Ikon.

Ikon

The second gallery of the day was the contemporary gallery the Ikon. Here the collections shown are powerful and graphic showing a real persons opinion on the state of the world. The architecture in the entrance to the gallery with winding glass staircases, paired with floor to ceiling drapes of photographs and interesting 3D structures made from the windows of the gallery was the first insight of the abstract style of the gallery. Particularly interesting was a tube coming out of one of the windows it looked as though someone had pulled the window from the centre and into the room. The tube was hollow allowing you to have a tiny glimpse of outside of the gallery, creating a flow from the outside inwards.

The main exhibition in the Ikon was by an artist by Fiona Banner called 'Scroll down and keep scrolling'. Here through a series of bold typography, projections and pre-recorded films portrays Banner's strongly opinionated perspective of the world.Upon entering the first floor of the exhibition you are greeted by a wall full of bold headings which look similar to the font used on most well known newspapers for their headlines. the piece has no distinct colour but every few seconds seems to change with the lighting of the room. This creates quite a personal effect as your experience of the colours at the beginning of the collection would be completely different from the person a few seconds prior and a few seconds later. 

On the other side of the room you are met by a 1000 page book named ' The Nam' comprised of three films about the Vietnam war described in their eniterty by Banner. A friend of Banner's who was a writer read the book and described it as 'unreadable' In Banner's sarcastic nature she printed this in the beginning of the book. A poster of her holding many copies of the book is placed next to the piece, and in the same nature as the wall opposite has no true colour but changes every few seconds with the rest of the room.  

Following this section of the collection is probably the most attractive piece in the exhibition. A enormous neon light display showing the phrase 

'THE BASTARD WORD' Due to the dark nature of the exhibition as there is very little lighting within the rooms this is extremely eye catching and many people seem to stop in their tracks when seeing this piece. As with a lot of the images within this exhibition it is rather explicit. The neon is handmade by banner and depicts the title of one of her previous exhibitions, where she explores the difficulty in her relationship with language and the power that language hold, similarly how we are all trying to fix something with words that cannot be fixed. Banner describes language and words as 'The blood of our thoughts' This i feel accurately describes the difficulty people face with anxiety and trying to describe things when words seem to fail us. the connotation of blood is one of pain and fear which symbolises the difficulty and fear that words can give to people.

Adjacent to this is a piece title 'Arsewoman in wonderland' which is the written description a porn film with the same title. From a distance this piece looks rather innocent and many people were taking pictures of the art without realising the true nature of the words in front of us. Upon reflection it could be understood the true meaning of the words. The pieces true identity is disclosed due to the fact the whole thing is installed upside down. This piece was aid by Banner to have been awkward and uncomfortable to produce and this was extenuated by installing the work upside down. The room that contains both the 'THE BASTARD WORD' and 'Arsewoman in wonderland' is solely lit by the neon of the bastard word, creating a rather awkward nature to the room due to the synthetic light which alters the feeling of the room as there is nothing organic, a feeling of misplacement is fabricated. This teamed with a large capitalised phrases, an entire piece upside down and the cold nature of pure concrete walls and floors makes the room reflection the uncomfortable style of the pieces.

The next few rooms contained smaller pieces of Banners work. Ranging from chairs printed with the image of someone's bottom and some engraved with words all over, to an old tv showing a model reading a description of herself. The description was written by Banner as she drew a nude Samatha Morton. Morton had not read the text written by Banner and the next day performed the piece to an audience, in effect describing her undressing and lying naked with words. The piece is extremely explicit yet rather poetic creating a juxtaposition between the lyrical nature of the words and yet the graphic way she describes a naked body.

