Hilary Lloyd

In my tutorial it was suggested I look at Hillary Lloyd. The subject of her work isn't something that really relates to mine. I'm more interested in how she shows her work and the use of multiple screens. The way I show my work is a big aspect of my work I think as it can change the experience of it dramatically. I think I am going to try out ,not necessarily showing 2 different films like she does with some of her work but making 2 more more videos that are to be shown together and work as one piece.

Triangle Show

So in the last week of the the second half of the year curated an exhibition in the triangle space of a current piece of work. We were split into three groups and given different sections to start with to make it more manageable. We arranged our work so  it worked well as an exhibition with other works around it but whilst still trying to find the best possible place for individual works.

I got to show my video (above) in a slightly darker area near a corner of the space, which I think worked well. I showed my video on a tv screen sat on a plinth. However this isn't the ideal way I would like to show my work. Ideally I would like to show it as an installation projected in a dark room with only this piece of work showing to create a more intense and confrontational experience. i think this would greatly effect the viewing of the work and it's intensity. So next time I show in this sort of setting I need to think of a better way to show it.

During the private view some people told me my video was horrible and not very nice to watch which actually was good to hear.

A couple of days later we had a group crit in the space. Due to there being so many people in the space we only got a brief over view of each work.

Feedback

• Someone felt it was more a comment on youtube and blogging culture which I hadn't even thought about. I think this was just due to the way parts of the documentary was filmed. I need to avoid it looking like this as I don't want to be making a comment on that. So I maybe need to be more selective with my footage next time as my other videos have never had that feedback.
• Apparently it needs to be more universal so it effects everyone in the sameway, but I don't believe this should be the case and you can't expect everyone to feel the same about a piece of artwork or have the same reaction.
• I have good starting ideas though and it is a powerful video
• need to look at Ryan Tricarten and Low Provos.
• People weren't sure why I put the bit with Will Ferrel in it. I mainly put this in, to add a bit more ridiculousness in it which reflects aspects of the disorder.

Philosophy Seminar

In one of my philosophy seminars we talked about the removal of the author and the audience after reading an essay by Derrider.

We looked at a piece of work where the artist (I can't remember his name) took one of those pianos that can record the movement of the keys and replay it or turn it into a sheet of music. The piano recorded the artist trying to learn a piece of existing piano composition. It then turned his attempts into a sheet of music. The artist then gave the sheet music to a professional pianist and got them to play it on the piano, the piano then recorded this. The end piece of work was the piano placed in a gallery replicating what the professional played.

In this work there seems to be multiple authors and we talked about if there was actually one ultimate author, was it the piano or the artist, whether its ok to have multiple authors, how this effects our viewing of the work and whether knowing the author is actually important to viewing a piece of work.

I took quite an interest in this due to the fact I use appropriated video footage and there is always the question of authorship in my work. Plus it is always a challenge I face to try and assert my authorship on my work rather than its still appearing to to have the original creators authorship. 

Paul Sharits

It was recommended that I look at Paul Sharits when I had my last tutorial.  His name didn't ring a bell but when I searched for his work and saw the name of this piece I instantly knew what is was. I had seen this video at the MOMA in New York two years ago and it was actually a piece that had a big impact on my and the only thing I still vividly remember from the gallery. I love the flashing colours, bright lights and noise, its hypnotic , it's all consuming as I couldn't take my eyes off it and a bit of a head fuck after you watch it for a while as it's quite a visual assault. 

Mini exhibition for group 2 'Cornered'

A few weeks a go my group , group 2, curated a little exhibition in our studio space the same night that some third years were showing some work in the triangle space. We exhibited current work we were developing. We met on the monday morning showed each other our works and talked together and decided who would have which jobs in the exhibition set up and where our work would look best, so it would work a a whole exhibition and not just singular pieces of work.

 Not many people came to visit our work despite our fliers but I think that was mainly due to the free bar downstairs. Even though there was a lack of audience I'm definitely glad we did it and thought it was a shame that the other groups didn't get involved. It made us communicate better as a group , test out how we could potentially show our work,  highlighted any issues with the display of our work  and gave us a bit of a practise for the triangle show which we had a couple of weeks later.

