16/10/19 - CONTEXTUAL PRACTISE RESEARCH
Barbara Kruger
“Barbara Kruger is an American Conceptual artist known for her combination of type and image that conveys a direct feminist cultural critique. Her works examine stereotypes and the behaviours of consumerism with text layered over mass-media images. Rendered with black-and-white, red accented, Futura Bold Oblique font, inspired by the Constructivist Alexander Rodechenko, her works offer up short phrases such as “Thinking of You,” “You are a captive audience,” and “I shop therefore I am.” http://www.artnet.com/artists/barbara-kruger/
Barbara Kruger’s use of text, and the way she uses scale to highlight certain words within a space stands out to me. She combines imagery and text in a way that makes her messages stand out, and communicate clearly to the audience, whilst also be visually exciting.
11/10/19 - MOVING IMAGE RESEARCH
Hito Steyerl
“Hito Steyerl (born 1 January 1966) is a German filmmaker, visual artist, writer, and innovator of the essay documentary. Her principal topics of interest are media, technology, and the global circulation of images. Steyerl holds a PhD in Philosophy from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She is currently a professor of New Media Art at the Berlin University of the Arts, where she co-founded the Research Center for Proxy Politics, together with Vera Tollmann and Boaz Levin.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hito_Steyerl
“Steyerl’s series of projects at the Serpentine Galleries is positioned under the rubric of ‘power’. Beginning from the premise that ‘power is the necessary condition for any digital technology’, the multivalence of this word is addressed through three interrelated research strands and projects: Actual RealityOS, a collectively-produced digital commission; Power Walks, a series of guided neighbourhood walks and a tour drawing upon conversations with residents, community groups and organisations in the local area surrounding the Serpentine Galleries, and Power Plants, an exhibition featuring new video work. Together exploring ideas and predictions at the meeting point of artificial intelligence and human testimony, Steyerl’s institution-wide project offers visitors multiple realities and platforms of engagement throughout the spring season and beyond.” https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/files/downloads/hito_steyerl_-_power_plants_booklet_-_serpentine_galleries.pdf
Steyerl’s film installation ‘Power Plants’ really stands out to me for its varied levels of meaning and communication. Not only does she create a kind of augmented sense of space with her warped images of natural objects displayed across a variety of screens, mimicking the placement of plants in a forest, she also makes use of digital augmented reality, with the smartphone app that displays warped images of the Serpentine Gallery itself, and projects images that depict the real social situation of the surrounding area. Steyerl is combining a visual sense of nature, with the reality of social deprivation, and lack of socialisation in a green space, which is the reality for many. Overall, I am inspired by Steyerl’s ability to combine different digital platforms, and to create these sense of warped realities by use of sound, visual effects and digital VR equipment.
Hito Steyerl, ‘Power Plants,’
Installation view, 11 April – 6 May 2019, Serpentine Galleries
AR Application Design by Ayham Ghraowi, Developed by Ivaylo Getov, Luxloop, 3D data visualisation by United Futures
Courtesy of the Artist, Andrew Kreps Gallery (New York) and Esther Schipper Gallery (Berlin)
Photograph © 2019 readsreads.info
Len Lye
Len Lye (1901-1980) was a film director and an animator. Born in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1901, Lye began to develop a style of art based on 'doodling' from an early age, which stirred his interest in the 'pre-rational'. He was deeply interested in movement and wanted to portray kinetic energy within artistic works; he also drew on aboriginal art, which for Lye again represented a 'pre-rational' artistic tradition. He moved to London in 1926 and soon joined the Seven and Five Society, a modernist group of British artists. Before long, he was exhibiting with this group, but he was dissatisfied with the static visual medium and began to make experiments in animated film, which more closely fitted his interest in movement. http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/446754/index.html
Screenshot from Len Lye’s ‘Rainbow Dance’ (1936)
35mm, 4 min, Gasparcolor, Director - Len Lye, Production Company - GPO Film Unit, Producer - Basil Wright and Alberto Cavalcanti, Camera - Jonah Jones, Music – Rico's Creole Band
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_xrOvFHxJw
When I started to watch ‘Rainbow Dance’ during the introduction I noticed right away the use of paper, stop motion and materials such as acetate/tracing paper – which is similar to the work we were doing in Theatre of Visual Effects. The colour, movement and form are all elevated by the use of sound, the sound is a traditional, horn instrument-based piece of music that creates somewhat of a military atmosphere, ultimately adding intensity to the array of colour and shape and a franticness to the dancing. Yet in the music there is also a fun, light-hearted, upbeat tone to it, making the synchronisation of colour and pattern exciting to watch. Lye makes use of layering unconventional patterns, textures and images in order to play around with context and narrative – something that I could bring into my work if I were to do a project similar to ‘Theatre of Visual Effects’ in the future.
9/10/19 - DRAWING INTO PRINT RESEARCH
Tacita Dean
Tacita Charlotte Dean CBE, RA (born 1965) is a British visual artist who works primarily in film. She was a nominee for the Turner Prize in 1998, won the Hugo Boss Prize in 2006, and was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 2008. She lives and works in Berlin, Germany, and Los Angeles, California. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/tacita-dean-2675
‘The Roaring Forties: Seven Boards in Seven Days’ (1997) Tacita Dean. 14 works on blackboard, chalk. Tate collection.
“The Roaring Forties: Seven Boards in Seven Days is one of several chalkboard series by Tacita Dean that evoke the aesthetic of black and white cinema. It comprises a sequence of white chalk drawings on seven eight-foot-square Masonite panels that Dean prepared with blackboard paint. The Roaring Forties is the name given to a zone in the southern Atlantic, between 40º and 50º latitude, which is noted for its gale-force winds. Dean used old photographs for reference to construct an epic sea narrative in seven parts, including scenes of a storm, a ship under full sail listing with the wind and a series of muscled figures engaged in such activities as rowing a skiff or climbing in rigging.” - Helen Delaney, February 2002
What I find interesting about this piece it the idea of an incomplete narrative. Dean has sensitively suggested imagery and a deeper story or meaning, but not so much to the point that the message is so explicit. This is communicated through the wispy chalk lines of the figures. It also seems to play into a contrast between objective knowledge and subjective knowledge – chalkboards are used in schools to teach children the correct and clear answers, but in these pieces, the whimsical linework plays with a narrative that keeps you guessing.
Atelier Populaire
“The Atelier Populaire, who designed and printed the posters, were a group of Marxist artists and art students who occupied the École des Beaux-Arts during with the wave of wildcat strikes in May 1968. Using a silk-screen printing press they produced thousands of posters at a time. They typically were printed on newssheet using a single colour, and use a simple iconography in which the factory represents the role of workers in society and the fist stands for solidarity and resistance. They comment on topics including the freedom of the press, colonialism and the status of immigrant workers.”
