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How man destroy Our World by Steve Cutts. (WARNING MAY BE DISTURBING)

Why did I include this? Does it have any relevance?

This links in with the exhibition as this video is about how we human destroy the world through various methods such as deforestation, using animals for clothing, animal testing, pollution, Capitalism, Business/ Industry, the list goes on.

Which is quite sad as when watching it, it is very brutal and straight forward to the truth of todays society or even what will happen in the future if we don’t stop. 

This is very similar to the previous post about the movie. But unlike the movie this this how we lead to the earth destruction, while the movie is about turning back and restoring the earth.

Can watch it through this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbS1VJyonuA

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Wall-E Movie, 2008.

Why did I include this?

The reason why I included it, is because I automatically thought of this movie when I have seen artworks based on how we use trees for industry and the impact we have on them environmentally.

However, we human when thinking of these devastating situations of burning forests, taking away nature and replacing thing them with houses and factories. For some we generally don’t act upon them unless they impact us directly. Part of human selfish nature.

On the other hand, instead of always thinking of what will happen. Why not act on what we can do and the positive change which is the moral of the movie of not losing hope, as it is never too late to turn back.

To watch it please click this link: https://www.disneyplus.com/en-gb/movies/wall-e/5G1wpZC2Lb6I

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Summary.

Overall, the exhibition is very beautiful yet very thoughtful as it forces us to recognize these life forms, where they come from and our effects on them? 

It the kind of exhibition which brings you back to reality and devastation of human actions and current situation of burning forests and lands, deforestation, capitalism, decrease on natural land and even how some people don’t even know these majestic places exist because of the culture we life in and the lack of appreciation and understanding of its importance.

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Mariele Neudecker, ‘And Then the World Changed Colour: Breathing Yellow’, 2019:

Neudecker’s sculpture features a living landscape submerged underwater, and suffused with an eerie yellow light.

Influence?

Paintings by Schinkel, Friedrich, Dahl and a few others have been a huge influence to Neudecker’s artwork. What interested her is the idea of recreating experience from reality into the means of deception and simulation.

Reference: 

https://secretldn.com/among-the-trees-hayward-gallery/

https://www.pedrocera.com/exhibitions/mariele-neudecker-echo-chamber/#:~:text=Neudecker%C2%B4s%20interest%20in,of%20the%2019th%20century.

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Ugo Rondinone, ‘Cold moon’, 2011:

Rondinone’s sculpture is an aluminium cast of an ancient olive tree, twisted, gnarled, and towering above gallery-goers.

Reference: https://secretldn.com/among-the-trees-hayward-gallery/

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Shi Guowei, ‘Pine’, 2016:

This is a grand painting which captures the beauty of a pine tree. This is one of my top favourites from the exhibition. 

Influence?

Guowei’s is influenced by traditional hand painting techniques in China. Painters developed this traditional technique to create a heightened sense of depth, color, and realism behind each work. 

Reference:

 https://secretldn.com/among-the-trees-hayward-gallery/

https://kadist.org/people/shi-guowei/

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Eva Jospin, Foret, 2014:

Cardboard.

What medium is the art piece made of?

The art piece was carved out of cardboard boxes, with use of a scalpel, drill and a power sander. She has spent months carving and assembling the pieces and placing them in different ways. 

What is it trying to show? Context?

What she has done is brought a product made from trees and transformed it back into the image of the forest. The reason for this is to remind us from where our products come from. It is also about human fears and desires.

Jospin wanted a height to the ceilings to give the sense of completely surrounded by trees in the autumn/wintertime. When you look at it, it looks like you can get lost in and also, it looks like a forest where you shouldn’t enter just like in story books and films. It can give a sense of sinister feeling or a sense of excitement and adventure depending on the persons perspective.

Overall?

When I say this art piece I was really surprised and amazed how she did this all-in cardboard. Also adding the effect of being as tall as the ceiling is very impressive and gives a feeling as if you go into it, you will enter a whole new world just like Narnia. Overall, I really like it and I am curious to see how will this link to my study?

Reference:

https://secretldn.com/among-the-trees-hayward-gallery/ (Article)

https://www.artforum.com/interviews/jennifer-steinkamp-talks-about-her-video-at-the-clark-art-institute-76140 (Article)

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Jennifer Steinkamp, A year in three minutes, Blind Eye, 1, 2018:

Quicktime video, colour, 2 minute 47 second loop.

What is the medium of this art piece?

This art piece is similar in the previous which also a wall-length, but this is a virtual projection of a forest filled with animated birch trees. It is a small video showing wind breeze ruffling through branches, leaves sprout, catkins grow and fall, the foliage slowly changes colour and drops in an autumn wind. 

Any influences?

