Found Objects Brief

Last week I was given a new brief that focused on found objects. I was asked to go out and collect a range of materials to work with. These materials had to be discovered, I went around pound shops, skips, garages and streets to find my objects. I then had to create 3 mixed scale boards, using my objects and materials in unusual ways. I attatched them in a number of differnt ways. Tacking, clipping, pegging, glueing, stapleing, hanging. The artists that I am look at for inspiration are Rauschenberg, Tracy Krumm and El Anatsui. These are some examples of my boards in progress.

Now that I have completed the 3D boards, I have started to work from them and create 2D pieces. I have experimented with photocopying the boards, photographing the boards and drawing from the boards. Here are some of the photos I have taken and edited.

Cloth and Culture Exhibition

A few weeks ago i went to the Cloth and Culture exhibition at the Whitworth Art gallery. The exhibition includes work by textile artists from all over the world, Estonia, Finland, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania and the UK. The aim of the work is to examine textiles as both a global language and as a medium that can express a local and regional identity. The work combines both traditional and more contemporary technical techniques. Tapestry, Knitting, and Embroidery is combined with Digital print, Photography and Fibre Optics.

The exhibition shows a wide range of materials, from more traditional fibres to Bamboo, Lead, paper, rusted metal and bin bags.

I found the exhibition quite exciting because i thought it was a really interesting idea to combine both traditional and contemporary techniques and materials, to create the pieces. These are some of my favourite pieces from the exhibition.

Tal Rosner

Last week I went to a lecture by Graphic artist Tal Rosner. He is a BAFTA winning Filmmaker who studied Graphics and received an MA from Central Saint Martins. He has produced a number of commissioned pieces including a visual exploration of Stravinsky and Debussy's two-piano music.

In 2008 he won a BAFTA for Best Title Sequence for his work on Channel 4's series Skins. Along with being nominated, in 2007, for a Royal Television Society Award.

One piece by Tal that really stood out to me was a piece called Doppelganger. This was the first film that he showed, and I found it really interesting. It was filmed whilst sat on a train, and it explores the process of personalising public spaces by de- and re- construction using different design/editing techniques. He introduced techno backing music to the film which gave it a modern and funky feel. The music that he used and how the shots were juxtapositioned within the film was really good.

His work is very much about special effects, and he taught himself how to use special effects software, as he knew he would get great benefit from this, which is very much apparent in the film Doppelganger.

Before going to this lecture I had never heard of Tal Rosner but unknowingly I had seen his work on the Channel 4's series Skins. Even though Film making is not my pathway I found this lecture very inspiring.

Print Tank Designs and Feedback

Following on from my previous post, I have now completed my ten designs for Print Tank. The theme that I chose to use was Psychedelic. I used mainly the screen printing technique to create my designs and then embellished them with beads and diamantes. Also I used the heat press on a few of my designs. I really liked this process as it gave really bold colours, and it will be a technique that I will definitely be using in the future. I did find the screen printing technique a bit challenging at first and I did have a few issues with marks and stains on my prints. As I practised however I learnt how to prevent marks being made, and I feel that I have learnt a lot about the process and how it works.

These are some of my final designs that I presented to print Tank.





Feedback
Once I had completed all of my designs I had to present all of them to Sian Evans from Print Tank, and my tutor Esther Freeman. The presentations took place at the Manchester Whitworth art gallery. I had 15 minutes to present all of my designs and talk about my inspirations which were

• David David design company
  

• Matthew Williamson


• The Lake District


• Camden Market


• Les Ballets Trockadero

I also had to mention my chosen market that my designs were made for which was young girls with a quirky and quite eccentric style.

Sian and Esther gave me both positive feedback on my designs and also how I could improve them. These were the main points that were mentioned,

• My colour blending techniques work well for the chosen group


• My layering approach is a good idea


• The construction of the designs works well, layers and combination of colours adds to the collection


• The backgrounds are successful - try to push this approach


• The use of space is good


• Where there are fine details using stitch works very well - push this further

Ways Forward

• Push the combination of hand techniques and screens to create your own style, continue to use textured backgrounds as a starting point

I found all the advice that Sian and Esther gave me very useful and I agreed with everything they said. It will definitely help me in future projects.