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Christiane Blattmann

Christiane Blattmann is a German sculpture artist based in Hamburg. Who’s work is made up of a large amount of experimentation. She studied painting classes from a young age, yet found a more fitting creative outlet through the opportunities sculpture provided for her. Her main interests are architecture and theatre, in turn resulting in her work having a fluidity effect in it’s movement as well as captivating colour and depth usage, with a variety of different surface features as well as textures. Initially, her desire was to become a stage designer for theatre shows, yet discovered difficulties in regards to financial stability and reliability of income if planning to enter that career path. With still keeping the show like, fun visuals, this definitely played a role in pushing her into the sculpture career path. Her motto is to “create work that stand for themselves”, as in the work is indeed a result of her own abilities and desires, though the work itself can speak on behalf of her in topics of discussion and provide her statements in opposition to spoken word. Most of her sculptures are a variation of different clothing, latex, silicone and lino printing. Constantly shifting and adapting in response to her personal development as an individual. By putting the previous two points together, I can infer she believes her work must constantly adapt to reflect her current self in order to speak on behalf of herself in the most accurate and truest way possible. She described her creation process as being fairly simple- always beginning with a simple object (commonly used objects by her are shoes and chairs), from which she then lets her mind run free in a semi-conscious state to give a naturally unique outcome to each sculpture. Describing this process to “use immediate surroundings” most likely as the subconscious mind takes the first initial ideas from visuals closer by and runs with those thoughts through the art process. An example in which she used a chair is “Fittings and Divings” from 2015, where the final sculpture was so far removed from it’s initial state that it most definitely couldn’t have even been used as a chair anymore. Continuing on, an example in which she used a shoe is “Throwing Her Head Around” also from 2015, in which the final visions of the shoes actually looked like buildings. Linking to her strong enjoyment of architecture, adapting the formation of shoes into the visual formations of housing and skyscrapers- a truly unique, diverse and imaginative route for sculpture that is incredibly captivating. Not to mention a partial illusion and play on scale, it’s certainly artwork you struggle to pull your eyes away from or seise to think about. The particular shoes from a piece named “Einstein Boots” from 2016, had been cast in latex, copies made entirely from silicone and had alterations in order to adapt them to an abstract state. Making reference to themes of outer space and how the unknown could potentially take any form at all, Blattmann described these as “image carriers”. As you can tell, her sculptures are obviously not still the object they initially began as, yet she doesn’t necessarily refer to them as sculptures, but something completely different and unique entirely. This is to reinforce the idea of them speaking for themselves, having a purpose and meaning of their own. in which she can simply allow to exist up to interpretation rather than to speak upon, perhaps similar to her visions in regards to her own life and the subconscious decisions she embarks on through the alterations of that. It’s a happy example of art work reflecting the artist. From 2020 onwards, her focus has somewhat shifted to be more on the human formation, as well as its insides, as through the pandemic it was far trickier to take interest in outside buildings due to being cooped inside constantly. However, an available body to analyse was that of a human body. Blattmann did tend to discuss the formation processes and technicality rather than the meaning of the art, which is understandable due to her beliefs but incredibly tricky to learn from. It’s certainly inspiring to a degree to link yourself to your art more. There is just little room to seek deeper into the art, especially alone. This kind of artwork is certainly the kind I’d rather discuss with another or more people much more than ponder about it within the depths of my very own consciousness. Despite this, it has only been a beneficial experience to learn about Christiane Blattmann’s work. 

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Rafael Lozano-Hemmer Artist

Every single art piece created by Rafael feels fitting for the description of ‘immersive, memorable experience’. From the numerous videos her showed of people getting involved with is art projects, it was instantly obvious that they provide enjoyment and happiness. Rafael himself almost consistently had a smile too whilst discussing his work. As being a father, I’m going to assume it in turns creates happiness for himself through him witnessing his own creations to bring other such positivity. Calling himself a “nerd”, focusing on primarily technical artwork, consisting of coding, projections, lighting, screen work etc. He began his discussion by talking about an art project to do with his twin children- whilst his wife was pregnant, two ultrasounds were used to register both heartbeats, Rafael then took these beats and coded them so that a combination of lighting and imagery could present them in correct time. A meaningful piece to himself and his wife of course, but also acting as a relatable immersive experience for viewers with families of their own, not a negative intention at all. In 1992, he coded a large screen eye to detect the viewers movements walking around the art piece, causing the eye image itself to follow you around using the eye’s pupil. Rafael typically records some of the viewers reactions and responses to his art pieces, this one in particular had some funny responses and truly impacted people in a heartwarming way. I’d gathered from his presentation that he typically never focuses on himself or his own emotions within his work (if so, then it is in reference to past, positive experiences of his or memories he wants to treasure), the main goal of every artistic creation of his is to act as a small part of people’s days to lift people’s moods, bring people together, create a sense of involvement/community and to provide people with a sense of comforting accomplishment. It was lovely to witness an artist be so unapologetically, yet discretely, proud of art to achieve its desired purpose, it makes you think back to the meanings of art. Not only that, but the purpose of art in general rather than the individual pieces’ purposes; this alone I believe is enough to inspire more people to create, keeping the world artistic despite the ever-growing involvement of machinery and less people. Which is kind of ironic considering the nature of Rafael’s work, with all the coding and technology uses- this being said, I’m unsure whether Rafael has become aware of this himself, but through the act of utilising his “nerd’ abilities to create art, he’s almost overly exaggerating this viewpoint in every art piece he creates. As if shouting through a smile how art must survive through all the world’s technological advances. A uniquely immersive thing in itself, drawing people in; not only having his artwork provide an experience for viewers, but the man’s existence in general altering people’s lives/experiences forever. My favourite piece of his that he discussed was a 2001 piece called “Body Moves”. Shadows of people participating are projected onto backgrounds on real life buildings and scenery, anything done by the participant is replicated through the shadow. It created a sense of illusion, giving people a sense of creative freedom, being able to alter their size, height, unrealistic actions etc. Some examples of what soeme participants ended up doing were: a man in a wheelchair using the shadow to enlarge himself and pretend to crush other, two people acting out a puppet show and people riding their bikes in a variety of sizes. As well as entertaining, the recorded responses are actually immensely interesting. This project took place in Holland, England and Australia. Linking on from his piece though, Rafael enjoys intervening with public spaces for the creation of art. Such as the intervention of a massacre site in Mexico City, placing a megaphone he’d created there that transferred voices into light beams. Having these light beams project outwards onto the scenery when the megaphone was spoken in to, people were able to preach, give speeches and provide powerful change, beginning from the massacre site and shining onto the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This piece was slightly different to other Rafael mentions due to it’s links to freedom and democracy, obviously necessary though to intertwine more of his core beliefs into his discussion. In 1999 he designed an online project where anyone around the world could design a light sequence to shine across Mexico City; any design created was instantly sent to Mexico City and rendered in real time. There were over 18000 participants, every single one also received a digital image of their light sequence being displayed as proof it was real, as well as a capture from the moment for them to cherish and remember. This was classes as “groundbreaking” by news articles, Rafael stated he wanted “to make work that only could work with the participation of real people”. Once more, relating to the idea of inspired digital creation through a time of mass technological advancements and lack of human needs. This discussion felt overwhelmingly authentic, real to the point it could’ve easily felt like a one on one chat too, and most definitely achieving the same aim of his art itself. Inspiring others, bringing happiness and reminding about the true purpose of art. A concept corrupting and stressing so many, when it is really a beautiful experience to cherish. 

