Menier Gallery
Swords & Ploughshares
Margaret Proudfoot, wire and mirrors
I really like the aesthetica and simplicity of this piece. However, looking into her past work and concepts, this piece would represent war and how many times it seems never ending, with new wars starting all the time. It affects time and the space that it happens in.
Watermarks (Netherlands)
Margaret Proudfoot, Hand cut map
This piece I found interesting as the map is very delicately and intricately cut into specific roads and streets. A lot of her works "mark the centenary of WW1 evolve into explorations of borders, boundaries and demarcation lines in current times".
However, I felt that this piece felt more nostalgic, and it had this feeling of ____ as it was a representation of the area. Imagine having people so small actually live in a map at this size. It kind of puts the size of everything in perspective.
https://clockworkstudios.co.uk/margaret-proudfoot-presents-spinster/
Karina Smigla-Bobinski
Karina Smigla-Bobinski is a Polish artist, who creates interactive and sensory art. This piece, ADA is like a lively machine, it seems to be alive through the movement created by the audience. It is like a homage to the mathematician Ada Lovelace who with Charles Babbage created the first prototype of the computer - she developed the software in the 19th century. Lovelace wanted to create a machine that could produce poetry, art and music, like an artist. Smigla-Bobinski's ADA does this through the use of the helium balloon that has charcoal attached to it which make marks on all six surfaces that it is kept in.
https://www.smigla-bobinski.com/english/works/ADA/index.html
nterview with Karina Smigla-Bobinski by Katherine Wong
Interview by Katherine Wong for “OVERS!ZE” book project
K.W.: What was ADA originally produced for?
K.S-B.: ADA is a result of my thoughts and inquiries about the fundamental idea of ‘computer as a machine’ that can remember and create works of art, such as poetry, music, or pictures like an artist. I have developed ADA without a client. After she was finished in 2010, curators Ricardo Barreto and Paula Perissinotto invited ADA, as the first, to FILE Festival 2011 in São Paulo, Brazil. Then came FAD Festival in Belo Horizonte (Brazil), FACT Foundation in Liverpool (U.K.), FILE Festival in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and ZERO1 Biennial in Silicon Valley (U.S.), GARAGE Center for Contemporary Culture in Moscow (Russia), etc..
K.W.: What kind of influences do Ada Lovelace and Jean Tinguely have on you?
K.S-B.: I did the same by looking at “machines” today as an artist and building a post-industrial and post-digital “creature” that resembles a molecular hybrid (such as one from nano biotechnology) with the ability to produce artworks through an open source method. In connection to copy-right debate, there appears a very interesting question too — what is exactly the work of art? The balloon, the drawings on the wall or both? :-) On the other hand, Jean Tinguely was an artist who disapproved the commercialisation of art and had built kinetic artworks out of industrial age machine parts, of which some are generative, like Métamatics that could draw on its own. Some other of his artworks were designed to be self-destructive, which he described as “under destruction”, a creative force and structural transformation. I developed the idea of Jean Tinguely, where a kinetic artwork expanded itself by the action with which I entrusted the visitors. The visitors thus became the driving force responsible for the expansion of ADA. From every aspect, Jean Tinguely paved the way for me.
K.W.: With ADA, what kind of experience did you intend to bring to the public and the exhibition space?
K.S-B.: The normal, traditional way of viewing art is to go to gallery and look, but the participation is confined to looking and nothing more. All reactions occur inside the viewers’ head instead of physically to the piece. Interactivity in art stands out as a way to connect with the audience. This contact between art and the public creates a relationship that involves the viewer personally in the project. The best part of interactive art installations is when you can use your body which then turns you into a part of the art piece. When we talk about interactivity, we imagine it as a digitally-created, non-physical experience which computers and electronics have very often forced into the foreground. But ADA as a post-digital artwork does not need programming because ADA is an analogue interactive kinetic sculpture. Same as my other works, it is very important for me that the entrance into the practical experience of art is possible for everyone and that visitors may decide how far they dip into the art experience according to their ability or will. I like the fact that visitors are able to work with the intuition in my installations and use their body to explain how they work. Here, as ADA is put in action by visitors, she would then fabricate a composition of lines and points which are incalculable in their intensity and expression. By exerting control on ADA, constantly visitors would fall into some kind of a trance as they try to govern ADA’s drawing path. Sometimes people forget where they are and that ADA is balloon vulnerable to damages. They might sometimes get a little bit too rough with her.
