Monday, 28 February 2011
DALI PERMANENT EXHIBITION
I personally love Salvador Dali as an artist so when I picked up a leaflet about the exhibition in Berlin, I was thrilled, as I've only seen a couple of his works in galleries, not a load in one place. It was quite expensive but I thought it'd be worth it, and it definitely was. It has a lot of artwork the public doesn't normally see, so was extraordinary looking at all these paintings, sculptures, films, illustrations etc of his all in one place. Because I've already written an essay about him, I knew all about his crazy character and the kind of things he creates. I loved looking deeply into each wonderful piece of his art and looking at the intricate detail and wondering how the hell he transfers it from mind to paper.. I would perhaps go as far as saying in my mind he is a pure genius, purely for his wide range of talent. I couldn't stop thinking how much I want to get into illustration again. For my newish project I have been drawing a fair bit, but I can't help but find it a bit more difficult this time round. I used to do it a lot, but creating big monsters from my mind isn't as easy because I'm used to observational drawing- which also I haven't done in a while. Dali makes it look so easy; especially his use of brush/pen strokes, even simple things like cross-hatching. But hey, it's all testing and trying, with time I can only get better. Doesn't stop me idolising Dali as an artist though. Shame we couldn't take any photos though as that way I would remember everything that was in there. Still, memory doesn't hurt.
Holocaust Memorial
Here are some photographs I took at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. Absolutely fascinating.
Friday, 25 February 2011
Wednesday, 23 February 2011
Long exposures
I was talking to my housemate Joel just before Christmas about light drawings, and he'd never actually tried them before or known how to, so I demonstrated on my SLR, and the results weren't that great at first, it was just getting to grips with it again. Me and Joel dominated the art of it in the end though! 
When I was in South Africa in the Drakensburg mountains I did a couple of my own with my sisters which was a lot of fun too. I shall post a few of them here. :)
Monday, 21 February 2011
Back to the future
I came across this artist the other day called Irina Werning who is doing an ongoing project called 'Back to the Future.'
I thought it was a really interesting idea- she has basically used old photos of kids and tried to recreate them with the same person, pose, clothes, background, everything. I think the results are really interesting. There is something about the photos that is really captivating- maybe it's reliving our childhood years in just one photograph and seeing how different or how similar we look to how we used to look as children.
Id love to try this idea someday as a gimmick, just to see how different I used to look to how I do now.
Here's her website:
http://irinawerning.com/back-to-the-fut/back-to-the-future/
I thought it was a really interesting idea- she has basically used old photos of kids and tried to recreate them with the same person, pose, clothes, background, everything. I think the results are really interesting. There is something about the photos that is really captivating- maybe it's reliving our childhood years in just one photograph and seeing how different or how similar we look to how we used to look as children.
Id love to try this idea someday as a gimmick, just to see how different I used to look to how I do now.
Here's her website:
http://irinawerning.com/back-to-the-fut/back-to-the-future/
Friday, 18 February 2011
BERLIN!
So to start February off very nicely, we were off to Berlin with our course! Oh and what an opportunity!
I had been before about 4 years ago when my sister lived in Germany for a year, so we went to visit her. However I didn't see much because I got a really bad throat infection so couldn't leave the apartment. All I remember seeing is a chocolate shop which made models made out of chocolate. The most impressive was the parliament building, and a Ferrari made out of chocolate which was pretty insane, as the detail was immense.
Anyway, I didn't actually realise how much there was to see in Berlin! We went for 5 days, which I don't think was enough, however it is a good amount of days to go for at one time. I definitely want to go back sometime soon. I can't believe how much history and culture one city can hold. What impressed me the most was the graffiti in Berlin. It was like no other, as over there it is legal to graffiti, so it is everywhere. It was even just exciting walking round the not so touristy areas and finding something new behind every corner. The Berlin wall is just as impressive as the derelict run down buildings we had been seeing, but with more history behind it. Around the area of the Berlin wall we stumbled across some work done by the street wall artist called Bluu who does stop motion animations of his work on the walls. It was really impressive, mainly the scale of the whole thing. The artwork of his that was the best to me was the one of a man made up of tiny little men all scrambling to get to the top. I can't even begin to contemplate how he does it!
