articulated-disarticulated

RIP Trish Keenan

2011-01-15T01:35:00.002Z

Trish Keenan died yesterday following complications caused by flu. It is really sad, she was a wonderful artists, my sympaths are with her family and friends. RIP. Here is the statement from Warp records.

"It is with great sadness we announce that Trish Keenan from Broadcast passed away at 9am this morning in hospital. She died from complications with pneumonia after battling the illness for two weeks in intensive care.

Our thoughts go out to James, Martin, her friends and her family and we request that the public respect their wishes for privacy at this time.

This is an untimely tragic loss and we will miss Trish dearly - a unique voice, an extraordinary talent and a beautiful human being. Rest in Peace."

2010-09-04T23:03:00.003+01:00

Here are the collages I have been working on, I said earlier that I would maybe scan them and I have done. Some of them I really like and some of them I don't like so much. I have been trying to think of them spatially and as working drawings for installations, rather then literal collage or anything figurative.

These are some really rubbish still life drawings from my sketchbook, I don't mind admitting they are rubbish as they took minutes to draw, but I would like to do more still lifes, maybe have a sketchbook full of them but a blank A4 sketchbook not a moleskin, and perhaps use paint and ink on them. At the bottom is also a bad drawing for a shelf idea.

2010-09-04T22:08:00.008+01:00

So here are some reference images.
I have been thinking a lot about shelves, and I really want to develop some work with shelves, I would particularly love to use a supermarket shelving unit. However I do not feel this is appropriate for the collections project, I think I need to develop the shelves in the studio, I feel 15 is too much to have on one shelf, and I do not have the funds to buy numerous shelves or to get a shopping unit.
I have also been thinking about have visual fragments on a cork notice board. I like the idea, but I feel it could be a bit cliche, I am not sure why but there is something about the idea that I am unsure of. I also again think 15 is too high a number for this.
I have thought a lot about tables and I would love to have a long table with object, images and visual fragments that change over time, however again, not having access to workshops funds make this not a good idea for this project, however I do want to develop the idea.
Oh, and I have been thinking about the hanky code for the whole of this year, trying to work out a way to make work around it.

2010-09-04T21:50:00.003+01:00

Alice Channer's work really interests me, I am interested in her choice of materials, how she uses them, the subtlety and slightness of the actual work, but how at the same time the works become so important and central to the space that they are in that is seems difficult to imagine the space without them. She seems to be able to fill space with the slightest of gestures, which is really beautiful. Below are some quotes that interested me which I picked up from a video of her talking through her show 'Worn Work' at the Approach in London, which is on the ArtReview website.
"The moment of being in the room, this room with these relics"
"Use the gallery as a magnifying glass"
"Your body, or my body, or the body of the wall"
"The relationship between clothing and the body"

2010-09-04T21:39:00.006+01:00

I first saw Claire Barclay's work as The Guardian's artist of the week. I love the design references in her work, what I can only refer to as the elegance, and the way she uses minimalism and reduce work to only what is needed without it becoming sparse. Her use of pre-exciting objects and her own structures just keeping it unfussy. I really admire her minimalism and how she uses objects, her work seems neither minimalist art nor assemblage but seems to encompass both.
I think I struggle with the balance between an abundance in assemblage and keeping work simple and minimal as I, to a degree, seek out and want to do both, and I think in that way Barclay's work shows that keeping work simple or minimal doesn't mean I have to lose the reference or the objects, they can co-exist.

2010-09-04T21:35:00.002+01:00

Here are some photos of the Villa Santo-Sospir via MONDOBLOGO. Jean Cocteau was a visitor, and his drawings can be seen on the walls.

