Amrita Paul

Bluecoat Gallery - Learning By Context

2009-12-06T15:52:00.000-08:00

Wednesday 18Th November

Julian Cooper completed a series of seven paintings entitled Under the Volcano in the 1980s. They take particular episodes from the book and evoke its Mexican setting. The novel was instrumental in the artists search to develop a kind of abstract painting using figurative methods, one capable of taking on contemporary experience in the way that Lowry's novel does, with its intricate symbolism and a vivid representation surface. For Cooper the book 'had everything. It was set in a landscape, it was outer narrative and inner narrative as well, it had lots of references to literature and cannibalistic religion - it had all the complexity of a Renaissance painting.'

Cian Quayle installation comprises a looped film featuring the ferry journey between Liverpool and Douglas on the Isle of Man. This is accompanied by a series of photographs of locations and other references made to the island in Lowry's writing, principally in the short story Elephant and Colosseum. Lowry had a fascination with the Isle of Man, which he visited as a child, the island being a popular holiday destination from Liverpool. He also befriended Manx boat builder Jimmie Craige when he and his wife Margerie lived in a squatter's shack in Canada. As well as helping the Lowry's survive the harsh conditions, Craige helped fuel Lowry's interest in Manx folklore. Quyle, himself from the Isle of Man, is interested in Lowry's affinity with the sea, the idea of the journey, and 'the way that fact and fiction, myth, folklore and history are interwoven in narratives of exile and return'. the installation's title is taken from Lowry's overarching concept for his various works in progress.

Jorge Martinez Garcia described as a 'Neo-Baroque' print maker and painter, Jorge Martinez Garcia has read and re-read Lowry's writings since first discovering Under the Volcano. Inspired by the writer's famous letter to his publisher Jonathan Cape, in which he proposed thee were at least five levels at which the book could be read, Lowry has been a constant point of reference for the artist. In the series of intaglio prints, Martinez interacts with Lowry in diverse and layered ways, each print being both compositionally and thematically complex. Many familiar elements from Under the Volcano are evident. The consul, the volcano, an 'eternal' cantina, and the ever present bottle of mescal, for instance, are all rendered through Marinez's exquisite printmaking technique.

TATE GALLERY - Learning by Context

2009-12-06T13:04:00.000-08:00

Wednesday 11Th November

Hamo Thornycroft 1850 - 1925
"Teucer" 1881
bronze
The champion Greek archer Teucer was one of the heroes of Homer's story of the Trojan War. When this bronze was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1882 a quotation from Pope's translation of Holmer was printed in the catalogue, as the subject was unusual. Thornycroft admired the Elgin marbles, and his early works were in a Greek style. With 'Teucer', in emulation of the grandeur of Leighton's 'Athlete', he made a monumental ideal nude. The critic Edmund Gosse wrote that it had 'something almost archaic about its serenity and rigidity...this is courageously realistic'.

When i first saw this sculpture i was intrigued by the amount of detail that was shown in the body of work, e.g. like the muscles. The proportion of the sculpture itself is in very good detail and i was inspired. I really like the way the sculpture is standing, it draws attention to itself as i walked into the gallery. The sculpture itself doesn't reflect my art work but i did appreciate this piece. It almost reminds me of the work by Michelangelo and how he sculptured his art work.

Anthony Gormley born 1950
"Three ways: Mould, Hole and Passage" 1981
lead sheet and plaster
'You are aware that there is a transition, that something that is happening within you is gradually registering externally'. This is how Anthony Gormley described his experience of making plaster casts of his own body. For Three Ways he used such casts to make lead figures in three simple poses: curled into a ball, bending over and lying down .

This sculpture by Gormley i feel also draws attention to itself by the audience, as it did to me. The way the sculptures are positioned in the corner of the room are very different. I feel like i didn't like this piece, i wasn't inspired or influenced, i did however stand and look at the way the body parts on the sculpture sat and it made me think about why they were: sitting, laying and curled up like a ball. I also found that the mouth area on the sculptures had a hole in the mouth. I wasn't sure why this was but it made me think, why aren't the detail of the eyes and nose put into place. The humour of the sculpture with his body part showing was almost child like.

Reg Butler 1913 - 1981
"Girl on a Round Base" 1968 - 72
bronze, paint, glass and hair
This is an almost life-size and life-like sculpture of a naked girl. It is one of four such sculptures that Butler in collaboration with his partner, Rosemary, between 1968 - 72.
The erotically controlled figure writhing on a mattress shares much with bacon's paintings of reclining figures. butler greatly admired Bacon. Intriguingly, during the 1960s Bacon often told the critic John Russell that he wanted to make realistic, painted figurative sculptures. Bacon never realised this ambition, but Butler's figures seem quite close to the ideas he expressed to Russell.

When i first saw this piece, i wasn't sure what to think about it. The more i looked at it, the more i seem to appreciate it. I liked the way the sculpture was functioned on the round base, it reminded me of a round bed. The detail on the sculpture was very careful, i really liked that especially the face. I felt i got a different feeling as i looked at the sculptures at different angles, it was weird i thought but interesting at the same time. The woman on the bed looks comfortable as her neck looks strained at the same time.

Ron Mueck born 1958
"Ghost" 1998
fibreglass, silicon, polyurethane foam, acyclic fibre and fabric
Australia born, Ron Mueck first came to public attention during the Royal Academy's 1997 Sensation exhibition. He has been living in Britain for sixteen years and began his career as a puppet maker. He is currently producing figurative sculptures in a hyper-realistic style.

Mueck's simulations of human subjects possess an eerie exactitude. He bases them on friends and relatives but does not directly cast from his subjects. Instead he makes works in fibreglass and silicone from marquette modelled in clay. The distorted size and awkward posture often indicate the subject's emotional state. Ghost 1998, represents a seven-foot girl. Her enlarged scale and uneasy demeanour emphasise a sense of adolescent anxiety.

This was my favourite pieces of sculpture out of all the gallery. I loved the way the piece just stood there against the wall, and how the detail of the moustache, big hands and big feet were introduced. The sculpture itself looks real, and scary at the same time. I feel the name of the piece, Ghost, is given because it represents that she is like a ghost, she seems surreal. I was inspired by this piece because the first time i looked at it, i was standing there for minutes just inspecting the detail, as they look so real. Although her body proportion its right, she seems to carry it off well and looks comfortable. She's wearing a plain black leotard, and is covered but she seems to be showing a lot of flesh because she's so tall.