It is found that one of her influences are her teachers as she has done a series of such trees in honor of teachers.

What is it trying to demonstrate?Context?

What it is trying to demonstrate our sense of time and the cycle of the trees through a whole year compressed into three minutes, which repeats. When viewing it gives a feeling of comfort and calming, almost as if you were in the forest. Give appreciation to nature and closes our mind for a moment from the hectic world. 

But it also contrasts us thinking, reflecting and for some giving a sense of guilt to how we treat these majestic beings through human greed who continue to destroy the natural world. Which is humorous as they are the sole thing we rely to live on (oxygen). 

Overall:

This brings us to the ultimate question, through human greed and continuation of destruction, will we be left with only 3D printed trees and virtual forests? Or even worse how much more damage can the world take for it to self-destruct and seize human life? Which suddenly reminds me of the movie Wall-E.

Reference:

https://secretldn.com/among-the-trees-hayward-gallery/ (Article)

https://www.artforum.com/interviews/jennifer-steinkamp-talks-about-her-video-at-the-clark-art-institute-76140 (Article)

https://www.wuwm.com/post/it-lowers-your-blood-pressure-spend-few-moments-these-hypnotic-trees#stream/0 (Article)

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Among The Trees- Exhibition.

We were asked to research one of the art exhibitions from a list and review it. So I decided to choose this exhibition as I was fascinated by the artwork.

What is the exhibition about?

The exhibition is based on forest art, which thirty-seven international artists draw our attention to the beautiful, majestic life and sculptural forms and their towering heights.

Not only do they look at the beauty of these beings, but also how trees live much longer than we do, which makes use challenge how we think about time. 

Also, other things such as our impact on trees (destructive/non-destructive), trees adaptation (geography & environmental) and their use in the industry. This shows how entangled human culture is with tree culture in our lives.

Artists showcase these concepts through use of multiple mediums such as sculptures, installations, drawings, paintings and photographs. Through their artwork they aim to explore our complex connection and affects with trees and our lives.

Following 2 posts will be based on artist examples from the exhibition , with context about them. 

The other 3 posts are other types of artwork produced in the exhibition.

Reference:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrjzLLPDITc&feature=emb_title  (virtual tour)

https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/art-exhibitions/among-trees?eventId=855751 (about the exhibition)

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What is the Module about?

What is the module about?

This module is about experimental approaches from looking at the culturally diverse, and a technologically advancing world we live in.

I will need to do this through curiosity, research, development and application. Furthermore, I will include research which will help me to develop my practice-based work and review my work throughout numerous stages.

This could be self-evaluation, one to one and within a group. By doing this it will enable me to explore diverse creative possibilities from different perspectives and source new ideas or develop current ones. Then I can note down and apply to my work.

To help out, we will be given a starting point.

This module is about experimenting and combining new materials, methods, concepts. But also thinking outside the box and defy boundaries then the obvious.

Any thoughts?

This will be interesting, and I am excited how will this module be carried out and what journey waits for me. I am curious on how my work will develop and any materials/concepts I never tried or heard off.

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End of Week 4.

It’s the end of week 4 and the mark for the end of my first module. Honestly it has ended so fast which is unbelievable, and I am excited for our next module and what more is to come.

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Module Evaluation.

Evaluation:

To conclude, I have very much enjoyed this module and have learnt various valuable lessons through these 4 weeks. 

Were there any difficulties and how did I overcome them?

There were some difficulties I have overcome such as what object should I choose; how do I make a blog, how do I use photoshop, what do I do, what do I do next?

Because there wasn’t much guidelines on what to do and it’s all about what I want to do. It was very difficult as I am not very used to doing that, but all I did is followed my instinct.  

problems such as photoshop I taught myself few things such as keyboard short cuts and what helped more is the workshop. Some problems I asked advice and some I just took the risk and experiment.

 Who is my work aimed for?

My work wasn’t really for anyone specifically, it was more for myself but if others are interested, they can view and join me in my learning journey by following my blog.

What research did I conduct, and did I include any practitioners and how where they relevant?

To help me along I did few research on reading on mental health, fashion and technology and watching a documentary about Dadaism which I very much adored. I also did research on my objects itself, such as the maker of it and about the object.

Practitioners such as Jan Jansen helped me with my work as his is based on shoes and I wanted ideas on what I can do with it and one of them I seen a heel with teeth which I decided to try image manipulating with my own shoe. It was very interesting to see on his website what he did with his shoes and his creations of combining another object and fragments to create something.

Another thing that helped me a lot is watching the documentary on Dadaism movement and researching practitioners such as Tristan Tzara who helped me with my idea of creating my collages.

 What was successful and what isn't?

From all my work what was successful was testing medium and especially the close detail art of the shoes which I really like and surprised with the outcome. 

