Author: Anita

This final brief has introduced me to a variety of new camera-less methods of photography and has been a very practical, hands on, and a new authentic experience of connecting with nature; not only through images but physically working with it to create some interesting images that I can freely experiment with and connect them to new interests I have picked up along the way.

Not only was working with these new skills enlightening for my photographic work but discussing ideas with my pairs and getting an insight on how they interpreted this brief was quite interesting and brought upon new inspirations for my own work. Even working in new spaces such as the dark room to create images brought upon new ideas and thoughts on how you can play around with light either controlled inside or familiarizing myself with the varied lighting outside; gaining experience and practice with over and underexposed pinhole images during the day.

Straying from my usual practice with digital photography, these new ways of making, processing, and presenting photographic work brought a new point of view on how others and myself see nature and as we enter it in the future, we’ll have an insight on what details and textures are present that others may not even be aware of. This brief has definitely expanded my knowledge on alternative ways you can capture not only nature but life in general in a natural and raw way instead of digital methods commonly used everyday.

Kirsty Baker, “Towards An Ethics Of Care”, March 11(2022),ArtNow, https://artnow.nz/essays/towards-an-ethics-of-care

Naomii Seah, “Steel the show: How Yona Lee’s new exhibition is breaking boundaries”, May 15(2022), The Spinoff,  https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/15-05-2022/steel-the-show-how-yona-lees-new-exhibition-is-breaking-boundaries

Felixe Laing, “My Best Friend’s Breasts”, March(2022),‘Wishing You Well’, Hanna Shim, Enjoy, https://enjoy.org.nz/publishing/exhibition-essays/wishing-you-well/my-best-friends-breasts#article

Tate, “Formalism”,(art term), https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/f/formalism#:~:text=Formalism%20describes%20the%20critical%20position,relationship%20to%20the%20visible%20world.

Ocula Magazine, “Eve Armstrong at Michael Lett, the Auckland Art Fair”, 26 May(2016), https://ocula.com/magazine/insights/eve-armstrong-at-michael-lett-the-auckland-art-fai/

The Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi, “Eve Armstrong”, Eve Armstrong’s Biography, 21 May(2019),https://www.thearts.co.nz/artists/eve-armstrong

MichaelLett, “Eve Armstrong”, Eve Armstrong CV,(2015),https://michaellett.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Eve-Armstrong-CV-2017-1.pdf

Thomas Piketty, ‘Capital in the 21^st Century’, 484-485, August (2013)

Max Rashbrooke, ‘Too Much Money’, 1-2, 25 November (2021)

The Equality Trust, ‘How is Economic Inequality Defined’, https://equalitytrust.org.uk/how-economic-inequality-defined

Ramsey Solutions, ‘How Many Millionaires Actually Inherited Their Wealth?’ https://www.ramseysolutions.com/retirement/how-many-millionaires-actually-inherited-their-wealth#:~:text=21%25.&text=That’s%20right.,at%20the%20exact%20same%20rate.

Joey Soloway, “The Female Gaze”, TIFF TALKS, (2016), critical feminist concept of The Female Gaze, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnBvppooD9I

Angela Tiatia, “Hibiscus Rosa Sinensis”, (2010), Art Gallery NSW, https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/53.2019/

Mandy Treagus, Kalissa Alexeyeff and John Taylor, “Touring Pacific Cultures”,(2016), Chapter 10 Yuki Kihara’s Culture for Sale and the History of Pacific Cultural Performance, https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1q1crs3.15?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi, “Shigeyuki Kihara: Culture for Sale”, 1 February-30 March(2014), Past exhibition, https://citygallery.org.nz/exhibitions/shigeyuki-kihara-culture-for-sale/

To finish off this idea of test and experimentation, I created more bags containing cutouts of the fabric cyanotype, the cyanotype stencil, and original pinhole photographs cutouts, all varied in sizes. The blown up and zoomed in pinhole image contains details that have a sense of molecular or cellular relation, caused by the light filtering through leaves and tree branches. I surrounded this piece in the smaller original images and sized them down even more and framed them in smaller snap lock bags. I framed parts of the originals that corresponded with the main piece, zooming in on the parts of images that look microscopic, parts that had that cellular pattern. On the main wall, I blew up the improved photograms; these included wrapping foliage in plastic, as if it was suffocating, details and textures of the branded snap lock bag containing foliage, and including hands/fingers with gloves that enhances that idea of experimentation with nature and humans seeing it as a concept of study, object, or specimen.

From this weeks critical discussions and shared thoughts/ ideas from my pairs, some really interesting points came up that I found quite helpful and could definitely extend my ideas further.

To relate more to the main focus idea of using plastic, I experimented with the use of zip lock bags and their relationship with separation and containing objects, resembling bags used for tests in labs. I incorporated more of these ideas into more photograms which brought out a lot of great texture and relation to my intention. I also the idea of bringing these bags into the installation and use them as frames for prints that did not already include plastic textures in them, treating the physical images as if they were specimens.

An idea brought up in discussions was dying the enlarged test strips to imitate litmus paper which is used in science to determine acids and bases. This idea really ties the layout together with corresponding colors but also has that corresponding scientific idea.

We were introduced to cyanotype prints as an extension from the photograms we created last week. Free to use our photograms, foliage, or other objects, I decided to print two photograms onto the transparent sheet. The first tests onto pre-made ink bases including paper and fabric came out nice and bold, capturing every detail that the original photogram contained. I then used the cyanotype ink to create my own patterns or shapes relating to the brief and my intentions.

