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Liverpool John Moores Level 6 Symposium at Tate Liverpool 2018

This year’s Level 6 Symposium taking place at Tate Liverpool showcased a wide variety of topics, from the environment to a range of cinema. 

Under the topic of environmental art, Susan Davies started the day with a paper on Danish artist Olafur Eliasson’s piece, Ice Watch (2014). Her interest in Scandinavian art was sparked by a trip to Copenhagen on a university bursary where she experienced the Triennial, exposing her to all kinds of Scandinavian art. The piece, 100 tons of ice from Greenland cut into 12 blocks, was to showcase the extent of climate change. Ironically, this piece has a large carbon footprint of 30 tons. This paper discussed whether the environmental impact the piece caused was worth the message it was portraying. This piece was originally exhibited in City Hall Square in Copenhagen, it was then moved to Paris after a visit from the French ambassador requested it be moved there.  This piece’s aim was to bring the consequences of the global warming to the public in an interactive setting, by presenting the melting ice in public places. Susan’s paper was informative as to how

A paper I found interesting in particular was Lucy Mcintyre’s, named Money and Murderabilia. The paper discussed how items associated with criminals can be sold for five figure sums. The morality surrounding this was the main focus of this paper. John Wayne Gacy, a renowned serial killer during the 70s produced a lot of art whilst on death row, this art is still in circulation on the art market; now that Gacy has been executed, whoever possesses the art receives the profit.

An interesting comparison that she made was that we treat great artists of the past differently despite the fact they are also criminals. Her example was Caravaggio, who was known for his short temper. He was in trouble with the authorities and arrested many times. His worst crime even includes the murder of his tennis partner after an argument, demonstrating his irrational behaviour. Despite this, Caravaggio is still presented as one of the greats and his crimes are overlooked by a lot of galleries who display his work. This paper explored the idea of whether we should separate the art from the artist because the skill that an artist possesses is regardless of their actions outside of producing art. Another point made was that criminals could produce art, but art not created by criminals could reflect crime. The disturbing piece Return of the Repressed (1997) by Jake and Dinos Chapman shows two girls conjoined together. The piece is meant to represent the Freudian theory of displaced sexual desires and also sexual attraction to children. The idea is that, the fact that the children have been sexualised has caused them to mutate into this conjoined being, creating an uncomfortable visual.

This paper’s exploration of crime and how it links to art is something that I found fascinating.

Callum Craddock’s piece also explored the idea of crime relating to art. His paper discussed the tattoos found on prisoners in USSR prisons. They are linked to paintings that most people would be surprised that these criminals had knowledge of. The prisoner had the mythical Greek character of Prometheus tattooed on his back. The original story tells that Prometheus was eventually saved from the cliff face by Heracles. However, the prisoners depiction of Prometheus shows him freeing himself from the chains put there by Zeus. This is to show that the prisoner is responsible for his own freedom and that he does not need to be freed by anyone else, like Heracles with Prometheus.

There was another tattoo shown that was inspired by Bellini’s Madonna of the Meadow (1505) which depicts a Madonna of humility. It was noted that white prisoners in USSR prisons were most likely Christian and would therefore wish to depict Christian figures on their bodies. The Madonna figure was supposedly meant to watch over the prisoner in the tattoo. Callum commented that this tattoo showed the prisoner to be of weak character because the tattoo was a coping mechanism for his imprisonment, rather than the previous tattoo which showed the prisoner taking control of his situation and depicting a symbol of his freedom. Overall, Callum’s paper showed how prisoners of the USSR used their skin as a canvas for pieces of art during their imprisonment as opposed to just receiving criminal symbols on their skin like the majority of criminals who have tattoos in prison.

Lesley White was the next speaker who I found interesting. Her paper was on the work of Zack Snyder, the director best known for the films 300 and the Superman film Man of Steel. She spoke about Snyder’s background as a classically trained painter which sheds light on his stylistic choices in film. Lesley also started to compare the religious parallels within Snyder’s work. A comparison was made between the aesthetic of the film 300 and Caravaggio’s paintings. The Spartan warriors are shown with red capes in the film, much like Caravaggio’s Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness. The lighting in the film is dramatic in the contrast between light and dark, much like the chiaroscuro in Caravaggio’s pieces.

