~ Collection ~

 Day 1

We received the lecture for the first project of our year, wich concentrates on the notion of collection. We distinguish between the content (what is used to make work), methodology (what's done with the material collected) and the presentation and critique (how and to whom is shown the work).

--> we will have to visit several exhibitions at the Tate modern and reflect on these questions. 

We've been introduced to a selection of artists that use accumulation or repetition of a certain content in their practice. I was amazed at how many different possibilities lies behind the act of just using the same pattern or object, how different could the works look like. They also generate a range of different impressions, from the almost anguishing and seemingly monomaniac work of Tom Friedman to the ethereal metamorphosis of prosaic items accomplished by Tara Donovan. 

The project that was submitted to us consists of finding an object to collect in 10 pieces, be it organic or more abstract things such as noise.  


Exemples of different methodologies: 

  •  standardisation / homogenization
  • fabrication
  • archivism / classification
  • space
  • compounding / removal of differences
  • to use an element to make form
  • metaphore
  • towards other media
  • event / performance
  • duration time

09/05 - Collection - Critique

To expose my collection, I printed it on a page of my sketchbook and hang it on the wall, in the same type of disposal that reminds on the minimalists to obtain a kind of neutrality. The screenshots show the youtube page while the music is being played, and it also indicates that they are 10 items of a playlist called "10 obj. collection", which was an objective way of referring to the title or our project.  

During the critique, someone said that the covers shared a similar aesthetic and that though we could'nt recognize what genre of music it was made for, it had probably a common vibe. Zoé pointed out the titles, that could also divulgate informations about the content and explain what the pictures are about. (Someone also thought I was actually the author of these songs, as my name appears in every screenshot :o Which made me think of the question: can you collect something and avoid the sense of possess that comes with itl? As the playlist is signed, it communicate a discreet sign of "this is mine".)
Anyway, Zoé also suggested that I could have played the songs on the walls, so the images would appear bigger. It could've been interesting; I thought of playing it unmuted, so it would have forced the viewer.s to wait for each cover to appear one after the other, and would have help to valorize them, I think. It would also have been a way to involve the medium that is time. But given the title of the project, I wanted them to bee seen as a group, so the printing helped me obtain this frontality. 

~ Material News ~

07/09

For this project, our starting point is an article published in a newspaper. The one I chose, issued in the Times, is entitled "Geese above Everest are no flight of fancy", and was written on the 6 september by Tom Whipple1. It retraces how scientific research could recently determine how geese are able to fly over 9000m , while they migrate from India to China and Mongolia. The study, at the same time, validates the testimony of sir Edmund Hillary and George Lowe, who were among the first team that claimed Mt Everest in 1953. During their ascent, as they were almost reaching the summit, they saw a goose flying effortlessly over them. At the time, this information was received as the result of an hallucination : the climbers were indeed standing in the "death zone", which is the name given to any region that's situated above 8000m. At such highs, human bodies suffer of the very low-level of oxygen and the chances of dying increase considerably. Climbers judgment and perception quickly become impaired : "so little oxygen was reaching my brain that my mental capacities was that of a slow child"2, recalls Krakauer, who was the only survivor of his team after climbing Mt Everest in 1996. 

This study and the "evidence" it constitutes of E. Hillary and G. Lowe's version of the story raised different questions to me. 

  • Testimony : on which criteria is a testimony received, and what is considered evidence of one's experience ? In the story given by the team of climbers, what is conserved to build history and what was relayed to the status of myth ? 

  • The "death-zone" : in what way does our environment affect the way we perceive, and how do we construct our environment in response? (--> I'm referring to the article on Jstore). On a more existential dimension, can we rely on our senses and on our interpretations of phenomenon ?

  • Bird : birds are widely used as a pattern in artistic iconography and as a figure in literature; how can I translate in a material the idea of a bird flying above the mountain ?  

  • ( The Chapel perilous : could we compare the death zone and the apparition of the bird, preceding the last steps of the climbers, as the final stage of an epic quest ? )

[https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/geese-above-everest-are-no-flight-of-fancy-5n5906g56#]
[https://www.jstor.org/stable/41406042?read-now=1&seq=3#metadata_info_tab_contents]

09/16 - Contextual practice

What can sculpture be?

Sculpture can be constituted of different element assembled, or it can be a single 3-dimensional object, carved, or not. It can be a ready-made, as Duchamps and Dada showed , or it can stand outside the gallery/the museum, as a counterfeit of utilitarian object. Even sound can be used in a sculpture work ;  it’s quite hard to define what sculpture can be, as the limits of it’s category has expanded and now can cross with many other disciplines. As I believe that it is a dynamique and socially constructed notion, to me it mainly depends on what a certain art comunity’s definition is of it, and of the artist’s response to it. But in our particular context, artists seem to be able to use a wide range of methods and to use tangible or intangible objects, traditional or high-tech tools on an unlimited variety of objects. 

What happens when you modify an object or material?

Common-sense defines a material or an object as having a basic utility or « essence ». Modifing it to create a new object and/or exhibit it can create a dissonance between it’s commonly-admitted meaning or use and the form in which it is presented by the artist. The shift can have different effects on the audience, as it can be provocative, comic, disturbing... While it helps question the idea we share of an object or a material, by putting it in perspective, it also challenges our notion of art.
Using an object/material out of his usual context and transform it also allows to explore innovative shapes and textures, eventually creating new things!

What are the differences between ‘illustration and embodiment?

In the arts, illustration is commonly referred as a practice of graphic representation of something, often a story. There’s usually a narrative that go with it. To embody is the way an abstract notion is represented on a material form. It can apply to various abstract objects, such as emotions, qualities, or essences, themes. In both, the point is to establish a relation between a « mental object » and a visual, material form. I’d say that the main difference between these two practices is that embodiment often apply to abstract and ideal concept, so it may be less explicit, and it doesn't restrain to visual representations , where illustration usually reminds of an iconography. 

 

09/16 - Critique

This morning, I thought about my reference artists and pursued my research to answer the questions of the reflection session. I also hung my mobile between the two windows, so the air would make it move. As I thought, against the white wall, it was not easily perceived. I did not add a layer below to finish, nor any new shapes. 

Then in the afternoon we had the critic. I was in a group with Oliver and Kévin. Kevin’s project was about the news, and Oliver made a distorting mirror to represent dysmorphia that can occur for people which identify with male gender, as a result to the heteronomous beauty stereotypes conveyed by culture, advertising and the media, in the western world. The mirror had the shape of a guillotine, so it referred directly to the negative impact on self-esteem that these ideals engender. Since I am interested in feminism and that it is a theme very present in gender studies - what is the norm to define identity and gender as feminine/masculine; how do we perform it - , I had been very interested in this theme in the past, but I had never had access to a masculine's side testimony in that form, so I was particularly touched by his work. 

 Then we moved on to my project: they both found that there was a connection with an object belonging to childhood, and that it evoked memories, and that it may have a connection with sleep. They noticed that it was constantly moving, and that the shapes that were drawn left empty spaces, preventing a proper focus on the object. As Jacob told me earlier, they found some fragility coming out of the object. It was also very high up. They insisted on the difficulty of recognizing a specific object and of keeping the eye on it, because the eye crossed the shapes and the colors did not contrast with the background. I was satisfied with this effect on them, since this is partly what I was looking for. On the other hand, they did not mention any relation with a flying object or at least an elevation, but it may have been too abstract.Then I told them the story I had chosen and they thought that the render was consistent. They gave me several feedback: they suggested that I use different shapes to allow more possibility on the visual level, depending on the movement of the mobile, which is good advice, because it would add to the spectator’s experience. Kevin also thought about using light. I explained to him what I had done at home with the tracing paper, which was only allowed because, at this moment, the mobile was located directly under my lamp.In the studio, the light is too diffuse, and I didn’t particularly think to exploit it. He also talked about using glass - which reminded me of my plan to use resin, but the material was too heavy. Their suggestions were very relevant to my project and I would like to incorporate them if I reproduced this work.