Edgar Degas 1834 - 1917
"Little Dancer Aged Fourteen" 1880 - 1
cast circa 1922
"Petite danseuse de quatorze ans" painted bronze with muslin and silk
The model for this sculpture was a ballet student at the Paris Opera, where Degas often drew and painted. Degas first made a reddish-brown wax sculpture for her in the nude. Then, aiming for a naturalistic effect, he dressed a three-quarter life-size wax sculpture for her in clothing made of real fabrics - cream-coloured silk for the bodice, tulle and gauze for the tutu, and fabric slippers. He also gave it real hair tied with a ribbon. When the wax sculpture was first exhibited, contemporaries were shocked by the unprecedented realism of the piece. But they were also moved by the works' representation of the pain and stress of ballet training endured by a barely adolescent girl. After Degas' death his heirs decided in the early 1920s to make bronze casts - nearly thirty of them - of the wax original. In these versions, all is bronze except for the dancer's gauze tutu and silk ribbon. Recent investigations into the casting of this piece has shown how the founders attempted to match the colours and aged appearance of the original wax sculpture, which, by this point, had spent forty years in the artist's studio. Pigmented waxes, ranging in colour from pale orange through pink and brown, were rubbed into the flesh areas. The bodice was painted a cream colour, but a pigmented wax was applied to darken the lower part. The skirt was dipped in a mixture of animal glue and pigmented in order to created an aged effect.

This piece, by Degas is interesting because i like the way the fabric around the ballet is on her, it almost looks real. The position the sculpture is standing almost makes her look peaceful. I did feel the more i looked at the more i didn't appreciate it. I walked away from it and then seemed to come back to it and was looking at it from a different angle, i did however feel influenced and seemed to accept it more.

Black E - Learning by Context, Wednesday 28th October

2009-12-06T12:50:00.000-08:00

VOICES - from The Songs by Judy Chicago.

Judy Chicago is an artist, author, feminist, educator, and intellectual whose career now spans four decades. Her influences both within and beyond the art community is attested to by her inclusion in hundreds of publications throughout the world. Her art has been frequently exhibited in the United States as well as in Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. in addition, a number of the books she has authored have been published in foreign editions, bringing her art and philosophy to thousands of readers worldwide.

In the early seventies after a decade of professional art practice, Chicago pioneered Feminist Art and art education through a unique program for women at California State University, Fresno, a pedagogical approach that she has continued to develop over the years. In 1974, Chicago turned her attention to the subject of women's history to create her most well-known work, the Dinner Party, which has executed between 1974 and 1979 with the participation of hundreds of volunteers. This monumental multimedia project, a symbolic history of women in Western Civilization, has been seen by more than one million viewers during its sixteen exhibitions held at venues spanning six countries.

Victoria Art Gallery, Wednesday 28th October

2009-11-24T08:11:00.000-08:00

John James Audubon 1785 - 1851

Audubon was born to a sea captain and a maid in Santo Domingo today's Haiti. He grew up in France with his father's wife and at 18, his father sent him to his farm in Pennsylvania, USA. Even as a child he said he,

"felt an intimacy with nature bordering on frenzy"

Alone in the wilderness, he would spend months hunting, fishing and drawing. Other artists were publishing drawings on birds, but their animals looked stiff and unrealistic. Audubon realised his pictures of birds were more natural.

Audubon sailed to Liverpool in 1826 to seek funding and patronage for a book. He carried letters of introduction, including one of Liverpool merchant Richard Rathbone. The Rathbones accommodated Audubon, introduced him to important local people and hosted a promotional exhibition at the Liverpool Royal Institution. Their support greatly promoted Audubon's international reputation.

In 1838 Audubon published Birds of America, and from 1845 to 1848 Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America. Liverpool Central Library has a copy of Birds of America - one of the most valuable books in the world.

Audubon arrives in Liverpool in 1826. He wrote in his diary:

"...it was raining. Yet the outward appearance of the city was agreeable. But no sooner had i entered it than smoke from coal fires was so oppressive...that i could scarcely breathe".

Inspired by the Light.

The artists have used fiery or moonlit settings to evoke a particular atmosphere or feeling. Wright of Derby uses silvery light, gentle shadows, and still water to achieve a sense of tranquility in Snowdon. Turner creates a more dramatic picture with the fiery lava of the volcano against a contrasting dark sky.

In the late 1700s, fashionable people travelled to experience rural landscapes in places such as North Wales and the Lake District. These places also inspired artists, who often used their own experiences of picturesque scenery as subjects in their paintings.

Nature elements dominate the small insignificant humans. People play only a very small part. They give a sense of scale to nature whose power dominates the small insignificant humans.

The Eruption of Soufriere St Vincent on 30Th April 1812 1815

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851)

Soufriere is the volcano on the island of St Vincent in the Caribbean . Turner did not see this eruption himself, but based his paintings on a drawing by Hugh Perry Keane, the son of the chief prosecutor on the island. The newspapers in 1812 said that the noise of the eruption was heard over 100 miles away. Soufriere St Vincent is still an active volcano, and last erupted in 1979.

It was common in the late 18Th and early 19Th centuries for artists to depict powerful natural events such as earthquakes and volcanoes. Turner sketched and painted images of shipwrecks, avalanches, storms and dramatic skies.

This is the first of a series of pictures of volcanoes by Turner. He painted Mount Vesuvius in Italy several times, and visited that volcano himself. Turner's personal experience of Vesuvius no doubt contributed to the more realistic eruptions. St. Vincent appears quite retrained in comparison in his latter images.

Icons.

The icons in this collection come from Russian, Greece and Crete.

The date from the 1500s to 1800s. Many of the designs have remained close to the Byzantine originals but show minor variations in style and representation that appeared as other influences began to take hold.

Professor Robert Roaf gave these paintings to the University of Liverpool. He was Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery here from 1964 to 1976, his father and grandmother were also Professors.

Professor Roaf's work on spinal deformities took him all over the world. On his travels he cultivated an interest in mystical religion - particularly that of Eastern Europe and Russia.

