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Tate Moden, London - Gallery Visit

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Lynda Whitehouse

The images inside the pin hole camera frames would look like contact prints if they were arranged in a different way. Black and white photographs of people with a chair - either sitting on it or standing near it. Interacting with or against it in some way. Presented in a small black circle frame. The people in the frame are responding to the chair. They have been dotted around the room at different distances apart and heights. Pin hole camera. Portal/telescopic like. Lit from behind. The shape they are encased in reflects the pin hole (circular). Magnifying glass. You have to go up close to the pieces to see what they include. One tries to identify who or what is in the image - does this matter? Is it the same person? Essence is revealing itself.Similar to a camera lens in appearance. Ambiguous - are we looking in or are we looking out? The objects are placed where everyone else positioned their work during their group critiques e.g. the pin hole shot of myself was located near to the group which was reflective of where my glass frames were located weeks prior to this exhibition. The images are not clear. Motion work. Ghostly figures. Like a cast of something. Can relate back to the auto icon concept. Two minute exposure for each of the shots. This captured the two minutes of movement that took place. They are all one offs and cannot be reproduced in their current state. They are all originals.

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Irinaioana Manoila

Playing cards. Made of paper. They are spread out across three walls - mainly located on one (which is the central one). Placed at eye level in a linear fashion, but irregular and at an angle. Earthy reds/yellows with some blue and white as the background colour. Emblematic style. They all have symbols on them which resemble what we see on playing cards - we are familiar with the design. There are human faces on each of them. Each number has it's own image. In groups of four - two are mainly red, two are mainly blue. There are 52 cards - like a standard deck. There are no jokers. The symbols are the same as what we know and expect. There is the progression of human development through the cards as they go up in number, the humans featured on the cards age further. This starts from early childhood and gets to the age of an older child, around the age of 11/12. King, Queen and Jack are different to the number designs. The cards are not displayed as we would usually see them - in a stack. Reminds one of a magicians trick when they spray out their cards. The scale of what we are used to with regards to cards being able to fit into a pocket is contradicted here as they take us so much space in the room. 

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Sarah Terry

We are forced to walk around the room because of the central installation piece that is on the floor. It occupies the central space. It forces you to look around at the alls which surround it. Feathers. Blue pigments/powder. Lines have been drawn through the dust - radiating out from the middle, like a clock. Groups/bunches of feathers. A family of objects is made. There are different sized feathers - some pheasant feathers, others look like the down which you get inside of pillowcases. Piles 1ft x 1ft in size. Feathers = pillow - relates to resting the body. Standing feathers. The mask make you think of the piles as masks too - masking elements. A spiral shape is made from the powder. Ritual. Are feathers acting as quills - you use your hand to write - again, bodily. Oblique. The piece does not have to be poet or a narrative - it is not about finding the punchline/meaning. Thoughts of death - some of the elements featured are from dead things. The flicks of dust look like the sun's rays. Spiritual. Looks like the remains of some form of tribal activity - this is stereotypical. The image can be formed of someone putting on the tribal mask and using the animal's body parts etc. More sermonic than tribal. There is evidence of the hand and where it has occurred. Symbolism. Fossil-like. Life. 

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Leanne Kite

Ceramic pieces encased, with an open front. There is no lid and the 'box' is facing out, towards us. 4" deep approx. Black frame. All of the ceramic pieces are evenly sized. Linked. Overlapping. Resting on black tissue paper. Could be stones or fish gills or perhaps neither. The piece are tear drop shaped, elongated at one end. The second frame has slightly more spacing between them. You way to touch the work. Crack glaze - not a completely smooth finish. Starlings that block. The piece looks like the separation of a creatures skin as you move from one box to another. Intricate. Exquisite. The small parts act as a team. A group, like a whole of fish. Natural. Organic. It feels like the pieces need freeing from the frame - to escape. They appear too constrained as pictorial forms. Cream in colour. The box formats them - they need to be more alive. 

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Damien Hirst - 'For the Love of God'

Damien Hirst. 'For the Love of God'. (2007)

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Siobhan Tuson

Patterns. Six, A4, portrait images. Different patterns are displayed on each of them - some are more repetitive than others. Three floral, three are domestic - plug, jug. Cartoon-like style of illustration. They prints look like material samples that you would find in a textile shop. Pinking sheered edges. Digital prints. The radiator beneath the prints make them move, as if there is a slight draft underneath. There are two rows of three. Clip art. Unbranded. The flowers are not a specific type. There are no borders - the designs go right to the edge. Reminds one of wallpaper. Could be displayed as a sample book.

