Contextual Review

Being Human: Day 1

04.11.19

 

Today was the first day of part 2, I am excited for what is to come. I am sure that this period will be intense, but I look forward to keep on defining my own artistic voice, as I will be given more time to work on my ideas than during part one.

To prepare for the project Being Human I went to the exhibition. I was particularly drawn to a piece by Heather Dewey Hagborg about Biohacking. To begin with, I found the whole concept interesting: to collect DNA from strangers, analyze it and create 3D-printed models of how they could look like, but what especially made me start thinking, was when the artist started talking about her relationship to the person who’s DNA she was analyzing. 

“Dear Michael, I think about you constantly” 

 

She talked about him as if it was someone she had a crush on. This makes me think about overall relationships during the 21th century, and how we through internet have been able to overcome at least psychological distance between oneself and another. But is a relationship in which one has deleted most of the most significant elements of spending time with someone you love? You can't touch, smell sometimes, due to poor internet connection, even hear each other, but you somehow feel that you are with this person, you feel less alone. 

How is this actually different to talking to a robot? 

By having these sorts of relationships, in which one only talk over texts and FaceTime, the whole relationship can be narrowed down to something you can view on a screen. If one are talking over for instance Facebook, it is not even private, since that we by using their application agree to not owning our data. Our love, or sadness our sex, can all be narrowed down to this screen. 

 

During today's class we were asked to define the 10 most important things about being human. 

 

Belief

Love

Power

Relationships

Death

Society / Culture

Money

Pleasure

Ambition

Imagination

 

Me and my CO-student Viking started talking about the absurdity of society, and how some things that actually are very absurd are seen as perfectly normal because that they have been normalized, while others are seen as mental. 

We also talked about hair. Why is our hair so precious to us? There are a billion dollar industry around it, with hair dressers, shampoos and hair sprays. Also, I personally get very emotional considering my hair, and shaving it of would not be something that I would just do over a coffee break. But why? Biologically, this obsession makes no sense: hair is actually only our dead cells.

Finally we talked about cooking as a phenomena, and that it has had enormous effects on the evolution of our entire species.

 To investigate all of these elements, we are going to make a video piece and performance in which I cut of Viking's hair with various kitchen equipment, and finally bake a cake out of hair, floor and water. 

 

We choose to film the video in a photo studio. To communicate the feeling of a kitchen we will hang up kitchen pans, etc, I also like the minimalistic aesthetics, and the contrast between the colors to the white background. We want to work with the human body, and hair as a material.

This is the angle that we will film it from: 

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Being human: Tate Modern Visit

06.11.19

 

"Fons Americanus"

Kara Walker

This piece by Kara Walker was inspired by the Victoria Memorial outside of Buckingham Palace in London. Walker explores "Being Human" through several different aspects such as history, culture and gender. The artist has is interested in race, and racial stereotypes over history, at this moment particularly the Antebellum South (the period of slavery in the United States, late 1700's - the American Civil war in 1861). More over, Walker investigates race, racial identities and sexuality by looking at the interconnections of the United Kingdom, Africa and America. 

 

"This commission has been made using an environmentally-conscious production process and has been built from recyclable or reusable cork, wood and metal. The surface covering is made from a non-toxic acrylic and cement composite that can be used for sculpting or casting. It avoids the use of large quantities of non-recyclable materials and harmful substances often found in the production of exhibitions and installations." https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/hyundai-commission-kara-walker

Further on, the artist uses water as a key theme and material, "referring to the transatlantic slave trade and the ambitions, fates and tragedies of people from these three continents. "

 

This piece investigates colonialism, a subject that most people in the world can relate to somehow. It responds to an already existing statue, something that I find interesting, since that many of the old statues barly open up for a conversation anymore. Sometimes it feels like they are barely seen by anyone, as if they have melted together with the streets. By creating this piece, Walker, open up a discussion about one the Victoria Memorial. The aesthetics are quite brutal, and different to most of the statues that we see on public places. 

 I like how it is displayed in an accessible way, the viewer can interact with it by walking around the fountain, the viewer can even sit on it. To me, this deletes the boundary that we often find between the viewer and the art piece.

To conclude, the background of the piece, that makes it highly relatable and accurate to the contemporary, together with the artists use of materials, makes the piece very successful. 

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Mitch Epstein

Bilox, Mississippi

 

This photograph was taken six weeks after the impact of Hurricane Karina. The 2005 hurricane caused devastating floods and significant loss of life, particularly in New Orleans. - Tate Modern

"With American Power I am trying to find and convey truth about how we Americans live, what we want, and what it costs to get it. These pictures question the human conquest of nature at any cost." - Micth Epstein. This quote had a great impact on me. The photograph has a clear link to "Being Human", since that it investigates the way we live, and the effects of it. At this moment, we consume as if it was no tomorrow. If we continue, it won't. I don't think most people think about that natural disasters such as hurricanes are only one of many effects of how we currently live our lives. Research says that an effects of climate change will be that hurricanes will be even more destructive, due to higher water temperatures and increased wind speed. (The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/14/climate-change-hurricanes-study-global-warming )

The artist has chosen to present the piece with a white frame. The way that an artist choses to present their work highly effects how we experience their work and I think that this way of displaying send out a "serious" signal. Even tough the photograph exposes chaos, I don't experience the piece in total as chaotic. 

 Especially when I read the text, this piece made me reflect on our world, and the artist formulated thoughts that I've had within me for a long time. I think it is a successful piece. 

 

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Marwan Rechmaoui

Monument for the Living 2001-8

 

"This sculpture is a scale model of the Burj El Murr building in Beirut, Lebanon. The tower was owned by members of the el-Murr family, a prominent political clan. Construction began in 1974 but it was left unfinished after the outbreak of civil war. Originally an office block, it was only ever used as a sniper outpost. The tower is too tall to knock down and too dense to implode, and so continues to dominate the skyline. It is now seen as a memorial to the internal conflict that has never really been resolved" - Tate Modern

The piece relates to "Being Human" as it explores the connection between social conflicts, as war, and infrastructure. The text that accompanies the piece is very powerful, as it states that something that was supposed to be a building ended up being used as a sniper outpost. 

I would say that a successful art piece is a piece that not only effects how you pursue art, but how you pursue the world. Reading about the history of this building, made me feel frustration over our society. The fact that the piece made me feel this frustration, is why it is successful. 

 

I like that the piece is situated so that the viewer can walk around it. It would have been interesting to see a bit more experimentation with the lighting, since that I think the windows would have created interesting shadows. 

 

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Joseph Beuys

"The end of the twentieth century"

"In The End of the Twentieth Century 1983-5 blocks of basalt lie scattered on the ground. Basalt is volcanic in origin, and Beuys associated it with the earth’s ancient energy. Into each of the slabs, Beuys bored a conical hole to create a ‘wound’. He then ‘treated’ it by smoothing and lining the hollow with insulating clay and felt, before re-inserting the stone. These filled cavities imply the potential for healing, suggesting the possibility of renewal at the end of a violent and destructive century." https://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern/display/artist-and-society/joseph-beuys-0 

I find it beautiful that the artist puts something as obscure as time (of the twentieth century), in a different context by talking about is as something that needs space to heel. I would say that this is how the piece can be connected to Being Human, since that it investigates a century filled of conflicts and war.

I did defiantly not understand this piece when I first walked into the room. The display is kind of random, and I am not sure if I like it or not. 

 

 

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Ellen Gallagher 

Ellen Gallagher, born 1965 is an American artist working within painting, works on paper, film and video. Tate describes her work as referring  "to issues of race, and may combine formality with racial stereotypes and depict "ordering principles" society imposes."

