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Self-Critique

For this Project where the sky is the limit, there can be a lot of trepidation the Artist’s fear of the ‘Blank Page’. Overcoming this fear is important for a project like this, though restraint is also key. For example my initial idea of Peterloo was a bit of a broad stroke and then my jigsaw pin idea was a pinpoint. Its finding that balance in which Artwork is approachable but deep, I believe I achieved this in certain aspects of Unit X but have wavered in others as well.

Technically I believe that investigated thoroughly through different media such as Drawing, Photography editing and animation. Though I think some aspects of some art could be tweaked like finding the right audio for my animations I’m happy with how other parts turned out such as some of the posters I made and flyers.

In the End I wanted to push my Artistic boundaries a bit beyond my traditional set because I thought I needed to develop my lateral thinking along with playing with ideas and the tech to support said ideas. My great strength is my conceptual mind in creating ideas but my weakness I found was getting stuck in my head and overthinking things when I should always stick to an Important artistic idea ‘Less is More’. 

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Sign O’ Times Exhibition

I arrived early at the exhibition to set up my flyers. Unfortunately their was a trouble with my animation format and couldn’t be submitted last minute, which I don’t mind it was only 15 seconds long and is in my blog so it’s not like no one will see them. 

There was a projection where peoples work was displayed. It was very refreshing to see other peoples take on the UnitX project. Plus it gives a great sense of perspective when seeing EVERYONE’s work come together.

Seeing the Show reel of everyone’s work was nice as well. With everyones different styles rubbing shoulders.

After the Show reel I distributed most if my flyers to people. It might not have been the great experiment I planned initially but I did ask the questions I wanted to ask.

Overall I really enjoyed the mingling of different creative minds and I saw some things from other students which I might incorporate into another projects if needs be. Plus I really enjoyed the evening hanging out with people who are willing to receive and ask questions about themselves.

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Flyers from Animation

I decided for the exhibition to submit an animation and distribute flyers. I settled on these because I wanted to represent the crowd aspect of my work and I thought that this multi-coloured approach would be best. I really like the design and I believe the words are provocative enough. Lets hope the night goes well.

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2nd Animation 2

With all the Animations I wanted to track movement within a crowd and reflect that to the audience, being part of the ‘less is more’ ideal. With that in mind I believe I can really create something true through these animations and upon reflection I like what I see.

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2nd Animation 1

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Whole Animation 

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Animation 3

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Animation 2

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Animation 1

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Raw Photos

Above is a sample of photographs which I will edit to make into animations.

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Spencer Tunik’s ‘Sea of Hull’

Tunik’s community piece is an incredible work. With 3000 plus volunteers who painted their nude bodies blue to become part of this uniform crowd. This seems like the Murmurations of fish I researched earlier with the mass of bodies competing and cooperating with each other for space. To have a sense of a crowd is questioned and answered to a degree in this piece, having the streets of Hull being occupied by bodies which aren’t shopping, going about their lives, etc. 

Overall I find this piece important for questioning our surroundings, for making statements about our lives which can make us see differently. In the end Turnik’s piece achieves a lot and has allowed me to think about asking the right questions.

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Jigsaw Posters

I decided to make these Posters about Jigsaws. Some are just alterations to some famous artwork (DaVinci’s Mona Lisa, Van Gogh’s portrait, Rembrant’s Night Watch), while others are of my own making similarly to the work I did for Peterloo. I enjoyed making these because it was nice to do something more simple compared to my recent work and research, Overall I like this method but I believe I might do more small scale public art which might dabble in a bit of animation.

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Antony Gormley, Rob Mulholland, Bruno Catalano.

Antony Gormley’s installations are mainly figurative, Gormley assembles a crowd with his sculptures. Gormley’s figures reflect an aspect of humanity by showing on mass murmurations in crowds in which we as an audience need to see recognition among the idols we are presented with.

Rob Mulholland has a similar style to Gormley with his mirrored figures shifting and distorting the nature around him. He takes a measurement of his surroundings and presents us with the findings in which we can see the changes truthfully. 

Bruno Catalano’s ‘travelers’ present alongside the themes Antony Gormley and Rob Mulholland by inhabiting and reflecting the location they inhabit making us question the nature of our world around us.

Overall these Artists use outdoor art to question our environment, culturally and physically. We as a culture have the capacity to see the world around us but we need art like this to question things, I want to be able to question things in our environment; but try to keep it simple.

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Let’s reel it back a bit.

For the exhibition I believe my initial idea of using jigsaw pieces as pins, using said pins to track and collect data regarding movement in groups. Then use that data to make Artwork was a bit too big of a task to undertake, so i’m going to just keep it simple. It was pointed out to me that I should tone it down, I still believe the idea is good, but for the sake of the project I should keep it simple.

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Foot Print Art

I had an idea about what could go on my Jigsaw I decided on a footprint, this is because I thought that the most sub-conscience mark we leave behind us in a crowd. So I decided to capture some marks that people leave behind, in public spaces to gain an interaction.

Unfortunately my Photos of me documenting this process got corrupted and lost, which is really annoying. So the best way I can describe it as a trap where people were invited to ‘leave their mark’ on A2 sheets of paper.

Below I edited the marks to make a topography kind of map. I like hop the chaotic marks left behind, In which I developed a collective image like Rogowski did in this puzzle piece images.

Below is some rendered collaged images of what I could put on a jigsaw for the exhibition, some I’ve left Black and White others I’ve colourised others. I find the concept very interesting with this automatic style of Artwork, that the layers and connections of the marks I’ve collected and I hope that I can be able to articulate this in a artistic sense later on.

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Kent Rogowski & Erik Kessel ’Failed it’

Ian recommended Erik Kessel and inadvertently Kent Rogowski. Rogowski’s style of photography with being serendipitous, showing a lighter side of society. Saying how the imperfect can be a better reflection of society rather than obsessed images which are fed to us socially.

Concerning the Puzzle works with Rogowski he realised that some puzzles can be interconnected and merged making something new, where multiple images become one. This idea of merging multiple layers making Da Da-esque scene, of how this notion of a piece no matter what its visuals are can still be connected to other unconnected pieces.

Overall I really like this reference because it does connect to some themes I’ve talked about before, of measuring a connective-ness that can be quantified through artwork. What I’ve gained from these pieces is how a jigsaw piece can be interchanged and that they can symbolise a lot more than first realised. 

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JIGSAWS IDEAS!!!!

just had a great thought of incorporating a jigsaw (either whole or a piece) within my project. I believe it is a great symbol due to the fact that it we as a culture have evolved to see ourselves in everyday objects, this gives us as Artists to make connections through objects to give a layer of subtlety to the audience. So we don’t need to hold hands with our audiences, we trust them instead to follow on their own.

The idea I had for the exhibition is to make badges from puzzle pieces from a jigsaw I made. Record groups who are wearing the badges and make a collective artwork from that. Essentially I would like to collect artistic data to produce artwork, to document the conscience and sub-conscience actions of crowds and how people merge and disperse.

I’m reminded of a story of a shipment of rubber ducks lost at sea, then scientists noticed how these ducks were following the ocean currents. These serendipitous ducks became tools to map a natural phenomenon which is what I want to do to put Artwork out there in the ether and see what it records, what records it, etc.