Tony Orrico

I love Tony Orrico's performances! The repetitive process of work and the endurance that this guy goes through when making his work is admirable! I can relate to it! Its like he wants to test his limits thought the performances, because they are after a while physically tough as well as being very long and ongoing. 

Tony Orrico works on a big scale which allows his body to respond in any way he likes without worrying of running out of space or being dictated by boundaries of chosen canvas. He uses the span of his arms to produce marks which often form circles which i absolutely love and which tie in with repetition and endlessness! Tony Orrico performance 2010

For me its like he is exploring his movements and the marks he can make though them movements. He has his own pace and rhythm with which he performs, like music. Looking at his performances i realized in what direction i want my Listen project to go in. 

Because i want to lose the sense of time through repetition and process as well as expression i decided that i needed to choose a sound that i could not control or change so i can respond to it as it comes. Spontaneously. So this in mind next weekend i am going to the beach to listen to the sound of waves and birds and record myself responding to the sound by drawing on sand. Its an endless canvas that wont restrict me in my movements as paper did. I am planning to spend some time there, an hour or two to get into that state of mind where it is only me and the sea sound and my body response. Leaving out my thoughts and worries, being one with nature!

Cant wait to get started, it sounds so much fun! I just hope the weather will be on my side! 

~Ev

Wednesday lectures: Hassan Khan

So throughout the semester every Wednesday we had lectures where an artist or a curator came and gave a talk about themselves and what they do. I have found some of them interesting but mostly i found interesting not in what the artists decided to show but in the way they have carried out the presentation. Some of them were formal some informal, some fun (loved how Harry Meadly was late 30 minutes and still made the lecture fun ahha), and some too collected and serious! Such a variety!

The only work so far that stood out to me the most because of my strange reaction to it, is the 6 minute video work by Hassan Khan called "Jewel"! By crazy reaction i mean uncontrollable laughter! ahah

Let me set the scene! He started the lecture in a formal way, in a serious kind of way where you were scared to even make a noise ahah and so after a while i started to think that his work will have serious themes and will be serious in nature too, reflecting him as a person! Also he had a light pointing at him and a microphone which he struggled with now and then and seemed to get annoyed with it which was quite amusing as it broke his serious attitude a bit!  So i was there in the lecture room freezing trying to make sense of him and his work, so when he introduced "Jewel" in a serious voice that you cant mess with i didn't expect it to be so bizarre! It was SO bizarre! You have to see it to feel it! Throughout the video my face was frozen on the screen, i tried to make sense of what i am watching and have just seen! ahah some people's reaction around me was similar! Because my brain couldn't think of anything in response my body decided to react in a bizarre way too ahah i started laughing! Some people were doing the same! Because the artist himself was very serious and quite boring to listen to i didn't expect the work that i have just seen, it so didn't suit him! I loved it! It was one of the videos that you look at and cant move your gaze away because it is strange and captures your attention!

I think i will remember this piece for a long time because it was so strange! Not just the piece itself but my reaction too! I am not normally like that!

Section from "Jewel"

~Ev

Ingrid Calame

When i came across Ingrid Calame i straight away noticed how similar we are in our interests! She traces old graffiti and stains from the outside and overlaps them, adding different colors and painting the tracings like a puzzle, one section at a time. She is interested in representation of loss and sees the process of tracing as translation, where information is lost in the process. For both of us there is a desire to know the world through tracing! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfZpzoRX84w

Recently i have been making a collection of marks and stains that attract my attention, by tracing them or taking picture. For me there is a desire to interact with them, making them worth something, interacting with them in order to make them stand out, usually through repetition. We pass these sort of stains which are on pavements and building everyday yet we don't really look at them, but we know that they are there. I really want to interact with them so next time somebody will notice.

I found this circular table full of paint stains which i want to work on! Feel very excited! So i took a couple of pictures of the table and tried to Photoshop how it may look! Was so much fun! Its like a small tryout! 