Continuing to the floor above this was another exhibition by Banner where you are immediately greeted by a huge plastic structure of scaffolding, The idea behind this is that when exhibitions are developed the artwork is often held together or built around scaffolding, however this is normally removed. In Banners against the grain personality she has took this to become a sculpture in its self. Moving into the next room there are once again similarly to the floor below many magazines written by banner are displayed on plinths. An unusual way of portraying text is also explored by having a t-shirt pulled over a plinth so the writing on the back of the shirt becomes a piece of art. The shirt describing the existence of a character in a story only existing in the mind of the person reading. The transition wall between the giant scaffold structure and the t-shirt display is itself becoming part of the exhibition as from the floor to the ceiling is covered in individual pieces of art work. The use of creating vast pieces of work that reach the whole vertical height of the room creates continuity throughout the exhibition and allows more depth into each piece as the viewer is forced to look up and around rather than what is at eye level with them, cleverly this forces people to find more within an exhibition which before they may have just walked straight by.  

 

Directly opposite this is the use of vertical space is seen to be fully used as an advantage by the use of a extremely tall tower of book. This is what I originally thought was one of the the only pieces within the next room, as to my knowledge for a start was that was the only sculpture simply surrounded by bean bags. However in true Banner style the bean bags themselves are part of the exhibition.each of the bean bags depicts a full stop from different fonts including Banner's own font. These bean bags are full stops blown up to human size proportions, so in affect you become part of the exhibition when sitting on them, they provide a place to sit and pause for thought, like a full stop creates a pause in a sentence.  

Walking through the Ikon gallery a sense of space and openness is fabricated due the use of glass as part of the architecture. All walls covered in windows create a flows of light through the building and make the small gallery appear far larger due to the ability to see beyond the walls and to the outside. The vast use of glass also works as a platform for artist credit and an insight to what the gallery has to offer. 

The second image describes the most interactive piece in the gallery cleverly described as a lift. As you travel through the floors of the building the lift travels through an octave going from high to low and back again. This breaks up the sometimes awkward travel of a lift being enclosed in a small area with people you probably don't know, into a happy and hilarious experience. When travelling through the floors of the building you find yourself in paces when you can see through the entire building, creating a feeling a space in an otherwise narrow and tight room. 

Like with the other galleries visited I drew observational sketched throughout my experience.Here I tried to capture some of the typography within the collection and some life studies from people visiting the gallery. Such as the person sat on one of the bean bag sculptures. 

At the end of the trip I visited the shop and brought two postcards showing a glimpse into the nature of Banners work from the industrial image to the typography. I also collected some booklets throughout my journey which helped me to understand some of the pieces within the gallery.

 

Walsall gallery.

Walsall Gallery.

Walsall gallery being the first of three I visited on the 11th of November. The gallery I entered was panelled from floor to ceiling in wood, this gave the illusion of height as the walls seemed to continue up through the building, this paired with the use of layering shapes in the architecture of the gallery creates an organic atmosphere which mirrored the nature of the pieces within the gallery.

One of the first rooms within this colossal gallery had many sculptures years old with some pieces even dating from the 12th century. At this point I took the opportunity to sketch some of the small figures in front of me and to admire some of the work by Jacob Epstein. His work dominated the room with his pieces geometric components and sheer size. The gallery not only featured some of his sculptures but also his paintings, both of  which portraying his abstract way of working paired with his very modern and contemporary style.

 
  

Following on from the Epstein exhibition there many smaller rooms filled with smaller paintings, with each of the individual rooms having a particular theme. Many of these paintings were portraits of influential people of the time, it was here placed next to the Epstein exhibition that the development of artistic styles could be seen from paintings of realism to Epstein's avant garde sculptures. 

