London Trip 2018

London Trip 2018



Map / Our Route:



Exhibitions that I am interested in:

- http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/modigliani
- http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/red-star-over-russia

These two exhibitions interest me as they both focus on people and athesitcs. I am very intrigued by how both artists are some how similar by bribing society and events into their work. I like how they both use figures and emotion to send a message to the viewer and attract them in a way. I am very interested in the Red Star Over Russia exhibition as I am into the vintage style and Culture. I really enjoy seeing anything relating to war counties such as The Dark sides of Germany, The Russian culture etc. I am interested in anything most people can’t bare or struggle to view as it’s too disturbing etc therefore I feel like this exhibition is more for me how ever the other exhibition I also find intruiquing as even go it’s just figures there is a sense of vunderability and exposure that attracts me as a view. They may not look human however they still portray us.

Final Piece Build Up And Final Piece

Planning

The brief of our project to conclude the Palm House Project was that we had to create a final piece of artwork that could be shown in the palm house as a decorative piece as well as promoting the palm house it’s self to the guests and visitors that attend the palm House. To start of I began by thinking of what I wanted todo; I was unsure to start with but I eventually settled down with a couple of ideas. 

Idea 1:  For this Idea, I wanted todo a large portrait of a statue that was in the palm house out of String and Pins. The reason behind this is they are very basic materials and represent the materials that can be shown through out the palm houses structure as well as the ropes and barriers placed around the palm house that represent the strings. To me though it didn’t really cry out palm house and it didn’t promote it in my eyes.

Idea 2: For idea two, I thought about doing an extremely large scale painting / abstract mix media piece. This was to give myself a challenge as I normally stick to tonal pencil / Pen pieces therefore by doing this, it’s showing i am pushing myself into areas I’m not comfortable with and would make me face a challenge. The painting was going to be the structure with another statue who had a child to show the innocence of the palm house and how pretty it was. I wanted to also show this in a dark light as the palm house broke in the 1980’s therefore I wanted to portray that she was the innocence that had been left behind and held it together. 

Idea 3: finally for idea 3, I wanted to do a really large scale and the best way to play to my strengths with tonal however also to fit into our 3 week time zone, was todo a charcoal piece. I wanted to relate the charcoal back to the late 1800’s Liverpool during the slave grade where the palm house was given as a gift to The “Yates” Family as a part of The slave trade being banished from Liverpool, also the fact that the palm house was falling down and had to be rebuilt in the 1980’s also provided me with a dark storyline that I wanted to proceed with espeacially because of how dark and mysterious charcoal is, it would be the perfect media to use. 

After some debating on which would be more suitable, I decided to proceed with Idea 3. This to me was morepractical todo and a good way to promote the history and the truth behind the palm house as well as the fact that it is a beautiful house full of palms that you probably won’t see very often.

Build Up

To start off, I had to do some reasearch and find an artist that I believe would guide me through this self taught project, I decided on an Artist Called “Kathe Kohlwitz”. I was truly inspired by her work once I saw it as it was very similar to the way I wanted to portray this final piece so she was a perfect example to follow. I personally love her work as I think it’s very gloomy and sad to look at however you can see the emotions and truth behind her portraits even though they don’t look completely human. They Always tend to be facing away from the viewer or have blacked out features which I hunk gives her work a sense of mystery and the unknown which will attract more people which I hope todo with my piece in the palm house as it is unknown what you are going to see there until you arrive. Kathe uses a range of charcoals, chalks and inks in her work so I wanted to stick to that mainly however I did mix other medias into the work through out.

I then moved on todo 4 Charcosl drawings with faces from people I used to model and the statues from the palm house it’s self. I enjoyed doing these drawings in the charcoal however I did find some of them difficult todo as they were in a smaller scale of A3 therefore the charcoal wasn’t the most practical media to use to try and capture the texture and fine details in the faces and body structures of the images. These images are very structure based however al carry the same story of feeling trapped and not wanted in a modern day society and feeling like an odd one put, the palm house is odd because we live in the 21st century and the palm house is a 1800 structure so it doesn’t fit in anymore, the word around has changed and it’s been left out as a reminder.

I then moved on todo 8 mono-prints however I decided to incorporate a variation of different medias into the mix such as inks, pens, charcoal, chalk. I also used a variation of equipment to make these mono-prints such as the end of a ruler, finger tip, scissors, the back of a pen. I also used a variation of this equipment to apply the media’s to create a variation of different patterns on top of them.

After these, I decided to mix in some screen printings of a female portrait. I decided to use brown just to add some colour and also to represent the palm bark , I also added a variation of backgrounds and textures such as woods and book pages to create texture to my print. I enjoyed doing these as they are showing the use of some techniques that I don’t really like however I am happy with the outcomes. I decided to also mix in medias with with the prints to change them up and add dimension and meaning behind the prints.

For development behind my final piece I done a composition layout of what I would like it to look like, I took inspiration from lathes group drawings however I want todo it as a piece that I have my own semi realistic style on. This includes drawing realistically however in a way that it doesn’t look “Atomically” correct. I done it as a pencil sketch to start and I done it rough /sketchy looking which I liked to see it in. I then added layers of tracing paper to add features that I wasn’t sure weather or not I wanted there, this then allowed me to see my final piece in a different way each time and I was able to take away and add without actually destroying the composition.

I then added a Canvas based drawing of a nude man to change things up, as I have done women I wanted todo the nude man as it shows diversity and a change as I am leaving my comfort zone and drawing a gender that I have never done before. I added a long pony tail to the male to represent men of the 1800’s, I think of Victorian kings /politicians such as Charles I etc. I then added shadow pen of the palm house, palm leave and a column from the palm house. This created a sense of mystery and darkness that related to the slavery of the palm house. I then decided to stab his heart and create a layered heart using glue and paint, this was inspired by my sister who recently broke from a relationship and was heart broken therefore it’s to show her pain and suffering. I then wanted to incorporate sticking so I done a stitch affect that focused on the heart, I used red to represent the blood stretching and focusing on the heart.

Here also I done a large fabric flag using charcoal of the statue from the palm house as well as a large charcoal piece which was also half paint / Shadow affect. This was to show how society seen the slaves as no one and the charcoal side shows the pin and suffering they injured during that time.

Final Piece

My final piece was inspired by Kathes group work that she does. I done up to 16 female figure being surrounded by the palm house falling down as it did in 1980. I wanted to show the statue of Mary also in the middle to show innocence and all the slaves seeing her as an inspiration and wanting to grab her. They are all naked to show that they don’t even deserve to have clothing and that they aren’t seen as members of society. The shape of my canvas was a very large scale charcoal piece in the shape of the palm house to show that all of this went on behind the closed doors and society didn’t even want to help. I enjoyed doing this project as it was something different for me, the scale was much larger than I am used todo doing as it took up most of the room and the media is something I don’t use very often as I find it too messy and an inconvenience to me however I wanted a challenge and it payed off in my eyes. My main problem with my final piece and my prep is that it didn’t scream palm house and I am happy with that because I didn’t want to be so literal and just do a pall leaf and call it a day. I wanted my audience to be interested and be like what does that have todo with the palm house let’s go see why. Not oh it’s a palm let’s go see a palm.