ibfoundationblog

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Material Trials

Sand, brick, old sharp sand, new sharp sand, grit 

- sand and thinner materials stuck better to the glue and was less likely to crumble off

-the first one (grit and old sharp sand) looks most like street paving 

- would be interesting to try putting them in molds 

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Phyllida Barlow - formulism

lots of the colours she uses in her work relate back to the colours builders use to identify repairs and mending - they are information

i like the idea that she uses shapes in her sculptures to frame certain things

she largely uses plaster and cement - organic materials

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drawings from The Clash: Rude Boy

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Week 11

CHARLOTTE PRODGER - requiring footage and voiceovers

-  she uses iPhone to film footage because the phone felt like an extension of her, she describes it in a bodily way

- she gets people close to her, friends and family, to read her diary entries

- she thinks less about mapping memories and events in a linear way, saying that they are not static but always present in who we are

MY WORK - reviving memories of travel

I am interested in how we can revive memories of traveling, in a time that we are stuck in our local area. Inspired by Prodger, I got the friend I went away with to read out sections of my diary from the weekend. In the video I try to take myself back to that weekend we went away, to escape from the mundane daily life of lockdown. A next step might be to look at how our minds in and of themselves are like virtual reality technology.

Evaluation:

- it might be interesting to have a variety of shots in different settings and clothes, to suggest that it the video is being rewatched, in the same way we return to a memory 

- the camera is too low, the top of my head is chopped of in parts, next time make sure I am in the center

- to see, in more detail, the process of setting up in the leadup to watching the video, I could have another shot front on and zoomed in on my hands

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Week 11

NEW TOWN POSTCARDS

MY WORK

I went on a walk around Brixton, revisiting clubs, pubs and venues, that I spent time in before we went into lockdown. It was sad to see them closed up with no sign of life. 

I wanted to play on the tacky holiday postcards for tourists to show off they’ve been to a place or to hold it as a memory. Usually the best, grandest parts of an area are displayed on postcards. I wanted to create a contrast to this and have quite dull images on the postcard.

Evaluation:

- might be more interesting as individual images, so it is more evident they are shut up.

- could push the dullness of it further and maybe have photos of stuff you would usually ignore 

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Week 10

ALAIN DE BOTTON - how to travel from your sofa 

MY WORK

I was thinking about what I would want in my dream city, and as I described it I got my boyfriend to draw it. He does not draw often so for me it was exciting to see how he imagined the image in my head and the features I conjured up. 

From this doodle I collected images from the internet and created a postcard. I chose for them to be stuck onto the clouds to suggest that this isn’t a real space. I want to continue to create more postcards.

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Week 9

FLANEUSE, LAUREN ELKIN - wandering as a woman

- Flaneur- thrives in crowds, walks and observes

- who are the streets for? can we walk them freely?

- how do you explore in a city where people don’t walk?

MY WORK

After doing some walking around my local area, I noticed I was quite drawn to things that have been left behind: litter, piles of crates/cardboard boxes, skips. I decided to take pictures of rubbish I spotted around Herne Hill. I printed and cut out the photos and stuck them back up around the area.

I liked how it looked however I thought the glue would dry clear however it dried white. This didn’t look great on the clear surfaces and also made it a little harder to see the images. My favourite ones were the ones stuck on bins, as it linked to the subject of litter

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Week 8

MARK LECKY - significance of the flyover to him

“  I figured that below a motorway bridge, in contrast to everything above moving at speed, nothing is really moving, it’s just picking up the vibrations. And those soundwaves don’t die, they continue reverberating over time. Which, in my head, became a flaky allegory for the vast archive available to us all now, and how that converts the movement of time into a sort of motionless space. So we get stuck there, under the bridge, re-experiencing memories, over and over and over again. “

MY WORK 

This is under the M4 in Gunnersbury, I took it on my walk to Tulse Hill, round the south circular. I really liked the photo due to the strong sense of perspective and also the colours of the concrete. I found this space really interesting as it is almost in-between two spaces, it is transient. Also I don’t this it would necessarily be regarded as a beautiful environment, like a countryside scene may be. However I think there is beauty in its harshness.