“Though the posters display various styles, individual artists were never credited and each work was treated as the work of the collective.”
“Much of the imagery they created, including a poster of a truncheon-wielding riot policeman has since achieved iconic status. The posters were rarely saved but were collected by Kugelberg who staged an exhibition at London's Hayward Gallery in 2008.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty_Is_in_the_Street
“The posters produced by the ATELIER POPULAIRE are weapons in the service of the struggle and are an inseparable part of it. Their rightful place is in the centres of conflict. To use them for decorative purposes, to display them in bourgeois places of culture or to consider them as objects of aesthetic interest is to impair both their function and their effect.” https://www.arte-util.org/projects/atelier-populaire/
What I like about these works is the powerful simplicity. The use of negative space and simple hand-drawn text and block colours makes the posters easy to understand, look at and effectively communicates the message, whilst also communicating the emotion behind the designers, with the human aspect of the lettering.
Image sources: https://www.arte-util.org/projects/atelier-populaire/ https://artillerymag.com/the-struggle-continues-atelier-populaire-and-the-posters-of-the-paris-68-uprising/
8/10/19 - CORE DESIGN AND TYPOGRAPHY RESEARCH - LETTERING
Martina Flor
Martina Flor combines her talents as both a designer and an illustrator in the drawing of letters. She grew up in Buenos Aires and gained a Master in Type & Media in The Netherlands. Based now in Berlin, she works with a focus on type and lettering for clients all over the world. She published her first typeface Supernova, a family of Scripts, in 2013 at Typotheque and her work as designer and letterer have been featured in many publications and she teaches and lectures extensively.
Martina Flor combines her talents as both a designer and an illustrator in the drawing of letters. Based in Berlin, she runs one of the world’s leading studios in lettering and custom typography, working for clients all over the globe such as The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, HarperCollins, Monotype, Etsy, Adobe, Mercedes Benz, Lufthansa, and Cosmopolitan, among many others.
'Supernova' - type design by Martina Flor. I really like the way that she has used a brush stroke and created a kind of detached calligraphy, that is unconventional from a traditional script yet still has a somewhat formal tone to it, perhaps with a little more fun and expression.
'Decorata' - type design by Martina Flor. This is an example of how Flor combines illustration with a typeface to create decorations that enhance the letterforms.
Screengrab from a type design animation made for Adobe Live, by Martina Flor (full animation on her website). The letters appear as if they are being written in front of you, but she uses pace and a slight bouncing movement of the decorations around the letters to create energy and excitement.
Jessica Hische
Jessica Nicole Hische (born April 4, 1984) is an American letterer, illustrator, and type designer. She is best known for her personal projects, 'Daily Drop Cap' and the Should I Work for Free flowchart. She published In Progress: See Inside a Lettering Artist's Sketchbook and Process, from Pencil to Vector in September 2015, which gives insight to her creative process and work she has completed as a hand lettering artist. She has spoken at over 100 conferences worldwide but splits her time between San Francisco, CA and Brooklyn, NY.
“For over ten years I’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with amazing clients—creating custom lettering artwork for established brands, classic books, postage stamps, and so much more. I've travelled the world speaking at creative conferences and colleges, and I've befriended innumerable internet strangers while navigating the depths of social media. I cut my creative teeth in Philadelphia and Brooklyn, but I'm currently based in California where I share a studio with fellow lettering artist Erik Marinovich in San Francisco’s Mission neighbourhood. When I’m not drafting letterforms, manipulating beziers, writing kids books, or letterpressing on my Vandercook, I’m doing my best to help others find the same happiness and fulfilment that I’ve found in my work.” - http://jessicahische.is/anoversharer
Jessica Hische poster design for Weiden and Kennedy. The combination of typeface and 3D design really stood out to me, as well as the use of texture in the wood and the luminance of the white cursive lettering.
'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' hardback book cover designed by Jessica Hische for Barnes and Noble. The decorations added to and surrounding the lettering effectively communicate the tone of the book.
Lettering for Wes Anderson's 'Moonrise Kingdom' movie poster. This stood out to me simply for how iconic this lettering it. The choice of colour, the thickness of line and scale work perfectly with the tone of the film. I had always loved this poster but I had never really stopped to consider the thought and considerations made by the designer, that went into the lettering of the title.
Jessica Hische lettering design on 'The Patisseries of Paris,' published by The Little Bookroom. I like the modern twist on the traditional french lettering and the placement of text to make it look like a perfectly tied up box of macaroons.
Marion Deuchars
Marion Deuchars is a Scottish born, internationally acclaimed, award-winning illustrator. Marion works with major design and advertising agencies, publishes illustrated children's books and has created a much-loved style of hand-lettering. Whether it’s client work for the likes of The Royal Mail and The Imperial War Museum, or inspiring youngsters with her Let’s Make Great Art books, Marion’s impact on the creative scene continues to be wide-ranging. - http://www.mariondeuchars.com/about
"Royal Mail commemorates the Royal Shakespeare Company's 50th anniversary. The six stamps feature RSC actors infamous productions. Design collaboration Hat Trick Design and Marion Deuchars." - mariondeuchars.com. I really like the contrast of the less formal hand-written lettering, that has a lot of noise within the lines and the quite formal and intense tonal photography.
