I have been looking at the video work of Chloe Piene as she is interested in youth culture. In The Woods, which was shown at Liverpool Biennial in 2002, Piene filmed a group of teenagers in a 'mosh-pit' in a club-like setting. Piene then slowed the video and sound down so that it highlighted the ritualistic type behaviour of hardcore music fans dancing to their favourite music in a group. Similarly in Self Portrait, 2002, Piene drew a crowd of metal fans to a concert and filmed herself crowd-surfing among them. She used a spotlight on her body so that she would become over-exposed; creating an ethereal, glowing, almost religious figure above the metal fans. This again references religious and tribal themes.
In other video works, such as Blackmouth, Piene shows a frustrated young girl in isolation - showing the power of the human body as the girl howls; presenting herself as a hybrid between human and animal. Piene films herself in this same way in You're Gonna Be My Woman; where she is isolated and trapped in a concrete cube; appearing erotic and tortured, almost possessed by demons. Both of these films were also edited and slowed down as part of Piene's signature style.
I'm interested in similar themes to Chloe Piene - in youth culture, and shared experiences such as clubbing and going to concerts, very similar to those that Piene depicts. People feature strongly in her work, which is something I am keen to develop; I like the contrast between some of her videos which depict large groups of people, and others that show a lone person in isolation. My work has been described to sometimes look like that of a 'journalist photographer' as I depict students isolated, as though there is a spotlight on them. Light is very important in Piene's work as it is in mine; figures often have a spotlight on them, and the work has a 'glow' to it - which I am starting to include a lot in my paintings. The colour, or the 'glow', aiming to sum up the atmosphere of the memory. Piene's tribal themes really interest me; - showing teenage behaviour as cult-like and ritualistic. I think student culture and nightlife can be similar to this. It has made me think more about other scenes I can depict. As Piene has also focused on revelers; it has made me think more about the UK riots that happened in 2011, across various cities in Birmingham. I might start collecting some images of this to work from, as it is a recent experience that we all have memories of; as it was so widely covered in the media at the time. I want to now start collecting my images from video footage; as the stills of Piene's work I have here have an 'in the moment' quality, as they are like action shots; which I think could really improve my work.
Wednesday, 10 April 2013
Eberhard Havekost
Havekost creates his paintings from his own collection of photos and videos - digitally altering the original image. The alterations are generally subtle - such as a slight change in hue, and then these changes are then translated into painting. The paintings are therefore slightly inaccurate perceptions - adjusted versions of the truth, but they actually end up making more visually pleasing images as he reaches an 'ideal image'. Havekost is interested in the city and modernist buildings, - interested in politics and the idea of a failed utopia. His work doesn't seem overtly political though - there isn't any emotive or protest-style language - but one of banality. Havekost crops images and uses extreme close-ups, which make his work almost pure abstraction.
The process of Havekost's practice is very similar to mine in that I also collect photos and video footage from the media, and then digitally alter them. However, I also emulsion print them, in order to 'lose' even more of the image (before re-scanning and re-editing). The digitally altered images then provide plans for paintings. Havekost's images veer towards abstraction and there is an ambiguity to them - much like what I try to create with my own paintings. I want the viewers to be able to 'fill in' the story - to work out the narrative of what is happening within the images, as so much of it has been erased. Havekost's paintings also look like memories, in that they look fleeting; snapshots of time and place. I am trying to create the same thing within my own images - a collective memory of an era; a summing up of time and place. I'm also interested in the city and this dystopian view - but not so much the banality of ideal image of it. I want to show 'truth', or at least the perception we might have of an event through the media. As I am working with collective memories that I want viewers to recognise - even in my abstractions I need to keep an element of truth or familiarity, so that viewers can recognise what the images are relating to. Havekost generally creates a series of several paintings and displays them together, so they become part of a story; filling a narrative. I am hoping to do the same with my own work - create a series of images that relate to the collective memories of my generation/fellow students, and that refers to life in the city.
The process of Havekost's practice is very similar to mine in that I also collect photos and video footage from the media, and then digitally alter them. However, I also emulsion print them, in order to 'lose' even more of the image (before re-scanning and re-editing). The digitally altered images then provide plans for paintings. Havekost's images veer towards abstraction and there is an ambiguity to them - much like what I try to create with my own paintings. I want the viewers to be able to 'fill in' the story - to work out the narrative of what is happening within the images, as so much of it has been erased. Havekost's paintings also look like memories, in that they look fleeting; snapshots of time and place. I am trying to create the same thing within my own images - a collective memory of an era; a summing up of time and place. I'm also interested in the city and this dystopian view - but not so much the banality of ideal image of it. I want to show 'truth', or at least the perception we might have of an event through the media. As I am working with collective memories that I want viewers to recognise - even in my abstractions I need to keep an element of truth or familiarity, so that viewers can recognise what the images are relating to. Havekost generally creates a series of several paintings and displays them together, so they become part of a story; filling a narrative. I am hoping to do the same with my own work - create a series of images that relate to the collective memories of my generation/fellow students, and that refers to life in the city.
Wednesday, 27 February 2013
Merlin Carpenter
Merlin Carpenter's paintings juxtapose models and actresses over disconnected painterly backgrounds. Carpenter collects images from fashion magazines and appropriates them onto an abstract ground. Carpenter's work plays with themes of authorship, the relationship between contemporary and more historic image-making, and the cult of commodity. I like the way in which Carpenter combines elements of photorealist painting on top of much hazier and loose abstract painting. In this painting, Carpenter also uses a monochrome colour scheme for the background, further emphasising the distinction. I am interested in a similar process of working to this, - using both hazier and more detailed elements. I often isolate the people in my work from the background in the same way that Carpenter has. I also collect images from magazines and newspapers, and then combine them with my own photographs, to create a separation and fragmentation between layers of the image. I like carpenter's technique of painting in very different styles, so that the viewer's attention is first drawn to the model, before looking at the background. In this painting, a sense of the importance of the commodity in society is given simply through only two images, plus the titling of the work. Clues are given to the viewer as to whether this is a comment on society, and possibly a negative one at that. My work is about society and our shared experiences, and I also want to create paintings that reflect on current themes and issues; possibly using concerning images but not painting them in a negative way. I don't want my paintings to appear immediately negative to a viewer; if there is any negativity I only want this to be a more subtle undertone.
