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Final Self Evaluation:

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Collaboration with Photography student: Daisy Bridle

I was asked by a photography student (Daisy Bridle) to take part in some collaborative work for her project; her work focuses on relationships and intimacy shown through photography. Her work uses natural lighting instead of studio to create a raw and emotional atmosphere; her photography evokes a strong emotional response. Through this project she started off by asking me and my boyfriend questions about our relationship such as ‘who is the most dominant?’ and ‘what is your least favourite/favourite thing about eachother?’ After a series of questions Daisy did a photoshoot of me and my boyfriend Harry, we were sat in a very relaxed way to convey a relaxed and calming relationship. 

After the photoshoot was done we were asked to create a response to what we think a relationship is, we could do this in the form of a written piece/ poem/ drawing/ painting. I chose to do this watercolour painting revealing two hands in different shades; one of them is a fleshy tone of pink and one is a deeper warmer shade of orange. I chose to do this piece as I think it shows our love for eachother but not a dependance on one another. The different shades symbolise our difference in personalities but how that is a strength, that we can always rely on one another. I really enjoyed working collaboratively again and would be open to it again in the future.  

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EXHIBITION PIECE: ‘’Prostitutes available’’

This is my final piece on the wall, a large and pink piece depicting an asian woman in a relaxed pose, and a bright blue sign in Japanese ‘Prostitutes available’’- the name of my piece. I have a mixed feeling towards it; in some ways it completely sums up the theme I have been working on. It shows a modern day woman expressing her sexuality not for the voyeurism of a male but rather for herself. I think I get quite stuck in my ways when it comes to painting, kind of afraid of it looking bad so I blend everything together, I think this is why I am not fully happy with it. 

My presentation went well though even though I was horrifically nervous; there was a nice discussion of ideas between me and my group which was really productive as it gave me more ideas to move forward with in the future. I am going to think next about potential ideas to progress with my work such as focus more on chantelle as a person/ her surroundings, and how this contrasts with her cultural identity. 

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FINAL EXHIBITION: Evaluation and reflection

My exhibition piece was spread across 2 canvasses, it depicted an asian woman wearing a provocative red dress and a neon sign with the words ‘Prostitutes in the back’; this sign really struck a cord with me and I decided to make it a statement of reclamation of sexuality from an extremely repressed time to the modern day, in which women can feel free to express themselves without intent of pleasing a male or for the ‘male gaze’; a term used mostly in film making to express the camera showing a female from the viewpoint of a male. 

Risk assessment: ‘’I have chosen my theme for the exhibition as The Body as most of my previous work has been figurative; I am going to be exploring the theme of sexuality through the female form, and how societies views on women has changed throughout the years. I will be looking at how women once appeared in the media for the pleasure of a man, in comparison to women now taking control of their bodies and dressing for themselves. I plan to use oil paint on canvas as this is the way I think I can best communicate my ideas, using brighter colours as a representation of sexual expression. The use of red will be used to show neon lights shown in brothels. In my previous work I have looked at how women intertwine with nature and the female form as natural, so I think this is a natural progression of looking into the body and the way it is viewed in modern society. The possible risks of the exhibition would be putting a nail in the wall for the canvas, and the risk of the canvas falling down and hurting someone.’’

I think that our exhibition turned out well, with a few minor hiccups our group managed to come together and create a space that explored the theme of the body really well. If I could change anything for next time I would suggest that we meet up in person before hand in the actual exhibition space to discuss placement before the actual day; a few people turned up after the time that we arranged due to confusion on the timetable so we could not fully plan what was going where, and some people had to just fit in where was left. The back wall on the left felt a bit squashed and we got feedback that it could have been misinterpreted as one persons work. Overall though I am happy with the placement of my work and thought it went well with the work around. 

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Visible Women: Exhibition

When I first saw a leaflet for this exhibition in Norwich I was instantly intruiged, it showed two black women (from the 50′s) standing up against a blue coloured wall. I absolutely loved this exhibition, as I went on the opening night the buzz was really good and some of the models in the photographs were actually there which was really cool. The whole premise of the exhibition was that a photographer took pictures of women 30 or more years ago, and then contacted them recently to recreate these pictures. 