In "Preserve" Gallagher explorers the cultural meaning of hair among African Americans. It is linked to Being Human because it investigates concepts as identity, appearance, expression and ethnicity, and how these can be linked together. The art work does not catch my eye because I think it is particularly beautiful, or made with an extraordinary technique, but because it makes me reflect over the meaning of these words. I think it's interesting to investigate how culture and the way we manipulate our appearance is connected, and would like to, like Gallagher, use my work to investigate prevailing social behaviors within society. 

 

I think the piece is displayed in an excellent way. The artist has created a big amount of works, which makes the final piece relatively big in scale, and I find that being very powerful.

 

This piece investigates relevant questions such as race, appearance, and culture. These investigations are made in an aesthetically pleasing way, in which the artist works with color and form. I think it is a successful piece.

 

"Preserve", 2004

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Ed Ruscha

"Pay Nothing Until April"

 

"Ruscha has stencilled the seemingly unrelated text ‘PAY NOTHING UNTIL APRIL’ on top of snow-capped mountains. Awe-inspiring natural imagery meets banal, consumerist text. Ruscha, who studied graphic design, invented the typeface, which is inspired by the Hollywood sign. He calls it ‘Boy Scout Utility Modern’, and has described it as ‘no-style’. Of the dramatic scenery he has commented that they are not realistic depictions: ‘They’re ideas of mountains, picturing some kind of unobtainable bliss or glory … tall, dangerous and beautiful’." Tate Modern, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ruscha-pay-nothing-until-april-ar00047 

 This piece makes me think about someone that wants to glorify the image of themselves through expensive items, and who finance this lifestyle through payment plans. This is highly connected to Being Human, since that it is a concept followed by many people in today's modern world.

I find is extremely frustrating.

To begin with: the idea that that money is in our clothes. It is not. The richest person in a room can look like the poorest. 

Secondly, a person wants to look rich, but does not have the money for it, and therefore spends money, that will make him or her even less rich. 

 

The display of the pieces is relatively basic, and I don't find it either particualy pleasing or unpleasant. 

 

The piece investigates a interesting subject, but I am not particularly inspired by the artist's aesthetics. Honestly, I think the work is a bit dull. I also find it hard to say what could have been better. Perhaps I would have found it more interesting if the piece would have been made into moving image, that would have been played on a big screen. 

 

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Language of Objects: Day 2

20.11.19

 

My goal for today was to make most of the base so that I can start putting on plaster tomorrow. I found it hard in the beginning, and I when I tried to plan how to create my body out of metal wire. At last, I decided to just start making, and finally it all fell into place. I took a metal wire and bended into a circle that would be my chest, and later on work with chicken wire to create the rest of my upper body. This technique worked very well and I continued with the rest of my body. I am almost finished, and plan to continue tomorrow with putting on plaster. I have realised that I find it easiest to "think through making", and let my hands guide my way. 

 

I have also decided to cast my hands and feet. 

 

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Contextual Practice 27.11.19. Tate Britain Visit

 27.11.19

 

 

1.Photograph the Exhibition texts for at least 5 of the listings below. Annotate and upload to Contextual Practice. Label the entry Contextual Practice, Tate Britain Visit 27.11.19. 

 

2.Choose at least 5 artists listed below and answer the following questions. Please name the specific work you have chosen. 

 

 

Sophia Al- Maria

A Beast Type Song

Art Now

A new film exploring the erasure and revision of identities and histories past and future

https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/sophia-al-maria

 

Can you identify the themes or concerns the artist is exploring in their work?

According to my understanding, the piece A Beast Type Song is inspired by the poem The Arab Apocalypse by  Etel Adnan.

In this poem Adnan uses drawing to communicate what cannot be expressed in words. Similarly, Al-Maria explores the revision of history through graphic and bodily gestures. When words cannot express trauma, a new language of drawings, movement and music gives voice to the speechless.

 

What materials, processes and media has the artist used to explore their ideas?

The work features performances by Yumna Marwan, Elizabeth Peace and boychild, and by Al-Maria herself.

 

How successful do you think their approach is?  Can you say why or why not?

I think it is a successful piece since that it explores how we can communicate with our body, and not only with our voices, a subject that I find interesting. 

 

Can you relate any processes, approaches or themes and concerns that you have identified to your own developing practice?

Both before and during the foundation, I've worked with using my own body as a media by performance. I am interested in the tradition among female artists to turn against our bodies in our art, since that it in so many ways has been made into something else than "just a body". 

 

Steve McQueen

Turner Prize-winning artist and Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen unveils his epic portrait of London’s Year 3 pupils. Duveen Galleries

https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/steve-mcqueen-year-3

 

Can you identify the themes or concerns the artist is exploring in their work?

 

What materials, processes and media has the artist used to explore their ideas?

How successful do you think their approach is?  Can you say why or why not?

Can you relate any processes, approaches or themes and concerns that you have identified to your own developing practice?

 

A Walk Through British Art :

 

Can you identify the themes or concerns the artist is exploring in their work?

 

What materials, processes and media has the artist used to explore their ideas?

How successful do you think their approach is?  Can you say why or why not?

Can you relate any processes, approaches or themes and concerns that you have identified to your own developing practice?

Monster Chetwynd, Crazy Bat Lady 2018

Lynette Yiadom-Boyake The Generosity 2010

Alison Wilding Assembly 1991

Racheal Whiteread Untitled Floor/Ceiling 1993

Sarah Lucas Pauline Bunny 1997

Bridget Riley Archaean 1981

Fiona Rae Maybe You Can Live On The Moon In The next Century 2009

Hilary Lloyd One minute Of Water 1999

Liliane Lijn  Headborn 1987-90

Rosalind Nabashimi At My Post 2016

Toma Abts Untitled no6. 2008

Susan Hiller Belshazzar’s Feast The Writing On Your Wall 1983

https://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-britain/display/walk-through-british-art/60-years

 

Sir Anthony Caro  The Window 1966

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/caro-the-window-t14953

 

Nuam Gabo Construction In Space With Crystaliine Centre 1938-40

https://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-britain/display/walk-through-british-art/1930

 

Mark Leckey.

https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/mark-leckey

Can you identify the themes or concerns the artist is exploring in their work?

 

What materials, processes and media has the artist used to explore their ideas?

How successful do you think their approach is?  Can you say why or why not?

Can you relate any processes, approaches or themes and concerns that you have identified to your own developing practice?

O Magic Power Of Bleakness

24 September 2019 – 5 January 2020

Can you identify the themes or concerns the artist is exploring in their work?

 

What materials, processes and media has the artist used to explore their ideas?

How successful do you think their approach is?  Can you say why or why not?

Can you relate any processes, approaches or themes and concerns that you have identified to your own developing practice?

 

This exhibit is OPTIONAL. You can visit this exhibit for £5 by joining Tate Collective and filling out the form online. It is advisable to book a timed slot in advance.

https://www.tate.org.uk/tate-collective

Elimination of Recognisable Forms: Day 1

25.11.19

 

It’s been satisfying to build this structure, or body. I have truly enjoyed the challenge to create something that I have never been even close to make before. Since that I have a deadline I have been forced to work quickly, and compromise when needed. I think that this has been a good thing, since that I often fall into perfectionism, and spend a lot of time on making something "perfect". I have realised, that this is not always accurate when making art. The imperfections, or non-realistic elements of a piece is often what makes it interesting. 

