25/03/2009

Went to the EV+A exhibition as a group today with Aine and Katriona, it was very interesting and there were some great works on display. I particularly liked the work of Sean Lynch, It seems probable to suggest that he is a great conceptual artist.Made other half of the mould for the eggsaw.I have readied my jigsaw pieces for insertion into the resin eggs (when ready). I have wrote the words "congratulations you have solved the puzzle it was created by artist Richard Williams March 2009" on to the different pieces, I believe it is going to work out very well.

24/03/2009

Carried on making my mould for the eggsaws. Photoshop A.M.It was good to start at the very beginning, it has filled in a lot of gaps, so to speak,as Nigel said, it's like watching the film from the beginning. A couple of more experiments for the display of the Starling egg. Attended class reps meeting this afternoon, there was a very poor turnout only 11 out of 50+ reps attended 3 disciplines were not represented.They're bringing in pay parking for recession bitten cash strapped students after Easter, the students union said they can't do anything about it, I personally didn't see any petitions going around objecting to this, I believe the union is somewhat weak.In the afternoon, myself and Mathilde carried on with our sound experiment ion/performance. We went to the basement and set up an orchestra of sorts, we did this because I suppose like we are "conducting" experiments. We set up a couple of hoovers sitting on chairs,a guitar, bongo, some steel pipes.Funnily enough one of the hoovers had a face on it which added to the fun ! we masked our faces and put mops on our heads for the performance, we did this I suppose to add, in a sense, some humor! Who said art had to be serious!!! That said, the whole point was about the sound,hence the anonynimity! It was maticulously planned even though some of it looks spontaneous enough, we will present this at our seminar but are not at first going to reveal it is us, we are going to say it is some artists that we have referenced, just to see what kind of reaction we get, we are also hoping to take some photographs of the reactions !

23/03/2009

Completed my mould today and filled it with silicone, it all looks good. Was experimenting with another way of displaying the Starling egg. Ordered the boards off Richard for our work (Mathilde and I). Had seminar today (presentations) they were all very good, I especially liked Bernie's presentation, her artist was Gregor Schneider a brilliant artist, I really can appreciate the way his mind works.Had class meeting about Berlin exhibition today, it went well, it's definitely a reality now as most of the lads are interested in going, E mailed the gallery tonight to confirm this.Wrote up 489 words of thesis today.

20/03/2009 contd.

My progress review went very well, I got feedback from Aine, she has given me some great advice as to what kind of direction I should consider taking with my work, it was very much appreciated. On a personal note I have to say what a marvellous bunch of people the tutors are; very professional, highly educated, and more than willing to go out of their way to help in any way they can. When I hear about other departments, It makes me realise how fortunate we are here in the painting department.
Sean Lynch (Former student, artist, and visiting artist) has studied under the tutelage of Simon Starling in Berlin, so rather than e mail Simon Starling directly about the Starling egg (I am apprehensive as to the outcome of this) I will instead write to Sean Lynch, to see what he thinks Simon Starling would make of it.I know Sean from the first year sculpture block, he is an approachable man, and I really like his work.

20/032009

Alan has informed us that Jason Oakley of the VAI, would like to do an article about our proposed 'cultural exhibition' in Berlin. As you can imagine, this was received with much gratitude and appreciation. The gift horses' mouth has got even bigger! Despite all this, people have started to withdraw from the proposed exhibition, which I think is a great shame, and an fantastic opportunity to miss out on.A few people have asked if they could send their work over instead. This is something that will have to be discussed, IE would it be fair on the people who do go over to Berlin? We have a class meeting on Monday to discuss if the exhibition wii go ahead. Alan seemed a bit disappointed when I told him of the uncertainty of it, I can understand that, It would be a great advertisement for the painting Department, and also for the LSAD.
Carried on preparing my 'eggsaw' mould. Nigel has agreed to let me to continue with photoshop with the second group of second years, fair play to him.

19/03/2009

Handed in literary review, glad to have that out of the way. Started making the mould for the other resin eggs. I am going to encase jigsaw pieces into the eggs and hang them from a device(for assessment purposes). What is my concept? I suppose I got the idea after the starling egg. The thought occurred to me to do a series of these, what I plan to do is bury the eggs with the jigsaw pieces inside them. The eggs should last for many hundreds if not thousands(I'll have to research this) of years, when ultimately discovered, the puzzle itself will be an enigma of sorts, for further generations to unravel the mystery of. I will leave clues in my art work over the coming years so as to guide researchers to the location of the 'eggsaw' which I have now named it. I will naturally document all of this, and even make a video art piece about burial.I will obviously have to bury them in a not too obscure location)
The starling egg, despite my best efforts can not be buffed up to a high shine.(When the egg was, as I thought dry, I put it in to my pocket, as it was still a little tacky it gathered fluff and dust from my pocket, and it got embedded into the resin.)Des Farrell has suggested to me that because of this, I perhaps should concentrate on the display of the egg, IE go over the top (so to speak) on the presentation of it. I think it is a good idea, he has given me some good advice on things to try. I have got different materials off him to begin experimenting on ways I could achieve an excellent presentation.

18/03/2009

Photoshop this morning, starting to know a few things now. We were shown how to use the sacred printer today !Very interesting. I will put up my image here when it's finished.P.M. Tutorial with David Brancaleone, it went very well.Great advice as usual. I am really finding this thesis business quite interesting.Ann the librarian was very helpful today , she gave me some good tips for the research.Carried on preparing the literary review.Had a chat with Alan Bennett to see if he could offer any help in regard to Mathilde's cause, he said he would look into it. Heard from Mathilde this evening, she had tutorial with David, apparently he thinks her written English is very good, and he would have no problem in backing her on this point, Fair play to him.