Transportation Of Alienation And Intimacy.

Oil on Canvas. 3 people seated on train in close physical proximity, each is privately reading the metro newspaper and unaware of the others located close by. I chose to use a mixture of garish and anemic colour tones to promote the eerie artificial lighting on the train at that time of night. This should exaggerate claustrophobic atmosphere, and personal isolation of their segmented lives.

  

A series of posters from my self chosen summer project, 'Transportation of Alienation and Intimacy'. Dealing with how people are affected by the social sanctions which are set up to induce conversation through the necessity of travel and minimal space. Friendliness is immediate, but what do we know of these strangers we meet? For an allotment of time we are caught in each others lives. It may mean uncomfortable introductions followed by a monologue of over sharing  all under the allusion that this must be better than the feared awkward silence.  Or the unthinking primal desire to be polite - the united shuffle of positions to make way for an aged man, or a woman maneuvering a small child and buggy.

I am intrigued by the way we appear in these scenarios. Inadvertently people are momentarily bonded together in these situations. Although a license to talk isn't always found and people may often be packed in closely sitting in silence waiting for their destination. This for me is a perfect disillusioned juxtaposition, physical proximity presides anything personal.

"Heartbreakingly Intimate Whilst Being Entirely Distant" - Jemima Kirke

I feel like this quote encapsulates what am am trying to examine in our ever  evolving society.  In "Can I Sit here?" a series of repeating images taken from my original train painting. I put forward a patten of vulnerability, an almost child like fear of rejection directed at someone who has neither personal relevance nor emotional hold. Naturally it can be interpreted numerous ways, but the layout is always the same, formulaic and as simple as a bus ticket.                                                                                                                               

                            

I wanted to further examine this sense of intimate alienation by making a poster that would directly and unambiguously look at how often we barley notice another living person, even when they are sat oppersite us. We may gaze emptily through them, pondering our own private thoughts. But never do we make eye contact or commit their face to memory.

 This mock up of a 'Missing Person Poster', to me seemed to provoke a feeling of self awareness. Naturally its unrealistic to assume any person would have a connection to everyone they encountered in such a transitory place, but with this work I invite the viewer reflect on something they have been present for but not witnessed.

My intention is to leave this poster up on bus timetables, in order for the viewer to remove a tab from the latter half of the poster which reads 'I have now'. 3 powerful words. Similarly as with 'Can I Sit Here'' i wanted there to be a remnant of the interaction of viewer and art, akin to a bus ticket. I imagine that it would be taken primarily for its novelty and stashed in the persons pocket, only to be rediscovered later when it has lost context. The start and end of a journey.

1st Year Exhibition

Whilst walking around the 1^st year exhibition, it’s easy to be unassuming of the actual thought processes that went behind the finished work. Especially when the context is left to the viewers interpretation. With Hazel’s work however, the immediate impact made sure you understood the notion and thought about it just as much.

The set up appeared as 3 integral sections. Primarily the provocative carnival cut-out, of a faceless bikini clad woman. She was a little larger than life, kneeling, neck turned toward the camera. An openly voyeuristic mentality is set up for the viewer. This in its self is explored as friends take it in turns to be the model and the photographer, this switch between the two vastly different persona starts to break down these poles, prey and predator,  object and objectifier. The people themselves are the last and most crucial component in the piece. Without them it loses its potency as a political statement if the viewers don’t interact, playing with the devices learning through this simplistic childlike education onto something much grander. You catch yourself out doing something that perhaps by unconscious  thought you would presume wrong  but only by involving yourself in it do you reassess it with any sense of feeling.

The Opposite side of the carnival cut out is filled with black writing scrawled in lines across a white background. Its covered predominantly with cat calls, ranging from the run of the mill generic misogynistic phrases to more aggressive, sexually hostile  and threatening.

Baltic Gallery Group Project

A group project created on the premise of feeding a man cake. Advertisements were posted around Newcastle, so we did not personally know this individual before he arrived in the studio. There is a interesting tension set up between the camera/us and the man.

''A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle''  - Feminist Slogan, drawn onto the cake. We loved the idea that the patriarchy were eating/accepting this premise as a normal thing. Something as normal as eating a piece of cake.

Summer Sketchbook Uploads

The Summer Break between College and University has allowed me spare time to look into different ways, of expressing my artistic practices. Particularly using a sketchbook again, in a daily drawing capacity.
  A cheap paperback book is a superb way of sketching, jotting down notes or thoughts that come to you, and due to its lightweight and compact nature its possible to take anywhere with you.

1) Study of Garden
Use of water colour pencils allowed an intense saturation of the paper.

 

 2) Study of my sister
I felt this study really caught her mannerisms, and the Chinese red paint charged it with her vivacious nature.

3) Self portrait
I find that a mixture of words and pictures can provide a better interpretation of an account than a linear account from a diary. Working in this way gave this situation power as the piece isn't completely explained.  I feel that this helped me understand my own situation better than if it was a stale repetition of events.

 

 

 4)Study of Bed  Room
Use of proportion was key, still life needs alternate ways of describing a scene. Used pen as measure.

Mike Glier and I

Ok, ok, So i can take like nill credit for coming up with 'Expert' its alas, a copy of an original oil painting. All hail Mike Glier - http://mikeglier.net/

But a copy of his work did seem like a much cheaper alternative than paying for a print. I rediscovered it after looking through an old portfolio. Its a very arrestting painting so it really stuck out for me. Currently its hung on my wall.

 

 

-

 

At the moment, I have been working on a life drawing of my sister. Its interesting to see how it grows, although its follows some unintentional cubist ideals as she kept moving, so theres a lot of intersectting angles.

 

 

 

 

Final Exhibition - Foundation Diploma Art and Disign

 

 

My aim was to create something palpable, a solid, unifying experience for the viewer; from the transiency of a memory or sense.

 

The project before you is an examination of the senses and their links to memory. A hanging canvas drips paint sporadically; the droplets reach the surface below, to leave a scarring mark. Colours symbolise the phenomenon ‘Prisoners cinema’ reincarnated as a vivid mixture of paint and glue, and the surface is a memory slowly being altered and distorted by these new experiences.

My influences for this included different mediums of working until I finally decided on an installation. The intention was to bring a common personal experience and to be shared and familiarised by all who see it. You will witness its creation and death, until the moment they separate to become distinct images a dry canvas, and a dry painting.

 

From artists such as Robert Morris, I have utilised the moment of controlled chaos. His organised time management was key, rather than setting a specific ‘falling’ time I have decided to leave it totally up to the canvas of course I can control many variables (viscosity and fabric) but the ultimate control is left to the installation.

Finished works -

 

                                     

Durin the process -

 

Pour 2 parts glue 1 part dye onto stretched muslin and allow to drip through.

 

-

 

This took varying times to drip, but could be altered by making the solution with more water.

 

-

Balance above paper conduet. Ensure the dripping frame is  secure when placin across the back of 2 chairs.

 

Wet Felting - 4 week project


      In order to properly display my my canvas' for my '4 week project', i intended to learn how to 'felt' wool. I believe that this would give my overal canvas a much more maluble, 3D design.

Initial inspiration for this came from the Artist 'Robert Morris' whose 'Felt Triangle' seemed to posess the same attribtes i intended for my own work. The powerful lines, yet bedraggled features, to me suggested easily the interlocking but  juxtaposing componants the sea has.