Pre-Raphaelite Exhibition.

Last week I made a visit to the Pre-Raphaelite exhibition at the Tate Britain which is handas it’s across the road! 

I was really excited about this exhibition as I have heard good reviews about it and I find some particular artists from the Pre-Raphaelites inspiring.

The first room I came to in the exhibition I found boring. The work in there was very dated and not to my taste, but talented all the same. 
The next room had more of a fresher feel about it, this is where I discovered one of my favorite pieces from the whole exhibition.
This piece was called “Puck” by Thomas Woolner. It was a small scale sculpture which depicted and represented the imp like creature, Puck from Shakespere’s play A Midsummer’s Nights Dream. As I am a massive fan of the play I thought that Woolner connected to the character spot on, he looked cheeky and mischievous. It was a simply stunning sculpture.

“Puck”-Thomas Woolner-1845

The exhibition went on, it came to William Morris’s work which as a Textile student I was drawn to. I studied one drawing of his extremely closely. What I found most inspiring and beautiful about one of his pieces was that it wasn’t finished. Thats why I liked it, it was a complex design that you could see the he was working on. 

“Tulip and Willow”- William Morris-1873

   

I was surprised by my lack of enthusiasm for the more obvious Pre-Raphaelite paintings such as Burne Jones, I appreciated the grand-ness of them but I felt a bit unsure about them for some reason. I think I found them a little bit overwhelming.

Weaving and Wrapping Workshop.

After my drawing workshop I had a weaving and wrapping workshop. I was really excited by this as I haven't done anything similar to it before. 

The task was to extract a colour scheme from my objects, I then had to put it into a wrapping or weaving piece.

My first example of my wrapping workshop. 

This example of my wrapping was based on one of my

objects from my collection. I really like the colour

scheme and texture of this particular piece. 

The texture in this piece is by far my favourite, I love the contrast of the thick and present thread beside the fragile white and pink thin thread. 

While doing this workshop I found it very inspiring and effective for a good starting point for my project. 

It opened my eyes and helped me look into the colours in my objects that I had not noticed before. 

This task will help and instruct me when it comes to my technical blocks with colour, texture and what techniques I should be using.

"Pop-Up" Project. First workshop.

This week I started my “Pop-Up” project, where I was asked to bring in a collection of objects that inspire me. I chose to bring a collection of object that reminded me of home. This consisted of an ceramic deer bookend, a white vintage tin, a floral placemat, wooden pegs, my set of home keys and a padlock. 

All of these possessions inspire me, they all mean something to me or make me remember a memory. 

With this project I will develop my Textile techniques through the means of rotation around the various areas of textiles, such as print, stitch and knit. With the use of my objects I have gathered I will extract various aspects from them such as colour scheme and texture. 

One of my chosen objects- A padlock from home. 

One of my chosen objects- My floral food placemat.

One of my chosen objects- my white vintage tin.

The first work-shop I had on the “Pop-Up” project was a drawing one, I had to use various drawing techniques to create my images such as line, textured, silhouette and block colour.

A textured drawing of my padlock. 

Using a range of different drawing styles I created a composition of drawings. 

This exercise was to illustrate "movement" on the page. 

Using a range of colours and just line work I worked on top of one drawing. 

With the idea of "dot to dot" in my mind I used it as a basis for my drawing. I like this effect best of all. 

This first workshop made me confident in the objects I chose, to know I can work with the objects and use them effectively and use them to full potential without getting bored.

Im really happy with my first drawings that I have created, I was surprised about how confident I was when drawing them. I think I will probably use some of the images in my technical blocks.

"Medicine Now" Exhibition at Wellcome Trust.

The piece that I find most inspiring, intriguing and shocking from the Medicine Now exhibition at the Wellcome Trust collection is John Isaacs sculpture “I cant help the way I feel”.

Isaac’s creation is a tall sculpture of which depicts a clearly overweight set of legs which carry bulging bags of flesh, the piece has no identity, just a tumour like form. 

John Isaac created “I cant help the way I feel” in 2003, when the rise in obesity was becoming higher and higher. His work is created from a combination of wax, resin and polystyrene and stands alone in the gallery space as a very unusual and contemporary piece.

“I cant help the way I feel” doesn’t just represent obesity and gaining weight, it highlights the issues and harsh reality of what obesity is as the legs holding the rolls of fat up are covered in sores and almost looks like rot.

As soon as I spotted the piece I instantly became reminded of Jenny Savvile’s paintings as I felt the same way viewing some of her work to how I felt viewing this particular piece, I was very uncomfortable and unsettled.  It was a completely different feeling compared to looking at the other work in the gallery. I found myself going back to it repeatedly to stare at it, I couldn’t believe it wasn’t flesh I wanted to feel it to be sure it wasn’t.

