Friday, 14 February 2014

Final Exhibition Proposal

Exhibition and Research Proposal

Preferred assessment option: 100% Practice

                                                                                                                                         
Summary of proposed work

I am going to exhibit a one hour moving image piece with sound. There may be elements of installation – choices to be made about projecting onto a screen, a wall or shown on a TV monitor. Material I am working on towards the moving image is the Found Paintings, and the meaning of such abstract imagery. I’m interested in the fact that the digital version of these images is the original, and ideas about reproduced images.

I am looking to populate the moving image with portraits in my possession- mostly prewar school groups from Eastern Europe. I am looking at lives which are now anonymous and untraceable, and what remains of a person in the image of a face.

The sound will be for a later stage of the project. I have recently completed sound piece 24 Hour Sibelius, and anticipate that the final project sound will be somewhat similar.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ouk2z715-OY&feature=youtu.be

The sound will be an appropriately treated piece of music, perhaps layered as in previous pieces I have made, eg, The Future Past Tense.http://vimeo.com/60550109

Methods of producing the visual and sound elements are similar in practice – isolating and then layering, and I would like to continue a sense of confusion and overlapping between the senses.

As yet I am working on the found paintings, the photos and the sound in parallel, but it is my practice to make them integrated and linked during the making. Part of resolving the piece is realising the conceptual links. 



Summary of contextual research

I am looking at my Found Paintings images in the context of abstract painters and the principles and implications of colour and shadow.

Colour, Shadow, Surface:
Hartridge(10). Science and optics of colour.
Kirby(12). Magnified analysis of painting surfaces.
Sloane(19). Colour theory in art and design.
Tanizaki(21). Space and nuance in art.

Painters, Abstract Visual Language:
Robert Rauchenburg. Materials, objects, painting. Incorporating found imagery.
Philippe Vandenburg. Visual motifs, expression, colour.

……….

Also researching how images are apprehended from visual clues, the suggestion of presence, implied images. In moving image I am researching elements of the implied narrative – more usually seen in films made using appropriated imagery – artists Christian Marclay, Elizabeth Price. It is a construct I wish to apply to my own work, and I see this research evolving in parallel to making the current project, eg, I imagine some of the subjects in my vintage school photos appearing to interact with each other or make eye contact. This is a way of giving audiences another layer to imagine, fill in and interpret as narrative.

Vision, Perception, Understanding Images:
Barthes(1). The nature of photography, time, the past and our relationship with image.
Elkins(7). Insights into art, vision and human perception.
Sontag(19). What photographs show us about the world and how we think.
Rothenberg(22). Connecting ideas in music, philosophy, mathematics, art.

……….

Looking to articulate some of my ideas about using waves of music and sound, and the pace and experience of thought that both mirrors and directs.

Music:
Barthes(2). The meanings signified by text, music, image.
Sachs(16). Music in the brain and the mind.
Scruton(17). Interprets the illusive feelings music inspires.

Music:
Gavin Bryars. Looped fragments, rich harmonies.
Minimalism. Overlapping phase music.

……….

Ideas about the reality of an image – the real, the photograph, the digital projection – justifying the version I choose of the reality of the Found Paintings. Extending previous work on street compositions and brick imagery.


Lost, Found, Reproduction:
Benjamin(3). Philosophy of reproduction.
Berger(4). What we actually see – constantly to reread.
Mundy(15). Originals and reproductions.
Spalding(20). Includes ideas about excluded and imagined art.

Lost, Found Artists:
The Boyle Family. Reproducing found places – streets.
Stuart Geddes. Found paintings – desktops, etc. Photos of walls, cracks, etc.

……….

Related moving image and video art practice.

Moving Image:
Heartney(11). Contemporary practice.
Meigh-Andrews(13). History of video art to now.
Still researching material.

Moving Image Artists: and my particular interest in them
Christian Boltanski. Ambiguity – real/imaginary. Use of light/photos - memorial & searingly moving.
Stan Brakhage. Experimental video using found material.
Douglas Gordon. Issues of time, magnifying concepts through focus of time. Frame by frame.
Christian Marclay. Constructed narrative/appropriated imagery. Linking clips through gesture.
László Moholy-Nagy. Shadows/ light, abstract imagery. Photography expanding human vision and understanding.
Saskia Olde Wolbers. Constructed scenes. Abstract places. Imagined narrative.
Elizabeth Price. Image, text, music – archive material. Conceptual links.
Pipilotti Rist. Projections, installations, aptness.
Andy Warhol. Duration films. Sleep. Empire State Building.
Catherine Yass. Durational, industrial films. Descent
……….