The thing I found most interesting was what these women were wearing; You could almost hear a narrative through these pictures, as they are from different subculture group during the 60′s and 70′s each of them are different. This made me think about exhibitions that i might be doing in the future. I really liked the way that they had structured, the more we walked around the room the more I felt like I was in a different generation. 

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CATHY LU- Cultural Identity

For my project I have looked into how women are compared to nature and how they should be viewed as a natural thing; after painting and exploring sexism with my friend Chantelle, her Filipino culture came up a lot regarding her sexuality. I have been looking into asian fetishisation and how this affects you in the western world. Cultural identity is something incredibly important, holding on to your heritage and staying true to yourself but also feeling almost trapped by prejudices and predispositions about how you should act or dress just because of your culture. An modern artist that I found named Cathy Lu, explores the theme of cultural identity using extremely detailed watercolour paintings. 

‘‘I’m uncomfortable with the phrase Asian American because I’ve always felt that having been born here, I’m just ‘American’, but I understand that I will never be seen that way.‘‘- https://asiasociety.org/northern-california/cultural-identity-art-interview-artist-cathy-lu

Cathy explains in an interview her complex relationship with identity and how this has affected her in her day to day life as an American citizen. Through her art she uses traditional Chinese imagery to represent culture and art in  China that most people could recognise. Certain images re-occur throughout most of her work such as bruised fruits, children and fragmented body parts. She also explained in this interview that these are significant because ‘’My watercolors are based off of ‘100 Boys Playing’ – a genre in traditional Chinese painting where boys are depicted to be playing with objects to foreshadow their future successes as adults.’’ Through the bruising of fruits she is playing with the idea of women going ‘bad’ and no longer being the perfected ideal that asian women are seen to be. 

Through my work I am going to explore prostitution and the dichotomy of sexual expression from repression to expression in the modern day; the artists that I have looked at that look at a more modern approach to sexuality, illustrate women to be more covered up and less feminine. Through my work however I want to show women who want to be sexual creatures and express themselves but not for the voyeurism of the male gaze, but purely for themselves. 

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Planning & putting up exhibition:

Our group started by created a facebook group chat to discuss ideas; we each put on what we were going to be exhibiting and how large this would be/ whether we would need any equipment such as a plinth. After this we had to decide where everything would fit in. This was quite hard to decide as we did not really know what everyones work would look like when it was finished, despite this we pretty much agreed on everything in the chat and communicated well. I think it would have been more helpful to meet up in person to discuss ideas, but I understand that people were busy and had different schedules. 

On the day, we started off by having a chat about what work would look and feel the best in what area, and after changing a few things we decided to start putting things up before the whole group had arrived, as they were not coming until 12 or 1, and we were ready. I think that this kind of prohibited our use of the space as we did not know how big the pieces were that were not up, so we didn’t know gaps to leave or anything. In terms of actually putting our work up, me, Roisin and Steph worked together helping eachother put our work up; as we were using nails and I have little experience with this, Steph helped out a lot. I also helped her make sure her work was straight and we kept going until both of ours looked perfect, this sort of perfectionism is definitely needed when putting up work so that it looks professional. 

I think overall this went well, and our work provided an interesting array of interpretations of our brief, and I was proud of my work and our group as a whole. We tried to overcome any issues we had calmly together and managed to create a vibrant interesting space. 

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This piece was preparing for my piece that I will be exhibiting; I wanted to show her in a relaxed pose that is not provocative in any way, showing that she is not posed in a way that is for the voyeurism of a male spectator. I wanted to do the background as if it was night in a city, highlighting her isolation; I am not sure about the background, I want to look into the meaning behind colours in Asia and maybe do one that symbolises youth and beauty, a female expectation in Asia; perhaps a baby pink or a baby blue, this will contrast the sexualisation of women in Asia and challenge the spectator to think about the way that women are portrayed. 

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Berlin

Over easter I visited Berlin; I had been once before but years ago and on a school trip so it was a completely different experience going again independently. This city has such a rich history and I thought it was important to learn more about it when we visited; we went to the holocaust museum and memorial, and also all of the galleries and museums on museum island. My favourite and most creatively inspiring place that we went to on our trip was a small artists shop and exhibition that we found: It contained loads of work from local artists including prints, zines, books, and clothing. We also discovered an exhibition near this that was showing both digital and hand drawn illustrations, they were really unique and I was really inspired by these. 

