Wednesday 30 January 2013

Bright and Thready


In Leeds, there are empty warehouses, and in these empty warehouses, there are parties. They are long and loud, and just as visually interesting as they are anything (and everything) else. Sometimes, the lighting at big parties is incredibly complex. But at one of the warehouses we went to, the visual consisted of nothing more than wool and UV light.

Jeongmoon Choi seems to have appreciated the magnificent effect that such a simple concept can produce. The Berlin-based South Korean artist creates neon landscapes and interiors using illuminated thread, turning ordinary spaces into stripped-back, glowing structures.




This kind of investigation into space visually (and in some ways, theoretically) reminds me of Yayoi Kusama's Infinite Room that I was so caught up with a few months ago

This work really does it for me - it's loads of fun, and it is clever.

The days are getting longer


Martina Spetlova

Tuesday 29 January 2013

D I S C O U R S E

I've started a new collaborative project with my best buddy Rosa. 
We happen to have really similar interests, and almost every conversation we have ends up being about something 'art-related'. We thought it was about time to start documenting all the inspiring things we're respectively learning about at uni, so we've set up a conversational blog. 
I'm really looking forward to getting started, especially since we often work together on interesting projects that we now have an appropriate platform to present.

We just set it up this evening. Enjoy!



Imaginative Editorials

I don't really understand why more editorials don't mix their images up like the following:




Numero Feb 2013 from here
They're really beautiful images.

Ju Thing


Friday 25 January 2013

In the tub



Here's some great photography.
LOVE #9

I really like the turquoise color of the bath water next to the red colour of the girls' lips.

Thursday 24 January 2013

Practice Methodology: Part One

Over the past few months, I have been developing my own arts practice beside my academic art history studies, and I'd like to record the visual methodology here now.

Last year, I was part of a module at Leeds uni called 'Old Mistresses' run by the one, the only Griselda Pollock (amazing teacher). Part of the course was developing a visual diary of learning, which I decided to create digitally - the reason I made this blog page was in order to provide a platform for my issuu online visual diary. The very first post on gear talk is that project, which you can have a look at here
During my research for this module, I came across WACK! (of course). Whilst its literary content fueled my research, I took note of its fantastic visual in order to create something just as eye catching and relevant for my own project.


The covering of the book is a complete collage of the seductive nude woman. Its intensity is maximized by the layering of the images, ultimately creating one collective gaze that stands to represent the subjectivity of women, especially when presented in this way.
For the front cover of the page of my project, I needed a similarly intense layering of distinctly feminine imagery, preferably taken from a source in which 'the feminine' is objectified (so as to continue the theme of the module and investigation of the visual diary). I looked around me and saw piles of magazines and suddenly thought of the perfect 'thing': hair.


I made a hair collage, and really liked the result.

A few weeks later, I started looking into geodes and geometric form, particularly as a result of finding an amazing project called A Common Name (blog post here). The project focused on geometric forms and crystals - themes which had always quite simply visually interested me. I figured that the interlocking shapes evident in my hair collage weren't particularly dissimilar to that of a basic crystal formation (an area I plan to research in more depth in the future).


Simple repetition and layering began to really interest me, as did the building up of many geometric shapes. On top of this, I had been pursuing (and continue to do so) my love for collage with my gear talk banners; this practice also included the careful consideration of the building up of separate layers, paying particular attention to colour and composition. The photographic nature of my People Banner creations excited me: the coming together of separate textures and colours to create one single image as a collective of many was a very basic concept that I loved.


One of the responsibilities I have as part of my internship at Trinity Leeds is to make a visual diary to document my experience, and again, I turned to collage. After having developed the ideas mentioned above, as well as the consideration of work of Yayoi Kusama, Paige Smith, Mark Whiteman, Jeffrey Docherty, Darrel Viner and other repetitious work (research for a curation essay, noted below), I started working in the geometric imagery.









