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06/04/22- Christiane Blattmann

Notes I have made during this lecture:

An encounter with the world of architecture and theatre

studied in Berlin and in stage design

Can still see this especially in her earlier work , the influence

Special setting , still what she does in many ways

Degree show , institution in Germany - whole show covered

Very important for her how the medium of the piece worked with the public

Working with imagery, used Lino print

Shoes but also architectural sculptures

A time were the boundaries between art and architecture blurred

Was invited to a group show in Austria

Transparency

Favourite piece she showed us during the lecture

Christiane Blattmann is a sculptor whose work tries to dismantle clear creative categories in order to question their autonomy. Blattmann develops complicated relationships of things, emotions, and figures in her works, which she creates with tactile materials such as silicone, pigment, silk, jute, stone, and metal. Her works are reflections on fundamental architectural concerns that might be posed through the interaction of sculpture with everyday surroundings such as urbanization or fashion. Her interpretation of this concept is not only formal - how can a sculpture fill a space? – but also social, considering the powers of 'space.' For example, consider its structure as a stimulus for audience activity, whether in the real world or in the exhibition.

I adore her work, particularly the pieces in the second photograph, titled Installation view. Kunsthalle Münster's Un-Break My Walls 2019 I appreciate these works because they have a realism to them in that the texture of the materials makes me want to touch them and feel how they feel. But it also makes me consider what her art is about, as I believe understanding her work takes time.

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16/03/22- Anna Zacharoff

Notes I have made during this lecture:

Started the lecture by showing a painting she remembered as a child

Showed other paintings by H.Matisse , what she thought painting was when growing up

2014, last year of art school

Got invited to 3 different galleries/shows while in her last year of art school

Spoke about her time in art school - found that interesting to learn about

Showed a range of her artwork she made

Done a show of all goldfish

Anna Zacharoff is a Swedish painter working in Brussels. Her work generally concentrates on the traditional medium of painting, with an undersea theme running through it, based on sea creatures. Crabs, goldfish, sea rays, and turtles are among the species Zacharoff depicts in her paintings, which she creates using oil paints.

In terms of composition, it isolates the marine animals on the canvas, giving them a sensation of Flow, as if they were gliding through the ocean. The isolated composition of the organisms on the canvas gives the piece a sense of emptiness, as if the creature has reached a point of no return, symbolizing the loneliness of the ocean. The stained backdrop, created by priming the back of the canvas as a result of a phobia of a white canvas, contrasts with this. By adding a rippling texture to the painting, which represents the rolling water, this unconventional method fills the emptiness of the piece. Artists' fear of a white canvas may be a reflection of the public's fear of the ocean's immensity and emptiness.

Overall, I really enjoyed listening to Anna talk and show her work because it really gives a sense of emotion to it and in depth look/reference to emptiness. 

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09/03/22

LJMU MA Fine Artists -Part 2:

Notes I have made during this lecture:

Vincent Quirk:

Making paintings during lockdown but didn’t know why he was doing them until he realised they were about trauma

Imagining buildings

Linked back to his childhood

Focusing on direct trauma rather than subconsciously

Reaction piece

Anxious about Covid

Worried about catching Covid - lockdown 2

Sum up all the fear in one piece

After he decided to tackle trauma in a different way by making a film, hammering nails into meat - a way of him expressing trauma , the meat being the representation of him and the nail being the trauma

Interested in birth trauma - never really expanded on this

Developed his practice further by looking into childhood trauma

Made a board game

“Crystal maze”- huge inspiration

Simone Schofield:

The loss of her parents, is a huge inspiration for her work and what her work is about

Site specific installations using Materials such as paper to crate her work

Time of reflection

Created a print of the coal

The dates we lose people

Fragmented, remember things - memories

Likes to work quite large to fill space

How Grief changes over time

A mark people leave behind

Work is very emotional

Mary Hennessy Jones:

Stoke on Trent , hand made wallpaper

Contrast

Screening 1 - made from brick

Netting

Tobacco Warehouse

Plate glass not safety glass - had to be careful

Screening 2

Cigarette papers

Plan was to set fire to whole fence but couldn’t

Site specific work

I have found this lecture quite interesting and intriguing to watch, as listening to other artists speak about there work, but that are other in the same university as me, makes it more drawn in as, it allows me to see what other artists around me are creating. Also, I like to see why these artists are creating their artworks, the reasonings behind them and how they have created them. However, there artworks shown doesn't resonate with my own art practice, but I still found this lecture valuable to watch as it gives me another insight on other artists in the same university as myself.  

