We should have had a Practice Review a few weeks back but illness and cyberattacks got in the way which led to us preparing for it to happen today.
The suggested slide layout was provided by Sylvia , I guess so that she could compare the information more readily between the members of the group,
The Practice we’re reviewing consists of our work with cameras and images created which will hopefully help us to produce some images for the exhibition at Eagle Works which is set for mid April. The chat in the afternoon will see us discuss the exhibition and come together to agree on a set of standard designs/names etc.
My practice for this year consists of Liminal Spaces and later images of my workplace, a factory, after hours. These images and thoughts are represented in the review below, each section will consist of Sylvia’s prompt followed by the slide I presented along with any thoughts.
Slide 1
Talk about your work and how you are experimenting and risk taking. Include relevant images.
You can see from the experimentation that I have been trying to get images made in different places using different cameras, digital and film, along with some video and soundscapes. The video I had for this slide, I had converted into an animated GIF but when it was changed to a PDF to upload to the Uni’s canvas system, the GIF’s animatedness was lost. I’ll include it here below.
In terms of the risk element, I’ve spent a lot of time trying different methods of making images but some of the images I’ve selected to use for my practice are similar and sometimes might appear to be very similar. Also I had a concern that due to their abstract nature and the subject not being immediately obvious that it might be lost on people who do not know the factory as intimately as I do, leading to the viewers being disconnected.from the image.
I’ve also taken risks with sharing the images with colleagues, as most of the people I work alongside are engineers first and foremost and there isn’t a large number of artists or art appreciating colleagues. It appears that some of the people I’ve shown the images to do not see what I see in them, but I guess that’s fine, we all take from an image everything that we bring with us.
Slide 2
Talk about your recent research on artists and photographers, Talk about your 2,500 word essay or visual analysis what you have done and how they link to the work you are making.
Talk about the academic texts you are reading to inform your essays and your practice. Include relevant images.
As you can see from my Research slide I have visited a number of exhibitions selected to feed into the preparation of the exhibition of our work in the Eagle Works space. I visited the Wolverhampton Art Gallery after the talk from Naomi Greaves to see the 150cm height in action and also other strategies of hanging and displaying the works.
I’ve been looking through books that I have borrowed from the library such as Le Corbusier by Kenneth Frampton, books I have bought like The Movie Art Of Syd Mead Visual Futurist by Syd Mead and Craig Hodgetts, journal articles found via the WLV library facility amongst other links and places I’ve found info. You’ll note that I have contacted Mark Power to see if he can give me some answers to some questions about the image that I’ve chosen to do a visual analysis on for my contextual module. The essay/visual analysis will be around the word “Atmosphere” and this links in nicely to my Practice with the photos I have creating their own sense of ambience in an eery way.
Slide 3
Talk about the exhibition and how you are making decisions about where you will exhibit your work. Share layout ideas, ideas around presentation. Share the research you have done. If you are sharing this work in other places, talk about this and include the feedback you have received. Include relevant images.
My slide 3 shows the info collected on the first trip to the gallery space, and then the evolution of ideas to where I am today. As I explained int he group review today, I had selected a method of displaying my work on a wooden pallet or two in the middle of the floor so that I took up no wall space. This then changed into a triangle of three pallets held aloft by scaffold poles with an image on each side. The pallets were chosen instead of creating a frame for the mounting of the images as it aligns with the interior of the factory buildings being represented in the photographs.
The scaffold poles are used around factory sites for many reasons as well as the wooden pallets so I was planning on using these, only when the team went to Eagle Works last week it was discussed that the triangle of pallets might be too large to fit comfortably in the centre space so I was asked to flatten it out a little. The final design is to have a single pallet 120 cm wide supported by two poles, with the three images mounted upon it.
Some of these decisions have been made by looking at the exhibitions I’ve been to, such as the exhibitions in Digbeth last year and the frames holding up photos, an exhibition in Tokyo using a similar framing device and other galleries that I’ve visited over the last twelve months. Naomi Greaves from Wolverhampton Art Gallery also pointed out that their images have a centre line height of 150cm from the floor.
I’ve also considered using some video footage of flashing and flickering lights as well as something of a soundscape. In Ikea at the weekend I purchased two USB RGB LED strips that might be able to provide a backlight to the pallet as it leans against the wall.
