Lecture 5, Steve Lovett

In today’s lecter, we had our local tutor who also an archival artist, Steve Lovett. Most of his work is about communication, focused on people and catalog. He also concerned with time, transition and loss. Steve’s earlier work was done by paint or ink. But lately, he was interested in printed images and moving images. He captured from a vedeo and interested in revers images. Much of his work is printed. He said ‘Printed images are nomadic by nature’.

What is the meaning of archive? An archive is a collection of the past records which have been selected for long-term preservation. The archives are different from books. Generally there are almost unique and no identical copies exist and sale. The archives may include photos, films, diaries, papers ect. Also can be your favorite hairclip, your first baby shoes or the old clothes from the past, due to the enduring value for you.

I can see there is an archive in Steve’s work. Much of his work are about people and catalog. Every pieces of the work he made has a story behind. As the work ‘Holding the Man’ ,made in 1995, was about the ‘growing wight of HIV infection in years before protease inhibitors’ and also the pressure and depress.

I think there is always a sense of autobiography in an artist or designer’s work. The reason is although the artist or designer make work for someone, they will put their sensation into the work. For example, they maybe will put in their favourite colors ,signs or objects. If you are a photographer, you will take more photos of the objects you like because you like it. So although the work is not about themselves, they still will put their feelings into the work.

How do I feel about making work that might be seen as autobiographical? Well, if I want to make work as my autobiography, I wouldn’t make the work directly to the point. As what Steve said, ‘it’s about image carrying information not more to a commodity, high value thing’. So I will use a metaphor to make the viewers think.

Lecture4, Deborah Crowe

Deborah Crowe described herself as a ‘practitioner’ rather than as an ‘artist’. Then what are the difference between a practitioner and an artist? If I claim myself as an ‘artist’, normally people will think I am a painter. An artist of painting. For example, other people know Im very good at photography then I will be known as an ‘artist’ of photography. So ‘artist’ is working in a defined area of practice. Why Crowe claimed herself as a ‘practitioner’? Practitioner works in a wide range of practice as what Crowe does. She does moving images, prints, photographs, drawings and installations.

In my opinion, the issues for someone who works across a range of forms and approaches in their work is to make their work become more interesting and it is a very resultful way to explore and develop ideas. They collect bits from here and bits from there to help their idea grows and create a new form. For example, if im a jeweler, advertiser ,photographer and also a painter. I will use my knowledge of these practices to create my new forms of artwork. Collecting a bit idea from jewellry practices, a bit from photography practices, a bit from the advertising practices and a bit from the painting practices.

In this stage, I don’t see myself working in a defined area of practice because im not sure what I want to do yet. Im interested in drawing. I’v looked at many different kind of drawings and also learnt some drawing skills from school and outside of shool. But if I want to work with drawings, I will look at more informations about drawings to help me define my working area. For example, there are many different kind of drawings like illustration drawing, life drawing ect. In this year I have a chance to try a lot of things and technique which I havn’t tried before such as print making, object making, life drawing, editing of moving images ect. Since I found photography also interests me, I will look more about photography.

Lecture3, Mary Curtis

Mary Curtis is a jeweler and also a collector. She fascinates in collecting things such as Christmas decorations, things that have holes in it and the small objects that we overlook or not see. Curtis spent lots of time in collecting things. For example, she used all most 5 to 6 years to collect the things have holes. She likes to look at a large group of the same objects (such as her collections) and find the difference between those objects because she thinks the collection itself tells a story. Mary often look at earlier period work like the Victorian and Elizabethan era’s in England when she wants to develop new concepts and forms to explore in her jewelry making and she also responds to the things she saw. Mary is much a visual person. She puts the imagery into her visual diary to help her develop the ideas and she will take a photo of her working table at the end of a day.

I think looking at the earlier period as a source of visual information is a useful strategy. The artists in the past years made their work by looking at the past art works and incorporating them into their ideas or concepts to become their new work. That is one of the ways to develop ideas.

This approach of developing ideas reminds me of my work in high school. Every time I start my new project, I will look at some past art works from some artists or other people’s work. I will search from books or in internet or magazines. I also will look at the things around me. I think this approach is really useful for me as a student. It helps me to explore the ideas and develop concepts.