St George and the Dragon

Russian, late 16Th Century

The legend of St George and the Dragon is an important to the Eastern Christian tradition as it is to our own. Stories of the soldier-saint date back to the 6Th century at least, long before George was adopted as patron saint of England. George was adopted as patron saint of England. George came to represent the virtues of military valour and selflessness and was a familiar figure in Byzantine art.

The Tate Hall Museum.

The room was orginally the main library for the University of Liverpool and was designed to hold 30, 00 books.

It was named after Henry Tate (of Tate & Lyle sugar) who was the largest donor to the Victoria Building - giving £20, 000 and a further £5,500 for new library books.

By 1903 the library housed 40,000 volumes - but by 1937 space was needed for 110,000. In 1938 all the books were transferred to the new Harold Cohen Library which had an initial capacity for 250,00 books. The Tate's library fittings were then stripped out and the room was re-named the Tate Hall. It has since had various uses including a display area for the University's collections of fine art and early English porcelain.

Originally wooden beams extended across the ceiling - but these were removed after World War II - probably as an attempt at modernisation. The cut ends of the beams were covered with plaster shields. One is the arms of the University - showing three Liver Birds and an open book inscribed FIAT LUX (let there be light), the other is Henry Tate's coat of arms.

Radial Engine.

Presented to the University of Liverpool in 1919 by W.H. Allen Son & Company.

This engine was invented by Monsieur Verdi of Paris in 1912, and was produced by the Gnome & Le Rhone Engine Company in 1913.

It gives 90 horsepower and runs at 1200 to 1300 R.P.M.
Nearly every part of the engine is made of steel.
It consists of 1156 separate pieces.

During World War I, mass production was undertaken by W.H. Allen Son & Co. of Bedford, and the engine was fitted in the following aeroplanes:

D.H 5, Sopwith Scout ('Camel' and 'Pup'), Bristol Scout, Avro.

It was employed on all fronts WWI, and has also been used extensively for pilot training.

Bridget Riley - FlashBack, Walker Art Gallery.

2009-11-23T10:33:00.000-08:00

25 September 2009 to 13 December 2009

This major exhibition tracks the career of Bridget Riley, from her exciting beginnings in the early 1960s to the ambitious and powerful works of recent years.

Riley's distinctive and optically vibrant partings generate extraordinary sensations of movement, light and space. The exhibition includes eight large scale paintings, with four coming from Riley's personal collection. Alongside these are around 30 drawings and studies that illuminate her working methods over her five-decade-long-career.

A seminal work in the show is 'Movement in Squares', which was purchased by the Arts Council collection in 1962, the year after it was made. Consistently exhibited in retrospectives of her work, she credits the work as the beginning of her breakthrough into abstraction. This shows an insight into the role of the Arts Council collection in supporting British artists and collecting the art treasures of the future.

Many of the works will be exhibited for the first time and the show is the first in a major new series of touring exhibitions from the Arts Council collection, Southbank Centre. Each venue on the tour has collected work by Riley, including the Walker, which has 'Sea Cloud' in its collections.

An illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition with new text by the artists that is a very personal account of her approach to making work.

John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize

2009-11-23T09:23:00.000-08:00

In 1957 John Moores (1896 - 1993) sponsored a competition for contemporary artists at Liverpool's Walker Art Gallery, with the intention of showcasing the best of new British painting.

The John Moores, as it is always known, has since been held approximately every two years. It has become one of the most familiar events in the British Art world and now forms one of the four main strands of the Liverpool Biennial.

John Moores Prizewinners 1957 - 2006 exhibition

The paintings in this exhibition are, with two exceptions, from the Walker Art Gallery's permanent collection. They were all main prizewinners in the John Moores Liverpool exhibitions, held approximately every two years at the Gallery since 1957.

The exhibition, which was one of Britain's first contemporary art prizes, was intiated by Sir John Moores (1896 - 1993), fonder of Littlewoods. His aims were:

'To give Merseyside the chance to see an exhibition of painting and sculpture embracing the best and most vital work being done today throughout the country' and 'To encourage artists, particulary the young and progresive'.

The John Moores, open to artists working in the UK, has always been an open submission competition with prize money - a total of £458,350 has been awarded since 1957. Until 1967 'distingushed' artists were invited to submit work, some also being eligible for prizes. Those invited included Oskar Kokoschka, LS Lowry, Francis Bacon and Barbara Hepworth.

The exhibited works and prizewinners are selected by a different jury each year. The exhibition has consitently helped to raise the profit of the artists and in particular to further the careers of its winners, including Jack Smith, Peter Blake, David Hockney and Peter Doig.

For the Walker Art Gallery it has created the backbone of its collection of contemporary British painting, reflecting some of the major trends over the past 50 years, including Kitchen Sink realsim, abstraction, pop art and figuration.

Walker Art Gallery - “Learning by Context", Wednesday 7th October

2009-11-03T13:57:00.000-08:00

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1828-82

‘Dante’s Dream’, painted 1870-81
Oil on canvas, 216 x 312.4cm

Rosseti had a life-long interest in the Italian poet Dante. This painting shows an episode from the 'Vita Nuova'. In it Dante dreams that he is led by Love to the death-bed of Beatrice Portinari, the object of his unrequited passion.

This is Rossetti's largest ever painting. In it he creates a visionary world through soft, rich colours and complex symbols. The attendants wear green for hope, while the spring blossoms signify purity. The red doves indicate the presence of love and the poppies symbolise the sleep of dreams and death.

Rossetti was fascinated by Dante's autobiographical Vita Nuova (or new life) in which the great Italian medieval poet recounts his mystical and unconsummated passion for Beatrice Portinari. This painting embodies Dante's dream on the day of her death, he is led by love (with the arrow) to her beside and sees her ladies covering her with a veil; the poppies signify the sleep of death; the flowers and blossom represent purity and virginity; the doves symbolize love; the dying lamp suggests the end of life; Florence can be seen through the window. This painting, based on a watercolour of 1856, has all the rich language of Rossetti maturity despite its gloomy subject. Jane Mooris was the model for Beatrice. The frame was designed by the artist and it was the largest canvas Rossetti painted.

The model for Beatrice was Jane Morris, with whom Rossetti had a long-term affair.