Cecily Brown
Cecily Brown's paintings have fluidity to them - plenty of oil is used on the surface of the canvas which creates a sense of flow and motion as the paint blends together. The content of the imagery itself may be slightly more negative and grotesque, but Brown buries this underneath folds and swirls of paint, leaving remainders of the original image as clues to the viewer of what they are looking at. I really like how hazy and blurry this particular painting is; as though it is a dream or memory that keeps drifting out of focus. I like that the painting style is leaning towards abstraction in a lot of Brown's work, and there is something aesthetically pleasing about the paint, but then slightly more sinister images unravel in the paint. I am interested in creating paintings with elements similar to this one - with parts that are blurry and hazy, and slightly cover a more negative undertone. I'm not interested in creating paintings that are fluid and painterly all over in the same sense of this; I want there to be parts of the image that are more blurry, and other detailed elements to create contrast within the image. I want there to be a focused element; so that the viewer has a focal point and then can try and work out the rest of the image which fades away to nothing. I like this technique to try and recreate how memories drift in and out of focus in our mind; and the edges sometimes fading away completely.
Michael Raedecker
Michael Raedecker's paintings are often of empty buildings; imaginary looking scenes that we may have seen in a film or dream, that appear uninhabited and lonely. There are never any people in the paintings, just empty shells where we can imagine what's inside. Raedecker uses acrylic paint and thread on canvas - using thread to build up detail and density. The rest of the canvas tends to be blank colour; adding to the isolation of the buildings. The colour schemes Raecker uses tend to add to the unsettling quality of his canvases; gloomy colours and shadows; but with the buildings emanating light, making us intrigued to what lies inside. There is no obvious narrative to Raedecker's work, instead he allows viewers to make this up themselves. He gives clues towards a narrative through depicting parts of a scene and creating atmosphere in his paintings.
In my own work I am starting to look at creating canvases that look at society, but have a more sinister undertone due to the colours used. In my Carnage Bar Crawl paintings I started to do this, where I isolated two students and detached them from the scene and the crowd. I put a spotlight on them, in the same way that Raedecker puts a spotlight on his buildings; through colour and isolation. I am interested in having mainly one part of detail on the canvas, and leaving the rest blank in the way that Raedecker does. It highlights part of the story without giving too much of the narrative away. In terms of memory, it emphasises that we don't have perfect recall; only remembering parts of an event, and other parts are much more hazy or even obsolete. In my work on Jessops and HMV closing down, I have started to look at qualities similar to that of Raedecker's paintings - the lack of people or presence of life which take away clues of time and place. We know that the administration of Jessops/HMV is a recent event, but our knowledge of that is the only clue, as the emulsion prints don't hint at whether they are set in the past, present or future. I'm becoming more interested in this slightly dystopian view of society - images of society with a slightly concerning undertone; - of shops closing down, students misbehaving and youths rioting. Although I used to create fairly obvious narratives by collaging several images on the wall, I am now interested in displaying only parts of the story, just clues, in the way that Raedecker does. I want to enable the viewer to fill in the rest of the narrative of what the work's about.
In my own work I am starting to look at creating canvases that look at society, but have a more sinister undertone due to the colours used. In my Carnage Bar Crawl paintings I started to do this, where I isolated two students and detached them from the scene and the crowd. I put a spotlight on them, in the same way that Raedecker puts a spotlight on his buildings; through colour and isolation. I am interested in having mainly one part of detail on the canvas, and leaving the rest blank in the way that Raedecker does. It highlights part of the story without giving too much of the narrative away. In terms of memory, it emphasises that we don't have perfect recall; only remembering parts of an event, and other parts are much more hazy or even obsolete. In my work on Jessops and HMV closing down, I have started to look at qualities similar to that of Raedecker's paintings - the lack of people or presence of life which take away clues of time and place. We know that the administration of Jessops/HMV is a recent event, but our knowledge of that is the only clue, as the emulsion prints don't hint at whether they are set in the past, present or future. I'm becoming more interested in this slightly dystopian view of society - images of society with a slightly concerning undertone; - of shops closing down, students misbehaving and youths rioting. Although I used to create fairly obvious narratives by collaging several images on the wall, I am now interested in displaying only parts of the story, just clues, in the way that Raedecker does. I want to enable the viewer to fill in the rest of the narrative of what the work's about.
Friday, 22 February 2013
William Hogarth
William Hogarth was a famous painter and engraver in the 18th century. He became well-known after the publication of the first of his 'modern moral subjects'; a series of 6 engravings named 'A Harlot's Progress'. This was then followed by 'A Rake's Progress'.
In 'A Harlot's Progress' the miserable fate of a prostitute is narrated through six scenes; from her becoming a prostitute, to her death, and funeral. After the success of this series, Hogarth created 'A Rake's Progress'; in which eight pictures depicted the life of a rich merchant's son, who wasted all of his money on gambling and living luxuriously, and ended up in Bedlam Hospital.
Hogarth's work was very popular and was printed numerous times, because it was a comment on society at that time. Hogarth depicted society from a satirical viewpoint; one which was much more rarely shown at the time. He was the equivalent to a social/documentary photographer, or journalist, in today's terms. He drew inspiration from culture and subjects around him.
I am interested in this idea of depicting real-life society, the culture and shared experiences of what's going on around me. Although I have been working on creating a narrative within large-scale collages, I am now interested in creating a larger series of paintings, which create a narrative through the solitary images, in the same way that Hogarth's does. With Hogarth's images, the viewer can fill in the narrative themselves; which was obviously much more familiar and everyday to viewers at the time; adding to their pool of collective/shared memory, in the same way that photographs do today.
In 'A Harlot's Progress' the miserable fate of a prostitute is narrated through six scenes; from her becoming a prostitute, to her death, and funeral. After the success of this series, Hogarth created 'A Rake's Progress'; in which eight pictures depicted the life of a rich merchant's son, who wasted all of his money on gambling and living luxuriously, and ended up in Bedlam Hospital.
