GRAVITY STEPHEN WILSON 19.03.2015

Lecture Notes:

Amateur Time, Kids, Youth and Transitivity - Gravity 'time' Lecture

What it might mean to have a better understanding of time?
Where is the optimism in terms of the future? raised issues of constant surveillance

Joao Penalva 1949
From the Weeds of Hiroshima 1997
photographs, gelatine silver and ink on paper.
 - Used photogram technique to capture images of weed flowers which pushed themselves through the ground hit by the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
 - Weed has uses in medicine and symbolism of life
 - Radiation connotations in silhouette like photograms, shadow of previous life imprinted to the page.

"the future is not what it used to be"

Vivienne Dick
Guerillére Talks 1978
Revisits an era of having no money meant to possibility of having more time. A way to survive in London on the welfare state in the 80s - allowing time to develop practice without interruption.
Continually framing a female perspective. Gorilla filming to emphasise mood and texture. Part of the 'no wave' movement.
 "Wanted to make films where men are peripheral, much like women are."
Testament to youth culture.

'...We live in a talkative era, one in which the public display of opinions, raciness, declarations and diverse 'comings out' has reached a level seldom seen in the past.' - Marc Augé - The Future (2015)

"Imagine an exhibition that cannot be sustained. Thats is falling apart before installation has begun. That flickers on and off to Skype notification sounds" - Hito Stereyl

Work Shown - Mercela arms - Exhaust, 2009
(6 cars, plastic container, gas combustion, bridge)
- presents an image the provides a public reminder to what cities now represent in these current time. Very complex results in these grown up cities.

Yuan Goang - Ming
The 561st Hour of Occupation (2014) - Video
- Students occupied the parliament of Taiwan for 561 hours
- Students wanted a closer watch on how taiwan is being governed, especially in regards to their future.
- soundtrack came from the taiwanese national anthem, slowed down in order to give a 'church-like' chorus.
- filmed on the eve of the withdrawal.
- visual index the coveys a amateur youthful revolt.

Opavivara! Formosa Decelerator (2014)
Transmedia: 220 x 1000 x 1000cm
16 hammocks around a tea table.
Questions on productivity.

'Can we speculate collectively on how to move beyond the present confines of contemporary arts practices, and begin articulating what can  appear from it's 'formerness?'" - Camiel Van Winkel - Statement taken from an ICA lecture on February 4th 2015

Questions:
Do you think theres a politics in wasting time?
So much being written about social 'structuristic' job work which don't help to support culture let alone art. How we have navigate this cruelty and optimism at the same time.

'Can we think of a future after the future?'

Lecture started questioning society and culture in terms of time and how our cultures have changed in time - 'The future is not what it used to be.' What we thought we once about the what the future would be like has not occurred - time itself has changed society. Explored questions of work and play. The time we spend reflecting on work as artists and the time we spend creating artwork, questioning this balance. Letting our practice into our own lives just that little bit more.

Gravity Ben Judd 12.03.2015

Lecture Notes:

Interested in Interstitially ( a state of between-ness) 

Work - I Miss, 2002

• Group of trainspotters at Doncaster station. 
• Interested in how they have a group but which still distinguishes them from everyone else. 

Work - I Love, 2003

• Went to film the men taking seeded photos for glamour magazines 
• added a voice over as to why he loved the men? 

Work - I Will Heal You, 2007 

• Went to work with a witch in south america, people warned him not to go near her 
• He visited her and put himself into her hands 
• Had a psychological impact for a short period after the ‘Cleansing Ritual’  
• Set up his own religion, hired a team to make a collection of objects which would give grounding to the belief 
• He wrote a statement to say what the religion was about but also warning people that it was also a sham  - links to his ideas of contrasting interests 

Work - Close to You, 2008 

• Started going to night classes whereby he learnt how to draw people from beyond the grave. 
• Quickly became fairly well recognised and did several talks and shows about it. 

Work, Observance, 2009 

• Approached 2 witches living in London
• theres a performance of nature in what they do
• so he asked actors to perform the ritual 
• is there anything that actually happens in this case. 

Gravity Savinder Bual 19.02.2015

"My practice is driven by my fascination with the illusory qualities inherent in cinema. Imagining myself as a film pioneer I explore the interplay between the moving and the still creating works that sit between the pre-cinematic and the digital. 

By discovering low-fi ways to aft movement to single images and commonplace objects/materials my intent is to ignite an element of wonder at the illusion of cinema, giving the everyday enough of a twist to allow the imagination to run free." - Savinder Bual 

http://www.savinderbual.com/about.html

Lecture Notes:

- Moving image, both subject and medium within her work.

- Early films about movement, something she explores in her work.

- Traditional film, half of the films are in darkness caused by the interruption of the shutters inside the projectors.

- Interested in what happens in this black space between imagery. Sees this blank black space as room for imagination. The darkness is more powerful than a still image itself. This was a clear theme in her moving image piece Flicker.

Flicker from Bual on Vimeo. - Made from a single photograph, 1 second (looped) 

- Fascinated with the juncture point between the still and moving image.