While shaping the base of the sculpture, I’ve felt both freedom and some sort of pressure. A body is both very abstract, yet unique. No body looks like another, yet there are fairly small marginals for what looks like a human and not. Also, it is natura that a body changes overtime. I’ve been one of many that has tried to step in and take control over this transformation, and through this sculpture I wanted to recreate a moment from my own life. Sometimes I’ve felt that I’ve exposed myself through this sculpture. And I’ve found it strange to receive comments about it. As if I have grown together with it. 

 

Today I finished the entire armature, and started working with the plaster.

 

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Room : Day 1

02.12.19

 

Today was the first day of the Room project. The brief was filled of interesting artists that I will research further. I thought that the submerged rooms by Cristina Iglesias was particularly interesting, since that she has not only considered the sea as a site for her work, but that she has also created this piece in order to promote sea life. 

 

I also enjoyed the Library of Water by Roni Horn, in which the artist has collected ice from glaciers in Island. 

 

I also thought that the text "The city as sculpture" was very interesting. "Art has retreated into museums"... "Not very different to hospitals"..."Where things are looked after" Anthony Gormley

 

I think it is the purpose that the artist or architect is stating when they are building something that defines wether something is to be considered as a sculpture or a building. To me it does not really matter. It made me think about the architect Frank Gehry, who's work often is described as art. So many buildings are not built simply to be functional, but to communicate something. Their purpose is not only to be used or lived in, does that make them art? 

Room : Day 2

03.12.19

 

I was excited to start working on the room project. During the last weeks, I've been reflecting over the absence of "real nature" in London. I believe that that it is positive for human health to have a connection with the nature, and I find it interesting that even in the city, we obviously have a need to create parks and spaces in which we are able to escape the hectic streets. 

 

Furthermore, our contextual practice tutor spoke about the difference of being alone or in a room full of people. Being surrounded my others can awaken a sort of self-consciousness that daunts one's creative ability. 

 

I am drawn to create a space within our class-room, I which one can be alone. 

 

I started working by making sketches of my planned structure. 

Personal Statement

Since starting the foundation in Art and Design at Central Saint Martins, I have developed greatly as a creative. The course has encouraged me to working with new materials, while developing the conceptual meaning within my art. Following the sculpture pathway has allowed me to work with a multidisciplinary approach. I have been introduced to the crossover between art and architecture, and developed an interest for sculptures and structures of a large scale. The foundation has also encouraged me to challenge what sculpture really is by working with less tangible media like photography, performance and drawings. The course has awoken a desire within me to learn more about sculptures and physical structures.

 

I have always been driven by a thirst for knowledge. “The second sex” by Simone de Beauvoir has had a great impact on me and my perceptions off the world. Because of this reading I feel it only natural to question accepted stereotypes concerning gender and sexuality. Matters regarding equality and identity are important to me, and this often appears as a thread throughout my work as I challenge my role as a woman in a patriarchal world. One project to illustrate this curiosity would be my creation of  a life size self-portrait out of metal rods, chicken wire and plaster. The form for this piece was informed by myself taking a photo in the mirror holding an unconventional pose. The resultant reaction to my sculpture was that of both objectification and empowerment.

 

Furthermore, the foundation has introduced me to artists and architects that have helped me to define which role I want to play in society. Anna Heringer, who works with sustainable architecture has made me think about materials in a new way, and the meaning of sustainability. According to Heringer, sustainability is to reconnect with the ability to use available resources instead of being dependent on external harmful processes. Moreover, I have realized that the choice of material is of greater significance than just something to build with, in fact the material one chooses is a sociopolitical matter. Heringer has also inspired me to question whether good infrastructure should privilege to the few and powerful. I have developed an interest for working with found materials, and weaving has become an attractive method of working to investigate the process of giving value to something 'valueless'. 

 

As an artist, I am confident and open to try creating from a new perspective. However in trying these new stances, one can often learn what works and what doesn’t. For example, I learned this when I worked on a collaborative project. My partner and I baked a bread loaf using his own hair that I cut off using a kitchen knife, we filmed the entire process. Our intention was to show that this element of our being, which we hold in such high esteem looses all significance once we separate it from our body; in fact it becomes quite grotesque. However, this intended response was not the initial reaction from most.

 

Anthony Gormley’s exhibition at The Royal Academy inspired me as it through its structures and human sculptures aimed to pose the question: “what can art do for us?”. I embrace this mindset, and want to do the same in my own practice, with the goal to make the world better, for both the health of the planet and its population.

 

I have the ambition to produce multidisciplinary work in the form of both structures, lens based media and more. I would be honoured to continue my studies within your creative atmosphere and be given the opportunity to not only exchange ideas with other students, but also work collaboratively with your tutors. Through an undergraduate degree, I endeavour to continue developing an independent and unique voice and further build a professional platform.

Room Day 4

06.12.20

 

Today was the first day back in School after the christmas holidays and I continued to work on my room project. I am interested with the fact that human beings have a need to be connected to nature, and have during my research stumbled upon environmentalists that has strengthened my belief in the importance of nature to stay healthy, such as human beings being connected to this fundamental part of Earth. For instance David Thoreau wrote “in Wildness is the preservation of the world.” While Aldo “Leopold anticipated some of the feelings of guilt that characterized much environmentalism today: 

 

“When I submit these thoughts to a printing press, I am helping cut down the woods. When I pour cream in my coffee, I am helping to drain a marsh for cows to graze, and to exterminate the birds of brazil. When I go birding or hunting in my Ford, I am devastating an oil field, and re-electing an imperialist to get me rubber.Nay more: when I father more than two children I am creating an insatiable need for more printing press, more cows, more coffee, more oil, to supply which more birds, more trees, and more flowers will either be killed, or … evicted from their several environments.” p 46-47, Cradle to Cradle

 

 

I have became more and more interested in the process of creating “value”, and have during the last couple of weeks experimented with working with materials that I consider valueless from a consumeristic perspective. For instance I have made a weave out of grass and other found materials such as yarn, canvas and metal. 

 

To continue this experimentation of giving value to valueless materials, I had brought leafs from my home farm in Sweden. My plan for the Room project, is to create a room that offers a different environment to the classroom. I want the audience to be able to enter the room and experience something very different to the classroom. My first idea is to refer to the importance of being connected to nature by creating an “artificial wood”, or “park”. I am also interested in what happens within someone when they enter a different space in which no-one can see them. Personally, I feel safe when no one can see me, and I am much more capable of creating work when I am in a space with no other people. I am curious in what other people feel when they enter a space on their own. 

 

I am thinking about how to use sound in this piece to create an entire space with visuals, smells and sounds.

 

 

Room Day 6

09.01.20

 

During today's studio time, I decided to separate the one piece that I have been working on into two different projects. During the last couples of days, I have been collecting material in form of leaves from different parks around London. The initial idea was to use these as the wall of my structure, but when analyzing the leaves packed together, an interesting shape, with a very unique form grew. 

 

When hanging these structures from the wall, they interact as an architecture of their own. They carry a strong smell, of nature, and I found it interesting to see how my classmates wanted to interact with it.

 

I want this piece to be a ghostlike reminder of what is being lost when the human is living more and more separated from nature. By using old leaves, collected from London and my home in Sweden, I wish to show that a material that we often take for granted also can be something of beauty. 

 

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Room Day 8

14.01.20

 

Today I continued with weaving on the branch that I started working on yesterday. 

I also had a tutorial in which I was asked about my opinion on labour within art, since that I have been working on many time consuming projects during this part of the Foundation. I have noticed that I value being a part of each part of the process in my art. I have an interest for the actual material that I am using.

