Another two posts for today, and then onto rereading John Berger’s book Why Look at Animals?
This first post will concentrate on another two design ideas I had for my installation work.
This first design idea comes in two parts, and outside design idea and also an inside design idea.
With this design I wanted to initially create a sense of security and calmness within the viewer. By first confronting them with a bricked walled face of a house, with windows a door and other house necessities.
The viewer would enter the space through the “front” door and walk into a small cramped living area with some necessities in the area, such as a chair or a table and maybe a bed too.
These are a few ideas that I have been concerned with at the moment, I want my viewer to have some sort of experience in the space, I want them to e confronted by their own “homely” place, BUT I was a bit stuck on how to make it more zoo like (hopefully the next post will start to unravel more of my thoughts and feelings and add some direction to where I’m thinking of going next)
Recently I’ve been working on some ideas for my degree show. This post is going to concentrate on a few designs that I’ve been working on for a while. They all have evolved from some of my ideas and art works from last year where I started to create boxed environments for canvased animals to inhabit. This year, I have been working on taking this idea further and have started to think and create environments for humans within a zoo environment – through the use of installation.
This image is a design I took to my tutors right at the start of this Uni year. It depicts both an indoor environment with a bed and an entertainment area and also an outdoor environment for a human to live in. With this design I wanted the viewer to be confronted with a small environment with minimal living appliances and gain a sense of entrapment and wonder.
Whilst undertaking my dissertation, I read Why Look at Animals? by John Berger, where he describes through 8 short chapters about the usage of animals in historical and presnt society, from the days of cave paintings through to modern day zoos. For my dissertation there was a couple of points that Berger made that related to some of the artists I was looking at, but also related to the work I am creating now. Over the next few days I will put up a whole post on John Berger, with specific examination on the section apart zoos and the tokens they use – and how these will relate to my upcoming works.
So I’ve realised it’s been a little while since my last post – BUT now I’m back – and ready with numerous ideas, sketchbook pages and numerous draft posts to update you with. These will allbe updated over the next couple of days …
Exciting stuff still to come … but I have a little back log to post first
After three months of solely tapping away at my Dissertation and threatening numerous times to throw the laptop out of the window I have FINISHED!!!
Now that it’s finished and ready to hand in I can now re-start creating more artworks … drawings, paintings and sculptures and finally get my head around my end of year show installation! (And also I need to update my blog a lot more!)
But for now – I think – I will have a well-earned break … feet up, cuppa tea, watch some general rubbish on the tv, sketch book out and hide that laptop :D can’t wait
Just wanted to share this little interesting information that I came across whilst researching Butchers and Abatoirs for my dissertation last week.
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/babys-first-butcher-shop-circa-1900/
This article shows the differences in toys that children were playing with 100 years apart.
The first image shows a Victorian butchers shop toy for children It consists of a Butcher, animal carcasess hanging from hooks, little knives and blood stained floors. A grisly toy in comparisons to a hundred years later and the toys children are playing with today also.
The second image depicts a Barbie’s toy McDonalds set. This consits of a bright plastic shell of a sturcture, plastic seating and plastic food
As the article goes onto say at the bottom:
“In the 19th century, kids were taught how to purchase select cuts from fresh cow carcasses. A hundred years later, they were encouraged to consume overly processed ground beef and trans-fatty French fries from a fast-food behemoth. Which is worse, really?”
Don’t know about you, I’d much rather play with the butchers shop anyday. Although my current work is not looking to toys, I thought that this article was interesting as the comparison of todays toys to ones in history is slightly shocking to read and think about at first (to me anyway) but also how plastic and slightly fake the world has become.
I’ve recently started to look at barriors in my work (and the works of others) and how a barrior can be used to invite the viewer into the piece or repell the viewer and keep them away from whats inside … like a zoo and their enclosures, they look inviting the animal that lives in there is less than welcoming.
Hix.L (2012) Baby’s First Butcher’s Shop, Circa 1900 [Online] Available at: http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/babys-first-butcher-shop-circa-1900/ Accessed on: 3/11/2012
