University Campus Suffolk

Doris Salcedo

Colombian Sculptor Doris Salcedo’s Shibboleth is a series of intrusive cracks invading through the concrete floor of the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in London. Shibboleth is part of The Unilever Series, a series of work where the Tate invites an artist to make a work especially for the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. The annual series has seen some of the most innovative works.

Shibboleth

Shibboleth is the first of the series of works to intervene directly into the fabric of the Turbine Hall, rather that fill this iconic space with an installation or sculpture. She has created a hidden crevice that stretches the length of the turbine hall.

The concrete walls of the crevice are ruptured by a steel mesh fence, creating a tension between these elements that resist yet depend on one another.

Salcedo aims to address the perception of a long legacy of racism and colonialism that underlies the modern world.

Her cracks so a perspective of looking down and seeing what lies beneath the normal, when you walk in it has quite a subtle feeling, however looking in reveals a feeling of catastrophe.

Salcedo comments on how her cracks show and fill the space with an intrusive presence, an unwelcoming feeling like an immigrant. Like an immigrant intruding without permission.

Why Doris Salcedo?

I was initially interested in this piece of work for the appearance. It showed close relation to some of my images that I had taken with the muddy pathways. It was interesting to see the work and then research and unveil the reasons as to why she created such powerful invasions and the contextual reasons lurking beneath. Finding out the context of the work actually made the whole thing ten times more powerful for me to look at. This is something to look at whilst the degree show fast approaches.

What am I trying to show? What is it about?

When taking the context into consideration I find it particularly fascinating because wherever you choose to look or at which point you stop along the cracks, the reasons and meanings are always present. You can relate and delve into a history and a past.

This is something to think about in my work, for example:

If I turn my image upside down does it still represent the same?

If I focus on a close up of the image on a large scale does it still have the same presence of the same image?

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/unilever-series-doris-salcedo-shibboleth

Video of Doris Salcedo taking about Shibboleth – http://bcove.me/6362wi09

Small experimental works

Currently all my small scale mixed media works are taken from my first set of darker gloomier images. Some of them however are depicted lighter or more vibrant in my paintings. This tells me that I do have an attraction to the more vivid colour. I am however, as talked about in a previous post trying to control my use of colour and using more realistic colours. I have wanted to go out on brighter days and take more pictures to see the light and how the colours become more attractive to me.

What my small images perceive.

•A semi abstract approach to the landscape.

I am happy with the level of abstraction that my work has adopted over time. It references my relationship with the landscape, however has slight areas of misunderstanding. I am really enjoying working small scale because it is allowing me to add layers and build up texture as well as restrain from some areas for effect. I have then been adding pen detail when dry.

•Expressing an identity through colour, texture and shape.

I am still trying to find the middle between bold unrealistic colours and realistic with vibrancy.

•A mixed media method

Layering of textures and paint with

•Pen work to add slight detail

Adding different thickness pen into the images to complete small intimate detail

Hamish Fulton- Dissertation Links

The bold paragraphs of text are extracts taken from my dissertation.

Hamish Fulton is a walking artist whose articulations towards the natural environment are strongly influenced by the physical aspects of the walks he takes and the views that he perceives during particular journeys. Fulton refers to the maxim, “no walk, no work”. (Auping, M. 1987, p.37)

Hamish Fulton’s work is very process driven, using his body as a physical base to his work. He takes a photo physically projected from his body with a 360 degree range, from which a point of the perimeter has to be selected to photograph. The point, in which he chooses to photograph a particular point, is a result of his physical involvement with it. (Auping, M. 1987.p37)

“Fulton does not approach nature as ‘landscape’, in the traditional sense of a still image, but as a physical experience”. (Auping, M 1987.P.37)

Although Hamish Fulton’s Outcome of work is not something that really relates to my work, the subject matter and process is massively inspiring. The way in which he allows the natural environment to have affected his works is exciting. The digital outcome and statements of his work is something that is of less interest to me, it is more his unique ways of working which are why I am fascinated by him as an artist.

