Aberystwyth University

So the semester has now finished and back home for christmas, it seems to have gone by so quick! Left with the desire of wanting more time to do more work.

The last week culminated in a Christmas exhibition organised and run by the students, in particular the MA students, at Aberystwyth School of Art which was then followed by mad dash to try and produce as many prints and scan as many negatives as possible.

In terms of the work I put on display at the exhibition, I produced the piece Ascension, which was my continuing development of iconography, shapes and symbols to form a narrative. The narrative of my life. For me, Ascension is the culmination of that narrative, to be enlightened, both spiritually and creatively.

I also started producing the image in cyanotype, hope to do a much better print soon when I get back.

I also want to continue to produce more intricate carvings to the triangular frame, to add more meaning and depth.

Fourth week has gone by and fast, already feels like time is running out!

My practice is well underway now. For the past week I have been processing and scanning the rolls of films I have shot.

I have also started developing some of them in to photo-etchings.

My research and interest has led me into depictions of alchemy, mysticism, religious and varied iconography. I am interested in creating a magic surrealism narrative in visual form, it will start from my birth and finish at a sort of ascension and/or artistic enlightment.

One level, I have started drawing from previous interests in magic surrealism novels by the likes of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Laura Esquivel. The novel of particular interest is Marquez’s book Cien Anos de Solitud (One Hundred Years of Solitude), which is written full of detailed and fantastical imagery. I see the as exaggerations of the human character and society, which is what I am interested in.

On another level my intrestest also stem from catholic and gothic depictions of christ and so on.

I will hopefully start building a model of the structure that would hold and display my photos and photo-etched plates. I envisage a triptych and/or altar in my name. A celebration and exaggeration of my life, an idolisation of me. A somewhat narcissistic and surreal view of myself. Images to follow!

Third year has started and it is the end of the first week. Ideas to what to do for the graduation show are bubbling.

Currently an growing interest in “Los Caprichos de Goya”. Ideas of creating a similar thing to that of Goyas, but in the medium of photography. Specifically in black and white 120mm film, which i have begun to grow fondly with.

The subject would be myself, more specifically elements that represent myself and multicultural identity.

An identity crisis. What am I? What has made me what I am? Am I Argentinian? Am i English? Can I call myself Spanish? Can I call myself Catalan?

Staged photographs

All the figures in the photographs are myself.

The photographs made up from several different negatives.

I seem to have neglected the blog for quite some time, but now with my final year about to begin I shall try and update this site frequently.

Update on the past months:

The Young Wysing Artist Residency was a great exprience and felt like a success.

The residency was for a month and consisted of various workshops with various different artists, whilst at the same time developing my own practice to produce something for the exhibition at the end of the residency.

The work I developed was a continuation of my previous photographic work. Which was an attempt at reflicting the mind in a visual form. The photographs are displayed in a sequential form, the sequence of thoughts during a set time.

They are also displayed alongside the thoughts in the form of automatic writings.

The question that my set myself now is whether I specialise specifically in photography or to persue a more permfomance/installation piece for this semesters examination and my final graduation exhibition.

More information about the residency on:

http://wysingyoungartists.tumblr.com/

Thought I would start off by reevaluating my last work to see how to develop it further. To continue my art in a way that explores me as a person, my emotions, my thoughts and tendecies.

My Veiled/Unveiled series at http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/3186773

My current work is mainly installation and photography based. In terms of installation based work, the subject matter is about me, my thoughts and understanding of the surroundings. My approach draws upon the idea of automatism and continuous streams of conscious thoughts as a form of expression. My interest in automatism stems in particular from Dali and the surrealists approach to it. An attempt at the following:

“Surrealism, n. Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express – verbally, by means of the written word, or any other manner – the actual functioning of thought. Dictated by thought, in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern.” (Breton, ‘Manifesto of Surrealism’, p. 26)

The use of installation is so that the viewer can receive a greater sensory experience which reflects the thoughts and workings of my mind. The installation, entitled A Conversation With Myself, is text based and every brushstroke of ink is an attempt of replicating my thoughts both in their meaning and shape. The writing fluctuates in language; it switches between English, Spanish and Catalan. At times there is change in personality depending on the language I am thinking in at the moment I place the ink on the calico or paper.

The fascination with the languages I use to express the different types of thoughts and words is what drives my work forward in this medium.

Taken from the statement of my latest piece: ‘I find anxiety in everything I step into; in every stranger I engage and talk to. I prophesy my thoughts and torments in writing, so you don’t have to’.

In terms of photography it is another medium in which I can continue to explore the subject of automatism, the conscious and the unconscious. For the Veiled Unveiled there are two parts. The first part is the ‘Veil’, which is the screen that we put up as human beings to face the world around us. The second part is the ‘Unveiled’, which is the nature and repetition of thoughts, anxieties and torments.

The black and white photography is a continuation of the subject of automatism, and thoughts. However it is an attempt to illustrate it in sequence. The sequences draw inspiration and influence in particular from the photographer Robert Frank and specifically his work entitled ‘Hold Still – Keep Going’.

My more immediate influences are predominantly from the paintings of my grandfather Cesar Jesus Blanco and great uncle Nelson Blanco that hang on the walls of my house. They are artists who I have always looked up to and the ambition to be, particularly in the medium of painting and their approach to art.