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Final video for assessment 3.

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Artwork chosen for class activity

Betty Muffler

Ngangkari Ngura (healing country)

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Home Less

by Amy Blanchard

Home Less is a three-part body of work that explores the impact of different levels of homelessness in Australia. While all three works can be stand alone pieces, together they are fundamentally linked not only as an art work but for their inherent representation of Society’s failings. Human relationships with the environment have a long history of destruction in the pursuit of improvement and the impact it has on society can be devastating. Through this work I am exploring infrastructure, mental health issues and the humans basic need for security and shelter. In his influential paper of 1943, A Theory of Human Motivation, the American psychologist Abraham Maslow stated that at the core, humans must have their physiological needs such as food, shelter and safety met first in order to be able to live a satisfactory life. These basic needs are what are compromised when shelter is lost or taken away. [i]

Part 1 – Unravelling is a visual representation of the increasing infrastructure of Sydney and its surrounding suburbs. To ‘build a better city’, the new structures have increased the value of properties and therefore the rental affordability has become unattainable for the majority. Governments current neoliberalism structure has meant that only people with high incomes can afford the luxury of living within a few hours of Sydney and this has pushed out many individuals and families which has a detrimental impact on the diversity of the city. This work shows Sydney literally unravelling under pressure, while below we see the tangled mess that can be left behind.

Part 2 – So I Move is a short video narrative conveying a personal account of the spiral effect that can lead to homelessness and the pressures that arise when a person struggles to emerge from setbacks. Self-imposed negative thought patterns and outside influences including natural disasters and the death of loved ones can be seen in this emotive work as I come to terms with my current living status and future prospects.

Part 3 – I Huff and I Puff is a sculptural structure depicting life as a rough sleeper. The newspaper which for most is considered reading material or recycling can provide warmth and shelter for others. By rendering the newspaper to resemble concrete, this work has been repurposed into an unstable building material which shows the fragility of a life lived on the streets. Influenced by the Home Invasion Series by Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro, in particular The Cordial Home Project, I Huff and I Puff plays with the ‘value’ of home and security by reconfiguring material and placing them in an obvious and playful house of cards structure.

Through this work I am opening a discussion into what homelessness actually is and aspire to change the somewhat inaccurate and defamatory view that some people have regarding the reasons behind it.

Bibliography

“Our Hierarchy of Needs” (Psychology Today) <https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hide-and-seek/201205/our-hierarchy-needs> accessed September 18, 2018

https://www.claireandsean.com/home_inavasion.pdf

[i] Psychology Today “Our Hierarchy of Needs”

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Part 1 – Unravelling is a visual representation of the increasing infrastructure of Sydney and its surrounding suburbs. To ‘build a better city’, the new structures have increased the value of properties and therefore the rental affordability has become unattainable for the majority. Governments current neoliberalism structure has meant that only people with high incomes can afford the luxury of living within a few hours of Sydney and this has pushed out many individuals and families which has a detrimental impact on the diversity of the city. This work shows Sydney literally unravelling under pressure, while below we see the tangled mess that can be left behind.

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Part 2 – So I Move is a short video narrative conveying a personal account of the spiral effect that can lead to homelessness and the pressures that arise when a person struggles to emerge from setbacks. Self-imposed negative thought patterns and outside influences including natural disasters and the death of loved ones can be seen in this emotive work as I come to terms with my current living status and future prospects.

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Part 3 – I Huff and I Puff is a sculptural structure depicting life as a rough sleeper. The newspaper which for most is considered reading material or recycling can provide warmth and shelter for others. By rendering the newspaper to resemble concrete, this work has been repurposed into an unstable building material which shows the fragility of a life lived on the streets. Influenced by the Home Invasion Series by Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro, in particular The Cordial Home Project, I Huff and I Puff plays with the ‘value’ of home and security by reconfiguring material and placing them in an obvious and playful house of cards structure.

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If anyone wants to follow me on Instagram, my artist page shows my artwork from the last couple of years

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Today in class Nadine and I changed the value of toilet paper by putting them on display and assigning them specific purposes. We also created an Instagram account for them called scrunchorfold

https://instagram.com/scrunchorfold?utm_source=ig_profile_share&igshid=njsomjehadhl

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A huge shoutout to my son Jackson K Samuel for helping me make ‘So I Move’ part 2 of assessment 2

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‘So I Move’ - part 2 of assessment 2

For my video and monologue expressing my personal experiences with homelessness, I’ve collaborated with my son Jackson K Samuel who is an Audio Visual engineer. Firstly we recorded my monologue and he showed me how he edits the sound for clarity (very clever), then we recorded a few takes of my expressions and emotions while I listened to the recording. Unfortunately I found it difficult to bring up the tears that I had hoped for, so Jackson suggested he play the song ‘hallelujah’ by Jeff Buckley.....that worked a treat. Now we are combining the audio and visual to match up, fingers crossed it turns out.