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Cecilia Vicuña Artist

By far, Cecilia gave the most memorable discussion out of all the artists I’d heard from so far. I’d go as far to class her discussion and a presentation or art piece in itself. The way she carried herself, her body language, obvious copious amounts of thinking behind every statement she made (aside from her comedic remarks in regards to technology, which were very funny to watch). She’s an Asian lady aged 74, focusing her work in areas such as poetry, painting, installation, performance, textile, activism, feminism, all in regards to themes of memory, dissolution, extinction and exile. As well as this, she makes immense references to ecological destruction and human rights within her work, being a huge activist for change for equality. At the very beginning of her presentation she walked up to the stage to speak, yet this walk took numerous minutes despite it only being five or six metres- this was a clear message being sent to the listeners and viewers. No artist would intentionally make such an obvious act without an intent, my interpretation of this is that it was either in reference to past movements of groups who have been discriminated against that have gone through such long struggles un-noticed (Vicuña finally bringing this to light as she does within her artwork), or that it was to set the intensity of the tone desired for her upcoming discussion. As a result of her work consisting of such significant, deep topics, a silence could potentially act as a tool to make people feel un-comfy within an environment, making them more vigilant and observant to what’s occurring or being spoken. Whatever the real reason was behind this, it was truly captivating and intriguing, very well done. Her work began in the 1960′s, she described this beginning as “an ancient silence waiting to be heard”. This is (I am inferring) a link to Vicuña’s belief that she is a product of her ancestors, a being that is a collective of those who came before her- what she’s producing is spreading their tales and beliefs as much as it spreads hers. These beliefs are being heard now, but go back to ancient times, to where it was almost impossible to speak out upon or bring to light. At age 17 she stated to have had a scholarship offered in the USA, to which she accepted. “Why do you want to go to the land of the beasts?”, Vicuña’s father asked. I believe she deliberately added in this quotation to further exaggerate how horrendously her and her family had been treat, as many others similar to her, it was only natural that as a result grew fear and hatred towards those who acted so viciously. Furthermore, stating that even a first impression of Miami was how “distant” everybody was; despite the overwhelming crowds, it was more than easy to feel alone, a harsh contrast to the normality of her home. Her work is so incredible; powerfully captivating. Some of which being displayed within Tate Modern, as well as in various locations globally of course. There’s a sense of consistency when focusing on Vicuña’s books, as if she never ever stops writing. “I wanted to be naked in my poetry”, Vicuña exclaimed, followed by a pause. Women are constantly sexualised and idealised for pleasure, in an act to take back her rightful power, not only does Vicuna’s words create a sense of nudity with zero layers of falseness (with explicit authenticity), she also can be seen visually naked within her artwork. This is beyond admirable, powerful and beautiful, even more so considering her age, she’s been battling such awful viewpoints and comments directed at herself for so long, yet never quits fighting. It’s as if her stories and ancient tales are finally being viewed through a golden lens of the youth, rather than cruel glasses of those oppressing her from years dead and gone. Almost taking advantage of the men idolising her, as yet another tool to bring her views to light. An example of this is the overly common theme of women loving other women within her work, purposefully to address the normality within it and gross hatred of bitter men. It is clear she’s an advocate for LGBTQ+, “girls and boys shouldn’t be described as girls and boys, but something that is fluid”, her mannerisms and views provide such a comforting outlook of equality that I can only wish more people could have the privilege to hear. Constantly linking everything and anything to the ideas of soul beauty, human preciousness and righteousness.“Poetry doesn’t just exist in books alone but sometimes within us.” That is by far the most impactful statement I’ll take from her presentation- I take from it the belief that poetry, such gorgeous works of language, sparking visuals and emotions, are not only a visible art form on paper, but those same tones dwell within the souls of the artistic. The art piece she discussed that stuck out to me the most was a painting depicting a protest from 1971; Asian girls all came out half naked in a celebration of bringing down capitalisms and taking back power, “sisters of the precious blood unite” they chanted. Her painting is so intricate, with numerous figures carrying out actions from the protest, all providing such immense meanings of love and equality. Not only does the symbolisms and purposes inspire me, the sheer skill and style are so marvellous. I am so glad we got the opportunity to learn about Cecilia Vicuña’s work, it’s all so special and important, I’d personally never heard of her before but I can say coming away from the focus that I have a changed perspective. 

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Anna Zachoroff Artist

Anna is a Swedish artist who started to paint at 19 years old. Attending an “art pre school” in Scandanavia, to which she described as being similar to what we view as an art foundation course (this was useful information as many people in first year at my univeristy will have done a foundation year prior, so helpful to be given context like this). Straight away we were all very relaxed listening to Zachoroff speak about her art career, she was yet again very different in comparison to everyone else we’d heard from so far, due to how overwhelmingly positive and lighthearted she came across- it was a breath of fresh air to not get caught up in such deep debates about art mentality and purpose, refreshingly positive and calmingly entertaining. It’s pbvious to me the amount of thought LJMU put into which artists would speak to us, perhaps even the order, they differ from each other so much in order to allow us first years to have as wide of an understanding of art career possibilities and different styles as possible. Zachoroff expressed how monumental the purchasing of her first oil paints were, due to their expense, but it was a motivating and joyous moment- I’m sure everyone else listening felt a sense of common ground, as all an artist ever wants to do as soon as they get new materials is to test them out and play with them to add to their abilities. Even though Zachoroff wanted to actually leave Sweden and progress with an education in art, she was offered so many shows/exhibitions and commissions that she ended up staying and was able to get by with that due to getting passed into a further art school at Sweden. to which people were bittersweet that particular school was accepting such young people, from this we got a sense of how far Zachoroff progressed with good enough materials and the talent she held. By 21, she found her main art calling, a focus on water and organisms such as animals and plants. A piece of hers I absolutely fell in love with when she showed it within her slideshow, was called “That Feeling When You Put Fresh Bedsheets On”. It really gave the impression that Zachoroff had already came to the conclusion on what her artistic purpose was, and it was to make people feel joyful and positive emotions, so far removed from the mind wrenching distress of most other artists we’d heard from. Many pieces from her are also in relation to charities involved with the planet and animals, she has helped raise money this way (incredibly inspirational and admirable of her, we don’t hear about artists doing this enough). Her work comes across playful with its simplistic, expressionist, coloured style that tends to stray from using plain white as a base as it can be too harsh. “The scariest thing is a blank white canvas”, she stated. It’s “horrifying”, she expressed her fear and was vulnerable with us, despite appearing so happy and showing her some of her success, she wanted to be real with us (overwhelmingly thoughtful of her) and express she still experiences terror within art. Due to the nature of her artwork being quite simplistic and usually not covering the entire blank canvas itself, she can’t afford to make mistakes, as nothing will be covered over and every single brush stroke will be on display. Despite the vulnerability, she stayed true to her optimistic and inspirational self by telling us that this has only drived her to progress faster and be even more willing to invest in those slightly more expensive, better quality materials. All in all, her work is playful with simplistic depth to bring about feelings of serotonin, and was exactly what the first year course needed after such intense previous discussions from the other artists. 