K.W.: Do you consider ADA a machine or a being?
K.S-B.: ADA is constructed to have her own will. Once you set her into motion she just works away. What ADA produces is very humane because she seems to respond to some of a human instincts. The only method to decode these signs and drawings is to understand them as the intuitive association of our jazzy dreams and thoughts. It is a good feeling of having created a piece of art that is autonomous and that it would not be complete without visitors. Within the balloon-space-people relation, visitors are obliged to respond. That was my intention when I built ADA for the first time, but the reality got beyond my wildest dreams. Perhaps it is an intuitive reaction of the body that provokes us to stretch our hands to catch or push the ball and not let it drop. It floats weightlessly in the air and changes the perception. The more she is handled by visitors, the blacker she gets from the charcoal and thus seems more “alive”. Even I, who built her, sometimes get the illusion that she is a living thing. Already at her first public appearance in São Paulo, visitors asked where ‘uma bola com carbon (a ball with charcoal)’ was as they looked for ADA. But after they interacted with ADA, they referred to ADA using the name or “she”, so did the many English visitors at FACT Liverpool. So it happened that I use “ADA” or “she” now, too. Anyway the concept of ADA is a temporal “under destruction” artwork with her lifetime equal to the duration of an exhibition. Her age will progress with the number of people who visits her, their temperament and the galleries’ supervision on site.
https://www.smigla-bobinski.com/english/works/ADA/index.html
Grynsztejn, M., Birnbaum, D. and Speaks, M. (2002). Olafur Eliasson. London: Phaidon.
How to remove ink from a can
Material Development
After having researched and deciding which material to use, which was metal/aluminium cans, I had to do some research regarding the fact that many of these tins have been printed on. Lots of the results from the research stated the same thing to get rid of the ink (video above):
1. take off the final layer of the ink by using nail polish remover
2. Put the aluminium cans into a pressure cooker for 20 minutes
3. carefully remove and dry
This would completely remove the ink however, I was concerned with the health and safety risks by going through with this technique. Especially as the ink may have toxins in them, and mixing it with nail polish remover which is highly flammable and then putting it into a pressure cooker was just a bit too hazardous.
André Gutknecht
Back at home, there is a place that we sometimes drive past that sell these huge metal flowers. The artist is André Gutknecht and he sells these designs for gardens and outside areas.
When researching for this project, I didn't realise that my idea may have come from some kind of subconscious place in my mind as I suddenly remembered that his work was similar to my concept.
Nespresso Art
In Australia, Nespresso has launched an Upcycling project. Artists that work on the theme of sustainability were invited to work on this project and had 14 days to create a piece using at leat 1,000 Nespresso capsules, making them the main material of the project. Artists include John Dahlsen, Alice Sutton, Ellie Mucke and Sean E Avery, who all created different outcomes depending on their speciality within the design and the arts.
John Dahlsen
Vessel, Ladybugs from "Nature Purges", Blue River, from Plastic Bag art series
John Dahlsen is an Australian contemporary, environmentalist artist who creates his work out of rubbish found on the beaches. He creates both paintings and sculptures all from recycled and found materials. He is also inspired by his local surroundings were collects said materials from his walks.
Dr Jacqueline Millner from the University of Western Sydney says that there is a "play between abstraction and figuration, between synthetic/organic matter and immateriality in the purge paintings, has been applied in Dahlsen’s most recent works to landscapes — dark works whose subtle references to environmental degradation all but disappear before forcefully catching you unawares." (https://johndahlsen.com/artist-statements/artist-statement-environmental-paintings-landscapes-seascapes-interiors-2/) This was said in regards to Dahlsen's paintings.
