Presentation

We had crits all day thursday and half of friday. It went on a long time.
We had half an hour each which was good, we all got a chance to talk about the work. At the same time everyone got so tired that it seemed to lose a bit of its point.....

Its interesting to see how people can visually read into something so differently, what this means and why..... I think these questions/thoughts wiil be going round my head for a while......

I thought there where some really intriguing peices of work at the presentation..it was good to see how people have changed over the year!

Havn't been able to take any photo's yet....trying to borrow a good camera to take some of the final thing. They will be here soon....

Resolution

Took a bit of leap but defiantly a calculated one....

Decided to get rid of the paper but keep the idea of the outline by using wire to 'draw' it. I stuck with manageable limbs instead of whole bodies and played around for quite a while trying to master it. Here is a link to one attempt...

Then after talking to ken decided to be a bit cleverer about things...




Put the bits in the big wooden boxe/shelf things outside the studio and decided something made sense!

The fact that i could quite directly replicate parts of the body with the wire and place them into these boxes seemed to give both a visual and conceptual reason to carry on....

I'm pleased with the resolution as i think it works well on both levels....even though i know this is my own person view :)

The visual seemed to be attractive because of its realness...
The shapes coming from real bodies as well as the positions they where in seemed to give the wire a 2d/3d illusion; making it a kind of analytical drawing even though its a sculpture. Forgetting all that, it just looked cool.

The conceptual was the body parts in the shelf/box visually (for me) spoke of similarities and difference's we all have in our identity. This is the main thing that came from my research....
The analytical body parts where a symbol of humanity as one and that we in many respects are the same..the fact each body part is different, segregated and repeated into sections shows the fact we are also completely different and individual.

I know 'different but also the same' is a contradiction, is that wrong? Identity seems to be made out of lots of things... Maybe the importance is the balance of these...
Realising the reality there are lots of people similar and lots of people different to you; whether it be in taste or just general looks. ('We all have fingers but never the same fingerprint' comes to mind).
In your life you can either embrace these differences or ignore them. Depending on what you choose and why during your life i think could lead to peoples true identity? Maybe this then leads to a natural contradiction between people....what would the world be like if we were all the same?!
Maybe thats why identity is a strong basis for so many arguements and as a whole has and will always come out in so many issue's?

In my opinion the more open and respectful we are of these differences the more our identity will and does grow.

Maybe its just about getting on with life; understanding or not.....


I plan to fine tune the piece for the presentation tomorrow, above are photo's of parts of it while devevloping/resolving...

Here's a link for some really cool looking wire sculptures by Ptolemy Elrington.

Development - Overview

Want to use the figure drawings to convey a part of the natural identity. I feel if i put them in certain positions they will have a better chance of communicating identity.

I like the idea of putting the figure or figures into the big shelf like box thing outside my studio...I think it could play on the idea of us being different by showing the fact that we get tagged, boxed, identified into certain areas.

Here's a slideshow of my develpoment images just incase you can't be botherd going through it all....

Click one of the photo's to get to the flickr....

www.flickr.com

Development - Figure Outline 3

Thinking about how i could put my identity into this work or even any at all...thought maybe making them out different types of paper could speak of the artist and materials.....decided it would be art for artists and i wanted something that speaks to a broader audience.



I also tried different ways to thread the wire through the paper but don't have any photo's of these.

Development - Figure Outline 2

I finally feel i got some realness into these images....i think its due to the set being together, where the figure is and what its doing....

At this point i've decided to not carry on with the hair part of development and put my energy into the figures..i think it communicates identity better.

Take from it what you like....comments would be helpful.

Development - Figure Outline 1

Thought if i place the figures in different places they may visually speak differently....still practicing manipulating the figure.

Development - Body Outline 3

Decided to stop messing around and actually think....

Lined the cut-out with wire to give it some structure...tried to add some kind of feeling to the figure to try and show a part of identity.... Don't think it worked but i think think im getting somewhere....

Development - Body Outline 2

Thought the figures needed bringing to life a bit so cutting them out seemed the obvious next step...they liked getting into trouble...

Development - Body Outline 1

Took the drawings off the wall and decided to take them for a walk...thought it might give me some ideas about positioning

Development - Hair

Here's what i've done with the hair photo's....I like it. Looks much better than the skin ones.

To the left i've put them into colour orderd strips..kind of like a hair strand made of lots of peoples hair!

I printed them off and stuck it on both sides...maybe i could do loads of these and make heads of hair...sounds intriguing!

