26.11.07
About the City
it is a place where senses are bombarded with the intensity of the city, as a result we city dwellers build a perseptual wall through supressing our feeling responses and reactig not with the heart but with the head, a part of the body quite remote from depth of personality. Reason replaces emotion.
19.11.07
The Time of Tea
September - October 2007
Having had my childhood dictated by tea drinking (it is possibly Russia’s most prominent tradition), I chose to study the passing of time during this simple act for this final project for the year.
The table was video recorded while tea was drunk between me and my guests. Two girlfriends were invited, a father, and a lover, (I also tried to have an almost-stranger (new neighbour) come for a cup but unfortunatly that did not come to pass). The conversations were seen awkwardly beginning, cake was devoured and slowly and lazily they wound back down.
While editing, from the 3 events I tried to create a complete picture of the overall phenomenon, adding a bird’s eye view of the setting as a background was just another dimension I could show. The table cloths I kept, saving the stains and the crumbs of the conversation, the residue of the event. The cups changed with the people so did the passing of time, so did the ways of drinking.
Having had my childhood dictated by tea drinking (it is possibly Russia’s most prominent tradition), I chose to study the passing of time during this simple act for this final project for the year.
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| From My work |
The table was video recorded while tea was drunk between me and my guests. Two girlfriends were invited, a father, and a lover, (I also tried to have an almost-stranger (new neighbour) come for a cup but unfortunatly that did not come to pass). The conversations were seen awkwardly beginning, cake was devoured and slowly and lazily they wound back down.
While editing, from the 3 events I tried to create a complete picture of the overall phenomenon, adding a bird’s eye view of the setting as a background was just another dimension I could show. The table cloths I kept, saving the stains and the crumbs of the conversation, the residue of the event. The cups changed with the people so did the passing of time, so did the ways of drinking.
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| From My work |
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| From My work |
18.11.07
I dentity
It seems that part of being an artist in today’s world is being good at presenting who you are. That requires making choices – deciding what nuances distinguish you form others and how they came about. This exercise is bound to expose conflicts within one’s self (and therefore one’s work), it is these glimpses of conflicts that can make a work magnetic to others.
This quote seems to describe today’s creative employment field well:
“Difference is highlighted, distinctiveness is valued, exclusiveness defined.”[i]
....to be continued
[i] Sean Mallon and Pandora F. Pereira. Speaking in Colour, Conversations with artists of Pacific Island heritage. Wellington: Te Papa Press, 1997. p 10
This quote seems to describe today’s creative employment field well:
“Difference is highlighted, distinctiveness is valued, exclusiveness defined.”[i]
....to be continued
[i] Sean Mallon and Pandora F. Pereira. Speaking in Colour, Conversations with artists of Pacific Island heritage. Wellington: Te Papa Press, 1997. p 10
12.11.07
Our Age
In this time 'green' and 'global warming' seem to be everywhere we look, yet IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) is warning that too many years have already passed occupied by doubt and words alone, that meaningful changes are still not happening despite these years. Their latest report has sounded like a call to arms, that if we do not make significant changes right now it can realistically endanger our very species’ survival, not to mention others. Yet it is not easy to help the cause from an individual’s point of view and that will have to change. The default consumerist way of life distributed by the developed nations and now present in every corner of the world has to become an environmentally aware one, it has to be easy to allow it to be adopted by every household and individual. It will also have to be commercially profitable in order to succeed, we need easier ways of distinguishing which product has traveled less distance to reach us and has made a smaller mark on the environment so that competition is encouraged.
To bring about these changes individuals have to take initiative, somebody has to, as many people as possible even if it is to the smallest effect and those that take those steps need our support to succeed.
The longer I live the better I understand what fragile beings people are. We can be strong and as dispersed as jelly… like plants easy to crush but can be strong as nails when dry (which is not necessarily a truly beneficial state). It is not only the physical consequences of the lifestyle that our society is leading that is failing us but emotional as well. Gone are the support networks of the villages our ancestors lived in, and changes that have come with ever increasing life expectancy have not been fully recognized.
In an apparently wealthy housing estate in the north west of Hong Kong despair drives its residence to suicide (reported by BBC 29/11/07 Outlook program) Because of the lack of jobs in the area and too-expensive public transport into the city, the residents (all supported by welfare) are unable to earn any more money and become separated from family by fanatical restraints on the travel of both parties. It sounds like tragic suicides are happening one after another from lack of hope and purpose.
