Author: Sara

We received the intervention brief when I was home for the weekend, so I decided to use my own backyard as a site for one of my works. I created this work in a short amount of time and on a whim, using my duvet and pillow and placing them on my driveway. I like how this work suggests the absence of life, but if I was to spend more time on this work I think I’d place the duvet and pillow in a more public setting, like a park.

Experimenting with things found in my room was my next step for this brief. Moving into the stairwell of my hall’s building, I pulled my clothes rack into the corner and experimented with different levels as far as photographing them went. This created a surreal image, leading me to wonder why I was drawn to create this piece. I like the contrast between the concrete surroundings and the pops of color that the clothing creates.

For my third intervention work I returned to a previous site I had used; St. Paul’s church on Symonds Street. Using a takeaway box and a cotton bud, I created a tiny church out of recycled materials. I like the idea that the piece is able to be moved, and how it interacts with the thinking that a church can be anywhere one desires. I contemplated painting the piece to look more realistic but decided that the stark white communicated an idea better.

Reflection

This week lead me down many paths of thought. The permanence of sites, what defines a ‘home’ or parts of one, ideas of churches and religion, and surrealism. Ever since visiting St. Paul’s a few weeks ago for a brief, I have been thinking about the ideas surrounding a building of worship. I was raised in a religion where we believe that a ‘church’ is contained in the soul, so we didn’t have a church building. My thoughts often drift back to this site, and the tiny church was my favorite work of the week, so I believe this is something I will explore in the future. The rack-in-stairwell work leads me to ideas of surrealism and displacement, moving and changing locations. My experience in halls so far has been great and I feel like I’m creating a new home but moving away from my parents has led to an entire can of worms of ideas surrounding growing up and “leaving the nest”. I find it interesting that a work as simple as a clothing rack in a place it should not leads to so many ideas.

Artist Research

Layne Waerea’s ‘Yoga for Beginners II’ works with the displacement of objects one would find in a home. This was the focus of my first two works. Both works take place at different locations, one I have called home for six years and one I am learning to call home. The objects I chose to remove from their places reflect this, with the intervention at my parents’ house containing a pillow and duvet, a comforting thing. The intervention in my hall’s building displaces a coat rack, one on wheels, something easy to transport when moving, reflecting that in a way I still feel like I’m in a transitional space, not a home. For Arnaud Lapierre’s work, I let the ideas behind ‘Ring’ influence my third intervention rather than the ring of mirrors itself. ‘Ring’ reflects its surroundings and I used this idea in my own way through my third intervention, with the tiny church being a product of how St. Pauls reflected on me. I find it interesting that I chose to create a work of such small scale as the church is so grand, and I’d like to explore more works like this in the future.

For my first site this week I decided to visit the Auckland Baptist Tabernacle on Queen Street. I chose to focus on the facade of the church rather than the beautiful architecture of the front, as I believe the details the facade contains are far more interesting than what you see at first glance. The sides were weathered, with the contrast between pristine and worse-for-wear made more evident as it rained today. I am not entirely happy with the majority of my images as I was in a rushed situation and I struggle with using my iPhone camera to take “serious” pictures.

My second site visit brought me to St. Pauls on Upper Symonds Street. I continued the idea of exploring the areas to the sides and around the church, looking at the differences between the front and the “normal” areas like where the caretakers put the bins. I adore these pictures, with the editing I did in Lightroom bringing out their full potential. The concrete adds beautiful texture and the additions on the back were of great interest to me. I’d love to revisit this site, but it would be challenging as I would essentially have to trespass.

The final site I visited for this brief was St Andrews Presbyterian Church on Symonds Street. I chose again to focus on the details, the less-than-perfect aspects of the holy building. While editing the photos for this site I chose to crop some of them quite significantly, as I felt they focused more on the building as an object rather than the site itself. I played around with what grounds an image this time, either omitting it entirely or using it to emphasize the photo. Like the other two sites, I feel that the quality of my photographs would have been higher if I could explore the site more (trespass (I will not)).

Artist Research

The photographs of both Cindy Sherman and Rut Blees Luxemburg inspired my work for this brief. I focused quite heavily on capturing the details of sites rather than the site as a whole, which both photographers do, especially in the images above. I also took influence from the editing of each image. Sherman’s film stills are all black and white, bringing out the details in the nooks and crannies of concrete and glass. There is geometry in ‘#63’, with the stairs leading your eyes up and the columns receding into the background. Sherman herself is in the image, but I decided to take photographs without living subjects to make the main focus the site. Luxemberg’s ‘Liebeslied’ and works from the collection containing it especially influenced my photography of St. Pauls. The way that Luxemberg focuses on the details of a site shows what is usually overlooked or unseen, which I used to inform my photography of the back of the church. The saturated high contrast nature of his photos also caused me to edit my photos for my second and third sites similarly.