Slide 4
Talk about your reflective journal, tell us how you are reflecting on your work. Show some contact sheets, work prints show some of your annotation and critical reflection. Include relevant images.
If you’re reading this post on my blog, then you already are aware of my reflective journal, look I’m reflecting again. My notes, feedback, reflections, thoughts, analyses, ideas and research are all documented on this blog, as described in the slide.
You’ll note that the info on this blog are all represented in the slide. I also included a couple of quotes from previous posts that show my reflective thoughts and musings rather than each post just being a record of the facts I’m recording from the seminars and tutorials etc.
It’s used as my sketchbook of ideas as well as the place I publish the settings I used for the printing of film photographs in the enlargers and darkrooms.
Slide 5
Write down 2 areas that you would like feedback on. Put this on the slide and ask these questions to the group. Include relevant images.
I felt a bit like I was soliciting praise with Question 1 when I asked the assembled group for responses. A couple of people have mentioned that they’d like to see some of my work done from the Tokyo trip in January as they have seen it coming up on my Instagram page. Noah also mentioned that he liked my Brutalism work on concrete buildings etc but he was the only one on this front.
For the second question I was looking at words that might help me to write an individual statement for the exhibition to have next to my work. I was thinking that other people might have fresh eyes and thus pull out words that might not have sprung to my mind already.
Words from the group in response to this question were:
Architectural, Urban, Construction, Minimalist, Industrial, Spatial, Categorised and Masculine.
I liked the use of the word Spatial as it does fit really well with the work. One of my coursemates actually apologised before suggesting the word “masculine” as she thought it might have offended me or something. I’m fine with anything that gets said, I wouldn’t ask if I couldn’t take the answers.
Masculine is an interesting word though, the factory space is primarily a male domain although it is opening up for female employees now and more women feel they can work in engineering these days. The photos are of an engineering location so it could have been related to this, but the colours are very dour too and not at all cheerful or heartwarming. I’m a manly man too, I think. I’m not overly bullish or misogynistic or anything like that and have always considered myself as a quiet and unassuming type of person. The thing that works against me being quiet and hidden away is my 6’2″ heavily built frame, which gives people the impression I’m a bit of a monster, kids are often scared of me too. I’m going to think about this word and the S”Spatial” word to see how I can use them in some way in the statement or the exhibition.
I thanked my coursemates and Sylvia for their help and support with goign to the place last week to measure up and for all of their comments and support in this work before sitting and watching my peers’ presentations.
The Others
Noah was up first and showed us his work, based on a contact sheet style presentation of the works he’s completed. He is presenting images of cars shot and aligning them up in colour order. He was asking us questions after his presentation on how we all dealt with our sketchbooks, note taking and reflective journalling. Some of my colleagues were sharing their methods which varied from hand written notes to using Glean to record lectures and typing them up there and then in the room.
Ieva came up after my presentation and discussed her methods to produce the work using collage techniques, as well as how she was going to mount her work on the radiator so she didn’t have to drill into the wall. Her influences for research included Aaron Siskind, Ben Josephson and Kim Hamburgh. Ievas word for her essay is Surface.
Passage Of Time is Emma’s practice title and features influences from Alexey Titarenko and Francesca Woodman to show time passing in a single frame. She was influenced heavily by Eckhardt Tolle’s book The Power of Now and has chosen the space in front of the windows after it was agreed that hanging her work from the ceiling in the centre of the room would not have been a great idea. She has chosen to print her collection of images on Translucent Acetate so that the light coming through the window will illuminate the whiter parts of the images and she said that the darker parts also appear darker when held up to the window,
Bethany was up next with her work around Intimacy and her essay title linking into it is Identity. She has an idea of printing one large image in colour for the warmth of an intimate situation and then a few images in a small zine type book that viewers can sit down and flick through. This booklet will feature images she has made that she wouldn’t feel comfortable putting up on the wall but still feels it is important to share. She has been doing some research into the way that males look at photographs of women and how it’s common for men to sexualise the subject.
Shellie was up at the end shared with us her pages of presentation that depicted some images she is using to empower women from the black country. She has images from a fantasy genre taken on Cannock Chase and also experiments using multi-exposure but her final pieces will likely be a triptych of large images featuring a dancer in a field in Cannock Chase. Stunning photographs and I think they will look great in a grand scale.