~ Altered spaces ~

Contextual practice 

09/17

Today, the altered spaces project began. First, we had a reading, during which our new teacher introduced us to different artists. I noticed that the works given during the reading remained in a «classical» frame, in the sense that they were delimited by a canvas or a rectangular support, without leaving it. I had already experimented with how the space determined by a frame could be invested with different abstract spaces with different values, for example when I made this letter where an impossible-to-write text served as a background for a breakthrough in a kind of mental landscape with aluminum foil. In doing research, I saw that we could also use the framework to make co-exist/confronte two distinct “worlds” of our identity (via Njideka Akunyili Crosby, notably). 

Then, we were led to making our plans. In the morning, I switched to oil pastels  a piece of wood that I had available. I also used a cloud image again, as it was the only image I brought ( - should've anticipate better...) and I cut out geometric shapes that I have assembled for a composition that escape the frame. The teacher made me a good feed back so it helped me with deciding if I should keep on with this idea, and make it a bit more complex, as I felt quite limited with the materials. l had to print pictures, so I went back into my old tumblr and printed pictures of architecture, textures and others to mix them together, using collage. I ended up with a few ideas: 

-architectural elements with windows and doors filled with different textures (silks, waters, sky, etc.)
- geometric abstract forms arranged in superimposed composition.
- A4 sheets with mental landscapes, superimpose with different textures and materials. 

09/18 
 
I came back home in the evening and listened to music while drawing. I often make abstract drawings in neocolors (oil pastels) or painting  when I have a sense of urgency or have an emotion that is hard to put into words and that I want to communicate anyway. I re-used a drawing made on Monday evening when I returned from the critique of the material news project; I had a very strange feeling that day, I think it is a very good thing to be confronted with an exposure situation - even if it stays within the reassuring context of the school - because it still makes me very nervous. It would be nice to be able to loosen up a little bit and have more interactions with others and the professors about my own projects. I feel that my level of English speaking is holding me back to express precisely what I think, so that day I needed to relieve some kind of frustration as well. The drawing turned out to be a bit different on wednesday, as the abstracts green lines that were crossing the paper ended up a snake :o. I used reflective paper to make his eyes, they look like they’re shining now. Then I went back to drawing birds that fly away, and I cut up a lot of them to fly away from the frame. I know it’s a bit of a cliché, but it also made a connection with the subject of my last project. On the other hand, the problem with these drawings is that they are “ends in themselves”, and I like to connect them to each others (it creates new associations of ideas, new images) but I have again this feeling of disunity that I had with material news at the beginning. So I’ll see what I do with this. 
In the middle of the night I had an insomnia and I had a dream in which I hung paper fishes on wires that I hung from my drawing (wait, that was actually an interesting idea I think?) But I don’t know, I wanted something else so I thought of a spider shape cut out of reflective paper so it wouldn’t scare me; I did it and then hung it at my wall, with the other drawings. 
 
09/20
 
In the morning I started by cutting out the images I had for my project of altered spaces. These are all images that have a link with an opening on a space - there are virtual and imaginary images of video game spaces, an image of an eye in close-up, in which I put bubbles. There’s a picture of a fence with a hole in it, another picture of a window that was probably hit and is broken. I also have a picture of a pink hotel, in front of which the ground uses a pattern of pink and white checkered. So I used this image, I emptied  the windows, as they are the point of passage through an other space within the image, and I put a silk picture behind it. It looks a bit like mercury, so I liked the contrast between the two colors and the different textures. I reproduces that checkerboard pattern with oil pastels, in 3D, like it was moving towards me, and I connected the spider with it. I also have these images of fishes and fruist, in a 2000-animation sort of aesthetic, which I’m thinking of using. I don’t know yet how or where. In the afternoon I went at Tate to visit Olafur Eliasson's exhibition. 
 
09/22
 
Yesterday and this morning I did more research on artists; I feel like I spend a little too much time in theory compared to what I should be experimenting, so today I started drawing again; I thought I’d make some kind of background for the fish I cut up. The shapes I’ve made belong to very distinguished spaces of each other, so I’m going to wet the whole thing to mix the pigments between them, I think it will be interesting, and the leaf will probably be gondolated.
 
09/23 
 
Today, I re-used to the blue drawing that I wet last night and I used it as background for a quick neoclor sketch on tracing paper, to try play of transparencies and overlays. On top of that, I put on some pink glittery textile I had, to make some kind of bright, colored stripes above the rest off the composition. Afterwards, I took back the empty shapes I had cut in my sketchbook for the material news project, and I covered them with neocolors, using pink/purple shades. I wet them and dry them on the floor, and I wondered what would happen if I put them on sketching paper. So I did this, it gave an interesting render of textures and shapes. I asked the teacher for advices, and she suggested to experiment with volume, see what it would look like on crumpled paper, and to reproduce this shapes on a wider scale. She brought me four A1 pieces of tracing paper. In the afternoon, I did a test on a crumpled tracing paper, and it turned into a kind of sculpture. I liked it, but I wasn’t sure what to do with it, whether I was going to give it a bigger dimension or not. I’ve done other tests with overlays on other patterns, but it didn't seem to work well. 
I went back to the first idea; I colored an A4 sheet of neocolors, and I turned it over to draw like a puzzle, and then I cut it out. Then I wet each piece and applied them to flat tracing paper (2 x A1 so in bigger dimension than during the morning). It was particularly interesting to apply the wet pieces, as I had no idea of the way it would appear on the other side, and therefor I couldn't really anticipate the composition of the finale piece. There was a bit of aleatory in my choices. Then I did the same thing on the second sheet. A few minute later, as it was more dry, I turned them to see the result and hung the two "pannels" on the wall.
 
09/24
 
In the morning, I found my two panels in the room. I wondered how to take my project further, as there was still a very conventional side in keeping a rectangular frame as a limitation of the pictorial space, even though I liked the contrast between this geometric form and the asymetrical shapes that were inside. I cut out the panels to form new “pieces” of the puzzle that each panel could become, so that they could be mixed together as well. I’ve tried several times to compose on the ground, until I found some kind of organization that would unify them. To weave more bond between them and try to incorporate other materials, I used thick white wool. It's size made it visible even from a distant point of view, and it had a weightless aspect, which reminded me of clouds. As a result of the process of sewing the pieces of paper together, each passage of the wool drew a pattern like this  VVVVV. It had something a little sharp, nervous, which contrasted a lot with the material as such but also with the previous composition, which was rather vaporous and aerial in a way, with curved shapes. I also think that the paper layers and the disparate shapes that were applied underneath, with the blurred colors, reflected an idea of lightness and distance, whereas the wool had a very frontal side and, as the teacher noted, made the composition heavier. I decided to keep using it to see what would the composition look like, in the end, but I wasn’t too sure that this way of sewing was really the most suitable for my work; I think I would use it another way,  if I had to reproduce this work.
A bit later in the day, I was able to hang the composition on the wall and to think of ways to arrange each piece of paper. I also wanted to add parts of crumpled and voluminous paper, for the sake of the texture and the transparency between the various papers. I also added wool that I hung in some places to add plays of color and confrontation between materials, and then I let a few bits hanging down to the ground.