I took my video camera to Berlin and got loads of footage which I hope to edit together after the unit is over as I want to get into film making a bit more. I am fascinated with cultural identity and how I can show this through film so I will hopefully improve in the film making area. 

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Careers after BA Fine Art:

For my industry file I have been looking at possible different careers that I could pursue after doing a Fine art undergraduate degree. One of my options is that I could continue in education and do a masters in something that I am passionate about. However, there are many other things that I could continue with such as working in the film industry in pre production, or working as a curator, or simply as a practicing and self employed artist. Here are a few options that come up when you do a simple search on google: 

Exhibition designer.

Fine artist.

Further education teacher.

Higher education lecturer.

Illustrator.

Museum/gallery curator.

Printmaker.

Secondary school teacher.

To be honest I’m not sure if I would want to be a teacher, but it is definitely a possibility; if i was going to be a teacher I think I would like to teach children who have learning disabilities or mental illness as this would make a positive difference. After searching general creative jobs the ones that came up were more suited to me I think. These were: 

Advertising and marketing

Architecture

Crafts

Design, including product, graphic and fashion design

Film, TV, video, radio and photography

Publishing

Museums, galleries and libraries

Music, performing and visual arts

I think the ones that I would be most interested in would be film and tv, and advertising/ marketing. There are obviously more careers within film and tv that are more specific such as a cinematographer but I will see further on in my degree what I would like to do. 

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This is the first painting I have done of Chantelle, I wanted to look mostly at colours; the contrast between a deep fleshy pink that resembles the insides of the body, with the deep shade of emerald green that looks like it would come from the middle of a rainforest. For the texture of the pink and green I used a palette knife to create a more abstract look. I decided to kind of merge the pink with the green of the background to symbolise the one-ness of woman and nature. I was influenced a lot by Jenny Saville and the way that she used both brush strokes. 

To progress further into my theme I want to have a look more closely at Asian culture specifically and how women are viewed. 

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Yayoi Kusama- Self Obliteration 

Yayoi Kunama is a Japanese contemporary artist who works primarily within installation and sculpture, but uses other mediums such as film, painting and performance. Her work is best known for vibrant polka dots, and was heavily inspired by the abstract expressionist movement. She uses the motif of the dot to symbolise everything-life itself and the universe can all be reduced down to dots. She explains that the idea came from hallucinations that she suffered as a child due to mental illness; ‘’‘One day I was looking at the red flower patterns of the tablecloth on a table, and when I looked up I saw the same pattern covering the ceiling, the windows and the walls, and finally all over the room, my body and the universe. I felt as if I had begun to self-obliterate, to revolve in the infinity of endless time and the absoluteness of space, and be reduced to nothingness. As I realized it was actually happening and not just in my imagination, I was frightened. I knew I had to run away lest I should be deprived of my life by the spell of the red flowers.’ – Yayoi Kusama.

This quotation by Yayoi Kusama explaining the feeling she got when she saw the dots engulfing her life sent a shivery feeling down my spine; when you first see her work it is immediately assumed it is a positive and brightly coloured piece associated with happiness and optimism, but rather its an expression of a childhood filled with trauma and a simplified view of the world from a child. The dots not only represent the earth and everything in it, but also symbolise an infinite universe, and ultimately a relief from a deep mental illness. A drawing from when Kusama ‘untitled’ would be the first in many pieces of Kusama exploring her own self and mind. 

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Blogs and Social media: Creating an online presence

Having an online presence as an artist is becoming more and more important; some of my favourite artists I know purely from instagram and gave gotten success from online shops and marketing. There are different pros and cons to each media platform because of the audience/activity/content. For example, instagram is a photo sharing website so would be good for artists as the main focus of it is the pictures themselves. I think a downside to this would be the privacy settings; once you put your artwork out there it is open to plagiarism as it is technically owned by instagram. Youtube is a really good platform if you have moving image or film work as it is easy to upload and access, you can also share a link to this on different social medias and make a multi platform online personality. I think it is a decision whether or not to show your face and reveal a lot about yourself on the internet; it can either work in your favour or be detrimental to your image. 

Visibility:

As well as posting your own work and keeping active online, artists also need to be active in conversations and discussions relating to their own work and things that interest them

Do not just be seen to self promote, this will be counter productive

Consistency in uploading is key 

Engagement:

Engaging with your followers and people you admire can connect you to people and open up opportunities

Its not about just talking about your own work, its about a lively discussion between you and your peers. 

