Inspiration of the Week - Cathy Wilkes

In Cathy Wilkes she creates installations using found objects and also includes some of her own paintings. 

I really like Wilkes work as I think that her pieces create an interesting - and to me quite eerie, unsettling and sinister - atmosphere. Placing these human like figures amongst these objects creates a whole situation and scenario within the space these objects occupy.

What I like most about this work is that the viewer is allowed to impose their own story onto the installation and create a sort of dialogue between the "characters".

Part of what I think makes this piece interesting in particular is the use of the hanging sheets. These are reminiscent of an washing line giving the sense of home life an comfort. The patterns on these sheets also remind me of wallpaper furthering this feeling. 

However even though they give a sense of comfort and protection, it also acts as a barrier, blocking the audience's view on the installation. They seem to be trying to hide what is happening behind them, with what is going on behind them appearing to be somewhat dark and potentially depressing. 

In my work I have used found objects to tell some sort of story or dialogue behind the objects, however I have never really used them to tell a whole separate story. 

In all I like these installations and I like the artists ability to tell a story but not reveal all to the audience but allow them to make it up for themselves with the objects presented.

NB - all photographs here have been taken from this site:

https://www.themoderninstitute.com/artists/cathy-wilkes

I do not own any of the pictures on this post.

Inspiration of the Week - Joseph Cornell

The work that Joseph Cornell does that I am most interested in is his box art assemblages. These are made up of objects like bric a brac, old toys and other obscure objects.

What I like about these assemblages is that because these objects are usually quite old which means that they tell an interesting story.

What I found the most interesting about my project last year was how collections of objects begin to form a narrative and then form a representation of the people that live in these areas.

I also think that this is an interesting method of displayed as instead of being in the outside world and being interacted with, which is what most of the objects would have been designed to be, they are contained and placed within boundaries for people to observe, almost like a museum piece.  

I think that the main influence that these pieces of work will have on my work in future will be how to think differently about how to display and arrange these objects in space.

NB - all photographs here have been taken from this site:

https://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/cornell/

I do not own any of the pictures on this post.

And the consistent blogging begins

So my plan is to update every week from now on, I'm trying to be more organised and consistent throughout all of my social media type accounts to give me at least some sort of online presence. I have started to update my instagram more regularly now and seem to be in a bit of a routine with it now.

Summer has been far more busy than I had anticipated. I've barely had a moment to myself since I started college, and even when I didn't have anything on - I still had to redo my room and gut out three years worth of crap.

However a couple of weeks ago I did help out at a summer school ran by my college. This was an amazing experience and has given me a great boost in my confidence in my abilities. It also helped me to fully establish that this type of work is something that I definitely want to do in the future.

I've also began doing some basic research into what I want to do for fourth year but this hasn't really fully taken off and I've just been doing bits and pieces (although I did buy a lever arch folder and dividers so I feel more prepared). I'm hoping to really get started with this over the next couple of weeks so I have more of a fully flourished idea of what I want to do by the time I start uni.

In terms of practical work I haven't done much, it's really only been a couple of drawings. One of which is a tattoo design I'm thinking about and another was mostly for fun/ am planning on trying out a cyanotype material piece with.

So that's all I have for the past few weeks, 

byyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeee

Róisín -x

Photos from walks

For my exhibition i created a photobook made up of photos from my walks

Here is a link to my flickr album so you can view the photos :)

https://flic.kr/s/aHskB4KXn7

Catalogue Book

So as a part of my exhibition I created a catalogue of all my found objects for people to look through.

Here is a link to my Flickr album for you to look through :)

https://flic.kr/s/aHskDZyUrW

Inspiration of the Week - Mark Dion

I was particularly interested in Mark Dion's work for my final project last year as I was also dealing with collecting and displaying objects, some from the environment. I am planning on following a similar path for my honours years project so I thought I would look a bit further into him.

Mostly I am interested in his sculpture and installation work as this is my art practise and the art that I mostly enjoy.

In his work he works with the ideas of anthropology and science and applies it to a creative and artistic outlet. I find the way he displays these works in a laboratory like environment as I find that this is creative way to get the audience interested in the objects and the works.

In his work he generates interest in environmental topics and the history of the natural world which encourages the viewer to investigate more.

Though I'm not going to steer my work towards the path of looking at environmental issues, I am still going to use Mark Dion as a great creative influence in the terms of display and conceptual ideas.

NB - all photographs here have been taken from this site:

http://www.tanyabonakdargallery.com/artists/mark-dion/series-sculpture-and-installation

I do not own any of the pictures on this post.

The Final Exhibition

I'm now going to update on how my degree show exhibition went (finally).

Well first things first I was super happy with how it turned out, I put a lot of work into planning what I would do then tidying the state that the store cupboard was in, which was soon to be my exhibition space. It was really great to see all that work, stress and pain materialise into something that I could really be proud of and was more than I had planned it to be.

So what was my exhibition? 

For my walks I had decided to go with my marks swap idea and then put the objects I had collected on display which would be the bulk of my exhibition piece. I documented this process through photography which was then displayed in a photobook. Another book I had on display was a catalogue of every object I had collected for the project, including objects from my investigatory and test walks which were stored in a filing cabinet that people could look through also. 

Also on display were all my sketchbooks that I had used for the projects, my laptop showing the photos I had take and videos I had shot, and I also collected smaller things to put into test tubes and petri-dishes to show elements of the environment which the objects were taken from.

I displayed the routes I had taken for my main swap series by pinning embroidery thread onto corkboards in different colours to give the space more movement and add something else for the audience to look at. I also used this to give the piece more of a feel that this project was an investigation.

Using the windows as a whiteboard, I also drew on some of my routes and illustrated where I found some of the items and other important parts of the landscape.

The audience were also able to view large prints from some of my walks on the wall and also smaller photos on display on the shelf in the cupboard. 

Here's a link to the flickr album in which all photos from this exhibition can be found :)

https://flic.kr/s/aHskB47Ah5

I couldn't be happier with how my degree show went and my grade also reflected the work that I had put into this project. I hope to continue with this theme next year for my honours project and I hope next year is just as successful, 

so until next time,

byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeee

Róisín -x

Its been a while...

So I sort of abandoned this around Easter time I think because college work was piling on and I had to sort out my priorities and unfortunately I had to put this blog aside. However I am planning on updating this at least throughout my honours year and maybe even further.

Over the next few weeks I'm going to post updates on how my final exhibition turned out and what I'm currently working on for y next year. I'm also going to continue with my artist research that i started for my final project so stay tuned for that.

So I will see you around this was just a quick update to get me back on track :)

byyyyyyyyyyyye

Róisín --x