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Masonic Hall

Title: Reminiscence 

MEH - I didn’t like the space but there was nothing I could really do about it. 

Asked James Gardner for advice and he told me to take a risk and believe in myself so I did. 

It was a very frustrating process if I’m honest: felt like the event was very poorly organised. It was also an unideal space to put up our work: especially my installation. I originally had a big plan for the end of year exhibition but due to the space being shit difficult, I had to adapt and improvise. 

In the end, the outcome was alright. Not exactly how I pictured my end of year exhibition but it was a success somewhat. 

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BRIDEWELL GALLERY INDEPENDENT EXHIBITION

‘CAN I FORGET YOUR FACE?’

Several students and I exhibited our work in the Bridewell Gallery (independent [outside of university])

Having been inspired by Angelo Madonna’s work in the Bridewell, I decided to also exhibit my work in the cells. I thought my art worked well in the prison as the portrait paintings were of a criminal I knew from the past who had not been caught (NO JUSTICE TO THOSE HARMED BY HIM). Due to him committing suicide before the police could put him in a trial to send to jail, I decided to sentence him myself via paintings. 

It was a very interesting space and overall, I thought the exhibition went very well. Despite my lack of inspiration and ideas for this semester, I think I did well, and the mark making for the paintings were very fun (but also frustrating because art is god damned hard) and I have Jasmir Creed to thank for the inspirational work she did.

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Medicina

Recorded Performance piece (file too big to be added)

Title: Medicina 

- Force 

Doctors forcing the resisting patient to take pills 

PILLS DO NOT FIX EVERYTHING

We are sometimes under the impression that pills will cure anything when that is not the case. Sometimes these pills will do more harm than good (refer back to blog statement about personal experiences with medication?)

In short: pharmacies get money every time doctors prescribe medication - this is a money making business. DO THEY ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT OUR WELLBEING? 

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MEDICATION CAN ALSO AFFECT A PERSON’S MEMORY (MOSTLY SHORT TERM MEMORY LOSS RATHER THAN LONG TERM) 

Can placebo pills have the same effect? If people were told a certain pill would make then forget a memory - would this actually happen?

- THE PLACEBO EFFECT(?)

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PTSD [Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder] can cause severe effects on the hippocampus. Transferring short-term memory into long-term? 

[Source]

Traumatic memories sometimes are not all accurate.

Looking into the Nelson Mandela effect: when memory is falsely remembered?

- The brain can be manipulated into believing something happened in a different nature to what actually happened.

[To look into]

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Extreme Photography Edits

It is possible to repress or ‘block’ a traumatic memory. The brain causes global impairment that can make it difficult for the person to recall accurate memory of past events. 

[Source]

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Photography Edits

Memory alteration: is it possible to ‘block’ a memory of someone?

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Brain Activity

Cognitive experiments research (behaviour aspects)?

BRAIN: Limbic system

Includes the hippocampus, the amygdala etc

- process memories

Sometimes memories are unconsciously blocked due to the stress of the memory!

- It’s not possible to distinguish repressed memories from false ones without evidence though (?): evidence being people experiencing the same-ish memory.

Some cases people block memories or replace them with false ones??

Just asked Shannon to smell my tea - she said she knows the smell from somewhere. It’s amazing how the brain can be triggered by smell and can distinguish memory from something as simple as the smell from tea, or a deodorant etc.

-- 

Brain work: links back to my work last semester about fear and how the brain reacts to things they cannot explain. 

- Looking more into the brain and how it deals with emotions and trauma. I want it to be psychologically disturbing. 

IN CONCLUSION:

Brains are hard to understand.

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The Nelson Mandela Effect

"I never lose. I either win or learn." - Nelson Mandela  

Nelson Mandela was the former South African president who was born in 1918 and died in 2013. He is to this day known as a legend that was wrongly sentenced to life in prison with the African national congress.  

A campaign was created during the 1980's to free Mandela from prison. During this time Jerry Dammers wrote the song Free Nelson Mandela, that was sung by The Specials.  

The Nelson Mandela Effect started when everyone thought he had died in prison in the 1980s, but he was actually released from prison in 1990 and later died in 2013 - despite people claiming they remember clips of his funeral on TV.