I was inspired by this painting because it made me think about the perjury of heaven and hell. I was fascinated about the history behind the painting and how the painting was inspired by the poem. Dante buried the poem where Beatrice was buried; years later he dug her up and also found the poem. He found the body decomposed but the hair was glooming with a rich copper colour

William Holman Hunt, 1871-1910
'The Triumph of the Innocents', painted 1876-87
Oil on linen, 157.5 cm x 247.7 cm

The landscape setting is on the road to Gaza, at a spot about a day's journey from Bethlehem. Originally, Hunt had intended the whole picture to be bathed in moonlight. Feeling that this would be too monotonous, he instead gave a luminous supernatural glow to the foreground infants.

The work differs from the earlier 'Scapegoat' and 'Finding of the Saviour in the Temple' in that Hunt here tonally separates foreground and background and does not give equal attention to all parts of the picture. Much more detail is lavished on the foreground.

In landscape and figures, Hunt sought to reproduce as closely as possible the event as it might have looked. In one of his letters to Harold Rathbone he wrote;

'I am always interested to the deepest extent in the illustration of religious history by such means. Since I first knew the East, the opportunities of illustrating old events by existing customs and tradition has enormously decreased, and in another fifty years the world will wonder why, when the mood of European manners had not destroyed primitive forms, painters had not full worked to perpetuate these'

Sidney Colvin characterised Hunt's attitude well;

'He shows himself a child of his age by attending first of all to geography and ethnology and archaeology and local colour, performing the work of "Societies of Biblical Archaeology"',

Hunt's interest in depicting scriptural episodes with geographical and historical accuracy was not merely scientific but designed to awaken the spectator's religious emotions and make him confront the problem of whether or not these biblical events had taken place.

Mary and the infant Christ on the donkey are being led on their nocturnal flight to Egypt by Joseph. They are fleeing from the massacre of all the male babies in Bethlehem organized by King Herod in his attempt to murder the infant Jesus. The souls of these babies, the Holy Innocents, accompany the Holy family drawn along by mystic bubbles representing Jewish confidence in Ultimate Salvation. The large bubble includes Jacob’s dream, the Adoration of the Lamb and the Trees of Life. Hunt was inspired by his personal experience of contemporary Palestine particularly in the principal figures, in the donkey and in the background but he combines this with an original and erudite symbolism intended to re-interpret the Bible for late Victorian England. The frame was designed by the artists and contains a seed symbol which implies the millions of the unfaithful.

I was not inspired by this painting; I feel I did not like the appreciation of the painting itself, however the history behind the painting was attentive. I was however intrigued at how an area of canvas is inserted to include the head of the virgin and child, but the painting itself does not show unless I looked closely at the painting, because when the light shines at an angle you can see the patch.

John Everett Millais, 1829-96
'Lorenzo and Isabella', painted 1848-9
Oil on linen, 103cm x142.8cm

Millais's first Pre-Raphaelite painting was painted during 1848 when he was 19 years old. The subject is taken from Keats's poem 'Isabella' or 'The Pot of Basil'. The painting is also sometimes simply known as 'Isabella'. When exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1849, the following quotation from the poem was included in the catalogue:

Fair Isabel, poor simple Isabel! Lorenzo, a young palmer in Love's eye! They could not in the self-same mansion dwell Without some stir of heart, some malady; They could not sit at meals but feel how well It soothed each to be the other by. These brethren having found by many signs What love Lorenzo for their sister had,
And how she lov'd him too, each unconfines His bitter thoughts to other, well nigh mad That he, the servant of their trade designs Should in their sister's love be blithe and glad When 'twas their plan to coax her by degrees To some high noble and his olive trees.

Keats's source for this poem was a tale by the 14th century Italian author, Bocaccio, and the story is broadly as follows: Lorenzo and Isabella were deeply in love with each other. Isabella was the daughter of a rich and greedy Florentine merchant family to which Lorenzo was apprenticed. Discovering their sister's love for Lorenzo, Isabella's brothers plotted to kill Lorenzo. They lured him into a wood and there murdered him. Isabella pined for her love and in a vision saw the spot where he had been killed. She found his grave and dug up his body. Then cutting off Lorenzo's head and taking it home, she kept it hidden in a flowerpot in which she planted the sweet smelling herb, basil. Eventually her brothers discovered her macabre secret and stole the pot of basil, and full off guilt, they fled to Florence. Isabella grew weak through sorrow, and died.

Keats's poetry was a major preoccupation with the Brotherhood. Rossetti first read his poems in 1845 and thought him 'the greatest modern poet'. Hunt discovered Keats's work in 1848 and introduced Millais to his verse. Hunt and Millais planned to produce a series of etchings for book illustrations of Keats's 'Isabella'. Millais worked up his drawings into this large painting. Hunts work on the project did not get beyond the drawing stage.

Hunt later suggested that Keats's work played a major part in uniting the group. In 1848, Keats was little known outside of a small group of devotees. His work had remained unpublished after his death in 1821. The Pre- Raphaelites were particularly attracted to the medieval themes in Keats's poems rather than to his classical subjects and it was the moral intensity of both 'Isabella' and 'The Eve of St Agnes' that they felt made them suitable as subjects. Both had the 'high seriousness' which the Brotherhood wished to characterise their work.

Keat’s rich medieval imagery made him a favourite poet of the Pre-Raphaelites. This was Millais’ first painting in the new, sharply detailed Pre-Raphaelites style. The bright colour, the flattering of the picture space and the deliberate stiffness and angularity of the figures were all features taken from the early Italian painting. The story is told through clear gestures and facial expressions, but Millais has also included symbolic details such as the hawk tearing at a feather, the blood orange given to Isabella and the passion flower above her head.

I did however appreciate this painting; I did like how the initials PRB were carved into the stool, and how the crockery tells the same symbol of the story. The painting itself I feel shows the story of the future. Symbolising the nutcracker as a shadow and reflection like a Pre-Raphaelite joke, this shows that a teenager painted it. I was also introduced at how the peoples sat on the right hand side looked like a pack of cards layed out this also implies the painting was painted by a teenager.

Schedule for School Wide Lecture..!!!

