“My work is more about your seeing than it is about my seeing, although it is a product of my seeing. I’m also interested in the sense of presence of space; that is space where you feel a presence, almost an entity — that physical feeling and power that space can give.”
Born May 6, 1943, Los Angeles, he studied Art Graduate Studies, University of California, Irvine in 1965-1966 and MA Art, Claremont Graduate School in 1973. James Turrell has collected many art awards including National Arts Club Medal of Honor for Art in 2006 and National Medal of Arts in 2013. As well as a few awards in architecture. For over half a century, James Turrell has worked directly with light and space to create artworks that engage viewers with the limits and wonder of human perception.
James uses manipulations of coloured lighting and space movement while also creating land art. Turrell’s practice has equally materialised in small-scale works, including architectural models, holograms, and works on paper. Most of James project is created by projecting a single, controlled beam of light from the opposing corner of the room. And often his Shallow Space is viewed from the rear of a large room in which controlled lighting challenges the viewer’s depth perception.
After making my one minute sculptures, we moved to finding spaces that are commonly used and swap them out as something completely different. I wondered around the house looking at spaces that I thought needed something new. The stair case in my house is constantly being used it separates the bedrooms from the living spaces. I decided I wanted to cover it with a large amount items to make it impossible to get past. In my home we have a lot of books and magazines. I gathered as many as I could and scattered them all over the stairs. Instantly it became a problem with my family members, every few minutes someone wanted to either go up and down.
With the addition of books I wanted to involve my own body to turn the stairs completely into a reading corner. The stairs wasn’t the most comfortable or an easy spot to read due to people wanted to go past. This space intervention was very entertaining to create as my family, members all became interested and annoyed about what I was making. Everyone thought it would be very strange to have a reading corner right on the stairs.
To continue the week with Verisimilitude we moved to creating sculptures outside. Due to me living in a forest it was a little difficult to come up with ideas. I decided to create the idea of objects located in unusable places.
“I am interested in the everyday life. All the materials that surrounded me could be useful, as well as the objects, topics involved in contemporary society. My work speaks about the whole entity of a human being: the physical, the spiritual, the psychological and the political.”
Erwin Wurm was born in 1954, Bruck an der Mur, Styria, Austria. He now lives and works in Vienna and Limberg, Austria. Wurm studied at university of Applied Arts Vienna and has and won Grand Austrian State Prize 2013. He is known for his humorous approach to his sculptures.
Since the late 1980s, he has developed an ongoing series of One Minute Sculptures, in which he poses himself or his models in unexpected relationships with everyday objects close at hand, prompting the viewer to question the very definition of sculpture. He seeks to use the “shortest path” in creating a sculpture—a clear and fast, sometimes humorous, form of expression
To begin the new brief Verisimilitude we were introduced to Erwin Wurm’s One Minute Sculpture styles. Erwin Wurm often uses found object and a human source to create a sculpture in usual way. His works are often referred as a humorous style while also showing peculiar portrayals of daily life.
We were then given the opportunity to try them ourselves. I was very lucky to convince my sister to be the person in my sculptures. I directed her into these positions with random objects, it was hard to concentrate because we were in hysterics the whole time. This is what I came up with.
Skeleton Sledding Workout Routine
Backwards Cycling
Wearing her glasses
Accepting the Weight
Caught first in hid and seek
New book shelf
“Could this be classed as a crime scene?”
Mattress needed a hug
“Unexpected Item In Bagging Area”
Being One With The Shopping Bags
All together I really enjoyed this. It wasn’t quite my style but I loved process of finding and object and reusing them in a way one would never commonly see. It was more of an entertainment and was just as fun creating my own narrative to match.
During these past few weeks of this brief, I (and a lot of other people too) have been through a lot. From hardship, demotivating, and life changing experiences, I have fought my way through to complete these final three works.
In the begin I was in Australia with no way of getting home due to Covid-19 outbreak in Sydney which cancelled my flight 4 different times. With only limited amount of supplies and access to them, I had to work my way around it. Using paint to create mark makings and explore the meaning in marks and the movement I relate it to.
After spending nearly two months more than I was supposed to in Sydney I was able to catch a special flight back home. With the cost of two weeks in managed isolation quarantine alone. This was a big challenge for me yet again as creating art in a place with little to no inspiration or motivation. I again had to work around this. My creativity level was extremely low but I pushed through, making many little pieces of work to explore a vast range of different drawing practices. Soon I was finally leaving MIQ I was allowed to go home, but just a few days before I was going to be released, New Zealand fell into lockdown. I was so excited to get back to uni and instead was face with being restricted to my family’s house.
These huge complication messed with me a lot, I went through many high and lows which impacted on my ability to work and create art. By the end of it I made three works that I instantly become proud of. I was determined to use a wide range of techniques and materials even with a limited amount. I wanted to focus on the use of colour. I made the challenge of neglecting the colour black to show definition. come up with new ways of showing shades. Being free with creating abstract was also a big part if the challenge too. This was difficult at first but it really forced me to do something new. I took this inspiration from the artist Holly Warburton and Helen Frankenthaler. While creating my own twist from Jason Martin textured style.