The natural environment is something that Fulton allows to have a massive influence on his work; this being the terrain and weather that often changes during his walks. These factors become crucial elements of chance where the work is determined by the length of the walk, the direction and the number of photographs that are taken as a result of this. (Auping, M. 1987 p.37) “My work is about nature and it seems proper to determine events en route”. (Auping, M, 1987, p.37)

My photographs have a certain amount of control in them. I choose to walk around and take pictures when I feel it will work or show differentiation. This aspect of Fulton’s work can show similarities in the way that the rain would affect his work just as much as the sun because it physically takes its effect by not allowing him to continue or not talking so many photos or opposing effect. For me the weather is physically taking effect on my work when documenting my experience in the studio, either with colour or light and texture.

Fulton is known for his repetitiveness of many routes on his walks. In an interview with Ben Tufnell, Fulton’s response to the question regarding the repetitiveness of walking was adamantly positive. “Yes, I’ve made several repeat walks on the same routes. Just as fast walks are very interesting so are walks that go over the same route every day.” (Fulton, H, N.D. Tufnell, B, 2002, p.109

This is something that I really am interested in. nature is always changing and something that Fulton sees one day he may not the next and therefore the things that he experiences are documenting in a very precise way in his works.

My process:

I have currently repeated my walk twice, taking photos when I feel I make that connection to the landscape. They show massive similarities however the light brightened up on set and I am now starting to look at the comparisons they depict and how my outcome differs.

Things to consider:

•Walking the same half an hour journey everyday- depicting it

•Write notes on what I see or think

•How the outcome changes

Kastner, J. (2012), Nature, London: Whitechapel gallery.

Mckibben, B,(2002). Hamish Fulton. First Edition. Tate Publishing

The paragraph below in bold is a few sentences taken from my dissertation. I am looking back and joining to my studio practice in areas where there are strong links.

English Critic, John Berger in ‘Ways of Seeing’ talks about how we see something before we speak or describe it. How every image embodies a way of seeing, it is a way of recreating or reproducing a sight. Strong relation can be made to how Fulton selects a point of the landscape, Berger talks about how we look at a photograph and consciously know that we are looking at a selected image within the surroundings. “Every time we look at a photograph, we are aware however slightly, of the photographer selecting that sight from an infinity of other possible sights”. (Berger, J, 1972, p.10)

This was a snip of my dissertation which I have found very interesting whilst walking and taking my photographs. I take the photographs from the attraction that I feel. As soon as I see something that interests me I stop and capture that particular moment. Working from the photograph then is recalling the memory and the feelings that I felt at a specific time.

In relation to John Berger’s statement regarding that the viewer is slightly aware of the other sights around that could have been depicted I have also started to think about this.

•Why do I take a picture facing a certain way?

•Why from a particular angle with the camera?

•Why do I zoom in on some parts of the landscape, and step back to capture more in others?

•Does the viewer view the images the same when they were not looking through the lens?

The lighting in my previous park images was dull and gloomy due to the weather. Recently I have taken another walk in the same area on a brighter day and captured some more images which are brighter and make the landscape comer across differently. This is because the light highlights certain areas and makes parts stand out which before all seemed to merge together in a gloomy glare. The shadows and reflections that the sun creates are also giving a much more exciting appearance.

The pictures on the right are some of the pictures that I took on the brighter day. The walk was repeated and I wanted to see some of the parts of the landscape I was attracted to with the different light. I wanted to see if I was attracted to different areas when the weather was nicer.

Did the weather have an alternate effect on my physical relationship with the landscape?

Berger, J. (1972) Ways of seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corporation; Penguin Books.

Here are some more of Gerhard Richters images that i am looking at and inspired from…

These painintgs are all taken from the Abstraktes Bild collection.

Abstraktes Bild

Abstraktes Bild was a second breakthrough of Richter’s of 1977. The collection was a substantial amount of colourful abstract works. These offered an energetic investigation into optics and perception, planes, depth, space, shape, form, colour and light, suggestive of everything from microscopic studies of matter through to scales evocative of the geological and cosmological.

http://www.gerhard-richter.com/biography/the-1970s-exploring-abstraction-6/?search=abstraktes+bild#abstraktes+bild