Our Collective- Composition

In 2D we explored composition in our collective groups. My group have chosen Metal as our theme, so with our metal objects and frotage rubbing we'd made of the objects we composed a composition, taking into consideration the formal elements.

Our group composition.

Here's an explanation of our composition:

-Eyes are drawn around the page.

-The zipper acts as a corridor for the eyes.

-All the metal objects makes it have an industrialised feel.

-The objects are arranged into these groups:

-> Line (zipper, bullets etc.)

-> Spherical (coins, keys and bottle tops)

-> Other (range of different shap for both line and spherical)

-The composition is sectioned to show understanding of the different objects.

-Light negative space (background) makes the darker positive space (foreground- the image) stand out.

-The objects are intertwined with the images of the objects to give a layered texture. This interlocking gives a natural flow to the composition.

Megan Chilcott

Collective Artists

Today in 2D we explored Artists who had made or displayed their work in the form of a collection.

Rachel Whitread

-Works with negative space

-Plans in 2D and turns it into 3D eg Whitereads House Project that won the Turner Prize in 1993.

-"What is inside becomes outside."

-Rachel Whitereads collection of boxes.

-Organised space of negative and positive.

-Made by casting the negative space (inside) of a personally sentimental cardboard box.

-Whiteread uses warm and vivid colours to make the work more personal and humble.

-Collection of objects organised into groups.

-In a vitrine (behind glass)

-She organised similar shaped and sized objects together.

-Whiteread's collection of organised and present objects.

Mister Finch

-Textile artist

-Fake birds placed on a dirty floor (consideration of the background he wanted) which gives the feel of unwantedness.

-The texture Mister Finch has created a distressed and aged feel which compliments the unwantedness he's trying to convey.

Max Ernst

L'évadé (escape), 1926

-Experiments with lots of materials to explore texture and Natural History.

-Nature History- communicating with nature.

-Imagination played a great role in Ernst's work.

-'The Nature Feeling' the feeling of being both outside and inside, both free and imprisoned.

-Used the technique of rubbing- Frotage.

Hannah Hoch

-Collage collectives about politics.

-Post war artist passionate about women's role post war.

-Hoch uses converging, wandering lines, this makes the eye flow around the collage and catch in important area which shows her view on politics.

Leonardo Da Vinci

-15th Century.

-Made thousands of drawing which are inventions.

-Collections of 2D drawing illustrating 3D inventions.

-Da Vinci uses graduated tone which builds the idea of a 3D object.

Marcel Duchamp

-Suitcase with the ability to be opened and explored.

-Documenting his life in miniature objects.

-Duchamp uses a very warming, classic shape to his display box, this gives the feeling of love and life.

Andy Warhol 

-Collection of bought glass eyes.

-He displayed them in a velvet box in his home for private viewing.

Megan Chilcott

The Collective- Proposal

To link with our theme of metal, together as a collective we have created a series of boxes, each having a different shape, size and pattern to hold various different types of metal objects. These boxes use shape and form with them having their various geometric and angular shapes, this gives an industrialised feel to our collective, we used this because heavy industrial machines are made predominantly of metal and contain gears, screws and pop rivets which links well with our theme.

To contrast the heavy grid boxes based on thick metal machinery, in the negative space we'll be using the fluid line and reflective sheen of flowing and light metallic jewellery. This gives the boxes a softer layer making our collective look less bold and harsh.

Finally, by using metallic paints it gives the feel of boxes constructed using metal. The paint creates a distressed texture of scratches and rust which visually communicates a feeling of being stripped away being left exposed.

Megan Chilcott.

My initial sketch of my box and the metallic bronze paint I will be using.

The Story of HMS Hopeless. The Cardboard City Project

For the Cardboard City Project we first got into a group of five, My group consisted of Holly Barrett, Grace Crawford, Mimi Hayles, Caleb Toms and myself. To begin the project we split the group in two to get inspiration of the City of Plymouth from different perspectives. Holly, Grace and myself went to the top of Regent Street Carpark where as Mimi and Caleb went to Plymouth Hoe.