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Carole Tebbit

Landscapes. Slightly larger than A4 in size. Images depicting tree forms - never the entirety of the tree. Representing seasons - winter and spring. Some trees are green and realistic whereas some are blue and unrealistic. There is a mix of canvas types. The lighter colour trees seem like they should have leaves on them. Some of the trees appear to be dead as they look lifeless. Green colour signifies sap or mould? Derelict trees. Isolation. If the paintings were upside down they would look like the roots of the trees rather than the branches. Not a linear layout. Optical. Prints reflect the material that hey have been printed on. The layout could be improved if the individual pieces were spread further apart. 

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Keith Reynolds

Three paintings. All three are different sizes. On canvas. Oil paintings. One landscape, one portrait and one square. The colour palette consists of mostly blues, greens and browns.  1) Looks like a hut. The structure is not made from bricks and mortar. A secret place. Erosion? Wooden structure. Out of focus? Not temporary. There are trees in the foreground. Depicting memory, perhaps. References oriental art in style. There is a heavy, black outline. A variety of brushstrokes. A sense of distance is articulated - whether this is literal or figurative. Imaginative. Dreamlike. Some areas on the canvas have been left blank. Is the building a ruin? There is a sense of temporary structure that has been allowed to decay. Surrounding area appears overgrown, but that may be because of the position we are in (behind the scenery). 2) Part of a house. In the top left hand corner you can see a gabble end. The circle is not enclosed or contained, which references to the symbolic meanings of a circle - that it is not everlasting or continuously ongoing. References time. The incomplete circle improves the composition - it would not balance as well if the circle had been finished off. It gives us somewhere else to go. 3) Headstones? A cemetery? An industrial site? There is a misty quality which gives a sense of horror. Soil. Rusty colours - browns. Rubble? - We question whether the building scene is its interior or exterior. The space has collapsed in some way. The shapes in this painting are more compact than in the other two. Suggests a different time of day because of the lighting.  All of the structures have been represented in different ways. The spaces cannot be located - suggestions of memory's and the past.

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Jacqueline Sidthorpe

Video footage. Located in a living room - it is domestic. A TV program is being watched - it is about a 55 stone woman and the story of her obesity: 'The World's Fattest Woman'. One male and one female are being recorded whilst they watch the television. The characters are analysing and commenting on what they are watching. Candid. An everyday situation. The perspective that the camera is at does not allow us to see what the two individuals are viewing. They are narrative thing program and act as feeders for us to get a sense of what they're seeing. WE create images in out mind about the things we cannot see. We get physical descriptions (From the male, mostly) and are able to articulate our own views. We see their reactions - the male reacts a lot more than the uninterested female. The male comments often about the TV show, but there is not a lot of dialogue/communication between himself and the girl, who can actually respond - whereas the TV can't. The focal point for the scene is the television - individuals are both looking in the same direction. It is unclear what we should be focusing upon. As time goes by, one finds that more attention is paid to the interior of the living room and its surroundings. You begin to stop concentrated on the male and what is he is saying, but focus on the environment. Fly on the wall, but a carefully considered edit. The 'feeders' are discussing the laziness of the woman featured in the TV show, yet they are inactive as they lie around on the sofa. This creates a sense of humour and irony. Saturation is lost on the projection and the overall colours appear a lot better on the computer screen.

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Sally Payen - 'The Chase and the Ambush'

"You get beyond words...it's about instinct." - Sally Payen

On Tuesday, 19th March, I visited Hereford Museum and Gallery, where myself and my peers were lucky enough to view Sally Payen's exhibition titled: 'The Chase and the Ambush'. We also had a talk from her about the art pieces and their creation.  The exhibit included work of her own, plus collection pieces of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, and Hereford Museum and Gallery. Sally Payen's artwork revolves around the London Riots, which took place in August, 2011. She was commissioned to produce the art as she has developed a reputation of working with conflict. Her source materials consisted of CCTV footage, press release and YouTube videos - she stated hat at no point has she copied a like-for-like scene from any one visual still - all of her pieces are multilayered in some way.