2009-11-03T13:40:00.000-08:00

Wednesday 21st October
PM 4.00 - 6.00 MERLIN JAMES LECTURE / Venue : Lecture Theatre 1 (ground floor)

'Good, Difficult, Experimental Painting and its Criticism'
In published polemics such as 'Painting Per Se' (Cooper Union, New
York, 2002) and 'The Non-Existence of Art Criticism' (Kingston
Universirty, 1997) painter Merlin James has posited an idea of medium
specificity against prevalent trends toward interdisciplinarity.
In this talk he discusses his extensive critical writing in relation
to his own studio work, and argues for the mutuality of criticism and
practice.

Wednesday 28th October
PM 4.00 - 6.00 DAVID SHRIGLEY LECTURE / Venue : Lecture Theatre 1 (ground floor)

David Shrigley's art frequently asks questions about the nature of contemporary art and its audience. He parodies the excessive and ridiculous aspects of the culture market and his rapidly executed and sometimes crudely made works suggest a compulsive desire to exploit and question the logic of contemporary art. Expressed in an extensive and expanding range of media, David Shrigley consistently seeks to widen his public. Operating frequently outside the gallery sphere, the artist disseminates his ideas in his weekly contribution to The Guardian, prolific publishing projects, collaborations with musicians and an interactive website.

Wednesday 11th November
PM 4.00 - 6.00 IAN ANDERSON LECTURE / Venue : Lecture Theatre 1 (ground floor)

Born in Croydon, just south of London, on Valentine’s Day, 1961, Ian Anderson was still at school when he designed his first record cover – an EP for his punk band, the Infra Red Helicopters, released on his own label, Buy These Records. In 1979, he moved to Yorkshire to read philosophy at Sheffield University and soon became a central figure in the city’s burgeoning music and club scene. When Person to Person (whom he managed) signed to Epic Records, he designed their album cover. Their ‘High Time’ single (1984) was his first widely distributed cover design: ‘I hand-drew and Letraset the design for the Epic Records art department to follow, although I had no real idea of how or what they did’ . . . in January 2009, after 23 years of trading, The Designer’s Republic went into voluntary liquidation. Anderson bought back the company’s name and assets and The Designer’s Republic’s next phase is already up and running. This new incarnation will be, according to Anderson, ‘a creative-led, brain-aided, design “A-Team”’. Clients already signed include Coca-Cola, the Experimenta Lisbon Biennale and Jarvis Cocker. With control of all TDR’s back catalogue, Anderson is also busy compiling a book that has been almost two decades in the making.

Thursday 12th November
PM 12.00 - 2.00 WAYNE HEMINGWAY LECTURE / Venue : Johnson Auditorium (lower ground)

Wayne Hemingway was born in 1961 in the typical English seaside town of Morecambe. One day as a student in London he decided to empty his wardrobe and that of his childhood sweetheart (now wife Gerardine) and took the contents to sell on Camden Market. The realization that money could be made from fashion suddenly dawned. With Gerardine, Wayne built Red or Dead into a label that received global acclaim resulting in winning the prestigious British Fashion Council’s Streetstyle Designer of the Year Award for an unprecedented 3 consecutive years in 1996, 1997 and 1998. After 21 consecutive seasons on the catwalk at London Fashion Week, Wayne and Gerardine sold Red or Dead in a multi million cash sale.
In 1999, having sold Red or Dead they set up HemingwayDesign, which specializes in affordable and social design. The highest profile project is, The Staiths South Bank, a 800 property mass market housing project on Tyneside for Taylor Wimpey Homes where HemingwayDesign are involved from the master planning, the architecture through to the landscaping and marketing of this groundbreaking project . Over 400 homes are now lived in and The Staiths has won a series of high profile awards including Housing Design Awards (best large project) and Building Magazine’s “Best Housing-Led Regeneration Project” as well as a Building For Life and the highest rating of any large scale scheme in a recent CABE audit.

Wednesday 18th November
PM 4.00 - 6.00 Doug Fishbone LECTURE / Venue : Lecture Theatre 1 (ground floor)

Doug Fishbone is an American artist living and working in London. He earned an MA in Fine Art degree at Goldsmiths College in 2003 and was awarded the Beck’s Futures Prize for Student Film and Video in 2004. He is perhaps best known for his project 30,000 Bananas - a huge mountain of ripe bananas installed in the middle of London’s Trafalgar Square and later given away free to the audience - in October 2004.
Fishbone’s video and performance work places the viewer in a slightly awkward position. His monologues use structures that seem to evoke contexts and strategies of various speakers, ranging from bad stand-up comedy, a self-help tape, a session with psychiatrist, a corporate slide show or a guy sitting in a bar next to you. He moves between these ways of speaking, adopting contradictory positions, telling stories, truisms, cliches and racist jokes that feed and loop around each other. With this monologue a series of related images that illustrate, contradict or twist the meaning of his speech, appear behind him in the manner of a news reader or university lecturer, regulated to the pace of his voice.
He had his first major solo project at Gimpel Fils in London in October of 2006, and performed at London’s Hayward Gallery in February of 2007. Upcoming projects include a live performance at the ICA in London in July of 2007, as well as group exhibitions in Switzerland, Japan, and Korea. He was recently voted one of the Future Greats of the art world in the annual survey of Art Review magazine. Fishbone was born in New York City in 1969.

Wednesday 25th November
PM 4.00 - 6.00 ANAB JAIN LECTURE / Venue : Lecture Theatre 1 (ground floor)

Anab Jain is a designer and a TED Fellow, with a passion for creating opportunities and building tools that can lead us towards new and desirable futures. Educated in India, Vienna and London, she is the Founder of Superflux, a new ‘think-and-do’ design company working at the intersection of people and technology. Recently she created the ‘Power of 8’ project which brought together scientists, urbanists, educators, and permaculturists to imagine optimistic futures. With a relentless curiosity for communities, she has spent time co-creating banking systems for earthquake victims, designing games with street children who sold their blood for a living, producing the award winning film ‘Journeys’ about commuting tribulations in Mumbai and offering her personal wifi to neighbours and passersby. Recent work provoking possibilities around emerging technologies includes designing energy autonomous machines made of sugar and new RFID landscapes.The recipient of Award of Excellence ICSID, UNESCO Digital Arts Award, and Grand Prix Geneva Human Rights Festival amongst others, Anab has also presented her work at MoMA, NY, Apple Computers Inc, LIFT and SIGGRAPH.