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23/02/22

Lara Almarcegui:

notes I have made during this lecture:

How Liverpool empty land became abandoned

The land

Talks to architects - talking to the experts

Visits the places to get to know them

Liverpool wasn’t that easy to get the places

“Why has this plan not been realised?”

Done the research in London

Missed the best wasteland in London

Garden festival in Liverpool - 1984 - Otterspoole promenade - was very interested about it

She stopped certain degree of landscape architecture

Water tower construction materials

Started measuring materials

The ruble mountain, Sint Truiden

Lara Almarcegui's works, which she has been developing for nearly two decades, are placed on the edge of urban renewal and urban degradation, bringing to light what otherwise goes unnoticed. Almarcegui studies the various links that can be created between architecture and the urban order on the one hand, and abandoned places and structures in the process of transition on the other. Lara Almarcegui's work raises concerns about the current state of building, development, use, and degradation of locations that appear to be on the outskirts of the city. She creates a dialogue between the various elements that make up the physical reality of the urban landscape, which is constantly changing, in her large-scale work through demolitions, excavations, construction materials and contemporary ruins. 

In my opinion, I like Lara's artwork because the heaps of gravel or materials give her work a deeper meaning to think about, as I wouldn't know her artwork was about wastelands at first glance, and I would have had a more conceptual thought process to it rather than just thinking it was inspired by the wastelands. I enjoy the colour tones of the materials she employs because they have such a rich colorful contrast between darker and lighter hues, which creates a conflict of which heap is most significant and makes you think more about what her work is about. Her work does not inspire or resonate with my own practices because mine has a lot more personal meaning to it, such as involving myself and my own life and experiences, but hers does not in some aspects.

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16/02/22 MA Artists:

Notes I have made during this lecture:

OAK MCLAUGHLIN BARNETT:

MY/YOUR and TMISL

He likes Abstract Art He experimented with media he had around him Filmed himself creating the paintings, which became interesting to him because of the angle of which the video was filmed in and the sounds that were captured during the filming.

He drew mostly before doing his MA, studied a BA in creative writing Used mostly bio pens and pencils to draw with He drew what was around him He has continued to paint, experimenting with the structures between different plants. He continues to ask questions about his art.

I really enjoyed listening to Oak talk about his artwork because it was good see what he created and why he created them, the reasons behind them. I found it interesting the way he spoke about studying creative writing for his BA and now is studying this for his MA, so it was nice to see this change and the reasons behind it. I really like his work especially the drawing he created before starting his MA (second image) as they are very graphic and comic like. Which I could see these drawings being used in a comic book, novel or Anime as they have a same sort of style to them. Also, I think he has captured the expressions of the people who he drew in his drawing great as you can feel emotions from these drawing and find them were expressive in the lines he has created such as thick outlines and thin outlines to the shading too. Furthermore, the use of colour varies in his work a lot in my opinion as for his drawings he only used Black. Whereas, in his paintings about plants he has used light tonal colours, which give his work a different aspect to it and a more realism yet abstract view to them. 

ELENOR PLATT:

She showed a video she created during her residency, a film of glass shards which she broke up and created things out of them such as towers. 

Used sound in his video/film too she studied a BA in Philosophy  she likes concepts of the themes of Sensory Perception and Illusions For her Cross Crit she showed another video/film she created which was of an idea she had to film Foil to see how it would reflect and the sound it was make outside, to how it would change over time in the outside environment. 

I enjoyed listening to Elenor talk about his artwork and artmaking. I like the way she spoke about how her Philosophy study past has inspired her art making now and how the themes/concepts of Illusions and Sensory Perception has heavily influenced her work. I really like his cross crit video she showed of using the foil because  I found it very intriguing to see how the light and environment is changing the foil over time. 

JOSHUA COOK:

Unpacking working conditions works with a lot of Polaroid's 

Worked in the Atrium in the University for this installation Started getting into photography, taking photographs of people setting up their works and of their works. ‘Documentation’ Likes to work with different Mediums

I found that I didn’t really relate to Joshua’s artwork that much because I found the ‘unpacking working conditions’ very new and quite confusing to learn and why he likes these ideas/themes. The only thing I could relate to that he likes using photography as part of his work, which I like to do myself, incorporating photography into my work or just taking photographs in general.  However, other than that I didn’t really find the rest as interesting to me or learnt anything from it. 

JIONI WARNER: Studied Fine Art before starting her MA  She likes to use Portraiture in her artwork

She likes to incorporate collage in her Portraiture art as well, using it for her backgrounds.  Shown a video/film she created which was of her in a some sort of photoshoot/ her filming herself in a photo studio. With her talking in the background. 