 

As an artist, I am supposed to create something that wears my name. If someone else has created the piece that I represent, do I then have the complete right to call it mine?

I challenge artists who hires other people to create something that only will make the artist rich in the end, without giving credit to the person who actually created the piece. I don't only want to be the face of something, I also want to be the machine. 

 

Space Time Day 2

21.01.20

 

Today I started working on my architectural model for the nature house.

I am interested in how we through building physically occupy space, and how this could be made in a less harmfull way. During foundation, I have gotten a deeper understanding for our environment, and the effect that different materials have on our planet. For instance, I have understood the severe harm of building with concrete According to BBC Cement stands for about 8 % of the carbon dioxide emissions in the world (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46455844). 

I have understood the importance of sustainability in the terms of reconnecting with the ability to work with available resources. When it comes to buildings, the appropriate materials will obviously be different in different areas. I have been inspired by the Architect Bengt Warne, who worked in Northern Europe, where for instance wood is an available resource. 

 

Bengt Warne also constructed several "nature houses". 

 

Warne wrote:

“The core, a living area, is surrounded by a shell of glass – a greenhouse. Nature’s own flows and cycle of exploitation is used. The elements earth, water air and fire can be used to maintain the house. Mull earth is produced in a room below the toilet. Kitchen and garden waste is composed as well.

 

Rainwater is collected, used for bathe, dishes and laundry and then returned to nature as irrigation and nutrition. The plants clean the air and enriches it.

A high-efficiency stove is able to keep the house warm in times of extreme cold. The sun drives the air around the living area and the heat from the greenhouse is stored in the bedrock below the house. The Nature house is a sun collector area to live in and the major idea is to return to nature what is taken from it.” I pictured the house to be sited in the north of Sweden. By working with wood and plants as a material, I aimed to reflect Warnes ideas about sustainability, and design my own nature house.

 

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Space Time Day 4

27.01.20

Interactive structures / spaces

 

To continue exploring different spaces, I wanted to create a structure with which people can interact with. A while ago I decided to learn how to cast my own hands and feet, but I never used the cast for what I initially planned. I was inspired by the hand of Fatimah, or "Hamsa", a symbol for Inanna, an ancient Mesopotamian goddess. Today, the symbol is mostly a Jewish and Islamic symbol for divine protection, it is also considered to bring luck.

I was interested in how the documentation of this structure's scale would change when I added the shape of human figures. I found that this was very effective when the aim is to communicate a certain scale. As the my process went further, the hands and feet took an innocuous shape – as if they belong to a gentle giant - that seemed suitable for its purpose. As children may pretend as though they are playing on the hands and feet of a benevolent colossus.

 

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I also experimented with creating a model of a climbing frame, made out of spagetti and tejp. To define scale, I drew figures of children. I find it interesting that the human body has such a powerful impact on the viewers perception of the scale of the object. 

 

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Park site visit and intro

29.01.20

 

Before the site visit, I researched  Johanna Tagada, an artist that often creates work in form of textile, while communicating her thoughts on sustainability. 

Because of this reading, I felt inspired to work with fabric during the site visit. It would be interesting to investigate the term “space” by creating  a structure  out fabric - a space which the audience can enter, relax and take in the beautiful surroundings. 

When I reflect about today, I realize that I would like to cherish the actual park in itself, rather than adding something to it. How can I do this ? It would also be interesting to continue my work with natural materials, and for instance create a natural sculpture, made out of grass/ leaves/ sticks/ etc. 

 

The more I read, and learn about the environmental crisis I become more determent to do my best to do as little harm as possible to our world. When working with physical materials, I want to think carefully about where these come from, and avoid to contribute to the consumerism by working with completely natural or found materials and objects only. Lately, I have also felt drawn to work with non-physical materials such as sound, performance, photography and film. 

 

To to be continued.

 

 

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On my way home from school I walked through another park (Clissold Park), this caught my eye:

 

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Space Time Day 5

28.01.20

 

Today's Lecture about UNIT 4 was very helpful since that it gave me further clarity about the rest of the course. 

It made me reflect over what I have learned during the course. 

What do I know now that I did not I started the course?

 My entire understanding for art art a subject has been extremely improved during the course. To have access to the library has given me the opportunity to reach a deeper level of knowledge about subjects of interest. For instance, I have learned a lot about sustainability, climate change and the different systems ruling our world. The book Cradle to cradle highlighted many important important aspects of human beings view on production and consumption. It made me understand that there are much more to a sustainable way of living than only buying products from Whole Foods with a "sustainable" label.

I have ha had the opportunity to use the workshops, and thereby gained knowledge about techniques and materials that I did not know before. For instance to work with plaster, alginate, casting, metal, wood - the list goes on. This has lead to that I have challenged myself, and gained the confidence that I can create almost anything with my own hands. 

 

What has had the greatest impact on me, is the lectures and the great amount of artists that they have introduced me too. I have read further about especially Magdalena Abakanowizc, Ana Mendieta and Pixy Liao, and to do this has helped my understanding of my own thoughts and art. 

 

I look forward to reach an even deeper level during Unit 4, and to have the opportunity to exhibit my work. 

 

Jag har fått en ökad förståelse för konst överhuvudtaget. 

Att ha tillgång till biblioteket har gett mig möjligheten att fördjupa mig till en helt ny nivå i ämnen som är relevanta för min konst. 

Jag har haft möjlighet att arbeta med material och tekniker som innan kursen var helt nya för mig, och det har gjort mig självsäker nog att kunna utmana mig själv att skapa verk och former med mina bara händer. Men framförallt har jag introducerats för konstnärer som inspirerat mig, och som genom sin egen konst, hjälpt mig att sätta mitt egna arbete i en kontext. Att läsa om dessa individer har gett med redskap som har hjälpt mig att förstå mina egna tankar. 

 

course lectures, suggested reading from tutors, and resources in the library 

 

What patterns are emerging in your work, both visual and relatable

What practical ideas are you consistently noting?

 

Technical skills and methods

Editing using premiere 

-multiple tracks

- overlapping sound

use of found footage

Metal working

 

 

I intend to 

explore

investigate

develop

build on 

work towards

extend 

combine

 

Don't be too specific 

Don't be to vague 

Rats with wings 

Enforced boundaries 

Thing's aren't always as they seem

 

Architecture Interview Reflection

Today I had my interview for the BA in Architecture at CSM. I was not sure of what I was expecting since that I have never actually discussed my architectural work with anyone before. The layout of the portfolio is also very different than the one that we have been taught to make for the Fine Art interviews. After all, the interview could not have been more nice, and it was really great to speak about my work and interests with the tutor. I think that it in some ways it was an advantage to me to not have been in the architecture class, since that all of my projects where made out of my own areas of interest. The tutor seemed to understand the sustainable concepts around my work, and I was maybe a bit lucky since that it was one of this personal interests as well. 

The tutor asked me why I had decided to do a Foundation in Fine Art, rather than architecture and I told him that I will probably always work with a multidisciplinary, and conceptual approach, no matter in which direction will develop further into. I chose to do the sculptural pathway since that I wanted to be able to learn more about, and build structures, while also working on purely conceptual art projects. There are so many crossovers between especially Fine Art 3D and Architecture, and many of my favorite artists have actually been studying architecture at some point in their life. I think that by studying architecture, I would learn to work from an approach, and attitude towards space, that also would improve my work as an artist. I also find it interesting that many architecture students end up doing documentary films, and I wonder why there is that this is so common.