2010-08-29T00:24:00.006+01:00

I have recently stumbled upon the work of Nairy Baghramian. I adore it. Her work appears like minimal encoded but beautiful sculptures and installations playing with the language of art, interiors and design. Contained in the work are dense reference, yet even without knowledge of the reference the work is still entrancing.
I think for me, her work is important, not just for the language of and the reference in the work (I am too interested in exploring art, interiors and design heritage in my work), but also the way she uses both assemblage and made pieces. I have struggles with this conflict in my work (and still do) about installation, assemblage work which attempts to function like collage or bricolage, and waiting to make minimalist sculptures and environments. I think I can balance the two and have them both as part of my practice. I think one of the main challenges for me in third year is working out what is my practice, what is relevant, and what has been experimentation and emulation. I think I need to stop worrying about it looking like art, and stop worrying about aesthetics becoming increasingly important, and instead just do what I feel is important and is my work.
Anyway, sorry I don't have more information on Nairy Baghramian, you can find more information here.

2010-08-29T00:06:00.009+01:00

I really want some sheets of coloured lighting gel plz, thank you!
Here are some reference images.

Some images are from the very wonderful the The Face (1980–2004) Flickr group.

2010-08-26T23:55:00.001+01:00

I took some book out of the library, and got about then old videos for free (including Querelle). I got out a book about collage, Roland Barthes Image Music Text, Walter Benjamin The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, and (this is my favourite one, it is so beautiful) the Habitat Catalogue 1971 - 73. I might scan some collages or drawings I have been doing this week, however I also might not, as I am still somewhat nervous about them.

2010-08-26T23:30:00.001+01:00

I stumbled upon Jennifer Smith's flickr photostream. She is a recent illustration graduate from Cambridge School of Art. Her illustration are lovely, simple yet detailed. I really love her still lifes, as previously blogged I have been researching still lifes for the summer project, and have been drawing some still lifes. I think I might buy a cheap sketchbook and fill it up with still lifes as some reference material. Anyway have a look at Jennifer Smith's work. The still lifes are here, here, here, here and here.

2010-08-26T23:18:00.001+01:00

Looking at Camilla Engman's flickr stream took me to the organised collection pool. It has really lovely photos of people collections nicely displayed. I also like its classification that a collection has to be more then two items, I wish we had that for summer project. Here are some of the photos from the pool that I love two of them are by virginhoney (and here), one by knitalatte11 and one by Hindsvik.

2010-08-26T23:09:00.004+01:00

I really like these Organized Collection's by Camilla Engman. Camilla Engman also has work here.

2010-08-21T17:49:00.004+01:00

I don't think I will be able to make it to this show, The New Decor, which is a shame as it looks and sounds amazing. It is about artists using interior design.
"The New Decor is an international survey with over 30 contemporary artists whose work elaborates on the common vocabulary of interior design. By reconfiguring and reinventing the familiar objects of domestic life such as chairs, tables, beds, lighting, wallpaper and flooring, these artists look beyond design and function to create provocative sculptures and installations. By drawing out the social, historical and personal stories which are embedded in the everyday objects that surround us, the artists aim to open up the discussion about interior space in different parts of the work, and in different social contexts, with interpretations ranging from the absurd and the horrifying to the lyrical."
It sounds like the kind of work I am interested in, and areas I am interested in. I was excited about the whole show, but particularly in seeing the work of Martin Boyce, Tom Burr, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Elmgreen & Dragset, Urs Fischer, Mona Hatoum, Jim Lambie, Sarah Lucas, Manfred Pernice, and Doris Salcedo.

2010-08-21T00:28:00.001+01:00

"When you start a piece, it's and undefined thing, and the making of the work sustains you…You feel your way round something"

"I don't like to keep things that are finished in the studio. The moment of seeing the work only occurs outside: you can't see it properly in the studio."

"The idea of believing in something, and the notion that an object can carry power, is very interesting"

"I do miss the sea, though. It gives you a sense of focus, and when you go outside it is like a compass."

"It's and improbable physicality, almost like a tightrope. It could fall apart, like the leaning tower of Pisa. We've become so used to digital trickery that it's great to see something like a seal balancing a ball on its nose."

