Skin web- second experiment

The next step I wanted to take in my work was to create more three dimensional pieces and move away from the 2-D pieces that I've been doing. This was an experiment I did with flesh toned tights and thread. The end result looks like some sort of web structure, There were even comments that it looks like muscle structure. I want this web to be a representation of skin. It's an exploration of how we as humans strive for perfection.

I really like the end result of this. And now tat I've successfully finished this experiment, it would be good to try something on a much larger scale.

Skin web-first experiment

This is a continuation of what I was doing but without the limitations and restrictions of a frame. It looks like it was just created out of nowhere. similar to a spider web. The delicacy and neutral colour of the tights is a stark contrast to the black harsh looking thread which is holding the tights together.

Skin in a Frame

This piece was the result of a further exploration of my skin board samples. This is on a larger scale and doesn't it have the background, which is what I wanted to try out. I really liked the result but I'm also worried it's too 2-dimensional, I want to try to find a way to expand out of the frame so it looks more free and less restricted.

Christo

'Wrapped Reichstag' 1971-95

Christo was a married couple which consisted of Christo and Jeanne-Claude. They are best known for creating environmental works of art and togther created some of the most spectacular large-scale artworks of the 20th century. Their work is visually impressive and often controversial as a result of its scale. Yet the artists have denied that their work contains a deeper meaning, they want to purpose of their art to be bringing joy and creating beauty and give the viewer new ways of seeing familiar landscapes.

'Valley Curtain' 1972

Their work consisted of enormous packaging projects. They wraps places such as parks, buildings and all sorts of outdoor landscapes. An example of this work is 'Valley Curtain'. This was a project which consisted of stretching a 400 meter long cloth across a valley in the Rocky Mountains. The project cost so much that it caused Christo additional problems with financing. The project experienced many problems and finally the second attempt of hanging it was a success. Unfortunately it was only there for 28 hours as it was destroyed by a storm gale. The sheer scale of these projects is breathtaking, the way in which they incorporate the environment around them is something which I would like to explore in my self directed project.

Alberto Burri

Alberto Burri was an Italian painter and sculptor. He started his life not as an artist but as a doctor, and this could argued that this inspired a lot of his work as an artist. During World War II he served as a physician in the Italian army and was taken captive in Texas . When the war ended he decided to become a painter and move to Rome.

His early work was abstraction, and soon became a proponent of Art Informal. In the late 1940's he began to experiment with various unorthodox materials and started fabricating tactile collages with pumice and burlap.

Sacking and Red 1954

 The work which caught my attention was 'Sacking and Red' which is a canvas painted red with rags of rough sacking stitched to each other and on the canvas. To me it could be interpreted as a close up of a bleeding body, with the rags symbolising stitched up or scarred skin. But the piece of work is highly abstract and this is just my interpretation. The fact that he lived through and experienced the Second World War further justifies my interpretation, and he could be subliminally expressing the horrors he saw as a medic in the war.

Because I'm looking at skin and scars, I think there is a strong link between the artist and my work. I also want to present the idea of skin and scars, but not in an obvious way. Like how Burri uses rags, my chosen material to represent skin is tights, an everyday material or object which holds a lot of possibilities.

Gedi Sibony

Side Show Side Show, 2008
Wood

Untitled, 2009
Plastic sheet, packing tape, ink

Gedi Sibony is an artist who draws from the traditions of minimalism, his objects adopt an unpolished style that is often made from found materials such as cardboard, plastic sheeting, and wood. He attempts to create poetic beauty with everyday things. It's obvious when looking at his work that he's inspired by artists such as Robert Rauschenberg amd Richard Tuttle and the minimalist and arte povera movements. This is evident with the materials he uses, the experimentation of his work and the way he arranges and executes his work.

Something that made me want to research this artist was the way in which he takes over spaces, he lets raw objects define themselves and the rooms they inhabit. The aim of his work is space, instead of creating sculpture, he intends to work on the room and make it an enjoyable place to walk around in. In a way this relates to my self directed work. I'm currently working with everyday materials and exploring ways in which  I can fill a room and give it an atmosphere. His instillations are simple yet effective, which is something I would like to hopefully achieve.

Seminar Presentation Evaluation

I looked back at all the feedback sheets and have rounded up all the points that people made about my presentation. Overall a lot of people stated that the thought my presentation was informative and clear and that I had a full understanding of the artist and his work. They also thought I explored a large selection of his work was really dug deep in researching about Jochem Hendricks instead of just finding general points like when he was born and where he lives etc. My presentation brought in a debate about the morality of art and his Jochem Hendrick's illegal actions to create work. I think this was seen as positive, the presentation caught peoples attention and made them think about some of the issues surrounding the artist.

Some of the weaknesses that was said about my presentation was that it would have been good if I included examples of my own work into my presentation. While I talked about how the artist related to my work, I didn't include images in my power point. So I can understand why people put that down as a weakness, it probably would have been more beneficial to include photos of my own work so it could be easier for people to understand the link between his work and my work. Something else that Dale pointed out was that it would have good if I explained a few phrases such as "Avatar" in case people didn't understand what I was talking about.

Overall I agree and am pleased with the feedback given about my presentation. I can now take the strengths and weaknesses into consideration and this can help me further improve my presentation skills.