The film Man of Steel has many religious parallels, the main one being depicting Superman as the Messiah coming to save the earth. Also in Batman vs Superman, as Superman is lowered down by Wonderwoman and Batman much like Christ’s Descent from the Cross by Rubens. A comparison was also drawn with Michelangelo’s Pieta with how Superman was lying across Wonderwoman’s lap, much like Jesus across Mary’s. These religious parallels show Snyder’s work to have a lot more thought and merit than perhaps critics have given him credit for.

Another example of a paper referring to the use of film was James Thomas’s, which explored Andy Warhol’s filmmaking. Warhol’s Screen Test Compilation shows a subversion in the filmmaking process, rather than producing a screen test before delving into making a film, the screen tests became the film. This shows Warhol’s rebellious attitude to filmmaking. His films lack pretense due to their lack of production. His piece Kitchen was created by leaving a camera rolling on purpose in order to capture the natural movements of the people on film. Warhol also included transgender stars in his later productions along with other queer ideas.

The last speaker of the symposium was Felicity Grant who presented a piece of London’s King’s Road which was home to the birth of the punk movement with Vivienne Westwood’s shop. The Chelsea Drugstore was a famous business on the road, which was home to drugstores, newsstands and bars all within the same building. The shop was a filming location in A Clockwork Orange. Vivienne Westwood opened her shop which later became known as SEX on this road, selling 50s clothes with the idea of ‘anti-fashion’. Sid Vicious even advertised for band members in the shop window to later form the Sex Pistols, the most famous Punk band in British history. Overall Felicity’s piece explored the cultural ideas that sparked on this once creative and innovative road, which is now slave to faceless brands such as McDonald's, now having lost its individuality.

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An Introduction to Conor Harrington’s Work

Conor Harrington is a world-renowned graffiti artist, and more recently, filmmaker, from Cork, Ireland. His style marries his more classically trained skill in painting to his self-taught roots in tagging which developed during his youth. The results are pieces that comment on controversial topics within contemporary Western society, from postcolonialism to the porn industry. Wanting to ‘take graffiti off the wall and into the gallery’ (Harrington, 2008), Harrington has been successful as being recognised with the same prestige as other contemporary artists who engage in more traditional mediums of art. Creating works that exist in varying environments, inside and outside, it shows how Harrington’s work transcends the often-negative perception and dismissal of graffiti work as art. This essay will discuss the evolution of Harrington's work visually in correlation to his change in techniques and materials.  

As a teenager in 1990s Ireland, Harrington has expressed that he had many influences. He has commented that his first exposure to graffiti was in a copy of National Geographic magazine when he was 12 years old, he then started his own practice 'badly' (Harrington, 2013) as a graffiti artist for a few years as a teenager. Harrington’s degree in Fine Art from Limerick School of Art allowed him to solidify his craft and become fully trained in painting; professional training allowed Harrington to gain the skills to take his art to the next level in terms of recognition. Harrington has also said that hip-hop was a massive influence on him. Hip-hop, a genre deep-rooted in working class struggles, broke through into the mainstream at this time. Graffiti had always been closely associated with hip-hop as a visual representation of the musical movement. It is possible to argue that the tension and struggles facing African-Americans in New York during those times and earlier in the twentieth century mirrored the instability in Ireland. The Afrocentrism reflected in a lot of hip hop, which was a response to the Eurocentrism of American education and ideals, shows a struggle for identity validation. Comparatively, the ‘Troubles’ in the latter half of the twentieth century showed certain groups in Ireland trying to break away from their British-ruled status in order to return Ireland to its Irish identity. This must have influenced Harrington in terms of his themes as he has grown up in a country that was 'on the wrong side of colonialism' (Harrington, 2013). Both African-Americans and the Irish had been oppressed by an over-ruling power. It is plausible to assume that Harrington saw a connection in this. His tendency to paint authoritative figures in Regency clothing is perhaps a comment on British rule in Ireland and the correlation between masculinity and authority.  