A section from the table

I am thinking of bringing in color, but i will have to try it out to see how it looks!

~Ev

Beatboxing

After shopping for some art supplies at Rennies on Bold Street i went through Liverpool One city centre just to see the Christmas decorations and people rushing around to buy presents for their loved ones. Trying to get into the Christmassy mood! I felt very happy at that moment the city had a positive and warm atmosphere, the weather was clear with blue sky and sun! As i was walking through i passed a couple of people playing either on violin or guitar and some were singing, and then i heard beatboxing! It was very unusual from any other beatboxing i have heard! This guy was beatboxing with a harmonica! and sometimes a flute! I loved it!  I walked passed him and after 5 minuted of walking away from him something clicked in me! I realized that this is what i needed! It linked in with my Listen project! I realized that i can respond to his music through art, by making different marks in response to his beatboxing! So being shy and everything i needed support from a friend to tell me if i have gone crazy or not! So i rang a friend for encouragement! 

So after getting some extra confidence from a friend i walked back to the beatboxing guy, waiting for the right moment to talk  to him! So when he had a break i made my move! It went very well, he liked what i wanted to do and gave me his number to contact him to make the work possible! I was so happy! He is in a band called The Fire Beneath the Sea, but at that time he performed solo. So i stayed there while he played for 40 more minutes because i loved the sound of beatboxing with the other instruments! It sounded very unique! 

In the 40 minutes i received so much positive energy it lasted me all day! In them 40 minutes an old man stopped and started dancing to the sound, it was very cute! A lot of people gathered and were appreciating the sound of beatboxing with the flute/ harmonica, dancing and laughing! The atmosphere was beautiful and i didn't want to go! I was so happy that i have stopped and talked to this guy as well as stayed and listened! People in Liverpool are cool! They are so happy and positive! 

Hopefully soon i will make work with him! Because its Christmas soon its busy!

I love Liverpool! <3

Here you can listen to some amazing talent!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvSpJivX-wI

Tate Liverpool/ Student show

Went to Tate Liverpool to see Andy Warhol's work! Was very excited! Love the Albert Docks! Planned to go for some time now, after a lecture about him some time ago, which showed him very well as an artist i decided to go and see for myself what his work was like in real life! With my free pass at the ready (benefits of being a student haha!) me and my friend Roisin went to see and explore his work. Few minutes into it we started discussing how we don't like the polished look of the gallery, how we preferred the raw and messy look that some student set up shows have! We felt like with clean looking gallery's you are scared to engage with the work compared to the more informal gallerys where you feel like you are engaging with the work as well as the space it is in. I like when work engages with the space and seems to work together, looked like it belongs there and not just placed on the wall for the sake of it. 

So after quick dissapproval of the way the gallery was too clean and polished we moved on onto criticizing Andy Warhol's works. To be honest nothing really grabbed me to the point that i would want to talk about it for a long period of time like some other artists work that triggered that reaction. The were however some amusing peaces of work that i liked the look of. For example:

 Do it yourself (Seascape), 1962. acrylic on canvas

This piece is quite amusing to look at as when you look at it up close you can see that it isn't perfectly made, some colors don't match as though a child has painted! And usually these sort of "do it yourself " are for children to learn how to color! 

Another piece that i found interesting but was disappointing in the way it was presented is the work:

Andy Warhal, 1928-1987 Dance Diagram 1 (Fox Trot: 'The Double Twinkle-Man')

For me this piece was the most interactive in nature, in the way it asked for us to repeat the steps of the dance and i really wanted to! However it was protected not just by one but two frames! Ridiculous! Nearly all the work had an outer shell of protection! For me it stops me from engaging with the work and the further i went in exploring his work i couldn't help but keep noticing the presentation of his work than actually seeing his work! I know the work is precious and everything but for me it was too much. The work wasn't free! However there was one work that i really liked and it was video work in one black room filled with multiple videos and a disco ball flashing on top of them all! I really felt the sense of space and freedom in this room compared to the other work which were caged and didn't have that sense of freedom in them! This work invaded space in a clever way, by taking it all up, allowing us to be part of the work in some way!