In regards to the Nespresso collaboration, Dahlsen created the piece Ecolaboration;
In this piece he "referenced elements of the Australian landscape, and was constructed from glass, steel, gold and aluminium coffee capsules". (https://johndahlsen.com/ecolaboration-2013-commission/)
Alice Sutton
In motion & Full Circle, 2013 (http://www.editionalicesutton.com/projects.html)
Alice Sutton, a fashion designer, used the capsules in a less noticeable way. the material for her creation is made out of sustainable wool. The shape of the clothing itself is similar to the of a Nespresso capsule, which is thanks to the capsules themselves. This is because the capsules are like the "boning" of the silhouette, as the are inserted through a tube to give the clothing shape, form and motion when walking. Altogether, Sutton used 5,000 capsules to create this piece.
https://citynews.com.au/2013/alice-takes-coffee-pods-to-a-fashionable-high/
Sean E Avery
Pangolin, 2013 (https://seaneavery.com/artwork/3215800-Pangolin.html)
Sean E Avery is a sculpture who reuses materials to create new pieces, going them a new purpose instead of having them be polluted further. Avery "is passionate about deconstructing everyday items and reconstructing them into inspiring artworks." (https://www.australiantraveller.com/australia/project-upcycle-art-grounded-in-coffee/)
Sue Webster: The Folly Acres Cookbook
Sue Webster is a sculpture and installation artists who usually works with her duo Tim Noble. However for this piece, she decided to write her own cookbook, despite not being able to cook. She has created recipes based on her surrounding, as she lives on a farm as well as using more grotesque ingredients such as roadkill and garbage. What makes this book interesting as well, is that she had typed it on a 1940s Nazi typewriter, where the letter "s" became the two lightning strikes that were typically used throughout the Nazi time. Using this font, make the piece much more shocking at first, however she said that with time one got used to it, which removed the fonts previous meaning. "But when you see the typed manuscript you realise that, in the overuse of that symbol, you dilute its importance." (https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/yvqjnb/roadkill-dildos-and-nazi-typewriters-afternoon-tea-with-sue-webster-061)
Potent Objects - Camille Utterbeck
Balance (2003), Shaken (2003)
Opposite objects, is a series, a compilation of objects that are interactive with the audience. "Balance" is like a scale, with a video of a woman in the middle on an LCD screen. The audience then balances the scale, and depending on the direction that it is leaning toward, the woman in the video does the same. The other, "Shaken" was a snow globe that the audience can shake, which shakes the women who is in a video within the globe also on an LCD screen.
The work "questions simplistic tropes of interaction while referencing the deeper emotional states implied by the physical grammar of interactivity". Especially regarding the more prominence of technology. The questions that are asked with this piece are; "are our machines becoming more like us as they learn to sense more about our actions, or are we becoming more like them as we tailor our actions to their limited sensing abilities?"
This piece reminds me of Karina Smigla-Bobinski's ADA, as they both seem to show a connection between machines and human emotion and how they interrelate.
Zeit Los Lassen - Matthias Zurbrügg
Whilst watching the news, there was a report of an exhibition at a cemetery in Basel, Switzerland. Despite museums and galleries being closed, the cemetery has been left open, as it is quite an open space and still permits the required safety distance, allowing the artist Matthias Zurbrügg to exhibit 26 "word images" that are up to 4 meters tall made out of pine wood. The reasoning behind this project is to understand and maybe become more at peace and have a greater understanding as well as dealing with the concept of death, especially during this time.
The piece has a double entendre:
Let go of time / to take time / timeless / to let go
It makes the piece very impactful as depending where you move, the order changes, as well as the participant can take that what means the most to them to heart.
The piece above also has a double entendre - the letter "i" if included is love, and without is live. Simply put, to love and live.
"I try to portray this feeling, this looseness. I also believe that something continues after death. It makes me curious." Matthias Zurbrügg playfully conveys this serene approach to his mortality. For example when the word picture "Savoir Mourir" sinks into the earth in a meadow - an allusion to the French expression "Savoir Vivre"" (https://www.srf.ch/kultur/kunst/ausstellung-auf-dem-friedhof-bei-den-toten-das-leben-lieben)
I think that the way the artist has dealt with the situation was very interesting as he decided to find a different way for people to view and access his art. Rather than doing it digitally, he was still able to uphold the experience of going somewhere to experience art.
Margate Visit to the Antony Gormley sculpture
I went down to Margate to have a look at the sculpture "Another Time" statue. There are about 100 of these statues situated around the UK. What is interesting is that they change depending on the tide, as the higher the water gets, the less you are able to see it. Moss and different aquatic organisms attach themselves to the statue, meaning that through time, each will have different "design".