Hogarth's work was very popular and was printed numerous times, because it was a comment on society at that time. Hogarth depicted society from a satirical viewpoint; one which was much more rarely shown at the time. He was the equivalent to a social/documentary photographer, or journalist, in today's terms. He drew inspiration from culture and subjects around him.
I am interested in this idea of depicting real-life society, the culture and shared experiences of what's going on around me. Although I have been working on creating a narrative within large-scale collages, I am now interested in creating a larger series of paintings, which create a narrative through the solitary images, in the same way that Hogarth's does. With Hogarth's images, the viewer can fill in the narrative themselves; which was obviously much more familiar and everyday to viewers at the time; adding to their pool of collective/shared memory, in the same way that photographs do today.
Elizabeth Peyton
The portraiture of Elizabeth
Peyton is distinctive in style; focusing mainly on iconic celebrities; often
men. Her first well known series of portraits were of Kurt Cobain. Peyton is
interested in the cult of celebrity of her time; and collects images from
magazines to work from. Her work was very much inspired by the public domain.
The painting technique is lovingly rendered, as though she has a devotion to
her subjects. Peyton went on to paint political leaders, actors, and her
boyfriends in this same way; her admiration for them is evident through the way
that she paints them.
I am starting to look
into painting myself now, and my paintings of students have an element of
portraiture painting about them. Although my most recent work depicted students
being sick and acting drunkenly; feedback was that I had painted them in a
loving, caring way; as though I was obsessively drawing it from the original
photograph in places; similar to how Peyton does. I like this idea of painting
potentially negative scenes in an attractive way; so that they have the
aesthetic qualities of portraiture, but the content of something slightly more
negative and dystopian.
Peyton works with
images from public domain; working with collective imagery – in that the
subjects are iconic, as well as the original images; through being repeatedly
printed in magazines and posters. I also draw imagery from similar sources. I
have used journalist's images from newspaper articles in a lot of the Carnage
bar crawl work I have produced. I like mediating imagery that might have once
been familiar to an audience; they may have seen the original images in newspapers
that I have worked from. I have appropriated them so they may still seem
familiar, or other viewers may not realise. The 'carnage' t-shirt that features
in a lot of my recent work is an item of clothing that is identifiable to
students nationwide: it is the ticket itself to the biggest annual bar crawl,
and looks the same year-on-year. As I am interested in the shared experiences
of my student generation; I like that student viewers of my work will instantly
recognise which event the work is about, and most likely have their own
personal memories of it. Yet someone not in this collective; an older/younger
person might not be familiar with it, and would just associate the work with youth
generally from an outside perspective.
I want to experiment
more with painting; exploring how brush marks, light and focus can create an
atmosphere. This might help the viewer fill in the narrative, as I have started
to leave more of the image blank.
Wednesday, 30 January 2013
Gillian Wearing
Gillian Wearing is photographer and filmmaker that documents shocking, and sometimes amusing behaviour of the people of Britain. Wearing is interested in society and the British public. Most famously Wearing stopped the general public and encouraged them to write the first thing that came into their heads onto a piece of paper, and then would photograph them with it. The piece became a social commentary as it revealed the private thoughts of the public and brought them into the public sphere.
In the piece Broad Street, 2001, Wearing presented a six-screen colour video projection which lasted 40 minutes, and depicted the social scene of Broad Street in Birmingham on an average night. The piece showed people drinking, smoking, dancing and getting in and out of taxis. Unfortunately I haven't actually seen the piece within the gallery context - I have had to interpret it mainly from stills of it in books and online, so therefore my perceptions will be skewed. Apparently the surrounding video projections caused the viewer to be disorientated, - almost replicating the feeling of being inebriated and in a busy club. I, too, have been looking at creating the effect of a 'drunken haze' by using blurry lights; sometimes soft, and sometimes eratic. I also blur other parts of the image and erase other parts to further the effect. Wearing chose to film Birmingham as it is her hometown; and she wanted to show the culture of nightlife that was happening here at the time. I'm interested in creating work for the same reasons - I have also been creating work based on Birmingham Broad Street, as I want to look at the student nightlife and binge-drinking culture that is currently happening in Birmingham. The reason that I am interested in Birmingham is that I'm interested in the city, as well as the crossover of personal and collective memories of myself and other students living here for University. I have been taking my own photos and stills from videos similar to Wearing, but also collecting images from the media and online. Looking back at Wearing's work now, (at Broad Street, which is over ten years old), it really sums up an era. The fashion; hairstyles and people smoking indoors are all giveaways to the time in which the video refers to; even if at the time it was just 'current'. I want to sum up recent years in Birmingham in the same way - using similar hints to the time and place. Wearing's aim is to honestly depict life and life around her; which is really what I want to do. I am interested in the shared experiences of today and of recent times - drawing inspiration from society.
In the piece Broad Street, 2001, Wearing presented a six-screen colour video projection which lasted 40 minutes, and depicted the social scene of Broad Street in Birmingham on an average night. The piece showed people drinking, smoking, dancing and getting in and out of taxis. Unfortunately I haven't actually seen the piece within the gallery context - I have had to interpret it mainly from stills of it in books and online, so therefore my perceptions will be skewed. Apparently the surrounding video projections caused the viewer to be disorientated, - almost replicating the feeling of being inebriated and in a busy club. I, too, have been looking at creating the effect of a 'drunken haze' by using blurry lights; sometimes soft, and sometimes eratic. I also blur other parts of the image and erase other parts to further the effect. Wearing chose to film Birmingham as it is her hometown; and she wanted to show the culture of nightlife that was happening here at the time. I'm interested in creating work for the same reasons - I have also been creating work based on Birmingham Broad Street, as I want to look at the student nightlife and binge-drinking culture that is currently happening in Birmingham. The reason that I am interested in Birmingham is that I'm interested in the city, as well as the crossover of personal and collective memories of myself and other students living here for University. I have been taking my own photos and stills from videos similar to Wearing, but also collecting images from the media and online. Looking back at Wearing's work now, (at Broad Street, which is over ten years old), it really sums up an era. The fashion; hairstyles and people smoking indoors are all giveaways to the time in which the video refers to; even if at the time it was just 'current'. I want to sum up recent years in Birmingham in the same way - using similar hints to the time and place. Wearing's aim is to honestly depict life and life around her; which is really what I want to do. I am interested in the shared experiences of today and of recent times - drawing inspiration from society.