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we’re here & QUEER: Studio Practice

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09/02/22

Dr. Shwetal Patel

Notes I have made during this lecture:

“Making a sustain art platforms in this day and age”

“How does that relate to making visual art platforms?”

Biennials - one aspect of different formats in the art world

Biennial reader published in 2010

He argued - standardized

Cultural production

Rise of the NFT

Unable to respond

Was one of the first founders of India’s first biennial, which is called Kochi-Muziris Biennale.

In the 1990s, he was a student at East London.

No one way approach a question

Globalization

Very informative

Biennials are complex constellations of varied economic, geopolitical, and representational cultural factors inside their own power relations, each in their own way.

Dr. Shwetal Patel has worked on the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in India, and he has recently served on two BMW juries, one for their Art Cars commission, and the other for their new Art Journey Award. He was also a key organizer of the School's recent 'Analogue Audiences/Digital Interfaces' conference at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in London, which he received the VC's scholarship to fund his studies.

After watching this lecture about Dr. Shwetal Patel, I found this lecture very informative about Biennials and how there are many aspects and information that go into having a biennial.

While this lecture was very informative, I found it had too much information to take in at one time as it was very fast and quick that it was difficult to take it all in at once to make notes about it. I did find him talking about the biennials interesting as from what I took in from this lecture was information I never really new about before, so it was a good chance to gain a new insight on Biennials and everything to do with them. With that being the much quickness and fastness of the lecture when he was talking it was very difficult to make notes about this topic and take it all in.

However, this lecture was in my opinion the most informative and interesting one We have had up to now. I found it from what I took in very intriguing to learn about. I just think there could of been more of a PowerPoint presentation which we could of seen for the whole lecture to make notes from, instead of just having it there for a short period of time.

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2/02/22

Joanna Zielińska’s

Notes I have made during this lecture

Based in Brussels and lived in Poland

She is a art historian, curator and member of the International Association of Art Critics

She is interested in syllogomania, collecting aspects of escapism anthropology of food and eating to social design and John Bock.

Trying to get rid of direct image , creating an image, experimented of layering.

Photography

Very private person

“How can you look at her work, without looking at the surface?”

Turning point , made her think what made her go back to this moment

Attached to contextuality

Created a project called ‘The End of Collecting’ , which is a collection of stories, facts, everyday practices, quotations and other texts. Is is supposed to represent the chaos , to arrange collections, which will culminate obsession, madness, crammed living spaces, self-destructive habits.

Joanna Zielińska’s pays her attention to the phenomenon of collecting and the thin line between the process of collecting and common hoarding.

After watching this artist lecture on Joanna Zielińska’s, I found it very un-inspiring to me personally and found it very dull. I found this because I thought her own practice is not what would interest me in my own practice and things/themes and reasons to why I would make my own artwork. I found it dull, because when Joanna Zielińska was talking about her artwork, she never really gave much explanations to why she made her artwork and didn’t show much of her own practice, which was quite hard to focus into as we did not get shown much.

However, after researching Joanna Zielińska, I found that I liked her work and project ‘The End of Collecting’. I really fascinating because of how the reasons for her making this artwork turned into the final product. For my own practice I am really into installation artwork or artwork that is made out of clay or similar materials to clay. So, naturally I gained interest in this project straight away. I think I really was drawn to this project was because it makes you think of what it could be about as for a first initial look , I don’t think you would know what it would be about straight away, it would take a think and real look into.

The first image is what I’m referring to, being drawn to, whereas with the second image, I am not that much drawn to as the first one.

From researching about Joanna, I have learnt how your own reasons for creating artwork doesn’t have to make sense of for anyone else to understand in a sense, you could create a piece of artwork that you feel like expressions what your trying to come across, but will take others time to think about and realise what is it.

Furthermore, as I spoke about for my own practice I do like installation art and using clay, which I haven’t really done this year, I want to try using installation art or clay- making again for my own practice, which I will be looking into now.

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Wednesday 26th January:  Pádraic E. Moore

Notes I have made during this lecture:

Pádraic E. Moore is a curator and writer. He has a BA in History of Art and English Literature, from where he studied at University College Dublin, in 2004.  Pádraic E. Moore has recently focused his time on the influence that the esoteric philosophies have has on the visual arts. His work often looks at how contemporary/modern culture has embraced and included aesthetics and ideals by esoteric traditions.

Writer, curator

Spoke about curating and how it began, to the first exhibitions and curating shows.