I think this painting would be more successful if it was nighttime rather than day. The trees and greenery stand out too much and are quite distracting, to improve it I would fade them out into the distance a bit more 

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Week 7

MY WORK 

I was a bit stuck this week, I was mostly finding it difficult to move my research into work. So I took a minute to be thinking about what exactly I would be doing at this time - I would be on my way home. It was really useful to just write down my thoughts and then use this to base my work on.

I drew each frame, which took a long time, as there were 69 frames altogether. I like that it looks quite jolty, which reminds me of the movement of the train, I also chose to invert the drawings to create a sense of night.

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Week 6

CLAIRE BREWSTER 

The primary focus of Brewster’s work is nature. She believes it is ever present, even in the most urban environments, taking over wherever we neglect, living in a separate yet parallel universe. I think this is a really interesting idea, that there are not just humans living in cities, but a whole ecosystem of other animals including foxes, pigeons and parakeets. I am thinking of maybe using some of this imagery in my work as they contribute to the fabric of the city. 

Brewster’s paper sculptures are cut out form old maps and held by pins onto the wall. The shadows created when light shines on them, creates a dynamic quality and creates a feeling of movement. 

MY WORK 

This paper sculpture was inspired by a line from William Dunbar’s poem  “Flower of Cities All”,1501, ‘London. thou art the flower of cities all’. I have really enjoyed working with paper so far, especially ‘The Heart of London’. Here I cut out the London boroughs and assembled them as if they were the petals of a flower.

The focus of my research is often changing, I can’t pinpoint exactly what it is that I want to explore. I want to celebrate London, it is the place in which many of my experiences and memories have taken place. I particularly love public transport, on your journey, you get to look at London from a kind of macro perspective 

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Week 5

A CITY CROWDED WITH GREEN 1964

This is a film narrated by architectural critic Reyner Banham's brings out the unique character of London and explains how London has grown in size over the past 500 years. "London, thou art the flour of cities all”, William Dunbar said this when London only occupied the City of London. Since this point London has expanded greatly, and has almost over blossomed. Much of this expansion happened in the mid 18th Century with the introduction of trains. Lots of housing was placed around train stations, also there was a lot of urban renewal including slum clearance. The working class who had lived in the City of London now moved further out. 

MY WORK

In this piece of work I was exploring how progress in public transport impacted London. Continuing to look at maps, I found one of my local area, Herne Hill, from 1870. It is interesting to see how the fabric of the area has changed since then. I wanted to show the change by adding housing developments, that had been built since 1870, onto the map. To highlight the contrast, I wanted to use screenshots from Google Earth, which is from satellite images. 

For the text, I chose a quote from the Victorian artist, John Ruskin, who lived in Herne Hill. He was against the cheap housing developments going on at the time. I was considering a few fonts, including graffiti, departure times, and Albertus Capitals. I decided on the British Rail font so it would have a similar visual language to maps and posters you see at stations. I also wanted it to resemble a map in the way that it can be folded up.

To improve this I think I would enlarge the images of the housing or maybe include more just to emphasise just how much the area has changed

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Week 4

MATTHEW PICTON - relationship between the body and both maps and cities

Picton’s earlier works (first two images) are taken directly from the street. The first is a drawing of the cracks in the road. His choice of colour and the variety and delicacy of his lines creates a strong resemblance to the blood vessels of an organism. The secondimage is of a cast of the road surface. 

In his maps, Picton captures the changes that have occurred over time in a city, often looking at major developments or divisions in history.

MY WORK - ‘London’s Heart’

‘London’s Heart’ reflects the idea that cities are like organisms, everything is interconnected. Similar to how Johnathon Parsons describes the Thames as the lifeblood of the city, I feel as London’s transport system is its lifeblood. 

The shadow hints to the non-physical elements that connect places such as experiences, memories and connections

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Week 3

IAIN SINCLAIR - psychogeography, why walk?