Essay tutorial

What are the aims, intentions and interests that you are exploring through your practice/ written work

• In my essay I answered the question 'To what degree can the meaning or experience of a work of art be independent of context?'
• I look at two at 2 exhibitions (Rasheed Johnson at the South London Gallery and Tom Friedman at the Stephen Friedman Gallery) to help answer this question. 
• I found that the meaning and experience of work isn't generally that independent of context as there is always something that provides context that affects this.
• In my work context is a big part of the work, especially social context and the institutional setting.

Issues in my practical/written work that you need to address and discuss in your tutorial.

• Any issues with my essay, if there are any ways I could improve it or have gone about it in a better way.
• Any reading or research I need to do.
• how my essay applies to my work 

Agreed actions and feedback

This was slightly hindered by the fact I didn't bring my videos along which I didn't realise I was meant too.

• Essay was written well however need to go into more depth of analysis of work.
• Look at - Amelia Jones performance art,  Yvonne Rainer- looking myself in the mouth october journal, Patti Smith, Eleanor Antin, Adrian Piper, death of the author Roland Barthes, A very short introduction to post colonialism, Train, go to the Freud Museum. 

New video

Here's a new video I made since my last tutorial 

• In this video I experimented more with using footage from multiple sources not just directly from documentaries about eating disorders. I tried to keep these still in keeping with the theme. 
• I added more layers of sound. 
• I also added a lot of flashing which was inspiration from looking at Paul Sharitz, to make it more visualising stimulating and bombarding.
• Its not something that I'm really happy with as I think a lot more editing could have gone into to make it more effective but it's just something experimental really as before with videos I have only used clips from source and not had any other sound layers. 
• I wanted to make this a bit more in your face than the last video as I felt that one was a bit more subdued. 
• I don't necessarily think the footage used is right but it was good to try this out to see if it worked better than my previous videos on the west borough baptist church.
• I wanted to make something a bit more complicated and complex and all over the place. I want the audience to feel bombarded all the time so theres no time to really think or contemplate while watching it. I think to achieve this I need to make this maybe a bit faster of pace with quick changes and always something engaging happening.

Tutorial

Aims, intentions and interests I am exploring through my work

• using appropriated images / footage based on eating disorders and the mental disturbances of it. particularly emphasising on footage found on rhodes farm.
• using a lot of repetition and editing that reflects the obsessive, intense and psychotic tendencies of the illness.
• something that impacts on the audience + makes their suffering come across.

Describe 3 issues in your practical work  you need to address and discuss in tutorial.

• How am I going to show my work
• How long should the video be and think about if the repetitive aspects mean if its ok for people no to see it in its entirety 
• if I'm on track any thing else I need to think about

Agreed actions

• Look into booking a project space to try out using a projector/installation 
• look at lucy gunning - think about multiple screens 
• look at hilary lloyd, sadie coles.
• look at flicker films. old American / english film makers
• Paul sharritz 
• lux online - structural film making , peter gidall

Cross year crit

I had a cross year crit the other, it was good to get input from another tutor and students in other years, however the group wasn't that big due to not many people turning up.

Some of the points that were made in the crit when I showed my video :

• I need to think how the audience is going to view the video, what setting ? monitor, projection etc. 
• how can I make sure that the piece is mine own work and it still not seem like the video has the authorship of the documentary maker
• push what i'm doing don't be afraid to make a statement or to push it to its limits
• explore with the subject 
• its interesting how I'm using a documentary which tries to be truthful and make something objective and I'm using the footage to make a subjective comment 
• maybe try using own footage/filming using actors
• the video is powerful

Video Development

So I decided to go with the topic of using eating disorders or mental illnesses for the topic of my videos to start with. Using documentaries of Rhodes farm plus other footage from youtube. I feel like it is a subject I can comment on due to having so much experience with my sister being so ill with it and therefore having some insight with out it being directly about me. Its something that I have a strong connection with and feel strongly about. I was in two minds whether to go with it or not, as it is something really personal and I didn't want it to be some sort of cliche GCSE art project, but then I thought I'm doing my BA now I need to be brave and push myself and its something I could potentially make some good work on.