- Explores themes on journey and travel

- Talks of how she likes trains, sitting on a train is like going to a movie, you get your seat and and the window becomes the screen - constantly changing.

- Used pre-cinematic devices because tangible.

- Aimed to emphasise how things are made, loops to highlight its mechanical nature.

- Believes in living in the now and in the moment.

- The themes of flight play a large part in her practice.

Flight from Bual on Vimeo. - 40 Seconds (looped), 2012

Bual's short film Flight is a clear exploration of her fascination with movement. The short film depicts a mechanically simple flying bird attached to a ceiling fan. This piece intrigued me with its indications of the freedom of flight yet the bird is still attached and on a planned trajectory. 

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Gravity Ian Kiaer 12.02.2015

Decided to bring in a yoga mat, interesting dimensions; the exact measurements of a body, had the walked mark of a person and showed its purpose and those that had touched it. 

The space of thinking before anything is made. 

mat is an invitation to lay down. art is the act f making the act of production - most valuable time is when you are not in action - what is a productive state? mat invites you lay down, invites you to ‘not do’ invites you to lie down - a different view on making. 

purposes and practices -

practice is a labour, about putting in time and having an intention and completing that intention, often about having a goal and surpassing it. 

purpose is a space of bringing into presence, the studio is like the mat, brings you into a tentative space - brings you to think and reflect on things before going into practice.

likes the fact that its almost not an object, thats its so close to the ground. 

White mat leads him to think about monochrome; its brings up and particular question to painters of the death and end of painting. Monochrome is the first full stop of painting, nothing more to be said. - Rochenko 

began to think a lot about architecture, looked at russian architecture. relationship of living, dwelling and sleeping. takes up the most redundant practice of painting cliche images - still life, portraits etc. 

Kiaer made a piece to reflect this, large hanging ‘curtain’ of painted material - see through. Wrote a text to go with melnachofs studio and architectural interest. Laid over part of the painting on top of the printed text. Text talks about the artists and the relationship between living and the architecture of the building - working, living sleeping etc. made beds within the house out of concrete - almost like death bed - being laid on the slab. 

In reaction to melnakofs hospital commission, made a metal chaise longe - connotations to the chair, hospital, talking, interesting conversation etc. sense of affliction and physical suffering. get the sense of sick patients laying down and talking about there personal issues and psychiatric issues. 

Thinking about paintings and death, sense of how to continue thinking about something that has been declared redundant. you could paint a cake, yet get the sense that he's painting against something else through colour and tone. talking about in-depth subjects such as the holocaust, the idea of being able to cram all of this into a painting. 

Michael Crebber - painting over a patterned cloth touching on the idea that painting is dead. like the idea that a painting is something that you can begin yet is never necessarily finished.  

show in france - aldo rossi building. buidling designed by an architecture in the 1890’s thinking about what it is to make to and what it is to building. over determined space to display artwork in. thrust into the bookshop straight away, idea that books are of high importance and lead onto work. building is split up into several spaces; reading spaces,  artwork spaces and resting spaces. Building was beyond its time - circular sections etc. 

idea of pressure of what artwork should be. pressure of making work in the studio and bringing it out. agonises in nature - sometimes the artwork doesn't support in the space. 

in the grand salon space, idea or the artwork raising to the space within the gallery. idea of reflection, took out all of the windows and the lights above so all of the focus was on the boat hull inspired ceiling. 

did the opposite, displayed work in a small gallery in Paris, filled the space with a large inflatable become more of an obstruction. 

Gravity Andrew Burton 27.11.14

Lecture Notes:

Fine Art professor at the University of Newcastle

   - Likes to recycle and reuse materials in sculpture.

Interested in landscape and the way people interact with the land.

Likes to make connections across the land; Northumberland Dales - Korean Burial Mounds (similar in shapes and structure)

   - Also interested in grand buildings

   - Inspired by general life in Delhi, finds sculpture in stacks of hay piled on trailers, clays mounds used to protect fuel (wood)

   - Inspired by the informality of architecture in Delhi

   - Intrigued with brick manufacturing in India, Delhi

   - Using a small wooden mould  and packing it with clay.

Explored different methods of brick making, chimney, stacked.

Interested in how bricks correspond to human scale.

Appeal in the natural way bricks crack and discolour.

   - Bricks are recycled lots in India, some still have paint on them form previous structure e.g. Blue bricks represent Brahman houses.

   - Worked with Delhi based brick masons - excellent craftsmanship - to build commission vessel.

   - India - vivid, vibrant but untouchable - found bees nest - reflected in this theme.

   - Found chilis in spice market which reflected this as well.

   - Worked with bamboo to build structure. Hung nest of red chilis from bamboo structure.

Looked at how bricks are made in Holland - agricultural.

   - Made brick tyre inspired by bust of Sheba.

   - Made reconstructions of grand buildings, interesting juxtaposition of grand building made of cheap materials. contradiction.

   - Constructed a miniature Adrians wall.

   - Graffiti artists worked on it.