The sculpture was situated very carefully next to “No consumption without documentation” by Ellie Harrison. This piece showed a series of photographs of Harrison eating food, I found this to be a very interesting link. As you were viewing “I cant help the way I feel” you couldn’t help but notice flipping photographs of a girl eating various food and vise versa when I was viewing Harrison’s book and video I felt Isaacs colossal sculpture behind me. 

I think Isaac’s purpose for creating “I cant help the way I feel” may be to open our eyes to obesity, to tackle it head on. 

Front photograph of John Isaac- “I cant help the way I feel” .

Standing in the Wellcome Trust Collection gallery. 

Back view of John Isaacs- “ I cant help the way I feel”.  

As the piece depicts a naked form, it almost feels like he has stripped away any shed of dignity from the unknown structure. I think he may of made the piece to shock and surprise his audience about a growing issue in society that some people find it uncomfortable to talk about. 

The structure it’s self is a metaphor, as the rise in obesity in the population connects with the bulging density of the structure. Isaac suggests that the piece shows the flesh growing, erupting and engulfs the body. This suggests that Isaac could of created the piece as a warning to his audience about what obesity could evolve into.

As soon as I spotted John Isaac’s creation I was instantly reminded of one of my favourite artists Ron Mueck of whom uses sculpture in a figurative and realist way. 

Ron Mueck- “Ghost”

Mueck’s work is very similar to John Isaac’s as he uses a similar process to create his sculptures. One particular piece sprang to mind when I viewed “I cant help the way I feel”, as it contrasts perfectly with Isaac’s sculpture. The name of Mueck’s work is “Ghost” and depicts an seven foot adolescent  skinny girl looking uncomfortable in a swimming costume. 

Alike John Isaac’s piece, Mueck’s “Ghost” shocked me as it had a lot of emotion and feeling to it, you could almost feel the awkwardness of the young girl as she stands high against the wall. It was like he took everything that she found uncomfortable and hated about herself then highlighted it. 

John Isaac.

It contrasts well with John Isaac’s work as “I cant help the way I feel” is all about the loss of control of the body and Ron Mueck’s “Ghost” is everything to do about control and anxiety of the body. Even the stance of both of the pieces are completely opposite, Isaac’s piece is standing almost proud and alone showing a naked and bare form. This compares to “Ghost” which Mueck has her standing against a wall looking for somewhere to hide her body, her head is looking to the ground like she is looking for people around to run from. I found her intense as she bellowed over me, feeling her intensity and worries. 

Ron Mueck.

The one thing that links the two pieces together is the way I felt about them. When viewing both pieces I was overcome with excitement and passion for the work, as I think both of the sculptures are highly talented pieces of work and I cant and couldn’t get my head over how real they look, it was enchanting. Both of the work made me feel tense when I was viewing both of them, but for completely different reasons.

"Rough Guide" Project.

This was my first project as a first year Textile Design student at Chelsea School Of Art. it was a group project of which I was thankful for, as it was easy to make friends with a task. Me and my group were given a specific place in London to explore and to become familiar with, we then had to map it with our sketchbooks by drawing, taking photographs or picking things up from the street, basically anything to create a feel for the place in our sketchbooks. 

My group was given Notting Hill and Kensington, both of these places I wasn’t familiar with so I found the prospect of visiting and exploring the two destinations exciting and fun. I wasn’t too sure what direction I was going to go for at the start when we visiting Kensington and Notting Hill therefore I picked up things from the ground such as cigarettes, leafs and coffee cups. I gained the feeling that we were not in a deprived area...

After a day in Kensington and Notting Hill I decided to go back to Kensington to have a visit to the church St Abbots, I started “rubbing” the grave markings with my crayon, this worked really well so I continued down that route for the majority of the project.  

After deliberating with my group we gave advice on which pages we should use or not, I chose a rubbing page that said “Forever” which I found in Kensington Park on a bench. 
We then had to customize one hundred pages to create a book, I made a decision to bead onto each page, add a illustration of a pigeon and to stitch a small individual rubbing to each page. It took me ages! But was defiantly worth it to know that I put as much effort in as I could  to do it.

One of my first pages in my "Rough Guide" sketchbook. 

I illustrated the bark of the tree and collected items from where I was sitting.

Two of my sketchbook pages from the "Rough Guide" project. 

A collection of rubbish from Kensington and a illustration. 

My drawing page inspired by St Abbots Church congregation.

My illustration taken from Trinity Hospice charity shop, Kensington. 

I really loved this project, I thought it was an excellent start to the course. I made friends through it and gained knowledge of where I will be living for three years. It also helped me gain confidence through my drawing as I haven't done any drawing in about five months after my foundation. 

My chosen pages at the end of the project, I combined them both together alongside beadwork and stitch.