I saw the documentary 'Dana, the 8 year old anorexic' again on the tv recently, I didn't particularly want to watch it but I just couldn't change the channel, and then I was left in bad mood after it, why did I do that to myself when I knew it would make me upset. I kept thinking about the fact I had watched this, when I made previous works about the West Borough Bapitist church, I initially found the footage shocking then through working with it so much I became slightly desensitised to it whilst still being able to make a provocative video at the end of it. So I'm quite interested in the aspect of making something I become desensitised to but is hard hitting for the audience.

So I have now accumulated and been looking for bits off footage I can use. I gathered stuff from a documentary from Rhodes farm an eating disorder clinic in London, I also got other footage which I thought I could potentially use in with the footage.

Heres my first piece I did, I only used the footage from the documentaries about Rhodes Farm. It has footage of the girls eating at meal times with speaking overlapping and repeating. I like how it starts more subdued then turns more to the angry and upset. I feel though that the video is quite subdued and needs to be more in your face, attacking and intense. I need to work through all the clips I have and see what i want to use and see what I can use to make a new video and see how I can make it better.

Bruce Nauman

Bruce Nauman did a sound piece in a room where the phrase "Get out of my mind, Get out of this room" is intensely repeated in a distressed voice . He uses a lot of repetition in his works and use of voices.

'In addressing repetition in his video work, Nauman similarly noted that he never intended for his tapes to be viewed on their entirety. He preferred, rather, to make works that gave viewers a feeling of being able to come in or leave at any time'

I need to think about when using repetition in my videos whether I want to people to watch them in their entirety or if it still works and doesn't matter if only a fraction of the video if viewed.

'Clown Torture, Clown taking a shit. Must we accept the cacophony of what the clown tells us ('Pete and Repeat we sitting on a fence. Pete fell off who was left? Repeat. Pete and Repeat . . .) and the cacophony of what they don't want to tell us (No!...No!...No!...No!...)? why remain caught in the vice-like grip of a low-ceilinged room amidst a profusion of monitors and wall projections showing us one clown having a jar of water poured over his head, another stamping 'no no no' with his feet, a third taking a shit? Their torture becomes our. Looking and listening become unbearable, just as they were on the chair surrounded by the five droning monitors. Unable to say anything to us, these installations attack us. The neat little jig (Get out of my mind, Get out of this room) has disintegrated into a cacophony, but the effect is only magnified. As soon as you get in you have to get out.'

Hayward Gallery
Bruce Nauman 

I identify with this aspect of his work, that the torture of the subject in his videos become the torture of the audience, that it becomes unbearable and the installations attack us, as this is an aspect that throw my videos I think I want to inflict on the viewers.

"Bruce Nauman. 'My work is basically an outgrowth of anger I feel about the human condition.. The aspects of it that make me angry are our capacity for cruelty and the ability people have to ignore situations they don't like'""

This quote I like also because I want people to not be able to ignore the situation I put them in.

Tutorial

I thought I had already posted this but I guess not. I had a tutorial with my tutor and showed her these videos from my foundation course and some text pieces.

Here I was looking at extreme religious cults who proclaim there beliefs and actions are a positive thing but they actually contradict this. I used a lot of repetition to emphasise aspects and due to the relentless repetition of their preachings.

Feed back for things a I need to look at and think about for progressing further.

• Look into theory of repetition in art and videos and effects it can have on people.
• Peter Osborne 
• Get Art in Theory book and read up 

• Artists to look at - Elizabeth Price - New user disco, John Baldessari, Bruce Nauman - get out of this room , get out of my head and On kawara 

• Things to think about - what subject do I want to look at - extreme views/groups/situations, which have negative/controversial aspects in it.
• is the imagery important or could I just have sound ?
• how I want to show it. 