Feel i should do something with the figures as these may be able to communicate this identity thing better. I also like them quite a lot...

Development - Skin

Here's the skin photo's spread out...I stil don't like it...its the colours they are too wishy washy. I think its the end of the skin development before i've started...

Im going to try and do the same but with peoples hair....i may get better colours. (Maybe this says as lot about the population of the students in the artschool...they're all white!)

Development - Plan

Im going to try and develop both the skin, hair and body outlines using the research. The idea of communicating a part of identity through the piece...maybe mine; the glasgow school of art first year student?

I feel the face doesn't really need much more work..i like it the way it is!

The plan to start development is seperate the strands from the 'skinlines' so it's a bit clearer...

Primary and Secondary Research - Overview

After the research im still of the mind that i should stick with natural identity to develop into a final piece....

The main consensus of the research seems to show the idea that we all have similarities but also difference...thats what makes us individual...thats what makes our identity; just like i thought with my first drawings...

We all have fingers but never have the same fingerprints....
We all have hands but how many positions do you think you could get it into?? Visually, would that direct your thinking. Could it make you offended, welcome, hungry, in love etc....?

I'd like to develop a piece that visually speaks of these 'same but difference's' in our identity. Im thinking of how natural features can visually speak of these things......

Secondary Research - Miscellaneous

A link to PBS video productions...they have made a series about art in the twenty first century...one of the programs is about identity in contemporary art.

Here is a link to an exerpt from the video.
Here and here are images and artists that use identity from the program.

Another link to an article on a past exhibition about Identity in Contemporary Art. Explains how identity is used by artists....


Here's a Dove advert which shows peoples body's/skin, maybe trying to ask the question of real identity? ...a bit twee i know but does have a point...




(The rest of this post has moved into my Secondary Research section due to 'organisation'...)

Sculptures & Artworks from Northern Israel

Here's a group of photo's that i thought could be interesting to post.... Scultures and Artworks from my recent trip to Northern Israel.....Click here for a slideshow.

I think the main link to identity here is the way some of the photo's show the dilapidated buildings and gun turrets intertwined, next to nature. This seems to show the identity of the place/area/community really well. The idea of war being part of life...making it as natural as the tree's.

Click on the photo's to see more on my flickr page.




















Video Art by Marcel Duchamp




Not sure what its got to do with identity, yet....but i like it even if it is strange. It makes me look inward...making me ask questions about my own identity, the artists identity.... I think it deserves to be posted?

Here's some information about this kind of work...

Duchamp's Rotor Reliefs - Online Animation (you'll need a 'flash' plugin)

Duchamp's reasoning for this work

Secondary Research- Face - Artists, Concepts, Ideas etc...

Steve Aishman's Mask. I think this helps show different sides to peoples identity...His Website

Here's a video of a woman getting 'made up' for a picture on a billboard....says a lot!



Matthew Monahan

'Utilising many of the same concepts as his sculptures, figurative drawing, for Matthew Monahan, becomes a way to explore the body as a totemic entity: spiritual, biological, abstracted and shamanistic.' Saatchi Website...Bio on Artist. Another way to visually represent the face..



Untitled (Red Face)

1997
oil on paper
99 x 100

Secondary Research - Skin - Artists, Concepts, Ideas etc...

Bruce Nauman - 'Made sculptures based on the backs of objects or moulded from parts of his own body; also works concerned with the notion of hiddenness or inaccessibility, and neon pieces with words (sometimes more or less illegible). Since 1968 his work has consisted mainly of performance pieces, e.g. films of such actions as Bouncing Two Balls between the Floor and the Ceiling with Changing Rhythms, or corridors and installations involving a limited degree of spectator participation and exploring effects of parallax, audio-tactile separation, disorientation, etc.' (Rest of article) Here is another artist showing identity through his work..i think theis photo on the left fits in the skin section...












Here's an interesting link from an exhibition in Oklahoma......Skin

I found a woman called Shelly Jackson online; she seems to want to publish a story on peoples skin...intriguing.