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Lara Almarcegui Artist

Lara is a very architectural focused sculpture artist who grew up in Spain that challenges the general ideas of architecture and art all together. She is heavily connected with Liverpool now, due to a large amount of her works taking place here. All her work is incredibly ethical as it takes place on natural forms of land (or sometimes carefully alters the natural forms themselves as a form of artwork) with mostly natural materials. As you can tell, she has a heavy focus on ‘land’ throughout her work, she even stated within her talk how much “wastelands” inspire her, the mistreated and forgotten plains of land inspires her to transform them into something else- it’s almost like the lands present themselves as empty studio space to her, an incredibly unique way of viewing a landscape or space of wasteland. She came across as a very unique artist in this sense, articulating and portraying herself to have artistic aspirations even differentiating from most other artists who focus on natural forms. If I consider another section of her discussion within that previous point, I’m assuming the reason she has quite obvious unique traits of visioning her work is due to the fact, yes she works with spaces of land, but she hates architecture and wants to challenge those ideas. Almarcegui deeply believes that architecture is far too much for the world, far too overpowering and all consuming, not giving humans the natural abilities to think and breathe as they should. I believe there’s two ways I can look at this, by diving into both ways, it helps me grasp a better understanding of art as a whole as it represents intents and personal beliefs intertwined within art (basically, this lecture got me thinking perhaps more ethically than most other have). One way to interpret it is with the fact art and architecture are most commonly linked with one another, especially since the Bauhause was introduced, teaching the two as a collective pairing, Lara may have had a realisation or epiphany within the development of her artistic career, in the sense that she personally doesn’t connect the two together and architecture all together may not apply to her work- disconnecting her from most common beliefs, as it’s what most of the art world have believed as a whole for so long. Even so, it could also be interpreted in correlation with (my own strong personal belief) the sense that all artists have a driving force from deep within their soul to seek out meaning and fulfilment through creation, constantly attempting to allow their individual minds to do what hasn’t ever been done previously. Almarcegui may be subconsciously attempting to tap into parts of her mind currently unknown to her or lesser known than before, through that defining act of disagreeing with a popular belief linked to her form of artwork. Then again, due to the point that all artists will somehow strive to tap into that unknown knowledge deep within their subconscious in their own way with own intents, it could just be me as a separate artist viewing it too deeply. Most of the statements being told from her artwork can possibly be interpreted as some form of abstract expressionism- So then again, perhaps the abstract and primary confusing appearance of it all may prove exactly what’s truly occurring. All just fun speculation over the minds of artists, something I tend to get long lost in, sending my own mind into an artistic spiral and funk, it’s never ending, which is why the complexity of it is so intriguing; I’ve stated this in another blog post previously, but all artists truly are searching for an answer or purpose. Moving on, Almarcegui collects exact material amounts to what created a particular small building or architectural creation, then lays each separate material out into a pile, all next to each other. Showing which natural materials have been taken, how much natural material was stolen during the creation of these buildings. She even attempts to stop larger buildings being created on open spaces of land, sometimes offering to commission artworks instead of allowing people to commence with their building productions. In order to gain most of her materials, she demolishes small unused buildings, yet again linking to the ethics and eco-friendly presence her work has. Everything she discussed was truly interesting, it’s eye opening to hear from such a diverse range of artists, Lara Almarcegui really expanded our current field of artist discussions. These Wednesday lectures are always so useful in helping the progression of all us first year artists, certainly something I hope continues within the future. 

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Fine Art MA (masters) students

We had a few more fine artists on the masters course give us talks during another lecture following the previous one. However, there were some technical difficulties within the time allocated for the zoom meeting that hindered the amount of time each artist had to talk and prevented them from going into much more depth with their descriptions. Even so, it was yet again a very enlightening and interesting lecture. 

Vincent Quirk:

Just after completing the degree before his masters course, Vincent had an epiphany with the realisation that all of his artwork had been derived from sections of his own personal trauma. Especially during lockdown, where he painted many graphic images incorporating screaming, flesh and dark/uneasy tones and depths. At the moments of creating these artworks, he was unaware that it was inspired from trauma, it was completely being driven by his subconscious and could be interpreted to be a form of abstract expressionism due to this. Instead of continuing this, after his epiphany, he began to intentionally create work derived from his trauma, emphasising the horrific aspects of his artwork, and creating a disturbing sense of violation. For example, a piece he created consisting of thick bleeding tubes overflowing off of a chair to represent his fear in regards to contracting bronchiole asthma, during the pandemic. Or where he hammered cold, raw meat to walls, the meat representing him and the nails representing his trauma and harsh childhood. Quirk’s work is devastatingly gripping, gory and absolutely uncensored, this kind of artwork is so unique and my absolute favourite- it was a pleasure to hear him speak; he was definitely my favourite artist to hear from at all out of the masters students who spoke to us, it would be a pleasure to speak in person with him one day. 

Simone Schofield:

Simone emphasised the expression of a sense of loss and void within her work, an overwhelming feeling of emptiness yet overflowing she wants someone to obtain whenever viewing her work. She tends to only really work with completely natural materials, making her work sustainable, affordable and empowering in many ways- for instance, she has worked with salt and coal previously, and incorporates existing structures such as posts or beams into her art. “Creation is a big part of the process” is a statement she made during her talk that really stuck out to me, it shows her core belief that artists create a bond but also either negative or positive emotions in reaction to an art pice during the creation of it, and it somewhat takes over subconsciously during its very creation. Of course, I’m sure she could’ve gone more depth into this statement if given the availability/time. A lot of morals behind her work can relate to reflections and “total absorption”, usually resulting in her art being quite large, filling up a hefty amount of space. She even told us how she’s purchasing a portion of land with the intent to plant flowers, put her work in there and also rent sections out to other artists for them to present their work there too; incredibly exciting and inspiring for all of us to hear in first year, also an incredibly positive and uplifting thing to hear. An example of some of her work si how she scratched in important dates of when people became lost, or were lost completely, into coal squares and prepared them in an eye-catching order to hold their value and cause a sense of understanding over human value/size in comparison and life value, linking to her core beliefs of there being a sense of loss and an everlasting, deep void. A gloomy, interesting feeling, most artists can’t seem to escape.

Mary Hennessy Jones:

Mary was an absolute delight to hear from, the kind of person, I’m sure everyone who listened, imagines they could talk to about art or just life generally for hours. Her work in incredibly focused on being site specific and is very immersive, sometimes even interactive. Recently, she’s been developing her skills with a larger focus on the exploration within realms such as screening, model imagery and sculptures- pushing herself out of previous comfort zones and making the most out of both the enjoyment of art and emotional outlet it provides. Mary tends to incorporate many found items such as photos, videos, film etc. Even explaining a time she found old footage from all the way back in the 1960′s; it was lovely to hear an artist speak so positively of their work, and appear so joyful and proud with not only their obvious accomplishments, but moments that occurred along their personal journey to not only get them to a finishing point of an art piece, but to get them to where they are today. An example being Mary speaking over the fact she’s recently been getting more involved with shadow work and puppets, exclaiming her delight to have produced a shadow unicorn. A couple examples of her work that stuck out to me most was “stitching in harmony” mostly due to it being a collaborative piece consisting of many unique visuals, quite literally stitched into one art piece- very intriguing. As well as “The Green Line” where she incorporated an immersive peephole, with a stop-motion movie on the inside, causing the viewer to feel childlike and appreciative. 

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Fine Art MA (masters) Students

This lecture was extremely different to every one we’d had before, four Fine Art master students (Oak Mclaughin, Elena Platt, Joshua Cook and Jioni Warner) gave small, ten minute presentations about who they are, what work they tend to do, and an extremely brief summary of what it stands for, why it is created. I definitely know this was my favourite lecture yet, it felt far more immersive, much more directed to students- primarily the students watching- and there was a certain tone taken to truly connect more between the viewer and speaker. It was almost far more interesting than the other lectures, not that the other one’s weren’t interesting because they all kept me gripped and intrigued, however this one got me thinking far more about what I want to do in the far nearer future, potentially leaving University after the degree, or going straight into either personal or commissioned work etc.

Oak Mclaughin:

In all honesty my first thoughts about this artist was that I bet his work would be incredibly interesting to me based off of the artist’s own personal style, it was extremely funky whilst consisting of neutral tones. Oak focuses on what he describes as “abstractism” creating various paintings of abstract natures. They all derive from personal mental images that spark imagination and creativity when it comes to creating artwork. I found this fascinating as my favourite kind of artworks are the ones that haven’t been overthought, but the ones that derive from thoughts themselves, a true representation of an artist’s mentality in a moment. Before doing the master course, Oak focused on drawings alone, but pushed himself to escape sketchbooks and only work outside of them, leading to a discovery of love for painting. Oak’s discussion (all be it short) was very eye opening and I’d love to hear more in the future.

Elena Platt:

Elena felt like a very spiritual person, very in touch with her surroundings and observant to everything that could be happening within a space in whatever capacity it may take. Also seeming very warmhearted, emotional but also quite comedic. They come from a background full of philosophy, diving into concepts to do with space, time, ethics and theosophical questions. From this I can gather that all their work has immensely deep meanings, perhaps multiple meanings that present themselves as more of a question really rather than an interpreted statement. I absolutely love this form of artwork as no two artists with the same passion for creating this type ever really have the same style or complete same meanings behind the work. She works with many 3D objects, mostly broken materials. For instant, there have been multiple occasions where she worked with broken glass. I can see her having major exhibitions in the future, I’d love to witness some and hear her describe her own work in much further detail.