From the Carpark the three of us could see a lot of architecture and nature:

(I used a panoramic image to illustrate the amount of diversity we could see) 

From here we created sketches of what we could see:

I choose a church steeple, an architecturally unique rooftop and the diagonal panels on Drake Circus.

When we joined again as a group Mimi and Caled mentioned that they'd seen boats which inspired them, so we mixed together all of our ideas and produced a cardboard model: 

It turned out being a boat, church, rooftop hybrid that we were all very happy with but in reflection it may have been a bit optimistic.

The next day we began building our model...

...and with a few minor tweeks we were ready throw as much parcel and masking tape at as much cardboard we could get our hands on to make this hybrid stewed from our imaginations a reality...but by the end of a day of pure hard graft, this was the outcome...

It'd completely sunk in on itself and seemed pretty unsalvageable, ironically similar to the Titanic. 

So despite the previous disaster we scraped the ruins from the floor and soldiered on and with some major tweeks of scrapping the hybrid and purely making a cardboard boat a miracle happened and in just 3 hours a new and improved uniquely painted model arose from the ashes named...HMS Hopeless. Because although we'd achieve the impossible we had little hope of our little Hopeless surviving for much longer.

 

We were right.

Megan Chilcott

Who Are You?- Peer Assessment (Contextual Studies)

For this task we needed to get two people's Who Are You? work and critique them using visual language.

Grace Crawford

Grace's self portrait is visually communicating to me that she enjoys travel. She's shown this by adding the map like sharp waving lines to her pop art style portrait. The tone is very vibrant and atmospheric which reflects her joyous personality.

Holly Barrett

Holly's self portrait is visually communicating to me that she wants to show herself stripped back and pure. She has achieved this by using small faint scratch like lines and soft layered tone to build up and show depth.

Megan Chilcott

The Start- Peer Assessment

After finishing our first project 'The Start' we layed out our 2D and 3D pieces we'd created in the weeks we had been given and they were peer assessed by students from the Creative Media course.

Here are a few:-

From these comments, I have taken that people think my work is abstract, they seem to enjoy use of colour and some understand the message of capturing youth. Although other people are confused about the message and believe that the use of colour is a bit trippy.

This shows me that I need to think more about what I'm trying to convey and perhaps try and make the message a bit clearer.

Aside from that I'm very happy with my peer assessment and I believe that it was helpful in improving my work.

Megan Chilcott

Contextual Studies- 25.11.15 Installing and promoting work

Contextual Studies- 25.11.15
Installing and promoting work

Fauvism (1905-1910)
Derain- Chateau Yvelines (1880) Colour is the subject matter. He doesn't represent the colours that are actually there, eg, trees are red, the sky is yellow. This was the beginning or expression and it was revolutionary. Traditionally blue is shadow, it's used for cold and cool area, yellow is traditionally used for highlights. The paintings colour proportion is around 60% warm colours and 40% cool colours.

Maurice de Vlaminck- The Orchard (1905)
Very expressive, the paint is packed on top of each other, he places colour all over the place making optical illusions.

Henri Matisse- The Red Studio (1911)
Matisse decided he would use depth at all and wanted to just show what was in the studio. He scratched in the objects and subtly changed the red throughout the red studio which is difficult to see with the naked eye but gives the painting depth it wouldn't otherwise have.

Chris Ofili
Uses colour beautifully, he uses classic opposite complimentary colours (red and green). Red is being used as space and it indicated the air between the green leaves which creates calmness. Ofili is British with an African heritage and is know to use elephant dung in his work.
In a separate image elephant dung is uses as objects in his work, he uses it also to build texture. He uses very thin layers of paint as well as collage, he would often use collage faces and he'd brush the thin paint over the top. He uses a cut and paste technique and is somewhat influenced by pop culture. He wanted to bring two things together that wouldn't naturally go together. He won the Turner Prize in 1998 for a paining called No Woman No Cry about Stephen Lawrence's mother, Stephen Lawrence was a black teenager who was murdered at a bus stop by white teenagers but the police did not take it seriously because of his race. The painting shows a mothers pain in a horrendous situation. Ofili wanted to respond to the horribleness in the world. "There's no such thing as a bad idea, only poor execution"- Chris Ofili