~ Come here I want to see you ~

09/12 (Day 1)

Today we had to do video/photography around the body and it’s interraction with space.


I was in a four people group. First we explored different ideas of what we could be doing. We checked on the work of Molly Soda, that I’ve been following for a long time now and whose work I like. We were inspired by this work .  At first, our idea was to perform a verb, so we thought of « to confess, to say, to communicate, to express ». We could have record ourselves talking about different subjects/using different registers and then mix all the sequences into one so it would be difficult to perceive what one’s saying. But we also wanted to work with space and objects around us, so we had Oliver recording a video of him taking a walk in the school while having his phone attached in his back, filming at the same time that he’s describing what he’s seeing in front of him, which created a dissonance between sound (or what’s said) and image, as his perception anticipates what’s showed. The video that went out of this idea is very confusing, as we can’t predict what direction he’s taking, it feels like we don’t have any orientation repairs. We did another video with a mirror that was in the room to perform "to twist/ to distort". We noticed that the surface of the mirror was irregular so the reflect would appear modified. As Zoé’s body is very flexible, I shot her while she was twisting her arms, hands and face in front of the mirror. Some passages show her hands in the space of the mirror, from a frontal point of view, and at the same time as they are passing just in front of my camera, being seen from behind. It also reminded me on this piece of Pipilotti Rist : .

Critique :

We had to work on the videos we made during the morning, so I chose the one with Zoé in it, because I liked the render of it. It was interesting because she’s performing a verb and we could experiment with the body's image interaction with space + it's own reflect: as I said before, her hands are seen both from the camera point of view from behind and also as reflected in the mirror, so they appear like two different « objects ». I selected the part of the video I found visually more interesting and slowed it down a lot. The result is a 20sec video of her in front of the mirror; she seems like dancing but even tough it's kind of sensual, the way her body flexes makes it disturbing to watch, as it seems a bit painful, or "abnormal". 

During the critique, Sapphire said that we could have add some sound (which I didn't had time to do, but I would've add some waves sound or something like this). She also suggested that the video could be longer, and it's true that it should be at least 45-60 sec long. To ameliorate the render of this shot, she advised me to use some effects like reverse or more focus on different part of her body. 

 

4D - 09/19 (Day 2)

 

4D - Contextual practice 

Day 1

Please consider your recorded videos/photographs of your performances.  can a recorded image really capture the reality of your act? Which is more important, the live act itself or the recording of it?

A recorded image can only capture one point of view on the act, but so do we in 'reality'. Therefore, on the premise that ourselves, as individuals limited in space, time, and endowed with a restricted consciousness, never have access to the 'truth' and whole being of an object/event, but that we build an idea of reality through our subjectivity, the same goes for the video or the photograph that we take and modulate. The main difference is, though, that the document produced is tangible, and permits to visually and sonically communicate an idea... For the second question: it is an impossible question to solve, because from the moment an action is recorded, then the fact of recording the action becomes a part of the act itself, and it is impossible to determine hierarchically which is more important - as Ausländer shows in his text.

 

Day 2

How did the use of your smartphone enable you to comment on your social and personal identities? Think about the medium did it constrain your ideas or advance them?

I find it too simplistic to establish a dichotomy between our social identity and our “personal” identity, as if the social identity were a simple mask applied over our genuine personal identity; but in any case, the practice of selfie or self-portrait can give the impression of a performance of the self directed towards others. Personally, I take very little selfies so I don’t fully realize the dissonance that can exist between this type of images and my “personal” identity, but I could see that Annabelle, for example, always showed me a flawless smile when I photographed her, whereas in the “real life” she doesn’t smile this systematically. I don’t know if we can conclude that the image of herself that she prefers to convey is that of someone who smiles.
The medium of the smartphone was ideal for this kind of photos I think, because it is quickly forgotten and we can take pictures much more discreetly than with a conventional camera.

Day 3

How has your relationship with sound changed during the creation of your outcomes ? Has this revealed more about your understanding of sounds ability to reveal the new about the world around you ? Or does sound constantly undermining our relationships with the real via its abstraction of it ?

During the creation of your outcome, we had to be active towards sound: either in making it happen by interacting with an object, either in the way we would capture it. So this was a different posture towards it, as we usually occupy a more passive role. This activity was very interesting; nous allons réfléchir plus tard :---)

~ Contextual Studies ~

09/10 - Language and text :

Can you relate any of these phrases or words to any of the works you have made so far on the course? 

It doesn't have too much in common with my collection project or material news project. 

Can you identify any ideas or concerns that you might use in future works? 

During this workshop, I ended up with five short sentences or texts. I like how direct and ambiguous they are at the same time, as it feels like it was taken out of context. To restrain the number of words only allows to communicate the essential part of an idea, and leads to a certain ambiguity, so it might be a good exercice to employ again. It was also a good exercice to be constrained in using a few documents someone had selected for us, as it forced us to deal with a certain content, using for the pages I received, mostly theoretically content on art.

 

09/25 - objects of the quotidien :

I took my cutlery; they are purely functional utensils, bought by my roommate at Ikea. Their design is as minimalist as possible, they show no trace of ornaments. The material, although it has the reflective property of metal and may recall silver, is inox, which is only selected for its ability to withstand the temperatures of the dishwasher. These utensils give a sign of my identity, in a temporal and social point of view. As a witness to a cultural habitus, they also contrasted with objects brought by other people in the class, as Kevin, for example, brought chopsticks. Thus, they mark my belonging to a western culture, but they are also objects associated with globalization and are as impersonal as possible.
During the workshop, also given the centenary of the Bauhaus, I wanted to reflect on the question of the identity of these utensils and reflect on the idea that form follows function, which resulted, for some artists and architects of Bauhaus, in a renoncement of ornement. To take the counter, and illustrate this aphorism, I decided to adorn my utensils with different materials that would sophisticate to their shape and bring color, or that would wrap around them, so as to make them more and more unemployable as they were being decorated.

~ Place ~

Place: contextual practice

09/29 :

During this weekend, we had to document, from memory, a familiar place but which had not been visited for a long time. I first thought of the Université des Bastions and its smell of wet stone... But it’s autumn now so I'd rather think of somewhere more heartwarming. I thought of the Paquis baths then. I have fond memories of this summer. The evenings I spent there talking with Charlotte and Inès, with the sunsets and the jet d'eau that continues to gush; this day in july, after my last exam, and the relief feeling. All the other afternoons with the clams of seagulls, the running children and the topless bathers.
I did some drawings of the place, from memory, and then I wrote some notes on the history of the Baths. It is also an exhibition space, so it could inspire me for this project: for example, this summer, an artist has decorated the space between each steps of the small staircase of the entrance, applying some kind of wallpapers there. It made me think of the works of Nathalie Du Pasquier.

 

09/30 (Day 1) :

This morning we had the first brief. There was a long presentation on artists. It was very interesting to see all the different ways of working with the context of exhibition. The theme is broad, it’s space -  place - environment. I didn’t feel very inspired. This project will be implemented over a longer period of time and we're not restricted to one pathway, so we can use any technique. I'd like to do something different from my last works, but my set of mind is not really fresh. I have a little trouble digesting all the informations, thinking critically about the latest projects while going on with a new one. It’s hard not to keep the head in what is behind; but I guess the idea is to build on previous projects as well, and keep what worked, while letting new ideas emerge in due time. Surely we must find a balance between working habits that we have and leave room for experimentation, and perhaps make discoveries. I shouldn’t be afraid that I can’t control what’s going on. There was an interesting reflection about this notion of control, this morning; we don’t know yet how our work is going to be, what reaction it will create - we can't even anticipate how we'll situate toward it. But that’s what makes it all interesting; if everything was measured in advance, there wouldn’t really be any stakes.

