Author: Joshua

Lana Lopesi, “Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa” False Divides. September 2018. 22-25

Manulani Aluli Meyer, “Handbook of Critical and Indigenous Methodologies, Indigenous and Authentic: Hawaiian Epistemology and the Triangulation of Meaning” 2008.

Peter J. Boettke, “Capitalism”, n.d.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/capitalism

Spark Notes, “The Communist Manifesto: Summary”, n.d.
https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/communist/summary/

National Geographic, “Communism”, n.d.
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/communism

Auckland Art Gallery, “Walls to Live Beside, Rooms to Own: The Chartwell Show.”, 2022.
www.aucklandartgallery.com/whats-on/exhibition/walls-to-live-beside-rooms-to-own-the-
chartwell-show.

Centre of Contemporary Art, “CoCA Centre of Contemporary Art Toi Moroki.”, n.d. coca.org.nz/exhibitions/precarious-balance/untitled/.

Chartwell, “Untitled by Matt Calderwood”, n.d. https://chartwell.org.nz/seeing/collection/untitled-133/

Matt Calderwood, “Found Objects”, 2016 http://www.mattcalderwood.com/#/objects/

Coming into this brief I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I wouldn’t exactly call myself a photographer but since I didn’t want to do sculpture I forced myself to get out of my comfort zone and see what this was really about. After all this work getting my pieces done and installing it for the final assessment, I would say that this brief is a whole lot easier than painting. It is much easier to produce a larger amount of work. I’d like to say that the work is already out there in the world and all you have to do is capture it, whereas painting is all done manually. This brief ultimately got me to do things I never would have done, such as cyanotypes and photograms. These processes were somewhat entertaining to me and led me to having more fun than I initially thought I would have for this brief. If I somehow manage to find myself doing photography in the future I am glad to have learnt the things I have during this brief.

Reaching the end of the semester, I wanted to utilize everything that I already had – I guess you could call it recycling. I started off by creating photograms using the film that I initially used for the cyanotypes, because of this I could drastically change how the image can be perceived.

Since the film is much bigger than the paper itself, it has this zoomed in effect while maintaining the same size as its originals, making it easier to signify the focus of the image.

To make it different from the originals, I changed the position of the film between exposes creating this overlapped and distorted image. I particularly liked the ones with the branches on the right and the first two in the middle column.

I wanted this work to be like something you would get at a photobooth at an arcade, so I aligned them to where it goes from the most to the least changes of the original image.

After this I used the film from before and taped them up together to make it look like a film reel. I didn’t want to leave the film after the cyanotypes as I felt like I could make them operate as its own work and I’m glad I did because I really like how this turned out.

I focused on making cyanotypes this week, didn’t have time to make my own so I resorted to using the free to use templates that were available.

Before the whole process, I had to print out what I wanted on the cyanotypes on a clear film.

I chose these images as I felt like they included the most detail. The one on the very right has a lot of empty space – as a result of forgetting to invert it, but I guess it provides a good contrast between the rest as the others print all cover the film and that it is the one that has the least subject matter. After looking at these, I think that these films can operate as a work on its own.

Here are the cyanotypes.

They came out a lot better than I expected them to. Initially I thought the detail would have minimized but I am surprised on how crisp the details actually are.

Although it can be a long and slow process, the end results prove to be something worth working for. This is definitely something I can see myself doing more of in the future.

This week I took more photos with the pinhole, trying to get the hang of this tedious process. Walking all around campus with a paint bucket proved to be worth my time as I find the results to be rather excellent considering the struggle I had before.

After waiting for the paper to dry, I scanned and inverted them. Looking back and forth between the “natural” and inverted photos, I found more details that I couldn’t have detected before. Everything seems much more vivid. Or perhaps I’m just too accustomed to what our eyes perceive when we gaze at the things around us.

The black and white nature of the images express a vintage feel to it, to me at least. Reminds me of stills from old silent films, something like this;

After doing this, I did more photograms. Playing around and experimenting more instead of having an end goal in mind, I produced images that probably weren’t too aligned with the brief but instead shows what the machines are capable of making.

I loved how these turned out as I really like how the light penetrates through the glove and thus creating this ghostly effect. The strip on the middle of the bottom is a result of putting two gloves on top of each other, producing this confusing and somewhat distorted image.

Photograms

This week we were taught how to make photograms. I actually prefer this method of producing images way more than the pinholes. It is a lot quicker and you can select what actually goes on the image instead of waiting to see what the pinhole captured.

I didn’t bring anything to put on top of the paper so I used some garden netting Dieneke provided for us. After a few pitch black images and some tweaking to the exposure, I got something I was really happy with. It produced a really clear image of the garden netting and was definitely something I couldn’t replicate with the pinhole process.

Artist Research

Ted Serios

Ted Serios was an American artist most known for his “Thoughtography” which was photographs he claimed were created using his own brain with ‘psychic powers’. Because of his bold claims of being able to make photos out of his mind, he drew a lot of attention from people who were curious for his work and in turn it made him more popular. His photos came out distorted and blurry, creating this eerie and somewhat spooky feel to them. I’d like to think that these images are something I can recreate with the pinhole photography, as I really like this ‘spookiness’ Ted Serios’ work provides.

Henry Fox Talbot

Henry Fox Talbot was known more for being a scientist rather than an artist, but is also more known for being one of the creators of photography. His invention, the calotype was an early photographic process which incorporated paper coated with silver iodide. The two photos above feature one tree that has been inverted on one end. The photo of the tree is very crisp and includes a lot of detail. This is what I would like my photos from the pinhole method to look like as I feel as though there is a lack of detail in my photos.