I was rereading an old issue of Art World, and I always remember this article and really liking some of the things Eva Rothschild says, about the sea and about process.

Eva Rothschild quoted from Issue 11 of Art World Magazine, June/July 2010.

2010-08-20T02:00:00.003+01:00

Just some Dead Good Discotheque thoughts. I'll just leave these here.

Actually I think these are more general reference images not specifically DGD.

2010-08-20T01:51:00.003+01:00

I went to visit my friend Fiona's studio at Outpost Studios. The studios are lovely and it was really nice to visit and be in that kind of environment. It made me aware (as if I wasn't already) how summer is really lagging for me, and how I can't wait to get back to school and back into my studio space. However, also how nervous I am about starting third year. Fiona had some really exciting work about, hair gel, glitter, gold leaf foil, wash cloths, a ladder and a cone. I really love her black curtains and sheet bubble wrap. We played around with a sheet of blue plastic and gold leaf foil bits. Also had a really good chat about work and things.

2010-08-20T01:31:00.006+01:00

Whilst looking at still life, I remembered Wolfgang Tillmans's still lifes. I am not sure if that is what he calls them, but that is what they appear like. Apart from being visually beautiful, I also love the way he use fragments, rubbish and more classical elements (like fruit and flowers) to create the images. His arrangements look really natural.
I love Tillmans work generally, his installations are stunning as are the individual photographs. For the collections project I have also been really interested in the way he uses and displays visual ephemera. For the collections project one of my ideas is to create a large scale collage based installation of visual ephemera (including objects). That sounds like a really awful description, but I think it would be good in actuality.

2010-08-20T01:13:00.007+01:00

I have been looking at and thinking about Still Lifes. Leading on from my though about shelfs, and discussion about assemblage, arrangement and sculpture functioning as collage and bricolage, it only seems natural for it to follow on that this work can in a way function as a still life, or at least by highly influenced/tied to this work. I have often talked with my tutor about drawing in 3D, in the physical, that is not to say that I don't draw on paper, or that my collages are drawing and plans for sculpture, but that it is also possible to draw with objects. I find this sometimes a useful title for playing around with assemblage in the studio. It therefore, again follows, that this idea is close to the idea of still life. Further back in reference images there have been a lot of photographic still lifes. I also think it fits in art history, Duchamp/Manray's Dust Breeding (see below) could (1) be seen as both a photographic still life, and a photograph of a physical 3D drawing (however I suppose the degree of intervention and interaction could make this idea questionable).

The works above are by Rodrigo Moynihan, Vanessa Bell, Man Ray, Jack Smith, William Scott, Tony Cragg, Paul Cezanne, Patrick Caulfield, Pablo Picasso, Louisa Matthiasdottir, John Bratby, Edward Bawden, Derrick Greaves, Charles Spencelayh, and Benjamin Blake.

(1) I want to stress the could as I am unsure if I believe this, or if it is true, I am just suggesting this could be the case, not advocating it as a truth.

2010-08-20T00:53:00.009+01:00

I have been thinking a lot about shelves. This has stemmed from my interests in visual merchandising and the shopping experience (connected to my dissertation), reading about how people use objects (again connected to my dissertation, I am currently reading a book called Home Possessions edited by Daniel Miller) and the use of elements of interior design by contemporary art (which is something I have aimed to do in my practice). I am interested in both the actual shelf and what it means/is, and also its function as a display device for objects.
The artists above have used shelfs in a range of ways. The work is by Rachel Whitread, Tony Cragg, Andy Warhol, Sam Porritt, Philippe Parreno, Josh Smith, Joel Shapiro, Jannis Kounellis, David Hockney, Gary Hill, Allen Ruppersberg, Goshka Macuga, Michael Craig-Martin, John Latham, Ian Hamilton Finlay, and Haim Steinbach among others.

