Independent Study: Development.

To develop my ideas further I made a total of 3 installations the first was a fitting that would fit over a lamp, made out of wire and different coloured plastics cut out into triangles. This created a very bold geometric design on the wall. Although after constructing the piece I realised it could have been a little more sturdy. My second piece looked a lot more like a conventional lamp shade and was made out of the ink covered plastics that I had previously made. The problem with this piece is that the colours were no where near as vibrant when the light was turned on. This was probably either because the when the plastic was bended it spread the inks so they weren't as dense or because the light wasn't strong enough. My last design was made from the test tubes I used in my shop window installation and an odd novelty light that cost me 99p. I smashed up the test tubes into sharp, angular shapes then I tried to create almost an explosion of neon colour. Over all this piece acts as more of a Marquette and would also become a lot more effective if it were a more substantial size.

I really thought my installations related to the works of Dev Harlen, Masaru Ozaki and Luke Abby.
I was incredibly interested in Dev Harlen's work. I think that the pieces that he creates could have started out as maquettes not dissimilar to my own. Along with this his use of geometric shapes and lighting really creates some outstanding effects. I feel his work also shows how the size of a piece can also effect the end effect in an extraordinary way. Another way his work links to my own is the way he used projectors to create the effects on the geometric installation. This is something I would also like to explore further. Although my financial standing is slight worse off than Harlen's.

Another artist I looked at was Luke Abby who's work did not involve a very geometric design although I really like how the light travels through this specific installation making the colours within the piece incredibly vibrant. This piece also has a feeling free a free flowing movement despite it being a static piece, this is probably one of the main reasons why I like the piece. Creating the sense of movement out of a static object is something I found incredibly difficult and made me appreciate this piece even more.

Masaru Ozaki was another artist who's work really held a sense of similarity to my own work and the works of the previous artist I had looked at. I really like the way his Christmas tree installations are illuminated as it highlights the edges of the geometric shapes within his work. This is one of the strongest aspects to my test tube piece. Because although the light isn't incredibly strong it traveled through the edges of the test tubes surprisingly well. 

To develop my work even further I would like to experiment more with colour, different types of materials and different strengths of light. I would also like to if possible to increase the size of my installations. 

Independent Study.

One my first day of independent work, I was a little unsure on what to start on. It was only when I started to link aspects of my previous work to what I was presently thinking that I began to gain inspiration. I wanted to look at the way light passing through an object effects the way we may interpret it.
I started experimenting with placing inks on sheets of clear plastic then layered them on top of each other. I felt my work strongly linked to Gustav Metzger's liquid crystal environment, the spontaneity feel of his work is something I found intriguing and matched the way my work was created. Which was through luck depending on how the inks reacted with one another. Another thing that really stood out to me when looking at Metzger's work was the vibrancy of colour. This is also something that I strongly based my work upon. After putting ht einks on the clear plastics like Metzger I projected what I had done onto the wall to create a more striking piece. This worked quite successfully, although to keep the colour the same stregnth I had to wait until it was almost pitch black outside to get the best results.  Overall my it came together quite well and the element of luck and chance did benefit my work. However testing inks on different services would've developed my work even further.

 

 

Presentation Ideas.

Going back to the shop window display we first created which I really liked I feel my work tailed off into more of a dead end. My 3D design isn't something that best represents my own art style therefore I am not going to continue from that. For this reason I am leaning towards creating a more classically painted idea with more modern techniques entwined with it. As I was really happy with my printing I would either like to create something in print to paint over or print over something I painted. This maybe difficult as to link a classical painting to shopping after my past work could be a challenge. Alongside this I could also take the idea of bright neon like colours from our shop window design and kitsch design and maybe juxtapose it with a very classic painting.
One of the only artist's who I could think of that related to a classic painting reinvented in a modern way was Robert Rauschenburg and his Pneumonia Lisa, which is a photo print with other aspects and mark makings printed over the top.

Linking an idea like this to consumerism would be an incredibly strong piece and could also be reprinted several times giving it the effect of mass production. Also the use of repetition has played a significant part in most of my work and nearly all the bits of work I've created have involved some kind of repetition. Although I have not got a set idea yet I think I'm going to experiment more with print and maybe create a series of designs under a single caption.

Car Park drawing session.

Today we did a drawing exercise by drawing the cars in the car park. The structure of the cars was what held importance rather than detail. The idea was to create a picture where the repeated shapes looked as though they had been mass produced and all the same. Although I found it incredibly difficult to give my drawing a a sense of perspective. And despite working into my picture in the afternoon with mono printing it still didn't work out too well and it turns out the only interesting marks I made were out of frustration. Although I found it difficult to get the hang of I still found it an interesting experience and found out areas that I need to work on.

Printing.

We used left over bits of packaging to create prints in carious ways. Firstly inked up both sides of a bottle and while squashing it I took a repeated number of prints. Although the end result was quite interesting and repeating the image in red and blue gave a really strong effect although the mark making produced was restricted and the end result just ended up looking just like a the original object. Even though this work was influenced by consumerism and created by a piece that was made because of a consumerist society I felt there was not enough variety in the marks that were made. To improve this idea I could have printed over this with other packaging and added different colours.
On my second print I put four different colours in different parts of the printing board then covered it with thin strips of cardboard overlapping the different colours, along with bubble wrap and some corrugated cardboard. After the first print I removed the pieces of packaging then put them down in different places creating a really interesting effect. I was really pleased with this print and the effects have really inspired me take a deeper look into printing and maybe involve it when I progress these ideas independently.

Recycling: Bargain Basement.

On the second week of the fine art rotation we were looking at how installations can be made by using recycled materials. We were also meant to try and relate these installations to our shop window displays from the previous week. We started by looking at Joan Miro who concentrated on abstract formal qualities and was known for juxtaposing completely different things to create a single sculpture. I feel His work is incredibly interesting because it can give off different meanings to different people and causes discussion and debates over whether it is art or not. This I feel only strengthens his design and can been seen as the actual definition of fine art.

Another artist who is similar to Joan Miro in the way he puts things together that dint usually belong is Thomas Herschhorn. He is more contemporary than Miro although I feel he relates more to the task we were set as he uses everyday materials such as cardboard to create his sculptures. Throughout his work you can tell he is interested in hardcore daily life and he is very economical. Along with this it is clear that he is interested in the energy within his work rather than the quality.

 

When I was first brainstorming ideas I wanted to create a cube that looked as though it was collapsing in on itself using cardboard. This would've created almost an optical illusion although it didn't work out in the way which I'd hoped. I had not left enough space in between each square of cardboard so there was not enough depth to create the effect I was looking for. So after this I then developed what I had already started into more of an architectural model rather than the decorative fine art design that I had originally intended. I found that this ended up working incredibly well I also based my main idea for it on my project in the 3D design rotation. My only concern was that I didn't want my work to come across as an architectural piece because although I appreciate architectural design it's not my main interest or strength within fine art.

After completing my model I made a variety or geometric stamps using little scraps of cardboard. I used these on my first design although they didn't create a huge impact because I had already created my design based on the colours that were already printed on the cardboard. However I did find a use for the stamps when I created a geometric design on one of my previous attempts at creating my cube. This worked really well as it was incredibly simple but still held quite a powerful effect.