We need to return to the ‘slow’ way of life, reverting to some of the traditional aspects of life which got humanity through past millenniums. Living in ‘organism-like’ communities has humanitarian advantages; older people can help single or young parents, shared gardens and cooking would be possible and jobs providing services within the community would stop some people from needing to travel to work. Overall this could improve both individuals’ and our planet’s well being.
Links on the topic:
11.11.07
Exert From 'Taken' Steven Speilberg and Leslie Bohem Film
What makes us human?
That we can think?
That we can feel sorrow and pain?
That we can laugh? - I hope so.
We can hurt and we can laugh. And we know a past and a present, and in some
ways a future.
Maybe what makes us human is that we know just enough to think we know
where we're going.
___________________________
People say that when we grow up we kick at everything that we've been told,
We rebel against the world that your parents have worked so hard to bring us into.
A part of growing up is kicking at the ties that bind
but I dont thing thats why we kick at all,
I think we kick when we find out that our parents dont know much more about the world than we do.
They dont have the answers.
We rebel when we find out that they've been lying to us all along,
that there isnt any St Clause at all.
___________________________
People talk a lot as if the most important thing in life is to see things for what they really are.
But evething we do, every plan we make is kind of a lie.
We're closing our eyes and pretending, that the day will never come when we won't need to make any more plans.Hope is the biggest lie there is and it is the best.
We have to keep going as if it all mattered or else we would'nt keep going at all.
19.6.07
Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard
A tutor suggested i look at their work while i was doing an AfterEffects course in the first half of 2007. What can I say, I fell in love with their work. And later went on to participate in their "Make me yours again."
Their work captures an amazing frankness and honesty, in my eyes it manages to examine exactly what makes us human. The slow interview style about the songs you would or have chosen for your lover ingeniously focus and bring forth the deepest of emotions easily and effortlessly, it makes people speak candidly on camera, and its magical to watch.
Their website
Their work captures an amazing frankness and honesty, in my eyes it manages to examine exactly what makes us human. The slow interview style about the songs you would or have chosen for your lover ingeniously focus and bring forth the deepest of emotions easily and effortlessly, it makes people speak candidly on camera, and its magical to watch.
Their website
18.6.07
Natura Morta
June 2007
This is the conceptual statement for this project, click on the presentation board to see more details.
I identified with memento mori (vanitas) idea of being reminded of proximity of death in order to live for the moment. And investigated surrealism because I strongly agree with its openness to the idea that there is more to reality then what is immediately apparent.
Gerhard Richter caught my eye because of his use of more then one photo to describe one place, composition or situation which I believe is more accurate in communicating reality, and something I cannot get away from doing.
The design takes influence in use of a double-storey space from traditional church design, as they have the same goal of creating awe and look to have contrast between dark and light areas. I aspired to have as little light as possible in the composition to add drama and to draw attention to thresholds.
“Small receptive fields are more delicate in detail; large receptive fields entail less resolution ... in that way can awareness be multiplied.” – Gerhard Richter
Hence use of small unpredictable windows. These promote quite a dark, protected space the retractable stair which can hide and cut off the artist’s studio is an expression of this “Earthy womb” (– in regards to a project by Bemé and Dellinger).
This is the conceptual statement for this project, click on the presentation board to see more details.
 |
| From My work |
Gerhard Richter caught my eye because of his use of more then one photo to describe one place, composition or situation which I believe is more accurate in communicating reality, and something I cannot get away from doing.
The design takes influence in use of a double-storey space from traditional church design, as they have the same goal of creating awe and look to have contrast between dark and light areas. I aspired to have as little light as possible in the composition to add drama and to draw attention to thresholds.
“Small receptive fields are more delicate in detail; large receptive fields entail less resolution ... in that way can awareness be multiplied.” – Gerhard Richter
Hence use of small unpredictable windows. These promote quite a dark, protected space the retractable stair which can hide and cut off the artist’s studio is an expression of this “Earthy womb” (– in regards to a project by Bemé and Dellinger).
17.3.07
Room in the City
February 2007
This was the first project of the year and i admit: not the one i am most proud of, but i did come across and fall in love with Rooftop Architecture. It seems to highlight the finest aspects of the city, it enriches and diversifies it with a similar excitement to graffiti. As well as creating space where there was none before it creates access to desirable environments, which are private and with great views.
Having selected my site, a certain roof top
I identified these things as of most interest:
- being able to see all the people below living out their lives.