Mandela was famous for fighting for freedom, human rights and women's rights. He was an activist who fought for equality and social justice and won the Peace Prize award.

The Mandela Effect: experiencing events from a different reality / finding others with similar memories. It is not necessarily false memories - just something that has never happened in this reality. Our memories are different from what's in the history books, newspapers etc.  

Parallel realities exist??  

Mind playing tricks on you.  

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Memories and Death Brainstorm

Looking at how our memories affect us - how do we know its real (FMS - false memory syndrome)

How is the brain able to distinguish what memories are real and what are not? How does the brain react to death - chemicals in the brain (low levels of serotonin / high levels of cortisol etc.)

Collaboration with Tunny: exploring people's reaction to death

How the brain reacts like a force field  

How people grieve 

False memory syndrome (FMS) - to do with trauma and memories

Believing something of the opposite nature didn't happen when it did.

How a person's memories can change when they've lost someone, how their emotions change.

You can't actually prove your memories, it's just your word

How someone from the outside perceive it  

You can only paint an image for someone (meaning you can easily manipulate or brainwash them)

Humans have ignorance towards dying. We can't accept that there's nothing after death, we believe there is always something after death.  

Life after death(?) Proof: near death experiences and comas

Spirituality: how people will only believe it when they see it

People dissociate when the can't deal with a situation.

Going to look into the Nelson Mandela Effect / chemicals in our brains

Possible Ideas:

Tunny reading diary notes in monotone / emotionally(?)

Ask people to read it and get different voices, people reading it all at once one after another.

Music: juxtaposition (a safety blanket of FMS and the dark lyrics sugar coated by the relaxing and soothing music. Perhaps include visuals, could include smells perhaps: lynx Africa (an aftershave that perpetrator used)

Near death experiences: create a hospital scene?  

H O S P I T A L S  

Sounds: heart monitors, telephone ringing, people coughing in the background, wheeled chairs and bed etc.  

Interactive installation piece:  have people on beds / wheelchairs or waiting rooms. Hospitals are were life and death are.  

Medication? NHS, funding issues and how they treat people with mental health issues. Surveys and interviews / unprofessional advice - perhaps look into Damien Hirst's medical cabinet.  

Side pieces: separate pieces that are combined into the project.

Wood workshop to make bed // induction!!

1st piece: Surveys and interviews

We want to know if you've had any experience with mental health? Do you suffer from MHI  

Mention that we've been careful about approaching people with sensitive subjects.

Ask opinion on NHS / mental health care

What do you think of hospitals / being in one?

Name a sound or smell that you'd find in a hospital?

Brainstorm more with Tunny to see what other side pieces we can include. Perhaps add music to this? Linking back to Rosa Uddoh and her singing: don't diss it till you've tried it - Rory 2k19

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James Gardner

He's Scottish - Aberdeen

Went to a local painting school but didn't like painting - so he went to an art school in London instead to try painting again.

His family is Catholic – he went to Rome and open a gallery. Hadn't the experience of galleries so he pretty much didn't know what he was doing (mood).  

He's been impulsive?

Different from the work around it - others were quite colourful  

Italian artist 

Artist was interested in time lapses.  

The weight of it will change over time. It's also not about what you physically see but what it represents tec.  

Does he not have any physical work himself? - Just gallery spaces that he's hired out (or bought) and showing us work that other artists have exhibited.  

He is indeed a curator.

I think it's really cool how he's portrayed the artwork in the gallery,  it is quite aesthetically pleasing to look at and could, possible, be considered a form of art because the location of where painting are placed is important, as it achieves an overall composition. Consideration is given to colours and styles, and how they work well together.  Some artwork is really nice to look at, some not so much. You can tell he's worked really hard on this gallery space and how much effort it's took simply by looking at the picture.  

Despite going into this impulsively and not having a clue how to run a gallery he's done rather well. However, I don't really see how this has anything to do with that the objective of this series of lectures – the presentation of artwork by artists. Like all the previous artists we've seen I was expecting artwork and instead he's showing us other people's artworks and talking about them rather than himself. Focuses a lot on the space - is he a curator?  But says he's worked alongside curators so I'm a little confused. Might investigate him further because the gallery space and how the work has been set out could come in handy for the Masonic Hall exhibition. I will think about taking advantage of the space despite it being small etc.  