Lecture2, Frances Hansen

Frances Hansen was my life drawing class’ lecturer in the first semester of year one. I only had her for 6 classes. After today’s lecture Im getting to know more about her. She is not only good at drawing but also she is a collector. Use of the materials are very important in Frances’ practice. She gathers things from her surroundings such as her house and condition and environment. She collects images around her house and the recycle stuffs such as the packaging from $2 shop or from the daily use like milk bottles, cleansing product etc. She photographed them and documented into her visual diary. She also will make a list next to them to help her thinking going and plan for her next practice work.

The images she used have her personal meaning in her practice. She responds to the things around her. Most of her practice are related to her family history, childhood memories and the things that influence her when she was moving to Auckland. She is also interested in transforming things into something eles. So she starts to make work from her house conditions and living space and start to make silhouettes of the objects such as the cleansing products. The mystery of the missing objects are really interested her. Like she is playing a little game with us. What is the object of that silhouette? What is the missing object in the packaging?

The final necklace I made in object study was made by the things I’v collected from my childhood. That were the things I used or very like when I was a little. Those small objects have personal meanings for me like the little colorful buttons from my old cloths and the hair clips ect. I also used a yellow and red riband to link the objects together. I used yellow and red riband because Im a chinese and I wanted it to refer to my country’s flag. Also, thoes two colors really works together. Red color is also a meaning of good luck and love. I think this work of mine is quite similar to Frances’ work. We collect things we are interested and put it into our work which also have personal meaning. Use of the material is important for an artist. In my opinion, the materials which the artist had used can show off the style of their art work.

Moving Image

the MV I used for my research (in my visual diary)

No. 1 . No.2 . No.3 . No.4 . No.5 . No.6
No.7 . No.8 . No.9 . No.10 . No.11 . No.12

~a VV colorful MV~

A song from Janice Vidal's new album <Morning>

A very colorful music video

The colors are very simple but strong in the MV. I love the colors!

>>check this out~

BVA152, Lecter1,Emma McLellan

The artist for our first lecter in the second semester was Emma McLellan. She is a local artist and also she is teaching in our school. I still can remember the first class of my year one in the printing room, we saw Emma was rubbing her work on the panel. She also explained what and why was she doing there and she always have a nice smile on her face. That’s my first impression about Emma McLellan.

The presentation that she brought for us was some of her art work and the influences. At the beginning, she showed us few pages of her visual diary when she was in art school. She recorded her thoughts, ideas and concepts in her visual diary.

Emma is very interested in animals and patterns. The mixture of the animal bodies are always appear in her art work. She used found images from the old books and used photoshop to edit the animal bodies by mixing or twisting them to become a new image or pattern. She also use animals to make patterns in photoshop. She will twist or flip them into a certain shape as William Morris’ wallpaper. Emma also use William Morris’ wallpaper a lot too. William Morris was an English architect, furniture and textile designer. The wallpaper he created were always dazzling and detailed. When Emma put the patterns from the wallpaper into her work, the colour is more settled not as colourful as William Morris’ work. She likes to put many layers into her work to create a sense of depth. Emma transformed the William Morris’ wallpaper’s style into her style and put it into her art. I think this is a very good habit for an artist same as us students. Combining of the images and our own thoughts to become my new work.

Emma McLellan likes to use different materials in her work. Paints and screen prints on paper, fabric or panel. She likes the looseness of the paint and the control of the screen prints. As the way of the paint can be very loose ,she can control the looseness of the paint. When Emma was showing us some of her art works, she said she doesn’t like to work on the fabrics because she is not happy with the bouce of the fabric. Many of her art were worked on panel. The hardness of the panel allows her to rub, paint, print or rework so many times. I think it is a perfect material for her to use. The panel also allow her work stand out when it is hanging on wall. I think there is a comparison between William Morris’ wallpaper and Emma McLellan’s patterns. William Morris made his wallpaper very chromatic but it was flat as the wall. In Emma’s work, the patterns are more settled but it stands apart from the wall on the panel.