Jessica Stockholder
Stockholder creates work that look like paintings but are actually installations in big spaces. This means that people can walk around her art in an open space. Abstract shape is used in the form of plastic, sheets and random object such as bins.
'Colour Jam' is a piece of art Stockholder created where the outside world is her canvas, buildings and pavements. It took around 8 months for the work to finally be completed. She used very saturated colour (where the colour is the most pure and intense as possible).
--------------------------------
Today we learnt about...
•Colour Proportion
•Saturated Colour (Chromatic Colour- how you understand colour, black to white)
•Opposite Complimentary Colour

Megan Chilcott

Contextual Studies

Contextual Studies

Monet 1872.
Impressionist, picture of the Thames. Tube of paints had just been created- revolutionary. Monet tried to capture light- he did this using texture which was very new. Critics reviewed the work as horrific, terrible, laughable and patchy. 100 years later Impressionism is ingrained in our society.

Hugo Boss Nazi Uniform 1933.
Hugo Boss felt as though the The Nazis rally's and togetherness was inspiring and fantastic. Boss used the uniforms to draw people in. Hugo Boss used forced labor to create these Uniforms in 1933. When asked about it Boss said it was his artist impression of Nazism.

North Korea ready to defend themselves against the US October 2015.
Falsified propaganda of Korean soldiers coming together to defend themselves- made via video techniques and Photoshopping. Military green and scarlet red outfits represent the colours of Korea- shows support and propaganda. Shows influence.

Bob and Roberta Smith- Letter to Michael Gove July 2011.
Complaining about the schooling system in England. Decided he would campaign against Gove in the election- he wanted to engage with people. -"All Schools should be Art Schools"

Alexander McQueen's show 2001
Memorable show. Kate Moss and Erin O'Connor were models. Many mirrors to show confusion in a big clear box. Lights went low and box revealed McQueen's human impression of a butterfly. Where art and fashion meet. Experimental and theatrical outfits- innovative clothes that show stories about his show.

Megan Chilcott

Contextual Studies

Contextual Studies

-Gustav Holst: The Planets.
Mars, the Bringer of War...Song used in movies to show impending war. In response to WW2 due to all the countries fighting and arguing with each other.

-Saving Private Ryan- Steven Spielberg Omaha Beach Scene.
From boat to the beach. Suspense is used to show anticipation of the soldiers in the boat about to battle. WW1- the first time war happened with automatic weapons which was a shock to soldiers. Machinery enthusiasts joined to war because they were amazed by the modern weaponry, they were all killed due to the massacre created by these weapons.

-Malevich: Black Square (1915)
Created a series of black squares to show... . One of the very first abstract pieces ever created. 'Suprematism'. Malevich felt squares were a very pure form, he used them to show his spirituality.

-El Lissitzky: Beat the White and the Red Wedge (1919)
Ambitions was for the workers and the rulers to be in the same plain. They wanted to take only pure shapes such as, triangles, circles and rectangles. Used a lot of red because Russia is related well by red. The wedge is pushing through the circle to show the joining of opposites, workers and leaders.

-Vladimir Tatlin: Monument to the Third International' (The Tower- 1920)
He used industrial materials to show respect for the workers. It's about the building of society and fight against communism.

-Metropolis: By Fritz Lang (1927)
Very early film making, started making it in 1925 and it was finished by 1927. Shows how the workers and the other classes try to merge in society. The architecture in the film is huge in comparison to the workers, this gives the feeling of their worthlessness. The workers are very down, their life seems very mundane and repetitive. Where as in comparison the upper classes have no care in the world and are living in luxury. Cinematically the workers are in very low and dull lighting, This shows their mood and lifestyle, similarly the light lighting used in scenes with the upper class shows their happiness and luxury, this shows the divide between their classes and the non existent relationship that they have.

-Alexander Calder.
Calder changed sculptures, he made sculptures that move around us rather than us moving around the sculpture, the mobile like objects are weighed individually to allow the objects to move around.

Megan Chilcott