Harrington's outside work is primarily on the sides of buildings in city centres. The evolution of Harrington's work is subtle but nevertheless present. His earlier work, which was all outside, echoes his 'tagging' past a lot more than his more recent pieces.

For instance, a piece done in 2008 on a building in London (fig.1), shows a very detailed figure of a soldier which resembles the genre of history painting which was seen as the epitome of artistic skill in the 19th century. Juxtaposing this, however, are strong, bright strokes of red and blue across the figure breaking up the piece, showing influences from abstract artists such as Frank Stella, bringing in mid-twentieth century ideas. The use of tape and spray paint has allowed Harrington to achieve such precision with his stripes. However, the stripes are smudged in places but this is purposely done by Harrington; he often uses solvent on his pieces to make them appear worn and give the piece more interest. It gives the piece the weathered appearance of being part of the wall rather than sitting on top of it. It is plausible that this disruption of the piece with stripes made by Harrington is to display newer ideas dismantling older ones in terms of art. Adding to this, it could relate to British rule over Ireland crumbling in the early twentieth century which is also the time of the birth of abstract art. The abstract stripes have taken over the piece depicting a traditionally respectable figure and have become distracting to the eye as they are unavoidable to acknowledge.

This could represent newer ideas, represented by the stripes, dismantling older ones, represented by the soldier, which is explicitly shown here with the stripes splitting up the figure. This could be interpreted as referring to artistic movements or even politics, with modernism taking over old ideals of art or revolution taking place over Europe. This disruption shows Harrington using his 'tagging' style on an otherwise realistic looking piece. The piece also lacks the strong shadows that Harrington became known for later on, demonstrating that this is the start of his professional practice. The lack of a dark background allows for other graffiti tags to be in the piece, showing more of an affinity to his tagging past. This piece shows the beginning of Harrington's professional work and experimentation with figures in a graffiti context.  

Harrington takes inspiration for his pieces from many places. His 2011-piece Black Herds of the Rain (fig 2) is inspired by Austin Clarke's poem The Lost Heifer which is a common poem taught in Irish schools. The poem is set during the Irish Civil War. Although the poem is set during a war, Harrington choosing to depict farm imagery created in the poem as opposed to military imagery, the name itself Black Herds of the Rain comes from the first line of the poem. Harrington chose to take inspiration from this poem for this Irish piece to pay homage to Ireland as a nation as he had not painted in Ireland for a long time due to living in London. This piece differs from his others as it does not depict men or humans in general as the main subject but rather a cow jumping over a cowboy. He is showing nature as uncontrollable by man. Harrington chose to include the cowboy as an American symbol as he feels that the Irish 'have always looked towards the US' (Harrington, 2011) and perhaps as an emblem of hope in reference to the mass Irish migration to America during the 19th century in particular. As this poem is set during the Irish Civil War, which stemmed from unrest caused by the result of the Irish War of Independence, it shows Harrington choosing to comment on British colonialism again. Harrington uses spray paint primarily in this piece. Using a range of finishes, matte and metallic it creates another dimension to the piece. Using these spray paints alongside brushwork, Harrington created a colourful and metallic piece. He also includes traditional graffiti tags in the background to add to the chaos of the background.

An episode of 'Spraying Bricks' featuring Harrington gives an insight to one of his bigger pieces Dulwich Fight Club (fig.3) in London. Comparatively to this one, his other works discussed (fig.1, fig.2) contain a lot of bright primary colours. This piece shows Harrington's development in creating his own monochromatic style. The adopted, black and white colour scheme gives the piece a more serious intention. The piece depicts two traditionally masculine men in Regency clothing in a boxing stance. Masculinity is a commonly explored theme in Harrington's work.  In order to deglamourize these 'big men of power' (Harrington, 2013) Harrington pours solvent onto the piece to create a dripping effect, he also uses a sponge to remove some of the image and to blur edges. He liked the idea of the men's power 'dissolving' (Harrington, 2013). This is a response to powerful men, historically, being painted 'impeccably...in every fine detail' (Harrington,2013) in museums. As this piece is so vast, Harrington used a large man lift to complete the piece. Harrington also uses reference pictures which he creates himself by photographing actors in his desired stance and position. For his outside pieces, these pictures are scaled up on the wall, usually as an outline, so then Harrington can use the reference photograph for the detail on his piece.  

