"A
very well researched and contextualised submission, with clear evidence of
experimentation and progress throughout."
Feedback on assignment
Throughout this submission, you have
sought to build upon past work, consistently questioning your approaches.
You weave the suggested references into
your work and to your texts in a clear and informative way and - in the case of
exercise 1.2 - have produced scholarship of a very good standard.
For example, as you note, your composite image of Wollaton Hall works best from this
series, mainly because the way that the building stands apart from what's going
on around it (i.e. it's context) and the direct, frontal angle of view means
that all of our focus is on the blurred and fractured edges of the building
against the skyline. For the same reasons, whilst I do think the idea of
producing one oscillating image made from multiple Peter Pan statue views, this
idea needs perhaps to be free of people milling around it, to allow the viewer
to focus only on what's going on with the statue.
As a rule, the simplest approach to
solving an image is often the best (especially in regards to digital imaging,
where it is always possible to keep adding more data into the mix). Of course,
this is easier said than done, and breakthroughs in terms of image making usually
only come after many weeks/months of experimentation. If we look at your series
images combining rather spectral bodies overlaid onto the trees, for me the
most successful image from this series is also the simplest. In the image of
the large boulder with part of a face 'projected' onto its surface, we are
presented with a surreal image that also plays with scale (with the face being
blown up to gigantic proportions).
(These remind me a little of Tony
Oursler's talking heads from The Influence Machine which includes interviews
with characters which are often projected onto trees of buildings as part of a
multi sensory installation. http://www.eca.ed.ac.uk/InfluenceMachine
Look too at British Artist Helen Chadwick’s early experimentation with layering
http://www.mercerunion.org/exhibitions/west-gallery-helen-chadwick-viral-landscapeseast-gallery-martin-pearce/
and more recently, Anglo Chinese artist Gordon Cheung’s experimentations with
layerings: https://www.alancristea.com/artist-Gordon-Cheung)
NB. You mention finding your final series of images
a little disjointed. As you continue to develop your ideas (including this one
specifically) you will find that this feeling disappears as you become more
confident in working in this way."
Coursework
As above
Research
As above
Learning Log
"Good research (thorough and well-annotated)
throughout."
Suggested reading/viewing
"This
is an interesting book on the war monument with an intro by Geoff Dyer and
written by Paul Bonaventura. You might
be interested as sideline research. I notice that you’ve pointed your camera
towards statues and monuments."
Pointers for the next assignment / assessment
"Keep working through your many interesting ideas."
STUDENT FEEDBACK:
This is the first
Skype session I have taken part in. It was an informative way of delivering a
feedback session which offered me the chance to ask questions or discuss ideas.
I enjoyed the personal approach.
I felt my tutor had an
understanding of where I was in a practical sense and with my understanding of
theory, and her suggestions of further work to research were helpful. I will be
following up the links.
“your composite image of Wollaton Hall works best from
this series, mainly because the way that the building stands apart from what's
going on around it (i.e. it's context) and the direct, frontal angle of view
means that all of our focus is on the blurred and fractured edges of the
building against the skyline. For the same reasons, whilst I do think the idea
of producing one oscillating image made from multiple Peter Pan statue views,
this idea needs perhaps to be free of people milling around it, to allow the
viewer to focus only on what's going on with the statue.” This comment helped
me to understand why the image of the statue did not work as a multiple layered
image.
Similarly, the observation about the face on the rock in
Assignment 1 working the best gave me a different way of seeing the image. I
had not imagined “projecting” an image onto a structure. I have become familiar
with the physical image and the course work challenges that idea. I must
remember to think outside the box.
My tutor's comments were helpful with “keep it simple”. I
agree this is probably the most effective way of learning. I think it is all
about the balance of achieving something which looks like art and knowing that
it takes time, patience and experimentation to become experienced in a subject
area.
Assignment 1 Combined Image
Hidden Sherwood
Part 1: Motivations
I live in the heart of the Ancient Sherwood
Forest, once a Royal Hunting Forest. An area well known for its tourist spots
and the history of Robin Hood. Or the beginning of the fictional character of
Robin Hood, developed by Sir Walter Scott and Washington Irving in the 1800’s
which brought the tourists flooding in on foot, by horse and later by car. A National cycle trail runs through the heart
of the area, crossed by several bridleways, making it easy to explore by bike
too. I visited the local Tourist Information Office for some brochures of
Sherwood Forest and places of interest. I wanted glossy pictures similar to a “Welcome
to the Lake District” publication which I could cut up and intersect with other
photographs in the style of Gerhard Richter or Joe Hamilton (using photographs
instead of paint to experiment with the idea of restricted view.) Another idea
I considered was Anastasia Samoylova’s landscapes containing different views of
the forest; however, on reflection a series on Sherwood Forest is quite
limiting for this. The local tourist office offered me a few leaflets which
contained very small inserts and were covered in text (a restricted view
already). They explained they would be permanently closed at the end of the
month. Sherwood Forest’s is closed already, Nottingham doesn’t really feature
Sherwood Forest and Newark offered me a glossy brochure which looked promising
but contained adverts. My next idea was to collect postcards of the area. I managed
6 of the same place! I experimented with taking some postcard style images to
join in a similar style to Bill Vazan’s Carnet de Voyages, until I realised
that this probably went a bit off topic!