Joshua Cook:

This artist felt intensely driven to make people question the true “meaning of art”, a statement that is thrown around in abundance in the art world. He wants to make people look at his work and have internal debates on why they view certain things as art rather than others, and have a response into questioning what is art and what’s not, does there even have to be an intent behind art. He thinks about combining spaces within his work, using cameras, reflections, connections etc. His work seemed incredibly fun to go witness in person as it’s very immersive. Some of the objects he works with consist of films, live feeds, polaroid cameras/pictures, reflective image pieces and sculpture works. Therefore I can gather that he is incredibly in touch with space and his environment, fairly similar in that way to his co student Elena Platt. An example of his work I found beyond fascinating was a handmade wooden polaroid projector he created, projecting self taken images of other artists working. So much could be talked about from that, it’s truly eye opening. 

Jioni Warner:

Jioni seemed overwhelmingly kind and the kind of artist I feel I could talk to for hours on end, with intense passion for her work as well as others artworks, and a drive to bring about change with her work. She specialises in the creation of black women’s portraiture paintings, depicting the women as glamorous and powerful. She discussed how she feels that there is a saddening amount of dehumanisation and sexualisation of black women, from which I could infer that her works are to show the women how they truly are, through a true and positive lens, helping change the visions of the world and stop crime/hate. stating she wants them to be seen as “sexual, playful, confident and reclaiming their place” which fit so well with an example of an exhibition of hers, where her portraiture paintings where on display in a closed down church. Very symbolic and beautiful. 

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Joanna Zielińska Artist

Joanna is an artist from Rome who purely focuses on both photography and print work, usually and combination of the both. She says the base for all of her work consists around the fact that she comes from a working family from within Greece, even stating her whole life has “felt like a box shaped container”. When diving deeper into this stamens it can be fairly upsetting, which makes it understandable how she turned to using art as a form of release for her emotions regarding this as well as a way to positively let out her emotions- because of her work’s unique nature, her passionate approach to the art world as imaginative storytelling within it all, she inevitably has grown into a captivating artist who is both successful and talented in a number of ways. When feeling caged in by circumstances you have no control over, having to live a less fruitful life and struggling to get by unlike most who live out lives far easier, it is only a simple fact that you’d gain a mental strain from having to endure such circumstances, which is a reason as to why Joanna’s Greek working class upbringing lead her into becoming a renowned artist. She explores surfaces of objects, places (both physical and metaphysical), spaces and surroundings, being interested in “what remains after human intervention’ and when “time-stamps are removed”. I found this point of her’s quite fascinating as she truly portrayed her desire to look deeper into the meaning of human existence and what humans create during every individual life span amongst the Earth, getting fairly ethical and philosophical. Truly captivating. Despite such deep statements, her work consists of photographs she’s taken herself, of such things she said she’s most interested in (as said before, surfaces, place etc.) which are then transferred into prints on fabrics or cardboard, however the images are of such things as common as a McDonald’s chip packet or cardboard food packaging. She is very astonishing, focusing on what most people deem as unnecessary or irrelevant to human existence, people would most always perceive there as being far greater creations or surface objects left behind by humnans- yet, linking it back to her core foundation for her artwork, she feels caged in and has been brought up in a working class family. Even her herself, her very own existence is sometimes viewed as insignificant, ordinary, one in millions. It only makes sense that Joanna would replicate her own existence within her artwork in attempt to bring light and representation to things that often go unspoken about. There is even a far deeper political side to her work as it could be turned into an argument in relation to power and conflict. I am genuinely mesmerised by how Joanna thinks and goes about artwork, it is never even on that large of a scale or too intricate in detail, just pure art that still follows a moral and brings positive effects to the world whilst allowing mental relief for (her) the artist. I wish to grow more like Joanna as I develop as an artist too. Joanna stated the “Tabula Rasa”, the theory that individuals are born without without built in context, all human knowledge comes from personal experiences or perceptions. But as she’s mentioned, those perceptions are easily warped, when taking scale and overall human groups’ representation into strong consideration, it becomes overwhelmingly clear that most people’s minds are warped to not care about what is ordinary and lesser in power, but only what is rare and strong. A quote of hers that stuck with me was “You can’t find me, I’m a private person, I’m an artist, my question is, how can you see my work without seeing the surface”. I’m linking the past two previous points to conclude that Joanna feels, and has felt since childhood, swarmed within a sea, unable to be seen or have any light onto her life or struggles, as well as other people in minority groups or lower classes than the more powerful. She also works in 2D portrayals or surfaces in order to present how it’s never possible to truly look onto the inside and see the truth, there’s too many people in the world for someone’s existence of such little power to ever be viewed truly, let alone understood to be as torment filled as it truly is. I love how Joanna phrased herself and unintentionally spoke in chain with her work, it became clear to me, that an artist is always going to be a piece of artwork themselves, and would always work in perfect harmony amongst the artworks of their own creation, the artworks though will never mirror even close to how intricately of an art piece the artist is alone though. “Essences aren’t fixed, is what I’m trying to say” she stated, I believe you could infer from this that you can’t ever capture an essence so bright and imaginative, despite what Joanna has gone through, though her work is 2 dimensional, though her work is of outsides, not insides, her very own essence couldn’t be contained. Exploring in an energy of colour and brilliance within her talk to us, artists cannot be contained at all. Her colour usage and aesthetics even give the vibe of being from a memory, whimsical, dreamy and something anyone can relate to, no matter the power or working class status. Joanna was so sweet and appreciative that we wanted to take the time to try understand her artwork, she did an impeccable job at explaining herself, to round off the brilliant lecture, I’ll leave another one of her amazing quotes: “The word process is related to length of observing art, you’d have no observation at the start, or else it wouldn’t be a process”. 

[axelgill]

Pádraic E. Moore Artist

Pádraic E. Moore is an irish artist based in Dublin who mainly focuses on curating and writing. I found it fairly difficult to listen to this lecture, only due to the fact that curating isn’t at all an interest of mine in any major sense (and that’s what the entirety of it was focused on), it was enlightening to hear about it. However, it wasn’t like any of the other artist’s discussions we’ve received, as no personal work was being explained I found it difficult to understand the artist on a more deep/mutual level. Sort of only being able to understand him from the surface. This isn’t me saying that it wasn’t at all interesting, because it most certainly was, it’s crucially significant that we learn about as many aspects of art as we can when considering the pursuit of a career within the art world- this lecture could’ve v=even been a potential, major turning point for other students witnessing it as I was, it just didn’t have that great of an effect on me. Furthermore, I respect Moore and his work, it’s extremely obvious that there’s great talent and brains behind the curating work her carries out, I only wish he spoke more so to do with his own artwork, even a discussion further into his own writing would’ve been so eye opening and deeply interesting. All that being said, some of his curating discussion did stand out to me as being unique, despite me not even knowing all that much about curating. For instance, the “Salon de refusés” a different representation of artworks entirely organised by artists themselves, giving them utter free reign amongst the exhibition style, layout and overall vibe. This caught my attention as when I thought about it potentially being done again in the future (hopefully I am an artist in my own rights by that time), it seems so much fun to be able to do. Another example being “degenerate art” in Nazi Germany, where Moore stated “exhibitions can be a lesson into the political conversations”. From this I gathered how he was exaggerating the point that due to how influential, yet controversial, exhibitions are in general, it makes the curating of the artwork all the more significant. If it’s done incorrectly or in poor manner, then an exhibition can have little to no impact at all, socially, environmentally, politically or even emotionally. So linking that statement to exhibitions within Nazi Germany (well known for it’s mass production of influential propaganda to both brain wash and indoctrinate both the general population and naive youth of the country) it emphasises the importance of a well produced exhibition, as it could even impact wars. This was most definitely my favourite part of Moore’s talk, not only because it was in relevance to artwork; also the fact it was linked with history (another passion of mine). It was an achievement to have this exhibition, all be it of dark nature with negative aims, it was seen by over 3 million people. Curating work for exhibitions does also provide the opportunities to grow and develop as you meet more people and make more connections. Moore stating he “enjoys and synthetic approach to vision”, desiring to add abstract forms (colours, patterns, combinations) to artwork; simultaneously the art of depicting invisible energy such as waves or emotions, calling it “poetic”. Despite this section of his talk intriguing me, it only made me want to hear about his own personal artwork/writing more due to how eloquently he spoke about such creative topics. To conclude, he seemed very sweet, genuine and passionate- his talk opened my eyes to many things I hadn’t heard about before; it was only a slight sadness to not hear him speak much about himself. Then again, it could potentially be just another one of an artists minds’ beliefs creeping through, about how artists usually put everyone else before them and tend not to publicly focus on themselves to much due to an overactive mindset presenting the feeling of separation from everyone and everything else.

