Stephen Fry with Care Bear Head
(continued)
It has come to the point where I’m grabbing family members on the off chance that they will pose for me in the bear head, but it’s good I’m not complaining, they are quite willing. This here is Tom, bro in law, and previous model. Just thinking who I can persaude next.
Looks a little spontaneous which is thumbs up, Tim says it captures the spirit of the original pap, I didn’t want it looking staged. I think this is because the photos are taken in the out house in the dark, it was freezing and we were in a rush (as always).
I’m planning on taking as many of these photos as I can, with anyone, and present them in a block/ grid format. It reminds me of Sesame Street’s game ‘one of these people is not like the others’ from way back, where the tv screen was didvided and we had to guess the odd one out.
I don’t believe my work particularly engages with humour but it seems a dirty word in contemporary art, as if it devalues any seriousness or depth. I would have to disagree with that.
Knitting the Sky
(new project)
Blimey it feels like I haven’t added a post for ages now, I got so used to posting every night but it proved unsustainable, just couldn’t keep it up!!
I’ve been pretty busy still, working on the Stephen Fry project, although it’s been stalled a little since I’m having to rely on the availability of friends willing to model.
In the meantime I’ve put a logical hat on and decided to continue with other projects not requiring models, hence Knitting the Sky. This idea was an extension of another I had from the summer (remember when it was warm enough to go out in a t-shirt?):~ take a photo of the sky everyday at the same time for a week then produce a piece/ something knitted in a matching shade from that day.
Off to a good start, I bought lots of wool in shades of blue and this one here matched quite nicely. I say matched, more of a similar shade because in reality that’s completely impossible.
Now I’m thinking looking at a swatch of plain knitting is enough to kill anyone with boredom. It has to be something. In celebration of randomness it came to me that knitting glasses or an eye patch would be interesting. So here are some first attempts. (I’m not convinced…) I’m visualising a self portrait photo against the sky with the glasses/ eye patch.
Then I thought perhaps a full head balaclava to match the sky. It wasn’t until I looked at this photo with the eye patch that I thought of using objects instead – an old school telephone for instance – so there would be a different object each day, knitted and photographed against the sky. Bingo.
Sometimes ideas are little more than instict, currently void of any intellectual depth. That’s OK.
Stephen Fry Care Bear Head Reenaction
Aha! So I finally persuaded my other half to be my model…
The photo had to imitate the original celeb pap but more pertinently be a bit hashed and most definitely not sleek. There are a few artists around who are making accurate, skillful photographic re-enactments and although their work is brilliant, I’m always more interested in a home made job. It has to be a little off kilter.
Excuse the photo quality though, these are scanned in on my printer, that’s why they’re so grainy.
Literally I only took two snaps in the end, it was freezing cold but this added a bit of movement and urgency in the pose I believe. Put the two images side by side they are very different yet have some obvious similarities which is what I was aiming for, like a hybrid;
“a possible release from the singular identities” – (Bhabha)
I’m working on the blind drawing reenactments next, lots to sort out regarding texture and gesture. I have wondered how far I could take this concept (a bit like Chinese Whispers)…start with the original photo, photo reenactment, blind drawing reenactment… taking the original meaning and watering it down till it’s all murky.
Looking forward to Cornelia Baltes’ exhibition Hooloovoo at Aspex Gallery, Gunwharf; If you don’t get a chance to visit then definitely check it out online…
http://www.aspex.org.uk/art/gallery_1/hooloovoo
Last night I made a few more preliminary blind sketches, this time the model posed to reconstruct the Fry photo and I got him to wear the bear head! Anyhow, they were quick sketches, I certainly didn’t spend too much time on them.
Looking at them the next day, really they are just random scribbles… if you didn’t know their context this would be the conclusion anyone would make. In retrospect then, the drawings require much more time and thought, perhaps using a few different pens at any time to describe in detail what is felt. It’s not that I want to make the drawings look like the photograph, rather I feel that they need more about them, more to look at.
In drawings 1 + 2 I can see the contours of the arms holding the bear head…
This weekend I’m planning on finishing this little project with the aim to uploading it to a new web site later on. In my head I have a vision of the original Fry photo, then my reconstruction photo next to it then finally the blind drawing of the reconstruction. Don’t know just yet if I can take it further, just mulling that one over.
I was reading Lee Devonish’blog last night.
www.a-n.co.uk/p/1553698/
He was talking about the requirement for a sketchbook at uni, and particularly having to show development of work ‘in the margins’. It struck a chord because for me, keeping a sketchbook at uni was difficult. Sure there are assessment requirements, but couldn’t there be some room for flexibility? It got me thinking about alternative interpretations of a sketchbook… a photo diary, a digital video diary and how about a blog???
Stephen Fry/ Care Bear with Blind Reconstruction Drawings
My starting point is an image from Heat, a pap of Stephen Fry wearing a Care Bear head. I’m fascinated with the concept of reconstruction and initially decided to straight forward photograph a model wearing similar gear and in a similar pose.
Since discovering the ‘blind’ drawing approach featured in Drawing Projects by Maslen and Southern, I’ve changed my mind about this. The technique aims to achieve a ‘feeling response’ and a direct connection between the hand that draws and the hand that feels. Basically you draw blindfolded and interpret what you feel with the other hand. It’s exceptionally liberating, particularly for someone who has lost touch with drawing, its purpose and potential.
It isn’t enough just to take a photo. Using this technique I will draw what I feel, it’s yet another step away from an accurate reconstruction, more like Chinese whispers. The truth of the photograph and the event becomes ever more grainy and distorted.
I’ve used a bear’s head in place of the care bear head as a starter. I’m aiming to feel out the reconstruction in it’s entirity in one go and draw it out. At the moment I’m thinking about what format this could take. Life size, A4? Which pens to use or even try paint?
Integral to this technique, are the following issues; not really knowing where you are on the paper at any one time and an in-continuity of line. There’s a spontaneity to the end result which is great, you are almost absolved of any responsibility! There’s a lightness but greater concentration to mark making.
The pink oil pastel has a touch of George Condo about it; ugly and course. Like it ;)