2010-08-20T00:29:00.006+01:00

I have been interested in mobiles for a while. In Rouen I really wanted to make one with objects I found their, however this ended up not being possible. I have been thinking about this since. I have made a model of one, but I want to make a larger one when I get back to school. I don't know where it will lead or if it is just something I need to get out of my system. The Mobiles about are by Cerith Wyn Evans, Alexander Calder, Kenneth Martin, Lynn Chadwick and others.

2010-08-20T00:02:00.007+01:00

Marcel Duchamp

Dieter Roth

Andy Warhol

Allen Ruppersberg

Daniel Spoerri

Robert Therrien

Peter Blake

Mark Dion

Jack Smith

Doris Salcedo

David Hockney

Damien Hirst

Here are some works to do with collections, that I think use them in an interesting way. I am trying to look at many different and unusual source and ways of dealing with collections.

ps. I can't remember who this work is by

2010-08-19T23:51:00.004+01:00

I saw Eva Berendes's work on You Have Been Here Sometime, where there is a very interesting interview with her (part one and part two). I find her practice really intriguing. I particularly found her structure made to support the jugs interesting, her screens, and particularly her curtains, as curtains are something I am interested in my practice (both using shimmer curtains, and making curtains as in real phoney). I am particularly interested in these quotes

"My own work I would clearly position within the realm of Fine Arts as I don’t make anything that is meant to be used or even things that resemble functional things. I do often make works which approximate to things that are commonly associated with craft or decoration, like screens, curtains, wallhangings, etc.. However, I am not aiming at transgressing the boundaries towards the Applied Arts. It’s more that the works address the concept of the distinction between the two categories and their implications which bring up relevant questions about material presence, the potential metaphysical dimension of an object and how this manifests itself, and the genealogy of abstract language in general. And it enables me to take a side path towards painting which is still at the core of what I do."

"I always liked the idea of a backdrop or a piece that functions as an abstract drawing but also as exhibition design."

2010-08-19T23:36:00.007+01:00

I have been interested in lamps and lampshades in my practice, and I wan to exploring these further. Here are some lamps from You Have Been Here Sometime.

2010-08-19T23:31:00.000+01:00

Photogrpahs by Jenny Mortell.

2010-08-19T22:54:00.026+01:00

Sorry this post is so big and heavy. I had tried to organise the images but it didn't work. They are a range of images showing some things I have been thinking about. Shelving, shopping, visual merchandising/window display, fashion, furniture, interiors. and arrangement. Some images from You Have Been Here Sometime, M O O D, ▲☮▲, Brief Magazine, Mafia-Hunt, He Seems Nice and some other stuff.

2010-08-19T22:47:00.004+01:00

Some interesting images from Carson E. Fisk-Vittori. Playing with still life, assemblage and arrangement. You should really go have a look at the exciting work.

2010-08-19T22:41:00.002+01:00

I love these still life assemblages created for fashion photography, I saw them at Behance Network. Go and have a look for more information and images.

2010-08-19T22:17:00.013+01:00

Here is just a selection of reference images for work. Some images from You Have Been Here Sometime, Rachel de Joode, M O O D, ▲☮▲, and Brief Magazine.

2010-08-19T22:17:00.001+01:00

Taken from You Have Been Here Sometime

2010-08-19T19:50:00.022+01:00

Some nice examples of window display. I am looking into window display both for my practical work and my dissertation.

2010-08-19T19:06:00.002+01:00

"Mr. Miller looked to the design of the 1970s, he said, which had “a populist luxury: polyester, Pop Art, plastic.” He was also fond of the era’s wall-to-wall carpeting, which migrated from houses in suburban America to sunken living rooms in SoHo. “This was glamorous at the time,” he said. “Taking references from the common home and making them luxurious, in a silly kind of way.”
And so Mr. Miller’s apartment became an ode to the carpeted sunken living room: the 250-square-foot living area is organized around a platform raised on the perimeter and sunken in the middle; on the side near the kitchen counter, it rises high enough to function as a bench.
Mr. Miller describes it as “a landscape architecture of carpeted boxes.”
taken from here..."