[axelgill]

Rosa Johan Uddoh Artist

Rosa Johan Uddoh is a female artist of colour, focusing on inter disciplining artists and working towards radical self love within her work. She heavily focuses on both feminism and POC representation in positive ways. Even just from hearing her speak, it was obvious how she is a kind hearted lady, wanting to bring about a generously positive amount of change via both her artwork creations as well as her exhibitions/shows. Always thinking of others before herself and wanting to represent groups who are prejudged negatively initially, in a much more accurate and pure way. Uddoh stated her belief in that “performances in media affect us”, mostly as a gateway into explaining the backstories and morals behind her artwork, but also a not to subtle reference to how young minds are easily adaptable. Throughout generations after generations, racist ideals and beliefs have kept going, even though it has calmed down a lot through recent decades, it’s still unbelievably atrocious. There must be better representation of people of colour as well as ethnic, minority and oppressed groups within the media, in order to help change the world more rapidly, even if still overtime. For examples, theatrical productions, comedian shows, movies, films, books, manga, everything must stop misrepresenting people so awfully that it ends up contributing to the problem. Bad representation only warps people’s perceptions and encourages the problem as well as racists beliefs. What Uddoh is showing within her work is truly mesmerising, even more so with this context. For instance, her enormous collage of Balthazar images and paintings- grouping PNG versions of images of the infamous Nativity story character, whom is primarily a lone black figure amongst those who aren’t foreigners. There was purposefully no structure to Uddoh’s representation of the images to reinforce the idea that there should be no false structure or false recreation, only the raw truth. She wants people to think of the early black immigrants who inspired every individual amongst the collage, as every one must have been inspired by a real person. We need to look deeper, what were those people’s stories, were they victims of prejudice and racism, why are they treat so poorly, what does it mean to be foreign/POC. The outfits worn by the people in the images seem more fantasy like, almost as if even the single black characters have been idealised. More representation is needed into the harsh reality of what those people had to go through, being POC immigrants. It’s sad hearing about all of this even more when taking into consideration that the painters of all the images were only popular western ones, POC painters never got any spotlight for their talents, stories, representations; it was a popular motif to paint the nativity, so there has been false representation over and over, time after time. In conclusion of this piece by Uddoh, she constantly strives to rewrite in the missing, true history and fight for the civil rights. Due to the large size of the piece itself and not to usual consistency of POC, people are drawn into look at the magnificent work of art, grabbing people’s attention, exactly what is necessary to help bring about change- Uddoh truly is amazing. Another piece of her work is titled “Get Up Mate We’re Going To The Protest”, being a large cutout of the map of England, stained with tea bags. The tea bag stains are in reference to history, how old the location is, full of endless stories, full of oppression for centuries; as well as authenticity, the more damaged and weathered something looks, the more true it is to age and having been through events, changing with physical/mental impacts. Not all stories are pretty and perfect. “When things are big, they’re forced to be looked at”, she stated, and she couldn’t be closer to the truth. People will witness this artwork, be drawn in and furthermore end up questioning it, why is something so generically depicted as great and perfect being portrayed in a withered and horrid manner. There are stories of those affected so negatively by this place that always go unheard of, it’s time to hear them out and really focus on the issues within immigration, racism, coming from foreign areas, sexism etc. I’ve found her artwork very interesting to look into; even though I am not POC myself, I still feel a sense of pride whilst being able to have the privilege to have felt the presence of her work, as she’s doing such outstanding things. Artists like Rosa Johan Uddoh make me feel proud to be an artist.

[axelgill]

Yesim Akdeniz Artist

Yes Akdeniz was the last person to give a talk to us on out topic of “Art In The City”. She’s from Turkey and was born in 1978. During her talk, she told us she’s more recently been focusing on a new self-given topic of “radical self-care”, in which she produced a series of work linking to looking after her own self even whilst creating art, truly portraying her heritage, mindset and goals. She’s constantly seeking out ways to develop as a person, whilst documenting it throughout her artwork. It was truly an interesting section of her talk when she went into explanation of this- I feel as not only people, but people of a creative mindset, we can be harsher on ourselves than others, we can turn to comparison to both our past selves and peers, even people we don’t know, as well as coping mechanisms that may even cause stress when attempting to help rationalise out thoughts of comparison, lack of self esteem or beliefs that our purpose/talent isn’t enough. There’s a constant never-ending search of satisfaction or even a melancholy peacefulness within art, as artists don’t ever truly rest, our minds can be running a million miles an hour all day, every day sometimes. So when Akdeniz was expressing her beliefs on self-care, it was so inspiring, she’s finding peace within things often either frowned upon or hardly considered to make any beneficial impact whatsoever, enabling her to make more clm and controlled art in comparison to before. Progressing as an individual in a much more easy frame of mind rather than a scattered and chaotic one. Akdeniz tends to focus the majority of her work on topics such as orientalist, cultural systems, gender and artefacts. This truly mad me think back to Art In The City for each of her topics, orientalism is relevant due to the fact that only cities within countries that can provide things such as history, tourisms, trading or wealth will ever end up becoming successful or industrialised enough to become a proper city of art and culture. As it’s the availability of resources, viewers of art, opportunities for shows and collaborations as well as possible further education or auctioning/purchasing that truly enables an artist to grow. Sense our topic being so focused on this, it really is a major point within the art world. Her other topic of cultural systems is relevant due to the more major cities in different cities/continents having more accessibility to the rest of the world through communication and exploitation, none of the smaller places are ever heard, more rarely that of minority locations. I f an artist is from a place of such rich vibrant, yet usually unrecognised culture, it’s important for hem to be seen, sense an uprise in culturally intended artworks being created. Akdeniz really loves to portray her cult and background within her work. Another one of her topics, gender, is something so extremely important within the world and something held so deeply to a huge amount of people, people have been not only hate crimes but killed for their gender identity for years, so the fact that artists are able to make artwork linked with it nowadays is so heartwarming as the world is finally able to acknowledge gender positively rather than hate upon it. It’s also incredible to witness the rise of feminism, due to the decades in which women have been treat with far lesser respect than they should’ve, people are fully fighting for our equality. It’s a very lovely thing to hear about artists like Yes Akdeniz who also supports these highly important movements. She comes from a painting background, having family members involved with it, and continued tat into her own life as she too had the passion and wanted to pursue it as a career due to how much it affected and meant to her. In all honesty, it was slightly frustrating at times during her talk, not that I didn’t agree with anything she was saying or wasn’t interested, but I just felt there were so many times she could’ve expanded on what she was saying and gone into further detail, it seemed as though she was hesitant to. A little less information felt received from her in light to some of the other artists talks; however, she stated at the start that she tends to get anxiety surrounding talks, which is probably the soul explanation for this. Despite some lack of depth, the missing portions somewhat cause just the same effect as the other artists. As it’s an artist portraying how their mind functions without verbally saying it. As an artist with anxiety/stress too, it felt kind of nice to witness another artist feel nervous about talking in front of people. Yes Akdeniz is a truly lovely person, with an amazing warm and considerate heart. Sometimes even representing the ideas of “uniformity” and “restraint” within her work, as she can feel held back or captive by her own mind or thoughts. I hope along her journey of self-care that she realises she’s deserving of absolutely everything and doesn’t need to feel this way. Yet again, as an artist myself though, I do understand the element of finding comfort through venting these irritating emotions through painting/artwork. To conclude, one of my favourite things she said during her talk was “the fight to accept and preserve your identity”, finding strength against the patriarchy. I feel it’s a good place to end off as it really tells the message to never let anyone alter who you are as an individual in any way, even in the slightest, always stay true to you. As art, that’s the one thing we can rely on, our work will always be true to us and not a single person out there will ever b able to accurately copy it the way we do something ourselves. What we make and our is unique, everyone else should feel the availability to be like that too, instead of feeling the need to bring down one another in haste or anger.