Tuesday, 29 January 2013
Muntean and Rosenblum
Muntean and Rosenblum create large-scale paintings of adolescent figures, often set in urban landscapes. The paintings are almost cartoon-like and show contemporary society. The individuals in the images look young and trendy; casual, but also slightly bored and disengaged. Although their clothing and fashion sense is what places these paintings into modern day, the actual painting style seems to reference the Renaissance; as they sometimes have dramatic landscapes and have an almost theatrical composition of people. Beneath the imagery is text, almost like comic-book style captions but it is far less explanatory and more philosophical than comic book text. The text could be a commentary on modern society but only if we want to make that link; as the phrases could be interpreted in different ways by different viewers.
In my own work I am interested in depicting the generation of the urban youth, similar to Muntean and Rosenblum. I find their work interesting because of how nonchalant the adolescents look; pictured casually doing everyday things. I like this idea of the subject matter being current or everyday life; - I'm not interested in creating drama or depicting particularly unusual scenes. I like the idea of capturing a sector of society, or creating a picture or mirror of society, not with commentary or judgement; just to show today's times. Muntean and Rosenblum also focus on urban settings which I'm also interested in. I live in the city so it's easy to draw inspiration from that, and it's where a denser population are. I'm not particularly interested in the classical style painting of Muntean and Rosenblum's work, but I am interested in the content. I might try and add more painting into my work in the future though, as feedback seems to be that people find most of my work to have a painterly quality.
In my own work I am interested in depicting the generation of the urban youth, similar to Muntean and Rosenblum. I find their work interesting because of how nonchalant the adolescents look; pictured casually doing everyday things. I like this idea of the subject matter being current or everyday life; - I'm not interested in creating drama or depicting particularly unusual scenes. I like the idea of capturing a sector of society, or creating a picture or mirror of society, not with commentary or judgement; just to show today's times. Muntean and Rosenblum also focus on urban settings which I'm also interested in. I live in the city so it's easy to draw inspiration from that, and it's where a denser population are. I'm not particularly interested in the classical style painting of Muntean and Rosenblum's work, but I am interested in the content. I might try and add more painting into my work in the future though, as feedback seems to be that people find most of my work to have a painterly quality.
Saturday, 5 January 2013
Marianne Hirsch
Marianne Hirsch coined the term 'postmemory', and talked about it in relation to Boltanski's work. Postmemory describes how memories are inherited by the second generation after a traumatic event; their transmittance is so strong that they constitute memories in their own right, even though they happened before their births and are in fact their parents’ memories. Hirsch developed this notion in relation specifically in relation to children of Holocaust survivors; but believes the theory can be transferred to other second generation memories of traumatic events. The children of Holocaust survivors have their own memories of the trauma, even though it was the experiences of their parents; due to the passing on of information and images the memories become the child’s own. Hirsch is interested in how we remember this traumatic event; often recalling familiar images that we have seen through photography, film, television, art and cultural artefacts. Even more widely, I think the holocaust has come to be something that we all remember, even those of us that have no personal relationship to it, through the documentation and photography we still see.
Christian Boltanski
Christian Boltanski uses photography to evoke the past in his
work; particularly relating to collective memory of the Holocaust. Boltanksi is mainly
interested in the tragedies of the Holocaust, and uses photographs; often of
Jewish children, to serve as a reminder to the viewer of the horrors that
occurred during the Holocaust. Boltanksi works with a wide range of media
comprising of sculpture, installation, photography, film and painting.
Boltanski’s installations awaken memories of the Holocaust; whether it is that
these memories are personal, collective, real, invented, or imagined by the
viewer. The installations usually comprise of close-up photographs (of
Holocaust victims, we presume); which are found photographs that Boltanski has
re-photographed, cropped and enlarged, causing the facial features to lose clarity
– similar to the blurry nature that our mental visualisations of a memory might
have. The photographs are displayed with black desk lamps placed very close to
the images, which aim their light right at the centre of the faces, giving us sinister
ideas of torture and interrogation. Boltanski then adds sound, light and
objects to awaken our senses and cause involuntary associations with the
Holocaust. Boltanski’s added objects might include clothes, which are evoke an
emotional response as we presume them to be the clothes of the people
photographed. The clothes match the photographs as they appear archival in
nature. Boltanski deals with memory by presenting documentation of survivors’
lives: - their clothes, their photographs, their possessions, which he
describes as ‘small memory’. His installations are almost like altarpieces;
their use of candles and shrine-like display making us associate them with a
commemoration of death.
In The Storehouse, Boltanski displays seven
enlarged photographs of young girls resting on piles of unlabeled biscuit tins
containing scraps of fabric. Archives,
1988, is of a similar nature; in which Boltanski displays thirty photographs,
each atop a biscuit tin with an individual lamp. Both works appear to be an
archive, or perhaps a memorial, of Holocaust victims’ lives. The biscuit tins,
which in the past were often used as a safe and easily locatable place to keep
the family documents, are displayed, weathered and rusty; having connotations
with the past and the preservation/store of memory. The photographs are
black-and-white, blurry and enlarged, appearing to be old and faded. Boltanski
uses titling to suggest possible meanings to the viewer. The titles of two of
his works, The Storehouse, which could
be describing memory itself, and Archives,
both refer to documentation of the past. This is further emphasised by the aged
biscuit tins and faded photographs. The work becomes about collective memory
because of the sense of anonymity. Unlike Goldin’s photographs, where the
viewer is looking at the artist’s own personal memories, here the viewer is
confronted with the memories of anonymous people. The faces are intentionally
blurred so that their features lose definition and become unrecognisable. The volumes
of unlabeled biscuit tins also add to the idea of a collection of unnamed
people.