He was very late and when I spoke to him, rather abrupt. His response was only one sentence long but nevertheless probably a wise comment "Take risks and believe in yourself". The way he exhibited work conveyed a lot of thought enabling it to complement its environment. This made me consider how important the environment that the artwork is placed in is. During my exhibition at the Masonic hall I was disappointed with my space. I asked him for advice and felt he was fairly dismissive. His lecture was engaging and appealing and I was inspired by him, as he had opened up his own gallery. He started from the bottom, on his own and worked his way up, opening up two famous galleries. I could resonate with him due a common theme of financial difficulties, which is why I was inspired by him. I was hoping for more motivation and knowledge from him but the one to one conversation was uninspiring, as he seemed very generic, therefore, my expectations were not met. Even so I took the risk in the Masonic. I felt that if he could successfully make his art work in a space then why couldn't I? I believe I achieved this even though the space was not ideal and I had to work around complications but I made it work somehow.  

Take risks and believe in yourself is really important - his advice  

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Maeve Brennan

Works mostly with videos - documentary approach  

Went to a number of places (middle east 2013-15)  

Focuses on history - her great grandfather (in Jerusalem)  

Interest in forensic - forensic architecture  

(( Temple was bombed during the civil war but there was remains and the guy knew that they were roman houses))

Maeve became fascinated by stones - her great grandfather was a geologist that moved to Jerusalem in 1917  

He produced a book about a scientific study of a building.

She made a film called Jerusalem Pink . She uses her great grandfathers book studying the structures of the rock on buildings.  

Video of a man looking at rocks and minerals - gets a gift given to him.

Next clip is looks like a factory at night digging up rocks etc.  

One of her first pieces; a geologists dining room. Has rocks and minerals on his shelf - very pretty and aesthetically pleasing to look at; colours clash nicely:

The way the room art piece was decorated produced a very authentic and urban feel, which was inviting and cosy. The combination of colours produced a rustic theme and the colours melded together nicely. I was not really interested in the rocks but appreciated that they have existed over time. I admire that people can diagnose the rocks, where they are from, how long they have been there for, presenting a form of intelligence. Some of her photography was lovely, good composition, depth, outstanding scenery, very sharp, good quality images. A good eye was evident resulting in work that took my breath away. She triggered my passion for photography, and made me realise how important composition, light and focus is. I intend to pursue my photographic skills further. I want to take pictures of children in bunny masks to show how innocent they are , as opposed to adults in foxes masks, indicating predatory animals.  

The environment of her art is very appropriate  because she was focussing on rocks and geology and where she was presented this, in Jerusalem.  

I felt this was a personal experience to her, as her great grandfather was interested  geology, particularlyin rock formations. It resonated with me because I have a strong resonance with personal connection. Linking back to what I said earlier it has influenced me to take a step back and focus on my previous passions and explore it a bit further. I may also focus on my grandmother, who is a herbalist. This relates back to Nature and how we take it for granted. It also relates to the healing properties within nature.

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Video of a guy fixing up a car - also an older guy talking about rocks and how he knows where the rocks used to be on a building (the younger generation don't know anything because they weren't around in those days and didn't get to learn or see as much as he did.  

Overall, some lovely pictures that she's taken

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Dana Munro

Blade runner scene?? Guy drinking alcohol watching a video on tv

Some weird vampire movie?

Birds on a camera - looks pretty dope

Video of birds chirping on a clothes rack and people talking in the background  

Mimes playing tennis?

Guy standing alone in a field like a weirdo

She's interested in editing video transitions

She's just reading from a paper or piece of text - doesn't sound as interested in her work?? There is an interesting use of white space. Any aspects of nature i.e. The bird transfixed me, due to my love of nature.

Overall I did not enjoy this work, as it was sterile. It lacked a creative process of her making work  and presenting the finishing product. The movie clip did not feel like her work but more in line with plagiarism. The movie clips used were not personal, as she had not produced them i.e. Blade Runner.

I wish my wife was as dirty as this - weird flex but ok  

Nice jacket, looks trendy like something you'd see in the breakfast club  

There's too many themes crammed into one lecture/PowerPoint. Hard to keep track of the work because she's rushing through her work.