Harrington started creating inside pieces around the time of 2013. The migration to the more traditional side of painting whilst continuing to produce outside graffiti pieces shows Harrington's variance as an artist but also, him exercising his art school training. Harrington adapts the use of spray paint to create the same dripping effect but instead in harmony with oil paintings on a linen canvas. As these inside pieces would be produced in a studio, the change in environment allows for much more time to be spent on them in terms of detail as, although they are still large, they are smaller in scale than his graffiti pieces. The use of material changes also, Harrington's inside pieces on linen are an extreme contrast to the conditions he would have to consider in terms of varying buildings and bricks outside. As Harrington does not have to consider how the painting will weather over time, oil paints can be used.  

In reference to Harrington's common theme of masculinity, his piece 'How the World Works' is similar to Dulwich Fight Club. However, this piece shows Harrington exploring similar themes, but in an inside context with the use of linen and oil paint. The piece depicts two men in Regency clothing but with one punching the other. This is an explicit display of masculinity. Here, Harrington is commenting on how history is men trying to 'outdo one another' (Harrington, 2011); clearly, in this fight it shows men trying to appear more masculine than the other. The title reflects that Harrington feels that the world operates on the exuding of masculinity. The piece varies from Dulwich Fight Club in terms of technique however as there is less of the dripping effect due to the use of oil paint alone without spray paint. The pieces however are clearly linked due to their similar imagery.  

The Unveiling (fig.4) is another example of an inside piece. It depicts two men, again in Regency clothing, around a table. A nude woman is being revealed under a cloth by one of the men to the other. She is displayed alongside bowls of fruits, equating her to the same status as them, implying that she is there for the man's consumption. Here, Harrington explores the theme of masculinity in terms of the male gaze. The man gazing at the woman is shown to be blurred horizontally, bringing back this idea of 'dissolving' again. Perhaps here Harrington is showing the imposing male gaze as weakening as the image of the man is beginning to fade and presumably disappear. This piece has been said to be commenting on the porn industry and how females are being subjugated to male dominance (FifthWallTV, 2015). The use of oil paint provides an extreme vibrancy of colour and manoeuvrability in terms of the paint itself. In contrast to his outside pieces, where only spray paint and wall paint are used, the oil paint allows Harrington to blur and smudge his paint horizontally. Due to its thick texture in contrast to the spray paint, the oil paint can withstand this manipulation. This allows Harrington to create a new dimension in his work; the eye is not only drawn to read the painting vertically but also, horizontally. The black background makes the viewer unable to locate the scene in their mind thus creating a dreamlike effect or perhaps even a nightmare. It also allows for an extreme contrast of colour with the vitality of the oil paint being emphasised against the darkness. With this dark background in place, Harrington can create more dramatic shadow, due to this attention to shadow work he has been described as a 'modern day Rembrandt' (The Guardian, 2014). This shows influence from the Old Masters in terms of how Harrington chooses to show light in his pieces.

Harrington's themes show that he is conscious of history and is fearless in presenting previously glamourized historical subjects in their more brutal reality. His mix of historical themes entwined with contemporary issues means Harrington's work sparks a lot of debate.  

Harrington's work evolves when he increases his experimentation. The works discussed show Harrington's development into exercising different materials in terms of his art. In recent years he has turned his hand to experimenting with the size of his pieces alongside delving further into the use of oil paints. This has left his most recent work as almost unrecognisable as created by a graffiti artist at first glance. However, when examining further it is easy to see his humble beginning in tagging.  

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How Manchester Art Gallery relates to the city it is today Manchester art gallery is renowned for its collection of Pre Raphaelites; William Holman Hunt’s striking ‘the shadow of death’ hangs opposite to a sun-filled entrance which permits light to flood the gallery from the glass roof in the next room, mimicking and emphasising the light that casts on Jesus in the piece.

