mdrnlife

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Methods and Processes

It's a long time since I've looked at this, I haven't really posted much this year.

Screen print and collage workshops provided some useful direction with some interesting use of materials and processes.

I spent a little bit of time investigating what other people were doing which was interesting albeit a little bit distracting. that said I thought it would be worth posting a few of these as some signposts.

Babette Herschberger I've always admired the work of this artist both in terms of the materials forms and ideas of reuse.

https://www.babetteherschberger.com/selected-paintings#9

The combination of collage and printing (and/or painting) is also intriguing.

Recent work feels to have been a bit scatter gun and the most successful pieces have been those that have been coloured from other work. it's not clear if this is end to itself and attempting to reproduce these works feels a little futile. Perhaps the next move is to step aside direct printing and to look at more meaningful collage/painting with an emphasis materials, freedom and especially engagement.

There are many people out there pursuing similar investigations to myself with more media presence and a more applied approach. Some references to collage/painting that I investigated are below.

https://www.formworksstudio.co.uk

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Projections

I started working back on some of the model projections I had done, see https://www.tumblr.com/mdrnlife/707531204200742912/models-and-projections?source=share. These were based on a series of balcony models.

I wanted to explore depth here as well and printed on muslin and translucent mylar. The more successful ones were those that printed through the fabric although the offprint was more of an inspiration for future work.

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Offcuts

Here is a selection of collages consisting of stencils from previous screen prints. Sometimes the textures are more interesting than the final outputs.

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Interconnections

This has been a bit of a long and slow process having produced a number of previous iterations (see previous Tensegrity Studies).

From these I developed a series of limited forms which where used in semi random ways to create a range of prints.

I was going to call this three lines, some shapes and four colours go for a walk but decided against it!

Selections of prints.

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Interferences

From the Gehry Studies and using a variety of applied transformations I produced a series of screen prints both single and diptych which I titled Interferences.

Initial Digital Image Studies

Screen Layers

Initial Single Prints

Examples of Diptych Prints

Although I was generally happy with these and the printing went well I felt that they didn't quite reach the potential of the digital prints.

I think I was being too cautious here, better cropping and overlays might have helped.

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Gehry Studies

These came from a stroll through the soulless Novartis Campus in Basel where architecture creations battle with each other for recognition. As always the Gehry building was entirely recognisable and I was quite taken by the geometric shapes.

The original intention was to create some happy bright prints from this dull soulless place. I used distortion rotation and other methods but the use of large benday dots seemed to create something quite removed from my original ideas and harkened back to some of the Powers of 10 series. I enjoy the colour mixing and interference that these produced but not sure whether they have the power of the originals.

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Tensegrity Studies

I've always been interested in these structures which spawned the Skylon and the Aviary House in London Zoo. From this I decided to have a go at making a model which was quite entertaining in its own right.

I then spent a lot of time projecting this at various scales through drawing and printing in a variety of media. I enjoyed the process and thought that it delivered some quite useful results but I found it hard going.

I'm still working through this, and the work is now leaning towards a similar methodology to that I adopted in the fragment's series. That said I am enjoying some simple screen printing and interaction of new colour palettes.

See later for some further developments.

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Models and Projections

I now found myself looking at how I want to progress my work and developed several strands based on model projections and the use of photographs following on from the Hayward Studies I’d carried out previously.

One of the buildings that I visited over the summer was the E1027 house in France and I was quite captivated by the shadows that it cast in the strong Mediterranean sunlight. I had taken a series of photographs and was particularly interested in the projection of balconies and shades.

I made a series of models and projected them but never really managed to get what I was looking for.

I persevered and ended up making a series of smaller models into a larger collection which almost resembled a block of flats, again I projected these but struggled with the outcomes.

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Round up of Work

In some respects, the roundup of my MA work focused on a print sale at the Phoenix see Press+Play.

I also produced some new work for this which I was generally quite happy with, particularly the Hayward Studies which sold well. This did, however, leave me with a dilemma of how to move forward with my work.

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Further Fragments

I developed these from the Fractured Forms series.

They worked well as a series of cards.

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New Work

I did a lot of printing whilst I could still use the studios, this divided into two streams of work.

Fragment's This stemmed from the Fragmented Forms series and consisted of a series of dry point prints, some to a large scale. The intention is to overprint some of these with colour but the groups of three I quite like as a monochrome set.

in terms of title I'm not sure:

Fragment Marks Fragment's

Hayward Staircase

These were best based on photographs taken of the staircase within the Hayward gallery. They were abstracted to form relationships between the two forms, they were produced as multiple and single prints.

Hayward Forms Not Quite Touching Almost Touching

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Powers of 10 Book

This is the photo sequence for the limited edition print book.

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Moving Planes

This is a series of photos showing how the Moving Planes book unfolds.

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Exhibition Setup

The exhibition took a while to get right but I think I managed to set up everything pretty well. I experimented in a rig at home to see how the artefacts might be arranged on the plinth.

Everything worked well and the viewer could still explore all of the artefacts.

I was unsure what to put on the wall and decided on the banners and possibly shadows of the model.

Originally the banners were hung from the cable trays but this didn't really work but they were fine hung on the wall.

Possibly a little busy but I was happy to communicate process as well as completed work.

I think it will need some managing and curating but I am happy with the results generally.

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Riso Printing

Powers of 10 book is finally on its way. After initial struggles with the layout and practicality the printing went reasonably smoothly with a lot of help from Liv!

Some of the prints really benefitted from the process and gave a new dimension to the original screen prints.

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Project Description Workshop

Useful for developing final project description.

Artist Bio

Stephen has worked as a design professional for many years where his projects received press coverage in journals, books and awards. In addition, he has co-authored books on design. He currently divides his time between his MA studies at Brighton, as a Senior Lecturer in Interior Architecture & Design at the University of Portsmouth, and consultancy projects.

For many years he has been passionate about the architecture of the mid 20th Century, both as an area of study but also as a resident in a ‘70s brutalist tower block and later a Span House in Blackheath.

The Project: Order: Re Order

The project reflects an interest in architectural forms of the mid 20th Century.

It is presented in a container comprising a series of five collections of sequential images. These are intended to encourage the viewer to discover the possibilities offered for image making from architectural forms.

A range of processes are employed to investigate the spaces where reality is distorted and abstracted, through modelling, projection and manipulation. The final images are created using a range of methods which include screen printing, tape drawing and Riso printing.

The work aims to explore the range of possibilities generated from a combination of applied processes.

Contact:

mdrnlives@gmail.com

Intragram: @mdrnlives

[mdrnlife]

Dagmara Rudkin and Madeleine Swift Talks

These were really inspiring, see websites:

http://www.dagmararudkin.com/

http://www.madeleineswift.co.uk/

Madeleine had some really good advice and quotes:

‘Find out what doesn't work and what does’

‘Intention means more than perfection’

See also quote by Peter Korn below.