The temperatures in Berlin were pretty much below freezing, so we didn't tend to hang around in one place for too long, as it was just too cold. I really enjoyed looking round the Tacheles squats as well as they had so much going on all the time. The artwork they created was pretty impressive. It all fitted well into a pretty laid back relaxed vibe, as they were usually playing some techno somewhere around. The work I found most astounding was the massive sculptures they had made from bits of iron and welded together to create animals or humans. We had a look in this run down building which had many floors which has more artists selling their work. I loved having a look round, and actually bought a photo collage which has been arranged in a way to be quirky and a bit offensive. I would have liked to have taken more photographs of the whole area excepting that my camera broke earlier in the trip which I was a bit gutted about.
We also went to a couple of nightclubs, of which the first one called Mikz blew me away as it was like a secret club which was tucked round the back of which we wouldn't have found without the help of a couple of Germans. It was nothing I'd ever experienced, as the place they had it in was like somewhere you'd have an illegal rave cause it seemed pretty derelict except they had a proper bar, proper toilets and a proper banging dj. Everywhere was covered in graffiti and everyone seemed really chilled out, but at the same time proper going for it. Everyone just seemed in control, compared to the usual raucous behaviour of English drunks. The next night however we went to one of the most famous and high class clubs in Berlin which was called the Watergate. I felt like a celebrity in there as everything was the complete opposite from the night before- everything seemed extra new and stylish. But that's probably to do with the fact it's on the waterfront of the river looking at the Universal sign so you kind of feel like you're dancing on an island.
We had a look round this area which had art galleries after art galleries. They were small, but they were good to look at, as it had some art maybe we wouldn't normally look at, for example, there was a guy called Zhenchen Liu who somehow filmed scenes of beaten up Shanghai as layers of collage moving smoothly through the scenes. It was called "Under Construction," which showed the demolition of residential structures for the Shanghai Expo and resulting in human tragedies. It made me feel very sad watching the video, but I guess that's the reaction he wanted us to have.
I was also really impressed by the Holocaust memorial, purely for its design. It was built between 2003 and 2005 according to a design by architect Peter Eisenman. It's in a grid pattern which goes down in the middle and up at the sides, so that the vertical square concrete slabs seem higher in the middle when you walk down than the outside slabs. It is like a maze which makes it more interesting to explore. I found it really fun just to walk up and down it.
On my birthday (February 1st) we went to the Hamburger Bahnhof which was odd at first entry as all we could smell was animals, of which they had reindeer as an exhibition due to the mushrooms they eat. I think they were doing a scientific experiment. The gallery as a whole didn't impress me that much though however, as it was quite a modern gallery, so some of my ideas of art don't quite match some of the work that was in there. However, my favourite piece was probably a video piece which involved unmasked members of the anti-terror unit GBG9 taken in Turkey slowed down to extremely altering speed (the video was initially 5 seconds long, but has been slowed down to last 8 minutes instead.) At first I couldn't tell it was moving, but it was ever so slightly, and I stared at it for a good few minutes as it really fascinated me. We found an Andy Warhol section of the gallery which was surprising to see an artist like Warhol amongst artists I didn't recognise. The most impressive of his work was the huge print of Mao Gao, just because of it's scale and iconic image. Here are a few of my snaps of various places in Berlin before the lens on my camera broke:
I had been before about 4 years ago when my sister lived in Germany for a year, so we went to visit her. However I didn't see much because I got a really bad throat infection so couldn't leave the apartment. All I remember seeing is a chocolate shop which made models made out of chocolate. The most impressive was the parliament building, and a Ferrari made out of chocolate which was pretty insane, as the detail was immense.
Anyway, I didn't actually realise how much there was to see in Berlin! We went for 5 days, which I don't think was enough, however it is a good amount of days to go for at one time. I definitely want to go back sometime soon. I can't believe how much history and culture one city can hold. What impressed me the most was the graffiti in Berlin. It was like no other, as over there it is legal to graffiti, so it is everywhere. It was even just exciting walking round the not so touristy areas and finding something new behind every corner. The Berlin wall is just as impressive as the derelict run down buildings we had been seeing, but with more history behind it. Around the area of the Berlin wall we stumbled across some work done by the street wall artist called Bluu who does stop motion animations of his work on the walls. It was really impressive, mainly the scale of the whole thing. The artwork of his that was the best to me was the one of a man made up of tiny little men all scrambling to get to the top. I can't even begin to contemplate how he does it!
The temperatures in Berlin were pretty much below freezing, so we didn't tend to hang around in one place for too long, as it was just too cold. I really enjoyed looking round the Tacheles squats as well as they had so much going on all the time. The artwork they created was pretty impressive. It all fitted well into a pretty laid back relaxed vibe, as they were usually playing some techno somewhere around. The work I found most astounding was the massive sculptures they had made from bits of iron and welded together to create animals or humans. We had a look in this run down building which had many floors which has more artists selling their work. I loved having a look round, and actually bought a photo collage which has been arranged in a way to be quirky and a bit offensive. I would have liked to have taken more photographs of the whole area excepting that my camera broke earlier in the trip which I was a bit gutted about.