I didn’t realised how much these art works in the end relied on my creativity in isolation. Maybe it was because of being alone for two weeks I really thought and wondered hard and constantly. Maybe it was from the ideas I build there and the limited things I could do. From collecting and saving materials that were from food bags that held meals given three times a day. To being so bored that I made patterns that i later on used in my final works. I knew that I didn’t have very much progress and not as much experimenting experience. I tried to do as much as I could at the time.
If I were to do this brief again, but in the studio, I know that I would come away with a larger amount of art. I would use as many methods and techniques as possible at AUT and would probably have a very different outcome. I am also excited where this art style might take me in the future, as I have learnt a lot.
As the due date come nearer, I continued with my next piece. Following the same technique as before. I started with a lot of layering trying to get thick constancy of paint to spread across the highlighted areas. I focused on the colours making definitions of the women’s features yet again sticking to my method and rule of no black. I used a mixture of the colours from both my previous works to try and connect them as a three series work. This one came to me a lot faster and easier because of how much I learnt from my other works. With the uneven surface It helped me adjust back to an abstract feel. Lastly I made touch ups, from small amounts of paint to darkening and thickening the pastels lines. In the end I put them together and I loved how perfectly the complement each other.
To begin the last week of the mid term break I got stuck into my next work. I decided these works will be parts into my main exhibitions/my final works. I really enjoyed this practice and style I formed together, so I recreated it. I used new colours of my oil pastels when drawing the portrait. I did a lot of layering and changed a lot about the original image I had. I drowned out some of the colour in the background because they too distracting and bright. I love the texture that was formed from the paint, ripped paper and the coat of oil pastels.
I also took in a lot of inspiration from the artist Holly Warburton and her colourful work of figures and faces. I exaggerated the colours I saw and completely avoided the colour black. I loved how this one came out as well. Once I put my work up on a wall together, I noticed how perfectly they related to each other.
In the end I knew I wanted to do one more so I began the same process as before, ripping up the many paper bags I collected from my MIQ. This time sticking to two colours, mixing them together.
After too long of a time, I am finally back home but not everything is back to normal as another lockdown has begin here in New Zealand as well. I have yet again had to adjust with my surrounds that is not uni. It has been difficult transporting my art, setting up again and getting back into it. I did get to a point of avoiding doing anymore work because I was put off by the idea of it and how it reminded me of the tough situation I’ve been through. I certainly lost a lot of motivation and inspiration for a period of time. As I noticed the nearer due date I had to get over it and continue. Now realising the amount of supplies I did have a home It got me excited to try out something new.
Starting with one of the works I did in MIQ I decided it was plain and need something else. I reflected and noted lots of ways where I can go from there. I decided to use a portrait of a women and draw her in using coloured oil pastels. Ending up changing the colours of her face and hair to make her stand out but also blend into the work. I tried to keep as much of my previous mark makings in while making sure the women is visible. Wanted to still show the meaning of reusing and recycling the used paper bags.
While drawing over it with the oil pastels I noticed how my layers of paint and paper formed this interesting texture. I collected this idea partly from the artist Jason Martin who focuses on texturing and brush movement. It was difficult to work on top of the layers but loved how it changed my vision on the work. Trying my hardest not to make it perfect and challenged myself to be free and abstract yet again. I really fell in love with the process and how it came out especially with its imperfections.
I created a second background and repeated my technique, this time making it bigger and adding yellow into the mix. Once again I tore it up and put it together. Hung it up to see them together. I imagined what to do next, found the extra colour looking to be too much and will try and dull it down when next step. After enjoying producing the work perviously I knew I wanted it to be simular and related.
A plus I got from using this technique of ripping and reusing paper to put it back together at any size I wanted. Aiming for larger sizes was a must as I need to try it out for the first time.
I took at lot of my inspiration from the artist Helen Frankenthaler. Her work really impacted me on her capturing mark makings. I felt the relation and become incredible eager to create my own twist to it. Knowing I was a little less experienced in abstract I still kept determined to push myself after my on going artist research.
Jason Martin is a British artist who paints deeply textured surfaces. Born in 1970 in Jersey, United Kingdom and later on studying at Chelsea College of Art and Goldsmiths College. He exhibited his work at Royal Academy of Art in London after he gained recognition from and attention. Now with Jason Martins art work displayed in many collections and art museums.
With laying of oil paints or acrylic gel atop a metal or Plexiglas substrate Jason likes to drag tools across the wet paint. He was influenced to create these type of piece by the artists David Budd and Robert Ryman. Jasons art is affected by his gestures or movements across his canvas.
Jason rich mark making inspired me to dig deeper about his art style. Not only is the image from art but the texture and movements that can be vividly shown. I have always likes visual textures and I hope to take advantage of this inspiration and trial it out.