Marion Deuchars lettering for Cass Art London - mariondeuchars.com
Marion Deuchars lettering for the Vanity Fair Hollywood edition - mariondeuchars.com
7/10/19 - CORE DESIGN AND TYPOGRAPHY RESEARCH
Sister Corita Kent:
Sister Mary Corita Kent (1918-1986) was an American Roman Catholic religious sister, artist and educator. Kent is known for her work with silkscreen, also known as serigraphy and the ways in which she developed innovative methods with the medium. Her enthusiasm with the medium came from her beliefs in democratic outreach and desire for affordable art for the masses. Kent’s work was particularly popular during the social upheavals of the 60s and 70s, with her messages of love and peace. Notable works of the time include the Rainbow Swash design on the LNG storage tank in Boston and the 1985 version of the United States Postal Service’s special Love stamp. Her work evolved from figurative and religious themes, then to the use of advertising images and slogans, popular song lyrics, biblical verses and literature. In the past due to the fact that she was a nun and a woman in the art world, her work was ignored from being significant in particular art movements, however recently there has been an appreciation for her role in the pop art movement. Kent’s work is a key example of how typography can be used to convey a message, with a child-like script used creating a sense of innocence and sympathy to the political crisis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corita_Kent
'The Moment' (1977) Serigraphy corita.org
'O'Life' (1983) Serigraphy corita.org
'Promise' (1978) Serigraphy, corita.org
Anthony Burrill
“Graphic artist, print-maker and designer Anthony Burrill is known for his persuasive, up-beat style of communication. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York and has been exhibited in galleries around the world including the Barbican Art Gallery, the Walker Art Center and the Design Museum, London. Words and language are an important part of Burrill’s output and he has developed a distinctive voice that is sought after not only by collectors of his posters and prints but also by clients including Apple, Google, Hermés, the British Council, London Underground and the Design Museum. Burrill is perhaps best known for his typographic, text-based compositions, including the now-famous “Work Hard and Be Nice to People”, which has become a mantra for the design community and beyond. Burrill was born in Littleborough, Lancashire. After studying Graphic Design at Leeds Polytechnic he completed an MA in Graphic Design at the Royal College of Art, London. He now lives and works on the Isle of Oxney, Kent.” - http://anthonyburrill.com/info
‘Oil and Water Do Not Mix’ - Screen print poster made using crude oil from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico disaster. Proceeds from the sale of the print were donated to CRCL (Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana) a non-profit organisation dedicated to restoring the Gulf of Mexico’s coastal wetlands. The project was conceived and produced in collaboration with Happiness Brussels. http://anthonyburrill.com/project/oil-water/ This piece is a really interesting example of using unconventional materials in a very conventional and simple form, there’s an underlying context to the image. I feel like this is a technique I could bring into my work in the future, in order to elevate the message and the communication with the audience.
5/10/19 - THEATRE OF VISUAL EFFECTS RESEARCH
Olafur Eliasson’s ‘In Real Life,’ is an exhibition that brings together over 40 works of art made between 1990 and today, by the Danish-Icelandic artist. He was born in 1967 and has created a broad body of work that includes immersive installations, sculptures, photography and paintings. His work comes from his concern with nature, honed through his time spent in Iceland; his research into geometry; and his ongoing investigations into how we perceive, feel about and shape the world around us. Eliasson works with an array of materials to communicate these themes, from moss, glacial melt-water, fog, light and reflective materials.
On Saturday 6th October I saw Eliasson’s exhibition ‘In Real Life’ at the Tate Modern in London. The piece that struck me, and I imagine most other attendees, the most, was the ‘Die blinde passager.’ This piece is a 39-metre-long passage filled with fog. The fog is made from water-soluble fog fluid containing non-toxic polyols – a sweetener often used in food production. Light is used to create progressing colour through the passage, starting with a white light, which becomes more orange the further you walk through the room. When the doors first opened, and we sceptically took our first steps into the passage, we were greeted but this white fog. For me, it felt like what I imagine walking into heaven would be like, in a sweet-smelling cloud-like haze. However, as you walked further through the passage, and the light turned to an orange amber, and the fog started to ever-so-slightly choke your lung, the image that popped into my head was walking through the gates of hell. This was supported by the way in which the museum-goers were walking slowly, blinded by the fog, like corpses. It is incredibly interesting to me, the way in which Eliasson has created these connotations, which are perhaps different to each individual, by the simple use of light of and fog. This inspires me in my practice, to think about how I can use light as a medium in order to create or insinuate narratives for my audience.
Tate Modern, Bankside, London, SE1 - Blavatnik Building, Level 2
Here are some images I took from my visit:
2/10/19 - RHEA DILLON PRESENTATION
These are some of the practitioners from Rhea Dillion's presentation that I decided to look further into.
Chino Amobi
Chinonyeelu Uchechi Amobi (born 1984), known professionally as Chino Amobi, is an American experimental electronic musician, contemporary artist, director, and co-founder of the independent record label NON-Worldwide. He worked in the fields of painting and sound design in the past and has released albums like Airport Music for Black Folk (2016) and Paradiso (2017) which explore themes of the Global South, intercontinental security, post-apocalyptic narratives and Afro-pessimism.
Amobi made his solo vinyl debut with minor matter, a soundtrack accompaniment to choreographer Ligia Lewis's piece of the same name. He also announced his debut album, Paradiso, described as "a musical epic set in a distorted Americana populated by a cast of sirens, demons, angels, imps, priests, hierophants, monsters and peasants." Nina Power praised the album in The Wire as "an extraordinary record: utterly grandiose, pulsing and punishing." Comparing the album's soundscape to the works of Hieronymus Bosch and Dante Alighieri, Power wrote “modernity is Hell, Paradiso tells us, but the only way to understand this is to embrace it fully, to stare into the void, to get on all the fairground rides, even though you already feel sick and all the colours are wrong." The Wire named Paradiso the release of the year in its annual critics' poll. Rolling Stone named the album the year's third-best avant-garde release.
Music by Amobi was featured in "Gidi gidi bụ ugwu eze (Unity is strength)", a short film directed by Akinola Davies Jr. for fashion house Kenzo. In 2018, Amobi released a short film accompaniment to Paradiso titled WELCOME TO PARADISO: CITY IN THE SEA. Directed by Rick Farin and rendered in Unreal Engine 4, Amobi listed the film's influences as "The Global South, Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, Timothy Morton's theories regarding hyper-objects and dark ecology after the end of the world, my experiences traveling and touring globally, Square Enix, Xanadu (Citizen Kane), and the poetry of Elysia Crampton."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chino_Amobi
We live in such times where shadowy forces have distorted our democracies, science is increasingly viewed with suspicion, and verifiable information is dismissed as “alternative facts.” If death becomes the only truth we can all agree upon, what are we all doing to prepare? The first full-length album by Chino Amobi addresses these existential anxieties and mortal fears in epic, violent terms. Running to over an hour in length, PARADISO is a gutsy, gruesome inversion of its sweet title—but there’s a crucial ambivalence at its heart. Should we run for our lives? Or is this chaos a satisfyingly sadistic end to the entire, ill-conceived project? – Chal Ravens https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/23270-paradiso/
What stands out to me when I listened to this album, is the not specific vocals or the individual stardom of Amobi, but the flurry of layered sounds that create an experience. These layers speak to a range of people, and tell a range of stories, the different atmospheres from the varying speeds, pitches and tone allows this album to exist as a body of work that builds up to create a larger narrative.
