes, due to the tactile qualities and the physicality has been executed in a very powerful way.

I know we're not meant to have favourites, but after our initial visit I returned to the old Rapid building a few times just to see Tim Eitel’s ‘Matratze’ paintings.
His compositions, which make statements about desolate humanity, are very powerful. I feel this is due to the isolation of particular components. The biennial handbook tells us ‘he is nevertheless interested in understanding what type of images are retained by our minds from the overwhelming flood of mass communications.’ On reading about his process, I found that he first makes photographic documentation by taking snapshots of compositions that unexpectedly catch his attention, and then he will extract selected elements to become the core of the painting. I find that this method of filtering away the unnecessary factors makes a simpler yet stronger statement.