- giving a feeling of seeing the bigger picture of many of those lives being dysfunctional and miss-focused. This elevating stress and having a calming effect.
‘A vintage point from which to view the city’s residents and the city itself as it and they go through their daily motions, and fool yourself that you are somehow above it.’
I then moved on to look at what one does in a day, how it is spent. I looked at my own, recorded 3 days of my life and translated them into a graph. Which let me view it from a new point of view, to translate them into spaces.
Then the spaces and activities in them were connected to different sights visible from the roof tops.
Have a look at the presentation board for more.
This was the first project of the year and i admit: not the one i am most proud of, but i did come across and fall in love with Rooftop Architecture. It seems to highlight the finest aspects of the city, it enriches and diversifies it with a similar excitement to graffiti. As well as creating space where there was none before it creates access to desirable environments, which are private and with great views.
 |
| From My work |
I identified these things as of most interest:
- being able to see all the people below living out their lives.
- giving a feeling of seeing the bigger picture of many of those lives being dysfunctional and miss-focused. This elevating stress and having a calming effect.
‘A vintage point from which to view the city’s residents and the city itself as it and they go through their daily motions, and fool yourself that you are somehow above it.’
I then moved on to look at what one does in a day, how it is spent. I looked at my own, recorded 3 days of my life and translated them into a graph. Which let me view it from a new point of view, to translate them into spaces.
Then the spaces and activities in them were connected to different sights visible from the roof tops.
Have a look at the presentation board for more.
26.2.07
Flesh, Fashion and Fantasy - Instalation
September 2006
To begin this project we were asked to find a fashion designer we liked to inspire us. I chose Dolce and Gabbana, they stood out with their easy going, relaxed wit. These two work from history acknowledging their roots and teleport those essences into the coming moment, into a new contemporary design which one cannot imagine dating.
Their inspiration they say comes from their love for the Sicilian culture (Domenco Dolce’s home land) and sex appeal. Their ‘Woman of the South’ is “carnal and provocative, yet austere and haughty.” They design for a woman that is inspired by the “realism of Verga’s novels and the atmosphere of realist cinema”, films by Rossellini, Pasolini and Visconti. They say that attitude is fifty percent of fashion “and what makes you feel sexy, modern, or old, interesting or squalid is only attitude” and the woman he designs for is described as mysterious, self-possessed and feminine. In all their work there is a necessary splash of something difficult to measure, what could be described as atmosphere which makes the result rich and magnetic.
Therefore I set out to investigate further into the mystery that I see atmosphere to be.
As my two materials I chose glass and lace. The lace was fused into the glass after being placed between two sheets of glass into a kiln over night. Afterwards there were fragile remains left within the glass but the parts which had left the lace as it was destroyed, were captured by the glass in form of soot.
In the installation which followed I tried to set up a paradox between the materials, what we see and what we feel. As neither of the materials the lace or glass (except as in the form of a lens of the projector) are not in the room. But you see the lace and you see wind affecting it but there is some uncertainty of where the image is coming from and a frame hanging between the projector and the projection intensifies that. Mark Taylor discuses (in Surface Consciousness) the different ideas on the definition of surface using philosophies from Leonardo da Vinci, Avrum Stroll’s and molecular science, his conclusion reads: “all of the philosophies class surface as a boundary, therefore are all boundaries surfaces? And then are all thresholds surfaces too?” This inspired me to try and create a paradoxical, ambitious-in-being-confusing work, to perhaps cause viewers to question what reality is.
The work became a tribute to everything we cannot touch and cannot understand. As a wise person said: “I like when knowledge is rough, wild… To remain that way it has to feed on dialogue… By saying wild, I mean something for which you can’t make an image. Knowledge gets smoothed out because it has to be transmitted.”
This poem accompanied the instalation..
To begin this project we were asked to find a fashion designer we liked to inspire us. I chose Dolce and Gabbana, they stood out with their easy going, relaxed wit. These two work from history acknowledging their roots and teleport those essences into the coming moment, into a new contemporary design which one cannot imagine dating.Their inspiration they say comes from their love for the Sicilian culture (Domenco Dolce’s home land) and sex appeal. Their ‘Woman of the South’ is “carnal and provocative, yet austere and haughty.” They design for a woman that is inspired by the “realism of Verga’s novels and the atmosphere of realist cinema”, films by Rossellini, Pasolini and Visconti. They say that attitude is fifty percent of fashion “and what makes you feel sexy, modern, or old, interesting or squalid is only attitude” and the woman he designs for is described as mysterious, self-possessed and feminine. In all their work there is a necessary splash of something difficult to measure, what could be described as atmosphere which makes the result rich and magnetic.Therefore I set out to investigate further into the mystery that I see atmosphere to be.