The true star of Walsall gallery was up in the heavens of the building with the Mat Collishaw exhibition where everything including the lighting of the room added to the ambience of the experience. Collishaw's style is dark showing a more sinister side of human nature. The entrance to the exhibition was a moon away from the light airy section of the gallery in which Epstein's work was shown, but instead took the form a giant space with not ceiling lights and only smaller lights around each of his pieces to display his collection. The atmosphere and presentation of Collishaw's work is a huge part of the whole experience, the walk to the exhibition was up many flights of stairs with only nature light creating a rather organic but sinister nature to the journey as shadows were cast by almost every object in the hallways. At the base of the final flight of stairs to the Collishaw exhibition a single window stood and illuminated the whole corridor. This lighting was eerie and cold mirroring what was up another floor. Entering the insecticide collection by Collishaw I was met with enormous, hypnotic images of butterflies, moths and other insects almost exploding into a burst of vibrant colour. The display of these pieces was truly compelling with a background to the pieces being black, against a black wall and in a poorly lit room all of the focus as viewer was to the eruption of colour emitted from these images. Wings of dead insects added a translucent affect to an other wise bold image, representing in my opinion the delicate nature of life teamed with potent themes of death and destruction that is seen in the everyday world around us. The subject of the pieces being something so insignificant as a butterfly could be seen as a metaphor for us as a species that in the grand scheme of things we are as insignificant as a butterfly, but can create such a powerful force just like the vibrant nature of the images in an otherwise dark room. As the pieces within this exhibition were prints of the original pieces only a small glimpse into the vast amount of texture could be taken from the experience. Upon close inspection you can see where the insect meets an external force and the texture the impact creates.  

Within the insecticide series there was smaller glass cases filled with exotic plants, which looked almost alien. Following the almost rabbit warren layout of the mass of rooms that made up the exhibition I came across a empty room with a warning of strobe lights. On the ceiling and walls of the space were projected images flashing on and off at different places. Images of girls crying in the arms of large men and mothers holding their child's in pain flashed all around me. The emptiness of the room emphasised the graphic images that surrounded every wall. Similarly to the insecticide collection the theme of death and destruction is once again explored however through a different medium, the longer you were in the piece you began to see more and more scenes appear. As with this piece the idea is that you are alone in the centre of the room while the projection surrounds you, it becomes an extremely emotive experience, due to the isolation of a huge empty room and the dark nature of the pictures all over the walls. This piece by Collishaw is called deliverance, and is made by 45 gobos, 3 moving head projectors and phosphorescent paint. Heading up another flight of stairs attached to the insecticide collection was a single sculpture which may have been the most breathtaking of the whole exhibition. A rotating sculpture of a Colosseum creating the effect of a moving image with fast rotations paired with strobe lighting. This zeotrope 'wheel of life' portrays the biblical tale of King Herod's act of infanticide to protect his throne. The whole structure is comprised of 300 individual figures 3D printed from a computer model in resin, each of these meticulously placed to show an idea of an animation of many children being whipped and killed. As with the rest of the work in the All things fall exhibition atmosphere is incredible important, similarly to the other rooms the only piece of lighting comes from within the structure, the rest of the room is in darkness causing the eye to focus of the image spinning in front of you. The piece spins for a few minutes then comes to a Holt and is then lit externally enabling the viewer to appreciate the details within the structure.  Due to not being able to post videos onto the blog there is a link below to the post of the video on facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/imfineitsalljustinmymind/videos/1191795060835448/

Art wasn't just contained within the gallery but was painted all over the streets leading up to the building as well. From inside the caffe of the ground floor of the gallery I could see down a length of canal next to which was teamed with rather worn brick walls covered in graffiti. I took this as an opportunity to explore the artwork. Many were just words which in true graffiti style were difficult to read but others were truly beautiful drawings. 



As with my previous trips to the new walk museum I did some observational drawings whilst walking around the gallery, I also made notes on the images that I like and quotes that I found interesting. 


'Simon Raven 2012 camden arts centre bookworm'

'Jacob Epstein 1880-1953

watercolour and pencil n paper 

messenger for the creation 1930'

'Jacques courtois known as Il Borgognone 

1612-1675

battle scene 

pen and ink'

'William Geer 

Landscape study 1959

oil on canvas'

'Geoffrey Ireland  

In progress portrait 1950's 

photograph 

depicts an unfinished painting'

'Jacob Epstein 
nan the dreamer 
1911
bronze'
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CAcQjRxqFQoTCOntm4CHk8kCFUE5FAodUUwDZw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpictify.saatchigallery.com%2F593097%2Fnan-the-dreamer-by-jacob-epstein&psig=AFQjCNF2X08r9zb8hV06--HXIt-HfY6yuQ&ust=1447698412893098