Nothing was unsuccessful as everything is a learning experience. But What I think I could improve is the collages, especially the mental health and fashion. Also, I should think about improving my sketch book layout for drawings.

 What was my best idea?

I don’t have a best idea as the more I create the more I realized I am still learning, and I get even better with practice and experimenting. What I can say is what I enjoyed the most so far is creating the playful GIF’s.

What were my best ideas and how do I execute them?

I don’t have a best idea as I generally start with one idea then thinking of ways on how to expand it and the variety of options that I have with it and just slowly building upon it until we end up with a result. There isn’t a certain idea I chose it’s more of the journey of collecting pieces of ideas along the way.

What editing process did you use and why?

The editing process I chose is Tumblr for my writing, font and size. My phone gallery editor to use to create collages, and Photoshop for photo manipulation and adding effects, which was very new to me and very interesting to use.

Summary:

Linking to aim of the module, I have tried to make my work meaningful through the thought process and reasoning for my work, materials that I use for my work and affects it has created and a story/ idea /context behind my work.

Also, the approach of anti-sketchbook and how I upload my work onto a blog wither it is digital work or drawn work. I like this approach as I was used to the traditional idea of a sketch book (drawing pad), but this way is better as it contains and keeps my work together anywhere I am. However, it does have restrictions as it does flatten your work and is difficult to see textures of artwork.

What is important is that I have had fun with this module, experimented and I very much look forward to my next module. Also, including improvements and bringing the lessons I learnt in this module to the next one.

Word count: 746

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Abstract Art from my Object Fragments.

What is this art piece?

This is an abstracts art I did by combining my fragments. I didn't know we had to photograph throughout our progress, but I will make sure in my next module.

Any thoughts through the process? 

First, I really had no idea what I was doing. All I did to begin with is draw the outline mistakenly with black marker which I regret as I couldn't change or fix my drawings. Then I thought I should add some colour, and the idea of hot and cold colours came in. Then it started to build and unfold.

 I saw the girl to my right had some orange, grey and black tones, so I decided to incorporate it into my work to make them link. Similarly, I saw to my life abstract black shapes with metallic shaped colours which I also add flowing towards their work. 

At first it just looked like random shapes on the table but as soon as I started building upon it then it changes to looking like a colourful fish, to floating objects in water, a map, then for it to look like an island or a mini world with the objects as countries. To be honest it can be anything depending the perspective of viewer.

Ending of process, thoughts?

Honestly, at first, I hated it as I thought it looked childish, as it wasn’t my usual style with all the bold colours and un-structed thought process of my work.

But then I came to appreciate it as it is very vibrant and colourful, almost refreshing to view. Even though it was conducted in a random approach then I usually do, it was interesting to see what came out of it. It was a learning experience and purely experimental.

My only regret as mentioned before is not taking photographs, which I will next time for sure. 

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Image Manipulation.

Why did I do this?

We had a workshop based on introduction to Photoshop which was very useful, and it was just based on few basics on how to use it. From that workshop I decided to try using few skills that I have learnt and apply it to my own work.

Another reason why I wanted to do it is because I see an artist that I have posted before with teeth on the heels, which I thought of trying to recreate something like it.

Any thoughts?

I like it very much although I still need to get a hang on Photoshop it’s still good. I like how it gives a sinister and surreal atmosphere to it. Especially the use of colours of red, black and white. The smile kind of reminds me of the Joker or Cheshire cat. It is a very interesting way of using my object into creating this.

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Value Of Inclusivity Presentation.

Today, we had an online lecture about the importance of inclusivity, what it is and how is it relevant and important to our work?

What have I learnt from this presentation?

What I have learnt is the 2 key terms of diversity and inclusivity and how are they important. That is because there are no point of diverse type of ideas or people if you don’t include them.

The reason why it can be very important it can help you with ideas, developing and creating. It can also give different perspectives as everyone see a different perspective/ vision. Furthermore, it enables you to experiment, take risks and stepping out of your comfort zone.

Therefore, it is important to meet with diverse type of people whether they have different religion, personality, culture, background, social class, political standing etc. These all factors can give you a different insight and ideas which will help me get influence for creating my work.

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One of Andre Breton’s collage poems.

For when I do collage next time, I want to try playing with words, font, size and colour and try recreating poems like Breton. This will be an example and influence of what I want to improve for my previous collages.

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"To Make A Dadaist Poem" - Tristan Tzara (1918).

Here is one of the examples of what I got influence for my collages but the difference is that they constructed into a poem / paragraph , on the other hand I just placed the cut outs randomly which isn't supposed to be read together.

Reference:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/339740365642220509/?nic_v2=1a1A8GcB6