Gordan Parks
Born into poverty and segregation in Kansas in 1912, Parks was drawn to photography as a young man when he saw images of migrant workers published in a magazine. After buying a camera at a pawnshop, he taught himself how to use it and despite his lack of professional training, he found employment with the Farm Security Administration (FSA), which was then chronicling the nation’s social conditions. Parks quickly developed a style that would make him one of the most celebrated photographers of his age, allowing him to break the colour line in professional photography while creating remarkably expressive images that consistently explored the social and economic impact of racism. http://www.gordonparksfoundation.org/artist/biography
Grease Plant Workers 1944
One of the early assignments Parks undertook on behalf of Standard Oil was to photograph a grease workers’ plant in Pittsburgh. The plant’s grimy interiors gave Parks the opportunity to render dramatic contrasts of light and dark in his pictures, visible on machines and barrels and on the faces of the workers who handled them. Among the most notable images from the series are those of a black worker in the cooper’s room, where a spectral steam rises around the barrels and drums he is reconditioning. http://www.gordonparksfoundation.org/archive/grease-plant-workers-1944
I am incredibly moved by the work of Gordan Parks. His beautiful use of tone and composition draw in the viewer to really see the emotive expressions of his subjects. The portraits feel intimate and exposing without being invasive. Parks seems to connect with his subjects through the camera without exploiting them. This is the kind of relationship when doing photodocumentary, that is the most respectful and has the most effective results.
Kahlil Joseph
Kahlil Davis, known professionally as Kahlil Joseph (born 1981), is an American filmmaker, music video director, and video artist. Joseph is known for creating "intellectually and emotionally dense short films" that centre on the experience of African Americans in the United States.
Joseph previously worked as an assistant to the photographer Melodie McDaniel and at the commercial film production company Directors Bureau in Los Angeles. He has directed a commercial for British telecoms company O2 and a short film for the luxury brand Kenzo. Joseph has directed music videos for Flying Lotus, Shabazz Palaces, Sampha, and Kendrick Lamar among others. Joseph was the original director approached by Beyoncé Knowles to direct the companion film to her 2016 concept album Lemonade. Knowles eventually remixed much of the film with a number of different directors and has since allowed Joseph's version of Lemonade to be screened only at art museums.
To coincide with Tate Modern’s exhibition Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, Tate commissioned filmmaker Kahlil Joseph to create a new and exclusive film inspired by the haunting black and white photography of Roy DeCarava. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/black-mary-film-kahlil-joseph
After watching the Tate commissioned film ‘Black Mary’ by Kahlil Joseph, a number of areas stood out to me. Firstly, Joseph’s use of sound: the powerful song ‘I Put A Spell on You” layered with reversed guitar riffs, background chatter and that grew in intensity throughout the film. The build-up of power within the song made me feel incredibly emotional. Joseph also made use of pace, with the slow-motion and pauses in the music that focussed on moments of pain and emotion, combined with the switches between black and white and colour and a straight composition versus a rotated one; created a lovely and emotive flow across the film. Joseph managed to make mundane images of the everyday, raw women and mundane forms of lighting such as that of a lamp or a street sign, elegantly beautiful and powerful. This film has really inspired me to experiment with the use of sound, and how I can use pace, pauses and vocal power to adjust the intensity of a film, and in doing so, direct the emotions of my audience.
The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson
In David France’s 2017 documentary ‘The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson,’ Victoria Cruz investigates the mysterious 1992 death of black gay rights activist and Stonewall veteran, Marsha P. Johnson. Using archival interviews with Johnson, and new interviews with Johnson's family, friends and fellow activists. In 1992, Johnson’s body was found in the Hudson River, a suspected suicide but one caveated with incongruous details. Years later, as unsolved or unjustly ignored murders of transgender women continue, Cruz decides to investigate what led to the death of one of the village’s most influential figures.
I originally saw this film when it first came out. It was a story that I was briefly familiar with but did not know all of the details of. The story struck a nerve with more so than the film itself. The structure is somewhat scattered, I think that a more effective approach to properly tell this story with the justice it deserves would be through a biopic. Regardless, the research is presented clearly yet without being too two-dimensional. There are levels of increased and decreased emotion and tension, particularly through the narrative surrounding Kitty Rotolo. The content of the story itself was tragic and infuriating in the right way – the fact that I am well aware that nothing has been done about these injustices and that they are so incredibly prevalent today. 2019 has already seen at least 19 transgender people fatally shot or killed by other violent means in the United States, the majority of which were POC (according to HRC.org). This film, however, was one of the things that inspired me to want to study film, one day I want to, or help others to, tell stories like these on a wide platform.
Paris is Burning (1990) Directed by Jennie Livingston. USA: Off-White Productions
"Few documentaries can claim to have sparked as much discussion and controversy as Jennie Livingston’s debut Paris is Burning (1991), the vibrant time capsule of New York’s ballroom subculture in the 80s. Seven years in the making, this stylish, poignant film followed African American and Hispanic gay men, drag queens and transgender women as they compete in simultaneously fierce and fun competitions involving fashion runways and vogue dancing battles while sporting styles like Butch Queen, Town and Country and Luscious Body. Many of the contestants vying for trophies represent “Houses” (Pendavis, Extravaganza, LaBeija) which serve as surrogate families and social groups for a predominantly youthful community largely ostracised from mainstream society. The film alternates between colourful ballroom sequences – an acknowledged influence on current hit show RuPaul’s Drag Race – and candid interviews with key scene figures, who address an off-camera Livingston on complex subjects including class; race and racism; wealth; gender orientation; and beauty standards. […] Critics including feminist scholar bell hooks questioned whether Livingston – a middle-class, white, genderqueer lesbian – was playing the role of voyeur; an enabler of cultural appropriation. Meanwhile, a 1993 New York Times article entitled Paris Has Burned reported that several of the performers, feeling that they’d missed out on the wealth generated by the film, wished to sue for a share of its profits. One, Paris DuPree, sought $40m in compensation. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jun/24/burning-down-the-house-debate-paris-is-burning
What’s really interesting to me about this film is its cultural significance today. Through its references in television today, notably the popular reality series ‘Rupaul’s Drag Race,’ and the way that phrases said by subjects in the film have become mainstream slang amongst young adults in today’s culture, for example: “shady, werk girl, yasss queen, read her, serving [blank] realness, [blank] gives me life,” etc. However, the way in which the subjects in this film were exploited, makes it hard for me to get behind it fully, regardless of its cultural significance. Something that I do take away from it, is the way Livingston managed to shine a light on a niche subculture through the medium of film, as well as the honest narratives that she managed to derive from the subjects and how she layered them with beautifully shot images of the ballroom scenes.