"An artist goes with what they like." - Sally Payen

Notes made during Payen's talk: ∙ With her outcomes, Sally could not be too polictical or controversial - she had to have some form of sensitivity. ∙ 'The Chase' title is philosophical - everyone is chasing their own thing in their own world. ∙ Sally does not see the works as being representative, despite how figurative and too the point they may appear - they are deeper than that for her. ∙ The rioting pieces have a central, male character - though he does not stand out to us immediately despite featuring in numerous paintings that she has produced. ∙ The paintings are cinematic and each one is an amalgamation of different images - there is not just one single pre-designed photograph or still that has been copied. ∙ A general language was used e.g. the streets in the works were painted as typical run down areas and do not allow us to locate a specific place within London. ∙ Payen stated that she had to feel 'the whole thing' in order to be able to respond to the riots accurately - she submerged herself in the stories and videos that were available as well as investigating the motives behind the riots, and why the whole event occured in the first place. ∙ Scenes that feature in the paintings have been mixed up - different events and times have been combined together. This creates a sense of chaos. ∙ The project was 'challanging and stressful' for Payen - she tried to respond to the event with her own opinions. ∙ The empty spaces in the paintings generate a sense of mystery.

  Images taken from Sally Payen's blog of her exhibition inside Hereford Museum and Gallery:

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Sally Payen. 'Rioters Song'. (2012)

Sally Payen. 'The Chase' (2012)

Sally Payen. 'Pied Piper'. (2012)

Sally Payen. 'Ring'. (2012)

Sally Payen. 'Clouds of Doom - Banker with his Dad'. (2012)

Sally Payen. 'Rioters Song'. (2012)

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Antonia Lyon

Polaroid photographs. Six of them are hanging on a rope with pegs, which stretches from one side of a wall to another. The images depict landscapes, with illuminated skies and foregrounds. Two of these polaroids face away from the gallery space, the other four face into it meaning they are easier to view. The images have been taken at dusk. The string reminds us of being in a dark room, yet polaroids are instant and do not need any form of development like film strips do. On the wall, there are three large photographs of three of the polaroids with actual polaroids next to them - they do not correspond to one another though - they are not an index. The photos on the wall are a photo of a photo - a frame within a frame. This plays a trick on our eyes, they are 2D, but appear to be 3D - they stand out because of how they have been photographed to look like a relief. A general landscape area has been shot, but there is no one, singular specific scene. String = timeline? Why are some photos on the string facing away from us? Reminds one of a crime scene and how they can be set up to display information. It feels like there is something missing. What function is the string fulfilling? Is it necessary? In a way, it detracts from the main, large images. Pegs can be used to take the images down for closer inspection, though this could cause damage to them over time if it were in a real exhibition space. Scenic. Forbidden. Brooding. Serene. Are the places in the images shot for a specific reason - does that landscape mean anything? The sound of Becca's piece interacting with Antonia's alters out interpretation as it gives sound and life to the images. Desolate. Isolating and isolated. The photographs and sound together make you think of time passing. Lonely. Fearful. Dramatic lighting. Dream-like. Scandinavian murder scenes. Dreamscape rather than a landscape. Seasonal. Waiting (for sunrise? - or something more?). Unknown spaces. We are outside of the frame, looking in. Each polaroid places us in a particular position in the environment on show. Sound (from Becca's work) turns from bodily to that of wind/bomb blasts. Ghostly. There is a sense of stalking. 

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Valda Mikalauskaite

Two portrait paintings. One man, one woman. Oil painted canvas. The colour palette is fairly muted - though the males hair is much brighter (blue). The overall colour is brown. Both depict faces. There is no specific facial features on the female. MALE: blue markings, piercing eyes, mythical, looks Greek. Reminds us of a statue/God. There is a sense of antique. It challenges our perception. Looks real, but we know that it is not real. Beady eyes. There are red markings on one side of his face - this could be a tear/wound? The mark on the tunic is decorative, though it could also look like a fire - appears ablaze. It feels eroded. Demonic head. Angular, sharp facial features. The blue ma be symbolic of sadness or an illness of the soul? Religious. Pursed lips. FEMALE: more lowly than the male. Not defined. No identity. There has been a lot of attention to the face rendering even though no feature are defined. Fuzzy. Serene. She looks more real than the male despite not having any form of expression. She has blue highlights around her head. Emotive of being detached from something. Her eyes are 'shut' - there is no way in, no gateway, we are not allowed it. Defensive. We are being denied something. She has a poker face. Think brush strokes have been used for the female facial area. Can we be 100% sure that the portrait is depicting a female?