I cant say i hated it but i wanted more freedom in the way work was shown as it was too collected for me. Some more photos of the gallery space:

So after, me and my friend went around the Albert Dock a bit which was AMAZING! Loved it! Went to Costa to treat ourselves! yumm!

I went back to uni to go see an exhibition made by the show group this time and was blown away! After collected and clean looking Andy Warhol gallery i entered into a completely opposite interactive and free show space! I loved it! It was made into a maze where you need to find your way round to see all the work! I loved the tiny spaces that i had to walk through to see the next work! It made me interested and engaged which the Tate gallery failed to do for me! I loved the messiness of the walls and that they were in paint! The work was interacting with the space and in return i interacted with the space and the work too! Such a contrast between the two spaces that i have visited today! 

Love it!

Love the wall marks

~Ev

"Practice Assessment"

OMG you cannot believe how scared i was of today! Even though we didn't have a proper assessment i was scared to death! I was anticipating it for a week now! Before the start i couldn't stop talking i was nervous, and when i am nervous i talk! ahah Of course Rory was the last one to arrive! I expected that and it made me smile! 

After the 5 minute talk by tutors i realized how stupid it was of me to be scared! The practice assessment was so informal! I can do it any day! Just talking about my interests, what have i done and where i can see my work leading! So easy! I just hope that i am able to talk about my work and explain myself perfectly when it comes to the real assessment on the 9th December! I want people to understand where i am coming from and receive critique of my work. I cant say i am looking forward to the assessment but i know that it will be beneficial. It always helps me to talk about my work and receive feedback because another person will see my work differently and so may see where else the work can lead me that i have missed out on. 

I just hope that next Tuesday will be a good astrological day for me! ahha

~Ev

Quiz between tutors!

The first thing i have noticed on arrival into the lecture room where the quiz was held is Neil's moustache! He looked like Lorax from The Lorax when smiled! It was very cute and suddenly i was looking forward to the quiz! It made me smile!

The quiz was between two groups of tutors, 3 tutors in each group. The questions were based on history of art at different periods of time and it was very fun seeing the tutors amusing struggles to answer the question. They were making funny faces (Rory) and acting very arty in coming up with different answers and dodging questions by focusing on something else or just saying something random in hope that they have answered right! Arty!

Rory enjoyed everything as usual, nothing can put him down! Constantly making faces! Poor Neil looked like he wanted to be elsewhere but got into it by the end! Rosalind was shy at times but had some funny answers and Peter just looked like he was having fun! I loved the atmosphere in the room! Looked like everybody had fun and found the tutors amusing to listen to! 

It was fun! A nice time to get to know better our tutors personalities.

~Ev

Yayoi Kusama

I love the work of Yayoi Kusama! She is very interesting as a person due to her life experiences and how she deals with them through her art. Her work has similarities with mine and i keep referring to her throughout my work in some way or another. 

In one of the interviews she was asked whether her art was a kind of an art therapy, in which she replied "It's a self-therapy". Having struggled her entire life with hallucinations and depersonalization she uses the process of making her work as an escape for her anxieties. I find it very interesting how she turned art to something for herself and something safe for her to do to escape the struggles that she faces. I have studied Yayoi for a long time now and i thought very hard about how we are similar and different and recently discovered that i too try to escape from something. It is getting more and more obvious in my work and the process i choose in making art.

I try to escape time by looking into repetition of marks or find a process of making work that has repetition in it, where i can get lost in time and just focus on the process of making work. I yet have to find out why i want to escape time but right now i know that i want my art to be as a self-therapy too, as i feel complete and happy when in process of making art. Yayoi has a lot of repetition in her work that i like and she loves to expand beyond the canvas which is another similarity between us. There is something about a never ending canvas that is appealing, maybe because it doesn't have a start or an end. She uses color in a very clever way depending on how she feels. The piece that stands out to me the most is the piece called Infinity Nets 1961. 

