Monday 19 April 2010

Last.

Well, this is my last blog post as my journal is in tomorrow so i guess i best sum things up really.
After the work i was doing in terms of art for blind people i wanted to set up an exhibition in a disused shop or space but alas no one was willing to work with me on that pretty much because of insurance reasons no one was willing to let me use any shops or spaces - which was a big knock back as i wanted to do some installation based work to continue with what i was doing, but i needed the space to do it and with no space i couldnt do the work...
Instead i thought about the seeing part of my work and thought about cataracts and how that blurs and obscures your vision. So what i did was take different types of trees and diamonds, printed them off then stuck frosted plastic over the top in different ways to make some or all or the word blurred - the result is pretty good i think.

Ive done 13 of these, again for the Fibonacci sequence. Well, this is it i guess.

xxx<3

Thursday 15 April 2010

Last few...


Ok, so ive had this song stuck in my head for ages now - like it appears at such inappropriate times as well...like when im deep in conversation or being told off or something hah. Whatever.

Well, this may be my last blog entry as my journal blog included is in on Tuesday...all i wanted to share was some work id been doing recently but it reminded me of Richard Hamilton whose work i first saw in Barcelona...ohh, abooout 2006/7 maybe? Anyway i really liked it and it reminded me of that - what that is i will either elaborate on later when my camera is charged or tomorrow or whatever - the near future.

xxx<3

Image from:- http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media_collection/6/AR00141.jpg



Tuesday 16 March 2010

Spanish Sahara, Pizza Hut and 24 hour rowing marathons.



First off, i'll start with the new Foals video as its fucking incredible. Such a great video and song.

Anyway.
Ive been thinking...the whole street art thing was going well, but the shelf life wasnt long enough and going out at like 2 in the morning got a bit annoying after the second time. Im not really sure if i should say what it was i did here incase, but it was a good concept and it worked great...just not practical.
Im currently speaking to the council about letting me and a course mate use a disused Pizza Hut on Oxford Street for an exhibition of some work - heard back from they today and its been forwarded to the correct people so hopefully this should all be a go in a week or so. What im thinking is one room flooded with bottle caps, or at least a decent covering on the floor that can be walked on - im taking it back to the art for blind people thing, work that you dont need to see to be able to appreciate it. Another idea i want to do is an installation that tries to replicate the feeling when you step off the plane in a hot country and the hot hair hits you, somewhat interactive installation again. More details to come - i feel well ill, walking around at 7 in the morning isnt recommended especially watching 24 hour rowing marathons...shit.

xxx<3

Sunday 7 March 2010

Exit Through The Gift Shop



I saw the new Banksy film today - it was absolutely brilliant. Ive always liked street art and Banksy. When i first started getting into art, Banksy was one of the first artists i really started liking a lot. He even inspired me to do some of my own graffiti up until the point i realized that its a bit dangerous and the prospects of getting caught were rather high - especially after spending 20 minutes under a car hiding from the Police...What the film has done is get me thinking about my original street art roots, it was the first "public" art i did and defiantly the most ballsy and i did have a lot of fun doing it. Thinking about my project, i feel that i can literally take my work to the streets. Now im not going to openly say what it is on here just incase - i mean its not totally on the right side of the law, but it also isnt that extreme...but i think its going to work. Im glad i had this idea as what i was doing wasnt goin...well it was working, but i was struggling with it. What i wanted to do was make art essentially for blind people in terms of work that could be interacted with that didnt require you seeing it. Like plaster moulds like a big version of braille and also a working installation of bottle caps stuck on the floor much like tactile pavements. Its still that...but better.

The idea i had at first was to attach the bottle caps to plastic sheeting and tile them in a space like tactile pavements.

I made 13 of these plaster moulds - 13 because of the Fibonacci sequence. I didnt want to abandon the golden ratio ideas i had before, so 13 is a number that has links to the golden ration through the Fibonacci sequence being that the 13th and 14th numbers when divided by each other come out to 1.618 - the golden ratio. 13 is also the only number that is prime when reversed also. Good stuff.
I think this is going to work - im excited.

xxx<3



Sunday 21 February 2010

Speechless.


Im a little bit speechless, not sure whats up with me - But Tom Ford is one of the most inspiring people i have ever come across.

xxx<3

Saturday 13 February 2010

There was a girl who lived in London toooooown.