30/09/19 - BY HAND
Postcard Project Research: Mr Bingo
Mr Bingo is a graphic designer and illustrator from Kent. He attended The Judd School, the Kent Institute of Art and Design and Bath Spa University College, where he studied graphic design with a specialisation in illustration, graduating in 2001. He earned his nickname ‘Bingo’ was his Gala Bingo obsessed while studying in Kent. Mr Bingo is most popularly known for his ‘Hate Mail’ project that was started in 2011. Starting as a ‘drunk idea,’ the general concept of ‘Hate Mail’ was to send offensive postcards to strangers. The idea was later exhibited in galleries and published in two books, as well as the Camden Town Brewery releasing a ‘Hate Ale’ beer called ‘Camden Town is Full of Cunts’ in Mr Bingo’s honour. In 2015 Mr Bingo ran a Kickstarted campaign to fund a high-quality book documenting the Hate Mail illustrations, successfully being funded in only 9 hours. ‘Hate Mail’ is a great example of combining text with a tangible object, and putting a humous, dark twist on a common piece of iconography.
theguardian.com
huckmag.com
26/09/19 - THEATRE OF VISUAL EFFECTS AND SOUND
Theatre of Visual Effects and Sound Research
Abelardo Morell
Abelardo Morell (1948) is a Brooklyn based photographer. He was born in Havana, Cuba and immigrated to the United States where he received his undergraduate degree from Bowdoin College and his MFA from The Yale University School of Art. His notable work includes a photographic illustration of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1998), A Camera in a Room (1995), A Book of Books (2002), Camera Obscura (2004), The Universe Next Door (2013) and Tent-Camera (2018).
‘Light, Time, Optics’ is a collection of still life black and white photographs in which Morell captures the effects of light and shadow on a variety of objects, and the different effects that light can have when shone through various materials. His high contrast, tonal images show his use of reflection, masking and projection. In other images, he captures objects in a specific and visually intriguing moment in time – such as a jug falling off of a table. (1989-2006).
http://www.abelardomorell.net/abelardo-morell/
https://www.abelardomorell.net/project/about-light-and-time/
Light entering our house (2004)
Motion study of falling Pitchers (2004)
Construction with Lasers and Mirrors (2005)
Joost Rekveld
Joost Rekveld (1970) is an artist and experimental filmmaker from the Netherlands. He uses abstract filmmaking and light installations to display an “intimate and embodied” experience of the technological world. He is inspired by science, technology and the relationship that exists between man and machine, which his communications through spatial and sensorial aspects of light projection.
Rekveld’s film ‘#11 Marey Moire’ premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and was the first Dutch film to ever be shown at the Sundance Film Festival. IFFR describes the film as: “the discontinuity that lies at the heart of the film medium. All images were generated by intermittently recording the movement of a line, revisiting the chronophotographic techniques of Étienne-Jules Marey.” The film came about due to Rekveld’s interest in manipulating the movement and exposure of light, as well as the technological history of film. In order to make the film, Rekveld constructed a machine in which he was able to control; the movement of the film in the camera, the rotation of a shutter in front of the light source and the movement of a line in front of the camera. For every section of the film he recorded a set of high contrast black and white originals which he used in the optical printer to create interference images in colour.
This film is a great example of how the manipulation of light can create a sense of emotion and atmosphere, with the centre of line and colour moving across the screen creating a sense of uneasiness and suspense. This is also a great example of creating your own tools in order to produce a unique effect, as Rekveld built his own machine to manipulate the light in unnatural yet creative ways.
https://www.eyefilm.nl/introduction-to-the-life-and-work-of-joost-rekveld
https://iffr.com/en/2017/films/11-marey-moiré
http://www.joostrekveld.net/?p=50
Daniel Palacios
Daniel Palacios is an artist and filmmaker. His interests began in science before he began working in design and architecture, before eventually moving on to fine arts, doing several masters in Multimedia, Art and Technology and Public Space. Palacios’ installation ‘Waves’ reacts with the audience, when they move around it, they influence the movements of the rope which generates acoustic and visual sound waves, from harmonic patterns to more complex ones. The moving image passes from a steady link without sound to chaotic shapes of irregular sounds, depending on how the audience act and the number of observers and their movements. Palacios makes use of sound as a tool to think about how our presence influences the space around us, establishing a relationship with the public as they begin to discover how their movements have an influence on the space and its sounds. Palacios explains how the installation works: “The installation uses two motors to oscillate a length of rope creating a visual reminiscent of a digital waveform while creating its own whipping hum from the motion of the rope cutting through the air.”
https://danielpalacios.info/waves
Nicolas Lefaucheux
Nicolas Lefaucheux is an experimental filmmaker. ‘Information Music’ is an experimental video in which each instrument of a song is coded and translate in visuals. What is special about this moving image is not only the vibrant combination and contrast of human creativity through the music with the use of technology and computer-generated material, but the fact that the visuals would simply not have such a powerful effect without the sound added, and the sounds wouldn’t hit as effectively without the visuals – making it a perfect match and showing how sound can be used to elevate a moving image.
24/09/19 - CORE DESIGN AND TYPOGRAPHY RESEARCH
Core Design and Typography Research
Milton Glaser Posters – 741.674, Central Saint Martins Library, Abrams New York, page 80.
This page stood out to me as it explains how Glaser started with a typeface. This is an approach that I could use when generating poster design ideas. Usually, I would start with an image and then work the text and typeface around that, however on this page we can see how Glaser’s illustration for the Simon and Garfunkel poster has actually been influenced by his ‘Baby Fat’ typeface.
23/09/19 - CORE DESIGN AND TYPOGRAPHY RESEARCH
Seb Lester Interview
Seb Lester is a typography artist known for playing a key role in modernising hand-drawn calligraphy. He started his practice before the use of computers was widespread, beginning with painting before delving in letterforms and type. Lester describes how he was ‘“struck by the graphic power” of Neville Brody’s work, and visual ambigrams, which play with meaning and interpretation through type.’ After studying Graphic Design at Central Saint Martins in the 90s, he started to view letterforms as something playful, to experience and have fun within an illustrative way, gravitating more and more towards typography, whilst having a more emotional response to it over mediums such as painting and photography. Lester has had an incredibly successful typography career, working for Monotype in 2001, creating a new typeface for Neo Sans Intel, as well as clients such as; H&M, Vancouver Winter Olympics and GQ magazine. As his typefaces became increasingly commercial, he started to notice them being used in other places. In the early 2000s he experimented with 3D animated illustration but didn’t get a booming response, so, therefore, made the decision to go back to basics and develop his first calligraphic print. Arguably Seb Lester is one of the artists responsible for the calligraphy renaissance that has stuck the 21stcentury. In order to keep his craft relevant however he avoided cliched projects such as wedding invitations, he started his ‘Break Bad News Gently with Calligraphy’ project, in which he details stunning lettering alongside sad and displeasing messages, playing with juxtaposition. What works about this series, in the words of Lester, is the ‘harmony, symmetry and proportion.’ Although Lester is inspired by figurehead calligraphers such as John Stevens, and the serif letterforms of the early Roman era, he embraces digital software in his work, stating that the best results come from combining the two and creating a balance between control and expressive movement. The key to Lester’s consistency comes with constant practise, yet what is so special about calligraphy is the human aspect and how lack of consistency and imperfections can also be effective. Lester believes that the appetite for calligraphy comes from the online media success, with video series like his on Instagram, of him lettering famous logos, perhaps for the relaxing, ASMR effect that it has. The advice that Lester gives is to look at the history of letterforms as great sources of inspiration, to believe in yourself and to believe in the power of calligraphy as entertainment.
