Author: Anna

We started out with making marks and I found this process of painting enjoyable, I liked being able to just make marks without thinking too hard about it. I allowed myself to just make, no thoughts just paint. I tried to stray from regular motions and I tried using my tools to create marks that overlapped and went onto the page differently. I think my favourite motions I used were clap and swirl. Overall this was a very freeing exercise and I hope to channel this experience into my future works.

I found this brief extremely enjoyable. Working with 3D forms of art I think is the most rewarding to me. I loved working in the 3D labsand being able to discover other ways of making and I’ll definetly continue to use those labs. If I were to work on anything after this brief is to learn how to explore more ideas better. I think I also would like to further understand how to effectively use performance work as it’s something Ifind enjoyable.

I think my most successful work is my picnic installation as it’s the first time I’ve ever ’set the scene’. I think the amount of subject matter added really helped the work come alive and I like that it gave me the chance to work with videography. I’ve always been apposed to using photo/video work as it’s not my strong suit but I really did like it this time around. I also think this work was successful because it was made with a purpose which is something I’ve always struggled with when making. This is something I wanted to strive to work on in my last reflection and I think I succeeded. The flow of ideas developing this time around was truly great to see and I’m pretty proud of myself.

I think what I found most challenging with this brief was figuring out how to use performance work effevtively. I don’t think I really got there in the end but it was still fun to try. It was also hard trying to build on some of the verbs I picked out. I never really got around to finding an effective way to use the verb ’confiscate’ which is quite frustrating but I guess it was always a rather hard verb to use.

Something I’d like to improve on is learning to explore my ideas better so that I can better currate work and create things I can build on. Another thing would be to work on performance work, it’s something I’m genuinely interested in and I’d like to learn how to work with it better.

This work is a sculpture made by Monica Cook. I appreciate the diversity of the materials used which I think I achieved in my own work. I think working with trash is a good way to create as there’s definetly a lot of it to use. This work is also just genuinely impress with the form and the overall creation of the work. I feel like this work was very time consuming to make and tasking to make, which is something I can relate to in my own work I’ve made.

When looking for installation artists I was immediatly drawn to this particular work by Franz West. After learning more about him and this work I realised his work is similar to what I wanted to create. He sets up these interactive spaces for others to feel embodied in his work. His work is made for others to actively explore and be apart of. Similar to this, I wanted to create a space where people could maybe interact with my own work. I want them to feel free to touch and get up close.

These 2 weeks I finished refining my installations and small details that needed to be added. I added more childhood art and a couch to my picnic installation, just to add to the cozieness aspect of the scene. I also finished adding 2 more chains of trash, one for paper and the other for plastic. With these being done I have the 3 main trash groups or plastic, paper and tin/alluminium to mock Monica Cook’s work Phosphene which was also made of rubbish. I also set up my Phase 1/2 work to show it off in a gallery setting and just to have all my work out. As a way to show how my ideas developed.

This week I cracked down on adding in an installation work into the studio. The idea was to create an installation around the verb ‘defile’ and the definition of this verb is ‘to damage purity’ or ’to spoil’ something. I was thinking about things that are wholesome or related to purity and my thoughts went to Religious things like the Bible or the cross but thought that could get controversial real quick. So I looked at other things that are pure and my mind went to childhood shows or toys. I took this idea a step further and decided to discuss my own childhood which I thought was great and almost perfect. But as I grew up I realised that there was a lot of things in my childhood that were maybe not so good or perfect. I wanted to express this by defiling the things in my childhood which I loved to kind of represent this idea. It was suggested to make a video of me defiling these things and to install this video into a space that appeared comforting, something made to contrast the video.

I also wanted to create something around the idea or question ”how much waste do students create”. Last semester we made mass amounts of rubbish and I thought it’d be good to visualise that. So I carried on using the can motif from phase 1 and took all the energy drink cans from fellow students and hung them up on a chain. There was a lot of crushing and noise but I think I got my idea across, especially when I added greenery to it as it is about environment and waste. I tried installing this work in an outdoor setting but it doesn’t quite hold the same meaning as when it’s hung in the studio. When going into phase three I want to expand on this and make more chains of trash just to expand on other types of waste that student create.

These 2 artists were given to me as I was generating ideas for how to use trash or colour effectively in my work. These artists also helped me get ideas for how to use my verb ‘attraction’ and ’confiscate’. I really like how Dane Mitchells work was in a sense collaborative which I thought was a good way to use my word confiscate. This helped me generate an ideas using the metal can motif that I have continueing through my work. His work also made very good use of the trash we leave behind. It was suggested that I make organised piles of trash which I think would be a very cool intervention to have within our studio space as I know the amount of rubbish we all accumulate is immense. My other artist is Choi Jeong Hwa who uses colour in his sculpture work very often. His work also tends to hand from the ceiling or walls often and his work is definetly helpful for generating ideas around the word ‘attraction’.

This week was about doing starting to create some performative and installation sculptures. I just wanted to start off with some simple performances first in the wet labs to see if I could go any further using the wet lab. I tried working on my verb confiscate and a new verb, ’of time’. Confiscate has been a challenging verb to use but the more I started to think of it in a less literal way it started to become easier to generate ideas. With my new verb ’of time’ I wanted to continue using the can motif I’ve had through out this entire brief. This shape is truly versitile and the can itself can be used in many ways. So I used some mixed wax to help portray my idea.

This week we worked with glazes. Coloured and clear, struggling to see what colour was what as when the coloured glaze dries it can be a completely different colour. I chose to stick to pretty simple colours not quite wanting to sacrifice any of my pieces to colour experimentation. I found the clear glazing process quite easy. It wasn’t as hard as I imagined and overall I’m happy with the outcome of my work. I didn’t really care if my work came out streaky and I actually look forward to seeing the finished outcome (it was hard to get photos during as my hands had to avoid grease and dirt while glazing). Before heading into phase 2 I wanted to try using more wax. This time I gave the beeswax a go and I really like the yellow colour it has. I’m still not a big fan of the smell or making a hollow wax cast. I had to do the same thing I did with the pinkysil and constantly turn my mould. It was very exhausting and my wax cast didn’t even come out in one piece. It had fused with my mould which is unfortunate because now I have a broken cast and an unusable mould.

Second week of working in the wet labs we worked with pinkysil and wax. I can’t say I’m a fan of the pinksil mostly because of its texture but otherwise it was a lot of fun. I has issues when pouring it into my mould but luckily this didn’t affect the outcome of my finished product aside from a small hole. Overall I think it turned out great, though I wish I had made sure the pinkysil pool more towards the top of my mould. When it came to the wax I was really excited, I have plans for phase 2 with wax so I was glad to find that wax isn’t so hard to use. The process was simple, heat it up, scoop and pour. I didn’t get to see the finished product as we ran out of time but I have high hopes for the outcome. I don’t know if I’m keen to use the pinkysil ever again mostly because of cost and I don’t know what I’d use it for. The wax however might be useful.

Working in the wet labs is the most fun I’ve had in a long while. I have really missed playing with clay and it was definitely enjoyable learning how to use plaster. This was a big learning process and something I definitely want to try agin. This week we worked on using movement to create some sculptures. It was mostly just experimenting and I had almost forgotten the verbs I had picked but I think what I made ties in well with my verbs. I feel like the verbs I picked tied in very well with my end product and there was a lot of room for open interpretation. Overall I think I made some things I can be very proud of.