Got back from a trip to London last night - it was good, had to try and cram a lot of stuff into 2 days but still was interesting, saw a lot of work i liked.
The Decode exhibition at the V&A was exceptional - it was all interactive works that used software and modern computer technology so the viewer can interact with the work, it was excellent.


There are some of the images and works on the slide show - i would talk about each piece, but id actually be here forever! My favorites had to be "Tree" by Simon Heijdens, "Weave Mirror" by Daniel Rozin" and "Oasis" by Hyunwoo Bang and Yunsil Heo. All these works held in them such an excellent level or interaction with the viewer - i really felt part of it.

We went to the Saatchi Gallery on the same day as well - some of it was excellent, so
me was...whatever, didnt really tickle my fancy. Artists i liked were - Hama Malji, Emily Prince, Jia Aili, Kohei Nawa, Boo Ritson and most of all Richard Wilson.
His installation took over the whole of the bottom floor of the gallery with a steel structure that contained a couple of inches of used sump oil - it was bizarre, i had no idea what it was or how to think when i first saw it. I just assumed at first it was a mirror on the floor as when you looked down, all you could see was the ceiling - after a while however i knew i recognized the smell and after reading the card about the work i realized it was oil. The depth of field was unpreciented, the space seemed so much bigger than the last time i saw the gallery floor - speechless.

The second day we went to the Tate Modern, most of which id seen before however there were other exhibitions up stairs that i hadn't - works that stood out where - Gunther Uecker - "White Field" which was nails painted and stuck to the canvas, it reminded me of the work that im doing with the hole making, but almost a reverse but similar process - i really liked it. Jannis Kounellis, Bruce Nauman and Robert Morris also stood out. What i really liked was the works there by Lucio Fontana, Jeff Koons, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Jannis Kounellis.

All in all, the work i saw this week has given me a new drive towards
my work that im looking forward to.

xxx<3


Tuesday 9 February 2010

Failed Obelisk, Modern Painters and Anish Kapoor




I remember seeing a video about Anish Kapoor on my Foundation last year and he told of one of his first works where he inputted a square and a circle into a computer programe with want to i think merge the 2 together or to make something inbetween - i remember the work being red and on paper, its all rather vague but what im getting at is there was clearly a circle and a square at the end, but the computer made the middle bit up - it reminds me of the way i work a little, i have a beginning (an idea) and an end (outcome) but the middle is never certain and i dont think it really matters what the middle is or how it comes about, its the idea and the end really. I mean the middle isss important, but its not something to dwell on really - i think the viewer should always be guessing and be allowed to think for them selves - almost, the viewer doesnt see the middle, so why should they care? The end is key.

I was introduced yesterday to the Modern Painters Magazine yesterday which i absolutely love. Ive been a long time subscriber to Art Review, but this is miles better - i mean Art Review is great, but this has so much for me. The pictures above are by British born sculptor James Balmforth. I reeeeeally like his work - especially these 2 "Failed Obelisk" and "We dont have drawings, we think and we build" - like the "We dont..." sculpture as its rather how i work, i have ideas, but i never draw them or plan them much, its more of a suck it and see attitude.
His work has made me think - ive never really been that interested in sculpture or even explored it, some stuff i like, some i dont. But maybe i should experiment with some sort of sculpture - i have some ideas in mind.

Blazing xxx<3

Thursday 28 January 2010

Braille, Butterstroke and the Lord himself.

Its no mystery that i have massive ambitions - but usually they end up getting the better of me and i dont do much about them. I usually seem to be the one with all the ideas, but never gets round to doing them. It was discussed yesterday in a tutorial i had that i generally seem to have an idea and them immediately set an end point and thus i dont expand and grow naturally, its abit too structured and straight forward.
The idea of using the Golden Ratio is still something im still wanting to explore and the object of holes and the thought of beyond the canvas moving away from the ideals and usual art techniques but in a way still using them? Like the idea i had of the 7 ft x 10ft canvas - its not about the use of the canvas, its about the ratio and the holes. However - i tried using a needle to poke holes in canvas and i soon found out that you couldnt see the holes....even when a shone a light behind it, which was a a bit of a let down, but i guess it gives me some more time to explore the material, the use of the holes, how to apply? the holes and what im actually doing.