'Emile Schuffeneck
1851-1934
girl knitting 
pencil'
http://www.chrislee.org.uk/inspiringcreativity/GR232%20-%20Emille%20Schuffenecker%20-%201851-1934%20-%20Girl%20Knitting.jpg

'Towns of the unexpected 
francis bacon'

Signs Robert Rauschenberg

Signs Robert Rauschenberg 

The piece ‘Signs’ is a collage by Robert Rauschenberg in 1970. Born in 1925 at the time of this piece Rauschenberg was 45 years old at the time, and would have been heavily influenced by the prominent issues of 1960-70’s America. At the time of the Space race, the Peace movement, troubles within the Race Relations and nearing the end of the Vietnam war, America was a turbulent place to live in. Signs makes a broad and controversial statement about the American government and the way that many people saw it but didn’t want to say, many of the people depicted within the piece are now dead, multiple subjects in the picture including John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King were assassinated and their deaths seen as a conspiracy.

The piece is a flat 2d portrait composed of smaller individual images, some with white borders to make the separation apparent. The collaged images within are iconic photographs of the time probably taken from magazines, each depict the significant social make-up of the time. With a busy composition, the image is then balanced by a heavy base to the image with the largest individual pictures at the bottom, the largest of which being the image of the astronaut. At the time of the image there were many things that the American Government didn’t want to disclose and if they did, things were often put into place to take away from the severity here the joyous occasion of winning the pace race. Here Rauschenberg has fabricated that idea by depicting a lot of images with negative connotations, such as the dying man crawling out of the centre of the piece, or Martin Luther king being shown in a coffin and disguising them with an American victory putting a man onto the moon. The second largest individual section of this composition is the use of JFK’s head. Rauschenberg was friends with the Kennedys due to his powerful influence in pop culture, several years before this piece Kennedy was assassinated, being an obviously upsetting and personal time to Rauschenberg he chose to make a statement by using Kennedy as a focal point in the collage. In turn drawing the audience’s attention to what was really happening in society and the fact that even though it was trying to be covered up by the government, much like the overlap of the astronaut in the piece it was a real and emotional event.

Formal elements of both colour and line is also heavily used throughout the piece, Janis Joplin Is placed at the very top of the image in red, being the only section of an individual hue the eye is drawn to this part of the piece. The Peace movement, and the heavy use of hallucinogens was something very prominent in the sixties and this aspect of society was portrayed through the influential presence of Janis Joplin. The complementary pair of colours green and red are used in this piece to fabricate a diagonal line through the centre of the image. A selection of images in the secondary colour green contrast the red and shows the brutal nature of war by portraying pictures of army men, beginning with a truck at the top left hand corner, to a group of soldiers hugging in the centre to a dead solider crawling out of the image. Within the centre of the group of soldiers hugging there is a large and slightly out of focus hand maybe trying to portray the involvement that the American government has in the decisions of what happened during the Vietnam war. This hand is external from the image and looks out of place and awkward, this may be a direct comparison made by Rauschenberg about how he feels the Government’s is involvement with the troops in war. These create a separation between the warm harmonies of colours created by the image of Janis Joplin and Kennedy and the cool colours of the astronaut and Martin Luther king. This creates a juxtaposition, reiterated by the complementary colours, between the dark aspects of society that led to assassinations, sacrifices and deaths of innocents and the positive light that we put man on the moon. This divided within the collage creates a path for the viewer’s eye to follow, we are guided through the image by meticulously placed colours and images, telling a story of Rauschenberg’s true opinion of the state of his homeland. The collage Signs has a very flat appearance with lack of texture this has probably been chosen by Rauschenberg as the range of powerful meanings in the image and the busy composition is already quite a lot to take in on initial viewing so the addition of texture would take away from all the carefully chosen messages already there.