Repost of Antony Gormley Exhibition visit
Mother's Pride V, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy6h0NiPf2k
This piece is simple and made of an everyday product that we are use in daily life - toast. The brand of toast, Mother's Pride was popular in the 80s, however does not exist today, so Gormley used toast with similar dimension of the original brand. To conserve the piece, the toast is dipped into melted parafin wax. The fetal position of the piece is a representation of a body from the past, as once the bread is consumed it "becomes part of the body in a space of time". Gormley wants to represent the "idea of the body as a place of transformation", as once the food has been consumed, it lives as us for a while; it is "mattering into mind".
Matrix III, 2019
https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/antony-gormley-making-of-videos#part-three-matrix-iii
The grids used to crate this suspended piece are grids that have come directly from the factory. Every building is reinforced with these structures, they intermingle like the people that live within them and as the cities get bigger the more crowded it becomes. There are over 100,000 welds within the piece, combining each grid to the other. The piece becomes a "Perceptional maze that separates foreground, midground and background, and conflict in perspective".
Lost Horizon, 2008
This piece was made out of the moulds of six similarly posed plaster "cases" of Gormley's body. These cases were then cast as iron, which created the individual bodies. The bodies themselves are all positioned around the room, even on the walls and the ceiling. Each cast is a remembrance of having "lived in a moment of time"; it is copy of that moment where he was cast. "For him, when we close our eyes, bit are conscious and aware, we occupy 'another kind of space, without co-ordinates'". This is exactly what i want to look into for my own future works, as it something I have always been interested in. What I found when visiting the exhibition was that none of the cast faced each other; as if we are all in our own world with regards to others, or maybe are not aware of others because we are aware of ourselves.
Gormley, A., Gombrich, E., Njatin, L. and Hutchinson, J. (1995). Antony Gormley. London: Phaidon.
Noah Deledda
Noah Deledda creates sculpture out of used cans, by first sandpapering them down to the shiny surface. The actual patterns he creates into the cans are all manmade, following the structure of the object. He uses his thumbs to create the intricate geometric details that make each piece unique. It has taken him years to perfect his technique, as it can be difficult to repeat each shape so perfectly that it looks machine -like.
I like these pieces because he uses regular objects that seem like they can't be used again unless they are thrown out, beautiful. By removing the outer layer he was able to create a futuristic, elegant piece that will hopefully inspire others to use more recycled materials in their art.
Update & potential changes for research
Due to the Coronavirus, I have gone home, and won't be in the area to present the final piece. As my Personal Project Proposal is mainly built around the senses of touch, scent, taste, sight and sound, some of my work will be limited as there will be no "proper" exhibition where people would have the chance to experience the work. My next step is to research on ways to reach an audience from a distance, so audiovisuals, however I am also interested in intractable art, which in this situation could be very practical.
Yoko Ono
Painting to Hammer a Nail (1961), Cloud Piece (1963/2016)
Both of these pieces have instructions for the audience to follow. For the Painting to Hammer a Nail, Ono had given the audience the task to nail a nail into the canvas that is presented. With the canvas, hammer and bucket of nails on a chair, the piece was also presented a task that the audience had to fulfil:
"Hammer a nail into a mirror, a piece of glass, a canvas, wood or metal every morning. Also, pick up a hair that came off when you combed in the morning and tie it around the hammered nail. The painting ends when the surface is covered with nails."
She also made a second version of the piece in 1966, where the hammer was made out of glass to which she said: “I made a glass hammer … for people like me who are aggressive and like to hammer; and of course, if you hammer with it, it breaks.”
" With this version, Ono returned the piece to its conceptual roots and argued for the transformative power of imagination and the essential contribution of the viewer to all works of art."
https://walkerart.org/collections/artworks/painting-to-hammer-a-nail-in
https://www.theartstory.org/artist/ono-yoko/
"Ono refused contemporary art conventions by exploring the power of the concept in order to convey aesthetic and philosophical meaning. Her works are designed to bring audiences’ attention to IDEAS, rather than appearances. Ono valued her independence as an artist and is described as a ‘path breaking force’ who eliminated boundaries among the arts." - http://www.tsfx.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Year-12-Visual-Arts-A_.pdf
Cloud piece was part of the book Grapefruit, 1964, a book, a collection of not only her thoughts but also instructions given to the reader/audience to follow. Though not all can be followed, it is interesting to see her thought process and reflectiveness of each page.