Marc Quinn 'is often associated with Damien Hirst as one of the founding figures of the 1990s British contemporary art movement. Self (1991, Saatchi Collection, London), a self-portrait head made from his own frozen blood, was first exhibited in 1991 at the Jay Jopling/Grob Gallery and then at the Saatchi Gallery in 1992. At the Tate Gallery in 1995, the artist showed Emotional Detox: The Seven Deadly Sins, a group of seven lead casts of parts of his body which were made using the lost wax method. The pieces are reminiscent of the 'character heads' made by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt in the late eighteenth century. Quinn prefers to use his own body as a primary source, as it is free from the associations of implied relationships: 'the self is what one knows best and least at the same time ... casting the body gives one an opportunity to "see" the self' (conversation with Sean Rainbird, Tate Gallery, 1995).' Here is the rest of the article. I think the photo to the right should be here even though its made out of rubber....i find it quite creepy!

Secondary Research - Hair - Artists, Concepts, Ideas etc...

Karin Stack use's photo's of peoples hair in different stages of growth...once again shows how you can show different sides of people's identity just with images....I really like it..Click hair for website



















Doris Salcedo 'uses everyday domestic and personal items, such as furniture and clothing, and organic substances, such as bone, hair and animal fibre. These materials are brought together to make evocative works that address loss, grief, pain, memory, absence and mourning.' This seems to really touch on the idea of visualizing human identity....Here is the link to the rest of the article and more work.

Below is another intersting use of hair....Mona Hatoum's 'pieces are concerned with confrontational themes such as violence, oppression and voyeurism, often in reference to the human body.' Here is the whole article...



Van Gogh's Back 1995

Photograph on paper
image: 600 x 403 mm
on paper, print

Secondary Research - Body - Artists, Concepts, Ideas etc...

Spencer Tunick's work about the body...in my mind couldn't be closer to visually exploring natural identity. I think its hard to find works thats speak of 'naturality' as much as these....his website is here


























I find Frances Semples sculptures visually carry a lot of emotion and feeling...a communication of identity?




Tom Friedman. ........Untitled, 2004. Aluminum foil, wooden armature, lollipop, and colored pencil on paper, 60 x 47 x 30". Here is an explantion of the work...what can i say!



Antony Gormley....Sculpture for Derry Walls 1987 Cast Iron Three double figures: each 196 x 193 x 54 cm and a human wire thing ☺. His website.

Secondary Research - Plan

Going along the same lines as i did in my primary research to investigate peoples 'natural identity'.

Going to use the list i came up with as well as other more general influences; hopefully making the research concise and to the point....

My plan to record it is have 6 post's (including this one). Systematically showing the secondary research in relation to what im actually interested in and want to find out....hopefully.

1 - This one...an explanation of the secondary research plan,

2 - Body...artists, concepts, photo's, ideas,

3 - Hair... ", ", ", ",

4 - Skin... ", ", ", ",

5 - Face... ", ", ", ",

6 - Random secondary research that doesn't fit into any of the previous posts. (Religion, male/female etc..)


Im going try and see how both historical and contemporary artists have tackled making identity visual. Im also interested in conceptual ideas maybe i'll do some research into the philosophy of identity as well as the visual.

As you might have noticed i've extended my list of influencial artists...a lot of these have connections to identity but not all.


Again, to check im on the right lines i've looked up definitions of Secondary Research....

Secondary Research = Information that's already been investigated or collected by someone else i.e. artworks, papers/essays, photos....

Here's the dictionary definition for Secondary -ˈsekənˌderē - adjective

1 coming after, less important than, or resulting from someone or something else that is primary : luck plays a role, but it's ultimately secondary to local knowledge.
• [ attrib. ] of or relating to education for children from the age of eleven to sixteen or eighteen : a secondary school. • having a reversible chemical reaction and therefore able to store energy. • relating to or denoting the output side of a device using electromagnetic induction, esp. in a transformer.
2 ( Secondary) Geology former term for Mesozoic .
3 Chemistry (of an organic compound) having its functional group located on a carbon atom that is bonded to two other carbon atoms.
• (chiefly of amines) derived from ammonia by replacement of two hydrogen atoms by organic groups. noun ( pl. -aries) 1 short for
• a secondary color.
• Ornithology a secondary feather.
• a secondary coil or winding in an electrical transformer. 2 Football the players in the defensive backfield; the area these players cover. 3 ( the Secondary) dated Geology the Secondary or Mesozoic era.

Primary Research - Faces into Masks

Finished off my primary research today....

Needed to represent faces in a quick and easy way so i decided to make some playdough and use it as a mold for peoples faces. I only used the nose and eyes...then cast into the molds with plaster.