Pinhole photography

We were supplied with paint tins and some ‘magic’ paper to help start off with this brief. A lot of my photos ended up being too overexposed to the sun and thus made it extremely dark and hard to make out the image. This process is a bit of a gamble as you don’t really know what the end result will be until you have developed the film.

Here are the pieces I’m happy with:

This portion of the semester was enjoyable, and I relished every moment of it. If I’ve learned anything from this brief, it’s that painting isn’t necessarily just looking at a photo and making marks on it, it is way more complicated than that. Not every painting needs to be realistic in order to convey a message. As someone who is fairly new to painting, I still have a lot to learn. I really enjoyed playing with various paint consistencies and observing the effect that paint thickness had on a piece of art. There are definitely things I need to improve, but it is quite obvious that I take too long on certain pieces. I spend too much time trying to make the painting flawless, and I want to/need to get rid of this habit in the future. I would have a lot more pieces than I do now if I had practised good time management during this brief. Aside from that, I’m still pleased and proud of myself for finishing this segment. I have learnt a lot and realise what I need to do in the future to reach my potential.

Week 3:

For this piece, I wanted to set a contrast between the background and the figure. I started off by painting Caesar in ‘The Death of Julius Caesar’, an 1806 painting by Vincenzo Camuccini that depicted the assassination of the Roman leader. I tried to paint him as accurately as I could and I think I did a pretty good job. I feel as though I took too long with this one.

Week 4:

This week, I wasn’t really too sure of what to do. I began painting this picture of Playboi Carti and found that I liked the effect of what dry-brushing provides. I used this method to blend in the light and dark parts of the painting and I like how it turned out. The next two paintings I did was of a random picture of a dark, rustic building – possibly a church? and a picture of liquid mercury. I wanted to do something different and paint something else instead as I feel like I have spent the majority of my life in art doing figures and faces.

I am satisfied with how the building painting came out, incorporating some dry-brushing techniques to add a little bit of character to the building itself and to help blend the sky. The liquid mercury painting on the other hand didn’t turn out as good as I hoped it to be, so it is probably something I won’t display for the final.

Week 5:

This week I wanted to play with different consistencies of paint. This piece is based on a still from what I believe is in Game of Thrones? I selected this image as I thought the scales of the dragon would be perfect to emulate using a thicker consistency of paint. The dragon had spikes under its head and I felt like it would be nice to put a wet consistency of paint on it and let the drips suggest the spikes. When you touch this piece, you can really feel the texture and that’s what I really like about it.

Week 6:

My last and final piece before the semester break. With this piece I didn’t want to make it so ‘perfect’ as I have with my previous pieces, I wanted to merely have the brush-strokes suggest the image. I wanted the figures to be the major focus, and I believe I accomplished that by concentrating more on them than the background. The background could use a little bit more work as it is pretty difficult to understand what it is but I guess it helps make the figures the main focus. To contrast with the other white lines, I had used a heavier consistency of paint for the smoke. I also applied the dry-brushing technique once more to the hand on the left to create a blur effect. You can easily see the different types of brush-strokes there are on this piece and that is something I wanted to achieve with this one. Overall, this is probably one of my favorite paintings I have done and it didn’t take as long as the others.

Artist Research:

Conor Harrington:

Conor Harrington is an Irish artist known for his street/graffiti paintings. His work usually reflects on the masculinity of urban culture. In this painting, there is a lot going on. A lot of variety. From a near picture perfect painting to a defaced street painting. I really like the effect the drips coming from the paint give off as it contrasts from the extremely detailed figure. There is so much going on with this piece that you never get bored of it, every time you look at it you find something else to ponder at. It is not also exclusive to this painting as well, a lot of his other pieces have the same messy type vibe that I find sick and would love to incorporate to my own work.

This week we had to pick five photos. The photos I picked that I have started to work on are a photo including people, a still from a movie, and a painting before the 1900s.

My work:

I enjoyed this very much. It had been a long time since I painted something using a reference image, It was also frustrating trying to get the details in but I am satisfied with how these turned out.

Other photos:

Piece 1 and 2:

I loved working on these two pieces. For the first one, it originally started as a simple charcoal sketch. I decided only painting the right figure would provide a clear contrast between the two mediums – paint and charcoal. The second painting was essentially just me playing around with a more wet consistency of paint. I could have let the paint drip to provide a cooler effect and add more character to the piece itself, but I am still satisfied with how it came out.

Piece 3:

This painting is based on the famous “DAMN!” meme, which is a still from Friday. When I saw the brief say we can include a still from a movie, I instantly thought of this. I was instructed to make grids so I could make it as accurate as possible. I hated this process as I feel like it took too long to set up or I was just simply too impatient and too eager to paint this. I like how it turned out, but I still wish I didn’t apply those lines because you can still see them.

Piece 4:

I did this piece during the print workshop. I started off by drawing a rough sketch of Camuccini’s ‘The Death of Julius Caesar’ on the frames. I really liked how it looked on the frame but oh boy was I in for a treat. I didn’t know there were slight holes on the frame so when I put the ink down and transferred it onto the paper, some ink leaked and gave this weird wrinkly-like effect that I despised. I tried to hide it by smudging it to the side to give this fade effect and it looks so much better. I think I could have executed this piece a little better but it is what it is.

Artist Research:

Vincenzo Camuccini

Vincenzo Camuccini is an Italian artist who is known for their Neoclassic and religious paintings. His work is very realistic and captures moments like a modern day camera. He uses oil paint to produce his work which provides a smooth and clear finish. ‘The Death of Caesar’ is one of his works that I admire, as I think it is insane how detailed and clear this painting is and every time I look at it I always ask myself “How?”.