Graham Dolphin 27.01.2015

Lecture Notes:

• Alternative titles 
• Everyone knows this is nowhere 
• day dream nation 
• life goes off 
• please note our failure 
• waiting on a dream 

Originally from Stafford born 1972

Art Foundation 1990 - 1991 

BA Fine Art Painting - Bath University 1991 - 1994 

One art gallery along with two cinemas nearby when growing up, art to him was boring black and white text books with poorly produced photographs. This was his culture. 

Rented a VHS player and watched a lot go unmoderated movies as a child; Dr. Killer, Cannibal Holocaust, Experimental Camp for example.

Also interested in music and music magazines and their cover art. 

Used to record music on cassette tapes then draw and make album covers from magazine cuttings 

inspired by koyaansqatsi - film, recordings of cityscapes and members of public within the city. Trilogy series. no narrative, no words, just clips from everyday life in cities.

Visual Drone and Resolve: 

Stockholm Music and arts festival - August 2014 

7 Screen video piece 

got musician to play 7 different droning sounds 

Damien Hirsts’ ‘The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of a Someone Living’ 1991 - Couldn’t relate to the work, production costs were expensive - off putting etc.

final show at university - drilled through a Vogue Magazine. wanted to use something graphic, something that would stand out. 

First solo show came from his final piece. made 30 pieces from vogue and other fashion magazines, burning into the front covers, drilling screws into them, sticking hair to them, sticking vacuum waste to them. 

Made first publication from these works called ‘Everything from Vogue’ Solidified the work in the book and brought an end to the series. was creating other work at the time. 

wanted to make a video but didn't have the knowledge on how to. 

made a video piece called 1500 images of Kate Moss in 60 Seconds. played at 30 frames per second. Kate Moss still remains omnipresent. 

Moved away from fashion and started making front covers of album art. 

scratched song lyrics into vinyl records. used an etching scribe to scratch into the records. About owing the objects and things, personalising items. Liked the shift from buying them from a mass market then making his mark on them and them become precious, or one of a kind. also interested in the economy of this. 

Bench. recreated a bench outside kurt cobaines house. people write messages to cobaine on the wood of the bench like a memorial as he was cremated so no grave. 

Jim Morrissons grave in France, person made a crude bust of morrison which stood for 6  years which people defaced. eventually stolen. Grave now protected. Interested in the power these celebrities have over these people for them to come and write. 

redraws suicide note of elliot - famously left his note on post it note on a mirror. 

Recreated a rock that bob marley used to rest his head on while he smoked. people visit the rock much like the bench previously mentioned. 

recreates celebrity shrines… detail is about making them look old and weathered, finding the right and appropriate objects to add to them. 

made a series of fan - drawings…redrawn fan drawings he has found online. 

Frida Khalo’s Last diary entry.

ink drawings featuring lines repeated over and over again, interested in when they start to wobble and deconstruct. 

Started creating text pieces. wrote out every album and song he has in his iTunes. did a similar piece but writing down every human emotion. 

Are you a fan? do you have an obsession with celebrities? 

Only in the same way that a painter has the same obsession with painting or painting a certain theme. 

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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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Transmission Week 5 - Mel Brimfield & Gwyneth Herbert

'Mel Brimfield's practice is rooted in exploring the vexed historiography of performance art and its relation to theatre and popular cultural forms. She makes work in regular collaboration with a broad range of performers, including comedians, choreographers and dancers, musicians, cabaret and theatre practitioners. In recent years, she has developed exhibitions and performances for agencies and institutions including Yorkshire Sculpture Park, the Government Art Collection at Whitechapel Gallery, Camden Arts Centre, Henry Moore Institute, and Ceri Hand Gallery.

Gwyneth Herbert is a critically acclaimed singer/songwriter with six albums to her credit, including the recent The Sea Cabinet commissioned by Snape Maltings. Paul Higgs is Brimfield's long-term collaborator, and has been the musical director, composer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist for all of her large-scale live performance and film works in the last four years.' - http://www.transmission.uk.com

Transmission Week 4 - Warren Neidich

'Warren Neidich is a Berlin and Los Angeles-based post-conceptual artist and theorist who exposes the interfaces between Marxist inspired cultural production and its interrelationship to the brain and cognitive capitalism to produce an Emancipatory Materialism. His
interdisciplinary anarchic experimental works combine photographic and video elements, Internet downloads, scotch tape, painting, and noise installations. Selected international exhibitions include: PS1 MOMA, the Whitney Museum of American Art, ICA London, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Walker Art Center, Kunsthaus Graz, Kunsthaus Zürich, and Los Angeles County Museum. He was a tutor at Goldsmiths College on the MA Visual Arts, and has taught at Harvard University, Princeton University, Brown University,
Columbia University, University of Cambridge, the Düsseldorf Academy, among others.

Selected awards include the Fulbright Specialist Program Award, Fine Arts Category, American University in Cairo, 2013, and the Vilem Flusser Theory Award, Berlin, 2010. His book The Psychopathologies of Cognitive Capitalism Part Two was recently published by Archive Press, Berlin, Germany. His collection of essays Resistance is Fertile will be published by Merve Verlag in 2014.' - http://www.transmission.uk.com 

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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