A slower pace, more enthusiasm and less themes may have held my attention longer.

Common work: clips from movies

Dropped my fucking £1,000 tablet Time to drop a toaster in my bathtub  

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Tom Railton

Facebook and Instagram: What's on your mind, Tom?  And Tap to type.  

Sunset colours?

How the brain reacts to colours?

He wants to use a fishing net for an idea he has - but he doesn't know what to do with the idea yet. (How long it needs to be etc.)  

Net idea - looks like it's been made by fabrics  

"Looks like it won't catch much" - Tom

Slightly underwhelming - a bit flat  

Looks like it's been photographed badly - the garden is nice but doesn't work  

He put it in a white space, looks a bit better.  

He likes the fading of the straws, how it fades from pink to purple to blue. Used an airbrush to paint it.  

He took a picture from Instagram of a couple in a lovely yellowy sunset and compared it a painting from the 1700s with the same sky but had battleships in the sea.  

It has a lot of history behind it - perhaps look it up for future reference?  

Painted for orphans?? - commissioned

He's quite obsessed with colours - or the theme of his work at the moment is colours - which relates to what he said at the beginning of the lecture about how the brain reacts to colours. He has shown us a lot of old paintings that probably took a very long time to paint, but instead of looking at the main focus of the painting - the ships, the church, the battle - he focuses on the colour of the sky and how it's been painted. He has a strong emphasis on the psychology of colours and how the brain reacts to certain colours. This intrigued me because of my current interest in brain activity and how a memory of a colour can trigger a reaction. I would like to develop further my use of colour, as his excellence in this field could be used as a starting point. His use of colour brings out emotions, it makes you feel something but you cant quite touch upon it.  

The environment of his art is very important, as it has to be in a certain environment to basically have an impact/ engage a reaction. In my opinion the images and form are secondary to the colours but nevertheless it is obvious that he has thought about his form.

He's also shown us some memorial books and tells us how he's more interested in the covers of the books - very colourful.  

Years ago when they gave their children up because they couldn't look after them/ have financial stability etc - they didn't give their name but instead gave the people a personal item - much like a token.  

So after a few years, they would be able to identify the child of the parent by what token they had.  

He's been looking into Obsidian crystals!!

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Jasmir Creed

Based in Manchester - reading off paper - not much interaction? Hard to listen to - monotone - almost like she doesn't like her work

Can't really focus on her because she sounds disinterested - whether it's talking about her work or just her work in general - seems like she's just reading an essay rather than being passionate about her work like the other lecturers.  

Kathy Prenderghast - city drawings  

Julie Mehetru - city monuments  

((She's showing other artists that have inspired her))

Used ink for simplicity of mark making  

Represents capitalism in London

Making the rich, richer and the poor, poorer.  

Yellow ink shows pollution - called Smog because London issued a warning a few weeks about smog.

Angel of the North?

She's all about shapes and mark makings, displaying good technical skills. I am more drawn to interaction and the emotions felt by artists, instead I listened to a monotone voice, which took away any interest I may have felt. It could have been improved by more interaction and eye contact, after all she is responsible for inspiring us, through her own art.  

Sometimes lost - walking away and closer to the viewer at the same time???  

Smell of human presence - urine?? Painting of an abandoned painting that says: ruined site  

Watchers - big brother reference? Cameras everywhere, they're watching us. Reminds me of Nineteen Eighty-four by George Orwell

She make montage out of photographs and draws them - uses a lot of shapes like triangle and circles.  

Metaphors??  

Urban forest: solo exhibition at the gallery at delta house studios in London

Delivery

I thought her palette was very beautiful, as the contrast of colours stood out and caught my eye. Her mark making has a lot of depth, layers upon layers.

Honestly her work has interesting colours and there are some aesthetic visuals to it but how she speaks about them is just frustrating, it's like she isn't passionate about her work.  It felt like she did not want to be there. She could improve by being more engaging and use interaction with the audience. It's not the usual aesthetic, but an old urban beauty . She speaks in a monotone voice and it makes it hard to listen and actually pay attention to what she is saying. Despite her delivery, I did observe her paint techniques and was inspired enough to consider trying ink mark making, perhaps on a canvas or  M O I S T  piece of paper. I was not sure about the process she used for her paint techniques but liked the brush strokes in the paintings. I wanted to try mark making techniques, which are now evidenced in my portrait painting.