I was drawn to the Symonds Street Cemetery for this brief, so created all three of my works using that site. For my first work under the situation brief, I decided to create observational sketches of graves. I created these sketches while standing at the graves, letting myself sketch fast, and then coming back home to add detail and color. I used color to make the piece look otherworldly, giving neglected graves new vibrance. One thing I noticed while walking around is that there were no flowers, no descendants at graves. This is most likely due to the vast majority of the people buried there being buried before 1920, but it definitely influenced me to draw these lonely headstones.

My second work for this week was photography-based. A common theme in every city and town in Aotearoa, litter, was unsurprisingly also present in the cemetery. I don’t doubt that the cemetery is maintained by the council, so the frequency of the litter around is unfortunate. Hard to overlook, most of the rubbish was cans or bottles that once housed alcohol. The most sensical explanation is just that these were left by people looking to drink somewhere other than a bar or a home, but my mind went to thinking of whether or not you could call this a form of libations. The drinks were everywhere, but maybe the people buried could appreciate the humor in someone inadvertently “pouring one out” for them?

I felt that, because I had taken so much inspiration from the site, I should give something back. I took nine acorns from near the Jewish section of the cemetery by the east entrance. The coloring of them was beautiful to me, so I was almost sad to paint over them, but I like the contrast between the lacquer-brown and stark white. There was no strategy as to what grave I returned them to but I chose one further down on the east side of the cemetery. To me, they form a kind of offering, an offering not just to the single grave but to all.

Artist Research

Christina Pataialii’s almost collage-like works titled ‘Solid Gold’ were of great influence to my first and second pieces this week. I used two forms of collage for these works, with my first piece being observational drawings that I used color to abstract. Pataialii does something similar to this, creating abstracted observational paintings. This creates a sense of space without one actually knowing what they are looking at. My second piece uses this confusion of vision more heavily, with the simple collage of images appearing like abstract shapes at first due to the business of the photographs. Pataialii’s works are in a gallery, not back where she may have gotten the inspiration for them from, but the brush strokes leading out of the canvas transform the gallery into a controlled environment. Shane Cotton’s ‘Maunga’ led to the making of my third work. By taking something western society places such high historical value on – Greek vases – and adorning them with Maori figures, Cotton gives back to the land that has been taken so far away from what it once was. This directed me to my third work, where I implemented my own form of taking away and giving back.

My aim this week was to experiment with the ‘ground’ I was working on. I started by painting part of a topographical map of Great Barrier island onto the inside of a flattened pasta box that was in my flat’s recycling bin. I decided to wash over this with more paint, leaving my brush strokes obvious and adding heavily or taking away in various places. I like how it doesn’t look perfect, it looks like someone sat down and painted it. It was challenging to not work with a familiar shape for this piece, but I really enjoyed playing around with constructing it back into a box again as it turned a 2D work into a sculpture.

While searching for different surfaces to paint on, I took note of a canvas I had abandoned work on. I liked the natural colors and flat surfaces of the back of it more than the basic front of it, so chose it as the base for my second piece. I continued the motif of a topographical map for this one but instead freehanded the patterns. This piece is my favorite of the three, I love how the linework reaches into the canvas while not taking away from the craftsmanship that keeps the canvas together in the first place.

The third piece I created for ‘The Surface’ was the more abstract of the three. I was unsure of what surface to use and decided on a square of felt. This was an entirely unfamiliar surface to use in terms of painting, so I experimented with watercolors in an attempt to tint it first. This was mostly unsuccessful, so I used paint and water to blend for the rest of the creation of this piece. I underpainted a fair bit, as everything would sink into the felt as it dried. I enjoyed this process, as it was mostly just relaxed experimentation. To tie it in a bit with the other two works, I added similar linework around the edges.

Artist Research

I highly enjoyed making works for this brief, and I owe half this enjoyment to the artists that I looked to. I used the abstract forms and brave strokes of Anoushka Atel during the creation of my first and third works, as the piece above led me to be unafraid of letting the brush marks show. Purposefully leaving marks like this adds presence to a piece, it makes you think that there was someone in front of the surface of the work once, creating what you see. Through layering marks, Atel adds depth even though ‘Stokes Waves’ has a monochromatic color palette. I strayed slightly from monochrome for my third piece, but underpainted as Atel does to add a hidden painting behind the painting, making the process of creating an artwork in itself. Moving to Micheal Parekowhai’s ‘The Lighthouse’, I took great inspiration from the way that the neon lights wrap around the sculpture in the centre of the room. This influenced my second piece, as even though both surfaces being worked on are very different, my work uses the wrapping around of color to show the nooks and crannies of the surface.

My first complete work for this task required a lot of experimentation for me. After playing around with sponging paint on and using small foam rollers, I attempted direct transfer twice. The photocopied receipt had the most success, and I’m happy with how it works with the rest of the piece to enhance it. I would’ve liked to use the pull-tape-off-images transfer method with this piece, but unfortunately didn’t have the resources to do so at the time. I was referring to the work of Robert Rauschenberg during this piece and how he uses abstract painted shapes in his works.