Wednesday 2nd December
PM 4.00 - 6.00 BRENDAN DAWES LECTURE / Venue : Lecture Theatre 1 (ground floor)

Brendan Dawes is Creative Director for magneticNorth, an interactive design company based in Manchester, UK. Over the years he's helped to realise projects for a wide range of brands including Sony Records, Diesel, BBC, Fox Kids, Channel 4, Disney, Benetton, Kellogg's, The Tate and Coca-Cola.
Ever since his first experiences with the humble ZX81 back in the early eighties, Brendan has continued to explore the interplay of people, code, design and art both in his role leading the team at mN (mnatwork.com) and on brendandawes.com, a personal space where he publishes random thoughts, toys and projects created from an eclectic mix of digital and analog objects. In 2009 he was listed among the top twenty web designers in the world by .Net magazine and was featured in the "Design Icon" series in Computer Arts.
Three of Brendan's most famous pieces of work are born from his on-going love affair with film. The Webby nominated "Psycho Studio", created in 1998, was one of the very first video editors created in Flash and allowed people to re-cut their own version of the infamous shower scene from Psycho. "Saul Bass on the Web" is an online homage to the father of film titles, the graphic design legend Saul Bass. "Cinema Redux" attempts to distill whole movies down to a single image using specially written software that samples a single frame of a movie every second. The Museum of Modern Art in New York featured Cinema Redux as part of "Design and the Elastic Mind" and later acquired two pieces for the permanent MoMA collection.

Wednesday 9th December
PM 4.00 - 6.00 IAN WHITTLESEA LECTURE / Venue : Lecture Theatre 1 (ground floor)

Ian Whittlesea (born 1967) studied painting at Chelsea College of Art and sculpture at the Royal College of Art. His work, from the early Studio Paintings to the Everyone Projections, has consistently used the lives and works of other artists as its source.He has recently designed Sol Sans (a typeface based on Sol LeWitt’s hand-written Sentences on Conceptual Art) for Progress Through Typography and on the 1st May he projected the first chapter of Henry David Thoreau’s great book Walden, one word at a time for twelve hours, at the Chelsea Space, London.In 2003 he began to learn judo and translate Yves Klein’s 1954 book Les Fondements du Judo into English. After breaking his ankle, nose and most of his ribs he succeeded in gaining his black belt, and earlier this year The Foundations of Judo was published in a transimile of the original by The Everyday Press. The book has also generated a series of related events and ephemera, including a brief recreation of Klein’s Judo Académie de Paris at Tate Modern, London.

"Learning by Context"

2009-09-26T12:51:00.001-07:00

From the lecture this module:

has strong references to context i.e. - situations that help clarify meaning.

these will involve visits to exhibitions and galleries.

it will also consist of lectures and field engagements.

social, political, cultural and economic references will form the themes for contextual engagements.

pratical examples will be an important element of experiential and reflective learning. again also with this module it will engage all common module elements.

overall these activities will give many perspectives to experientially address, discuss and reflect art in context and describe findings and awareness in my on-line journal.

learning by context 2 will build upon initial foundation of learning in semester 1 and gives way to greater resolution in my findings.

Day off..!!

2009-09-26T11:59:00.000-07:00

7 evenings of full drinking till 4 in the morning has finally taken its plunge on me..!! watching sex and the city with tom for the 3rd time this week..its about time i put my uni time into study time..!!
working on some pics i took over summer..i decided to experiment with photoshop...!!!!

trying out night photography with long exposure ( arrows were added in )

again night photography ( some interesting ideas I could use in style for future references )

testing out aperture settings

took while in wales with the roof top down in the car

i like how the lights cast shadows with the lettering

LSAFA 1001..Level 1..Semester 2 work..!!!!

2009-06-04T06:54:00.000-07:00

For my semester two negotiated assignment I was interested in suburbia e.g. Desperate Housewives, and looking at the role of the traditional housewives and how the male had the title of bread winner of the household. In the fifties and sixties this was very much a prominent aspect. The wife would stay at home and tend to the needs of the children and the house, whilst the husband would go out and work to maintain their standard of living.
Also, around this time the divorce rate wasn’t as high as it is now. This is because it was frowned upon and marriage was respected a lot more. Also it would upset the whole upkeep off the house and would put pressure on the children to choose between the parents.

Within my work I began concentrating on the idea of how the parent would feel in this period knowing their marriage was coming to an end. This is because it wasn’t such a common happening and so the parent may feel alienated and alone whilst nowadays it is more of a regular occurrence and so this isolated feeling is understood more.

To help me with this project I began by gathering research from my family. My grandma, for instance that suffers from Dementia and cannot remember her past, has had a tough life and had an arranged marriage in which she was not content. However, due to this pressure from society not to get divorced she felt she was unable to.
I had many influential ideas on how I wanted to approach my work. Firstly I was determined to approach this idea by discovering a new method and recording my ideas that have influenced and inspired me through gallery visits like a catalogue however always came back to the idea of expressing the feelings that my grandma may have gone through and the effect it had on the children through expressionism in my paintings and the texture I used to re-live her past.

Final Pieces......

Open Eye Gallery..."Until it Hurts"...!!

2009-03-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

Today i visited the Open Eye Gallery with my friend Tom because our Critical Context Lecture was situated there. Not many people turned up today...must have been a crazy weekend..!!

John the creative manager of the gallery gave us an insight of the building and the exhibition itself that was taking place in the next few weeks.

Open Eye Gallery is one of the UK's leading spaces for photography and the only venue of its kind in the North West of England. Since opening its doors in 1977, it has built a reputation for supporting and presenting the best photography from the UK and beyond.

UNTIL IT HURTS

Who am I? Am i unique? Do i have an essence, an inner core that makes me myself? Am i free to choose who i am and what i do? Am i an actor, a puppet, a machine? Am i the same person as i was ten years ago? Ten minutes ago? Where do i end? Where does the rest of the world begin?

Until It Hurts is a group exhibition that explores questions of personal identity. It points to the fluidity and instability of our notions of self. It reflects on how we relate to others, who we identify with and who we do not, what pulls us together and what pushes us apart.

