30/04/2009

Gave my colleagues back their deposits. I feel a sense of disappointment over the Berlin affair; We were very excited at the prospect of showing in Berlin; I guess this has been a valuable learning experience. I personally have put a great deal of time and effort in to this project; correspondence with the gallery, organising the meetings,writing up the jobs, discussions with colleagues, collecting deposits, sending money off to Berlin etc,etc,etc. That said, we are not going to let this stop us. We are a very determined group, and we are still looking at other options. Quimper has been mentioned, I think this would be a good option, we'll have to investigate this further. I am thinking of burying the eggsaws in a bog close to where I live; a few years ago, there was some butter that was found there that was deemed to be a thousand years old. I believe it would be a good historical reference to use, not to mention the historical significance that bogs have to island of Ireland.

29/04/2009

Went for CCS tutorial with David. It turns out myself and Tadhg are the only students who have appeared for tutorials over the past two weeks! It must be quite disheartening for him, as he has a very strong interest in helping students with their studies. All went well in the tutorial; have to edit down the quotes a bit, and for next week I have to present a plan of the essay. Overall though, David seems to think it is proceeding very good, which is always good to hear. He also brought me in a couple of editorials which he thought I could use in the thesis. I think this is an example of how committed he is to helping students with their studies, even though he is obviously a very busy man.It is very much appreciated. Berlin is now officially dead in the water ! my colleagues and I have decided that the Turn-Berlin gallery is not a place that can best represent us as emerging contemporary artists. Even though we are in the painting department,and would therefore normally be classified as painters, we have had/are having an eclectic education in contemporary art which entails more than just painting, for example, we use sound art, video,sculpture, photography, performance, etc. As a result of this, not all of us in the class actually use paint as the preferred medium for artistic expression.We believe the contemporary artist of the 21st century is far more than just a painter; and contemporary art galleries, are well aware of this. Apart from all this, my colleagues and I were very offended by the condescending nature of the correspondence we received from the Turn-Berlin gallery.

28/04/2009

Spoke with Des Farrell about eggsaws; can't get a high shine on them but it's not really necessary. I discussed the pedestal construction with him; he is fairly confident that once I sort the perspex out, he can construct the pedestal very quickly, also spoke with Richard Slade about this, he is getting me a pedestal to adapt to my own design, which is great. Also spoke with Matt Gidney about the ultra violet lighting; he has given me the name of a company in Childers Road where I can obtain them. Everything is proceeding exactly as I have foreseen! (Quote from Senator Palpatine, the dark Sith lord, in Star wars!) LOL. Seriously though, everything is very going well T.G. I am extremely confident, that all I have set out to do in my practice for the assessments, will be achieved. Mathilde got accepted at Dunlaoghaire I.T. today I am delighted for her, Hope she can stay with us here though, everyone has commented favourably on our performance piece.

27/04/2009

Presentation seminar today. There were many different artists discussed; again a great variety themes. Mathew Barney; Obscure works; successful football player, All American , Trying to take this apart? Uses many materials, some significant. Androgynous figure; notions of the classical figure (Cremaster). Ideas of a story but not really telling a story.
Peter Saville, Peter Blake, Stanley Donwood; all album cover designers. Saville worked with joy division, (factory records, Manchester post punk). Blue Monday cover; Italian futurist influence. Peter Blake; Kind of pop art style; sgt Peppers, Paul Weller album, also recent commision for Coke.Stanley Donwood; cites Casper David Friedrich, Hieronomyus Bosch and time spent in museums and mountains as influences. Existentialist type influences dreamy, Peter Doig like.
Lawrence Weiner;Coloured objects (in Ghent), Text on gallery walls. Marcus Harvey; Myra portrait made from childrens hand prints.Tony Cragg: collects discarded objects from streets to make images. Chuck close;portraits using shapes like puzzles. Richard Prince; text in art (humour) to take away from the seriousness of art world. A lot of the artists today question the notion of the visual in different ways, also raises questions about the nature of museums. Ann-Marie Busschers; hyper realism, child with chicken pox, highly detailed. Ron Mueck; Sculptor, Giant size sculptures of people etc, again highly detailed.
Afternoon; spent time in library reading for thesis.

24/04/2009

More reading today for the thesis.We still cannot find the mini dv tape that had our performance on.Amanda (Sculpture tutor) has suggested that we create one still image of the performance; the image alone would be strong enough to give a representation of what thie performance was about. My self and Mathilde agreed that this is an excellent suggestion if we are unable to find it. We Managed to get Mathilde connected to the lit wireless internet; this will be great for our presentation on Monday. Alan has asked if they can show my practice diary as part of an exhibition, of how artists use different processes in their work; this is a great honour.

23/04/2009

Presentation seminar this morning. It was very interesting, a great variety of work and artists. The were a good few artists which I particularly liked; Gregory Crewdson for his film set type photographs, Claes Oldenberg, for the everyday objects he turns into 'extraordinary' sculpture pieces. I liked the humour in the artworks of Erwin Wurm (stuffing things up nose), Banksy's Elephant with wall paper, and Terry Borders' little wire sculptures; very humorous, something we could do with a little bit more of in the art world, it's far too serious ! Fred Wilson is an artist of particular interest to me as I will be referencing him in my thesis. Cultural identity is one theme in his work; he argues that museums are only a kind of truth, and not an absolute truth. There was mention or the Alter Modern exhibition in the Tate gallery in Britain; again this held a special significance for me, as I have a very strong interest in contemporary art. Charles Avery's Aleph Null head was intriguing. Issues of displacement and cultural identity, were a theme of Navin Rawanchaikul's work, while travel, politics of places, and trade borders were evident i n the work of Simon Starling's work (An artist of special significance to me). Walhed Beshty work about airport security x ray's were intriguing, while the artist as traveller was a theme covered by Darren Almond; Mark Dion was also mentioned. All in all it was an excellent presentation seminar, very informative, educational and thought provoking.

22/04/2009

More reading again today for the thesis. It is intriguing to read of the research that Pierre Bourdieu has done; and how a lack of artistic familiarity and education can effect the way people feel about museum visitation. Have also done some research on the artist/professor Alastair Maclennan; he is a well known contemporary artist who works in performance art, something which myself and collaborating colleague Mathilde are undertaking at the moment. Michael s Reidel is another artist I have been researching, he parodies other artist's exhibitions. He has done a send up of a Simon Starling's work too.