Kusama with a ten-metre net painting, Stephen Radich Gallery, New York, 1961

Its a large scale piece of work and when i look at it i can see the struggles of anxieties she has faced though the way each repeated mark changed subtly showing her state at the time and how it affected her. It must have taken absolutely ages to do it and i admire her for it. I love big scale work and this piece links very well with a piece that i have made last year which also required endurance but in a different kind of way.

My floor piece

I think when you repeat something whether it be a pattern or not, you involve yourself in the process of repetition and the movement of making it, forgetting about time and worries that you have. And doing so in large quantities it becomes meditative, relaxing and familiar. Your escape. 

Yayoi Kusama is a very interesting artist to me and i can talk about her all day long and not get tired of it. She has a good variety of work in different mediums that i love and she produces some strange work but i understand it in my own way. I also love how she includes herself in her artwork by wearing the pattern of the work. It shows how they are united. 

http://www.yayoi-kusama.jp/e/information/

“I work as much as fifty to sixty hours at a stretch," Kusama wrote in a 1961 article of her entrancing, utterly consuming creative process. "I gradually feel myself under the spell of the accumulation and repetition in my nets which expand beyond myself, and over the limited space of canvas, covering the floor, desks and everywhere.” 

― Yayoi Kusama

Enlightening Tutorial!

One on one tutorial was so helpful! I really missed critique and discussions, finally they have arrived! By the end of the 1 hour 40 minute tutorial i was so full of ideas i loved it! I left with the feeling of completeness, everything seemed to fall in perfectly in place! I was itching to make some work, i didn't feel so happy  for a while now! This feeling didn't leave me for the rest of the day. 

Me and Rory (my tutor) explored my practice, analyzing the work i have made and the work i am drawn to as well as the interests i have. For a couple of weeks now i was trying to figure something out about my practice. Any work that i have produced had a hidden theme that i couldn't figure out, but by the end of the tutorial and me talking about my interests and ideas, Rory repeated my own words to me made me realize what was the common theme of my work. Something the way he said things and what he chose to say back to me just clicked with my work! An eye opener! 

We have realized that in my work i try to escape time in some way, whether it be the process of making the work or the repetition of something that allows me to lose the sense of time. I don't like ends and beginnings which is very interesting as i can explore this further to find out how i can make work with that. Not everyday i experience such happiness and completeness and not everyday i find something new about myself. However now i ask myself why i try to escape time. Do i want it to slow down? Or do i have memories that i want to escape through art and the process of making work? This i still need to figure out!

Overall, i loved it! My first tutorial went better than expected and i really lost the sense of time while in it ahha! Haven't talked in such detail of my practice for a while and it was like a breath of fresh air, receiving another persons point of view about your work and you as a person. 

All i can say is that i have an amazing tutor! Thanks Rory!

~Ev

When i'm trusting and being myself as fully as possible, everything in my life reflects this by falling into place easily, often miraculously ~Shakti Gawain

Listen

Listen project i absolutely loved! I can see it developing into many directions! Play around with it and make it fun! Listen project is so open as you can do anything in it, there's a lot you can explore, the subject the medium the process!

At the start of the project i was interested what is Listen about, not knowing made me very interested and i couldn't stop thinking about what i can make. It sounded different from any other project planned. I had many ideas by the time the project started!

I wanted to go big scale and working with movement and sound. Moving to the sound of something meditative, to get lost in that sound and express it through drawing/ hand movements on paper. I made three such pieces of work where i listened to yoga music for 3 minutes. I loved the state of mind i was in while reacting to music, it was so calm and relaxing, i could feel myself disappearing in music chosen. I filmed myself while making one of such pieces and edited later to include sound on top. I blindfolded myself in order to enhance my hearing and not get distracted by any visual information which can affect my hand movements. This was fun and i loved that i could not see what i was doing and how the piece looked until the very end. Its like a mini surprise!