In the afternoon we met at King’s cross. We exhibit on October 17th, in the space between the theatre scenes and the cafeteria. What I noted on that space is that I personally don’t feel particularly comfortable in it, but it’s not intimidating. I find it a little cold, simply; it follows well the precepts of modern architecture p.ex with the bandeau windows and the total absence of ornaments. The materials are quite raw: glass, concrete, and parquet in light wood. The window frames are made of black metal, which highlights the contours well, and draws sharp lines. This part of the building is a very clean, tidy place, maybe reassuring for its regularity, there are no big surprises. There are some parts that caught my attention: under the two stairs situated in the corners of this space, there are benches, which look uncomfortable. So a space where people come to sit, and that could be made more fun. The second is simply the volume between the two blocks that are opposite, there is a lot of height and I would like to exploit this space, especially since there is passage through the gateways. If something was put in the air at that place, there would be many different points of view on it. At first glance, I have the idea of a large, light object, but I don’t know what yet. I’m a little afraid that I will  just bring back my altered spaces project, but in 3D. I might have to talk about it with a tutor. 

 
10/01 (Day 2) :

Today, we had a lecture around the transport. We saw that the passage from one place to the other could be part of the work as main concern, since we will have to bring from archway or at least from the outside, our work inside KX. 

This afternoon, I developed three proposals for the project. The first that came to me is in the logical continuity of my last projects, it would be a kind of synthesis of material news and altered spaces, in the form; but the idea would be to have more interaction with space as a concept. I imagine hanging something to use and reflect on the volume of our exhibition space, and maybe do something mobile again (?)
My second idea was to use the ventilation grid that’s under the bench, because there’s wind coming out of it; I thought that hanging ribbons or placing an object here would be interesting because they would be moved by the passage of the wind, from the outside to the inside of that space. I liked the idea that the wind could enter, and also the aleatory there is in this project, as we can't predict if it's blow or not. 
My third proposal doesn’t really involve technics and seems a little limited in that, because I'd like to use my hands to do things. It would simply be to leave Archway at KX on foot and leave behind me a long ribbon of several fabrics or threads knotted, and then rewind it once arrived to expose it as a non-conform way of measuring distance between Archway and KX.

10/02 :

This morning I woke up before dawn. I decided to go for a walk to see the sunrise at Alexandra Palace. There I picked up dead leaves and flowers, blades of grass I found in the park. At home, I rinsed them and I tried to compose three layered arrangements to see if the sheets adhered together, but it didn’t work out well. If I were to use this system to suspend them, which would make sense with the passage of an external and natural object within the exhibition space, and still with the idea of exploiting the height, I would have to find a way to fix the leaves together, maybe dry them off.

Then I went to sid motion gallery at 11 for the contextual practice course. I thought it was great to hear the artist speak to us in person about her work. She builds new images from fragments of her negatives, allowing her to reconstruct a plural view on a landscape. Even if the new compositions seemed abstract at first glance, they reflect the experience that is really made in this type of environment, as water point or mountain. Because we are mobile and the way we look at spaces and things is variable. In terms of colors and shapes, I found the photos that she added most recently to her series more interesting, because they were composed of more pieces and that colors - shades of blue mainly - were more contrasting. 
After that visit, I went with some friends from the class to see Mona Hatoum’s exhibition. It was incredible. I was extremely impressed by the various reflections and images that were generated. I was very admirative to the meticulousness of her work, for exemple when using hair she weaves, and for her nails necklace. I also found her work very effective to convey ideas. These patterns of grilles and perfect spheres, put in connection with materials with porous and non-determined shapes, have interested me very much.  , at first glance, made me think of an analogy on the eternal question of the duality between Reason and ~Passion~, if we consider the lockers as a symbol of the categories of thoughts and the inner forms as informed and repressed thoughts in a rigid logical system - but I know that my interpretation is generated by my reflections of these days so I’m projecting a lot; it can also relate in a very direct way with the condition of any thing/person that is locked inside a cell, be it in a metaphoric or in a physical way. The multiplicity of the cells and the melting vases also conveys the idea of a community, that would be locked or opressed. 
I also liked the children room reconstructed by wire mesh and ashes, perhaps suggesting the ghostly presence of objects that belong to memories, and the inexorability of time passing by.
Regarding the notion of space,  was also very intersting, as the cube was experienced as a differing form through the place from which the spectator was standing, and it was also massive, so it gave this impression of being compressed inside the space of exhibition. At the same time, the pieces of concrete were very spaced from each other so it had a render of being aerial and light.

Note from 10/27 :   I don't develop on the notion of oppression in my review of Mona Hatoum, though this was explicitly thematized in her interview. Beside the way I see something abstract or ideal in sculpture, sometimes I should remember to open to the social scale, when trying to interpret a piece. Once again, the notion of collectiveness is inherent in art. I should research more on the fields of sociology, politics and ethnology. 

 

10/08 :

These past few days I’ve been unable to do research of writing for school, as I was sick and had trouble with sleeping - I have a feeling of being a bit overwhelmed, that stopped me from acting too much and gave me a moment of wider questioning, but I know it’s an effect of anxiety and there’s no need to put me under too much pressure, it’s okay to be unsure of things. I write this here because I know it’s part of a cycle of thoughts that circulate between optimism and period of doubts, and I’m not the only one who experiences this. It's just that sometimes I need to slow down a bit and just read, go outside and try to regenerate. => it's also always interesting to keep a trace of period of uncertainty, and to accept it as part of the process of learning. 
I don't see the purpose of literature as a way to conclude on the big issues or determine wether something is true of false. I think it should be a way to create interactions and/or let a sense of community emerge between people - or at least it's my ideal of it in the particular moment I'm writing this. So I should just be glad to participate in that, and being in a school that permits to try things and to open dialogues. 

Otherwise, I've been trying things with paper and volume, using the grid as a pattern, but I'm not too convinced with it. I think I want to find another way of using height, maybe some material that is more fluid than paper such as sheets?

 

10/09 :

Looking forward to see the tutor because I feel :  ???¿?¿
---
I could see David this afternoon so I feel a bit less confused with all the questions, I should just calm down with the existential crisis and focus on my project. He told me to annotate and invest my sketchbook way more, so I just added more annotations and now I really want to use it everyday, and not be afraid to let things be raw in it, it's its purpose, so it's okay. 
He also suggested I upload better quality pictures of my work + use a bigger picture of the finished work at the end of each project so it's more clear. 
+ to synthetize a bit the research and make my personal texts more obvious and to highlight what really really matters as they won't have to much time to assess this all. 

I should remember that as well : I don’t need to write to justify, or at least it shouldn’t feel like this. You write and communicate to explicit what’s in your mind; don’t forget that other people have no clue of your past, your cultural references and your own particular logic and visions.
 

