Well haven't I been rubbish...

WELL HELLO STRANGERS!

SORRY that I have been so RIDICULOUSLY rubbish, the last few months have flown by and i'm not going to lie...this wee little blog of mine went completely out of my mind.
SO...the other day I was sat around thinking, I MUST turn over a new leaf!

MY AIM: Blog away every day, no matter what it is. Every single day, (holidays obvs being a reason not to blog for a couple of days!) thoughts, ideas, processes, general jibber jabber.

But for now, I will give you all a quick recap of the process I have made recently and where my work and practice is at right now.

HERE WE GO...

Over the past few months I have taken part in a curated exhibition, experimented with photography, printmaking, stitching and collage.

NEXUS DEBUT EXHIBITION

The Curated show was a fantastic opportunity to learn about putting on shows and working as a team with others. Overall there was 7 of us in our group, it consisted of Emily Long, Tara Wynne, Olivia Lennon, Steph Carr, Laura Twigg and Rosanna Ling. We initially created our group as a lot of our work has links, some not as obvious as others but there was definitely links within our work. We all knew each other quite well and thought we would make a good team. We initially all had individual roles to be the head of, we wanted to ensure that everything was under control and the entire show was organised. Although we all had individual roles, a lot of the time we all chipped in as to make things get completed quicker and to ensure that no-one was struggling or left  to do everything on their own. The roles which we were allocated at the beginning were;
Co-ordinator: Laura Wilkes
Advertising: Steph Carr and Olivia Lennon
Budgeting: Tara Wynne
Catalogue: Laura Wilkes and Emily Long
Guestlist: Rosanna Ling and Laura Wilkes
Proposal: Laura Twigg and Rosanna Ling
Curator: Rosie, every member of the group to chip in also.
Health and Safety: Laura Twigg
Transmission Announcement: Laura Wilkes and Tara Wynne
Symposium: Laura Twigg and Tara Wynne
As I said, a lot of the time we all chipped in on each section as it made things a lot easier. When it came to curating the exhibition we all helped ensure that things looked right, as Rosie had the final say on the curation, some of the work did not get displayed how the artists wanted it displayed. That is what happened in my case, I had two pieces to display in two seperate rooms, I had a vague idea on where I wanted my work to be shown. I expressed my wish for this but unfortunately the curator decided against these ideas. My work got displayed in the hall and on a spare wall in the room by it. Originally my work was meant to be displayed above the fire place in one room and again in the other room opposite the fireplace. This would have definitely made my work look a lot better and be understood by the audience a lot better, however, I compromised in order to avoid upset within the group. Other than this the opening of the exhibition ran incredibly smoothly and it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

WORKSHOPS 2ND SEMESTER

This semester I opted for the Photography workshop, this consisted of 3 sessions altogether. The first of the sessions was based within the studio, we focused on using the lighting within the room, macro lens photography and also ‘Painting with light. We all participated together initially, we learnt how to use studio lighting and how different lights can interfere or change the outcome of the image. This I found particularly interesting as I love photography, I love learning anything I can about it as I believe the more I know, the more I can use it to my advantage within my practice. For this first session we then went on to split into two groups, one that concentrated on marco photography and learning how to take fantastic close up images. The other group, which I attended was about learning to paint with light. As there was only one tutor, a lot of the session was us as a group left to our own devices to play around and experiment until we found what worked best for us. Overall we were in a group of 6 and we had some fantastic outcomes, we used film and digital photography to see what kind of difference it made. Overall, I learnt a lot about painting with light and how light can affect images in different ways.
The second and third sessions were about teaching us to develop our black and white films and then printing them using the enlargers which we have in the dark room within university. I was lucky enough to have already had a one to one tutorial with Ken Grint on this so I did not need the help here. I had a lot of my own practice to continue with so I did not attend, however, I feel this was acceptable as to not waste Kens time as I already knew what I was doing. This workshop was very successful and I have definitely gained more knowledge and skills on photography.

MY COLLAGES

My interpretation of identity is initially caught upon the camera. Using film to create a unique look, I captured my surroundings to represent the eye of an individual removed from the image and also in one particular picture an individual. I wanted to reflect an absence of the individual, addressing individual interaction with space through choices of colour and composition. I attempted meticulous editing to ensure that I create a new identity through my manipulation of the 2D image. I wanted to make the image from a distance look 3D but in reality be as flat as possible. I  strived to combine traditional and contemporary mediums, the subject of the portrait is re-earthed capturing a contemporary take upon absence.

 

FABRIC SCREEN PRINTSandSTITCHING

Here I tried to capture the removal of an identity. I wanted to portray this in a more daring way, I used a mixture of the mediums of photography, collage and embroidery to capture this. Screen printing 6 portraits onto calico, I then used my own photography to block out parts of the individuals faces. I decided to do this as I wanted to put emphasis the anonymity, by blocking out their faces you can no longer perceive their emotions or capture anything about their identity. It is left to the imagination of the viewer to perceive the identity of the figure in the work. I decided to incorporate embroidery into my work to put an ironic twist on this removal. Embroidery can be perceived as permanent or temporary and this is what I want to represent the removal of the identity, in this case is it permanent? I used several portraits to embrace the ‘frenzy’ or ‘obsession’ that was suggested in my last piece of work, I also decided the pattern of the embroidery suggested this ‘frenzy’ also.

DIGITAL COLLAGE

After collaging using material, paper and photography I wanted to further my practice and develop my collages into something more technical to see if the same interpretation could be read. I used a series of images that I took on my Pentax ME Super with a 35mm film and layered them on top of each other creating a challenging abstract piece. Changing the opacity on each image gave me the opportunity to incorporate more figures and mixing structures together. Yet again, mixing the contemporary with the traditional, I have attempted to create an enticing abstract image hoping to represent the removal of an individual. I still incorporated repetition to ensure that there was still a link within my practice, I also used my original photography as I felt it carried a form of nostalgia.

SOOO...as you can all see its been a bit of a hectic few months! Such a long post hey? I will write again tomorrow, give you guys a bit of a break!

Tomorrow I will be talking ideas, processes and where abouts im off to photograph!

Laters x