[axelgill]

Amy Sillman Artist

Artist Amy Sillman was an artist we had as part of an online lecture, only she didn’t speak directly to us; instead, we watched a pre recorded zoom meeting she had done. Despite this, it was all relevant and even the question section at the end of her discussion felt satisfying, that nothing was left unanswered in response to what she had been saying. in 1955 she was born in Detroit Michigan USA, in 1979 she received a degree (BFA) at the school of visual arts in New york City, then further went to receive another BFA art bar college in 1995. Her work in regularly exhibited throughout New York and Europe, due to her fantastic reputation, meanings behind her work and quantity in which it keeps being produced in. There is a major focus on instillation and expression- even though techniques and aesthetics do come into play, of course, it really is the way her work is on exhibition and what went into making it, the passion that she truly decides to focus on and portray with the most importance. Due to this, there’s constant experimentation within her work, creating a wide range of it, using different mediums and ideas within them all. Her work feels to have somewhat of an everlasting freshness about it, always abiding to the time it’s produced in whilst giving off an enchanting effect. Due to this and her continuance of it throughout so many years, she’s continuously pushing forward the ideas of contemporary and expressive artwork. Another way she exaggerates the idea of self expression is through the use of abstracting and representation- to which she gave a fast pace and personal speech within her discussion about. The way she spoke to passionately about such a large quantity of artworks within such a short space of time was nothing less than astonishing, it kept me gripped the entire time- how she articulated herself in what felt like a style only people also with an artists’ mind would understand. It was rare for her to even take breaths, also obvious that yes there had been some prior preparation to that speech, but it mostly was derived from her mind at the exact time of speaking it. Making it all the more captivating. It’s a delight to hear other artists become so passionate within their talks. An example of her use of mixed media even within the same display is “Twice Removed” which was at the Gladstone gallery, focusing on the idea of “layers upon layers”. Furthermore, consisting of several layers on each individual part of the display, contrasting with the last or even being a built up of different mediums altogether. She exclaimed it to show a unique insight onto the idea of both failure and success, as well as how they contradict or compliment each other, I’m sure everyone else who witnessed this was as interested as I was. Some other examples are her exhibitions called “Thinking Whilst Touching” and “Some Transparent Object”. The first of which, depicting art as either a code or form to convey some anterior meaning to what can be initially seen on the surface. My interpretation of this is that she was expressing her opinion on how art can often be viewed as some other language, often unspoken but always felt on a deep and sometimes spiritual level. Art is the one thing on earth that can truly be impactful and felt through sight along. It can be both splitting and unifying within your own mind, a “bridge between knowing and doing, a fuck you to the mainstream”. Throughout every artist discussion we’ve had so far, that is 100% my favourite quote, it’s so raw, full of emotion, relatable and powerful. She swiftly moved onto her next point straight after, but the feeling of hearing that spoken for the first time can still linger within my own mind- yet again proving how only an artist can really come close to understanding another artist. The second exhibition, consisting of an animation created from Sillman’s own small paintings. It had the intent of making people view painting as layers of time, all packed together, but through different orders of the same different images you can view time differently. “Abstraction can be used as an interruption of structure”, there was intense layerings yet again, in an almost violent way, yet again emphasising the element of time and pressurisation within art. It’s quite extraordinary to witness someone unravel their art through words, it unravels both the artwork’s intent whilst also the artist’s mind simultaneously. Kind of similar to the idea of an investigation or interrogation, but juxtaposed with the sense of understanding in a state of awe. When Sillman truly described the true key point of her display as relating to the topic of time, it really gave a mind blown kind of feeling, one of my favourite feelings ever- probably why I enjoyed listening to her speak so much and have such a passion for art myself. It’s something you can truly connect with one another on, even if everything else in life is going to shit. As well as a renowned artist, Sillman is a published writer and even sells magazines, further expanding on how artwork can both be your outlet of emotion, but line of work due to the fact others find so much greatness within having a window into people’s minds and perspectives. All in all, this talk was beyond incredible and I truly wish Sillman the best; she had described a period of struggle especially within the pandemic, in which she painted flowers everyday in the same room for months on end, but eventually returned back to an art style closer to impressionism and experimentation- I hope she continues to progress positively in this way as she’s an amazing person.

[axelgill]

Hetain Patel Artist

We had another artist talk from a man named Hetain Patel. He grew up in a small town where it was uncommon for anyone to see people of colour; as he stated to be part of the only brown family in his area. As a result, he received a lot of bullying towards the colour of his skin and Indian accent, resulting in him attempting to forcibly get rid of his own accent and not have a huge focus on his heritage. Stating “I feel like I need a reason to do it”, in regards to his personal outlook on life, constantly searching for self purpose (which as a young child sometimes felt shattered and lost). It was also a result of this that Patel turned to artwork as a form of release and expression, ranging all the way from sculptures and modelling, to film work and acting, to painting and photography. He is an extremely deep person with large passions towards many art forms as they provided a release for a lot of emotion he has bottled up over his childhood struggles. His story is nothing less than an inspiration and admirable, he came through so much negativity even from his young age, onto exploring his heritage whilst taking pride in it, really exaggerating it into his own personal artwork. Despite all that was said to him, he stayed true to both his morals and family. Patel also exclaimed how he wants “to make artwork that makes my life better and creates a difference in the world”, which is probably the best thing I’ve ever heard spoken from another artist. That exclamation may seem somewhat bland and short at first glance, even that it may not hold that deep of a meaning, when in reality it holds so much more power in comparison to anything else I’ve ever heard- even more so when acknowledging the fact it is derived from another artist. It perfectly portrays my own mindset and goal in life when it comes to art, nothing I’ve ever been able to feel as of yet through my life. If I were to ever have a conversation with Hetain Patel, I’m sure it would be that of a deep one with great understanding between each other, not necessarily due to our artwork relating to each other, as in actual facts ours differ greatly, but relating on the reasons as to why we create art in the first place. Creating artwork in an attempt to seek for something within yourself, or understand yourself as an artist yourself with/without art. Creating artwork to impact people, possibly change their perspective or outlook on whatever subject your artwork is about, or simply provoke emotions in them through artistic visions/perceptions. Creating artwork as a feeling, how you as a creator can be warped into becoming a completely different person just simply through the process of creation itself, artistic processed can be some of the most impactful ones in existence. I strongly stand by that and am 100% positive Patel would too after hearing him speak and express such opinions on art. Another one of Pandel’s statements that resonated with me was “people say ‘artists? What freedom!’ and that doesn’t seem right to me”, he has the deeper understanding of how art is in no way the freeing expressive form it is made out to be, but in reality an expressive form of captivity- constantly feeling trapped within your own brain, body, abilities, comparing yourself, criticising yourself, even hurting yourself emotionally/physically in order to reach completion within art. He didn’t expect to miss things when he moved out, but ended up missing things most especially about his family and how they were due to heritage, this eventually crept its way into his work (despite him trying not to let it). For example, he created a film called “Dance Like Your Dad” where he mirrored every single movement, word and tone of voice in the exact same way as a video of his father going about a car garage from a coulee years ago, there is an uncanny resemblance and it’s extremely obvious that the two men are father and son. People credited him for being so proud of his past and father, due to this art piece he then created another art piece but this time with help from his father. His father, brother and Hetain Patel himself transformed an old ford Fiesta (Patel’s first ever car, from back in the 80’s) into a transformer/man in a squatting position. The position was a nod to how people in labour are lower down and needing to rest, then the actual work itself was both in reference to Hetain’s childhood (his youth linking to his first ever car) and his heritage- having both his father and brother help out. Performance and imitation is common in his work, it’s a positive and strong sign as he found his calling and style as an artist. Another piece that represents this as well as the “Dance Like Your dad” piece is “The First Dance” piece. In which he learnt an Indian fight movement sequence from an Indian movie, copied it whilst having it recorded at extremely similar angles to the original, and had it side by side to the original;. Showing how even a low budget can create spectacles, that there can be an immense amount of work behind anything even if it doesn’t seem like it. He like focusing on “what bodies can hold”. It would be incredible to have any further talks again with this artists, I love his work and his way of speaking was very captivating, not to mention how interesting his work itself is. It was truly a pleasure and delight to hear him give his discussion.