MAIN FOCUS IDEA

Continuing the thought of including the textures and use of plastic for this brief, I became interested in the idea mentioned when introduced to this brief, Timothy Morton‘s Ecology without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics explores how nature is commonly seen as a concept of study, an object rather than being in it and having a natural intimate connection with it.

I realized that our practice with photograms resembled x-rays, brought out details, looked like scans from a scientific point of view that would be seen in a lab as test subjects. I think it would be interesting to take the unnatural state of the foliage in photograms and extend on the idea of seeing nature as a specimen to study instead of having a natural connection to it. Not only would this focus on nature being tested on but I thought the literal art making aspect of me using test strips and different variations of prints I have experimented with can also tie into that sense of ‘testing’ or study.

The shapes I wanted to go for whilst creating my customized cyanotype prints was the idea of molecules or DNA, relating to the study of these plants and the microscopic aspect they also hold. On the left, I created multiple circular shapes varying in size and fullness. On the right, I somewhat imitated the double helix DNA structure.

Day 1

I experimented with photographing my process digitally with the idea of ‘inserting myself’ into my pinhole images. This gives a sort of connection between myself and nature, how I can be involved with nature, what I feel with nature. This also gives a sense of how nature is overlooked and not commonly appreciated by humans, we don’t immerse ourselves into it enough. It was an idea of instead of only focusing on nature itself, bring in our relationship with nature.

Day 2

In this self directed slot, I played with the scanner and looked at how my previous images and the results from yesterday were if they were inverted, turning negative to positive. As well as inverting the negative images, I played around and adjusted shadows and highlights until they were how I liked them. This process clearly showed me how over and underexposed images can be seen as normal positive images and the contrast differing in each images, showing me if I used too much, too little, or just enough light.

Day 1:

In week 2, we explored using depth. I looked out for areas that had texture in the foreground including roots, leaves, weeds, and tree trunks. The images came out very textured and contained a lot more detail but can also clearly see foregrounds, middlegrounds, and backgrounds. The weather was very similar to last weeks so was very easy to keep control of the exposure time and get more detail within the images.

Day 2:

We were introduced to photograms and experimented with these by bringing in our own foliage. From home, I brought a multiple sized succulents as well as the pink flowering that commonly grows with these. Though this foliage is very solid and provides no detail within the image, the bold outlines and textured stems define the objects nicely.

I thought it would be interesting to include plastic and see how the folds and wrinkles would look in the background of these prints and the result created quite a faint but nice subtle effect. With one image I accidentally exposed the film upside down but after flipping it to then again expose it a second time, the end result created an unique subtle print inside the solid shapes.

Day 1:

First day for photo/ lensed based brief, I explored Albert Park and kept an eye out for unusual weeds, roots, or greenery growing near and against manmade objects such as park benches, bins, and the pavements. I also found an interest in the moss seen across the trees and the smaller foliage around the base of those trees. I think the highly textured roots and branches I captured for research will become very effective when using them for pinhole.

Day 2:

Though one of my images went missing, it’s clear in my first practice test strips the experimentation with exposure time with the pinhole camera. First attempts came out underexposed and had little to no detail in the foreground, a clear intention and outline but no details in the foliage, trees, bushes. Then they started to become overexposed, contained detail but was very dark. After exploration with the test strips, I moved to the larger film. I got more of a hang on what exposure time worked best for what lighting but also my pinhole camera in particular. The definition and detail became clearer and even included the use of depth by included ground.

IF VIDEO INSTALLATION STOPS: Using Remote, media player placed under projector: Option>Repeat Title

Through experimentation with video installation ideas, using the body I decided to fully respond to how plastic/ cling wrap can explore multiple variations of ‘force’. Corresponding with the use of of layering in video, I installed layers of cling wrap in studio therefore once video installation is projected shadows and slight distortion may occur. Experimented with in earlier practice videos, I also installed hanging skewers which would also create shadows.

In this video installation, I explore the textures, restriction, and resistance using my body. Not only using my hands to forcefully experiment with plastic, I thought of how plastic restraining other parts of my body could be used to portray not only physical force but emotionally when used with for example mouth/throat: force of voice.

(Wet lab works, experimental video screenshots on floor)

FINAL REFLECTION:

For this brief, I found it quite difficult generating ideas at first but slowly did so through literal experimentation with the verb ‘force’. I found working in the wet lab interesting and enjoyable but didn’t speak to me as much when expanding ideas further. As this verb can be portrayed in a wide range of ways, I somewhat found it difficult bringing this into a sculpture context so my practice for this brief was through video experimentation. Exploring different artists that corresponded with my practice, this helped me to generate some ideas and led me to the idea of a simplistic long duration video and could be explored further using ice. I brought his outdoors and responded to it through video works. I felt this method didn’t have a lot of context so when moving to other materials, I thought cling wrap was a good way of expanding ideas that using my body and portrayed my understanding of ‘force’. In the end, it seems I extracted a lot but began expanding the ideas I first experimented with when introduced to this brief.

In continuation with experimenting with ice, I made video works that involved bringing ice outdoors and playing with angles; responding to it with my body.

Again applying the motion of force into my work, I also made video works involving plastic/cling wrap. I thought plastic would be a good source of material to communicate ideas relating to force, so playing with clips in Premiere Pro I creating a somewhat cinematic short video of working with plastic; how it is forced to stretch, snap, break, rip etc.