Ellie Mücke
Padma Petalz, 2013
Fashion designer Ellie Mücke, created a dress out of recycled Nespresso capsules. The form of the dress was made out of recycled t-shirts. Using 2,000 empty Nespresso capsules, she hand cut over 6,000 petals which were then used to create the dress. To create each leaf, they had to be intricately cut, which can take quite bit of time. By creating this dress, she wanted to promote the concept of Upcycling and inspire others to look at different materials that can be reused into something new and valuable.
image 1: preparation of the material
Image 2: carefully sewing the aluminium leaves onto fabric to create the dress.
"Padma Petalz’ was inspired by nature’s organic forms and its ability to renew and recycle in perfect harmony. I believe that humans still have a lot to learn from nature in this way." (http://www.recycled-fashion.com/2013/08/ellie-mucke-project-upcycle-padma.html)
http://www.recycled-fashion.com/2013/08/ellie-mucke-project-upcycle-padma.html
Holloway Eyewear
Entombed, 2013 (http://www.gourmantic.com/nespresso-coffee-project-upcycle-artwork/)
The brand Holloway Eyewear have also contributed to this project by creating sunglass shapes and individual moulds to create sustainable sunglasses. The designers "who regularly utilise scavenged and recycled materials, used a custom-made hole punch to create different shapes from the capsules for a decorative effect." (https://www.australiantraveller.com/australia/project-upcycle-art-grounded-in-coffee/)
Looking at different resources.
The Google arts and culture centre has access to many museums and exhibitions that can be viewed online.
https://artsandculture.google.com/project/360-videos?hl=en
The audience can view places with 360° videos and there are interactive activities available, especially for children. I will be looking more into this to investigate the different projects that are made available.
I have added an example below from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation. Despite being able to "go" and "visit" museums from around the world that I have not seen yet, the experience is still very flat and lacks the atmosphere of the museum, which personally I find is why I like to go to galleries so much. The people that visit, the three dimensionality of the work is something that cannot easily be replaced through digital tours. I think this something that I want to work with, the idea of experience and interaction despite it not being easily available during quarantine.
Our senses Exhibition
The 'Our Senses' exhibition is presented at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. They have created an exhibition to investigate and allow children and adults to experiment with the senses and the perception of reality. They have different rooms and activities that include "games, illusions, scent stations" as well as temperature detection and different textures. It tests the way we think our brain and senses work .
https://www.amnh.org/global-business-development/traveling-exhibitions/our-senses
Joe Hamilton, “Indirect Flights” at indirect.flights
Joe Hamilton created a website for the audience to explore. It is made out of a combination of images that he has collected throughout his travels, providing an "aerial view" for the audience to explore.
"As you drag your cursor around, geographic boundaries collapse; images of deserts, beaches, forests, and industrial worlds collide". This allows different textures and perspectives to combine creating a new awareness and experience of how we could see the world. Depending on where you move around on the screen, there is a sound that connects with the image shown. "The four different sound compositions by J.G. Biberkopf echo the variety of topographies and loop — among other noises — cricket songs, mysterious creaking, and sputtering engines, creating a satisfying, vivid experience that captures the contemporary landscape".
https://hyperallergic.com/263538/best-of-2015-our-top-10-works-of-internet-art/
Weaving Silk
Weaving Silk is an online interactive generative art website and app, where people can draw with their mouse, whilst on the screen the movement creates a symmetrical pattern. It allows those who participate to create an infinite amount of designs.
Nicky Case
The link above is an interactive video, that explains anxiety as well as how the neurons work within the brain. It acts like a game, however is very informational on how the brain processes anxiety and how to remove certain fears.
Case has also other interactive illustrations, such as the website: https://ncase.me/polygons/, called Parable of the Polygons, A playable post on the shape of society. This is also a game, however looks at more a societal aspect rather than a biological one. This piece is similar to an infographic,but is interactive. It explains the issue of segregation and how to achieve more diversity within a community. It also shows how people may think, and shows encouragement to create a more diverse group.
Both are very educational tools, with the focus group being more for a younger audience