Boltanski doesn’t actually use ‘true’ images; - the photographs of
supposed Holocaust victims are in fact of random school children, which are
from magazines and newspapers, and other found sources. Boltanski then edits
them in a way to forge an aged quality to the image, making viewers think they
are old photographs. In my own work I am interested in editing photographs so
that the viewer believes them to be something that they are not. I am not
trying to create a fake ‘archive’ of a past event in the same way Boltanski does,
but I do want my photographs to appear general enough that viewers can attach
their own memories to them. Boltanski blurs the facial features of people in
his photographs, which helps to add anonymity to the piece; making it more
relatable to collective memory. This is a technique that I could use myself
when I am using images of people in my work. Although I am interested in
Boltanski’s work because it relates to collective memory and uses photography,
I don’t want to display my work in the same way. Boltanski focuses heavily on
the ‘archive’ and his work is very static in nature. What I want to do is
create pieces of work that portray what we might mentally visualise when
recalling a memory. It needs to appear more fleeting and have more life than
Boltanski’s.
Thursday, 3 January 2013
Marcel Proust
As the idea of 'memory', the struggles of perfect recollection and collective memory, have been an inspiration for my practice I decided to do some reading into memory itself. While I have been reading about memory mainly from a psychological and scientific point of view, I decided to read Marcel Proust's novel In Search of Lost Time, to get a more philosophical scope on the subject. Proust coined the term 'involuntary memory' in Swann's Way (Vol I In Search of Lost Time). Proust distinguished between voluntary and involuntary memory; voluntary referred to a person consciously trying to recollect a past memory, whereas an involuntary memory is when a sensory experience might trigger a memory. Familiar smells and tastes might take us back to our childhood without us actively trying to recall that memory. For example, the taste of children's sweets or smell/texture of plasticine. Within the novel there are several occurrences in which a sensory experience triggers a memory for Proust. The most famous of which is when the taste of a madeleine cake invokes a memory of his childhood:
(Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time: Swann's Way).
If I am interested in the idea of collective memory I need to think about how I can trigger a memory for a viewer. There is a difference between a viewer seeing my work and consciously trying to recall similar memories, which would be a 'voluntary' memory, or whether the memory is triggered for them by familiar imagery, smells and sounds etc ('involuntary' memory). At the moment I want to continue concentrating on solely imagery in evoking memories for the viewer. I need to get better accomplished at the techniques I am currently using before I can think about introducing more performative aspects to my work.
If I am interested in the idea of collective memory I need to think about how I can trigger a memory for a viewer. There is a difference between a viewer seeing my work and consciously trying to recall similar memories, which would be a 'voluntary' memory, or whether the memory is triggered for them by familiar imagery, smells and sounds etc ('involuntary' memory). At the moment I want to continue concentrating on solely imagery in evoking memories for the viewer. I need to get better accomplished at the techniques I am currently using before I can think about introducing more performative aspects to my work.
Tuesday, 6 November 2012
Liverpool Biennial - Leung Mee-Ping
'Out of Place', 2012
Leung Mee-Ping's videon installation was also part of the Biennial and was located in the Copperas building Liverpool. The installation consisted of six videos, which were projected onto screens that were hanging from the ceiling, that you had to walk between in order to view what was on all sides. The videos were set in six different places: Hong Kong, Beijing, Tokyo, Smokey Mountain Manila, Bangkok and Varanasi. They depicted busy city life and traffic. As a viewer, you walk through the projections as though you are walking through a city. The camera viewpoint is very much from the eyes of the viewer, as though it is a simulation. The work is interesting because we feel as though we are there, and these are our own memories and experiences. Some of the videos are walking down a busy street, where people push past you and you feel as though you are in the way. The uncomfortable feeling of constantly being in the way and out of place, causes you to keep moving around the space, watching all of the videos. The sounds of traffic, car horns, people talking all add to the stressful scene. I think this was a really successful piece in creating what the artist intended; to make the viewer feel out of place and lost in a different culture. The screens are slightly high up, so that the crowds are too tall, making you feel small and even more lost and insecure in this new world. If I was being critical, I do think the screens could do with being slightly lower, just so that the viewer can implicate themselves in the scene even more so. I found this piece interesting for the same reasons that I found Edward Kienholz's 'Sawdy' interesting - the viewer feels as though they are in the scene, which is a really useful technique for my own themes to do with shared experience and collective memory.
Leung Mee-Ping's videon installation was also part of the Biennial and was located in the Copperas building Liverpool. The installation consisted of six videos, which were projected onto screens that were hanging from the ceiling, that you had to walk between in order to view what was on all sides. The videos were set in six different places: Hong Kong, Beijing, Tokyo, Smokey Mountain Manila, Bangkok and Varanasi. They depicted busy city life and traffic. As a viewer, you walk through the projections as though you are walking through a city. The camera viewpoint is very much from the eyes of the viewer, as though it is a simulation. The work is interesting because we feel as though we are there, and these are our own memories and experiences. Some of the videos are walking down a busy street, where people push past you and you feel as though you are in the way. The uncomfortable feeling of constantly being in the way and out of place, causes you to keep moving around the space, watching all of the videos. The sounds of traffic, car horns, people talking all add to the stressful scene. I think this was a really successful piece in creating what the artist intended; to make the viewer feel out of place and lost in a different culture. The screens are slightly high up, so that the crowds are too tall, making you feel small and even more lost and insecure in this new world. If I was being critical, I do think the screens could do with being slightly lower, just so that the viewer can implicate themselves in the scene even more so. I found this piece interesting for the same reasons that I found Edward Kienholz's 'Sawdy' interesting - the viewer feels as though they are in the scene, which is a really useful technique for my own themes to do with shared experience and collective memory.