10/10 :

Today I was very motivated! I think seeing David helped me more than I thought, and also I should just remember to try things and seek for advices when I'm not sure of myself. In the morning I went to Ruby Sterling exhibition, and absolutely loved it, it was really impressive, and really gave me this "contemplative pleasure" that I like to experiment in the gallery/museum. I wrote my impressions on it during the visit and will put it on my research. Then, I walked to the Collyer Bristow. It was mostly paintings, that depicted either surrealistic or fantastical places (Guy Allott in particular), abstract spaces (Sandra Beccaleri), or evocative and romantic-influenced landscapes (Hannah Brown). I thought this exhibitions was much more following a sense of art history, that made these pictures more "familiar" for me to visit. 
Then, in the afternoon, I went to see my friend Aude and because we decided to make paper together. I want to make vegetal paper for my project as a response to the thematic of environment, and also as a way to start from a raw and natural material to challenge my usual practices. So we went looking for a tamis and soda - that is super polluting... but so is making paper in general I guess? We son't use chlore or javel to bleach it, later - and went to victoria park to get some leaves. 
Then, I got home and did a first attempt alone. So I cut the leaves in pieces and boiled them for two hours with soda. Then, I rinsed it with clear water for EVER, but it never seemed to become less green! I don't know what I did wrong? maybe there wasn't enough soda? Or maybe it's the result you get if you don't use javel? So I just kept rinsing it, wondering how many cubic decameter of water I was wasting, and used my tamis to do small round sheets. I put them under press. It's hideous......... but I'll see what I can do with it!!!! I'll just try again.
While the leaves were cooking, distilling a delicate scent of burned-grass in all the appartement,  I took the sort of filet I did as a try few days ago. It's round-organic shapes of paper connected together with four loops of thrill each. It draws a motif like this: IMG_1317.jpg

 


So I added color on the paper, making it red on one side and blue on the other. And I added more pieces of paper, so I could make it a sort of tube. I'll put a picture of it next to the text because it's hard to describe. I suspended it in front of my room, just to let it hang a bit, and my roommate told me she loved it when she got home! It gave me the will to pursue with this idea. I wish I could just make my own paper and connect it with this system, and let it hang from the places I want in King's cross, it shouldn't be too difficult. It's just difficult to anticipate what the homemade paper will look like...
To find a plan B, I should get my old work back home and see if I can use the shapes I already did. 


10/11 :

As I wanted to be able to re-use my altered spaces and see how to take it further, I went in Archway and took it back home. I think I should have done that sooner, as it presents a ready-made material, and I should always keep in mind that my old works are not necessarily meant to stay at their place, they can keep changing. I also tried to use the photo studio to take better photos of my material news project but it was too fragile and got broken in the transport..... I'm not too sad because I think this work was a bit weak, but it's a shame because I really have no good picture of it. I should remember to always bring a camera for the critique, so I can take good quality pictures of the work as it's displayed in the studio. I also scanned the readings with annotations I did. Then, I got home, and cut all the pieces of my alter spaces work : 

 IMG_3617.jpg

I also did a fast sketch using oil pastels. In the evening, I went to get thinner and lighter leaves, as I my precedent trials with vegetal paper went bad. I think it was because of the type of vegetal I used, it was reed, and probably too thick. I also tried to boil some agar agar to crystallize flowers inside, as Sterling Ruby really inspired me with this process of capturing something inside a transparent content. But as for material news, I can't use resin, so agar agar seemed a good option, as it's clean and vegan. 

10/12 :

This morning I did another quick sketch that is double-self-portrait in oil pastels. I wonder what I can do with these drawings,I won't use it for place but I like doing it so I will try to do more,  to see how it evolves. In fact, it follows a further reflection that the "selfie" day for 4D actually really helped me to have, and which encouraged me doing more auto-representation. I'm not really comfortable with the camera yet so it may help me to use a sort of avatar in drawing. About the rest, I haven't check the thinner paper sheet I did yesterday, because it's under press and it needs to dry more, but I'll see tomorrow morning. 
This afternoon I was at Zoe's place to experiment with wax, and I think I'll be using some for the Places project. So Here is my plans :

My plan A was to use homemade paper, and to wax dead leaves on it. All the sheets would use thrill so the whole installation would be organic, I really wanted to restrain myself with the material as a way to respond to the theme of environment, and especially since Extinction Rebellion took place all week in London. Also, I liked the idea of using fresh leaves I'd go pick in the morning before the exhibition. I would just have to build the structure in advance. But anyway, my homemade paper probably won't be ready for thursday. So I may use tracing paper again, I like it as a material because it's light and transparent. I also still plan on doing a lot more of the pieces I have from altered spaces, because it was easy and I could do something really big. Tomorrow I must begin to sew this, and get some wax as well. 

After that, I went to Barbican art Gallery to visit "Into the Night" and it was such a good visit! I was very pleased to see modern art, as it's a field I have studied more than contemporary art yet... And in this exhibition, there was a reconstruction of L'Aubette, the Chat Noir, and Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich, so it really cheered me up to see this, it gave me a familiar feeling. Also, after seeing Kokoschka's postcards I decided to send some to my friends at home too, and draw them. What I will retain from this show is to keep exploring music and nightlife places as an inspiration - could do something about l'éclair for example -. But more importantly, to use colours whenever I need it, and not to hesitate depicting figurative/narrative scenes as well. 

10/13
:

I checked my vegetal sheet this morning, it looks like vomit! Definitely not what I expected but it reinforced my will to not use this technic for thursday, because I'm clearly not qualified yet. It was too thin; I need to find the right balance between very light, flexible leaves and thick and dense others. Also, I tried to avoid using a tamis, but I think I'll have to invest in one, because it's really not easy with the thing I did myself. Or no, rather, I should build one tomorrow. 
I began to sew my pieces of paper together. I like the result but it's still a bit small and it's going to be difficult to transport I think... I will try to roll it, maybe. I think the more I sew, the less chances there is for the whole thing to tangle. 

10/14: 

Today we had an introduction from Adrian, that helped me determine wether my project was viable or not. I was afraid that due to the fact it's hanging, my project might be unsafe. But as I'm only using light materials, Adrian said it shouldn't be a problem and that I can keep this idea. I also made sketches to visualize it more precisely and explain how it may be hanging. I will be using wire and mostly paper. 
On the afternoon, I made research on Olafur Eliasson, Dorothy Cross and Annette Messager. After school, I went to Zoe's place so I could get her object for our project, as she's being hospitalized. She gave me wax to help me experiment with the leaves on paper! <3
In the evening, I went home and put aluminium on the back of my papers so when the pieces turn the aluminium and the colours will be seen at the same time. It will reflect light and their shyness may contrast with the colors mixed with water under the tracing paper, as they are mattified. It presented the advantages of being an immediately available material, and it can be recycled, when the exhibition is over. I also continued to attach more paper pieces together and did a quick double-selfportrait with neocolors. 

 

10/15 :

On that day I wasted time because I didn’t bring my equipment to work at the studio, as I thought my object was too fragile to be brought to the studio and then brought home afterwards. But actually, I was able to come back home and it was a good thing I had to take this job to Archway because it trained me for Thursday transportation. So at school I continued to tie the pieces with the wire, I really liked the repetitive and meticulous side of this manual work, it relaxed me to do this. The biggest difficulty is to determine at which length to tie the thrill, so it is tensed when the pieces are hanging. Maybe there will be some fuzzy places when I exhibit it, but that’s okay. I think it’s going to be done by thursday. I just need to continue what I started. I like the idea that this work is a kind of symbiosis of material news and altered spaces in form. It feels like part 1 was a block.
In the afternoon, we had introductions to the various pathways, I’m no longer certain what I would prefer between painting and sculpture but I thought I would nevertheless deepen my practice in painting.

