On the 22nd of this month, I have visited London’s Tate modern. The main aim of my visit was to understand what type of work drags me in the most. What I found out was that digital work and big scale installations interest me way more than photographs and ready mades. Another thing that I found out is that paintings that have had a digital source interest me more than paintings of the ‘old’ times.
For example work by Wilhelm Sasnal. The work was made in 2011 and is titled Gaddafi 1, medium Oil paint on canvas.
Wilhelm Sasnal is a polish painter and film-maker who uses photographs as a starting point for his paintings. He either finds them on the internet by chance of by seeking for them. This painting is one of the three and is based on the broadcast coverage of the killing of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Here in this painting, Sansal depicts the body of the deposed leader as an abstract mass of thickly applied paint to imply a violent death.
One of the aspects of Sasnal’s work that I enjoy is the colour pallete and its use to create minimalist works.
In the case of installations, an installation by Jenny Holzer was something I was looking forward to. Her work has been my inspiration since the first year of education at the university when I accidentally found her work in one of the hidden galleries in london in the first year.
Her work speaks to me with its focus on putting out a statement or a thought that could also be very controversial.
Unfortunately her artist rooms were no longer there as 2019 was its last year. But her work Blue Purple Tilt, 2007 was still there. The work drag me in with its flashy colours seeping through other rooms, leading me towards it. The work includes a survey of Holzer’s writings.
It was a big pleasure for me to see her work in flesh and it left a big impact on me.
For the second half of the module where we have to produce two (18 editions) prints using two different processes, I have decided to use the RISO printer.
The design for the riso print is closely connected to my degree project. I have scanned my two sides of the installation, combined them and added text saying ,,you and gaze” and ,,gaze and you”. The text indicates the relationship between the viewer and the print. As Jacque Lacan’s theory says, the gaze just exists in the world all around us. The print reminds the viewer to always remember the gaze. Its not visible in the print, but it’s ‘said’ or more specifically mentioned.
The colours decision is based on the visuals of the two sides. Pink side goes alongside the warm toned side. Blue alongside the more cold toned side.
Here is how the final print is supposed to look like. It is just a design created online. Each of the colours is separated now and will be printed out and a picture of the final print will be included later on.
UPDATED
After trying out different paper colours, i have decided to use a grey/brown paper. This is the result.
SPACE Colchester provides a creative spaces, workshops and training programmes like Creative Practitioner Support Programme run on the Colchester hub, which provides a peer-to-peer feedback and so forth. The Online Collaborative Residency is a 14 week programme in which 12 artists have been selected to collaborate in pre-established pairs to create a collaborative project/ artwork that will be present on the SPACE website.
I was lucky enough to be selected alongside my now collaboration partner, fashion degree graduate Katie Schreiber. The reason for us two to be paired is the focus we have on identity, the gaze (mostly the male gaze) and interest in theories and so forth.
What we decided to was to create a series of photographs in which we would be transforming ourselves into our drag personas. The overall project idea was to invade one other’s personal space in connection to the notions of the male gaze theory. Throughout the project, the main focuses were on identity, sexuality, confidence and self-love.
HOW?
The photographs are self portraits and then edited by the partner, letting the other person look into our private moments. Keeping ourselves vulnerable.
here are three photographs that I took:
And here is how Katie cropped/edited them:
And here are edits of Katie’s photos, edited by me
It will be more explained on our page on the SPACE website. This will be published in the following days. I can then provide more on the project, our poems connecting to it etc.
Adding a new layer on the other side of the installation means that I am getting close to the end and the degree show installing.
Here is the layer: What I enjoy about the work is the thickness of it. The colours work well together and still make a contrast to each other.
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Here is my plan for the show, a little drawing with numbers needed to get the measurements right.
Because each A3 canvas weights around 0,3 kg and on each of the wires that go across the space will be 3 of them, the wire needs to be able to carry at least a kilo of weight. That is why I bought a wire capable of carrying as much as 50lbs and is 31 meters long (which should be enough even for the canvases that will hang from the wire).
For its fixing, I have decided to use the eye hooks. It will be easy to get them drilled into the top of the walls and to screw them into the paintings as well.
| I dont mind ruining the top of the paintings because as I said, the painting is an installation | The wood, or the frame on which the canvas is stretched on is soft, so screwing in the hooks is easy and quick. I will just need to measure in which two spots they will be screwed in as I need them to be balanced
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The blue canvas is just a test, not the painting for the installation. The testing for the sizes of hooks.
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30 May 2022 update
After two days of painting the walls of our spaces, I tried to play with the possible placements of the paintings. I therefore created a drawing in space. The main focus here was on deciding how far from each other the paintings should be and if it responds to my previous sketch. (In my first drawing, the space between the paintings was 2m, the decision of 1,5m was visually better in the end). A decision of which side goes where was the other essential thing as the windows or the door that are behind the work can change the way the installation looks. I have decided to put the green side where you can see the door in the back and pink with windows.
Here is what the top of the paintings look like. What I tried before with the hooks worked out in the end.
I go the help of technicians and got my wires where they needed to be and could use my fishing wire to hang my paintings.
With some fails on the way and imbalanced paintings, I still managed to put all of them up. I did not focus here on any measurements.
Here is photos from when I measured everything and made every painting straight.
Simon Carter has been mentioned in my blog before in connection to my underpainting/drawing style. Simon Carter is an artist and curator from Essex.
From his presentation that he gave us in February alongside the opening of the Interim exhibition, I got to learn about his process of working.
SKETCHING
Simon Carter’s way of working firstly includes drawing that are then the reference for his paintings. From what I remember and what you can see, Simon creates tons of drawings before actually painting, making the process an artwork itself.
This for example is a drawing of a lake that after drawing more and more becomes this amazing painting.
Simon Carter, Walking Home in Winter. Im not quite sure about the dimensions as I took all the information from his blog https://www.simoncarterpaintings.co.uk/blog and couldnt find the right link between the paintings and measurements