Edward Kienholz, 'Sawdy', 1971
In the Tate Liverpool this week I saw this piece by Edward Kienholz. The scale replica of a car door is mounted on the wall, and is made from materials including metal, glass, plastic and rubber, amongst other things. On walking up to the piece, the window is already wound down, and you look beyond it to work out what is depicted. The scene is set in America, and shows a group of white men castrating a black man, surrounded by four parked cars. The viewer is immediately implicated in the scene as you feel as though you are sitting in one of the pickup trucks, looking out of the window and watching this attack occur. The window of the car is mirrored, showing your own reflection and forcing you further to place yourself in the scene. The image is a dark side of American contemporary life. In my own practice I am interested in British contemporary life and the shared experiences of my generation, but from a much more lighthearted point of view. I like the viewer to see themselves in my work as though they could be looking at their own memories, and I think Kienholz has done this so successfully by creating a scale replica of a car, which we are all familiar with being in and looking out the window. It places you directly in the scene. Most recently I created a piece that was based on an experience of a music festival/outside gig. I wanted to create the feeling of being in the crowd, so I tried to make other crowd members life-size, as though the viewer would be standing behind them, having a slightly blocked view of the stage. I think I could have done this a lot more successfully by depicting the people in the crowd that would be standing directly in front of the viewer more clearly, and experimenting with altering the perspective so that they were more or less focused, depending on which worked best. I do like this technique of making work of memories as though it is from a person's eyes though, as it implicates the viewer in the scene. It is useful for my theme of collective memory, as it suggests that my work could be the memories of any viewer.
Monday, 5 November 2012
Liverpool Biennial - Yukinori Yanagi
Pacific, 1996
When I originally saw this work I wasn't so much interested in the flags or worried too much what the piece was about - but I was immediately intrigued by the materials used in the piece. The flags were presented in perspex boxes, and inside are flags which look to have eroded somehow. I initially thought that this was polystyrene, that had been rubbed away in parts, as the texture looked very similar. On reading up on the piece I discovered that it was in fact sand inside the perspex boxes, and ants had been released inside them, to create these tunnels between the grid-like flags as a comment on migration. It's the idea of erosion and the fading of the bright flags that I am drawn to. I think because they are images that we all recognise so much, it makes the fading away of them even more symbolic. I am interested in this idea of fading away in my own work, in relation to memory. Yanagi's piece has made me think more about my own work. Although I have since found out that it is made from sand, I am interested in my initial misconception of it being made from polystyrene. I would like to try using polystyrene in my own work to create some of the fragmented images; cutting it away or using certain liquids to dissolve parts of it and make it disintegrate.
When I originally saw this work I wasn't so much interested in the flags or worried too much what the piece was about - but I was immediately intrigued by the materials used in the piece. The flags were presented in perspex boxes, and inside are flags which look to have eroded somehow. I initially thought that this was polystyrene, that had been rubbed away in parts, as the texture looked very similar. On reading up on the piece I discovered that it was in fact sand inside the perspex boxes, and ants had been released inside them, to create these tunnels between the grid-like flags as a comment on migration. It's the idea of erosion and the fading of the bright flags that I am drawn to. I think because they are images that we all recognise so much, it makes the fading away of them even more symbolic. I am interested in this idea of fading away in my own work, in relation to memory. Yanagi's piece has made me think more about my own work. Although I have since found out that it is made from sand, I am interested in my initial misconception of it being made from polystyrene. I would like to try using polystyrene in my own work to create some of the fragmented images; cutting it away or using certain liquids to dissolve parts of it and make it disintegrate.
Liverpool Biennial - Jakob Kolding
This week I visited Liverpool to have a look at the Liverpool Biennial. I was quite interested in the work of Jakob Kolding, which I found in the Bluecoat's exhibition space. Inspired by modernist architecture and city life; Kolding works with collage and collective imagery, such as pop-cultural sources like music and football. Kolding is interested in the idea of 'local identity', and creates posters and maquettes based around this theme.
As I walked into his exhibition the first thing I noticed was the lack of colour, all of Kolding's selected work was black-and-white. A lot of the work is also quite minimalist in nature - sometimes with only a few small images on a page. Generally his work has the feel of old newspapers; a lot of the images are pixelated as though they are small images found from secondary sources which have been enlarged, reducing the picture quality. The connotations with architecture are strong - his work is very structured, using bold designs and layouts, and he also creates cardboard maquettes which immediately remind me of an architect's model. It's the more minimalist prints that I find the most interesting. I think they're simple and effective, and relate to themes that I am looking at in my own practice. The large amount of white space in the images makes me think of the absence of memory, and the use of pop-culture/secondary imagery, makes me think of collective memory and the idea of shared experience. In my own work I generally work with layered rectangles which mirror the dimensions of standard photographs, as I am interested in the relationship between photography and memory, but Kolding carefully cuts around details that he wants to display. I would like to try this technique of cutting around the details of images I am collaging, so that I am clearly selecting parts of an image, creating isolated parts of a memory.
Thursday, 1 November 2012
Roland Barthes - Camera Lucida
Recently I have read 'Camera Lucida' by Roland Barthes, which is a far more personal approach to an analysis of photography than Susan Sontag's. His problems with photography stem from his search for the 'perfect' picture of his dead mother. The first part of the book Barthes takes a more objective viewpoint of photography, and identifies two planes of an image. He calls the one the 'studium' of an image, which is the subject and meaning of the photograph. The other, he names the 'punctum', which refers to the aspect or detail of an image that hold our gaze. Barthes writes about the punctum as often piercing through the studium of a photograph. It's the second half of the book where it becomes more moving, when he writes more about his grief for his mother's death and begins searching for a perfect picture of her. Barthes wants to find a picture of his mother that encompasses everything he remembers about her visually, as well as summing up her personality, which proves to be an almost impossible task. He eventually discovers a photograph that depicts the 'air' about his mother, when she was aged only five. There is an immediate sense of jubilation as Barthes finds this picture and has an onrush of emotions triggered by her photograph and the memory of her. Barthes never shows the photograph, making it clear that it is a personal journey: 'It exists only for me. For you it would be nothing but an indifferent picture.' This is the thing about personal photographs; - other people's are rarely interesting because we have no personal attachment to it, there is no 'studium' as Barthes would put it. This is why I am far more interested in the idea of collective memory rather than individual memory. My search for photographs tends to be the opposite to that of Barthes', I am interested in images that are not personal, that anyone may have already seen in real life. My hope would be that viewers might believe they have already have experienced the memory, even if they remember it just through looking at the photographs and starting to believe that the images are familiar and in fact their own memory. Barthes' view on photography is that 'it actually blocks memory, [it] quickly becomes a counter-memory one day, some friends were talking about their childhood memories; they had any number; but I, who had just been looking at my old photographs, had none left.' I find this idea of memory being replaced by memory really interesting, we start to forget what we actually remember and what we have just been shown through images. Barthes' view on photography in relation to memory is not very different from Susan Sontag's, who writes that photographs are 'not so much an instrument of memory, as an invention of it or a replacement.' [Susan Sontag, On Photography, pg. 165].