Ethics and issues of using appropriated material (old school photos) and working in the Weiner Library for indirect, abstract links and context. I am researching photo archives at The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide http://www.wienerlibrary.co.uk/. I am mostly looking at family archives from a similar time and place to my photos. Because many of my photos are now practically untraceable, I am picking out visual clues and conceptual ideas which link the images. This is unlikely to be a main apparent element of the finished piece, but informs the entire codification of its making.

Archives, Ethics, Museums, Gallery, Space:
Curtis(5). Reworking and recontextualising of art through rehang.
Elkins(8). Visual literacy in different countries.
Harbison(9). Memories are spacial. Imagination and architecture.
Still researching material.

And

Contemporary Practice, Art Issues:
Danchev(6). Artist ideals in their own words. Art – thought – words.
Mirzoeff(14).  Key writings and ideas.
Weintraub(23). Evidence from practising artists.




Reading List

1. Barthes, R. (1981) Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. London. Vintage.

2. Barthes, R. (1977) Image, Music, Text: Essays. London. Fontana.

3. Benjamin, W. (2008) The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. London. Penguin.

4. Berger, J. (1997) Ways of Seeing. London. Penguin.

5. Curtis, P. (ed) (2013) Tate Britain Companion: A Guide to British Art. London. Tate.

6. Danchev, A. (ed.) (2011) 100 Artists’ Manifestos from the Futurists to the Stuckists. London. Penguin.    

7. Elkins, J. (1998) The Object Stares Back: On the Nature of Seeing. San Diego. Harcourt Brace.

8. Elkins, J. (2010) Visual Cultures. Bristol. Intellect.

9. Harbison, R. (2000) Eccentric Spaces. Cambridge, Mass. MIT.

10. Hartridge, H. (1949) Colours and How We See Them. London. Bell.

11. Heartney, E. (2008) Art & Today. London. Phaidon.

12. Kirby, J. (2011) Techniques of Painting. London. National Gallery.

13. Meigh-Andrews, C. (2013) A History of Video Art. 2nd Revised edition.  London. Bloomsbury Academic.

14. Mirzoeff, N. (1998) The Visual Culture Reader. London. Routledge.

15. Mundy, J. (2013) Lost Art: Missing Artworks of the Twentieth Century. London. Tate.

16. Sacks, O. (2008) Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. London. Picador.

17. Scruton, R. (2009) Understanding Music: Philosophy and Interpretation. London. Continuum.

18. Sloane, P. (1966) Colour: Basic Principles and New Directions. London. Studio Vista.

19. Sontag, S. (2002) On Photography. London. Penguin.

20. Spalding, J. (2010) The Best Art You’ve Never seen: 101 Hidden Treasures From Around the World. London. Penguin.

21. Tanizaki, J. (2001) In Praise of Shadows. London. Vintage.

22. Rothenberg, D. (2012) Survival of the Beautiful: Art, Science and Evolution. London. Bloomsbury.

23. Weintraub, L. (2003) Making Contemporary Art: How Today's Artists Think and Work. London. Thames & Hudson.


Timetable
Period from 1st March to end of unit

(merged with unit tasks timetable)

March
Complete compiling and editing all visual material - found paintings, edited photos.
Complete video trials and decide on moving image formats and structure of piece.
Reading, research and notes.
Writing.

April May June
Processing and editing moving image.
Sounds recording, collecting, editing and trials.
Reading, research and notes.
Writing

July August September October
Complete making vision and sound.
Projection, installation trials.
Writing

November
Completion and processing of work.
Make DVDs and copies.
Print stills.
Speaker and sound trials.
Writing.

December
Projection and installation trials.
Exhibition.


Practical and technical requirements and resources

Projector (probably bringing, but interested in seeing what’s available on site at this stage)

TV

Screen

DVD player (bringing)

Leads and connectors

Speakers

Stands / plinths for equipment

Chairs/stools for viewers

Small table/ bench for cards, info, etc

Fixings and security

Material to make space lightfast

White paint and painting equipment

The exhibition space will be uncluttered and painted white.

Notes Additional

After submission of the proposal, I intend to amend slightly, especially adding to my references various novels recently read which I recognize have significantly influenced my thinking, and also music, especially giving more background into my links in thinking with Sibelius and classical music I will use for the final project. I intend these additions to be incorporated into working through the making of the piece, and will add the most relevant.

I haven’t completely ruled out incorporating objects in my final exhibition. Ideas for appropriate sculptural pieces may become part of the project, but I also anticipate them being small and straightforward to install.

14th February 2014                                                                                                                            

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Thinker of thoughts, mother of adults Shadows Echoes Stories Dyslexia London Scotland Drawing Sewing Research Tutor Mentor Books Trees Clouds Quartz Magnets. I review and write about art and culture.

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