Sherwood Forest sat in the middle of several
coal mines which left scars in the landscape and modern sculptures link art to
the industrial past. This provides a link between parts 1 and 2.
Part 1: References
Stephen Gill uses items found at the location
such as dirt which he places inside his camera or picks up discarded cans of
liquid, the contents of which he adds to the dark room process so that the end
result is a photograph with the essence of the place. I particularly liked his
flowers but the landscape was bare at the time of starting this assignment. I
looked elsewhere for inspiration and came across David Hockney, Thomas Kellner and
John Stezaker. David Hockney uses different planes to show multiple viewpoints,
a wide space and depict time and motion within the same image, using the same
principles as cubism. The Tate explains
that “Each [of Hockney’s] individual polaroid is taken separately and
experienced simultaneously […] exemplifies Hockney’s interest in depicting a
3-dimensional world through 2-dimensional art forms.” (Tate, 2017) I
particularly liked the portrait of his mother in which he photographed her
movement so the image becomes the perspective of the photographer rather than
the viewer’s perspective. Thomas Kellner
plans his images of tourist spots and architecture and takes several shots,
deconstructing the image and recompiling it as if on a contact sheet,
encouraging the viewer to reconstruct it.
Part 1: Methods
Using a group of 5 trees which almost met in
the middle when looking up to the top, I photographed with a 50mm lens looking
up the trunk to give the viewer an unfamiliar perspective. On joining the trees
together, the white bit in the middle is where it didn’t quite meet. Should this bother me? At the beginning of my
OCA journey it would have done. Some of Hockney’s work shows white gaps. 
Another Hockney inspired photo montage was the
wheel outside Thoresby Colliery. I decided to use this one instead of a
commemorative one because of its colour and lack of signage. For this I used 3
viewpoints and a 50mm lens. I was surprised at how neatly it fitted together. I
was expecting the spokes to be misaligned showing more movement. This lacks
depth which is one of the principles of cubism, but experimenting with my
position and camera angle would give an image in the style of Thomas Kellner.
This hand sculpture is known to locals in Clipstone
and is on the site of the old colliery. Commissioned by Sustrans, local myth
suggests it is to celebrate the mining heritage, although nothing is
documented. This uses 4 different viewpoints taken with a 50mm lens joined by
cutting the image to create a 3d effect.
The 3-foot-high miner sculpture celebrates
Nottinghamshire’s mining heritage. He reminded me of The Oil Patch Warrior in
Rufford Country Park. Having taken images of the oil patch warrior earlier in
this assignment, I experimented with juxtaposing him onto the photograph of the
miner. I enlarged some images in Photoshop and pieced them together before
having the images printed. John Stezaker cuts his images diagonally. To keep
the tools depicting the trades of the men, I trimmed vertically. Stezaker
juxtaposes another image or landscape ontop of the original image so that the
images become seen.
The Oil Patch Worker (Jay O’Meila, 1991) commemorates
secret World War 2 Oil Wells drilled by Americans as part of the war effort. I
was drawn to the curves of the hat and textures of the face. By photographing
from different viewpoints and enlarging the image with the hat, I could make
the other sides of the face fit underneath the hat brim. Again, I experimented
with the enlargement process in photoshop before having the work printed.
I cut, trimmed and glued the montages onto a
backing sheet before cutting around the image and photographing on a white
mount board. Not satisfied with the white balance, I cut and pasted them onto a
digital sheet of A4 paper in Photoshop. My preferred method would be to work in
Photoshop to make a montage. I didn’t get the same results working with actual
images; there was no blending unless I cut another piece of the discarded image
away. Mistakes were final unless they could be glued back but then it is seen. I
cut some images and interlocked them before deciding which pieces could
definitely be trimmed. Having read Jerry Uelsmann’s process of making photo
montages and using this as a guide I consider it a very creative process which
enhanced my way of seeing.
Part 2: Motivations
One possible
idea for my self-directed project in Landscape was inspired by Patricia
Townsend's series on "Scylla", and using her idea of transitional
spaces to explore fantasy and illusion, I began to look at placing Vikings
within the landscape and using the context that the past is watching you
(memories) exploring Sherwood Forest looking for traces of humanity.