 

10/16 :

Today I had the workshop for Unserhaus project, I'm in the language group. On the afternoon I had contextual studies. I finished my work during the evening, but haven't seen it hanged yet. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

09/03 - Collection

I initially thought of collecting the packages I use for my food and then turning them into a sculpture, to give them a kind of second life through the transcendantal space that is the studio (note : too early for this derision mélodi), but I quickly decided to focus on a kind of collection I'm actually used to do, to re-evaluate the way I collect in my everyday. I realized that a playlist on Youtube could constitute a trivial but intimate collection of different kind of content, and that it might be a good starting point for my project. I liked the idea of not keeping the collection for myself but rather reunite different objects without a sense of possess (if that's achievable (?)) and let it accessible online.

09/04 - Collection

During the last two years, I discovered and started to collect songs labelled as library music on Youtube. Their genre would include ambient, prog and synth-pop or ~funk music with very slow tempo. Most of these songs cultivate an ethereal, "out of this world" vibe through the use of synths, and some of their titles directly refer to alternate states of consciousness (->dreamunderwater worldsour soultheme from the deep etc). 
What catched my attention with these songs at first was their covers. They perfectly illustrate the program of the music, and some of them are so attractive that they're also the main reason I'd add a song in my playlist, I must admit. As stated in one of the comment under now-famous Brian Bennett's Solstice, "the cover had me before the song started. And I know I can't be the only one". 

For my collection I therefore decided to focus on ten covers that show patterns or objects that are commonly use to depict/refer to an altered state of mind, like the clouds, the opening door, or the journey into an oniric, fictive universe. 

Though they are initially conceived to follow the music, I extracted them using screenshots of the youtube pages and printed them, as the content of my project's collection is the visuals themselves, the work of the anonymous or unfamous artists behind these more or less unknown album's cover. 

The act of collecting these became the same as curation, as it was based on personal and specific criteria, and that I had to figure how to show them in the best way for them to be seen as a group. 

Trying to draw attention at these beautiful, old-fashioned and amusing pictures reminded me on the approach of Erik Kessels or Parr, at a lowest scale. 

 

 

Material News

09/09

Initially I thought of a mobile to evoke «the apparition» that the climbers witnessed. It has this interest to be a high object in the exhibition space, attached to the ceiling, so to the sky on the one hand; and secondly to be kinetic, therefore fluctuating, transforming. This is reminiscent of the hallucination that mountaineers were thought to have been victims of.

I immediately thought of the idea of putting abstract forms because the point is to make the viewer doubt what is being observed, to make it impossible to identify a specific object. Also, the mobile as an object of art is inseparable from Calder’s works for me, so his abstract figures are the first image that came to my mind. 

Then, I've been thinking about possible materials to use. I suggested to our teacher that I could put aerial or very light objects in resin because it transparency reminds me on ice and I wanted to distance from the traditional mobile. But unfortunately it is heavy and not particularly easy to use so I'll keep it for a next project.
(I had this work in mind --> , I thought I could do small pieces and hang them in the ceiling)

I felt a bit stuck in my work today, I did only a few sketches and could not decide anything; I told myself that I had to go outside to get some material.

 

09/10

Before school, I went to a sewing shop nearby where I live and I came across these kinds of feather boas; they were all tied together and I found it beautiful and haptic; it made me think of a bird, so I took a few to try. I also got big-loop channels that I thought might be useful.

Then I went to the studio and visited the school shop. I took a lot of different materials to try things out. I started to make oval and round shapes of wire and to sew over a transparent fabric. I added feathers, and I tried another one with a small plastic tube. During the afternoon, I found some wood in the workshop and I sawed it in abstract organic shapes. I pierced it to hang the objects made during the first part of the day. 
It seemed interesting to me as an experiment but a little «disjointed», because of the number of different materials.
At the end of the day Adrian drew our attention to the sculpture of Camilla, who wrapped various objects in a sort of wooden base with string, and I liked her method of wiring around objects to make them unrecognizable and create a new chimeric object. 
When I came home I tried to reduce the number of my materials; I kept the wire to make rounds and I used wool to cover it. In this way, the shapes are at the same time more visible because the line of the contour is highlighted, but the color is neutral : on a white wall, it will be less easy to perceive, which is what I'm searching. I hung a few of these shapes together and I tried to compose a dynamic between them, so they don't touch when they move in space, and the way they are arranged draw a rise

 

09/11

When I came home today I observed my mobile and I thought that tracing paper would go with it; the tracing paper has always made me think of fog or some kind of vaporous texture and I think it is relevant to evoke the hallucination that may have taken place in this mountain context. I sewed two fragment of it together to build an abstract shape; it reminded me of an eye. I kept a kind of drop that I hung, which adds to the elevation dynamic.  I also put a flat sheet of the same paper behind the mobile, to look from below at the shapes that the shadows of the small objects draw, and that was appropriate, because it didn't allowed to see the mobile, only it's projection, that was transforming as the mobile moved.

 

09/14

I found the paper below the mobile a bit rough, so today I took it off. We’ll see if I put it back on. I made research on the artists that have been working on mobiles before, and the artists referenced in our lecture. 

09/16 - Material News

 

Does your final piece convey your original starting point?

I originally thought I’d be using much more different material and shapes. In that way, my project materiality and the idea I projected of it at first are very different in terms of colour and textures. I also thought I'd be using some patterns that relate to birds, even if it was only evocative, but I ended up with mostly abstract shapes. The principle did follow my initial plan, though. The place where it was shown also allowed some air to make it move, accordingly to my will of a transforming and moving object, but to make it really interesting to watch and allow it to considerably transform, it would have necessitated a better structure. The one I made was mainly constructed with wire, which didn't allow the fluidity in movement that some thrill could have permit.



If not, what factors have taken precedence?

For the question of the materials, it was principally a question of technical restrain for me - like the weight of some material - and a lack of technical skills that forced me to reconsider wether I reaaallly wanted to use many sophisticated materials or sewing technics for example. There also was a matter of coherence : I felt like it would be more according to the history I chose if I restrained to a few material such as paper/wool. 

How did the materials affect your approach to form, scale, location of outcome?

Wire allowed me to use different ovoid and round shapes, that reminded me on brancusi’s Bird in space, and the shapes of Calder’s mobiles. The scale was more dictated by the story I based my work on: I wanted it to be small so it could have the volume of a bird flying away, and also look like something spectral. The location also restrained me to play with the shadows as I did at home, since the light is quite diffuse in the studio. 

 

Did you face any obstacles in the making process and how did you deal with these?

Yes, I changed idea on the materials several times. At some point I wanted to use transparent sheets of paper, but I also wanted to avoid plastics; resin was too long/heavy to use (and as I’m not familiar at all with it, it may have taken more time as well). I also wish the object was more movable, as it was not that kinetic, in fact. 

 

Which artists in the lecture or from your own research informed your own work? In what ways?

Damiàn Ortega inspired me a lot with his approach and methods on Cosmic thing, in particular the idea of deconstruction. Sarah Lucas inspired me as well, for the uncluttered render, the neutral colors she restrains to and the biomorphic shapes. For the idea of the mobile, Alexander Calder was my main inspirations well as Bruno Murani. For the shapes, I was also widely inspired by the work of Jean Arp. 