Article: Design Week interview with Seb Lester: https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/14- 20-march-2016/type-designer-seb-lester-im-basically-a-nerd-with-a-load-of-pens/
23/09/19 - POSTERS
I collected together some imagery to inspire my poster design in response to the text: "It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane." I was interested in the concept of the 60s housewife as an aesthetic theme, so looked at typefaces, illustrators and graphic design movements associated with that, while tying into the theme of the text.
21/09/19 - DRAWING INTO PRINT RESEARCH
Cigarette Pack Art, Chris Mullen – 741.69, Central Saint Martins Library, Hamlyn, page 34, page 47
This image on page 34 is visually inspiring for the overall vintage aesthetic that I want for my outcome, especially the sizing, typeface and layout of text.
On page 47, there is a series of images and explanation about the Carreras’ ‘Black Cat,’ cigarette pack artwork. The way in which the image of the cat has become iconography and has been carried through the various designs is what I would like to do with this project. I want to carry through my Lost Letters image, as a sort of branding in these red, black and white designs, with the image popping up and different locations, similar to the work of Carreras.
Burlesque Poster Design, Foreword by Chaz Royal – 741.674, Central Saint Martins Library, Korero, page 58-59
I am really inspired by these two images, and the power of the white, red and black colour scheme. The aesthetic block text, text boxes and stars are really eye-catching me, and ties into and inspires the overall aesthetic that I want for my Drawing Into Print project.
20/09/19 - CORE DESIGN AND TYPOGRAPHY RESEARCH: POSTER DESIGN
This poster was designed in 1928 for Shell by Fredrick Clifford Harrison. What particularly interests me about this poster is the fact that it shows evidence of an early form of branding for the company, something that hadn't quite developed in poster design and advertising during this period. We can see this by comparing the similarities between the 1920 'Pouring oil cans' poster and the 1923 'Leading line' poster. What I like about this design is the simplicity of form and colour; the white and red cars stand out against the deep blue background, whilst keeping focus on the yellow text by not interfering vertically. The horizontal lines and landscape layout, as well as the smudge of the ink above the driver's heads effectively enhances that sense of speed and power that Shell is trying to promote in it's product.
20/09/19 - CORE DESIGN AND TYPOGRAPHY RESEARCH: POSTER DESIGN
This is a Feminist propaganda poster from the 1970's. The purpose of the poster is to bring light to the fact that despite the Equal Pay Act and the Sex Discrimination Act, the actual effects of government policies and practices meant that cuts, closures and restrictions still affected women and undercut positive legislation. This poster is entitled: 'Bite The Hand.' The poster appears to have been screen-printed in a purple ink, standing out boldly against the white background and contrasts effectively with the green text that states: ''Women! Bite the hand that 'feeds' you.'' The capitalized block lettering of the text stands out against the more illustrative, hand written lettering in the screen print image, making it the primary communication. The scale of the illustration fills up most of the poster, with the character centered in the image and staring right at the video, which communicates the message of the poster with more strength.
20/09/19 - CORE DESIGN AND TYPOGRAPHY RESEARCH: POSTER DESIGN
This poster is from a book documenting the poster art of Australian popular music. This design was created in 2003 for the band 'The Mess Hall.' What interested me about this poster was the combination of layered printed illustration and the digital lettering. The layering of the printed sound waves coming out of the gramophone creates a visual sense of vibrating noise, which communicates the context of the poster effectively. The word 'Jet' is enlarged, with a bordered serif typeface, which catches the eye, making it the priority message. In 'The Mess Hall' the insides of the 's' is in the shape of a star, which plays into the fun and edgy image that this poster design creates. This is also seen in the pink, black and white colour scheme, which is simple and sophisticated, yet also fun and eye-catching in order to advertise the listed concerts and set the tone for the performance.
18/09/19 - CONTEXTUAL PRACTISE RESEARCH
Noma Bar
“Noma Bar (born in 1973) is an Israel-born graphic designer, illustrator and artist. His work has appeared in many media publications including: Time Out London, BBC, Random House, The Observer, The Economist and Wallpaper*. Bar has illustrated over one hundred magazine covers, published over 550 illustrations and released three books of his work: Guess Who - The Many Faces of Noma Bar in 2008, Negative Space in 2009 and Bittersweet 2017, a 680 page 5 volume monograph produced in a Limited Edition of 1000 published by Thames & Hudson.” https://www.dutchuncle.co.uk/noma-bar
Noma Bar’s use of block shapes and negative space, that communicate multiple meanings at once inspires me to think about how I can play with context and multiple meanings within an illustration/design in order to create an effective communication. Bar’s work is a key example in the power of simplicity.
17/09/19 - DRAWING INTO PRINT
This is a visual board of references that I developed while generating my slot machine idea based off of my screen-printed illustration.
I also saw this shop sign walking down the street. The illustration reminds of my Lost Letters image. I like the way in which the silhouette has been filled. This might be an interesting way to develop my illustration into the details of a 3D structure, or later into a relief-print, as it would be easier to cut out with a scalpel.
17/09/19 - DRAWING INTO PRINT RESEARCH
Mr Bingo – Mystery Drawing Box
This is part of my research to develop my idea for the ‘Cardboard Slot Machine’ that I created in response to my Lost Letters screen-print. Mr Bingo’s mystery drawing box was created in order to sell drawings at an art fair. The consumer would pop in twenty quid and then open the box to receive their unknown original Mr Bingo sketch. What inspired me about this was bright fun colours, that tie into the humour aspect of the 3D piece, as well as witty text, placed in a similar position that the text on a real slot machine might be placed. I like the piece plays with context, we know it’s not a real slot machine due to the lack of real mechanics and the simple aspect of scale, however it doesn’t matter to the audience, as the imagery, text and form easily suggest it’s just a simple bit of fun to be interacted with.
