Monthly Archives: March 2012

Mar 28 2012
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Inspiration, Presentation, progression

Objects

My mother has arrived from france, and with her she brings great treasures…

 

I have a great big box full, of which you can see the top layer above!

 

included in here is:

  • a dress made from bubble wrap
  • 2 plastic garlands and a packet of old lovehearts, all from spain
  • 2 polly pockets
  • some oilily sunglasses, and some strange crazy coloured ones too
  • lots of beautiful b+w photos taken mainly by my father
  • a collection of The Face mags
  • a matchbox telephone
  • a speak and spell
  • a fisherprice music thingy
  • books from when i was a littlun
  • Fraggles!
  • my favourite doggy Rusty
  • A smiley acid face bag
  • a kitten box with lots of interesting papery stuff inside
  • dressing up clothes inc a wig and 2 feather boas
  • lots of band posters
  • items from jamaica from our time living there
  • spice girls memorabilia
  • lots of cds
  • some expensive clothes I wore as a teen
  • a furry notebook of sad tales
  • old bank statements
  • some crazy limericks
  • tiny polaroids of me
  • a notebook full of notes from old schoolfriends
  • letters from friends and boyfriends
  • lots of gig tickets
  • vhs of crybaby
  • notes and cards from family, along with a few photos
  • a collection of tickets to France
  • awards and certificates
  • old photos from going out

It sounds like a really weird collection of raffle prizes. Will get some photos of everything individually soon for trumps and the silent auction.

Mar 10 2012
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Presentation, progression, Uncategorized

bedroom thoughts

I’ve been thinking about presentation ideas for my nostalgic items. My first thoughts about it have been about presenting in the form of a teenage girls bedroom installation type thing. It has to be about the environment it creates. I want to use ideas of nostalgia very much similar to what it feels is going on in popular culture at the moment. When you look at fashion, such as Meadham Kirchhoff or blogs such as that of Bleach London, the hair salon that set up in the first Wah! nail bar in dalston, that is now so popular with its 90′s throwback hair colouring schtick, whos blog is packed full of 90′s references.

As an installation I would like it to have a sort of 90′s feel, in fashion but really not at the same time, almost so its like its just accidentally cool?

A few things that have been swimming round my head as inspiration -

Meadham Kirchhoff ss12

Tavi Gevinson and Rookiemag

The Face

Courtney Love / Hole and other riot grrrrrl stuff

Charlie Red perfume/body spray – wow, remember that??

A few films in particular have a certain stylisation I’d be really interested in recreating, in fact there’s quite a big list of them. So we have The virgin suicides, The Labyrinth, ANY John Waters film, Nick and Noras infinite playlist, Youth in revolt – actually any film with Michael Cera fits the bill, Breakfast Club, Almost Famous, Ghost World, Whip it, A single Man, Science of Sleep, Napoleon Dynamite…the list goes on.

I have this idea of the whole thing being really tasteless, a bizarre take on the whole cultural obsession with nostalgia – why is everyone so nostalgic for the past? Is it because nobody wants to face the reality of today? The horrors we face in todays society, or perhaps the past is just better??

If I go on with this idea it has to be executed perfectly or it will just be misunderstood. Everything must be thought out perfectly – the decor and placement of these materialistic things. Like a treasure chest full of little gems, you will never find them all.

Mar 05 2012
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Artists, Inspiration, Presentation, progression

Mike Kelley

Gosh. Have only just realised two things. 1 – the saddest – that Mike Kelley actually died last month, and 2, he worked with and was buddies with my most favourite man in the world (other than my father) Mr John Waters. Waters made 2 of the bestest films ever, both of which have been in my top 5 EVER faves since the age of about 6, Crybaby and the one and only original Hairspray. He is the king of bad taste and everything he does absolutely charms me.