Upon studying work by Rauschenberg and reflection on the collages I have recently been creating, I feel that I could add a vast amount more meaning to my pieces. With each individual subject in Rauschenberg’s collage there is a specific meaning and reason to it being there. In each of my pieces I have realised I’ve just added section for the sole purpose of appearance and not to develop the meaning behind the piece.

Research on objects.

Research on the objects portraying the theme of texture.

To begin my research over this half term I decided to change the subject of my observational drawings to something with more texture and that would have a stronger ink to the overall theme of faded, trace and memories. As it is nearing closer to the remembrance day and a period of time that holds powerful memories for thousands of people the poppy is a trace back to this time for the masses. I was lucky enough to have poppies in my garden, in many stags of their development. I used this to my advantage and took these variety of stages in the life of a flower to develop an understanding off. Before starting observational sketches of the poppies I took pictures of all of the individual buds. 

These two images are both at the first stage of the poppy, the bud before they flower. At this stage the poppy hows a great deal of texture as the tiny hairs that cover the plant. these hairs are there as protection for the plant, both keeping the reproductive parts of the plant insulated in the colder weather, and as a protection against animals that attempt to feed on them. These hairs, only around 1mm in size are generally quite difficult to capture when drawing as I found when I was completing observational studies on these plants.

These next three pictures are the stage in-between budding and flowering. At this point a new dynamic is added to the plant as leaves begin develop. The top of the bud also becomes to rot and change colour and it pulls away from the flower inside, this adds to the variety of colours within the plant making it a more interesting subject to draw. As with the previous stage of the plant the whole thing is covered in tiny little hairs. This creates a juxtaposition between the delicate flowers poking through, the wilted nature of the outside of the leaf and the sharp looking nature of the hairs. 

These two images show what is left when the flower of the poppy dies away. The top of the seed pod creates for an intricate shape where the centre of the seed pod become a vanishing point. This stage of the poppy has vast contrast between the very dark top surface which is rough and raised to the very smooth and soft sides of the pod.

In this last photo of the poppy I cut inside a bud of the poppy to reveal the delicate pink petals inside. By leaving the inner pink exposed but still having the bud around it fabricates the illusion that the petals are emerging naturally from the pod much like it would do over time if left to its own devises.

After studying both of the picture of these poppies and the plants in front of me I completed some observational drawings based on mainly the second stage of the poppy. I mainly focused on the second stage of the poppy as it showed both the contrast in colours from the rotting skin to the flower inside and also the contrast in textures.

I found when completing the initial sketches it proved difficult to capture the tiny hairs on the surface of the poppy. I used the technique of using a rubber to rub away tone and to drag tone out of the image in order to create the idea of the hairs on the surface. I used the technique of cross hatching on the biro sketch which worked well as the nature of this is quite scratching much like the texture of the hairs and many lines together make a smooth texture, much like how when many hairs join together on the surface make the pod look smooth. I feel that the charcoal sketch was the most successful image, however it would have benefited from a white chalk as the actual poppy doesn't have a harsh outline similar to how I have portrayed it.

After completing these sketches I chose to revisit the techniques learnt in the collage lesson. Following the same steps as the previous lesson I completed two collages.    

I chose to do two collages in this style as they create a vast amount of texture mimicking the the textures of the surface of the poppy. By working onto a wet medium you develop a range of shade, depending on how wet the surface is, making this a fairly quick technique. I also find with working in this style the quite expressive nature of the image makes it a rather interesting piece to look at as your eyes travel with not only the general trend of the line but the shape of the collage. It also produces a 3D image with the raised paper created from pulling paper room from the page.

I intend to carry on studying texture throughout my work as it lends it self to trying many different mediums which could be beneficial when choosing the style for my final piece. I also enjoy studying poppies for their deep connection to the soldiers that have fought for our country.They are very intricate subjects and could be very suited to many different mediums. As the poppies I am studying are fresh flowers I could encounter the fact these particular subject may wilt and die and no longer give the effect I desire.