"I've always wondered what it is like to be someone else"

Quote taken from my first blog post - i do wonder what its like to be someone else. I saw a few decent things today - went swimming and witness what i could only describe as a creation, it was a cross between butterfly and breast stroke...it was wonderful. I also saw braille on the back of a package...it was there but unless you looked and ran your finger over it then you probably wouldnt notice it...i loved it. What if i could create work that was by me, but not about me, or appears to be by me? What if it was the work of a blind mathematician who wants to explore visual aesthetics? What about instead of holes, what about braille? Practical holes, so almost the destruction of the usual art technique but has a side of practicality and maybe respect for the usual. I like this as a starting point. Yes. I think this is what i need, a starting point and not an end point and trying to go from there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braille

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Needle_punch

xxx <3

Sunday 17 January 2010

Fontana, Gold and spatial concepts.

When thinking of perforation and holes in canvas, i could look no further than Lucio Fontana. His Spatial Concept series dealt with a new age in painting, he wanted to eradicate the art of the easel and paint focusing on the space behind the canvas or paper - he got his ideals and ideas from the Dada movement, it was looked at as an effort to destroy art and move away from the usual techniques and ideals of art, which is just what im doing and want to do. I hate the idea of art being labeled as just painting, or just drawing, or this or that - art is what you make of it, it should make you feel a certain way and its special - it shouldnt be boxed up.
I really want to work with gold, have it be on a large or small scale - theres just something about gold that makes me want to explore it - even gold leaf or gold paint. I liked the idea of maybe gold leafing the frame of a canvas - like Fontana exploring beyond the canvas, the space behind it.

Its gonna be huge

xxx<3

Thursday 14 January 2010

1 million, Tom Ford and Tarantino


There is something about numbers that intrigues me - especially a million. It kind of seems like its a number thats thrown about a lot these days, but when you think about it, its huggge. 1000 x 1000...ridiculous. What i want to do is make a canvas in the golden ratio and put 1 million different pin pricks in it for the million decimal places of √5. Now, if that sounds big then...yeah i worked it out that its going to be 2 x 3.236 meters....ambitious, yeah. Now im thinking of either just using canvas or even some sort of gold material, or even gold leaf - but then i realized that would probably cost £1,000,000 hah. Im going to experiment with smaller golden rectangles before i set off on the bigger one.
Another thing im well into is gold...i just love the idea of gold and everything about it really. It is well expensive, but it just looks so good - went out today and bought some more Tom Ford fragrance and - Tobacco Vanille. Not only is it the most beautiful thing i have ever smelled, but it has a solid gold top - its incredible. It did set me back £100, but still, its so worth it. On a side note, i got hit on by the guy at the Tom Ford counter....he said he liked my shirt and went to touch my chest until i moved away. Now, i knew i was irresistible to women, but i didnt know my powers stretched to men...hmmm.

Ive recently rediscovered the magic of Quentin Tarantino - he's an absolute genius - ive never made any sort of films, i wouldnt mind experimenting in this area. Ive always had the idea of making a short film about a Polish bus driver who wants to secretly a taxi driver...hmm, hah.

xxx<3

Sunday 3 January 2010

Turn of the decade, Golden Ratio and the Washington monument.

Well, its 2010. The turn of the decade brought with it for me, a new look and new ideas. Before xmas and the turn of the new year, i was thinking of creating a new language or a new alphabet which would appear at first that you wouldnt understand, but if you took the time you could understand it - i was getting at the whole idea ive had from the start, that of things not always being as you first think, but if you look longer and hard enough you may see something different.
After the process of trying to create a new language/alphabet i wasnt sure if it was where i wanted to go - but it was during this time that i had another view on things.
Ive always been interested in the number 5, the 5 times table has always been my favorite, things just seem easier with the number 5 - i have no idea why. During the time i spent looking into hieroglyphs, i also read up on the creation of the pyramids and the golden ratio. The number 5 is the basis of the golden ratio (1+√ 5/2)this magic ratio of 1:1.618 which was the basis for the design of the pyramids, obelisks and even rumored to be the basis of the Washington Monument. Artists and Architects since the Renaissance have been using this ratio for the basis of paintings and buildings believing it to be aesthetically more pleasing - the most famous being Da Vinci's Last Supper.

The golden ratio and the √ 5 got me thinking - is this magical ratio aesthetically more pleasing? Is it the golden ratio that makes us compelled to like such paintings and architecture as the pyramids, The Last Supper and The Mona Lisa? It is this i want to explore - the use of the golden ratio on perception with want of culminating in a large scale project which shall be detailed at a later date.

This is going to be huge.

xxx<3