Two Faced Art

Through this blog i have come the realize my art has two audiences: the gallery audience and the site specific audience (any tom dick or harry). Both i find as exciting as each other...

Find an Embossed Paving Slab in Leeds!

My knickers fossils should be site specific, each made for the particular site (missing slab). They should be the same colour, material and should fit exactly. (Unlike my prototype: above)

I want the audience to stumble across them in and around Leeds. I am going to be furthering this in the future. Perfect for a none gallery art piece. I would send press releases to the yorkshire post to gain press coverage. Sounds fun doesn't it!

Embossed Prints= White Cube

I see my prints in a gallery setting because they are clean and crisp. They need good lighting and white walls to highlight this. The audience will view the piece better in this setting i feel. The White Cube, Mason's Yard, London would be perfect.

Google:- Torch on Face

The negative space of my embossing prints represent the body, and like the body there are good and bad ways to flatter. The lighting is crucial because my prints are beautiful and i want the lighting t0 enhance this.

Upwards lighting is very unflattering (torch on face above)

Whereas downwards lighting on each print is flattering because no harsh shadows are formed. so this is how i will light my prints. 

Gillian Wearing Knickers

Everything is connected in life 1993

Gillian Wearing's piece made me think of how the audience may view my prints, they should relate to a particular style of underwear, this is the reason i chose a variety of knickers for a series of prints.

Erin's Knickers is a photograph i took to illustrate the audience in a way is a part of the work.

(A detail of Erin's Knickers)

Bowery Exhibition Opening 07-05-09

Is a small cafe to walk into which was very busy because of the folk band entertainment. The gallery upstairs had two rooms to exhibit artworks and artist studio next door which was way too clean and tidy for my liking.. art means process and mess to me and clean= gallery space.Work was exhibited one artist per room this piece above talking about city life/structures..The next room artist used embroidery on canvas. All in all we stayed for 15 mins which I thought was quite generous considering there was no one there!

..Most interesting piece for me was on the stairwell, I liked the little illustrations on old postcards. For me wasn't a memorable opening. There wasn't any audience interaction which I expected for the opening night. This made me think of the opening for our exhibition DNA next week.. 

And guess what ..Our exhibition had been posted on the notice board!

Our opening night has been thought through carefully so that the audience attending will remember the event. For starters our exhibition opening is unique because it has stages. The audience will start at the hospital exhibition, move onto the college show which will provide food and drinks and entertainment (a guitarist maybe) and then for drinks in town. I'm excited already!

Do I Need a Paving Slab Proposal?

If you want to produce an art piece to be outside the gallery setting you with need to produce a proposal to the land owner, the commissioner or the council. These are some proposals artists produced for the art installation at Ebbsfleet in Kent (aka Angle of the South);

Rachel Whiteread:

Christopher Le Brun:

Richard Deacon:

Daniel Buren:

Mark Wallinger (winner):

Where do i exhibit my paving slab?

If i where to replace a paving slab in the city centre i would need to speak to the council which would mean putting in a proposal and may become a long process.

or

I could wait to find a missing paving slab somewhere. I have seen a missing slab in Hyde Park but in this location it is mainly students passing so i wouldn't get that mixture of audience that i could from the city centre location. But does this matter? This location would be a lot easier.

(My paving slab still a little damp)

Guardian... Turner Prize 2009 Shortlist Announced

The nominees are:

More from Frieze 'News In'..Illegal fireworks show Beijing

Frieze 'News In' Blog... B of the Bang

Mark Wallinger's Proposal for Public Art Sculpture

Kate Kretz's Website

Kate Kretz

Physical Memory/ Last Goodbye Dress 2002.

I feel that Kretz's work is quite dark and morbid which is emphasized by her dark website. On the home page there is a link to see her most recent works provided by www.flickr.com. Flickr is light with little going on to avoid any distraction for the images. Kretz's works are immediately seen in a different way which i think is interesting as the viewer. I feel that her intentions of the dark website is a reflection of the morbid art but i don't think she made the right decision. I feel that her website takes away from her art. The piece above reminded me of something I tried with my prints.

Using my embossed prints I used photography to photograph the presence back onto the underwear. The result was interesting but I felt that clothing is enough of a signifier of the female form that the prints themselves were enough. Sometimes less is more maybe Kate Kretz should take this into consideration when designing her website!

St James Hospital ...advice please?

I have been thinking about the opportunity we have to exhibit at the Atrium Gallery at St James Hospital. The underwear embossing i have been talking about in previous blogs made me think about hospital issued underwear. The white prints also reminds me of hospitals clinically clean white surroundings, the hospital patients could relate to. The prints although quite beautiful may be seen as quite dark. But do the patients in the hospital want to relate to being in hospital? Will the prints be inappropriate for the audience? Does anyone have any comments about this issue?

Commercial manufacturer verses Artists hands

I understand that using a service like Laser Etch is a good way to open up different options for an art piece, ways of thinking and Laser Etch is good because they will etch on to almost any material. Unlike artists like Damien Hirst i prefer to get my hands dirty were ever possible because i feel there is a quality to the imperfectness of natural course that the work take when make by the artist hand. Commercial business's which can do all the work for you use large machinery which will never make a mistake.. you lose the uniqueness in my opinion.