Back to Kelley.  On the hearing of both these things, and after some gentle encouragement I had a dive into some of his work and although I have obviously heard of Kelley, I had no idea really about what he was about and his work. It just so happens that some of what he does is really relevant to the way my practice is going right now. It’s just such a terrible shame that he is no longer with us. Described by the telegraph (and Waters) -

He was particularly feted for his large agglomerations of forlorn, battered toys — as at the 1991 Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, where he created a vast room-filling taxonomy of reclaimed dolls and figures laid out on folding tables as if they were scientific specimens, investing abandoned childhood relics with a pathos that hinted at loss, remembrance and an overpowering sense of melancholy. The film maker John Waters described Kelley as “the man who made pitiful seem sexy by turning grimy thrift-store stuffed animals into heartbreaking, jaw-droppingly beautiful sculptures”.

 

The way he uses found objects, specifically toys, is of particular interest to me. At the moment with my ideas almost forming around this idea it is really interesting to see someone who does this and uses something that is normally joy inducing in a way that shows itself as really quite sombre. The way they are presented is what really does this, and at the moment this is where I am really struggling. In his work the found object is shown almost as exactly that, but for me I need it to do something different as I want to show the objects as having a high value so I will almost have to put them on a pedestal. For me it is trying to show the sentimental value of the items, to me. Perhaps I could do this in quite a literal way? By having a monetary value attached to the items, much higher than would be expected?

Mar 04 2012
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Uncategorized

Catalogue

I’ve somehow, but quite happily, got involved with the catalogue design. It is mainly Josie doing all the footwork but i’m hoping I can be of some assistance on the practical design front – as in anything that doesn’t include me touching a computer, as I am bound to send everything tits up at the touch of a keyboard… At present the plan is to make it a fold out with a poster on one side and all the students on the other but we’re having some difficulty fitting everyone on comfortably. Lucy Kelleher’s NO FUTURE image is the planned poster side. Its kind of a tongue in cheek comment on the way things are, as we have interpreted it. Expect more news to come….

Mar 02 2012
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Previous work, progression

studio 5

For the previous unit I used found objects, which seems to be a recurring theme within my work. I had collections of receipts, which I seem to religiously keep hold of, which I used to create work. I took double exposure photos of the items on the receipt, only using one receipt and all the things on it for each photo, which I then created a silk screen for. The end result were some interesting screenprints. The real point of doing this though was not to create something aesthetically pleasing but instead to create something completely new and different  from something old, that can have a predetermined value using the original value of the items on the receipt.

receipts (taken using minmo x camera)

 

The idea that the valuation process was taken out of my hands and determined entirely by the original thing was the real appeal to the whole process for me. I worked on the idea of consumer (through the action of buying, of which the receipt is the byproduct) becoming the producer (using the byproduct of consumerism to create something new) then becoming distributor (distributing this new product to a new consumer) bringing the cycle full circle.

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My statement for studio 5 was short and to the point:

The (by)product of consumption becomes the subject of production becomes the object of distribution. The ever constant presence of the banal receipt is exaggerated and transformed into a socio-political critique of sorts. To have created the very form of the receipt by way of consumerism, to then reconstruct this commonplace item into an objet d’art and be able to have the value predetermined through the original form. The normal gallery applications of commercial value can no longer be implemented when all choices have been eradicated but one.

I would love to have my statement this direct for my final piece, but I feel it may be somewhat more difficult as I won’t be present for the assessment so the statement needs to say everything I would normally say were I there.

 

Mar 02 2012
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Uncategorized

Old things

I’ve been discussing things in detail with the mother, particular ideas of nostalgia and perceived value. We have been discussing the fact that she is visiting very shortly from France and the possibility that she could bring over some of my most loved items for me to use in my work.

At present my ideas are swaying toward the use of ‘found objects’ which will in fact be my own objects. I am thinking about how we all have attachments to material objects and often it is not the item itself we have the attachment toward, it is in fact the memories we associate with that object. The idea that one mans rubbish is another mans treasure. What could look like junk to you could be my most treasured item. It is all about the idea of sentimental value.  Can sentiment be translated into monetary value?

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