Blogging from home!

Yes, I am finally connected to the internet at home so will have more time to blog myself and check yours!!!......and I see there have not been many more posts!

Reflecting on the process and progress of your projects is really essential at this point in the course so I expect to see a lot more posts in the near future.

For those who were absent Monday, on Friday we are going to watch the film 'Baraka' which is the inspiration for Serkhan's project (He will explain more on Friday) but for some pre-viewing information, check out the following links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baraka_(film)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103767/

It should make for some very interesting viewing in terms of visual language and filming technique.

Next Friday we will visit the Anish Kapoor exhibition. I shall book tickets this Friday, so please could you let me know if you will definetly be coming?

And finally, remember that I expect to see you project proposal this Monday at the latest.

Happy blogging in the meantime!!

Damien Hirst & Old Masters by Borna

We went to the Wallace collection to see the latest paintings of Damien Hirst one of the most expensive living artists. I saw his first work which was a small skull in a dark background. Colours were quiet cold and you could see a texture. I said ok it is the first one and I should see the rest of the exhibition to find out a good reason for this painting. I don’t want to say that every art works have to have a reason but I expected a conceptual artist like Hirst probably had a reason for his works. While I was continuing my visit I wondered that what I am seeing is a big joke!


Why he showed these works in this gallery? Why we are speaking about them? Why you see a lot of painting which were painted by old masters exactly after his works?
These are very important questions. I am pretty sure that he just wanted to make fun of us. Perhaps he thought, I am Damien Hirst, I can do everything I want, and so I will make these painting and show them under the same roof with old master. People will come and see, they will try to find a lot of meaning, they will speak about them and I will see the power of my fame. I don’t need to be creative anymore!
Just imagine if these old masters were alive and they could see this exhibition what was their reaction?

There is something in old photos! by Borna

Have you ever wondered that why when you see an old photo you feel there is something mysterious in it? In fact I’m not going to tell you why because I don’t know either and I don’t want to know. What is really clear for me is that I really enjoy this feeling.

Take a look at these two photos. One of them has been taken by my father at 1977 and I have taken another one at 2009 which means 32 years later. How do you feel about them without knowing which one is older? I think you can guess which one is older. Exactly, you are right. I have no doubt that my father’s photo is more impressive than my very ordinary photo.

Actually I believe that people use to pay more attention to the photo that they wanted to take. Because they had limit! They couldn’t take a lot of picture with their camera and see the result at the same time but they made a lot of great photos. What I trying to say is that it seems the technology of digital cameras made us inattentive about details. Nowadays it doesn’t happening too much that we run out of memory to take more pictures.

Could you please next time that you taking a picture think that it’s your last frame?

Continuing my Proposoal~ by Ran

The paper model I made is to repressent the Swiss-Rebuiling. I put an orange inside to show it is 3-Demension.

A piece of artwork we saw on 9/19/09.

The light on the metal reflects differently, like ice, which is very abstract.

This is a part of a window of Tate britain. The light reflections look like brushes with oil colours, very abstract. However, they look very smooth.

The branch of this tree is colourful. It is mixed with brown, dark yellow, green and blue. You can hardly recognize it as a part of branch. It is another good example of abstract image in realistic object.

State the question of the project.

I am interested in "The relationship between

fashion and places" passed on to the reader by photographic view.

To begin with the quoting...

" Beauty is due more to harmonious relationships among the elements

of a composition than

to the elements themselves"

(Matthew Frederick, 2007. 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School)

The Photographer's Gallery and reflective writing.

Hi everyone,

Please see Ran's reflective writing below and my comment as this serves as a good model for what you should be doing. Hope you are all more aware of what projects you are going to be working on and what you research questions/aims might be.

If you can bring some information with you about the photographer's gallery visit for tomorrow, that would be very useful.

Hope you're all well and see you tomorrow

Mark

Ran's Project Proposal-beginning abstract painting from Swiss Re-building

I began my Project Proposal last Saturday. It began from Liverpoor Station, the Swiss Re-building.

What I wanted to try was to put some 3-Dimesion elements, or factors, into my 2-Dimesion paintings, in an abstract way.

The idea comes from the work I made in China, called "Transformation of Martis' Red Studio". First of all, we were given a photocopy of the original artwork of Martis' Red Studio. Second, we rebuilt the red studio as a group work. Next, after we finishing the rebuilding, we painted a picture of our group work in an abstract way. It was a combining between 3-Dimesion and 2-Dimesion in artwork.

Why I choose Swiss Re-building was that I found the reflections of building in the glass of Swiss Rebuilding look different as normal reflections. They look more abstract.

And I compared them with some other normal building. There are hundreds of glass outside of them, but they look different. They are simpler and realistic, without any kind of changing.

This is the beginning of my project proposal. Next, I will cut some pieces of paper to make a mini model of Swiss Re-building, and see if there is any abstract element coming up when I shape it in different ways.

Welcome Pre-Masters Students 2009!

This is our class blog for you to post your reflections.

I would like to see you all post at least once a week here reflecting on ideas and thoughts for your projects. What is going well? What should you change? How will you develop your project etc?

I would also like to see reactions to your Friday visits. What did you gain from them? How have they influenced/inspired you? Or not? What did you not like about them? Remember to be critical!!

You can also use this space to post information to others in the group about exhibitions/galleries we intend to visit.

Hope you enjoy blogging and gain a lot from this experience!!

Good luck! Mark