Source: @mr_bingstagram on Instagram
16/09/19 - CORE DESIGN AND TYPOGRAPHY
References that I looked at when generating and constructing my idea for the 'Honey I'm home! Oh, I forgot. I'm not married" text printed on a mug and a wine glass:
16/09/19 - DRAWING INTO PRINT RESEARCH
16/09/19 - DRAWING INTO PRINT RESEARCH
Paul Noble
Paul Noble (born 1963) is a British visual artist. In 2012, he was nominated for the Turner Prize for his detailed, large scale drawings of fictional worlds.
“Forging a unique and maverick path in the ebullient British art scene, Paul Noble received widespread international recognition for his vast and monumental drawing project Nobson Newtown. Drawing image after image, story after story—at once architect and town planner, archeologist and cartographer, social historian and activist, creator and destroyer—over the course of a decade Noble invented and described a melancholy urban vision somewhere between Claude-Nicolas Ledoux’s revolutionary utopias, SimCity, and the postapocalyptic wastelands pictured in the daily media.” - https://gagosian.com/artists/paul-noble/
'Playframe' (2000) Paul Noble, graphite on paper
'Lidonob' (2000) Paul Noble, graphite on paper
'C.L.I.P.O.N' (1997) Paul Noble, graphite on paper
What interests me about Paul Noble’s work is his ability to combine technical drawing – something that is commonly used for very accurate depictions of a space, to create a completely fictional world and narrative, to the point that it convinces the viewer that these are real places. He plays with iconography and trust, we as viewers trust technical drawing to be an accurate depiction and therefore trust his fiction depiction of reality to be accurate.
Image sources: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/paul-noble-2767 http://www.artnet.com/artists/paul-noble/clipon-2OmkASxTba1MNCbFz1PxKQ2
Letterproeftuin
“Letterproeftuin is a travelling open-source design studio. A neo-craft workshop that emphasizes the creative process and exhibits its results. It is a counter-action to the fast nowaday design tools and an invitation for designers to get their hands dirty in order to inspire, discuss and share knowledge. Based on a passion for printmaking we combine craftsmanship and technology with inspiration, collaboration, hard work and fun.” http://www.letterproeftuin.com
“The Letterproeftuin gave a workshop relief printing at the Graphic School of Rotterdam. The assignment we gave was; A wood printed alphabet, each student one letter, build up from little laser-cut pieces of wood. Together with the students we designed and created a typeface which eventually got converted to an OpenType font. All the individual letters printed on 500x700 mm sheets were bound together in a huge 'Font Book'." http://www.letterproeftuin.com/Grafisch-Lyceum-Rotterdam.html
What I like about this project is the fact that there were so many collaborators; each letter has its own personality and narrative, so when words are put together it creates a really interesting over story, one that isn’t so explicit but can be read into in a more emotive, atmospheric way. I also think that the medium of wood printing, and printing in general, even though it is pieces of flat colour, the effect has so much personality and interesting noise within the sections of ink.
Images source: http://www.letterproeftuin.com/Grafisch-Lyceum-Rotterdam.html
13/09/2019 - FASHION COMMUNICATION RESEARCH, PHOTOGRAPHERS
Campbell Addy
“Campbell Addy is a London based photographer & filmmaker born and raised in South London. His work is narrative and emotional in nature, with a focus on a unique casting and under-represented faces. Since graduating from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in 2016, he has worked with editorial outlets including i-D, Vogue and Dazed. His work has been exhibited internationally in London, Oslo, Norway and Paris, including a 2017 solo exhibition entitled ‘Matthew 7:7” which launched alongside Addy’s first book “Unlocking Seoul”. In addition to his photographic and directorial career, Campbell has launched Nii Journal, a biannual arts and culture publication as well as Nii Agency, a modelling agency dedicated to representing interesting faces and celebrating diversity.” https://www.clm-agency.com/photographers/campbell-addy
'Future Shakers,' British Vogue, Campbell Addy
ID x Balenciaga, Campbell Addy
'Tender Head,' Interview Magazine, Campbell Addy
What I really like about Addy’s work is his ability to create and shoot within a space. Even by the simplest of props or set design, he manages to work the composition in a way that creates a whole reality within his images.
Images source: https://www.clm-agency.com/photographers/campbell-addy
Sean and Seng
“Sean and Seng, with roots in London and Kuala Lumpur respectively, met and graduated at the University of the Arts London in Photography. There they began working together, with their first commission being for the Vivienne Westwood Advertising campaign in 2004, upon graduation. They have since been regular contributors for Dazed, POP, Homme+ and 032c. Most known for their strong imagery of women and photographs of landscape and animals. In 2015, They began publishing their own broadsheet travel photo journal with the first issue dedicated to India. They currently reside in London.” https://www.managementartists.com/photography-motion/sean-and-seng?fromredirect=yes
Pop Magazine, Sean and Seng
Exhibition, F/W '19, Sean and Seng
Pop Magazine, F/W '18, Sean and Seng
I noted these photographers for their interesting compositions and the way they use light and tone to focus on certain aspects of the model/look.
Images source: https://www.managementartists.com/photography-motion/sean-and-seng
Cedric Buchet
“Cedric Buchet was born in Paris and is of both French and Danish descent. He moved to America at the age of 13 and studied philosophy at Vassar College and is currently living in London. Cedric maintains a strong hand in both the fashion and the art world, yet demonstrates a singular approach regardless of the genre. His work is held in the permanent collection at the MOMA and the Fond National D’art contemporain Paris as well as in Private collections.” https://www.managementartists.com/photography-motion/cedric-buchet?fromredirect=yes
L'Express, Cedric Buchet
Ashton Kutcher for GQ style, shot by Cedric Buchet
Jeff Goldblum for Mr Porter, photography and moving image by Cedric Buchet
I am interested in the way in which he shoots/uses postproduction to make his films look like they were shot during an earlier point in camera development. I also like the way he combines humour and composition to shoot his subjects, particularly in images shot for male magazines such as the ones of Jeff Goldblum and Ashton Kutcher.
Images source: https://www.managementartists.com/photography-motion/cedric-buchet?fromredirect=yes
Glen Luchford
“British Photographer Glen Luchford is a world-famous fashion and portrait photographer. For the last thirty years, he has worked with most of fashion’s leading magazines including British Vogue, French Vogue, Vanity Fair, and many more. His work first caught the public eye in the late 1990s, with his avant-garde fashion campaigns for Prada, which won him the prestigious Best Campaign Award from the British Design and Art Direction Organization. Luchford has successfully exemplified a visual language that had never before been seen in the fashion or fine art arenas, launching the photographer as one of his generation’s most imaginative talents.” https://www.artpartner.com/artists/film-print/glen-luchford/bio/
Glen Luchford, source unknown
Loud Campaign 2019, Fenty, shot by Glen Luchford
Screen grabs from the Gucci S/S '19 Campaign video shot by Glen Luchford
I absolutely love the way in which Luchford transforms the audience into a completely different time period, from 50s Paris to the golden age of Hollywood. His realities are fully realised, and I find him to be one of the most exciting fashion filmmakers and photographers that I have ever looked at. I am particularly inspired by his S/S ’19 Campaign film for Gucci which was a celebration of the technicolour film era. I think about that campaign all the time, to me it is the epitome of great fashion communication.
