I saw Ptolemys work when i last went to The Harley Gallery and thought it related quite well to what i like within textiles and also the project we are doing at the moment. I like woven materials as you can see the history of them and how they are made, it also reminded me of Aikos work that i recently put on my blog where she uses old woven fabric and unravels them to show how they are made and tell the story of the fabric. I, attracted to any work that uses bright contrasting colours so i enjoyed Ptolemys work and found that the colours mixed with the textures of the woven material worked well. Id like to try weaving my own material to use within a 3D to make it change from a two dimensional object to a three dimensional piece.
Her work is based on architecture, colour and space and is used within fashion designers work as well as wall art. She uses an upright dobby loom using specially dyed fibres so the colours she makes are unique to her work.
After going on the trip to Chatsworth House and looking through all the photos i took i noticed i took a lot of pictures of ornaments and small objects that covered all the tables where as everyone else was looking at the large paintings and statues. In Chatsworth i knew the ornaments were probably veryyy expensive made of rare materials or were shipped from other countries to show culture and wealth, but even though i knew this i coulnt help remembering all the ornaments of women in big dresses, dogs and vases that my nan use to have all over her house.
My nan loved carboot sales and would come back each week with random pots and ornaments that were about 50p each that look similar to the things i saw at Chatsworth. i think this just shows how expensive taste from the upper classes was mirrored and reflected into middle class life where poorer families would replicate their homes on expensive and ornate decor to seem 'posher' and richer. Where as looking back now it reminds me of tacky cheap ornaments that seem so ugly and mismatched but i still love them! My rooms filled with mismatched styles of decor and ornaments that are usually from charity, carboots or stuff i got from my nans house.
When i went to the Harley gallery and into the Hope and Elvis studio, instead of taking pictures of their work i took pictures of the things on the shelves that reminded me of a strong British heritage but made over the top and tacky. The ornaments are usually hand painted so in its own way is a piece of unique art.
From this i want to base my final piece for Rakes progress on an outcome that has references to taste but also combined with another element of the story. I'll take reference from Grayson Perrys Program 'All in the bets possible taste',
I took pictures of random objects in my room and house and want to use these as references and research for my final piece.
This 3D lesson we were looking at positive and negative space, we needed to fill a space using a small amount of material. This related to my last FMP project where i used a string technique called symmography, this uses different techniques with string and mathematical equations by plotting on a graph to create patterns and shapes. I first looked at creating 2D patterns then moved into a 3D space and filling them using a low amount of material. Everyone began to attach string at random parts of the room and connecting them to others going off in different angles, this created a spiders web effect and made it reallllly difficult to walk around the room.
It was interesting how such a small material can fill a space and make the space feel smaller and more restricted. When we were unravelling the string and taking it down we had to follow the path of the person who put it up, it was interesting to follow the history and the making of the installation. We collected all the string that was used just to see how much material we actually used to fill the whole room. I liked how the lines created by the string looked graphic and sharp as though someone had drawn or sketches lines over an image, almost like construction lines.
For my piece I used the symmography techniques in the corner of a doorway that created a curved shape and got in the way of people walking through. Also it was difficult to see so a lot of people walked into it...this reminded me of a spiders web how you cant see them and end up walking into them.
Im quite happy with my finished piece i think it works well and replicates 17th century hair, although i couldve made it more over the top and bigger using more wadding and paper. I couldve also tried to modernise it and make it wearable in todays fashion. From this i really want to try further wig making but using different materials, ill use paper as a maquette to test out the wigs and see how they look.
In 3D last week we spent about an hour and a half inside a box. Which i thought was a bit strange at first and that it wouldnt really help but it did! My first thoughts getting in the box were nerves being in such a small dark space and i felt paranoid what other people were doing around me, whether they were in their box or if they had walked off and left me, i felt clostrophobic and trapped.. I wasnt sure at first what i was meant to be doing so i tried sketching what i could see through the gaps in the box and where the light sources were coming from. I took pictures of where the gaps were letting light in, my camera on my phone isnt great but you can see the shapes they created which i thought looked abstract.
Next i tried tracing the light on the inside of my box and noting what shapes they made, they made long jagged shapes from the wavy edges of the cardboard. I thought these would make nice graphics when used in photoshop so i need a way of recording them other than on the inside of the box. I moved the position of my sketchbook so the light would reflect onto it letting me trace the shapes.
From the beginning of the excercise where i felt clostrophobic and self conscious, everyone was laughing and making noises adjusting their boxs to get inside them to when my eyes began to adjust to the darkness and it became lighter. Every one took it a lot more seriously once it became their own space and their own box and no one was talking, when John would ask a question no one would reply because they were too busy sketching in their own space. When John asked if everyone would swap their boxs or deconstruct them everyone said no, everyone seemed to take ownership of a simple cheap object which made me think about how ownership works and anything someone is given they make it their own and it becomes principle no matter how cheap the object is. It made the box seem important and like my own space which made me start to feel comfortable and not clostrophobic anymore.
People started to move around outside which kept disturbing the shapes of light coming into my box, it reminded me of a puppet show on the walls of my box but i couldnt make out the outline of the person. I opened one end of the box and from being in there so long i forgot what angle the box was at and where in the room i was. It made me feel disorientated and lost because i seemed to block out what was outside the box.
Overall this project made me think more about positive and negative space and how we fill them. I most found interesting how such a small space can change your feelings once you adjust and take ownership of it which i think is relatable to other things in life that over time become your own.
So the other week we went on a trip to Chatsworth House, i didnt really know too much about it other than the Duke and Dutchess of Devonshire live there descending from many other generations in their family. I collected some leaflets to get a good idea of whats on and what sort of activities you can do at the house which will also help with research in other projects.
Narrative
The size and detail of the rooms was amazing i took so many pictures on my camera and on my phone, just looking at one small ornament or wall piece i could take lots of detailed shots that as a collective told a story about the piece or about history of the family. This strong theme of narrative reminds me of the work we are currently studying, A Rakes Progress by William Hogarth. It was from his innovative work at the time that started a new movement of narrative and story telling through paintings which then turned into a more modernised comic strip.
Contemporary Art
Within the house itself it had a small number of modern pieces that when put into such a historically preserved house contrasted and worked with its surroundings.
Michael Craig Martin
Digital Portrait of Lady Burlington
James Rigler
Interior
The interior of the house had extravagant and over the top decorations to show wealth and class, having pieces imported from abroad such as materials or paintings shows wealth as many people from the 1600s could not afford such luxuries. This relates to my work i am doing now to do with class and taste, how people today who are middle class may pretend or show they are rich by buying over the top items to show off. This reminded me of a documentary on recently by Grayson Perry called All In the Best Possible Taste.This was all about how different classes have varying tastes in material items and what this reflects about that class.
I got some influences and ideas from the sculpture inside the house, the materials they were made from such as bronze created interesting and varying effects that made me think about how i use tone, contrast and texture within my own life drawing work. From this i want to work more on these and maybe do some practise sketches from the photos i have to taken focusing on each point for each sketch. I also found that the poses the sculptures were in told a story and a strong narrative.
This was my favourite of all the sculptures within the house as its just so unusual to see a sculpture of a black person within a home of a white British family. This was part of a series of bronze sculptures all showing people of different races and ethnicity's, the fact they have been produced in bronze and not usual marble or another stone i found was different, im not sure whether there is a link to this or whether it was a popular and readily available material of the time so i need to do further research into this.