As my two materials I chose glass and lace. The lace was fused into the glass after being placed between two sheets of glass into a kiln over night. Afterwards there were fragile remains left within the glass but the parts which had left the lace as it was destroyed, were captured by the glass in form of soot.
In the installation which followed I tried to set up a paradox between the materials, what we see and what we feel. As neither of the materials the lace or glass (except as in the form of a lens of the projector) are not in the room. But you see the lace and you see wind affecting it but there is some uncertainty of where the image is coming from and a frame hanging between the projector and the projection intensifies that. Mark Taylor discuses (in Surface Consciousness) the different ideas on the definition of surface using philosophies from Leonardo da Vinci, Avrum Stroll’s and molecular science, his conclusion reads: “all of the philosophies class surface as a boundary, therefore are all boundaries surfaces? And then are all thresholds surfaces too?” This inspired me to try and create a paradoxical, ambitious-in-being-confusing work, to perhaps cause viewers to question what reality is.
 |
| From Slideshow of ... |
The work became a tribute to everything we cannot touch and cannot understand. As a wise person said: “I like when knowledge is rough, wild… To remain that way it has to feed on dialogue… By saying wild, I mean something for which you can’t make an image. Knowledge gets smoothed out because it has to be transmitted.”
This poem accompanied the instalation..
 |
| From My work |
25.2.07
Flesh, Fashion and Fantasy - Store Design
October 2006
In the retail space I moved more towards fairytale motifs as the fairy creatures in old English stories always obscure reality and make you uncertain of what is real. The circle motif came from stories of fairies leading travelers away by leading them in circles and leading them into clearings of blue-bells where their enchantments were strongest. I read about how Shakespeare used a pun consistently throughout Mid Summers Night’s Dream; using “wood” in phrases implying that he is talking about forest while back then it was also associated with notions of being crazy or insane.
I wanted to make the shop appear busy so the customer cannot take everything in and most of all to be aware of that feeling, of incomplete comprehension. That is why I made the shelving numerous, all of varying sizes and depths and the slope of the floor was design to assist in this too. The black polished surface on the wall facing the semi circle completes the circle with its reflection and the steps (which could also be used for seating) make it seem possible to walk into that reflection, the other world.
The name of the shop is taken from a 20th century painting by Brian Froud The Elfin Maid which features a human male being captivated by an elf maiden. Female fairies were often portrayed as great seductresses they had an allure and sensuality that most men found irresistible but they always faced their suitors - for elves apparently have hollow backs and from behind they resemble trees struck by lightning. Romances between mortals and fairies were perilous affairs and hardly ever worked out, sometimes the young men were lured away never to return or if they did they were damaged in some way crippled or speechless, in their hearts they always remained under the spell of they elf maid.
In the retail space I moved more towards fairytale motifs as the fairy creatures in old English stories always obscure reality and make you uncertain of what is real. The circle motif came from stories of fairies leading travelers away by leading them in circles and leading them into clearings of blue-bells where their enchantments were strongest. I read about how Shakespeare used a pun consistently throughout Mid Summers Night’s Dream; using “wood” in phrases implying that he is talking about forest while back then it was also associated with notions of being crazy or insane.
 |
| From Slideshow of ... |
I wanted to make the shop appear busy so the customer cannot take everything in and most of all to be aware of that feeling, of incomplete comprehension. That is why I made the shelving numerous, all of varying sizes and depths and the slope of the floor was design to assist in this too. The black polished surface on the wall facing the semi circle completes the circle with its reflection and the steps (which could also be used for seating) make it seem possible to walk into that reflection, the other world.
The name of the shop is taken from a 20th century painting by Brian Froud The Elfin Maid which features a human male being captivated by an elf maiden. Female fairies were often portrayed as great seductresses they had an allure and sensuality that most men found irresistible but they always faced their suitors - for elves apparently have hollow backs and from behind they resemble trees struck by lightning. Romances between mortals and fairies were perilous affairs and hardly ever worked out, sometimes the young men were lured away never to return or if they did they were damaged in some way crippled or speechless, in their hearts they always remained under the spell of they elf maid.
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