Contextual Studies 27.01.16

Contextual Studies- 27.01.16

George Rouault- "Christ on the Cross" 1936

Print- not a painting, around A4 size. It's what we associate Christ as in Europe. 

The bright primary colours and bold, thick black lines making the painting look almost childlike, although Rouault's use of tone on Christ creates a depth that the other people don't have giving him a feeling of righteousness and rising above everyone else.

Holocaust Remembrance Day

During the war people in Germany, Poland etc were being segregated because of their race, religious beliefs etc.

To destroy the evidence of what had happened in the concentration camps the Nazi's sealed carriages with these segregated people inside, people who had survived the horrors of concentration camps were being left to suffocate in a cramped train carriage.

Photography by Mohammad Domiri

Inside of a mosque in Iran. The mosque is very symmetrical and geometric, it's all about a spiritual garden. The points represent the different figures in Islamic culture and religion. Pray towards the East 'Mecca'. Visually this piece is very appealing, the colours and vivid and geometric making them seem rich in culture and history.

Black Madonna of Poland

Very old painting. It's survived the war, it has been stolen, broken, repaired. It is a very strong, timeless image. The 'Black Madonna' looks very powerful and seems to emit a monarchy type of strength. I believe that it's survival through all the things it has been through adds to the power of the portrait

Madonna "Like a Prayer" 1989

Challenging the conventions of European Christian imagery. Jesus is represented by a black man in Like a Prayer, which challenges the traditional image and brings up the relevance of racial tension and oppression in life today.

Orozco "Modern Migration of the Spirit"

Christ breaking himself off the cross. The warm colours contrasting against the cold background shows the energy of christ breaking through, the use of red shows his rebellion which is powerful as it visually communicates a god like strength.

Megan Chilcott

The Future - Briefs - 10.02.16

Regen SW
This brief is about considering an aspect of sustainability and presenting it in a way that engages and informs the audience about renewable and sustainable energy. The piece we create needs to be submitted in a 2D format and needs to be able to gain the publics interest as it has been proven that the aspect holding the country back from becoming predominantly powered by renewable energy is peoples doubts. The artwork needs to be able to change peoples opinions. If a piece is picked it will be presented on an advertisement billboard to the side of a bus shelter and the artist will receive £250.

Marine Wildlife Champions
This brief is about choosing one of 5 major threats that are currently an issue for marine life in Devon and interpret it in any artistic format that we want, this could be from clothing made from eco-friendly materials to sculptures and posters. The chosen work will be presented at this years Marine Champions at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth on June 14th 2016.

What brief i've chosen and why:-
I've chosen the Regen SW brief. I believe that i can make an engaging and informative piece that if displayed will interest the public and promote the use of renewable and sustainable energy.

Initial Ideas Spider Diagram

Film Friday- Banksy

Banksy- Exit Through the Gift Shop

Banksy is inspired by the world. He takes current political, economical and cultural issues and presents them in a satirical form with his unique art work. He challenges normality by pointing out the things wrong with humanity and he disorts our vision of how we perceive the world to show us the problems that are right in front of us, almost giving us new eyes to view the world from.

In my opinion Banksy is exceptionally unique, from hidden identity to his artwork he has formed a message that can't be recreated. Although during the documentary Banksy talks about Andy Warhol and how he "made a statement by repeating famous icons until they became meaningless" and I think that there is an element of that which Banksy channels, he has repeated his graffiti style work illegally hundreds of times until now when they have become respected as artwork, the word illegal is now meaningless when discussing Banksy. Banksy visually communicates this by being an oxymoron, The whole idea of street art is to brainwash, place something in front of someone enough times and their brain will be washed with the image and message that is repeatedly around them. Banksy is repetitive in his signature graffiti style for that reason of brainwashing and his work all has a common message of taking current issues and altering our perception but he also is the opposite to that, he is individually exclusive, he dares to confront different issues and different mediums such as sculpture and living things such as the 'Elephant in the Room' at his art exhibition in Los Angeles.

Banksy is a mainstream artist, he's extremely popular as one of the main modern day artists of the now generation. He's cutting edge with his topical messages that he presents us with, such as gay rights with his work 'Kissing Coppers',  terrorism with his Disneyland Guantanamo Bay display and Slavery with his impactful work of 'Bunting Boy'. He steps out of the box and created something that only he could think of, Banksy's 'Kissing Coppers' which he created as a "symbol of local pride" is innovative and powerful, shocking and meaningful all at the same time. 

During filming for Exit Through the Gift Shop we see Banksy place a figure dressed in prison uniform in Disneyland, this work was to "highlight the plight of terror suspects" in Guantanamo Bay. This is a clear representation of how Banksy chooses to challenge establishments such as law enforcement. 

He also goes for more broad subjects like in his exhibition in America 'Barely Legal' he camouflaged an elephant with 12 liters of children's face paint in a statement of how easy it is to ignore things that are right in front of us. 

This is almost a summary of the reason why Banksy's other work important, his art has the ability to show us the things that are right in front of us, he makes it in such a way that people are incapsulated by the issues that are important in today's world.

Megan Chilcott

Artist Statement- The Square

Megan Chilcott 

In 2D I have chosen one of my paint life drawings as my final piece. I was inspired by Picasso because he is a cubist and uses very bold lines and saturated colour.

In 3D my final piece is my frame based on the human form. I decided to make it a little bit personal as I enjoy doing prosthetic make up which inspired me to make the sections of skin frame.

In Time Based I took pictures using LED lighting of the human body. I chose and edited my two pictures that were the strongest in form and tonally.

The Square- Life Drawing

In 2D we learnt about how to express the human forms using different techniques. 

Week 1 we used charcoal, we began doing various continuous line drawings. This gave us the ability to make it abstract, details didn't matter with a continuous line as it communicates freedom.

The context of which the image is in is important as well, it leads to a more complex composition and gives more meaning to the work.

Week 2 we used both charcoal and chalk, this gave us shadows and highlights making the model look more 3D. This visually communicates the realism of the subject matter and gives it more depth than just the charcoal.

We also learnt about foreshortening, foreshortening is making a realistic scale. The nearer the body part, the bigger it is on paper. This proportioned shape and form visually communicates a more organic image.

In week 3 we began to use colour, we primarily used saturated primary colours which made the pictures look very abstract against the bold black lines, this visually communicates contrasting emotions.

The final picture is a movement picture, as the model moved we had the challenge of painting him. This lead to a very abstract piece of work with various anglular, converging and scratched lines visually communicating an erratic movement and emotion.

Megan Chilcott