 

Altered spaces - 09/24 : Critique

I presented my project, displayed near the window, as a finish work. It didn’t have a title, which I think is good in that case, because unlike the material news project, for this work I had no preconceived idea of what it would look like, so we really had to reflect on the material aspect of the work above all. The absence of a title prevented any prior interpretation.
My group made different associations, or rather projected a few qualities on the final piece: there was something comforting and soft that came out of it, and Sapphire said that it looked like a cloud, as the colours were soft and pastels; it didn’t feel harmful. The teacher also said that it was harmonious (- I had effectively tried to think of the composition as a whole and therefore composed it with a more or less conscious concern of harmony). Someone said that it looked like cells, maybe alien cells; this association probably comes from the fact that all the shapes are organic, as for the materials (except for tape and fix paste). Sapphire said that it could be representing a good memory, something comforting to think about, so a mental object. Right after, someone projected quite the opposite qualites on it, which was really interesting in showing how relatives are these interpretations: the piece reminded her on a dislocated body, of which each pieces had been sewed together. The wool could also be compared to intestins, so there was a notion of violence and visceral. It can recall on Louise Bourgeois’s opinion in sewing. On the material, they pointed out the experiments with transparencies and shapes. Sapphire also liked the 3D aspect of it, as it added depth. 

My personal opinion on this work is that, thanks to the advice of Emma and Zoé, I invested an interesting discovery on the textures, which pushed me into another dimension of working with paper. It was nice to develop a sort of process for doing bigger compositions, because I'm not used to work in such wide spaces.  in my opinion, the resulting two panels were visually interesting, but my main concern during this project was to reflect on the framework, so I think it was a good exploratory to disconstruct them. Then, for the use of wool, I'm not sure the way I used it was so appropriated, or the best I could do, but it was a way of pursuing my experiments with sewing paper, which I already did for material news as well, and to bring the pieces together so the work still ressembles a whole. I also wish I could develop more on the 3D aspect of it, as it was still a bit limited. Maybe there could have been more of these pieces, and they could have been more voluminous as well. Now that I'm writing this, I realize that this would definitely make my composition look like a cloud; I'm not sure that I really want to make it look like this but I've been thinking of it as a pattern from the beginning of the year, so it probably influences my choices (?)




 

Altered Spaces - Outcome

09/12 - 4D project 

DAY 1 - Body in Space

Reflection Session:

 

Is there a specific point at which action becomes art?


The category of "art" is a dynamic and socially construct notion, and therefore depends on what the users define with this word. I'd say that there is no absolute specific point at which something becomes art, it mainly depends of the paradigm of the people involved in the act and its reception. 

How can we move freely in our bodies and across borders, in art college and across the cosmos?


I have no idea, but it's easier if you are confident, beautiful, and have valid identity papers. (This question is too vast)

How and when photography is a performance ?

 

 

How did you find the use of your smartphone as a medium? Consider the local and wider implications of the use of such a mediated device. 

I find it important that an art school/institution validates the phone as a legitimate tool for photography and video, as it is one of the most democratic medium for the practice of photo, video, and visual communication in general, nowadays. It has  good qualities : it can be used in the public space without drawing the attention of the people around on it, it is easy to carry - most users have it constantly on themselves, it doesn't require too much time to record/photography something, and it permits to share the content instantly. These are as well reasons to question it, as it blurs the line between public and private, and most importantly it interferes with the notion of consent (-> when capturing or sharing certain contents with people on it).

 

In what ways has this advanced your understanding of how a camera lens observes the world around you?

To watch something through a camera lens allows to crop the context, to focus on a particular part of something bigger. It can build images that some refer as "substitute for reality" if we refer on what Roland Barthe says, or it can be produce with a purpose to depict something abstract and fictional. 

 

In what way has Philip Ausländer's text, on the documentation of performance, affected your understanding of the act of performing in front of a camera versus the documentation of this act?

The problematic that Ausländer seems to focus on is until which point is a performance determined as such by the existence of documentation on it, and if this documentation is purely relative to the performance, as it could not exist in an autonomous way; the main concern on his essay is to reflect on what way these two "events" have an inter-determining dynamic. His demonstration is the following : 

1. both the act of performing and the documents of this performance are submitted to the audience's gaze. 
2. It is equivalent wether the audience has access to the live-performance or to the documentation of it. 
3. to document a performative act participates in its conception and reception as a work of performance art. 
4. to document a performative act, therefore, is a performance

=> These two acts are interdependent and are equivalently essential to the artist's performance art work. His initial corpus for exemplification is Klein's Leap into the void (1960) and Burden's Shoot (1971); the first is staged with no direct audience (we could discuss wether there really was no audience) and the second was a unique live act with an audience. His conclusion on their classification is that both of them are evaluated as work of performance through the performativity of their documentation, as the presence of a direct audience does not determine a categoric difference; the main criterion is the existence of an audience that has a access to a fragment of the performance a posteriori via the documentation. 

I noticed that one element is completely absent in Ausländer's essay : the value of any piece of writing or verbal production on the experience by the artist/audience as part of the performance's documentation. Can we neglect the importance of the discourse and rhetoric postures in the construction of an act as performance, and is it not a manner to document it (making it a performance as well) ..? Especially when he cites Austin, who is a linguist. I think it's a field that would have been pertinent to mention. But maybe he includes it right from the start in his definition of documentation? It's just not really explicit, as he focuses mainly of photography.

The ideas I found really good and interesting, beside his principale thesis on the performativity of documentation, are:


- The deconstruction of the notion of documentation, that he introduces as a relative point of view on the reality of the performance and not as a substitute of it (following Roland Barthe).

- How performance has a collective dimension (as well as any form of art, according to Becker's Art Worlds (2010)) 

- The role of the notion of authenticity and it's weight in our judgement of the two pieces of Klein and Burden; I think it's a very good remark to ask on what basis we determine a work to be more or less "authentic", and at what point documentation nourishes or not this notion.

 

Ausländer

Selfie Poetics

4D project - 09/19

DAY 2 : The Self

 

Reflection session :

 

How did the use of your smartphone enable you to comment on your social and personal identities? Think about the medium, did it constrain your ideas or advance them?

What does the use of the selfie reveal about the politics of images online?

 

Considering the selfie as a mediated image online how does this alter your understanding of the self portrait? Consider the ways in which the image on line is manipulated by code, ownership and abstraction.

 

Does the selfie show a reality? 

 

Are there any themes that cross over from your peers and if so how did you incorporate this?

 

 

Georges Perec, Approaches to What?, 1975

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exhibition Review : Mona Hatoum

Mona Hatoum, White Cube, Remains to be seen, 12 September - 3 November 2019 : 

This was the first time i went at White Cube, and I think this exhibition was such a good response to the feeling this place can give, as the architecture is the most minimalist possible. To me it felt quite anxiogenic, but I was extremely impressed by the various reflections and images that were generated.
I was very admirative to the meticulousness of her work, for exemple when using hair she weaved, and for her nails necklace. These pieces conveyed the fragility human bodies, to me. I found her work very effective to embody her ideas. These patterns of grilles and perfect spheres, put in connection with materials with porous and non-determined shapes, have interested me very much, for the contrast between rigid lines and organic shapes.  , at first glance, made me think of an analogy on the eternal question of the duality between Reason and ~Passion~, ( Note : I meant that it made me think of the usual antinomy between emotions/rational mind I don't know if it was clear (?)) if we consider the lockers as a symbol of the categories of thoughts and the inner forms as informed and repressed thoughts/impulses in a rigid logical system - but I know that my interpretation was generated by my lectures and reflexions of these days so I’m projecting a lot; it can also relate in a very direct way with the condition of any thing/person that is locked inside a cell, be it in a metaphoric or in a physical way. The multiplicity of the cells and the melting vases also conveys the idea of a community, that would be locked or opressed. 
I also liked the children room reconstructed by wire mesh and ashes, perhaps suggesting the ghostly presence of objects that belong to memories, and the inexorability of time passing by.
Regarding the notion of space,  was also very intersting, as the cube was experienced as a differing form through the place from which the spectator was standing, and it was also massive, so it gave this impression of being compressed inside the space of exhibition. At the same time, the pieces of concrete were very spaced from each other so it had a render of being aerial and light.
The message I retain from Map (2019), is a world seen as fragile and instable, relying on impredictable dynamics. The pieces are well distinct to each other, but at the same time they are made with are made out of the same material. It also give an idea that they are all part of a bigger system, even if the borders disctinct them. 