Contextual Review

pastedGraphic.png  CONTEXTUAL REVIEW 2019-20

 

Foundation Diploma in Art and Design

Unit 3: Developing Specialist Practice

 

Student Name: Lova Öster

 

The Diagnostic Part of the foundation has been an invaluable experience that has introduced me to the various parts of the creative industry. I have been exposed to foreign techniques, materials and methods of working, and I can now say that the workshops in sculpture and architecture had the biggest impact on me. The diagnostic experience has helped me to identify Sculpture as the pathway that I aim to get further involved with. 

 

I have found that sculptural study has best enabled me to explore a question of conceptual meaning, allowing me to express internal questions in a physical form. The workshop “Personality Quiz” was characterized by the phrase “make to think”, which is a method that, combined with conceptual ideas, has brought out my most successful pieces during the course. When I work with this approach, I gain inspiration from the material itself, and I truly feel a need to continue exploring this way of working. We were also encouraged to challenge what sculpture really is by working with less tangible media, and I have the ambition to produce multidisciplinary work in the form of both structures, lens-based media and more. As such, the workshop has awoken a desire within me to learn more about conceptual art.

 

During the architecture workshop on the other hand, we were continuously working collectively which had a significant impact on the final outcome. I am excited about exploring creative collaborations, but in this case I felt rather limited by working in a group since that the many strong opinions haunted our creative process. As a consequence, my experience was that my creativity did not have the same chance to flow as during “Personality Quiz”. 

 

The foundation has introduced me to artists that have inspired me, and helped me define and contextualize my own practice. When I narrow down the long list of creatives, I end up with practitioners such as Ana Mendieta, Anna Heringer and Antony Gormley. These artists have made it easier for me to understand my own thoughts, and have for example encouraged me to define the nature as one of the main elements of my art. 

 

Anna Heringer for instance, who works with sustainable architecture, and only designs with clay, has made me think about materials in a new way. According to Heringer, sustainability means reconnecting with the ability to rely on available resources instead of being dependent on external detrimental processes. From this, I have realised that the choice of material is of greater significance than simply something to build with – in fact the material one chooses is a sociopolitical matter. Heringer has also inspired me to challenge whether good infrastructure should be a privilege for the few and powerful.

 

Anthony Gormley's exhibition at The Royal Academy inspired me with its structures and human sculptures. Gormley aimed to pose the question: "what can art do for us?”. I embrace this mindset, and want to do the same in my own practice, with the goal to make the world better, for both the health of the planet and its population. Gormley’s exhibition introduced me to the crossover between art and architecture, and the exhibition inspired me to work with sculptures and structures of a large scale in the future. 

 

Through my sculptural extension week project, I aimed to bring awareness to that the urban human is extremely disconnected from her food sources. I chose to do this through an “utopian installation”, containing a miniature of my own residential house in London, but with a communal green house placed on top of it. I worked with wood, metal wire, acrylics, and finally brought a further dimension to the piece, by adding lights and shadows. The outcome could be developed in several different directions. It could be made into an actual architectural model, or be evolved into artistic activism: planting food plants at communal spaces in London. This project convinced me that I endeavor to keep growing the conceptual meaning within my practice, and proved to me that Fine Art 3D is the right pathway for me.

 

 

Bibliography

 

Books

 

Souter, Sterling, Wat, 2008, "Role Models: Feminine Identity in Contemporary American Photography”, Scala Publishers Ltd

 

Ishiuchi, 2018, "How We See Photobooks by Women", Photobooks 

 

McDonough, William; Braungart, Michael, “Cradle to Cradle”, New York : North Point Press, 2002. 

 

Viso, Olga M, “Unseen Mendieta : the unpublished works of Ana Mendieta”, Munich ; Prestel, [2008]  

 

Inglot, Joanna, 1963, “The figurative sculpture of Magdalena Abakanowicz : bodies, environments, and myths”, Berkeley, Calif. ; University of California Press, [2004]

 

Grubinger, Eva & Heiser Jorg Sculpture Unlimited. (2011) Sternberg Press 

 

Ellegood, Anne. (2009) Vitamin 3-D: New Perspectives in Sculpture and Installation: Phaidon Press

 

Moszynska, Anna, Sculpture Now (World of Art), (2013) Thames and Hudson

 

Causey, Andrew. Sculpture Since 1945, (1998) Oxford University Press 

 

Bochner, Mel, Hesse, Eva; Krauss, Rosalind E; Nemser, Cindy; Nixon, Mignon, “Eva Hesse”, Cambridge, Mass. ; MIT Press, 2002. 

 

Olafur Eliasson, “Olafur Eliasson in real life”, London : Tate, 2019.

 

 

Film

 

 “Powers of Ten”, Ray Eames, Charles Eames, EAMES OFFICE LLC, 1977, 9 minutes 

 

 

Exhibitions

 

 

Antony Gormley

Royal Academy of Arts

21 september - 3 december

 

Eco-Visionaries

Royal Academy of Arts 

23 November 2019 — 23 February 2020 

 

Transformer: a rebirth of wonder activates

The Store X, 180 The Strand 

October 2 – December 15, 2019

 

 

 

 

 

Olafur Eliasson : “In real life”

Tate Modern

11 July 2019 – 5 January 2020

 

Rebecca Horn

Tate Modern

until February 2020

 

“Living Cities”

Tate Modern

2019

 

 

The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Gauguin Portraits

National Gallery

7 October 2019 –  26 January 2020 

 

24/7 A wake up call for our non-stop world

Somerset House

Strand, London WC2R 1LA

 

Stephen Inggs

HackelBury Fine Art, 4 Launceston Place, London W8 5RL

 

 

 

 

Being Human : Day 2

05.11.19

 

Today was a day of making, and me and Viking had brought all the material that we needed to make our film. We started the day with setting up the photo studio and hanging up the pans. We choose to be in a photo studio and not in an actual kitchen because of that we liked the aesthetics of the photo studio more. We wanted to give focus to the performance, rather than the room that we were in, and we thought that the studio would fulfil this better. 

We did not make a plan for the Performance, but decided to improvise. The only thing that we planned was that Viking was supposed act as food, and that I was going to treat him like this. Further on, I started of by peeling his hair, to later on cut it of with scissors and knifes of various kind. 

Once finished with the filming, we had to decide how to take the content further. Originally we thought that we wanted to keep the piece unedited, but once we looked at the clip, we decided to do some editing.

Was the film supposed to be distributing? Humorous? Everything could be changed once we started editing. We choose to cut the piece, and to add sounds of cutting knifes that we found online. We choose to go for a disturbing emotion, and to use repetition to do this. We cut the piece into three different clips: two in which you see me cutting Viking's hair, an one where you only see the making of the bread that we were baking with the hair. Later on, we decided to place the clips in a line with a black background. We wanted our piece to be a respond to the absurdity of society, and wanted to make a piece that would be just as absurd. Through, sound and editing, we choose to create an chaotic emotion, further on we let the clips randomly fade in and out from the picture. 

 

Finally, we baked an actual bread out of the hair. 

 

 I found these words from today's lecture interesting:

Transhumanism 

The belief that humans are able to live forever 

Big Data

I am datafied

Nationalism 

There are more people that die of obesity than of war and terrorism together

 

Materials

Where have they come from?

Materials is something that I often find myself thinking about, and I find it odd how we in school talk about sustainability, while we constantly consume materials, print out paper, and use sketchbooks to present our work. I often find this quite non modern, and would often prefer to work more digital in the early parts of my artistic process. But materials, what are they? Where have they come from? Anything can be a material. And I personally prefer working with found materials. I find it particularly interesting how a material such as thread, can be seen as something without value, and by for instance creating a weave out of the thread, I have suddenly created something of value. 