   - Knocked down at the end of the exhibition.

Also uses life size bricks to make sculpture. Korea knocking down old brick buildings. Wanted to stay looking at a narrative with the bricks. Built circular structure.

Made structure in Canada.

Used vibrant graffiti bricks to build a buttress against an institutional building - interesting concept of the graffiti supporting the institution.

Went back to India - Interested in the use of cow dung to make these small pancake pieces.

   - Built monuments out of pats.

   - Brought in different materials to see how they would use it and react - used mirrors and had burst of creativity with patterns and designs pressed into them.

   - Found it hard to get structures into museum because of the material used an the social status of the women who built them.

China:

  Most of Chinas old architecture had been knocked down. Used rubble to build new miniature cities out of it. Lots of empty waste land across China made miniature copies of these abandoned structure out of bamboo.

Commissioned piece for airspace gallery - mini structures on stone surrounded by vibrant purple budlias changed into a dark brown over time but didn't shrink.

Questions:

Was the prejudice encountered by the women who worked on the dung structure part of the artwork.

   - Was about their structures gaining recognition for their work.

Was he (Andrew Burton) allowed to touch and work with the dung because he was a man?

   - He was. Normally men wouldn't work with dung because it was the lowest of materials.

   - May have seemed weird to the women because of traditional values.

Did displaying the structures open up the viewers and different audiences?

   - Yes, lots of tourists and higher class visit the museum.

   - Interesting how structures are made all across India but they all vary in style.

   - Still stigma between museum curator and women who made them  - still different class divides.

   - People still aware of this heritage however with the disappearance of traditional methods with the new modern materials and techniques people more interested in their heritage.

Did you speak to the women about the meanings of the designs and patterns?

Yes, they immediately took to using the mirrors I brought with me. No worry or self- conscience about using new materials. It was their creative outlet, the women wouldn't do art without these structures - this was the material and medium of their choice.

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Gravity Week 5 - Thomas Yeoman

Lecture Notes: 

Video artist - Works with Current themes 

Koni 2012, most viral video of 2012 

   - Invisible children were accused of slacktivism due to poor explanation of what actually goes on 

Yeomans talking about his practice: 

   - Interested in audio visual language as communication, most work has been made for screen at on off events and specific times - temporary work. 

Sound is what drives poignancy and power of the work. Work has been described as Post internet, post emotional, post cinematic. 

Common future: 

   - Themes of emancipation self empowerment. 

Cadences Extract from Thomas Yeomans on Vimeo.

Preview from Thomas Yeomans on Vimeo.

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Gravity Week 2 - Sophie Mollins

Lecture Notes:

Interactive Media Art, makes websites using images with links to various interactive content. Links form a 'maze' around the website giving the viewer/user an explorative sensation providing a personal   experience to the narrative of the work.

Meadow Arts commissioned her to create a piece of work about a gold antique figurine depicting a monkey chained to a harp while playing it.

Photographed mothers belongings after she died making an archive of her personal items; shoes, frying pans etc.
Developed an interest in the laces on her mothers shoes.
Again used the website form to generated an interactive archive of items
   - Interactive maze/ map/ story/ narrative.
Website called 'Don't forget about the monkeys'.
Photographed and documented
   - Lead onto Meadow Arts commission.
   - Similar kind of website for commission.

Idea of objects appeals to her. Being with an object made by our ancestors a long time ago really appealed to her.

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Gravity Week 1 - Dawn Mellor

Lecture Notes:

Held exhibitions nationally and internationally.
BA, Central St. Martins - MA, Royal College.
Intensity of work and studio practice.
Regularly featured/ mentioned in online discussion
Began presentation with a series of her childhood art (13 - 16yrs)
   - Heavily featured Michael Jackson and other male celebrities
   - Lack of black presence in pop culture at the time, racist culture - no understanding of context and                   or why this was occurred.

Trying to understand the culture and how racism is raised within people and children from a young age - people articulate racism from around the age of 13, racist terms, slang etc.

Contextual Information:
   - Racial tension within society
   - Economic crisis at the time
Portraits were an attempt rot understand the situation. 'Drawing full of naivety', 'Obsession with American celebrity.'
Recognised and understood there was a relationship between economic position and cultural understanding.

Portraits of celebrity Actresses
   - Celebrity 'Troll culture'
   - Offensive
   - Censoring out of 'ugly women'
   - Sense of being closed down - forced into target markets (clashes of personalities with gallerists)
   - Displayed work featuring Dame Helen Mirren in a Southend Library (Mirren had previously made controversial remarks about Southend - irony of 'bringing her back to Southend.)
   - Satirical comedic element of bringing her back to Southend
   - Library display, 'worst place to display work' - public connection
   - How we build a relationship with were we are born/ brought up.
   - e.g. Known as 'Queen' after playing a role as Queen Elizabeth.
   - Exploited class positioning when it suited the occasion; 'Down to Earth, Southend girl', Aristocratic Russian descendant who emigrated to Southend.
   - Narratives of exploitation of Actors/ Actresses.

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