• maybe look into something to do with the super natural exhibition. Extreme aspects of it. potentially contrast positive and negative aspects of enhancement. 
• Need to make it personal in some way to me, a personal interest that I feel like I can comment on. 
• Potentially could look into eating disorders or mental health issues - anorexia pushing human enhancement to extremes. I feel like I can comment on this due to my sister and mum suffering from it. 
• could use documentaries from Rhodes farm where eve was in hospital for many months.
• can carry on use of repetition, as it will reflect the, obsessive, psychotic and intense qualities and the illness and cognitive malfunctions. 

Elizabeth Price

I went to see the Turner Prize at Tate Britain,  Elizabeth Price's work resonated with me due to the use of appropriation , rapid fire images and hypnotic sounds. 

John Baldessari

• He uses found images and sources which he distorts in some way to make us question what the work is communicating - appropriation
• generally works involve some form of humour 
• some works are produced in a collage way 
• uses a lot a repetition - in his photographic series and video work especially in the video and works 'I must not make anymore boring art' 
• The video contradicts the phrase he repeatedly writes , as he ends up making something that becomes boring.
• relates to my work due to repetition  and use of contradictions.

Super Human

A couple of weeks ago I managed to catch the SUPERHUMAN exhibition at the Welcome Collection.

The exhibition explored human enhancement and are strive to better ourselves from 600 BCE to 2050.

It asks questions as to what human enhancement actually is, what we consider it to be and how we can define it?

• super powers
• cosmetic surgery 
• prosthetic limbs
• medication to improve performance / life span 

or less obvious ones

• glasses
• hearing aids
• contraceptive implant 
• IVF techniques 
• smart phones

Smart phones and computers have become a new way of storing memories and have become extensions of out anatomy, with the way technology is going how long is it going to be till they are actually a part of our anatomy ? 

Prosthetics provide enhancement for loss of function or body parts. However they can be for more than just for a loss of function. They use the example that a glass eye can never see, this shows that we strive for normality or at least the appearance of normality. This then leads on to cosmetic surgery which can be used to correct aspects of people's bodies through injury or birth defects. However the use of cosmetic surgery is a big business for purely aesthetic use. People are continuously striving for better , more perfect, 'normal' bodies or the outrageous extremes to make them in some way feel better about themselves.

This figure of Icarus shows that human enhancement and the pursuit of superpowers is an age old thing. In Greek Mythology Icarus's father made them both wings so they could escape the island the had been exiled to. Even though Icarus was warned not to fly to close the sun, as his wings were held together with wax , he used his new power to soar higher and higher and eventually then sun melted the wax and he fell into the sea. This highlights the debate around human enhancement of what is possible and how far should we take it. 

These are a pair of artificial legs for children. A huge amounts of these were made especially around the time when a lot of children were affected in the womb by their mothers taking thalidomide whilst pregnant. The government responded to this tragedy by providing artificial limbs  however they were very uncomfortable and heavy for children so they weren't very popular. Prosthetic limbs combine the need of practicality and function with also the appearance of something more 'normal'. 

The exhibition explored the use of drugs for enhancement especially in sports. This is called the Wizzinator, it is a device that was originally marketed as a way to deliverer clean urine samples for athletes. It comes as a kit which includes dried urine, heat packs to keep the urine at body temperature and a false penis that comes in different colours. I found this quite amusing as my childish side came out but also fascinating as I never knew there was a product like this that was manufactured for this purpose. It is now marketed as a sex toy now as the company that produced them were prosecuted for conspiracy to defraud the US government.

This is a still from a video performance called Recortepor La Linea (cut through the line) by Regina Jose Galindo. The video was filmed in Venezuela which is the country with the third highest rates of cosmetic surgery. The artist stood naked and vulnerable whilst a leading surgeon marked on her body changes he would make to achieve a 'normal' body, thus taking away all her body's individuality. The video appears very intimate as she just stands there and lets him mark all these changes allover her body. When I look at the woman I see a beautiful body but it is amazing how many changes the surgeon would make to achieve the 'perfect' body, when I don't see any need to change her body. It becomes quite obsessive which reflects todays society's tendencies towards body modification and enhancement.

