A colour image I took in Bristol.

A Trip to Bristol

A trip to Bristol

24/10/13

We set off in our coach around 9am and arrived not far from the Arnolfini Gallery close to 11am, this was the first gallery we visited. As I walked into the building I wasn’t sure what to expect or what kind of gallery it was. The first room I entered was almost completely bare, an exhibition by Michael Dean called “The Introduction of Muscle”, in this room there were around four items all together. Dean’s work contained mainly sculpture and photography. The sculptures were all textured in different ways and we were encouraged to touch the surfaces. I did not really engage with this work as for me it displayed no inner meaning or emotions it was purely there to feel.

The second exhibition in the Arnolfini Gallery was by Mierle Laderman Ukeles and was called “Maintenance Art Works 1969 – 1980”. Filling about three large rooms was a number of series of images exploring day-to-day chores and tasks of life in 1969-1980. In my honest opinion, although I found these images vastly more interesting in comparison with Dean’s exhibition I still felt that some of the images were slightly disconnected to what the photographer set out to do. For example there was a series of images of her digging and burying two jars of dirt from different places, this just seemed a slightly odd thing to do and compared with other images seemed out of place.

As a group we then walked along the river to Spike Island Gallery where they were displaying the “New Contemporaries” exhibition. On entering the gallery we were greeted by a woman who worked there who talked us through most of the pieces. The exhibition had a mishmash of pieces that ranged from paintings, photography, installations and film. Obviously certain pieces attracted my attention more compared to others such as a series of almost installation pieces rather than images by Catherine Hughes entitled “Into the Fold” where around three images were put into frames
with fluorescent lights inside them, the subject matter of the images were all different, portrait, landscape etc, however the images were not put into the frames in pristine condition Hughes had crumpled them up into different areas
of the frame. One frame was even on the floor I think to enhance the idea that images do not have to be these precious things that have to be well looked after.

At around one in the afternoon I went to the M-Shed Gallery to see the Taylor Wessing Prize exhibition. This exhibition I found interesting as it displayed a variety of portraits. We then went into the Architecture Centre that was displaying work by Peter Bobby. This exhibition was very small and areas I found tedious as Bobby showed images of small sections of building surrounded by a large amount of black space, the small section of building did not show enough detail to attract me to the images as the small amount of detail that was shown was too subtle.

(The images shown above are taken from inside the different exhibitions by a number of different artists/photographers)

I found Catherine Hughes work most memerable and found the idea that an image isn’t something precious and can still look effective even if it has been crumpled up or even ripped. Keeping this idea in mind I made my own personal response to this idea which involved printing out one of my images twice, cutting them into slices both vertically and horizontally and then weaving them together. My aim was not to recreate the image perfectly, I wanted the image of the sculptures face to seem distorted in areas but not completely unrecognisable and still look effective.

Sitting in the cafe

When sitting in a cafe in Swansea metropolitan university this reflection really interested me as it takes away the persons identity and the two almost emerge as one. (Poor quality image as I took the image using my iPhone).

Shadow Catchers – Susan Derges

I found this online video explaining Susan Derges’ work very intriguing and hope to one day experiment with this process in my own work at some point.

This video can be seen on the V&A website:

http://www.vam.ac.uk/channel/people/photography/shadow_catchers_camera-less_photography_susan_derges/

(The screenshot above is taken from the V&A website:http://www.vam.ac.uk/channel/people/photography/shadow_catchers_camera-less_photography_susan_derges/ )

A Gallery trip to Cardiff

On September 26^th 2013 I attended a trip to Cardiff with my university course “Photography in the Arts”. This trip was to attend exhibitions and to ensure that we were all aware where the galleries were.

Starting our trip at nine in the morning our first stop was at the Turner House Gallery (Ffotogallery). Here we were able to see workings by Indre Serpytyte and her display of images where she looks at the impact of the Soviet occupation from 1944, the country itself along with her own family. On the bottom floor of the Gallery we were surrounded by large scale images of still life objects, these images were based around Serpytyte’s own father who died in a “car accident” in 2001. When I found out these images were about the photographer’s father, to me the way the images and objects in the images seemed to have a coldness about them as it was usually a solo item set in a dark background. Although it appeared Serpytye was trying to make these items seem of importance, for me there was a lack of emotion and warmth I think that the viewer would expect to see some evidence of when working with such a sensitive subject.

The upstairs section of the exhibition seemed almost disconnected completely to the downstairs, as although they were still life images the subject matter had completely changed to, what looked like small wooden doll houses. However, on further exploration found that the photographer had had these houses and buildings especially made to represent to secret prisons in Lithuania where interrogations and torture took place. The images were set on a grey backdrop and although there was an element of sadness while looking at the many buildings I felt that the severity of these buildings went amiss to the viewer as the idea that people had been tortured and killed in these buildings at one time was not evident in the images and therefore did not create a tense atmosphere like the viewer would expect, possibly because we were not looking at the real buildings themselves.