[axelgill]

Mimi Hope artist

We had a discussion from an artist called Mimi Hope, she is from England but has spent a large quantity of time over in LA due to the specifications of her work and success as an independent artist. For the first section of her talk, she really dived into explaining her past (even as a very young child), as she has the belief that this can heavily impact who you become as either a person or artist in later life). She went on to describe in detail how both her parents worked amongst musical theatre productions, often on stage playing roles. Therefore she was constantly surrounded by theatrical people, spending time on stage productions and constantly being surrounded by many different art forms when younger. When linking this to her current work ethic and art form today, it makes complete sense- as many artists derive to a form of self expression that is most commonly recognisable of comforting to them from their childhood. Whilst growing up, she pretty much watched the musical theatre production “Joseph and the Technicolour Dream Coat” everyday, such a vibrant and expressive show is definitely going to amaze and impact a child. Whilst at school, she explained to have the “privilege” to have been taught a traditional form of both acrylic and oil painting. Despite this though, felt unworthy amongst her peers- a common trait amongst artists is self criticism, always doubting your own work and believing you aren’t good enough. In fact, throughout her entire discussion, without realising it I think she made some incredibly relatable points for me and definitely the other young artists listening. It provided some form of metaphorical barrier between us students and the artist herself, as when artists truly understand each other on levels to do with art, it’s form of connection that cannot really be replicated anywhere else. So through the act of merely stating even somewhat comforting, relatable statements through passing sentences, it made everyone so much more captivated in what she was expressing, as well as her story as an individual. I truly believe she’s an amazing person and inspiration. Furthermore, through feeling she wasn’t expressing her art in it’s most purest form for her, she then decided to try awhile new art form altogether, rather than continuing with the traditional acrylic or oil painting. This is where musical theatre loops back around. A question she explained as circling her head was “How canI manipulate materials”, which stuck out to me as if that questions is both pulled apart and related to the eve-questioned mindset of an artists, you can realise that Mimi Hope was searching for a way to be unique in this world and find her purpose, to make an impact even only on one sheer object; exaggerating the fact that all artists search for a purpose, whether that being the continuing aim their entire lives or finding that purpose but then further delving into the ethics of that purpose to find some form of existential loophole even within their own art. It could just be me reading into things far too much, but it is within my beliefs that not a single artist out there, doesn’t have a deep ravelled mind full on intertwined and tangled thoughts upon being an artist, or what art even means. All artists to me are the most complex beings amongst the Earth. Through Mimi Hope having a foundation year, it really enabled her to experiment with all forms of materials, causing a ripple effects of her finding her footing as an artist (truly understanding what her preferred and most individually successful form is)- She studied at Chelsea college for Arts at BA level. Stating “graphic design was completely the wrong place”, as we gathered from this, Mimi Hope needed an art form that placed her amongst other creative people and not to be too involved with digital forms of artwork, as it was her personal reference to be more present in the real world. Luckily, she was able to be transferred to a fine art course as well as taking musical theatre classes; even on weekends. Yet again, this links back to her childhood of being surrounded my Musical Theatre. It was good for her to experience being in a variety of shows during University, on top of all her current work, she then asked to be someone’s assistant (to which she was accepted). “You have to have a network as well as talent”, was something she stated nearing the end of her discussion, which probably linked to our topic of Art In The City the most out of anything she said, even if it was just a brief statement. As, we know from our previous artist’s discussions and lectures that barely any artwork will become successful in a place that doesn’t provide connections, opportunities or business routes. “If you haven’t got your mind right, you won’t be a good artist”, was one of her closing statements, to me this felt like the concluded a separate topic of discussion, that being the one of an artists mindset, which never even got spoken about but could be understood through even just the manner in which Mimi Hope spoke in, to me it felt heartwarming to hear this subtle, subliminal conclusion- despite the fact Mimi Hope most likely never even realised she did it, as she probably just got caught up in giving her presentation. To conclude, it felt throughout her entire talk that she was a very relatable person, it would be lovely to either see her speak again or even one day maybe meet her in person of view she of her work in person. This also definitely helped in understanding how artwork works within a city.

[axelgill]

Katja Mata and Jessica Gysil Artists

We had a talk from both Katja Mata and Jessica Gysil (who work together on a a magazine) from Brussels. Theier magazine is called “Girls Like Us” and has been ongoing for currently 15 years, diving into queer, feminism and transgender topics. Their talk by far was the one I found myself so interested by, it was the first time we have been given a talk discussing topics in regards to LGBTQ+ within the art industry, and in such a positive light- considering it was a discussion about the success and importance of such queer related work. Being transgender myself, it was very interesting to listen to these artists speak, more so when knowing how long they’d been researching and discussing the topics in order to come to a point where they can create a living out of it. It was also somewhat comforting as this year has been one of the worst in recorded history for acts of violence against the LGBTQ+ community and I have been struggling far more than ever with personal gender dysphoria, so to see it spoken about publicly/globally in an educational setting was quite heartwarming. The ladies explained how their city provided the opportunities to enable their magazine to set off a develop into what it is today. A lot of queer people tend to move to bigger cities as that’s generically where the larger cultural places are, more music, acting, singing, dancing, expression, lifestyles, gender identities shown etc. Up to now they have released over 20 issues, all of which having great success and demand for more, as the people in the city of Brussels can relate and find it interesting. It is by starting off in a city that caused the magazine to become successful. Even if the magazine was being created elsewhere, still with the exact same content, it’s almost 100% likey that it wouldn’t be as successful as the target audience either wuldn’t be there to reach, or be a mix of people to afraid to speak up/express themselves about it as well as a tiny amount of people who are out and proud. The two artists are also working on a manifesto (mission statement for an organisation/group) publication book, full of different ones from people of all backgrounds and identities from all over the world. Which is nothing less than inspirational. It truly showed during their talk how art really is all around and sparking up everywhere. They expressed their concern on the fact that they receive plenty of people asking them to either release more consistent issues of even more copies of the same issue; to which they responded “we are bodies and we want to meet other bodies in physical form, getting people off phones”. They believe in sustainability and working ethically/eco-friendly within the works of the magazine and their everyday life, hence the lack of mass production within the magazine company itself. It is really important to them that what they create has an impact and makes a difference to whomever comes across it, this struck quite deep within me as i believe the same about my own work; that I want it to cause some form of reaction within whoever views it. So it’s understandable the workers want a clear conscience about going about their passions/artwork sustainably. It reinforces the idea of how artists are such deep people and can often care about the world far more than most other people. I sweet touch I found within the two girls’ discussion was their empowering statement for each letter of the alphabet, that the magazine also coincides with. Some of my favourites were:

“A is for agency, the power to do something, to change something.” (Queers changing society from within)

“B is for bodies, the visibility of lesbian, queer and others’ bodies has been clear since day one.” (It is only now their voices can finally be heard)

“H is for her/their story.” (Allowing people in these descriminated against groups have a platform to speak in, as they rightfully should.)