Going through the years of art exhibitions and curating

Independent curator, based in Brussels

Started curating art work of friends

Collaboration environment - valuable

Studied in Stockholm

“Portal artwork”- modernism in general

Ideals of expression

Convergence of cultural production and spirituality

 Try and create a bond for a modern rational world

 Abract forms to emotional states

Diagrams, looking at religion as a science but also at the body and the the brain

Equally reacting to the human body

Music like invisible waves

Nature of the show was circulation

Other types of material not just art such as science , popular culture to gain a new audience

Bringing in different types of materials

Has an interest in Art History

After watching this lecture about Pádraic E. Moore, I have learnt 1 important thing he spoke about. which is curating artwork. I found that when he was talking about curators and curating artwork, it is as important as the art itself because of how you are presenting your own artwork or others. It’s as important as the being presented because it shows how thought out it has been and shows that you have an eye for presentation. However, other than that I personally didn’t learn not much else from this lecture unfortunately. I found that even though   Pádraic E. Moore is a writer and art curator, he didn’t really intrigue me with any art of themes to inspire me as such. I did enjoy listening to him talk about curating and how he does it. 

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Studio Practice second semester work:

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19/01/22

Wednesday Artist lecture: Rosa-Johan Uddoh

Notes I have made during this lecture:

Artist working towards radical self-love.

The effects of popular culture on self-formation

Inspired by black feminist practice and writing and cultural studies

Has work on at the Blue Coat- Liverpool

Has another show currently on in London

“Practice makes perfect”

Worked with performances and she did a lot of live performances herself before the pandemic began.

Had to figure out how to have live performances while the pandemic was happening and was figuring how to work around it.

She decided to make work about performances we see in popular culture such as drawing, video , installation. Performances by characters or celebrities on TV and film.

She was interested in the nativity scene when Jesus was born in the stable, as when in school she had to take part in the nativity play.

Was heavily interested in the art piece ‘Balthazars and their sons’

Refocused the frame to make Balthazar as the main feature

Collected over 100 Balthazar pictures and cut them out individually

Once collected, not to replicate the loneliness, wanted to have them along side one another as a collage, ‘put them together in friendship groups’ , didn’t want to reproduce the structures , wanted to think about the actual humans and immigrants who influenced these pieces.

How the same character reflect how people of colour in our Country are treated today.

‘Nativity’ and ‘Breaking Point’ (3 x 8m), 2021 in ‘Practice makes Perfect’

Wanted to make it large , to have where you could go up close to it and see how there’s a foreground and background

Images can tell a story

Included her own text in a scroll, formats and materials, influenced by biblical scrolls.

Worked with a graphic designer who designed the font of the text

Mimic the versus of the Bible

‘Get up mate, we’re going to the protest’ and ‘Mythic Being 4’, 2021

Exaggerating it for the scale because it brings attention, tea staining, understanding history when learning as children.

How much tea she needed to create this

Process of dyeing things

Photographic paper

‘Brown Paper Envelope’ Video

‘who we are and who we become’

Play with the multiple ideas of passing. Foundation, Harlem Renaissance .

“Black presence in Europe before the wind rush”

After watching this artist lecture on Rosa-Johan Uddoh, I learnt that Black popular culture and Biblical themes such as ‘the Nativity scene’ has heavily influenced her own art practice. Her work was very intriguing to me to see as I found that theme of ‘Black popular culture’ is very important in todays world because of everything that has been happening not just in our own country but over the world, especially in the recent years in America with the “Black Lives Matter”. I found it very important and inspiring listening to as you can see how passionate she was about her work and her reasons on her work and why she has created them.

Although I am personally not interested in Religion and Biblical themes, I actually found her Biblical themed work very fascinating too. This is because of how she chosen this character ‘Balthazar’ and created a huge scale collage of him and I found that different to what you would normally see and very inspiring.

My Favourite piece of art she showed in this lecture was the ‘‘Get up mate, we’re going to the protest’ and ‘Mythic Being 4’, 2021, this is my favourite piece of art she created because I really love the shear scale of the piece. The huge scale of it makes this bold and eye catching and also will bring a lot of attention to it, which Rosa said was one of the points of making it this scale. Also, I would argue that the whole piece itself is not something completely original as, I have seen a country shaped piece of art with tea stains on it, although arguing this point, even though the final outcome is not completely original, the whole theme of the work and reasons to creating this work makes it new and fresh and different to the similar works I've seen of the tea stained country shape before, which makes it more original and keen to see the reasons behind it and to give it a more in depth look at the work.   