In my work I am interested in depicting the visualisation of a memory. I try to do this through fragmentation - some part of the image are photographs (some clear, and others less so), to refer to the idea of photographs filling in the blanks of our memory, or even replacing it. In other parts of the image I like to use other methods such as drawing and painting, to portray the other parts of a memory, possibly the less well remembered; what there are no photographs of to serve as a reminder or memory replacement.
In my work I am interested in depicting the visualisation of a memory. I try to do this through fragmentation - some part of the image are photographs (some clear, and others less so), to refer to the idea of photographs filling in the blanks of our memory, or even replacing it. In other parts of the image I like to use other methods such as drawing and painting, to portray the other parts of a memory, possibly the less well remembered; what there are no photographs of to serve as a reminder or memory replacement.
Wednesday, 31 October 2012
Susan Sontag
Recently I have read 'On Photography' by Susan Sontag, to get a better understanding of photography itself as a medium. Sontag generally raises issues of a photographic world replacing the real one, and talks about a culture that is becoming increasingly obsessed with images. Sontag talks about photography as a replacement of reality. We have become reliant on photographs as a way of preserving and freezing moments of time. Images are everywhere - and we regularly experience things through photographs before we experience them in reality. An example of this would be holiday brochures: - we don't need to go to the place to experience it when we have a photograph. This also takes away from the virginity of a new experience. Since the invention and ever widening use of social networking sites I think this has gone to another level - I, and many others in my generation, see so many photos of our friends' daily lives now that we almost live through them, and they become our own memories too. We are constantly looking at other people's memories. I think social networking sites really confuse and blur the line between individual and collective memory, as we blog our own personal thoughts and photos, but this gets framed alongside everybody else's and becomes a wider, more collective narrative reflecting today's times. I find myself sharing in my friends' experiences through their photographs. As Sontag states: 'essentially the camera makes everyone a tourist in other people's reality, and eventually in one's own.'
In terms of photography in relation to memories, Sontag states that photographs are 'not so much an instrument of memory as an invention of it or a replacement', highlighting that photography can be used as a replacement of memory, but it will never be that memory. 'Photography implies that we know about the world if we accept it as the camera records it. But this is the opposite of understanding'. This is interesting in terms of preserving memories, as we have become reliant on photography as a way of freezing moments and serving as a reminder or explanation of the past, but we can't always believe that what we see in a photograph is a true reflection - seeing a memory is not the same as understanding it, feeling it and recalling it involuntarily. That would be what we truly remember, if our memory hasn't been infiltrated by photographs. Sontag states: 'of course, photographs fill in blanks in our mental pictures of the present and future', further emphasising that photographs do act as a replacement of memory some instances. In my own work I am interested in this idea of seeing a memory in photographs, or at least certain parts of it being replaced by photographs; whether that be our personal photographs or ones that we have seen in mass media, or possibly more commonly nowadays, on social media sites. I am intrigued by the struggle of what we actually remember and what has just been filled in by photographs.
In terms of photography in relation to memories, Sontag states that photographs are 'not so much an instrument of memory as an invention of it or a replacement', highlighting that photography can be used as a replacement of memory, but it will never be that memory. 'Photography implies that we know about the world if we accept it as the camera records it. But this is the opposite of understanding'. This is interesting in terms of preserving memories, as we have become reliant on photography as a way of freezing moments and serving as a reminder or explanation of the past, but we can't always believe that what we see in a photograph is a true reflection - seeing a memory is not the same as understanding it, feeling it and recalling it involuntarily. That would be what we truly remember, if our memory hasn't been infiltrated by photographs. Sontag states: 'of course, photographs fill in blanks in our mental pictures of the present and future', further emphasising that photographs do act as a replacement of memory some instances. In my own work I am interested in this idea of seeing a memory in photographs, or at least certain parts of it being replaced by photographs; whether that be our personal photographs or ones that we have seen in mass media, or possibly more commonly nowadays, on social media sites. I am intrigued by the struggle of what we actually remember and what has just been filled in by photographs.
The Forum: Memory
I listened to a radio programme called 'The Forum' on BBC Radio Four, as the episode was titled 'Memory', and looked into the idea of memory itself, asking questions on why and how we remember things. The discussion was led by radio presenter Bridget Kendall, and the guests were Dorothy Bohm, a documentary photographer, Raymond Tallis, a neuroscientist (who now writes about the relationship between science and philosophy), and Zinovy Zink, author of 'History Thieves', a book in which he unravels his family history.
The broadcast was really interesting as it posed questions that I am really interested in in my work - why are memories formed? What impact do they have? Do we distort memories?
Photographer Dorothy Bohm very much uses photography as a way of capturing time and preserving memories. She mentions putting 'a limit to forgetfulness'. She also states: 'In my photography, I hold time. I have a picture of a child, and that child will be a child forever.' I think this really says something about the permanent and static nature of photography. Once something is photographed, it lives on for as long as the photograph survives, which, in the age of digital photography seems infinite. Printed photographs would eventually fade and become damaged and worn, but taking a photograph today feels as though it will exist forever, whether that be on computers, cds, or online. I think photography really does fill in the blanks for forgotten memories, but it also fails to tell the whole story and can fail to preserve a memory in this way.
Bridget Kendall suggests:
'The power of a visual image can imprint on your brain in such a way that all your other memories somehow get elbowed out, don't they? Do you sometimes feel that photography can do that, that it can preserve memory, but perhaps it also distorts the whole picture of what could be there as memories?'
I have recently been reading Susan Sontag's 'On Photography', and she tends to agree with this idea that photography can be linked to the distortion of memory, stating: 'photography implies that we know about the world if we accept it as the camera records it. But this is the opposite of understanding, which starts from not accepting the world as it looks.' Sontag also states 'photographs fill in blanks in our mental pictures of the present and future.' Sontag suggests that photography can distort memory, and mental images can be confused with photographic images.