Also the process is only an etch which means the impression isn't very deep. The deep embossings is what i think make the prints work. I am have been thinking that i am going to follow up the idea of replacing a paving slab with the embossed knickers in cement. In most art galleries the art work can not be touched and stewards gallery goers are at all times. I like the idea the audience could just walk over the art piece with out noticing it.

Amanda Fielder's Artist Statement

Amanda Fielder is really does really interesting work. She tries to strip any connotations of the clothing to just use the clothing as a material to make a completely new form. But she said, 'What does a “dress” really signify anyways?' and then proceeds to say nothing to except a material to her. Which is a valid statement but I just feel that everyone has memories and connotations of a dress or a bra. And I think its important to consider the audience (especially using found objects) who can form connections to an art piece just based on their memories and connotations from the materials the artist uses. Personally I find the history behind found objects a really abundant to start creating work. Making artist statements is good way to sort the important aspects of your art, so you can focus on these with out getting distracted.

I would have liked Fielder to have talked more concisely of the piece's she was making and how she made her decisions of how she put things together... I sometimes find i useful to set a few rules or restrictions for your self before making a piece rather than a statement.

I particularly like this piece by Fielder...

Belts
36" x 12" x 12"
cotton, bra strap, old sweater, belts
2008

Audiences around Leeds...

I've been thinking of different locations for my prints and thinking about if this would change how the art is viewed. The streets around Burley and Hyde Park Leeds have interesting washing lines between the streets. I've been thinking about the clean crisp print and the original used undies. I have been experimenting to see if the prints will have a sense of history and age if i hang them out in all terrain to be weathered on these washing lines.

GB commented on a prievious blog saying that the prints remind him of fossils and that i should maybe use this an draw the undies onto floors. I like the idea that the prints may go unnoticed and thought i could replace a paving slab with an embossed slab. It would be interesting to see if anyone notices the prints as thy walk over them and what their reactions would be.

Around the Leeds City Art Gallery there would be a mixture of gallery goers, students, families, business men and the genral public walking through all the time. This could be a good place for the work as its away from the formal controlled gallery setting but in a good location for a number of different audiences to notice the work.

It may be quite interesting to continue with the washing line weathering performance as i like the idea of the outcome being uncontrollable...

Then to take the prints back to the 'white cube' gallery setting which is very controlled from all aspects. The contast of audience could be quite interesting to observe. I think the gallery goers would have a different perception of the piece as they may have prior knowledge of art but fundamentally they know they are in an art gallery to view art. Where as the performance piece being viewed by the general public and away from any art institution, could very possiblly not be seen as a piece of art at all...

Abjection Theory?

I have found there are connotations with white clothing of angels, purity, innocence, Christian traditions of white weddings and saving ones self for one person, naivety. I think the prints subtly hold some of these values being crisp clean and white and the audience may see the prints and relate to some connotations like these. But in contrast, the prints being made from other peoples used undies, which for all the audience knows could be red pink black colours with opposite connotations to white. 

The prints have been made from underwear of all shapes, sizes, colours and are all second hand with varying need of the bin! Upon being faced with some one else's used knickers, a person would be most likely repulsed because he or she is forced to face an object which is cast out of weston culture. Knickers are supposed to be private, only worn for a day to be slung in the washing machine.

I am really interested in finding out more about Abjection Theory as I have sparse knowledge. Correct me if I'm wrong.. Abjection has a lot to do with disorder and barriers of the body, for example blood, blood is abject because the skin (barrier) is broken and this disorder reminds us of our mortality. Or spit, spit is abject because the barrier from the body has been crossed also. Knickers aren't abject, but they are made to protect a barrier between the body.. any bodily fluids on the knickers, they are abject!.. 

I think the initial response to the prints and the response upon knowledge of how the prints are made are contrasting and this intrigues me...

I previously talked about working with the female form and vintage under wear (the hold all lumps and bumps in kind). From developing my work it has become apparent that its the history behind the vintage undies which I am interested in. I have been using second hand undies which are faded and used but have been collecting all types of underwear from tongs to 'granny pants' because everyone from all ages of the audience could relate to a particular style. i like the contrast of the used knickers which anyone would be squeamish to be near and the clean crisp print (above). By using the subtle technique of embossing on to thick paper, the impression leaves a frozen presence that they where once there, like the impression which one gets from clothes on their skin.

I was thinking about how art goers perceive art works in the traditional "white cube" situation. I want to explore alternative places and how this may enhance or change the meaning of the art piece. to be more specific i was thinking abut my work and the piece I'm working on at the moment. I'm working with the female form and vintage underwear (the hold all lumps and bumps in kind) and thought i would be interesting to take the prints out into the urban setting. by hanging my prints out on washing lines the piece wouldn't necessarily be seen by the gallery goer. watch this space...

I've been thinking of accessible alternative venues/audiences to exhibit art work, when a mate invited me to a drawing session round his. Where else is more accessible than your front room? It's brilliant covering surfaces with paper, bringing in old doors, vegetables and then piling in the art materials. It's a collaboration, with pen's at the ready everyone drawing from one another (no pun intended!) And its interesting to observe as the night moves forward where the drawing takes people, even more so with the bevy's kicking in! What i like most of all is seeing all the blank canvases at the beginning of the night and there is no way of knowing what is going to become of them....