The second piece I created for this task is my favorite of the three. I took inspiration from flowing lines and classical sculpture for this one, using photocopied images from a book I own on Greek art through both direct transfer and gluing on methods. Although this piece has a black ‘border’, I like how the framing of the sculpture images breaks this up and suggests a space outside the painting. I did stay in my comfort zone a bit during this piece, using illustrative elements in the work.

My third and largest work was created entirely in the studio. It was almost entirely inspired by the novel “The Invention of Hugo Cabret”, a book I have owned and read since I was very young. I used text during this work to continue my process and attempted a direct transfer from a photocopied page of the novel. The novel focuses a lot on automata and invention, which I let influence my line work a lot during my creation of the piece. In hindsight, to create less of a ‘things on page’ feel in this work, I would have painted the paper a different color in the beginning. I feel that I get caught up in starting with a white page and that it often leads me to hit a wall in my art-making.

I had a difficult time creating works for this task and was uncomfortable for most of my creative process, hitting walls often and having no idea how to move on. I believe that this is not a bad thing, but highlights an important issue that I need to work through in order to be a more successful artist in my own mind. Getting out of my own head was important which I did a lot during the creation of the second work, which I believe is a large part of why it is my favorite of the trio.

Artist Research

After being shown the work of Robert Rauschenberg in class, I constantly looked to his work while creating. As a pioneer of transfer processes, his work inspired my own even though my experiments with such processes were not entirely successful as I had hoped. The use of block colors and layering in the Rauschenberg piece above was highly influential to me during my making. Flavia Stagi’s frottage works were also great references to me for this brief. The way that she uses frottage to not only enhance, but shape her works, was something I looked to particularly during the making of my second piece. Both artists create works that use block of color, and both pieces I have referenced use transfer processes in small ways, but ways that are crucial to the success of the works. These two pieces in particular stuck with my subconcious.

Our second task for week 1 was to create at least three works using iteration.

I began working on my first piece almost immediately, deciding to just create the first thing I thought of, and used the prompt of “Draw something you do every day 365 times,”. I drink coffee every morning, so doodled a mug on a piece of refill 365 times. The artist Ayesha Green influenced my use of refill, as I believe doodling is one of the most under-appreciated forms of art. As I approached this piece quickly and without much consideration, if I were to repeat the process I would perhaps change the paper size so that there was no space left on the page. After discussing my idea with James, I thought that I could communicate my concept better by creating 365 coffee rings on a desk.

My second piece was created after more thought. As creating works on paper is my forte, I decided to go out of my comfort zone slightly. The idea for this work was also quite impulsive, as I struggle to explain my thought process even now. I took the ‘experimentation’ part onboard more for this piece and just took more pictures as I had more ideas. I was influenced by the prompt of doing something 100 times for this piece, as in total there were 100 pieces of paper on my arm. This piece was uncomfortable to create, and I think I highlight this through everything but the paper being greyscale.

The third piece I created while exploring iterative making was made with consideration of my current living situation. In addition to participating in lectures online, I have been in isolation due to getting covid. I have looked out my bedroom a lot during this time and decided to use the window pens I have to create this work. My goal was not to cover the entire window but to display the state of being closed in. I also enjoyed the effect of the shadows created by the piece and felt that they became a temporary part of it as the sun came out from behind the clouds.

Artist Research

The Chapman currency project takes something ‘sacred’ and defaces it. By taking the money of visitors to the Frieze Art Fair and drawing on it, the brothers created unique works on top of something many already consider art. This is a staple of the brothers’ work, but this perhaps is the project that engages with iterative making the most. I quite enjoy art that is created from something, like street art or drawings in books, etc., and this project by the Chapman brothers is no exception. This project was created to start a conversation, with each owner of a piece free to make their own interpretation based on the art they ‘paid’ for.

Before Basquiat was Basquiat, he was SAMO©. I am fascinated by the art of graffiti, and how something most people disregard as vandalism can represent so much. Tagging one’s name is iterative making in every sense. After Basquiat rose to fame, tagging was looked at in a different light. What people once viewed as a repetitive piece of graffiti was the roots of an artist people held in high regard, so why were other graffiti artists ignored? e making can say so much. Why, now, do we still make the assumption that taggers are just petty criminals, with not much else to say?

To begin week 1, we were divided into groups. I was with three others, Jade, Harriet, and Olivia. We were instructed to work together to create a piece while we were apart. After discussing our areas of expertise and comfort, we came up with the idea of using the color wheel to inform our piece.

Our idea was originally to have a corner each, but felt that was too separate. So, we decided to layer our works together to create one cohesive piece. My team members and I enjoyed the experience, and I have gained a greater appreciation for working as a collective. It was challenging to work apart as communication isn’t as easy, but I was grateful for the others as we were all determined to make the piece work.