“N is for nuclear.” (Thinking about how the magazine could affect communities, ethics, recycling, reusing, reducing.)

“O is for outfit.” (Describing it as being far from a steady container, it should be a form of freedom and true inner visibility represented outwards.)

“Q is for queer time.” (It’s time for a future with diverse realities, sunshin and intelligence, the outside world is toxic when you finally discover safe places nowadays.)

My favourite part of the whole talk was the slight discussion on both gender definition and expression, it was truly, truly inspiring. One of the women stated, “We express gender as a world of possibilities, as it is fluid.” It genuinely brought tears to my eyes, this talk was so wonderfully enjoyable and interesting. I hope we get more talks in relevance to both queer artists and topics in the future.

[axelgill]

Gabriel Kuri Artist

Another artist spoke to us, called Gabriel Kuri. He moved to Brussels in 2003, further moving around to Mexico and England, spending 2013-2016 in Los Angeles, but now permanently lives in Mexico. He’s witnessed many cities with huge cultures in regards to artwork and artists, making his own artwork incredibly relevant to our current module of “Art In The City”. Kuri expressed that one of his main interests is collecting things most people wouldn’t have any desire to acknowledge let alone collect. Furthermore, as an artist, he recreates or reinvents them in his own way- implementing his idea of order (e.g. small to large, tall to short etc). Kuri presented the question “how do we explain the complexities of experiences through art?”, proposing the further idea that there are so many never-ending stories held by everyone within the world that there’s no real possibility to capture those within art, yet he attempts to display the idea anyways. Even further displaying his mind as an artist, always aiming for the somewhat impossible and giving almost unobtainable tasks to yourself when (in reality) it isn’t necessary. To back this up, he explained how coming up with initial ideas is the easy part or art; it’s the creation and development that stimulates the brain and causes difficulty. Kuri also proposed the question “how do we assign value?” a deep rooted question that can even be linked all the way back to the birth of both renaissance and modern art, as a species we declared what artwork is worth and how you obtain entitlement in order for your artwork to have that worth. Whilst having recourses/materials obtaining their own individual worths and everyone having different beliefs on what is or isn’t worthy. It’s a loaded, heavy question, which both links and juxtaposes to Kuri’s own artwork as he creates pieces based off of objects that may even be deemed as rubbish by most all of the world’s population. For example, his array of works displaying his interpretation of cigarette butts, all in arrangement and his own size/style. He has a belief that there is no real difference between natural and manmade things, which has the potential to open up a variety of debates. Kuri’s talk really was fascinating, more than any other of the artists’ talks so far, he really got everyone thinking so much deeper, constantly asking why it is anything is done. It truly was an honour to be able to hear him give his talk. Even his own work doesn’t have a high production value, in hopes to create an amazing something out of a disregarded nothing- with all his work coming from first hand experiences, his own stories that are never-ending. When taking into consideration everything he said, it makes complete sense as to why he’s a sculpture artist, sculptures are much more lifelike, with a greater 3D presence than most other art forms, it really provokes feelings, emotions and opinions. Yet again, these only being possible due to having opportunities within cities of artwork. There’s a reliance on geometry and material as well as the artists own brain, you become more at one with the art piece than you could potentially do with a drawing. To end off his talk, Kuri told us his favourite book is “The Case For Working With Your Hands”, by Matthew Crawford, with his favourite quote being “it is by having hands that humans are the most intelligent animals”. Hearing Kuri talk has motivated to purchase and read his favourite book as well as to ask myself “why” more often, possibly even keep a bigger array of documents is relation to the production of my own work. I hope to hear more from him in the future and possibly witness an exhibition of his in person some day.

[axelgill]

Roy Potter Artist

We had another discussion with an artist from a city, this time it was a lady called Roy Potter who’s art surrounds the topics of “relationships between buildings and bodies”, for example, when taking “bodies” into account, she may explore further topics such as gender, claustrophobia, disabilities ect. She never really explained during her talk why she makes what she does, what purpose it serves or that she wants it to serve- therefore it was slightly confusing to make precise direct links between any of her work and the subject of our current University module (Art in The City). That being said, it was extremely interesting work to look into and hear being explained. She has an internationally known name, so I’m assuming her reputation must proceed her or she may not have even had time to explain fully the significance behind her work in relation to our module, so it’s understandable as to why our information was vague. Alongside her visual artwork, she has written books, to which she stated “bookwork unsettles the work of my interests”, perhaps due to the fact her deeper meanings are more exploited through writing, in turn making it difficult to create as those exploited reasonings dwell within the background of her mind, it’s somewhat of an internal struggle having both passions of writing and artistry. Despite being as successful as she is, she still only sells her bookwork for as little as £5, Potter is most definitely a considerate woman, viewing a talent of hers as more of a hobby despite being so talented she can make a living off of it. Potter wishes for any of her written work to be accessible.  A recent commission she did for Tate Liverpool had been on display and I got the privilege of going to witness it with my dad, it was captivating and most definitely unique as it was on the ground floor of Tate Liverpool, making it the first thing you see on your visit- nothing else in the gallery compared to it at all. Potter named the work ‘flatland”,it consisted of a recorded performance, in which she stated the performers to “lose control and go off on tangents despite it being live work”. I absolutely loved this idea she had to barely have structure between the people displaying her live work, it exaggerated the possibility of joy within letting go and losing control. Personally, I believe many artists nowadays are straying back into the idea of staying within one style or realm of art, when we should all be constantly exploring and letting go, we should never get too comfortable within our creations, abilities or lifestyles as artists. I believe Potter to have this mentality too, which is why her work felt as captivating as it did. She created large brick like garments or fabric representing buildings to display, linking back to her linking between “buildings and bodies”, in this piece almost turning the bodies into the buildings and the buildings into bodies, a complete juxtaposition to really get the viewers thinking about structure and self expression. Or who is really held within a body/building. Many existential and theological questions could be arose from this, due to her work being both derived and displayed in cities, it further helps her to grow and keep people questioning everything- what could be classed as the true aim of art. Potter describes some of her work to be “wonderful terror”, I couldn’t agree more. Similarly to the Tate Liverpool exhibition, at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, she had people dressed as architectural commas (features of experiencing a landscape, such as text). On another occasion for the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, she created a film when offered a grand by a couple, in which Potter called it “Rooms designed for a woman”. Displaying many topics in regards to the femininity debate, women rights, feminism and equality. It wasn’t necessarily Potter’s usual theme, describing to have had “pleasure in not understanding”. Explaining to me and the others listening to her talk how even as established or successful artists, you still continue to learn, mostly with the opportunities arising from being in a city. As an artist, you have to create the work, sell the work and view the work, all from one singular perspective and brain, this is incredibly difficult and stressful yet rewarding and exciting. Potter explores this within her drawings, that not many people see as she isn’t really known as a drawer. This was probably my favourite part of the talk (when she was explaining this) as I really resonated with it, making me feel less alone in a huge city filled with artists/aspiring artists all practically reaching for the same goals or outcomes. Yet again, her explanations were slightly off and confusing throughout every section of her talk, but I think she knew this, stating “It’s difficult to talk about my practising a streamline way as it gets very messy”. Everyone listening definitely understood straight away, an artists’ mind is that of a complex and overfilling one, not ever going to be explained with technical accuracy or 100% understanding. Furthermore, she told us to find comfort in things like pantomimes, communities and synchronised work like she does- which I thought was incredibly sweet of her when taking into consideration we were all far younger artists in comparison, just scratching the surface of what difficult road awaits. In conclusion, it became clearer throughout Roy Potter’s talk as to how we can relate her work with our current module, it was eye opening and comforting to listen to someone talk that understands the generic artist mindset. I won’t forget about her work and look forward to possibly seeing more of her work displayed in Tate Liverpool in the future.