We also went to a couple of nightclubs, of which the first one called Mikz blew me away as it was like a secret club which was tucked round the back of which we wouldn't have found without the help of a couple of Germans. It was nothing I'd ever experienced, as the place they had it in was like somewhere you'd have an illegal rave cause it seemed pretty derelict except they had a proper bar, proper toilets and a proper banging dj. Everywhere was covered in graffiti and everyone seemed really chilled out, but at the same time proper going for it. Everyone just seemed in control, compared to the usual raucous behaviour of English drunks. The next night however we went to one of the most famous and high class clubs in Berlin which was called the Watergate. I felt like a celebrity in there as everything was the complete opposite from the night before- everything seemed extra new and stylish. But that's probably to do with the fact it's on the waterfront of the river looking at the Universal sign so you kind of feel like you're dancing on an island.
We had a look round this area which had art galleries after art galleries. They were small, but they were good to look at, as it had some art maybe we wouldn't normally look at, for example, there was a guy called Zhenchen Liu who somehow filmed scenes of beaten up Shanghai as layers of collage moving smoothly through the scenes. It was called "Under Construction," which showed the demolition of residential structures for the Shanghai Expo and resulting in human tragedies. It made me feel very sad watching the video, but I guess that's the reaction he wanted us to have.
I was also really impressed by the Holocaust memorial, purely for its design. It was built between 2003 and 2005 according to a design by architect Peter Eisenman. It's in a grid pattern which goes down in the middle and up at the sides, so that the vertical square concrete slabs seem higher in the middle when you walk down than the outside slabs. It is like a maze which makes it more interesting to explore. I found it really fun just to walk up and down it.
On my birthday (February 1st) we went to the Hamburger Bahnhof which was odd at first entry as all we could smell was animals, of which they had reindeer as an exhibition due to the mushrooms they eat. I think they were doing a scientific experiment. The gallery as a whole didn't impress me that much though however, as it was quite a modern gallery, so some of my ideas of art don't quite match some of the work that was in there. However, my favourite piece was probably a video piece which involved unmasked members of the anti-terror unit GBG9 taken in Turkey slowed down to extremely altering speed (the video was initially 5 seconds long, but has been slowed down to last 8 minutes instead.) At first I couldn't tell it was moving, but it was ever so slightly, and I stared at it for a good few minutes as it really fascinated me. We found an Andy Warhol section of the gallery which was surprising to see an artist like Warhol amongst artists I didn't recognise. The most impressive of his work was the huge print of Mao Gao, just because of it's scale and iconic image. Here are a few of my snaps of various places in Berlin before the lens on my camera broke:
Sunday, 13 February 2011
Networking
Back in October I emailed Art is the Cure's founder, Rich Simmons asking if there were any opportunities available, as I thought it would be very fulfilling helping out people with the use of art. So I emailed him with my intent to get some work experience and obviously just in general help out. He emailed me back saying there wasn't any positions open as of yet, but that I should keep a look out. So in some ways I kind of lost a bit of hope. However, he emailed me a month later saying this:
Hey,
Hey,
Hope you're okay!
I'm dropping you an email because I've got on record that you've been interested in being part of the Art Is The Cure* street team and I just wanted to let you know whats been going on and ways you can get involved and help if you're still up for it...
The has been a lot of changes and developments recently with this movement. I've been joined by my best friend and fellow artist Kim-Leng Hills who I'm proud to have on board, mostly because she is the most inspirational person I've ever met and I can't wait for you to all see why! I've also started to put a really strong team around me with experienced individuals from the fashion, music and business worlds to help me grow AITC* in new ways.
We have started giving talks and workshops in schools and this is a huge area i want to focus on and push in 2011 so if you know a school that you think would benefit from a visit from AITC* then please let me know.
A big goal for next year is a coast to coast trip across America to bring this message and movement to the other side of the world and begin establishing ourselves as a global movement. This is going to take A LOT of work and planning so if you want to help organise any events for us in america (october sort of time i think) then that would be amazing.
We also want to get as many events on the go as we can for a couple of reasons. Firstly, so we can raise awareness about this movement for new people to check out and get involved in and secondly, so we can raise money to do more workshops and fund the trip to america. If you would like to put on a gig or event to raise awareness and money for AITC* then get in touch!