The exhibition takes its title from Sascha Weidner's photo installation Bis es wehtut (Until it Hurts), 2008. Weidner plunges us into a constellation of impressions and memories. His images are intensely physical – full of life – but they also remind us of how fragile and fleeting life is.

Markus Hansen's video projection Other People's Feelings (2000-5) presents paired portraits in which the artist assumes the posture and expression of his sitters. Hansen likens the process to method acting. To uncanny effect, using the simplest of means, he enacts a relationship with others that seems almost parasitical – more like invasion than imitation.

For his video piece Cross Examination, 2005, Josh Weinstein accosts strangers in public spaces in New York City. He asks them to talk about who he is - what his story is - basing their account only on the immediate evidence of their encounter. The results are both telling and entertaining.

Yang Zhenzhong also approaches strangers in public spaces, armed with his camera. He asks them to repeat the words I am going to die. The piece exists in twelve different versions, made in different parts of the world (2001-2). This exhibition presents a compilation of the Chinese, French and Dutch versions.

The artists in Until it Hurts are engaged in a kind of radical, deconstructive self-portraiture. Despite their divergent lines of inquiry, they throw up a number of shared themes and figures: of replication and reflection, of the body blurred and obscured, of memory and mortality. In so doing they recall the familiar words of John Donne (1572-1631) No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main... any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee (Meditation XVII).

Neon Lights..!!!

2009-03-12T13:51:00.001-07:00

Have you ever taken pics when your drunk.....?!!!

These images below are pictures from when i went out on a night. I looked at them the next morning and realised these were taken when i had a little too much to drink from the night before.

I think there quite cool and effective.

The image is captured when you move the camera..!!

These darker ones below, i love..!!

Visiting a friend in hospital..!!!

2009-03-12T10:55:00.001-07:00

My good friend Stokseyyy...poor guy injured his hand and arm..whats with the dark, black arrow tho..you can obviously see where the injury is..hmmmmm.......!!!!! DOCTORS

I came to see my friend in hospital and was really fascinated at the view i could see from his window..!!

Love it..!!

My Journey to London..no sleep and eating junk food for 24 hours..!!!

2009-03-10T10:18:00.000-07:00

It was Thursday 5th March and being a student everybody knows that it's a night spent well in SCREAM..the local student pub, it's a pound a pint and a good way to socialise with everybody and of course the obvious getting drunk and acting like complete idiots as i do whenever i'm drunk.

But this night was different, i was going to London in a few hours on a coach and i was debating whether or not to travel a little drunk and going to SCREAM for a few drinks. My flat mates were really pushy with the idea that i drank before my travels so i'd get a good nights sleep! But then thinking to myself i thought i shouldn't because i'd end up being sick and getting kicked off the coach for childish behaviour.

Why was i even going to London, my flat mate S.J had asked the whole of the block for someone to go with her because she needed a visa for camp America from the U.S. Embassy for Summer, but nobody wanted to go because of insufficient funds, she didn't want to go by herself, so the time came to ask me..Ami..while i was out in town one night when i was drunk. I made it perfectly clear before i couldn't go because i was going home that weekend for a friends birthday.

I told her yes i'd be happy to go, little did i know i knew nothing about the conversation we had the night before and she had already booked the tickets the next morning. I remember thinking i had no way out of this situation and that i had to miss my friends birthday party, he was ok with it because i was going to see him the following weekend.

It had already been a long day at uni and the evening came soon to catch the twelve o'clock coach. It was quarter past eleven and we decided to go early to get good seats on our journey. Sitting in my room waiting for a call back from a taxi, little did we know i thought S.J had ordered the taxi and she thought i had. She started to panic, thinking she was going to miss her coach, i couldn't stop laughing at her, she was a picture. In the end we decided to catch black cab from across the hospital, the station was litterly five minutes away, we were early, whhhooooopppppp!

When we arrived at the station we asked the services department about the details when the coach will stop at break off services and he just looked as us as if to say you should know, why you asking me!

As soon as we got on the coach, me and S.J got two seats each and the first thing i did was kick off my boots. The coach was a double decker and the seats were really comfortable, the people however were really annoying, they were so loud. The guys sitting behind us where African and Spanish, they were talking to loud, the whole of the coach could hear there conversation, i remember thinking im not having a six and a half journy listening to them , so i turned around and said can you quiten down please, everybody else on the coach just looked at me and smiled as if to say dame thanks for that, somebody had to tell them to shut up.
The guy infront of us seriously had issues he kept turning back at us and starring, i couldnt stop laughing behind the seat infront me, S.J was like Ami he's scaring me.

S.J spent her time on the coach binge eating, she said she coudn't sleep but neither could i. One of my mates from back home rang me, i hadn't spoken to him in a while so we had a four hour conversation catching up, it was nice. S.J finaly passed out, i think the pasta filled her belly and made her feel sleepy. I glanced over to see if she was ok, she looked like a baby polar bear, her mouth was wide open and she was snoring like a pig, i was like oh my god.

Beginning to get really desperate for the loo, i wasn't going to use the coach toilet, it was the size of a matchstick box, we were near Birmingham, which was like twenty minutes near my hometown. I remember saying to S.J i could easily call one of my mates and get him to take us home. We weren't going to do that but it just seemed to be a good idea to get a proper kip in a big bed and a full English the next morning ready made for us.

Having to pay eighty pence to use the loo at the break off servies was silly, we grabed a hot drink and were back on the coach. The security guard kept coming over to everyone to see if we had our seat bealts on, i was at this point getting peed off, i just wanted to lay down across the two seats but couldn't do that with my seat belt on. Finally after six and a half hours journey in the coach we hit London.

Having no clue where to get tubes, tickets, oyster cards, we finally in London. We were debating whether to get breakfast know or after S.J had sorted her visa for camp America. Walking the streets of London at seven o' clock in the morning trying to find the tube station, we found a smoothie bar on the way instead, we got our five a day portion of fruit to keep us going, what a good start to the day.

At this point, i remember feeling really sleepy, i felt like my brain and body were somewhere else and i was going to pass out. S.J was talking to me about something i was just not paying attention to her, i felt rude but i felt so weak. This was not good, i didn't want to feel like this.

I'm quite good at finding directions on maps, me and S.J didn't know much about the tubes and i just could not make the effort to help her, and trying to find a cash point was such a mission, i needed change to get a travel card for the tubes, having no sleep was taking its toll on me.