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Top photo The Cordial Home Project by Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro

Bottom photo I Huff and I Puff by Amy Blanchard

While researching for part 3 of my assessment 2 project, I have been looking at the works of Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro, specifically their installation The Cordial Home Project which was displayed at Artspace in 2003. This installation consisted of a demolished home that has been reconstructed in a neat stack within the art gallery. This work looks at the value of ‘the home’.

There is a common thread in a lot of their works in relation to real estate and I find that my work has also followed that path. As stated in documentation of their work ‘Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro’s work investigates the functions, processes and life-cycles of buildings: construction, marketing, buying and selling, shifting tenancies, garbage removal, demolition, decay.’[1]

My project I Huff and I Puff consists of several sheets of newspaper hardened to simulate concrete sheets as if to be used to construct homes for the homeless. This is a reflection on the real estate market and the ever-increasing infrastructure in Sydney has reached a point where only certain desirable people are able to reside there.

[1] Home Invasion – works by Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro

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Assessment 2 - part 3 experiments update

I’ve added dirt to the flour glue which seems to be giving me the look of concrete!! Woohoo!!

Challenges faced - my sons cat Howard kept eating the newspaper and attacked me when I tried to take it away

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Experiments for assessment 2 - part 3

After a week of miserable rainy weather up at my sons place in Leura, the sun finally came out and i was able to begin experiments with part 3 of my assessment. The plan was to find a way to ‘concrete’ newspaper…not as easy as first suspected. The first time i tried to dip the newspaper in the runny concrete mixture it just fell apart. Next i poured the concrete mix directly onto the newspaper and let it dry. I really liked the way it looked, but the concrete just turned to powder and the newspaper remained quite flexible. Next step was immersing the newspaper in good ole fashion flour glue. I sprinkled concrete dust onto the paper but when it dried, the concrete just fell off, but the newspaper was at least quite stiff. I then constructed a frame out of foil and poured a concrete mixture into it and lay a sheet of newspaper on top. After this had dried and all the concrete turned to powder i realised that i would not be able to ‘concrete’ the newspaper. So my conclusion is that i am going to use flour glue and dirt to harden up the sheets of newspaper before somehow incorporating the concrete at a later date…let the experiments continue

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Assessment 2 Update

Assessment 2 thoughts and processes in relation to the question - Art and design often explore relationships between humans and non-humans, the environment and ecology. How can contemporary art and design propose new possibilities for imagining the ‘human’ and the environment? 

My focus has been on how increased infrastructure has affected the way we live our lives and the detrimental impact that it has caused.

Drawing on my own experiences of ‘homelessness’ I am working towards 3 separate projects that are linked. The first work titled ‘The Unravelling City’ is a visual representation of the infrastructure of Sydney unravelling peoples lives. After creating a canvas with an abstract depiction of Sydney I have slowly unravelled that canvas. This will be presented with only a small amount of the canvas left and the mess of unravelled canvas falling below.

The second work ‘I Move’ is a personal video monologue tracing my experiences and emotional journey that led me down the path that I find myself in today.

The third work ‘I Huff and I Puff’ is a sculptural representation of rough sleeping. I am doing this by rendering sheets of newspaper in concrete and positioning them in various positions including building a ‘house of cards’. (waiting for a sunny day to begin experimentations)

All projects are currently in process and I look forward to seeing if they all become viable

Roadblocks and difficulties

During this whole process there have been a few things to consider regarding the viability of each project. One of the main things I must think about is how to transport any oversized or delicate object to the UNI. Living approximately two and a half hours from UNI via public transport, this has to be factored in to my overall projections. The third work ‘I Huff and I Puff’ would be very difficult to transport so I will have to find out if it is possible to be created on site at UNSW.

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Sinéad O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2U [Official Music Video]

researching for one of my project ideas that involves me looking into a camera with a voiceover of a personal account of how life can spiral into homelessness. My son Jackson is going to help me with the recording so as a reference point to show him we have been looking at the emotions, framing and lighting used in Sinead O’Conners video - Nothing Compares to you

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A little video showing the mind numbing process of unravelling my canvas showing the infrastructure of Sydney.

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Soaking up UNI life at the beginning of the Fringe Festival at UNSW