Overall, for me I have learnt how a theme or topic that you are very passionate about can help you create such great artwork and can help you express yourself in a way you couldn’t do, such as talking about it to others. Rosas work has helped me think about my own practice and how important my themes of my work are. I very much enjoyed this lecture and learning/listening to Rosa-Johan Uddoh talk about and show us her artwork.

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Wednesday Lecture- Yesmin Akdeniz:

Notes I have made during this lecture: Radical selfcare Gender comes from painting Audrey Lorde addressing oppressions liberal consumer Preserve your identity Strength Patriarchy, fight it Stereotyping Textiles Very large and heavy  Dysfunctionality

   Slow process is very important to her in creating her work Europe  Dystopia Group exhibition meeting the universe half way Working clock

Bauhaus Director of the school  Dysfunctional

Overall, I found some parts of Yesmin’s Artwork somewhat interesting and some parts not. The parts I found interesting was the textiles pieces she created and the large scale pieces in particular. I found these interesting because they are so large and heavy she said that they look so detailed but without having lots of actual detail in them. Also but the pure size and scale of them impress me too. The other parts I don’t really find interesting where the working clock artwork installation/ sculpture because I didn’t really understand it much and how it is a working clock. This may not be my favourite lecture artist we have had in my opinion. However, it was still quite interesting to see how she explained her art making and reasons behind them. 

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Wednesday Lecture- Amy Sillman:

Notes I made during this lecture: Experimental dance Embodiments Process- develop form actions made Shape of your own thought Not decided between thought v action and medium Building a new language anxiety is connected to knowing Sequence Humor - is difficult but also liberation Narrative and not narrative a animation packed into one canvas unseen but also understood~ Works with poets painted scenes from the animation to show layers Similar alternate endings for her painting made a series with mechanic shapes and free hand images, made into a fake key ideas of confusing her audience. Improv, Accident  Doubt Framework “Fuck you to main stream media” early work 80′s

interrupted by other artists work, like Starry Nights Mid 90′s  Panels Architectural places  scrolls/ animations mirrors of each other engine of the animations- the audience abstraction and narrative patches of language regular paintings 2009- Berlin first exhibition after 1 year of residency diagrams of memories 

 After watching this lecture, I didn’t feel inspired or motivated to create any artwork of my own, I didn’t find this work interesting to me because To me it was quite dull and lifeless. I like the way she has gone about creating her artwork and the meanings behind creating them such as ‘diagrams of memories’ and ‘scrolls that are like animations’, which I found the most interesting part of Amy Sillman talking about her work. However, nothing else really gave me any inspiration. Her work doesn’t relate to my own because hers is mostly about memories and animation and architecture, whereas mine about myself and things I like to do or experiences of my own. 

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My own Studio Practice research: Pride- 2014

As part of my studio practice, I find my inspiration from watching films and TV shows, so after creating my ‘FAGGOT’ painting from being inspired by ‘Girls like us lecture’, I decided to watch one of my favourite films which is ‘Pride’. Pride come out in 2014 and is based on a true story about how in the 80s a group of Gay men and Lesbians created a support group to help the minors in Wales because of the strike which was happening at the time Margaret Thatcher was Prime minister. Also, the films shows how members of the LGBTQ+ community were treated at that time but ultimately shows how 2 different communities can come together and support and help another. 

When watching this film again, I was inspired to created pieces of small artworks on photographs I had taken of nature, because for me being in nature helps my mindset and mental health. So, I printed out a series of photographs I took and then painted words on top of them that I thought are important. The words I painted on these photographs were, PRIDE, FREEDOM, LIBERTY, EQUALITY, HOMOSEXUAL, QUEER. I wanted to create these because I think it is such an important thing to create and say, to express how I am feeling and the things we need in todays society.  Next post will show what they look like. 

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Wednesday Lecture- Hetain Patel

Notes I made during this lecture: Studied a foundation course in Salford, around 20 years ago Grew up in Bolton Heavy racism- growing up, which caused a lot of bullying “Rid himself of the shame” Trying to get all the stuff back he lost over time Made a film, using his iPhone, not a really good camera, performance based art. Mimicking another recording video “Fiesta Transformer”, first car he ever had Wielding, Time-lapse Working class Labor, Manual Labor- recording  Social media and online trolls  Be prepared for comments on artwork

Video of the dance fighting was the most interesting for me In my opinion because it was very dramatic the way it was filmed and set, the music that was playing made the video seem more atmospheric and powerful. The filming was used by recording on a iPhone for the studio rehearsal version, which shows how they made the video and how they put it all together. Also, Hetain says it is like Propaganda because it shows things and people you don't normally see on film or videos, which I think is great because he wants to show diversity and equality in art.