The next stop on our trip was to Cardiff Bay where we began at the Millennium Centre. Here there was an exhibition entitled “Graduate 2013”, there was a range of work here of photography and fine art by a number of people. There were some photographic techniques I found very interesting such as taking away areas of the images by poking holes through it and then having light behind it, this turned out a very interesting quality particularly in these specific pieces which gives the impression of being about identity as the people have been cancelled out. There were a number of pieces that caught my eye due to the techniques used such as an old fashioned technique of cutting out parts of images and sticking them to others to create a completely new image.

I then visited the Third Floor Gallery to an exhibition by Gareth Philips. These images I found very interesting as Philips plays with the idea of taking reality and turning it into the surreal using organic substances. His images were mainly large scaled, some filled the entire wall. On entering the exhibition the viewer was very aware of the tense mood shift entering the dark room created. Many of the pieces gave the impression of being symmetrical and even having faces and body-like elements which almost entered his images into being fantasy-like. Although this was quite a small exhibition, for me it had a big impact and left his ideas and images with me.

Down the street from the Third Floor Gallery we came to the Bay Art Gallery which displayed work by Lucy Tomlins. The main work that stood out to me here was the images and installation pieces based around food. Particularly the images mounted to the walls on light boxes, as the viewer these in particular caught my attention simply because at first I looked at them and thought there was nothing wrong. It was only on closer examination did I begin to realise that elements of the food were uncooked or fake etc. To me, as the viewer, the images had a much stronger effect than the installations as with the installations you can almost immediately tell they are fake or that something is wrong with them.

One of the last stops of the day was to the National Museum of Cardiff. Here I was able to enjoy looking at a variety of different paintings and sculptures from artists such as Monet and Lipchitz however; one of the main areas in this museum I particularly enjoyed seeing was the natural earth section, seeing the fossils and different types of mineral stones. This is something I have been interested in seeing since I was very young.

Unfortunately I ran out of time and missed going to see the G39 Gallery. However, I felt the day was overall very interesting and now know where some of the smaller galleries in Cardiff are hiding.

(All images shown above are photographs of each photographers work from each gallery)

“Happy Yingmei” review

“Happy Yingmei” by Yingmei Duan review

Elysium Gallery, Swansea.

Before entering Duan’s performance piece I was met by the haunting sounds of forestry and ghostly singing, already I was set on edge and felt uneasy, unsure what exactly to expect on entering the odd shaped door. When entering into the fairly small room these feelings intensified by the sight that met me, as we stood there transported from a Swansea gallery into a nightmarish forest space surrounded by dead leaves and trees.

Myself and four others gathered into the furthest corner of the room and watched as this female figure emerged from the corner singing the eerie song heard from outside of the room. She approached the group giving the impression of being confused, scratching her head, her face looking bewildered. By this time Duan had managed to create a truly uncomfortable sense of atmosphere and tension, which was then emphasised by how close her face came to ours, being merely inches away. This made me feel particularly uncomfortable and, like being in a nightmare, wanted it to end.

Duan searching her pockets the whole time emerges with a first note which she very carefully hands to a member of the group and urges him to carry out her wish. Duan then stood there as that person introduced himself to the person next to him reading from the note. I found the surroundings, forest noises and the otherworldly singing very distracting and could not fully concentrate on what the group members and Duan were talking about, which I think puts emphasis on Duan’s Dreamscape as a person can never really recall everything that happens in their dreams/nightmares.

Duan then turned her attention to me, again searching through her pockets her face coming exceedingly close to mine. On finding the next note she, again, handing to me with great care and waited for me to open it. The note revealed a small drawing with the inscription “The foolish old man removes mountain – Chinese fairy tale” Duan then proceeded to tell this fairy tale in great length, however, again I found it hard to concentrate as I was out of my comfort zone having someone stand so close to me.

Towards the end, however, a sense of reality began to fall back into the room as Duan began talking about her work and why she became a performance artist working in china and Germany; it was strange to see such a committed performer break character especially as she managed to hold such a tense and nerve-racking atmosphere within the entire room.

Overall, I found this performance piece to be a rollercoaster ride of emotions, mainly tense ones. Duan manages to make her viewers feel completely out of their comfort zones using the environment she creates and puts them in along with how she interacts with the audience themselves. When reading about this piece I became slightly confused as it said Duan was “exploring ideas about communication and love” and am unsure how love presented itself in this particular performance.

[The images above were taken from the Elysium Gallery website: http://www.elysiumgallery.com/)

In response to this performance piece I created an image inspired by how I experienced it. As I thought the piece was very nightmare-like in the way Duan entered personal space, the surroundings and how she gave the impression of appearing out of nowhere I wanted to create an image based around what happens in darkness and how we experience strangers.