Comment, like and create conversations with others, this is a far more valuable thing to do than self promotion

A Visual Scrapbook: 

A good blog can include anything, from exhibitions/ installations/ notes/ films/ and your creative process- create an interesting array of things to look at

Use your blog/social media to collect things that interest you- make it something that sums up your interests and inspires your own work. 

Platforms:

Soundcloud or Podcasts • Flickr

Youtube

DeviantArt

Portfolio Websites such as Cargo Collective, Behance

Professional Networking websites such as creative specialists like HIIVE and The-Dots, or LinkedIn.

I am going to make an instagram account for my art this year I think; I have been hesitant to have it in the past because I wanted to really find my style and have a brand before I put anything out there under my name, but I have realised that this is what helps you to create an artistic identity- putting everything in once place and literally tracking your progress as an artist. I don’t think I will put my face on it because I want it to solely focus on my practice as an artist. 

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Finished painting:

I finished this painting today which I have been putting off, This piece was exploring femininity and what it means to be a woman, I started it before delving into women and nature so I was just looking at vulnerability and the female. I wanted her to look as if she was longing for something, and the spectator can put themselves into her shoes. I use oil paint for this painting, and after the paint workshop I wanted to use the paint in a different way, the paint is applied in thick brush strokes, I used a palette knife for the background; I wanted the background to look flat and 2 dimensional in comparison to the woman as she is the main focus. I think I rushed the clothing a bit so it falls a bit flat, so to improve it so next time I will probably spend more time on it and perhaps create more texture. Overall I am happy with the way this turned out, but will continue to improve.

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Sigmar Polke

‘‘“I love all dots…. Dots are my brothers”

Sigmar Polke was a german painter and photographer; I was particularly drawn to his prolific use of dots as they create a clinical and clean look to the painting. In 1963 he was part of a movement known as socialist realism with fellow artists Gerhard Richter and Konrad Lueg; this movement ‘’commented upon the consumer-driven art ‘doctrine’ of western capitalism’’ (http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/sigmar-polke-history-everything/sigmar-polke-history-everything-0-0) 

His work comments on consumer culture and almost mocks branding products in western society; in comparison with Andy Warhol, who features brands in every piece and repeats this in print, Polke uses brandless items to highlight the banality in the products without labels. The piece above, labelled ‘’girlfriend’’, features two women in bikini’s; his earlier prints such as this and ‘’weekend house’’ deal with the rapid reconstruction of the economy in Germany after world war two. 

After our print workshop I have been looking a lot into print making and how this medium can be used to communicate different ideas in comparison to either painting or film. I think that using a political undertone was so prominent within print because it meant that the wider population had access to it rather than a restricted view at a museum or exhibition. 

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After the life drawing session I wanted to practice drawing the body more- looking more at my theme of women and nature I wanted to intertwine the two; by using charcoal it breaks down the barrier of colour between female and the natural world. As this juxtaposition of colour no longer exists, I decided to use tone and shape to highlight the similarities but also the differences between flesh and bark. The engulfing of the winding tree highlights the intertwining of the two, while also creating a dialogue of what is the one object. 

I was going to ask if any one could model for this, but I really wanted to look introspectively at my mind at that time; as I have had quite bad anxiety recently I wanted to strip everything back to our natural roots, to feel more like part of the earth- to ground myself, to illustrate the importance of reconnecting to your natural spirit as a human. I really enjoy working with the medium of charcoal and hopefully will do some more charcoal drawings; although I like the way that this piece turned out I would make some adjustments, maybe I will do more pieces in a different stance. I would like to show the imperfections of the female body and how it is often scrutinised, but how there is beauty in this.

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Ruth Root: 

During the painting workshop part 2, it made me rethink what is considered as a painting and what isn’t. Usually when you think of painting you think of a 2 dimensional paint on canvas or paper, Ruth Root challenges this by using asymmetrical canvases with fabrics designed on photoshop. 

‘I love to see how artists create such a joy from colour’- Ruth Root(in an interview)- http://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/ruth-root-interview-old-odd-and-oval-aldrich-contemporary-museum-of-art-us

This inspired me to think of paint differently, and how you can create pattern digitally and through fabric instead of just paint on to paper.