I was interested to hear about memory from a neuroscience point of view, but Raymond Tallis stated that 'neuroscience can tell us very little about memory.' I think this is why I am so intrigued around the subject of memory - there seems to be no explanation as to how and why we visualise our memories. Raymond Tallis stated that memory is 'a present experience of a past experience' which I thought was a succinct way of describing it.
Raymond Tallis: 'what's already starting to emerge from our discussion is the extent to which memory isn't something utterly solitary and individual which you can find in the darkness of the individual skull, it's something that's collective, and shared.'
'We are, unlike any other creatures, part of a community of minds. We have a shared explicit public arena to which we together refer and we pay joint attention, once a prime example of that of course is that form of pooled memory called 'history'.
'But one of the quite disturbing things, and there is evidence of this from Psychology, that every time you recall a memory, you change it... that's what I find quite disturbing, even when you're trying to narrate your own life accurately the very process of doing it and telling yourself about yourself distorts what it is that you're trying to capture.'
This is what I find particularly interesting about memory - the ever-changing distortion of it. Things come in-and-out of focus for different reasons; stories possibly exaggerating certain parts, photographs filling in blanks, parts becoming completely forgotten. I think memory is very much a living thing, parts of it decay over time if you abandon them and don't recall the memory, whereas other parts become prominent and remain detailed if you think about them a lot, or if they have a lot of significance to you, and especially if you have photographs that serve as a reminder.
Raymond Tallis: 'I don't think that memory is entirely internally constructed; it has external constraints and external checks, and the very fact of making sense of ourselves in the context of public understanding of what we are, or an understanding of what we are that's drawn from public discourse.'
This is really interesting for me as my work deals with the idea of collective memory, and Tallis here suggests that memory is very much constructed by both the individual and the collective. We are affected by everything around us, and this all feeds into our memory.
The broadcast was really interesting as it posed questions that I am really interested in in my work - why are memories formed? What impact do they have? Do we distort memories?
Photographer Dorothy Bohm very much uses photography as a way of capturing time and preserving memories. She mentions putting 'a limit to forgetfulness'. She also states: 'In my photography, I hold time. I have a picture of a child, and that child will be a child forever.' I think this really says something about the permanent and static nature of photography. Once something is photographed, it lives on for as long as the photograph survives, which, in the age of digital photography seems infinite. Printed photographs would eventually fade and become damaged and worn, but taking a photograph today feels as though it will exist forever, whether that be on computers, cds, or online. I think photography really does fill in the blanks for forgotten memories, but it also fails to tell the whole story and can fail to preserve a memory in this way.
Bridget Kendall suggests:
'The power of a visual image can imprint on your brain in such a way that all your other memories somehow get elbowed out, don't they? Do you sometimes feel that photography can do that, that it can preserve memory, but perhaps it also distorts the whole picture of what could be there as memories?'
I have recently been reading Susan Sontag's 'On Photography', and she tends to agree with this idea that photography can be linked to the distortion of memory, stating: 'photography implies that we know about the world if we accept it as the camera records it. But this is the opposite of understanding, which starts from not accepting the world as it looks.' Sontag also states 'photographs fill in blanks in our mental pictures of the present and future.' Sontag suggests that photography can distort memory, and mental images can be confused with photographic images.
I was interested to hear about memory from a neuroscience point of view, but Raymond Tallis stated that 'neuroscience can tell us very little about memory.' I think this is why I am so intrigued around the subject of memory - there seems to be no explanation as to how and why we visualise our memories. Raymond Tallis stated that memory is 'a present experience of a past experience' which I thought was a succinct way of describing it.
Raymond Tallis: 'what's already starting to emerge from our discussion is the extent to which memory isn't something utterly solitary and individual which you can find in the darkness of the individual skull, it's something that's collective, and shared.'
'We are, unlike any other creatures, part of a community of minds. We have a shared explicit public arena to which we together refer and we pay joint attention, once a prime example of that of course is that form of pooled memory called 'history'.
'But one of the quite disturbing things, and there is evidence of this from Psychology, that every time you recall a memory, you change it... that's what I find quite disturbing, even when you're trying to narrate your own life accurately the very process of doing it and telling yourself about yourself distorts what it is that you're trying to capture.'
This is what I find particularly interesting about memory - the ever-changing distortion of it. Things come in-and-out of focus for different reasons; stories possibly exaggerating certain parts, photographs filling in blanks, parts becoming completely forgotten. I think memory is very much a living thing, parts of it decay over time if you abandon them and don't recall the memory, whereas other parts become prominent and remain detailed if you think about them a lot, or if they have a lot of significance to you, and especially if you have photographs that serve as a reminder.
Raymond Tallis: 'I don't think that memory is entirely internally constructed; it has external constraints and external checks, and the very fact of making sense of ourselves in the context of public understanding of what we are, or an understanding of what we are that's drawn from public discourse.'
This is really interesting for me as my work deals with the idea of collective memory, and Tallis here suggests that memory is very much constructed by both the individual and the collective. We are affected by everything around us, and this all feeds into our memory.
Saturday, 20 October 2012
Richard Hamilton
Richard Hamilton's collages really sum up Pop art and the feeling of that time. His work shows how advertising and mass imagery influenced interior design. It's interesting how his work becomes about memory and nostalgia for current audiences, but at the time it wasn't to do with that at all - it was about modern life. The use of magazine cuttings and and mass imagery from the time makes modern day viewers immediately think of the 60s. I like the idea of collaging imagery associated with a certain time in the past, to trigger memories for people, and to enforce this idea of 'shared' memory. The use of mass media is a really useful way of getting across this idea of collective memory, and shared experiences of the masses as most people have seen this sort of imagery.
In modern culture other things that we have in common are material things such as fashion/gadgets and media such as TV - which can show a certain era and trigger memories for people. I have started collecting imagery from magazines, but I'm also combining these images with my own personal imagery as I am interested in the relationship between personal and collective memory.
In modern culture other things that we have in common are material things such as fashion/gadgets and media such as TV - which can show a certain era and trigger memories for people. I have started collecting imagery from magazines, but I'm also combining these images with my own personal imagery as I am interested in the relationship between personal and collective memory.
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