Seminar Presentation- Jochem Hendricks

About
Jochem Hendricks is a contemporary artist from Frankfurt, Germany. He is mostly known for his works that address complex, moral and ethical issues. The objects that he produces are often beautiful, yet beneath the surface of them lie elaborate backstories which at times can test the boundaries of legality. Art critics are viewers of his work will often debate whether he is classed as a criminal or an artist in disguise, as a lot of his work has required him to act illegally or break the law. He seems to want to test the boundaries of these lines between criminality and art. His work includes sculpture, photography, painting, drawing and film.

Work

'Eye Drawings' 1992

 Throughout the many years that he’s been a practising artist he has used a wide range of materials and experimented with all kinds of different media. Some things being ground breaking in the field of art. In 1992 he produced a body of work known called “Eye Drawings” which were created using infra-red computer technology using only the movement of his eyes. This work is an example of his pushing the boundaries very early on in his practice as to when it stops being art. When they were created in 1992, they were rejected by the art industry as they apparently relied too much on technology.

A lot of Hendricks’ work is very controversial and shocking, but not until you know the background of the piece. One of his most controversial pieces is ‘Left Defender Right Leg’ a synthetic diamond, which at first glance does not seem very special. But in reality, the diamond was made from a human leg. It was made from the amputated leg of a football player and Hendricks admits that the idea is supposed to make you feel uncomfortable. It was converted to carbon and then to pure graphite which was then used to create a synthetic diamond. The diamond is mounted on black velvet cushion and stuffed with tobacco because the legs loss was apparently caused by a smoking related disease.

Similar work to this is ‘Cold Birds’ which are dead birds also transformed into synthetic diamonds. This particular type of work isn’t about the skill but more conceptual.

One of Hendricks’ interests and something in which he addresses a lot in his work is economic problems, specifically tax reductions. This is mostly shown in his piece ‘Luxury Avatar’. This is a plastic replica of himself. In order to avoid paying taxes he buys luxury materials for his avatar. Because of this it almost parallels the existence of himself, his avatar is living a life of luxury while he is not. It’s an on-going piece which is common in his work. The head is only gold because he ran out of money. He states that eventually he wants to add clothes, and wants to buy a car, a house until he dies or the financial offices stop him. This is one of many examples in which he is acting illegally to create art, but he does this to send a message. His work is full of dire revelations about what criminals or artists can commit in plain view of the law. There is a chilling theatricality to everything he makes.

Keeping with the theme of economic problems, Hendricks produced a body of paintings. Instead of doing them himself, he made the paintings like an industrial product. He hired painters from all over the world to create the paintings. They were then obscured by African- made wooden frames, which criss-cross the canvas and obscure it. The idea behind this is that t becomes a project which runs all over the world, and apparently economically cheaper than producing everything himself.

‘Pack’ is an instillation piece of taxidermy fighting dogs. Over a period of years Hendricks has carefully sourced and acquired the bodies of a number of dead fighting dogs. This is a very physical piece and definitely creates a tense atmosphere. While this could be seen as a rather tame piece of work in comparison to others, the fact that the possession of some of these dogs is illegal or frowned upon in some countries further shows ways in which he is pushing the boundaries on modern art.

Influences

Hendricks doesn’t speak a lot about his influences, but a few of his pieces he admits were influenced by certain artists. His collection named ‘Concetto’ which is a collection of metal surfaces being pierced or punctured by firearms is greatly influenced by the artist Lucio Fontana. He describes his collection as Fontana for the slums.

Marcel Duchamp is probably one of his biggest influences. The goal of Hendrick’s work is to capture the audience and make them want to know the background of the work. It’s almost like the viewer finishes the art by looking and understanding it, the audience is therefore a big tool for the artist, his work would almost be incomplete without the viewer.

In relation to my work
As well as admiring his work and the ideas in which he stands for, his work has been quite a big influence on my own work. His collection ‘Collapsed Avatar’ features broken busts, he stated he did this merely out of curiosity as to what would happen. My sculptural pieces feature broken casts of hands. Similarly I also cast a replica of myself, which is in no way perfect or incomplete. It takes years for Hendricks to finish his work and so makes a lot of his stuff about the production and process. In relation to this I think we are similar as I don’t class my work as complete. I’m carrying on with this work, adding or manipulating it into something different.

Skin samples

These samples were creates by stretching tights onto a wooden board, and then sliced and sewn back together. I wanted to see what my skin idea would look like by eliminating the hand casts altogether and solely focusing on the skin. I think these pieces were rather successful and I think I've found a new direction for my work.

Drawing- Identity

For my drawing project I'm exploring the idea of identity and making something as personal as faces detached. These are the most successful pieces. I discovered a method which created this cold detached tone that I'm trying to achieve. By drawing straight lines where a feature of the face would be, it creates this structural and very technical looking drawings. 

Flesh Hand

This piece is an experiment I did on one of my plaster casts of hands I did last term. I want my work to be a continuation of the work I did in sculpture last term. This piece is a plaster cast of my hand covered with stitched up pieces of flesh coloured tights. The tights are flesh like like and are supposed to represent the desperation humans will go to to strive perfection.