Quoted from You Have Been Here Sometime

2010-08-05T00:32:00.000+01:00

This interview between Ross Bleckner and Felix Gonzalez-Torres on bombsite was really beautiful. Funny, interesting and touching.

FGT Saturday night is one of those nights when I just don’t do anything. I love Sunday mornings now, the flea market on 26th Street.

RB That’s become popular. I went to one in Massachusetts. In two hours, I was so irritable. It was July; it was dusty. The place must be the size of Central Park. Everybody whose store you’ve ever gone into in New York you see up there, because that’s where they get it all. Brinfield, it’s called.

FGT I can’t deal with ones that big because I know I’m going to miss a deal.

RB You have to be very enterprising and foraging.

FGT I like flea markets, their sense of mystery; I always wonder, always make a fantasy about who owned it, who lived with this thing. As you know, I collect things: I collect props and toys.

RB I saw a picture of your toy collection. Lots and lots of toys.

FGT Hundreds. Plastic and rubber toys with big eyes. And things that have been left unplayed with by kids.

RB You like big eyes?

FGT Big, buggy eyes. Because I have terrible problems with insomnia.

RB Why don’t you take a sleeping pill?

FGT I was telling you this story, because 1990 and 1991 were very rotten years for me. I went to a flea market during this time and was looking through a bag of toys, and the woman said—I was looking at a Mickey Mouse—”You can have them all for five bucks.” I brought them home, and they made me feel very good. So I figured if I had more, I’d feel better. It didn’t really work that way.

Then later on

RB Let me just get something straight, here. You started at the University of Puerto Rico as an art student and then you went to Pratt?

FGT Right, to study interior design.

RB So that’s why you love going to flea markets now, that’s a part of you.

FGT I go to the flea market because it is full of small, hidden histories.

This all relevant in terms of the collections summer project, as well as my dissertation. Here are some other bits I found interesting.

FGT I was telling my students, “Your limitations should be your strengths.” When I first started making art in 1987, I had no money. I had a little tiny studio smaller than this kitchen.

then

RB Let me guess, you didn’t want to make objects.

FGT No, I wanted to know why I was making those objects; I wanted to know why I was going to take those photographs. At Pratt, they tell you to find a style. But you cannot find a style; you develop a style. You have a need to say something in a certain way and that becomes later what is called, “your style.”

then

FGT I think with the stacks and with the candy spills and the light streams, pushing certain limits, like the limits of editions, the limits of the inclusion of the viewer, the collector, other people in the work. I feel very good about that.

then

RB Do you think your work is sentimental?

FGT It is sentimental, but it’s also about infiltration. It’s beautiful; people get into it. But then, the title or something, if you look really closely at the work, gives out that it’s something else.

RB Oddly enough, I think that my work does have a certain sentiment to it, but I am not sentimental at all.

FGT All great art has sentiment.

RB And all great work has ruthlessness. Not that I’m saying your work or my work is great. Just in general, great work has sentimentality and ruthlessness in the appropriate balance.

FGT I see it more as a heroic gesture. And I’m not talking about size, it could be a small gesture. But it has to be totally extreme to be heroic. Something about ideology and about shows that are always labeled…

I find it really sad and touching at the end when he speaks candidly about HIV, but also really strong. I also love the warmth and humour that comes across "I want to be on the runway for Comme des Garçons.".

2010-08-05T00:27:00.002+01:00

This was posted on He Seems Nice. It seemed relevant to the collections summer project. "A portion of Sam’s collection of skulls. Purchased at second hand markets, he chose the skulls in bad condition because they were not only cheaper but have a lot more character too. The one on the bottom right had an incident with a train."

2010-08-03T23:40:00.000+01:00

Rare tin toys go under the hammer

A collection of antique toys thought to be one of the UK's largest ever single collections is to go under the hammer in Norfolk this month.