Online we have a lot going on that all needs help promoting and growing...
http://www.youtube.com/user/artisthecureofficial - we have a new youtube channel for videos from events and 'vlogs' etc which will help to get the word out a lot. We need as many people checking out the videos, subscribing and commenting the videos as possible to push us up the rankings on there so please sign up, put the videos on your blogs and profiles and get people to check it out! We also want to get a video together of hundreds of supporters saying who they are and what their cure is or that they support art is the cure. If you want to be involved, film a short clip and email it in!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Art-Is-The-Cure/35369487479 - this is the AITC* fan page on facebook which is growing really well. We would love to start getting a really strong following on here and having a place where people can see updates, interact with each other, add fan photos etc. Please check it out, join, and do the 'suggest friends' thing on the left and spend 5-10 minutes just clicking all of your friends so they can all join too. The more people that sign up, the more people will hear about it and check it out too and this is an amazing way to grow AITC* online.
http://www.twitter.com/artisthecure - please check out and follow us on twitter for news, thoughts, ideas and photos from events we go to. Please drop us a mention @artisthecure and ask friends and fellow followers to check us out too!
I've also attached the new press pack for you to read up on about this movement. If you know any local press, please forward it on to them and see if they could do a story or feature on it. If you want to organise an event in your school or get me to come and give a talk, please forward it on to the teachers. If you have any other ideas of who to pass it on to, please do. If it helps AITC* in any small way then it's worth doing.
We have a brand new website in development at the moment so when 2011 rolls by, we will have a really strong platform to grow from and hopefully, a really strong street team to help promote us and grow this movement into something that can rival the likes of To Write Love On Her Arms and Skate 4 Cancer!
Please get in touch and look forward to hearing from you and what you're doing to help!
Rich
In general I think he wants help promoting AITC as obviously it's word of mouth and can't be done on it's own.
I have been thinking about where I would like to get some work experience the most, and that is a travel magazine like Lonely Planet (which I'm subscribed to) or National Geographic. I had a look on their website and unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much space as apparantly they get a lot of people asking for work experience, but I will give them an email anyway. Lonely Planet's office is based in Melbourne, and they have a small office in London, which would be probably the most likely. National Geographic's office is based in Washington D.C which unfortunately I won't be able to get to. Ever since I can remember National Geographic has fascinated me and I always said to myself that one day I will be a photographer for them. I can still dream, as I never know what will happen! I just need to get some experience in the bag, and persuade them I am good enough....haha we'll see...
Friday, 11 February 2011
SITE
When I was away we were given a 'Site' Project of which I wasn't given much information, so I went to the train station in Switzerland and took photographs of it to show the difference between the train system in Switzerland to the train system in Manchester...excepting it was only a week project so I didn't manage to complete the Manchester side of it...so instead I compared photographs of the train station at night and during the day- as I thought it would be interesting to compare how each time of day differs from each other. If I had more time to work on it, I think I could have come up with something better, as I was a little rushed as I was ski-ing for most of it. I do regret not taking more time on it, but I guess it's something I can learn from- just be more prepared.
I thought about doing a stop-motion of photographs or film showing how busy and how un-busy it could be during the day, and the same at night... almost make it look like a blur in editing so basically sped up. I may reconsider doing this idea but based in Manchester, as I like to observe people in their everyday lives, and thinking about what kind of lives they lead...and how one instance I see them, and the next they have gone from my memory.
There's so many ideas I need to work on-(mainly from my last project.) It's all testing and trying them; even if they don't work, I need to just create!!!!
We were asked to place our ideas around the MMU campus, as it was an MMU based project.
I placed them at the entrance of uni because it reminded me of the main area of the train station, and the fire signs are also a typically thing that is placed in a train station also.
Here they are below:
I thought about doing a stop-motion of photographs or film showing how busy and how un-busy it could be during the day, and the same at night... almost make it look like a blur in editing so basically sped up. I may reconsider doing this idea but based in Manchester, as I like to observe people in their everyday lives, and thinking about what kind of lives they lead...and how one instance I see them, and the next they have gone from my memory.
There's so many ideas I need to work on-(mainly from my last project.) It's all testing and trying them; even if they don't work, I need to just create!!!!
We were asked to place our ideas around the MMU campus, as it was an MMU based project.
I placed them at the entrance of uni because it reminded me of the main area of the train station, and the fire signs are also a typically thing that is placed in a train station also.
Here they are below:
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