For this visual diary, I created an introductory page made up of two of my fragment collages, including a photo of myself:



After having made these images, I realized that this methodology of practice had a lot of potential in terms of creating actual meaning and developing theme. As a final year History of Art student, my dissertation research was beginning to infiltrate itself into many aspects of my interests, and it only seemed right to develop my research visually in sync with this collage practice. I've begun a series of works which I will post once I've got my head around them and finished them. They're looking really good, and I'm thrilled to be able to present the practical understanding behind the making here now.



Dissertation research notes

Completely loving it.

ReCreative Yorkshire Project


On tuesday night I went to The Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield for the first phase of a new ReCreative project.
ReCreative Yorkshire is one of the first projects in which ReCreative, 'an online community and resource exploring contemporary art' has attempted a project outside of London. The project will see four groups of young curators from a selection of Northern Arts Institutes plan and provide two arts experiences for young people in an attempt to introduce more people to the gallery space. The project is funded by Louis Vuitton I will be working in a small group representing Leeds Art Gallery, with lead artist Sophie Speed.

The meeting at Hepworth consisted of a breifing, followed by short presentations by two arts organisations. The first was from Rich at Invisible Flock, who ran us through all of his fantastic interactive arts projects. In particular, I liked the way he thought about the concept of play and game in his work, as well as maintaining a large amount of importance on the audience within what Invisible Flock does.
The next talk was from Dan at Revolutionary Arts, who wpoke to us in depth about the concent of 'Pop-Up' and how it can be facilitated for arts events. Listening to Dan was fascinating; his presentation was brimmed with information, knowledge and tips- much of which he had discovered first-hand through his own arts (and non-arts) projects. Dan really hit home the power of social media, and I certainly made note.

Next week will see the first official meeting of our Leeds Art Gallery group. Depending on the nature of Sophie's practice, we'll be planning our own arts events, and I'm really excited to get going.

Clive Head

Today I had a chat with my tutor at uni about artist Clive Head. Head is a painter and his style is often describer at 'realist' - something which, according to my tutor (Art Historian David Jackson, who will be writing a catalogue for one of Head's exhibitions), Clive contests.


The paintings are huge, and the style of his work implies a sense of photorealism. However, it cannot be mistaken for a photographic documentation of reality; there is no doubt that this is a painting. I find his studies particularly critical in terms of shapes and colours, rather than of social spaces. Having said this, his paintings certainly illustrate a feel for the public scenes that he paints.

David is going to his studio next week to try and find out a little more of Head's understanding of his own practice. I'm really looking forawrd to what he discovers.

Wednesday 23 January 2013

I'm One

I was talking to my dissertation tutor today about being a groupie for Art Historians.
I think if I had to be one, it'd be for Lucy Lippard. She rules.


Someone's got something to say

Friday 11 January 2013

Cow


Love this - been waiting for cow print for ages!
Givenchy Pre-Fall 2013 here
How perfect is that top?

Thursday 10 January 2013

Blogwear

I rep my own ends.

Berndnaut Smilde

The Uncanny
At Ronchini Gallery (an Italian gallery in Mayfair that I'm not hugely familiar with)


I like art that is a response to critical engagement with a work of writing (Freud, 1919). I think this is good, and I'd like to see it in real life.

Siblilng



These two pictures illustrate the visual interest I took in this collection: real floral stuff appeals to me, and tiny hand stitched flowers on that jumper are beautiful. I found the rest of the show (dare I say it?) annoying: those huge beanies and mittens (to me) didn't really work with the punk thematic of the rest of the show; I found them a bit silly and clumsy. Super cool brand and company though, and everyone is saying great things about it. Go NEWGEN!

Barbara Bui Pre-Fall 2013


Trouser to shoe interface is spot on here.

Trinity Leeds


Since Feb last year, I've been Arts Intern for Land Securities at Trinity Leeds. I've been on site tours, I've met all the participating commissioned artists, I've talked logistics with client project managers, I've had corporate picnics in the board room, I've discussed retail strategies with marketing.. the list goes on. It has been an incredible couple of months, all leading up to March when we officially open. Watching the site develop has been fascinating, and I got so excited the other week when I saw what was happening in the atrium (below). The beautiful domed roof has colored LEDs between each glass panel, and the other night they were turned on for the first time! Stoked.