Arthur Windley, from Norfolk, has been collecting rare tin plate toys for more than 50 years.

The collection includes a bartender making a cocktail and a walking mooing cow, the only known model of its kind.

2010-07-31T18:13:00.006+01:00

Off Center, the Walker Art Center's blog, recently did a post about Plants as Decorative Element in a Gallery. They write

"While reviewing images of past exhibitions, I began to notice something now absent in the galleries, potted plants. Up until the opening of the Barnes building in 1971, potted plants were a staple in the galleries. While there are few exhibition views containing patrons, the plants were always present. In these images they seem to act as the stand-ins for the patrons, sometimes aloof and in the background or congregating around the radiator as if in discussion. And then there are those that are really into the work, standing in front of a sculpture’s light, their shadows enveloping the work."

I find these images really exciting, a lot of the plants in their arrangements seem to be installations in their own right. I think I want to explore this in future work. In terms of the use of plants and arrangement, but also in terms of the ideal exhibition space, and what the exhibition space is. I am also interested in exploring decretive or interiors.

2010-07-30T22:37:00.002+01:00

I kind of want all my work to look like this. (here by Jamie Shaw)

PS.

2010-07-30T21:58:00.006+01:00

More images of browsing in charity shops, an the unexpected objects that grab your attention.

2010-07-29T20:07:00.011+01:00

Here are many images of shopping around Anglia Square. The reason it is this area is that it is an area that I regularly use as a shopping area both personally but particularly in my work. The first few images are from a number of shops, looking at the way that an abundance of products is used to create the pileing spilling effect, but however has the potential to appear messy. It is all interesting the ways of display unusually shaped objects, such as hanging baskets, which are perhaps not shown to their best.
The furniture in the charity shops is difficult to display neatly and with cohesion. The mismatch of stock makes it difficult to use the display methods of somewhere like habitat, by creating idealised simulated living environments, and due to unusual space and limited display methods it is difficult to do more them place them around the space. However I think the way they are displayed haphazardly can create unexpected juxtapositions that can stimulate work.
The next three images f the windows of a 99p shop show what is a large amount of space that isn't being utilised. The graphics seem flat, the products just piled on the floor, not create much visual interest to the viewer. I think through using the colours of the products (as I find the range and similarity of colour in this shop interesting), and some simple display methods such as tables, rails or fishing wire could create an interesting display. Alternatively the rack straight in front of the window could be utilised and used to create an interesting degree (eg. a wave of one or two colours using many products) then the space in front of it kept clear so you see an inviting display. Within the shop I think there are many objects that are interesting, many displays that are interesting, with colour blocking. I love all the green of the camping objects, the hanging baskets, the foil, and the colours of the cleaning products.
Charity shops have again many interesting ways of display. I am drawn to the bric-a-brac section, as I find objects to use in my work. Again, as with the furniture, it creates unexpected juxtapositions of objects, that can lead to strange readings of the objects and the relationships. However it does seem like a mess of objects haphazardly placed on the shelfs. In other parts of the shops there are more designed shelfs, that act like still lifes. A lamp and a jigsaw. A figure in a pink t-shirt, a floral lamp and a jigsaw. I think these are interesting in terms of the narrative trying to be created. I also really like the mannequins, which are just transparent wavy plastic torsos. I think the grey mannequin head was placed there incidentally but I found it interesting again. Finally the en mass collection of glasses looks fairly amazing, but would perhaps look more amazing with neater shelfs and some form of lighting.

2010-07-29T19:50:00.001+01:00

The first images are of shops at Cromer. Seaside shops obviously have very particular merchandise and it is therefore a challenge about how to display it. This shop on one hand has the easily accessible baskets of produce, and the overflowing spilling and slippage which makes things seem abundant. However it seems confusing, lots of stock all pushed together.
The bottom two images are more images from the charity shops, again of objects I found interesting but didn't purchase.