Here's the reciepe for the playdough:

2 cups - flour
2 cups - water
1 cup - salt
1/4 cup - oil
4 teaspoons - cream of tartar...you need some chemical, can't remember what its called but its also in bicarbonate of soda.
food coloring (not needed)

You don't need the proportions to be exact...just enjoy..........

It all came out well, I ended up just using my face as it was easiest. I tried casting into cellophane that was put into the playdough and also tried straight into it...i think the latter was the most interesting. The end product ended up quite morphed but still with the figure of the eyes and nose.. Here's photo's from both he process's....





Need to start secondary research now and start making/developing stuff on monday (as usual, im beind)

Primary Research - Skin...

Got my skin photo's into photoshop and cut them all down....

Decided it may be interesting to put them all next to each other and fill the page with them...

This is what i ended up with...not sure if i like it but still....

Primary Research - List of things to do...

Monday morning...trying to think of what's next....

• Morning – Update blog… Information about artist talks/tutorial, post comments on other blogs and scan pictures from last project.
• Afternoon - Explore the next thing on the 'natural identity' list….peoples colour.

- Doing this by taking detailed pictures of peoples skin.... About 10cm by 10cm....maybe them making into a collage of some description....

Artist Talk - Yuen Feng Ling & Tara Beall

Primary Research - Finally....

Found my motivation. Went to the library to use Photoshop...was hot and unfriendly but i battled through...even if two hours work took 3 days ☺

Used the computer to cut out hair from the photo's..... After a while i had a set of images that i liked. Some of them are too big as i zoomed in and didn't remember to zoom out before saving, this can be easily fixed... Here they are...



Here is a slideshow of the individual pics.

- Motivation, Again.

• Still minus motivation, hopefully I’ll find it somewhere for tomorrow.

• Went back to last projects work for inspiration.

• Plan for tomorrow…. Do something.

- Maybe try and cut hair from photo’s to show difference.

- Motivation

• No motivation today, no H&C tutorial, no nothing…

• Couldn’t face the library and those computers so decided today was meant to be a rest day ☺

Primary Research - Hair Photo's

• Talked to Paul about where im up to and what need's to be done next…

- Need to start recording next aspect of natural identity, next on the list is hair.

- I need to decide exactly what it is about hair I’m interested in and need a quick way to record it; I think it’s the difference I’m interested in as this is what I think identity might be about.

- Decided to take pictures of peoples head in the same position. This is with a plan to changing/manipulating/cutting the hair in some way. Here is a link to the photo's on flickr. The're mixed with all the others so you'll have to have a wee search. (Just realised you can only link to three sets :s )

• I think people liked the body drawing’s that where on the wall… I have a feeling they could reappear in the end piece.

• Was supposed to get my H&C essay back. Even though there's so much bureaucracy envolved it was still lost... I’ll hopefully get it next week...

Reflective Journal/Sketchbook/Blog/Record Thing

• Finally got most of my notes online and up to date…

• Also did a bit of blog tweaking.

Ill

• Had to go to the Doctor, found out I have an eye infection...no work today...or Friday.

• Talked to Paul, changed discussion time to Monday morning.

H&C Essay

• Have to finish essay…don’t feel well….can’t do any other work today.

Primary Research - Tutorial x2

• Tutorial with artist from yesterdays lecture..more to come.


• Went to H&C tutorial - Pop Art. Click here for my notes (the information could be all wrong - i can't take notes)

Primary Reseasrch - Actaully making something...

I started with the 'body shape' to explore part of your natural identity. (I decided natural identity rather than identity in general because if i started exploring clothes or other material things then it would add even more complication)

I needed to find a direct and quick way to record the body so i asked people to lay on the floor while i drew round them...
It was a strange experience but i liked the way they turned out.
I decided to put them on my wall next to each other.
When i stood back it struck me how it seemed to show the similarities of the human form as well as the differences. It was kind of saying we're all human even if we are different shapes and sizes. Im starting to think this is what identity is all about...difference?
I liked the look drawings as well as the concept so left them up.

Here's a photo....





















Not sure if its going to help my project yet but here's an interesting link about body lanuage

Primary Research - Mind Map

• Talked to Paul about making conceptual ideas into visual work…need to start experimenting.

• Finished and move mind map on – needed to figure out how to translate it into a visual language.

• Made a list of main ideas as well as 'what makes up identity' from the mind map and tried to think of how I could actually see it in some work. Here is the actual mind map, click it for a closer look.























• I decided the list (with a bit of work) should be the bases of my primary research and I should get this done before I look for other influences. Here's the list....