 

Exhibition review : Takis

Takis, Tate Modern, 3 july - 27 october 2019 :


His work was a discovery for me, when visiting the retrospective in Tate Modern. I was so thrilled to see his pieces! Especially the ones with massive objects concentring around a magnet, as it is a closed circuit that's not generated with energy. His fascination for the dynamics of attraction and repulsion between objects lead him to combine the fields of poetry and science - which are certainly not antinomic anyway. His pieces embody symbols and metaphysical questions that motivate science, philosophy and mythology. The "music of the spheres" he materialized through the gong and the massive spheres around was an immersive experience which invite the audience to access a meditative state. 
It also recalled me on the works of geometric abstraction, as if passing from 2D to 3D. The composition were clearly produced with a concern for harmony, in pieces like Radar...

Exhibition Review : Olafur Eliasson

Olafur Eliasson, In real life, Tate Modern, 11 July 2019 – 5 January 2020 :

This was the first time I saw an Olafur Eliasson exhibition. It was a stunning sensitive experience. I liked the use of intangible organic materials and all the variety of visual phenomena involving lights, water and movements. The big bang fountain and the flash lights was incredible, as it felt like taking pictures with my own eyes, while every single "shot" of the fall of water was unique and totally aleatory. It was also really impressive to experiment the corridors filled with fog, because the whole body of the viewer was immersed in this environment. For me, one of the most interesting work was the one that made space black and white by the use of orange lights, since there was again an alteration of the viewer’s senses, which lead me to question my own eyes. 
I am keen to reflect on a way to involve the spectator, for our places project.

Exhibition Review : Sterling Ruby

Sterling Ruby, Gagosian, ACTS + TABLES, October 2 - December 14 :

I didn't know about Sterling Ruby before coming into his exhibition. His pieces reminded me of a sort of aquarium at first sight, with a fluid crystallized inside what appears to be resin/acrylic. The render is very pleasing to look at but also seems like a technical prouesse as the mouvement of the colour is just stopped in motion. The contrast of these aleatory and wavy lines with the square crystal-alike content is really fascinating to look at, and especially when the viewer turns around the pieces. I liked the contrast with the tables as well, that show some inscription and scratches. It adds a sort of human presence under these very minimalist sculptures. 
---> it reminded me on this chair  I had in mind a few weeks ago. I like the idea of suspending time and mouvement through the use of transparent acrylic. It gave me the impulse to experiment with agar agar and flowers, as it's non toxic and cheaper than acrylic. It will also be easier and quick to use.

Place - Outcome

10/17 (exhibition day) : 

 
(rajouter ce que j'ai écris sur cette journée en particulier pcq là c'est surtt pour la suite)

For the rest of my pathway I’m thinking of signing up for painting, but I’m really glad to have been introduced into 4D and sculpture in particular, which allowed me to make objects in three dimensions and to materialize a form of interaction with time, since I tried to produce moving objects. I wanted an object that wasn’t fixed and which organization could change. In sculpture, this effect of transformation can be obtained from the outset by the viewer’s movement around the object, whose  points of view modifie the perception of the piece, but it also happen by the interaction of the object with its direct environment - in my case, with the wind for the places project.
As for the form of my project for Places, there clearly was a notion of left to chance, because I did not know exactly how this object would be rendered once exposed, it had not been hung as a whole before.
In order to facilitate its movement and make it easy to transport, I restricted myself to very light materials: there is the paper on which I drew with oil pastels, directly applied with water on tracing paper - it was my pieces for Altered spaces. Each of these pieces has been singled out by the cutting and each has a unique combination of shape and color, randomly produced. Then I tied the pieces together, through the passage of a needle and a thin thread that connects the pieces without sticking them to each other. I liked the idea of having a fragmentation and aerial effect with these spaced pieces, it looks a bit like an unsolved puzzle. The fact of interconnecting them gave the idea of an organizational logic between it. ( plusieurs interpr. :) it could resonate with an apprehension of the world and my own identity as fragmented, driven by different forces and being in a play of tension between each others. There's a double movement of singularization or particularization, while these pieces remain linked to each other by a larger system. By regressing from a scale what seemed chaotic and incompatible at first sight may become meaningful as a whole.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


I have enjoyed the course a lot so far, and felt quite challenged in my previous conception of art. I am extremely thankful for the research and exhibition the tutors sent me to, as I discovered many new artists and different practices I didn't know! I was very stimulated by the rhythm of the project following each other, and the quality of the project briefes and lectures. 
The first project, Collection, familiarized me with the approach of minimalist artists, and encouraged me not to use traditional techniques. I understood that contemporary practice could be based on a two-stage movement: defining a content and applying a methodology to it. Then, think about the location of this object in an exhibition. Then material News allowed me to start with a (mobile) sculpture project. I was very pleased to find this opportunity to do so, because I had the idea of this object for some time but in a rather vague way. Even though I think that the two versions I proposed remain prototypes, my projects for Material News and Place have made me aware of the dynamic and temporal aspect of sculpture. This extra dimension allowed me to go beyond the frontality and fixity of the drawing, which is the technique I am most used to using. In addition to my research for the projects, I was reading The Waves by Virginia Woolf (1931) which clearly nourished my reflections on the passage of time and on the plasticity of identity and our apprehension of the world. The question of identities was also present in Der Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse (1927) which I read in September. I think that these two works have greatly influenced the form that my projects took, and nurtured a dynamic both of continuity and deconstruction that I tried to implement by passing from altered spaces to place. The artists who also nourished these reflections are notably Alexander Calder, Jean Arp, but above all Damian Ortega. During this project, I also tried to use more lyrical or organic forms than geometric. My lecture of Sculpture now, by Anna Moszynska (2013) really developed my understanding of the question of materiality in sculpture and to discover the large spectrum of outcome artists have explored during these last decades. 
I felt comfortable for the project Altered Spaces, not only for material and technical issues but also for vocabulary and research, because I was accustomed to analyzing mostly pictorial works in my previous studies. I am more used to drawing techniques, but I am very attracted to the idea of introducing new techniques into my practice, such as sewing, cutting, pasting…During the altered spaces project, I was able to experience more directly the interactions of papers of different types or with other materials. I was also able to explore new shapes in space.The colors I got with the pastels were a novelty for me, because I was not used to mixing colors before.
Thanks, among other things, to my meeting with Zoé and my research on Pipilotti Rist, Molly Soda, Zhang Huan, Cindy Sherman (…), I also opened myself to the possibility of using my own body as a medium, while reflecting on what a white woman’s body means in the social space that is mine (although my inner identity is obviously complex). I think I need to continue my research on this topic, continuing my reading of Your silence will not protect you by Audre Lorde (2017) and continue to learn about intersectional feminism through podcasts and other reading, because even though I’m learning about these issues, right now it’s a completely absent aspect of my practice.
I hesitate between a pathway in sculpture or painting for the rest of this year. I think sculpture could open up new possibilities for me, as I am keen to work in 3D. But I feel like I belong to painting, as it’s my main medium for expression and it’s certainly the one I’m most efficient in. I could keep using painting but use different type of canvas that would allow to explore the relation with space or bodies. It is also a way to explore a new kind of relation with the audience.