We went from.. Victoria.. Notting Hill Gate.. Marble Arch.. on the tubes. It was funny at one point on the tube stands because there were rats and pigeons flying eveywhere, and S.J has a phobia of pigeons, she runs miles and screams when she sees any. Out of knowhere these birds came out and she was so funny, her reactions made me laugh which cheered me up a little.

We got to Oxford Street at around half seven, which gave us plenty of time to get breakfast and a cup of tea before S.J had to go to the U.S. Embassy, her appointment was at half eight. We needed to refreshen ourselves, we both spent about twenty mins in the toilets of the cafe sorting ourselves out. Finally we got food, we had bacon, sausage, mushrooms, toast and beans with a cup of coffee to keep us going.

The time came for S.J to go and i hit Oxford Street to explore the shops. Still feeling a little dizzy, and i realised the shops werent opening till another half an hour, so decided to go window shopping.

Getting annoyed looking at all these fancy outfits and shoes and not being able to buy them i got bored and sat in Starbucks and waited for S.J. She came quickly and at this point we were both feeling the effects of a bad headache and no sleep making us feel weak. We ended up lying on the sofas in Stabucks for about an hour and drinking hot chocolate.

Finally having to push S.J off the sofa we hit Oxford Street together and finally got shopping, i had taken out hundred pound to spend on my day and was excited at this point, the sleepyness in me was finally wearing off.

We found a souvenir shop and i found a really cute pair of boys boxes saying.." I Love London", i had to get a pair, i also bought a keyring of a red phonebox. We also got condom packets with stamps on the latex saying .." I Love London" for some of our flat mates, they were funny.

There was so much expensive stuff i wanted, but being a student and spending my money on nights out i couldn't afford a lot of the stuff i saw and wanted. I did however lose my leather gloves in a shop and couldn't remember where i had put them, i definatley wasnt going to get them back. I did buy some dresses for the summer which i can't wait for, some jewellery for my outfits, casual everyday wear for uni and a pair of heels.

After all that shopping we were both feeling tired, it was about, two o'clock so we decided to have a picnic in Hyde Park. We went to Sainsburys and bought loads of junk and sat in the park enjoying the rest of the time we had in London. The weather was really nice and we lay on the grass enjoying the relaxing atmosphere and chatting.

After about an hour and a half in the park we decided to go back to the coach station. We had to again go on the tubes from.. Marble Arch.. Notting Hill Gate.. Victoria. Trying to look for a HEAT magazine that S.J wanted because she really obsessed with the fact she went to London and had to buy a Heat magazine, so we had to hit the shops and get one while i was taking pictures of London to capture the buildings and sceneries.

Arriving back at the coach station at half four we sat in Costa to pop to the loo once again just before we got back on the next six and a half journey back to Liverpool. We also popped to the shops to get more junk food for our journey incase we felt hungry, all this food was not doing any of us any justice.

We got in the que for the coach at a good time because the people behind were pushing and shoving to get on the coach, it was really busy and i was again not feeling too good. At this time i felt like i was going to throw up, all i needed was a bed and a full 24 hours of sleep.

As i got on the coach me and S.J again got two seats, but the bad thing was the fact that there was no air condition or curtains to block out the sun in the coach and the seats were made from leather which was making matters worse because i was slipping through my seat and the coach was so busy, i was not a very happy person.

The people on the coach were annoying, i just couldn't sleep, they started debating about Nazis, Russians and i was not up for listening to this. The guy started to get really aggressive and only wanted to put his point across with his opinions and he started shouting at the passengers who he was talking to, this was the worse coach journey i had been on. We again stopped in a service break, i needed fresh air and a cold drink, the heat in there was making me feel sticky. Finally getting back on the coach and praying to God that the debate wouldn't carry on, which it did, i felt like telling them to shut up but this was not possible, the guy was so big and he seemed to be scary looking. I didn't want to kick something else off in the coach and make the situation worse.

Arriving in Liverpool reaching about half eleven, it was the biggest relief of my life, we got a taxi back to Prospect Point and finally got into bed with two painkillers down me. It was a good experience for me but i refuse to ever catch a coach while i live.

International Slavery Museum Visit

2009-03-09T06:01:00.000-07:00

Classy pic..just before our visit..!!!

The double date day trip..moi..the normal Wolverhampton superstar..soph the crazy chick from Upholand..matty the dirty minded Welsh gezza and Ellie the Stockport rock babe.!!

" My Life, My Words"

The Museum explores:

how millions of Africans were forced into slavery.

the crucial part that Liverpool played in this process.

how there are permanent consequences for people living in Africa, the Caribbean, North and South America and Western Europe.

"Freedom"

Sections of the museum explores the many legacies of transatlantic slavery.

Racism and Poverty

Transalantic slavery has left a dangerous legacy of racism.

Many African, Carribean and South American countries have faced long-term underdevelopment because of slavery and colonialism.

An unquenchable Spirit

Despite the trauma of transalantic slavery, people of Africa descent have helped shape the society and cultures of the Americas and Europe.

The spirit of enslaved Africas, have lined on through their descendants and achievements.

What does it mean to be Black British, African American, or of African descent in other parts of the world ?

Cultured identity is important to everyone, but can be difficult to define - it is not just about the colour of our skin. It is also about birthplace, our nationhood, our experiences, our history.

Transalantic slavery has shaped the idenity of many people from across the African Diaspora.

Parts of the exhibition highlights the global impact of our changing environment, particularly the effects of global warming and intensive farming on the earth's natural resources.

I was amazed how the feelings and opinions of the world's youth have been captured and communicated through the art of photography, breaking down the language barrier and promoting global awareness.

Picture of a book of the 200 slaves

Picture of The Shrine to the Ancestors

This shrine was commissioned to commemorate the ancestors of those decended from enslaved Africans. Its from and symbols are designed to be inviting to ancestral spirits and were inspired by Africans and their descendants in the Americas. The shrine was created by Olalekan Babalola, a Yoruba Babalowo. ('priest')

Picture of The Hunted Slaves by Richard Ansdella . R . A

After our outing we all decided to hit the pub and grab a munch to eat..it was a really fun day..!!

I learnt a lot..it made me think about the past and how it has changed and how we live in todays society.