Where will they go?

Just as me, they will all go into earth. 

Being Human: Day 4

07.11.19

 

Viking Stendhal & Lova Öster

"Bread" (2019)

Human hair, Flour, yeast, water

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The background on set:

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Today we presented our final outcome from the Being Human Project.

We showed a Moving Image piece, recording a performance in which I cut of Viking's hair with kitchen knives. 

Finally, we baked bread out of hair, flour, yeast and water.

 

When researching, The Horizon episode "Hair Care Secrets" gave me the realization that hair fills a more significant role in our society than I first thought. In according to this program, "the time and effort that we put into our hair, creates a global haircare market worth the staggering 60 billion pounds. An estimated 1.5 billion of that is spent on hair loss treatment." The program also makes it clear that this material that we put so much value in, is nothing else than dead protein. 

 

We also came up with the conclusion that this global obsession of hair only makes sense when it is in its right context: on the head. When it's taken out of this context, it completely loses its authority, and it becomes gross. 

 

Through this project we investigate what happens when we place hair out of it's context. We think that it is absurd that our society puts so much money and effort into our hair, and wanted to create something that reflects this absurdity. 

 

I wonder if the audience will understand the meaning of the project without it being explained - I don't think so. Does an art piece need to be easy to understand to be successful? I guess not. 

 

This week I've tried out new ways of working, and I've learned following:

I have made an artistic collaboration for the first time! This is something that I've been a bit scared of doing in the past, since that I often feel that it is easy to loose a part of myself when I work with other people. However, I was very happy with this project, that was different to anything I have ever made before. Working with hair as a material, performing with another person, and cutting someones hair of with kitchen knives was all unknown territory to me, and I am curtain that if I would not have worked with my partner, my project for Being Human would have been about something completely different. It felt refreshing to work with someone else's ideas instead of only my own. 

It worked out very good to work with Viking and both of us contributed by editing different parts of the movie, bringing material to set, etc. I am excited about collaborating with both Viking and other artists in the future. 

 

I explored using different kinds of layouts when constructing a film. Instead of using only one shot, we choose to work with three images playing at the same time, and I was very happy with the final outcome of the editing. When reflecting on it, the layout could be taken even further, by adding more than three (perhaps 24) small clips to the screen. This would make the piece even more chaotic, I think it could be very powerful. 

 

I've explored working with nontraditional material such as hair, flour and yeast. Because of that we worked with food as a material, I caught myself thinking "what a waist", when in matter of fact, it was probably much more environmental friendly than for instance buying materials from the art shop. I think it is interesting that we think it is okay to consume high amounts of paper, and other materials just because it is for art. In my opinion, it's actually not. 

Being Human: Baking Bread

Sculpture as Performance: Day 1

11.11.19

 

Today was the first day of Sculpture as performance. 

 

At the beginning of the day I had many ideas that I look forward to explore with during the week, I found that I naturally was drawn to working with different kinds of performance, rather than objects. 

 

These were my ideas : 

Bacteria Human Being

This idea initially came from last weeks project: Being Human. I was thinking about how every specie originally were the same sort of bacteria like small creature, and that our original habitat was to float around, naked, with the only purpose to exist. I would like to do a piece in which I explore this nature of only existing, by letting people perform, acting like bacteria. I would like to shot this in a white space, shot from above, as if someone was looking at these naked people from a microscope. 

 

Happy / Dance 

I want to record people dancing to the song Show me Love by Robyn. 

 

Ugly posing

In this piece I will create self-portraits in form of sculptures that recreate selfies in which I pose in an unconventional way. During the years that I've been using Instagram, I've seen thousands of pictures of girls posing in a mirror, most of these take this picture standing in the same way, to highlight certain parts of their body. In this project I want to explore how people react pictures of a female body doing unconventional, "ugly" poses. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXzUD2WnDSI 

 

Toilet Brush

A toilet brush is so connected to uncleanness, so that most people would probably find it frightening to put a brand new one in their hair or face. I want to explore switching places on objects that we connect with certain activities, and for instance brush my teeth or hair with a toilet brush. 

 

 

Sculpture as Performance: Day 2

12.11.19

 

Today I continued on my idea that I call "ugly posing". I was interested in making a project about how women pose when they take a picture of themselves in the mirror. 

There are even videos on YouTube, telling you “how to pose” when taking a picture of yourself in a mirror. 

I responded to this by taking pictures of myself in which I break these rules. 

I found it interesting to compare “the right poses” to the “ugly poses”. 

 Out of these images, I started creating abstract self portraits in which I highlight parts of my body that I normally would have been hiding when posing for a picture. I was inspired my the sculptures by the Swedish artist Max Ockborn, who creates sculptures in which he sort of exaggerates the figure - the pieces often end up looking both very human and inhuman-like at the same time. I was also inspired by Cajsa von Zeipel, who creates self-portraits in which she plays around with the female character, etc. 

 

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Sculptural Performance : Artist Visit by Satoshi Hashimoto

15.11.19

 

During today’s contextual practice we were visited by the artist Satoshi Hashimoto. 

 

I thought the artist’s work was very interesting. I enjoyed that he played will people’s presupposed thoughts. For instance, the artist showed a piece of a female leg hanging down from the roof. When the viewers walks past the leg the will eventually find out that it is the leg of the male artist, and not a female plastic leg as they have assumed. 

 

"Can't Go, Please Come", http://www.tokyoartbeat.com/event/2010/1E54.en 

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I also found it interesting to listen to our tutor when she told us about the situation in Japan since the earthquake and tsunami that caused a nuclear explosion in Fukushima. I always find it important to learn about the rest of the world, and personally I realized that I new very little about this particular catastrophe.

 

 

Sculpture as Performance: Day 4

16.09.19

 

Today I had planned to continue working on my sculpture project about female posing. I brought a barbie doll to school and starting working on putting plaster around her. At first I thought that it seemed to turn out good. I had chosen to work with a barbie doll because I thought that it would be an easy way to get the measurements of a female body. I hjag planned to change parts of these measurements, with help of clay and plaster, since that I wanted to create a "realistic" version of the barbie doll, that included parts of the body that a girl normally would hide when taking a picture.

While working, I realized that it was hard to work with the plastic doll as a base - since that the plaster did not really stick to it, and therefore I could not work with casting it to the shapes that I wanted. My original vision was to create a sort of self portrait from a picture in which I pose in a way that is completely against the norms from what a girl is expected to upload on her social media. This image is taken in a mirror and I am cranking my back, and am exaggerating parts of my body that I normally would hide. For instance fat on my tummy, “love handles”, etc.  In this specific project I found it important to be able to make these kinds of shapes, and it made me feel a bit stuck when I did not fulfill my plan. I will save my plaster covered Barbie, maybe I can use her for a future project? 

To overcome my struggles I continued to do research witch which material I could use as a base. I found out that the artist Cajsa Von Zeipel works with polystyrene as a base, I will try out this next week. 

Sculpture as Performance : Crit

18.11.19

 

During today’s crit I presented three pieces that I’ve worked on during the first week of the project. 

It was two outcomes from the female posing project and one outcome from the project about gender, norms and beauty. 

 

With the film, I want to ”caught people in the act”, while they assume the gender of the person in the movie. 

The film is supposed to image a journey of a persons body. It is starting with seeing it’s feet and the heels that they are wearing. I then wonder up with the camera though the legs, that are shaved, and then the hand that is showing manicured nails, to the body that is wearing a short dress. In the last section, there is a full body picture with the person dancing. And all of a sudden, I want the person to realize that the gender of the person is actually unclear. 