Images source: https://www.artpartner.com/artists/film-print/glen-luchford/archive/film/
@_glen_luchford on Instagram
Harley Weir
“London-born photographer and director Harley Weir is known for creating intimate images and films in both her personal work and also her acclaimed editorial and commercial work. Her images are often carefully composed with a highly attuned sense of colour, and composition. Having shot campaigns for many luxury brands, consistently compelling editorials and a series of widely acclaimed personal projects she has become a leading force in the photography and film industry. Her film “Legs are not Doors” made her the top winner of Milano Fashion Film Award in 2015. Harley had her first solo Show in 2017 at Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam, where her work is now in their permanent collection. She is a regular exhibitor at Photo London and Paris Photo.” https://www.artpartner.com/artists/film-print/harley-weir/bio/
Greta Thunberg for ID magazine, shot by Harley Weir
Double Magazine, Harley Weir
Self Service 51, Harley Weir
I am inspired by the intimacy of Weir’s images, and how she manages to create a close relationship between the subjects, camera and clothes.
Image sources: https://www.artpartner.com/artists/film-print/harley-weir/archive/story/self-service-51-glow-2/
11/09/19 - CONTEXTUAL PRACTISE RESEARCH
William Kentridge
“William Kentridge (born 28 April 1955) is a South African artist best known for his prints, drawings, and animated films. These are constructed by filming a drawing, making erasures and changes, and filming it again. He continues this process meticulously, giving each change to the drawing a quarter of a second to two seconds' screen time. A single drawing will be altered and filmed this way until the end of a scene. These palimpsest-like drawings are later displayed along with the films as finished pieces of art.” https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/william-kentridge-2680
I saw this film at the Tate Modern in London (clip that I took on my phone, above). In this animated film, Kentridge reflects on South Africa’s attempts to come to terms with its brutal apartheid past. I am inspired in this film, by the way in which Kentridge plays and manipulates iconography – whether it be the image of cat, television or phone, in order to layer meaning and communicate various messages on top of each other.
Takashi Murakami
“Takashi Murakami (1962) is a Japanese contemporary artist. He works in fine arts media (such as painting and sculpture) as well as commercial media (such as fashion, merchandise, and animation) and is known for blurring the line between high and low arts. He coined the term "superflat", which describes both the aesthetic characteristics of the Japanese artistic tradition and the nature of post-war Japanese culture and society and is also used for Murakami's artistic style and other Japanese artists he has influenced.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takashi_Murakami
Takashi Murakami’s ‘Superflat Monogram’ film for Louis Vuitton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkQUFb4SswY
This film is fascinating to me. As a viewer, I was I drawn into the chaos of colour, detail, sound and emotion within the film. The way in which Murakami makes use of iconography to overwhelm the audience with detail and imagery is interesting. He seems to know exactly when to over-saturate the screen with images, and when to draw to back in order to direct focus. This is something that I could use in my work and experiment with both the use of iconography and the influx and decline of visual information.
10/09/19 - LOST LETTERS RESEARCH
Nick Morely (Linocut Boy)
Nick Morley is a linocut artist whose prints are collected internationally. As well as illustrating for leading publishing houses, he regularly teaches workshops, curates exhibitions, and writes articles and a blog on printmaking. He recently set up Hello Print Studio, a printmaking studio in Margate, England. https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Linocut_for_Artists_and_Designers.html?id=DoRSjwEACAAJ&source=kp_author_description&redir_esc=y
“The major themes running through Nick’s personal work are masculinity, heroism, human achievement and man’s efforts to leave his mark on the world.” http://www.nickmorley.co.uk/about.html
‘Handbag,’ Nick Morely, linocut and screenprint : 76 x 100cm http://www.nickmorley.co.uk/prints21.html
‘Zebra Man,’ Nick Morely, linocut : 20 x 20cm http://www.nickmorley.co.uk/prints04.html
‘Beards of the World,’ Nick Morely, linocut 56 x 56cm http://www.nickmorley.co.uk/prints11.html
I am really inspired by the humorous and whimsical nature of Nick Morely’s prints. Although they are incredibly detailed, and simply enjoyable and light-hearted to look at and take, there are those underlying themes of masculinity and human achievement which elevate his work to being objective communications as well as visual creations.
10/09/19 - TYPOGRAPHY RESEARCH
Notes from talks by Martina Flor and Sarah Hyndman.
4/09/19 - CONTEXTUAL PRACTICE RESEARCH
Carlos Amorales
“Carlos Amorales was born in Mexico City in 1970. He travelled to Amsterdam in 1992 to study at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and then at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten (1996–97). He has completed residencies with Atelier Calder, Saché, France (2012); Mac/Val, Val-de-Marne, France (2011); and the Smithsonian Artists Research Fellowship, Washington, D.C. (2010). Amorales’s practice encompasses animation, drawing, installation, video, and performance; he also collaborates with professional animators, composers, designers, musicians—and even wrestlers. Having matured under the influence of both Mexican and European cultures, Amorales frequently explores the commonalities and disparities of the two milieus by juxtaposing their distinctive vocabularies. His work is also deeply personal—reflective of emotional introversion and at times obscure, it journeys into a dark world of fantasy, blurring the line between the real and the imagined.” https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/carlos-amorales
life in the folds (detail), 2017
alphabet of ocarinas placed over tables, forming a poem. high temperature enamelled ceramic, compressed aluminum sheets prepared with imprint, silkscreen and varnish, fixed on a steel tubular base. film black and white, with sound. set of 100 xerographic prints on paper
115 x 900 x 500 cm. (45.28 x 472.44 x 303.15 in.) approx. installed.
the cursed village (from the installation life in the folds), 2017
film black and white, with sound, 13 minutes
What stands out to me about Amorales’ work is his ability to use simple shapes, manipulated by light and shadow in order to create an effective narrative communication. In terms of the Alphabet, I really like how he plays with the idea of context in his work. This ties into what we discussed in class, in terms of trying to define GCD and understand how context plays a key role in a communication and the message that it has.