Often seen as a figure of female strength in seduction, Rossetti’s Astarte Syriaca is an extremely imposing piece. The size of the piece is almost life-size which gives the figure much more presence and adds to its intensity. His muse in this piece is evidently Jane Morris, wife of William Morris, with whom he reportedly had an affair. Unlike other Pre-Raphaelite pieces, the central female figure is not depicted with the typical red hair representing femmes fatales. This perhaps shows this piece to be more direct in its admiration and tribute to Jane Morris and shows Rossetti’s longing for her.

In contrast to the meticulous attention to detail and nature-centred themes that are shown in all of these Pre-Raphaelite paintings, Manchester Art Gallery also is home to its own homegrown artists which depicted the gritty reality of the industrial north in the early twentieth century. Salford-born Lowry is a massive part of the gallery’s collection alongside his perhaps lesser known inspiration, and teacher, Valette, who came to Manchester from France and started to record the city’s landscape.

The room that is home to the majority of the Lowry’s in the collection is situated separately from the main gallery. Valette and Lowry share this room with half the room dedicated to each, with the room split diagonally so each artist has two adjacent walls. Although perhaps not intentional, the window in the corner of the room is permanently misty due to a treatment on the window to restrict direct light beaming into the room. However, this means that when looking outside the gallery, into the city centre, it almost mirrors the effects in Valette’s hazy depictions of Manchester.

Lowry is an artist that is undoubtedly well known within the Manchester region even by people who have little to no interest in art; it is extremely common for schools in Salford to dedicate a module to his work, my school certainly did. Our module in art was also linked with our studies in history as we were studying the Great Depression, a period that Lowry depicted so well. We were able to study the period through a different medium by looking at Lowry’s pieces, we were asked how we thought the figures in the paintings were feeling and were able to apply context. Lowry was always presented as being more accessible as an artist due to his more mundane subject matters, whether it’s the daily commute to the factory or waiting for the shop to open.

Valette is celebrated to the same degree as Lowry in the gallery. His pieces transcend the main exhibition with Lowry and are also part of the Edwardian collection. Valette’s Albert Square 1910 is completely isolated and not hung in any of the exhibition rooms or galleries but rather next to the gift shop. The piece depicts the square which is outside Manchester town hall, probably best known to Mancunians now as the place where celebrations are held for all of the festivities in autumn and winter, starting with Diwali in October and ending with Christmas. The iconic glittery Father Christmas sits on the town hall looking over the German markets each year.

However, Valette’s early twentieth-century depiction of the square is evidently extremely different. It shows an early model of a car alongside a horse and carriage, showing a snapshot of history where mechanisation lived alongside what came previously, before eventually replacing it. This piece explicitly shows the drastic change taking place in industrial Manchester. The figure in the foreground pushing a wheelbarrow is often seen as a direct inspiration for Lowry’s figures in his pieces. His forward-leaning stance and dark clothes are evident in Lowry’s work undoubtedly.

Although not contemporary artists, if someone or a Mancunian looked at Lowry and Valette’s pieces for the first time, it is likely that they can still see the world that they depicted still prevalent in the city today. Their work provides an insight into Manchester’s industrial past, which is still heavily celebrated. Manchester was a city known as the heart of the industrial revolution, indubitably responsible for shaping the modern world as the world’s first industrial city. Innovation has always been the beating heart of the city, the birthplace of righting wrongs of the past, with the abolition movement and the suffrage movement both being conceived there.

However, Lowry’s exposure of poverty and poor living conditions in his pieces is something that still resonates with the city today. Manchester is wonderful for so many reasons, but it has an extreme problem with homelessness. Gentrification of previously run-down areas is very common in Manchester now; similar to how the east-end of London is now a desirable place to live and work. People from the Greater Manchester area and even from further afield travel to the city centre when faced with homelessness in the hope of gaining help due to the denser population and hostels being based there. The current climate shows countless homeless people lining the streets of the city centre. Whereas in the past it was possible to ignore homelessness as an issue for the average person due to a lack of exposure to people with those experiences, but now it cannot possibly be ignored.

As someone born and bred in Manchester and Salford, I undoubtedly love my city for all it’s done, however, with the rush and excitement of innovation it can lead to people being left behind.