 

Film :

I showed a draft version, since that I had not finished the editing. I was given feedback to overthink my choice of sound. During the crit I played the song “Rich Girl” by Gwen Stefani. I have been uncertain about what type of sound that I wanted to use in the film. I’ve thought about using songs that are “female coded”, to play even more on making up a “role” for the viewer. I have also thought about using music from the 80s such as “let’s have a Kiki”, which are connected to the early queer movement.

I was feedbacked that the choice of music made the piece rather humorous, which was not the aim. In according to my feedback, I will continue the making of my movie and reconsider which sound I use. 

 

 

Language of Objects: Day 1

19.11.19

 

Today I started working on an armature for my life size sculpture, today's goal was to begin with, and finish the metal base of it.

 

I have never worked with metal before, neither have I ever made a sculpture of this size, meaning that I've already learned so much after just one day on this project. I thought that it was hard to understand how to make the base, since that metal is a completely foreign language to me. With a lot of help from the tutor in the workshop, I figured out a technique to bend 10mm thick metal rods to the shapes of my body. I also did welding for the first time. 


When the day was finished, I was happy with the result of the primary base, but I was still not sure how to continue the second layer. 

 

The sculpture pose comes from a picture that I've taken of myself in a mirror. I thereafter made a drawing of the pose, and thereafter decided to make a sculpture out of it. After several experimentations with smaller sculptures I finally decided to create this full body one.

 

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Language of objects: Day 3

21.11.19 

 

Do we always try to find form, even in the formless?

The fact that human beings are obsessed with finding form in each other was mentioned during the lecture, I find this thought very true. With few exceptions, people constantly define and evaluates forms in each others. Bodies, faces, clothes, certain forms have higher value than others, and I wonder, why is that? 

The same thought is applicable in every part of our world. We evaluate rooms, houses, cities, both on a personal and common level. It is common knowledge that Brussel is a "nicer" city than Bahgdad. 

I think children are one of the few exceptions. A young child has hopefully not been fed with enough social knowledge to yet have an opinion about looks. Sadly, I think that this awareness is going lower and lower down in the ages, something that I find harmful for our society. 

 

Is part of the way we perceive the world an act of

Elimination of Recognisable Forms: Day 2

26.11.19

 Today I was back in the casting studio to keep on working on my self-portrait sculpture. Through this project, I have realised my interest for the form of the human body. Every single one of us is unique, and something that I find striking is that many of us want to look alike. I wonder: what in the human biology is it that makes us, based on our culture, aim towards the same body shape? I also find it interesting that this not only has to do with looking healthy for instance, but that if one analyses it from a gener perspective, humans have ideals regarding bizarre things such as the size of hands and feet, ears, hair, noses, lips, and so much more. 

 

My initial plan when making the sculpture was to create something as realistic as possible. I wanted to work with tools to shape the body, and make it look like an actual human. However after working with the plaster, I enjoyed the way that the body looked like it had been "smeared on" by external hands and forces. For now, I want to keep it this way, and see where it takes me. 

 

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Elimination of Recognisable Forms, Language of Objects: Crit

28.11.19

 

I have been uncertain about what to do with the hands, feet and head of my sculpture. Before the Crit I experimented with using plastic gloves as a skull, I also put on a thong. To me - this symbolizes objectification - it will be interesting to hear what my class mates think. 

 

Feedback from today's crit:

  • The process has been interesting to follow, and I should make sure to present it clearly. 
  • The piece is by some perceived as objectifying and by some as empowering. 
  • The plastic gloves changes the statue completely. They are connected to doctors, protection against something that should not be touched, sterility. 
  • The statue is perceived as androgynous, and by some as almost athletic. 
  • The thong is what makes the statue naked, without it it would not be as objectifying. 
  • I should keep the figure as it is, rather than shaping it with tools, which was my original plan. 

 

Vad är det som gör mig värdefull som kvinna? 

Min kropp eller mitt inre? 

 

Som kvinna har jag formats. Ibland känns som att jag inte har något val hurvida jag ska bry mig om hur jag ser ut och inte. Jag säger inte att män inte kan skämmas över deras utseende. Men jag säger definitivt att statistiken på ätstörningar är solklar. Det är framförallt flickor, tjejer som drabbas. Det här verket var ett experiment, i vilket jag strävade efter att återskapa sekvenser ur mitt liv. 

 

What is it that matters the most about me as a woman? My body or my intellect? 

 Our world is obsessed about looks, and sometimes it feels like I don't have a choice about caring about how I look - it is just supposed to be a part of my life. I challenge this mindset.

 

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Room: Day 3

05.12.19

 

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Today I started working on the physical aspects of my structure, and did so by joining together pieces that I found in the scrap boxes with hammer and nails. I aimed for making a room big enough to stand in, and am satisfied with the result so far. I also continued doing sketches today, and started thinking about how I want to shape the walls. I have an idea about making some of the walls out of a textile material, and am drawn to use a kitting machine to create a bigger piece of fabric. 

Room: Contextual Practice Lecture

04.12.19

We have to rapidly rethink what success means. Which questions do your work with in your practice? Ask a question that you don't have the answer to. What can art do for us? I don't have the answer to this questions, and that is why I want to do a degree within art. Robert Smithson Partially Buried Woodshed Mike Nelson Tripple Bluff Canyon Steamboat Bill Buster Keaton --> Steve Mcqueen Deadpan Francis Alys Tornado 2010 Pippi Lotti Rist ever is over all 1997

Helene Cixous

04.12.19

"Stigmata"

 

Without end, no, State of drawingness, rather: The Executioner's taking off

 

" 'I want the beforehand of a book.' I just wrote this sentence, but before this sentence, I wrote a hundred others, which I have suppressed, because the moment for cutting short has arrived."

 

"I love the creation as much as the created, no more. I love the process a thousand times more than the Trial process(no a hundred times more). I want the tornados in the atelier."

 

"There is no end to writing or drawing. Being born doesn't end. Drawing is a being born. Drawing is born.

-When do we draw?

- When we were little. Before the violent divorce between Good and Evil. All was mingled then, and no mistakes. Only desire, trial, and error. Trial that is to say, error. Error: progression.

As soon as we draw (as soon as, following the pen, we advance into the unknown, hearts beating, ad with desire) we are little, we do not know, we start our avidly, we're going to lose ourselves.

Drawing, writing, what expeditions, what wanderings, and at the end, no end, we won't finish, rather time will put an end to it."

 

"I write before myself by apprehension; with non comprehension, the night vibrates, I see with my ears. I advance into the boom of the world, hands in front, capturing music with palms,

until something breathes under the pen's beak."

"All that exists is naturally drunk: the boat, the Egyptian Pyramids, the executioner's coldness, the iron. Who said that? If it's not Rembrandt or Rimbaud, it's one Montaigne or the other."

 

"I seek the truth, I encounter error. How do I recognize error? It is obvious, like truth. Who tells me? My body. Truth gives us pleasure. It makes us burst out laughing, trembling. Blushing. It's hot. It's like this: I grope. I try the word 'hesitation'. I taste it. No pleasure. No taste. I cross out. I try 'correction.' I taste. No. I taste ten words. Finally I fall on the word 'essay.' Before even trying I already sense a pretest... I taste. And, that's it! Its taste is strong and fine and rich in memories of pleasure. Truth strikes us. Opens our heart. Our lives. Error makes us sense the absence of taste. Drops us like a dead person, pathetic tongue, dry eyes. Error really can't fool us."

 

 

At Home or on the Move

I spent my Christmas holidays in Sweden at my home farm, I also went to the Finish Lapland for a couple of days. 