I could not invest in an art presentation delivered in such a sterile way, without audience engagement, so early in the morning.

A lot of inspiration from a variety of artists

City environments and people's perspective of her work

Her envision of different urban environment - people from Liverpool can identify with the metropolitan cathedral  

Q&A

H E C K  

Shannon speaks  

Made any drastic changes with your paintings?

Never works out how you think it's gonna work out  

Doesn't think of corridors as spaces - she ignore spaces that she doesn't consider a 'space' for her work

Says it's good to take your work out of your studio so you can see what you've got up to

Unique colour pallet - not broad. How would you approach painting his (guy who owns the blackest colour?) buildings?

She paints them in bright colours?

Celebrating positive aspect of London with 2012 Olympics  

Considers herself as an expressionist  

She doesn’t consider the audience in her work? What could they add - to the perspective of the audience  

Writes statements without being asked to write them?

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MA Students

Serah Stringer

Not doing a presentation - very open with interacting with the audience.

She uses anything and everything to make her work. She likes the freedom of that and the audacity?  

Uses a sketchbook but dislikes drawing in pencil even though she paints.

Works a lot with stories - not about jews? Confused lol

She has a problem with people inflicting things onto other people  

Glass ball with nature and a chameleon inside - she did not kill it  

This is about how war affects children - snake skin and sea shells have been used in this piece:

I felt as though she did not have a concept for her work but she had a defined process, where she used everything and anything. I liked her work, even though I did not understand the concept, I found it aesthetically pleasing. She was very free with how she made her work, mostly because she was not limited to certain materials. She did not have a PowerPoint like most lecturers do. She passed around her actual work. This form of interaction felt more personal and like she was trying to make an effort to connect with us. It made me think about how I could incorporate  a wide range of materials and objects into my work, without the need to purchase. This is a cheaper option in opposition to Chris Evans consistent purchasing. It did not influence my practice but influenced my way of thinking regarding the financial limitations. Nevertheless there are restrictions to using found objects because they may not always be relevant to my concepts of work.  

I enjoyed looking and touching the artwork.

Nature is beautiful on its own but when you combine it with art it brings out another form of beauty, a combination of natural beauty and man made, two forms of beauty combined into one. As with the work of Ami Zanders it brought out a strong feeling of wanting to connect with nature and protect it from humans greed and destruction.

In real life this artwork was very beautiful and in my opinion, could not be improved further. The fact that she did not bring photos helped me to resonate with the artwork, as photos would not do it justice.

It brought to light how photographs are secondary to the real thing.

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MA Students

Angelo Madonna

Sounds / objects / landscapes / architecture / non human to human designs / processes and performance  

Uses dust to create art in a landscape  

Sacrificial bed

The juggles - sound installation  

He did a lot of research on the weather - connected to bell(?)

Bridewell cell - he did a mini exhibition using sound and a person had to stand in between the "headphones"  

Someone breathing in and out was the sound piece 

The Bridewell cell jumped out at me because it is an old prison cell.  My piece, the tree, is based on a criminal that I knew, who was not brought to justice due to committing suicide. I wanted him to be contained in a cell and that is why this cell had such a personal impact on me. I almost became obsessed with the cell to the point of not concentrating on what he was saying about his work.

A month later I did an exhibition at the Bridewell and displayed my work in the exact same cell.

One of his sound pieces was based on someone breathing in and out. I have explored this concept in the past and may consider using it in the future. I feel I have a need to make people feel uncomfortable about my work, so people will remember it. As a past boss said to me customers are elephants when it comes to bad service. My piece was about a man breathing very heavily into a microphone. Furthermore, it sounded sexual. Like an old man breathing into it.

The breathing made my skin crawl because it reminded me of  my foundation course work, relating to similarities within my work. When you hear someone breathing heavy out of context, your mind automatically assumes that it is sexual. I think the anonymity of who was doing the breathing disturbed me.

The sexual assumptions of the breathing relates to a story I heard from a lady in her 50′s, who explained to me that it was commonplace to receive anonymous heavy breathing phone calls. These calls were usually made from the red telephone boxes, which protected the caller I.D.