(Hampshire, 2016) This work was only an idea and did not make up the
assignment. I have further developed this work to concentrate on the physical
attributes of the surface of the trees and rocks and furthered my understanding
of gaze, so this became a new piece of work.
The Ancient trees
of Sherwood have a personality of their own which differs depending on
lighting, weather and time of day. And memories are reawakened by different
shapes which are visible in the trees. Or is this my delusion? Perhaps this is
the emotional relationship with the land which Townsend refers to?
Part 2: References
“The emotional
relationship with the land can affect us and the stories we construct by
projecting our beliefs, expectations and desires onto our surroundings”
(Townsend n.d). Townsend uses the “photographic montage to embed the human
figure into the landscape, using elements of the landscape to allude to the
workings of the mind.” (Wells and Standing, 2005:31). Townsend explains that
the concept of surface could be seen as a two-dimensional membrane which
separates conscious from unconscious, represented by the physical surface of
the photograph (Wells and Standing, 2005:41). Scylla (Greek Mythology) was a
sea nymph or six-headed sea monster and Charybdis (sea monster) lived opposite
her on a strait off Sicily, causing a danger for ships as they had to pass
close to one side or the other (This is where the saying “between a rock and a
hard place” originates.) Townsend shows Scylla as a woman transformed into
stone and Charybdis as a whirlpool. In the past, Greek Myths were re-enacted to
demonstrate psychological conflicts and emotions, and transformation between
the land and the body creates tension. Nietzche recognised that the later
Greeks built their cultural identity through art and literature to progress
their society and transform their old values to become a great society through
stories of metamorphosis (transformation). To link this back to Sherwood
Forest, I looked at Alfred Noyes poem “The song of Sherwood” could work with
the photographs.
Part 2: Methods
In the winter months, trees show their texture
without foliage distracting the form. I wandered from tree to tree in old
Sherwood Forest, looking carefully at the texture imagining shapes. All these
trees are alive and monitored closely by rangers (additional research on
Sherwood Forest can be found on the research page.). These trees stood sentinel
and bore witness to over 300 years of history and cultural changes within the
forest, affecting the lives of ordinary folk. I photographed ordinary folk to
blend into the tree images in an attempt to create surreal photographs that
people could explore. Outlaws are associated with Sherwood Forest and Friar
Tuck “appeared” to a group of walkers recently which made the national papers.
Using Photoshop, I used layers, transparency
and gradients to blend the people into the forest. Monochrome enabled the
textures of the tree trunks and branches to show, whilst allowing the bodies to
blend in with the image. I experimented with colour and felt the effect did not
work as well.
Sherwood
Forest is accessible to most people and care has been taken to prevent vehicles
and motorbikes from using tracks meant for walkers and cyclists. Sabotage of trails
is common in the summer ensuring people are on their guard. The trees offer
protection from the cold and the wind so I have illustrated this rock with a
face with an enigmatic gaze, not really looking at the viewer so the viewer may
be aware of it but able to carry on walking through.
This tree naturally has praying hands in the trunk
Major Oak propped up by people as well as poles
Evaluation
At the beginning of the assignment I had an
idea of what I wanted to do. I couldn’t make it work and so came up with
another idea which I worked with. I find the images a bit disjointed. It
perhaps doesn’t quite fit the brief but it allowed me to experiment with
finding, enlarging and cutting images. I found the process was out of my
comfort zone. As I worked through the course reading material, I explored
Stezaker’s Third Person Archive in which Stezaker explores liminal space; the
viewer becoming the third person. I had actually taken two photographs recently
which relate to this idea. If I was to redo part 1, I would use the tourist
book and my tourist images and juxtapose these small people into the images
like Stezaker’s third person archive.
I felt more comfortable with part 2. The image
I couldn’t quite make work was the last image of the major oak.
References
Hampshire, N (2016) http://nicolahampshirelandscape.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Preparation%3A%20Assignment%205 last accessed 27/3/17
Slade School of Fine Art (n.d.)
Patricia Townsend: The creative process - an investigation through practice.
Available at: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/slade/research/mphil-phd/patricia-townend
last accessed 27/3/17
Tate Britain (2017) David Hockney: 80
years in 8 works. Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/david-hockney/80-years last accessed 28/3/17
Wells, L and Standing, S. (2005)
Surface – Land / Water and the Visual Arts. University of Plymouth Press.
Cheltenham. Orchard Press.
Bibliography
Focal Press, Taylor and Francis Group
online (2011) Exploring Colour Photography. Thomas Kellner. Available at: http://www.tandf.co.uk/textbooks/9780240813356/thomas_kellner.html
last accessed 28/3/17
Gaunt, A. (2012) Sherwood Forest
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Hakim, M. (1995) Ciel Variable: Bill
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Nolan, S. (2013) “Friar Trunk: Walkers
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Wells, L. (1994) Viewfindings: Women
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