FIRST MAJOR INSTALLATION PROJECT - "RE-CYCLE"

Today final saw all the preparation work materialising. I have produced my first major deliverable for my final dissertation.

This first project was based on my personal view of how nature takes back everything that we produce no matter how long we think it may last nature and the elements always win through.

It is also a reflection of how we are such a throw away culture and it gives us food for thought about what happens to out cast off's. Yes we recycle, but we also leave things to rot and decay all around us.

This mangled bike represents the flipant way in which we disregard our possessions and also gives us an insight into the constant battle nature has to overcome with our urban decay.

Just for the record these images are taken with an iphone as it is the only camera I had on me at the time. The professional images will document the sculpture properly tomorrow.

SAMUEL FRANCOIS

Amy sent me this great link to an artists that puts the colour back into some of our much loved trees...

Samuel Francois is an active member in the collective Inkunstruction, working in a broad range of artistic practices, including drawing, installation, urban intervention, and outdoor sculpture. He often uses silkscreen and spray paint, as well as felt tip markers when drawing.

His installations, both in and out of the gallery, have an element of spontaneity and exhibit a clever mixture of material and color. Cultural symbols are carefully placed and manipulated in his object/painting hybrids. The artist’s drawings depict characters of culture, portraits of people donning urban apparel, such as sunglasses, jewelry, hats, and casual clothing. The subjects are executed in fine-tipped marker, bright and colorful against monochromatic backgrounds.

Francois has previously exhibited at Duplex in Geneva, Cruce Galerie in Madrid, and Addict Galerie in Paris, as well as several other solo and group exhibitions.

PETE DUNGEY

Artist Pete Dungey says of his Pothole Gardens, “If we planted one of those in every hole, it would be like a forest in the road.” Indeed. And a gorgeous, surprising example of urban renewal and joyful activism.

The images below are a great way to "fill a hole" in one of many thousands of our decaying road surfaces around the country. This would make our driving experience much more colourful although I suspect the accident rate would go up with many people trying to avoid running over some of the installations!!!

LOCATION FOR THE SCULPTURE

After another recky tonight with Tavis (my youngest) I have found several trees that I think will suit the pieces that I want to create. They are in a really darkly lit place, dense with moss and decay. I feel that this will add to the mood of the images even more - it just means that we will have to be more adventurous with the lighting I guess (won't we Eric?)

Next job on the list is to purchase an angle grinder! I had one but forgot that last time it was used was when my brother borrowed it and broke it before returning it! Family - who would av em!!!

I have taken a few shots of the trees I have in mind and placed them below for reference...

DAVID NASH - TWIN TOWERS

One thing that I wasn't expecting when I went to YSP was to find a room separate from everything else within the galley that was designated solely to the Twin Towers and September 11th.

This s a very different kind of work as it had a narrative: Nash created An Awful Falling 9.11 in 2001 after seeing images and film footage of the attacks on the Twin Towers, New York. It was not his intention to make a work in response, the exhibition notes inform, but he realised that a piece of beech he was developing looked ‘hauntingly like’ one of the images he had seen of the aftermath. The installation is displayed on its own as Nash sees it as separate from the evolution of his own practice, being a direct reference to global events. In his career Nash strives to make positive interventions in his environment, to work with natural processes and to develop a practice that both attempts to make sense of, and also celebrates, the world around us and our place within it. His career is inspired by the lived experience, including the tragic, the profound, and the gently humorous.

His sculptures resemble so much, those images we all have in our minds of that day. The burnt effect he has applied to the pieces further enhances the work and really leaves a numbness as you walk around the exhibit.

DELIVERABLES

The first of my deliverables for this final dissertation is going to be a series of images that depict decay in various formats. The raw files were then taken into photoshop and a HDR render was applied to them to produce a series of 10 images that are going to be (Hypothetically) installed within an art gallery on death and decay.

Below are some of the images I have chosen to use for this first practical outcome. The HDR rendering really highlights the decay on these images and is a great medium to get across the subject of decay as covered in a previous post.

JACOB WOLF MILLER COPY

On Sunday I had a break from the writing and went for a walk at the back of the house to get some air.

Whilst I was out walking I came across an old tree stump and decided to copy a piece I had seen earlier in my research on Jacob Wolf Miller. Wasn't trying to re-invent the wheel just having a play with the materials around me. Tavis my youngest son came with me and thought it was "really cool Daddy, can I make some art with you"! SO we went back home and started to draw what Tavis wanted to make on our next exploration...