Saturday 25 January 2014

Texture and Light GIF Videos

Just some short videos i created using texture, opacity and light. At first i uploaded them into images which turned them into GIFs which i actually quite like, i also uploaded them as videos at the bottom just to see the whole clip.









Tuesday 21 January 2014

Pattern and Texture


David Altmejd
'David Altmejd was born in Montreal, Canada in 1974. With an almost childlike fascination for objects that grow, transform, and reshape themselves, Altmejd creates sculptures, suffused with ornament, that blur distinctions between interior and exterior, surface and structure, representation and abstraction. Meaning, for Altmejd, does not exist in advance of the work in process. His interest lies in the making—the building of an object that will generate meaning. Using armatures in the forms of giants and angels that convey both human and supernatural energies, he abandons standard narrative conventions in favor of an exploration of materials, processes, and structures.'
http://www.art21.org/artists/david-altmejd

For some reasons i always seem to come back to David Altmejds work since the first or second year of college. I just love his use of texture and colour to create surreal type landscapes and universes. The caption i found on a website really relates to my work and its put my practice into a form that seems clearer to me, although we dont cover the same subject matter, his interest in process and this exterior/interior theme really relates to what i do.



Dina Lynnyk





I realize at times that my research can seem a bit sporadic and chaotic and i do actually confuse myself at times, where i am or what im actually doing! I just keep trying to reel it back sometimes to focus my interest on one certain point. One main point for me right now is contrasting pattern and texture, if its material or fabrics, i think this is partly the reason i do look at a lot of fashion for my work. I found these photos on my favourite art blog whokilledbambi.com

SkegVegas


I wanted to record the sound of walking in sand as a result of my body touching the material to create an outcome. It just sounds so nice and reminds you of holidays and nice things, ive looked a little at the sounds material can make when reacting to a movement of the body. This was just a quick video to document the sound. Also what was weird was as i was still walking on the beach, i played the video again and my legs were moving in exactly the same steps which confused me and i nearly fell over, good times.

Deep Sea




After the group talk at our exhibition week i got a lot of comments about my work looking like deep sea fish or other worldly type creatures. I dont know if its just an odd coincidence but recently i have been watching a lot of Blue Planet with David Attenborough. I love the idea of the sea and the strange creatures living there but the thought of being in the sea with these animals or just being in open water really freaks me out. I didnt intentionally make my work resemble sea creatures but just before i took a lot of short videos of documentaries because i loved the colours ans movements, also the cool sound effects, on the 2nd link to my instagram, made it seem like an episode of star trek, soo funny! Just imagine the sounds of my zebra finches are space monsters or something...

Exhibition Week








Exhibition week was really helpful and i got a lot of great feedback that ive been able to reflect on and help me progress onto the next stage. Its also made me think about what are the main points im interested in and to maybe focus on those for a while and experimenting without a fully grown idea to back it up, i think sometimes i get a bit too caught up in this and lose the playfulness in my work and i feel the best time to do this is my first year. 

I also put up my first 2 shelves by myself which im very proud of! Even if they are a bit slanted and wobbly.

Wednesday 8 January 2014

Exhibition Problems

I need to try different ways of displaying and curating my work for next week and im really lost as to what to try! 

I have thought about creating a shallow shelf to place the smaller casts on as a way of trying to organise them like specimens to be viewed in a medical lab. I like this idea of collating the 'specimens' as they relate to bodies and skin that need to be examined closely and judged much like body image and perception. I want to play around with the level i could put the shelf. Either to place it at eye level so its very easy to view or lower it to force the viewer to bend down and make the effort to examine it closely. 
Im really bad with DIY so ive been looking at different types of shelving brackets to use. A really simple way i could do it would be to place nails into the wall and balance a piece of wood ontop. Thats probably the option il go with because its at my experience level! Id want to paint the wood white to match up with the walls. I could also buy some simple brackets that the wood can sit on.



I also like the cabinet of curiosities type presentation as though its a collection of samples and findings put into an order to be viewed as points of interest. Again, my skill level isnt great and theres measurements id have to take for this to create correct size shelves. Also, working out where to put nails to piece it together would be difficult.



Fuz and Lumps

So we have an exhibition week next week showing the work we've made so far at a more finalized stage. I find it really hard getting my work to an end point and figuring out titles because I very rarely consider what ive done any more than an exploratory stage.

Anyway, Ive been following on from a few experiments ive previously done but trying out things slightly differently. Ive been focusing a bit more on textures and imprinting onto materials.
I tried using clothing that's a bit more fluffy with looser fibres that can be pulled off. It definitely worked a lot better and created a layer of 'fur' on the cast. It really reminds me of the fuzz baby animals grow that's a bit patchy and wispy or a boys bad attempt at growing a 'man beard'. Hm.

The colour was a total accident, i forgot to add colour so its a bit of a mix but i don't really mind that you can see my mistake just makes this piece a bit more awkward. Plus the colours aren't exactly nice...

I wanted this to take the slight shape of something recognizable and used a plastic bottle although the fabric has mutated some of the shapes.



I did try out some usual stuff but trying to manipulate the shape they came out into more bodily forms and sizes that i think look kinda funny. I wanted to play on the idea of having 'a handfuls enough' replicating the idea people have of being sexy using lace tights but compared to the awkward bulky lump like shapes. Like my dad always says you cant polish a turd, very true dad.




I dont know if I like this one yet, I cast inside of a shoe and let the plaster spill out. I like that the top part is  an attempt at being in a precise form but soon goes wrong and spills out. It didnt take the fluffy texture as well for some reason, maybe its just the colour that doesnt let it show as strongly im not too sure. I really hate this colour though I dont know why i did it. I think this furthers my starting point of fat and the cankle 
(calf/ankle) effect, its probably quite literal but the fact that its cast from a shoe isnt as obvious.



This experiment was just me trying out textures and the lump type shapes, again the colour is horrible but i was only using what plaster i had left over.