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Becca Harris

Projection. Mysterious. Haunted. Eerie. Use of sound and flash. Spiritual. Ephemeral. feel. Diseased. Looks medical - like a rib cages and lungs breathing. A female gendered piece. One would not want to touch it if given the chance to. Resembles ovaries in its shape and form. There are contrasting colours - black, white and greens. It makes you think about chance and transitions. An in continual flux. Gives off foreboding feelings. There is the occasional heartbeat sound which makes it seem human. An undefined ambient noise is present too. There is a plume and depth to the song. Expanding/retracting. Similar to an ultrasound - reminds us of pregnancy - the contractions. Euphoria. The sound seems to signal that something is about to happen - but what? Submerging sound, like being underwater. Muffled. It feels like something is coming closer/getting further away from us - despite the sound not getting any quieter or louder. Comforting? Reassuring? The rhythm relates to our own rhythm - out heart beat. The projection makes you aware of your breathing pattern. Constant. Repetitive. Hypnotic. Relaxing. It is not an irritating sound like most sound pieces. Relates to feminism. The sound does not detract away from the examination of other artworks in the gallery space, instead, it brings them all together as a unit. 

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Tania March

Two portraits - one male, one female. The work mirrors Valda's from across the gallery space - was this intentional? There is a gaze created. Contemporary style, but the portraits do not feature contemporary people.From a different time period. Revival of vintage. Old period. Are the figures fading or emerging? Lost. There is a sense of time between the two. The male ceases a gender dominance. Faded. Sepia tone. Closely cropped heads. Showing off the people's craniums. The pieces make you want to work out the relationship between the two individuals; father/daughter? Master/slave? The pieces have been generated from photographs. They are real people who were once alive - not imaged or invented by the artist.They appear to be standing side by side, yet in different frames.Subtle white on a white background. Shows class/status. The male looks more formal and well presented. Tidy. Clean. He is looking mid-distance (emotionless), whereas the female looks directly at us with eye contact. The female's look is tired, shows longing and loneliness. Ghostly. Uncanny. Haunted, rather than haunting. Distressed. he male has a sense of detachment about him - seems pensive, stern, vacant, with an aggressive stare. The female opposes this and has an engagement with us, looks contemplative, grieving worn out, sad. Melancholy. She becomes the more dominant figure as you spend more time viewing and analysing the pieces side by side - she is able to look you in the eye, unlike the male. You can't help but try and seek out some form of personality and character when faced with a human being.

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Eleanor Fereday

Eight distorted images. A4. Printed onto gloss paper. Reflective. Rather traumatising. Intense. Internal. Bodily/architectural colour tones. Visceral colours. Chaotic. Panicked. The images have been layered - there is more than one included in each of the individual photographs. You view the pieces with a distressed eye. Consider: you don't have to be disturbed to create a disturbing piece - or do you? Memory. Not in focus. Unclear. The central point if the work that features a white transit van. Thematics - the idea of disruption. Stress. Obscurity. The linear theme is obscure by the slanted van etc. Multilayered images. The subconscious mind. Grainy photograph quality. There is noise in the photographs despite being a silent visual piece,, Thoughts/dreams/rapid thought. Digital camera shots. Use tissue paper has been used for part of the process. Eleanor stated that the selection of the images is always random, yet it is not down to chance - you can see that a methodical approach takes place and there is an inclination to generate the art pieces in a certain way.

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Francesca Dixon

Four small prints around 5"x7" arranged in a row. There is a mixture of landscape and portrait - two of each. There are statements within the images - both text and a person. The statement is not necessarily just the text. There are three windows in the first photograph (aligned on the far left) - all are different, some more damaged than others. Derelict scene. In one photo there is a 60/70 year old male walking with a stick in his hand. 'Why?' has been spray painted, in white, on one of the walls that features in one of the photographs. A message is being forced onto the viewer. 'Why' What?. This could have been spray painted for many reasons - which we will never know. Change. Loss. Dereliction. A factory scene? The bold blue tones that are in some of the images draw the viewers eyes in to concentrated on the details. Horizontal vs. vertical. The composition breaks up the photographs and makes you look at them as individuals as well as a collective. The metal nail beside the image on the far right reinforces the concept. The nail is strong and gives a 3D, tactile look - the images then relate to the space which they are being displayed in - the space is contested or connected. Not contrived. The nail acts as a punctuation mark - an exclamation mark. The nail was not intentionally put there, but it works well in this instance - it creates a device and speaks beyond the frame. The theme is supported of being 'left behind' - something was there before, but has now gone, yet part of it remains. The blue tones are a colour disruption? A narrative is made from the arrangement of the images. We are looking for reasons 'why?' in all of them. It is important to give the works time so you can figure out what they are about. Letting meanings unravel - the audience will make up their own mind based on their engagement, agenda and interests.