I always find it interesting to return to my home country after a longer time away, and often feel like I can view the environment from a rather objective perspective than when I am living in and entirely surrounded by it. 

 

Before I went to Sweden I discovered the Cuban Artist Ana Mendieta, and was immediately inspired by her environmentalism, and how she interacts with Earth in her art. Mendieta uses her own body in her art, and exposes it for the viewer. While researching her art, and viewing these images, I started wondering, would the viewer be as comfortable if it would have been a nude male body in the image?

I also researched the artist Pixy Liao, who creates lens based art, in which she unravels the power dynamics in her own relationship with her husband. I decided to explore this shift of power by placing a male body in the same type of natural environment as Mendieta. I used my partner as a model, and think that the result was a couple of very interesting images that shows male vulnerability, something that is not often displayed in conventional life and art. 

 

Ana Mendieta:

ana mendieta1 .jpg

 

My work from home:

Lev3.jpg

 

väv1.jpg

 

 

Room Day 5

07.01.20

 

During today's studio practice, I continued to work on the structure that I had made during the last week before Christmas. 

I decided to add 4 planks, functioning as a roof, I also added two triangle shaped forms in each bottom corner to make the structure more balanced. The triangles was well needed since that I have made the walls out of planks of different size. I did this since that I wanted to experiment with a working "outside of the book" mentality, and possibly discover new way to create interesting structures and buildings. Without the roof and helping triangles, this contributed to the structure being quite unstable, but after adding these supporting elements this is no longer the case. 

 

I also started working on the walls of the structure. 

 

Before Christmas, I worked in the textile workshop with the knitting machine to create a fabric that would function as the wall. As the idea to build a structure referring on environmentalism, I am no longer sure that this fabric will be used in this project. Possibly it can be used another time for another piece, for instance I have an idea to make a "knitted house".

 

Room Day 7

13.01.20

 

Today I brought even more material that I have collected from parks and streets. One of these natural materials were a branch and I felt inspired to combine it with the process of weaving. The method is time consuming, yet I prefer this compared to creating something for what I feel no pride. It is also something meditative, and satisfying with weaving, that makes me enjoy it. I have noticed that I unconsciously are being drawn towards collaborating with nature. I think it is because of that I feel a bit misplaced in this city, surrounded by constructed buildings and roads. I honestly have a hard time coping with all the cement and asphalt, in a way that I have never experienced before. During my research I found the artist Rebecca Louise Law, a British artist "exploring the relationship between humanity and nature". The artist originally worked with traditional materials, but "rather turning to acrylics or oils, she opted for more organic materials. “The flower became my paint,” Law explains." 

 

I strongly sympathize with Law, and have many times questioned the use of artificial materials. Sometimes I go as far as questioning art, since that we already have the nature, providing us with views more beautiful than any human ever could create. I guess the answer is that today, in my opinion, art is not supposed to be something beautiful, but that it fulfills the role as a space in which we can have a conversation about a specific matter. 

Room Day 9 (CRIT)

16.01.20

 

Today's crit was very helpful. I was given these thoughts and feedback: 

* Reminds about car washing 

* Could be developed by filming the collection of leaves 

* Could be developed by working with alive plants, and watch them die.

* Reminds some about death, sentimentality

* The leaves has been collected from different places, even countries, and therefore it is could be seen as a representation of these different sites. 

* They are like trees 

 

It was interesting to hear my pears opinions about the piece, since that it made me think about it in other ways  than I had before. My class mates seemed to be interested in that some of the leaves has been brought from my home farm in Sweden, many also reacted to the smell of the material. 

 

I defiantly agree with that it would bring a deeper dimension to the piece by adding a documentation of a performance of me collecting the leaves. This is something that I could do during the space time project. 

Space Time Day 1

20.01.20

 

Today was the first day of Space Time, I was very inspired by the project brief, and always find it exciting to work with lens based media. When reflecting over the words "space and time", my mind was drawn towards the physical space and time that surrounds us. I would like to create around these terms through architectural models. I have researched the Architect Bengt Warne, and find his research and models for ecological buildings and living truly inspiring. I would like to create my own model of a nature house. 

 

As apart of Space / Time I would also like to develop my work from before Christmas (the sculptural condition). I created a life size self portrait, but never really felt that I was completely happy with the result of it. Since then, I have been doing some research, and have developed a context that I find interesting to investigate further. I have read about various feminist artists, and have learned that many of these turn towards ancient goddesses at some point in their work. I felt inspired by this tradition, and thought that it would bring an interesting historical perspective to my piece. I was drawn to the greek myth about Apollo and Daphne. Apollo desires Daphne, who is determent to never marry a man. I decided to use this as a metaphor in my piece for me turning against the expectations on how I should perform as a woman. Therefore I decided to turn myself into a tree. 

 

 

 IMG_8712 copy.png

 

 

Space Time Day 3

23.01.20

 

I have been inspired to keep on asking the question "how can we physically occupy space in a less harmfull way?". To continue this curiosity, I wanted to investigate what could be a sustainable building material in another part of the world than Sweden. While researching I found the architect Anna Heringer, an Austrian architect who works with clay as a material. 

I was interested in how this free material has such a bad rumor, especially after seeing the beautiful houses of Heringer. In my past I have spent a longer period at a project in Loliondo, Tanzania. In this location, building with clay has become a part of the inhabitant's architectural heritage. However, to work with clay is completely new to me, and therefore my aim with this project is to get to know this material. 

 

Earth Home Model: 

 

IMG_8776.jpg 

 

IMG_8799 2.jpg

Space Time Day 6

Today I focused on finishing my portfolio for the interviews. I decided to use a professional printer to get the best possible result, and they were very helpful. I feel very happy with the pictures, and am looking forward to discuss my portfolio during the interview next week. 

The Space / Time lectures have defiantly introduced me to some artists that I've felt really inspired by. I spent some time researching Sarah Sze, Benedict Drew and Tra Bouscaren. I am excited to work more with projection, lights and sound. The last couple of weeks I've been drawn to working more with these digital medias and aspects of art. I think that this will be something that I want to continue exploring with during the rest of my time at the Foundation. I am currently working on my PPP document, but it feels like the ideas that I currently have could end up going in entirely different directions. I have noticed that these themes have been frequent in my work: 

 

Gender 

Power

Sexuality - and how it is connected to gender and equality  

Society - the way we live our lives 

Nature - connection to nature / disconnection to nature 

Materials - how can they be harmful/ sustainable? What is actually sustainable?  

Consumerism - how are we actually effected by living in a consumeristic society?

 

Fine Art interview reflections

My feeling is that the interview went well. I started of with talking about my self-portrait sculpture. This piece is the one that I think has had the biggest impact on me during the foundation since that it learned me so much, and greatly developed my skills as an artist. It learned me how to create a larger form of structure, with our necessarily using a lot of materials or spending a lot of money. Through working on the piece I learned several techniques such as bending metal rods, spot welding, working with plaster and casting body parts with alginate. I told the interviewer about my research of greek mythologies (especially the one about Apollo and Daphne) and how this influenced my work. My interviewer thought that the piece was interesting and that it appeared as quite humorous.

Thereafter we went on to discussed my leaf piece. The tutor asked me if I had thought about showing or documenting the piece in an outside environment, which I told him that I have. Perhaps this could be something to explore during the park project? 

The interviewer was mostly interested in the portfolio rather than my sketchbook, even though I personally wanted to show him some of my processes and research that I had documented in it. 

Overall I thought that it was exciting to present my work to a stranger, and hear his thoughts about it.