Exhibition Prep
In the afternoon session in the Lecture Theatre Sylvia helped us to nail down some parts of the prep for the exhibition which all needs to be ready to hang on the 16th April.
We talked about posters
Shellie and Beth had spent some time concocting these posters and shared them in the Canvas Discussion page, there was some chat about the photos not being used and then I had chimed in about merging the clock faces onto the lenses. We discussed the positives and negatives of the posters so far. It was agreed that we shouldn’t use a collage of multiple images as Sylvia had said that most collective or group exhibitions often use a single image to promote the show.
The three posters Shellie designed were looked at and the third one, with the white paper and black lines was considered to be the neatest and fit the bill but the photo shoudl be converted to a picture of a camera, and it being a portrait placeholder a TLR Rolleiflex camera might fit the space better than a horizontal 35 mm camera.
I personally like the neon style colours of the first of Beth’s posters but Sylvia said that it didn’t quite fit the exhibition and showed no real link, if I could superimpose the clocks onto the glass of the lenses it might help. Shellie said that she just didn’t like Neon colours, but Noah pointed out to me that she had cleverly included the colours from the WLV Photo logo as the colours in the text and image.
Title
We all agreed on the title of the Exhibition being “Timeless Persepctives” as it fitted in with all of our work, Time being linked to almost all of our work and perspectives bein gthe multitude of various ways that people looked at their own work and that of others.
Exhibition Statement
Shellie had prepared an Exhibition Statement last week and we read through it, it sounded good and contained some keywords that might entice people to visit the exhibition. It needs to be about the exhibition as a whole and not linked to an individual contributor.
In our exhibition, Timeless Perspectives, we, a collective group of photographers, explore the theme of Time in various ways.
Through our lenses, we capture fleeting moments, echoes of the past, and the beauty of the present in our own unique and diverse ways.
Time, for us, is a force that shapes our memories and our future. Our images invite you to pause and reflect on the different ways time manifests itself.
As a group, we celebrate the art of photography as a timeless medium, capable of freezing a single moment or encapsulating history. Join us on this journey through time, where each photograph tells a story of its own.
Michelle Williams
There are some changes that could be made to improve and one I mentioned at the time was the repeated use of the word “ways” on the end of the first two lines. I cannot be too critical of any work done by Michelle or Beth as I hadn’t done anything towards these parts of the show. Ieva will get this finished off and then printed with the help of Jim in the print room.
There will be a private viewing of the exhibition on the Thursday and Sylvia helped us understand that it is beneficial to send out personalised invites to people you want to visit the show. People from the course, lecturers, course leaders, students from other courses and levels as well as friends and family too.
Individual Statements
Before the 9th April we need to have each created an individual statement for the show that I’m putting on as part of the overall exhibition. Once we have these Sylvia has said she can get these printed so that they’re of a standard layout and style.
Artist Profile
We also need to create an artists profile so that we can post these out on the Instagram account for the show to showcase each of us taking part. We shouldn’t give anythign away in these about our work in the show but really jsut an overview of our practice and style, maybe include a photo portrait.
Other Considerations
Sylvia asked if any of us were Fire Marshals and I am not, but I asked how we go about getting trained to act as a fire marshal. If we are trained as fire marshals then we would not need to be accompanied by a member of the Eagle Works Studio team whilst we are invigilating the show.
Parking for the set up/install would cost if we are in there for more than 20 mins so if we can drop off and then remove car this will save some money but I’d rather pay the £4 than stress about getting in and out with the unloading in between.
Paint and ladders are available at Eagle Works to tidy up ahead of the show but there are some holes in the walls that need filling up and some attention before we can use them.
Tools required:
Drill, impact driver, screwdrivers,rawl plugs, screws, duct tape, masking tape, tape measure, spirit levels, hammer, paint brushes and anything else needed to hang work up and prepare for the show.
Easter Break
Time for two weeks away from University now, we don’t return until the 9th April. In this time we must prepare our work and presentation methods then get ready to go and install on the Tuesday the 16th.
When we return on the 9th April though we will have individual tutorials in the morning followed by the afternoon of Postmodernism lecture, previously postponed, and the look at our work on the postmodernist task set a few weeks ago with a finish up session of the logistics to work out what is happening the week after.
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