I went to see the exhibition as I like to deal with issues related to people, especially issues which can have extreme and controversial views. I am also fascinated by the fascination we have with our bodies and our strive to modify them and constant endeavours to better them. There was a lot more to this exhibition that what I have written but these are key things thats I was interested in. 

Orienteering in London - The Freud Museum

Now as we hadn't actually been given any information about the places we were visiting, I thought we were going to see something about Lucian Freud the painter. However it was actually the house where Sigmund Freud lived where his study remains preserved as he used it for the public to see.

The house is obviously in a residential area and isn't that close to any other amenities. The people occupying the surrounding area were generally residents going to and from their homes so the people that visit this museum would have to be people who knew it was there and willing to try find it amongst the houses. You are encouraged to learn about the space and take a good look around.

There is a £3 admission charge which I thought was fairly priced. 

Orienteering in London - Camden Arts Centre

 Third was Camden Arts Centre which is a space for contemporary art exhibitions and education.

The arts centre is situated in a beautiful old building with modern twists just off Finchley Road. We made a bit of an error on the way to here as we assumed that Camden arts centre would be close to Camden town , but we were so wrong it was quite a trek to get there. However we found out in was very close to Finchley tube stations so is actually easy to get to.

The inside was nice and welcoming, there was a cafe and everything was well sign posted so you knew where to go which is helpful. The spaces that the art was housed in were great , nice and light and spacious, so the work wasn't too cramped. The assistants in the rooms were also friendly and helpful and they more than willing to talk to you. 

Orienteering in London - The British Library

So next we got to The British Library down Euston Road. The building is situated right next to St Pancras and Kings Cross so has good transport links. Also Euston road is very busy has lots of traffic and buses down it and has lots of other attractions and shops which generates a lot of tourism and consumers. This makes the library location ideal due to the the close vicinity of other amenities and the vast amount of people within area which can possibly visit.

The building to me isn't one that is greatly attractive especially with St Pancras behind it , which greatly contrasts. Also I felt rather overwhelmed and intimidated due to the size of it, this feeling carried on inside.

The interior is modern and vast , I didn't really know where to start or where to go as  it wasn't very well sign posted.

I was surprised to find out that you had to be 18 to join the library which I thought was a bit exclusive. I didn't want to join as I thought my uni library provided what I needed and I just felt overwhelmed with the vastness of the place.

Orienteering in London - The Showroom

So as a start to my course we got given a little orienteering task. I got given the name of 5 places to go and find and write a little about them.

• The Showroom
• The Freud Museum
• Parliament Hill 
• The British Library 
• Camden arts centre 

The first place we visited in my group of 5 was The Showroom.

The Showroom is a small gallery space that shows contemporary artwork by artists that haven't had much previous exposure in London.

The space is situated in a residential area just off Edgware road from where we walked from a bus stop to the gallery. Edgware road was buzzing with people and had a lot of shops and cafes. We also passed through back streets where we came across markets selling domestics goods and groceries and people going about their day to day life. From the journey from the bus stop to The showroom I got a feeling that the area is quite multicultural and that there is a lot going on , however when I reached the immediate area around the gallery I wasn't sure if it was best placed as it was quiet and I didn't know if the type of people that were making the area surrounding so busy would be the type of people who would want to access contemporary art

The building certainly stood out and made me want to go in. We had to ring the bell to get in, which was initially quite intimidating and made the play feel quite exclusive. My concerns were dashed when the door was opened as the gallery assistants were very welcoming. The inside was very cosy and the cushions and chairs really encouraged you to relax in the space and engage in the work.

The work was heavily based on people, domestic and living issues which actually fitted well with the situation of the gallery.

When we arrived we were asked if we could fill out a form about the gallery and the show we had seen and the assistants were very appreciative that we did it. there was also a separate comments book which we could write it. This made me feel that the space really valued it's audiences and visitors opinions and the experience they had whilst at the showroom.

I really enjoyed discovering this place and would recommend visiting it if you are in the area. 

Max Colby

Beautiful embroidered collagraph prints.

I'm going to miss the countryside

Instagram pictures from my village in yorkshire.