Sinclair writes about pedestrian exploration of the urban and suburban landscape. Much of his work draws from the Situationists. Guy Debord, a French philosopher and Situationist, suggested creative ways to explore the urban environment. He described a ‘psychological drift’, in which you are guided by chance and the energy of the space, allowing you to form your own sensory map of the city. His work is also inspired by the work of English writers, William Blake, Arthur Machen and Thomas de Quincey, who explored urban landscapes and the nature of London

MY WORK

Inspired by Iain Sinclair’s London Orbit, I walked 10 miles from Gunnersbury Station to my house (half of the South Circular). I hoped that I would learn something from this walk and discover something about the space that I didn’t already know. I was not successful in this

However, after looking at my photos, there were some reoccurring things that had caught my eye.  These were thing that may often be overlooked: road signs, planes, fences and the pavement. I found the roads and pavements particularly interesting as it reflected the change and development of a street. Although you would think that pavements are all the same, they have different markings, such as yellow lines, as well as a variety of shapes and textures, and they have also aged from different points in time.

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Week 2

LEON KOSSOFF - relationship between drawing and painting

Kossoff was making his work in a damaged London - there was physical damage from bombing which brought economic depression and food rationing. His drawings and paintings are a felt response to the place and mood.

Kossoff captures the energy of his drawing through quick gestured lines as well as limiting his colour palette. I especially like how he scratches into his paintings to create another form of line

MY WORK

I am currently doing a painting of this drawing. Like Kossoff, I want to reflect the energy I captured in the initial drawing. I am using nails, something that you could find on the street, to scratch lines to create the lines of the windows.

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WEEK 1

LS LOWRY - Urban Landscapes, urban life

Lowry depicted urban life in industrialised cities in the north. He highlights the link between people’s lives and the place they live. I like that he captures features of the towns that may not seem monumental, such as canals and mills, that may usually be ignored, but were in fact pivotal to working life. 

ALEKSANDRA MIR - angles and journey, pattern 

Alesandra Mir works with assistants to create large wall-size drawings of buildings in London. Her use of the Sharpie is widespread in her work, when they run out of ink, she takes advantage, by using it to create tone. The collective nature of her work reflects how London works.

The patterns, within the patterns, really distinguishes the different buildings, and reflects the energy of the city. The way that some of the lines/buildings overlap in sharp angles, takes you on a journey both around the room and around London, This is interesting to me as this sense of adventure and discovery is what I find exciting about London. 

JAMES BOSWELL - layers, characters  

Boswell used drawing as a form of notetaking, for future references. He would have his wife recreate the poses of people from the street.

The bold blocks of black, which are prevalent across much of his work, somehow manage to create a sense of space and depth. It would be interesting to try collage to depict the buildings and people in the streets. The people in his work seem true to life, in their mannerisms and in their different activities. There is a very busy atmosphere in his two works above, which are representative of many London streets, especially on market days. 

MY WORK

This was one of my 30 Tasks, to draw ten moving things; I was on the bus drawing people I could see out the window. This was quite difficult as the bus was moving very fast, however due to this restriction, I managed to create a sense of gesture, which creates a sense of individuality amongst the many. 

In the 30 Tasks Crit, it was suggested to try using a different medium as the pencil created a ghostly atmosphere, Also to continue looking at movement, i could trace the movement over people in films.

These were not as successful as the pencil drawings, the felt-tip is too familiar. Also there is not a great sense of space, this is probably due to the uniform size of the people. 

This ink drawing is more interesting as the tone and the shapes start to build the people as individuals. You can also see the gaze of some of the people which draws you in.

I enjoyed using the thick Posca pen, and I feel there is some success in the thick black blocks on the left. It would be interesting to push this further and include more thick black in addition to pattern. I think more consideration into the location would be necessary - maybe somewhere with more buildings, or it could just be the viewpoint.

These two drawings were done from life in Elephant and Castle. This area is interesting to me as it is familiar there are lots of different people walking through it. The variety in the architecture also reflects the diversity of the area.