When it was my time to present my project i wrongly shown a wrong video of me producing work but without the sound of the music i listened to while making it. Instead i showed the raw futtage, where i had a friend telling me when to change the colour of the oil pastel which was amusing because he said "change" in Russian and it sounded quite demanding as well! It was fun! Everybody loved that part! so i had to act like i wasn't embarrassed! I think it was one of them times where a mistake actually helped me to understand my work in a different way. Look at it from a different angle. After discussions i realized that the idea of my work didn't come through, i was controlled when making work by the voice, when i wanted to show how a person can get lost in music and the movements he produces through it. However this made me think about how i can improve my work, how i can minimize control or use it to my benefit and move my project in a different direction. 

Originally i wanted to show how a person can get lost in time though yoga music which is relaxing and meditative in nature as well as the movements. Now i realize that 3 minutes isn't enough to go into the state that i wanted to get to. Maybe next time i will do this for an hour or more to allow myself drown in music and forget anything else that might be on my mind. Also i see this work developing into a performance! Which sounds very exciting! A0 paper size or bigger which would not restrict me in bigger movements, where i can place the paper on the floor and allow my full body to respond to music. Allowing my work to expand and grow with layers. 

Another way i see this project moving is where i respond to music but i am controlled in some way. Either by another person in the way that he controls my actions or he does something that brings me to the present moment and distracts me from the state that i am in while listening and responding to music. Maybe i can also see how i can restrict myself in what i am drawing and see how music affects my movement depending on the type of music. Draw a grid while listening to music. Depending on music my lines will change. 

Listen Project was fun with some surprises! :D

Video of one of the pieces being made and the music chosen

~Ev

Print

So after two weeks of crazy and chaotic and at the same time fun and exciting Show project, we have moved to Print. 

At the start of the first week I was looking forward to Print as we were doing screen printing which i haven't done before. It was something new to try out!  I was interested in the process of screen printing as well as its possibilities and limitations. I was ready to learn something new! Get messy with the paints!

Our topic was about mythological creatures which i found to be the most interesting part of the project itself if i think back on it. After researching on the mythological creature chosen, i got more and more interested in the topic rather than the screen printing process. I chose the dragon creature as my focus. The description of the mythological creature was as follows: The peridexion tree grows in India. Doves gather in the tree because they like the sweet fruit, and because there they are safe from the dragon. The dragon hates the doves and would harm them if it could, but it fears the shadow of the peridexion tree and stays on the unshaded side of it. The doves that stay in the shadow are safe, but any who leave it are caught and eaten by the dragon. 

The moral/allegory of the story is that the doves are the faithful Christians, who are safe from the devil as long as they remain in the church. Christ is the right side of the tree, the holy spirit the left side. The devil is afraid of the church and will not come near, but the Christian who leaves the church should beware. Something about the moral behind it that made me choose this creature. Maybe because i am struggling to believe in God? hmm...

Anyway, the first lesson of screen printing i found to be interesting as we were shown the process and how we can manipulate the print to make it more interesting, adding more visual effects, working with color and composition.  I was interested in the process of making a print as it seemed to be very long and mechanical with certain rules to follow. It was interesting as you could build on a print and each one would be different depending on the layers on the other prints and its color. After such demonstrations of the possibilities of screen printing i was itching to start. I started to think of different surfaces the prints could be made on, such as glass, mirrors and uneven surfaces. I wanted to experiment!

A week later and with my stencil already made of my own interpretation of the dragon creature, we were back in print workshop to finally start making some prints of our own! We were split into groups and were given random prints from different people to work with, but after some time of taking turn of making prints it started to get very boring and repetitive. I started to lose interest. Maybe it wasn't challenging me enough like the previous two weeks or maybe the atmosphere wasn't right, too calm? Maybe that says a lot about my interests and the way i work. Maybe i like particular atmosphere when at work which challenges me. Whether it be through scale of work or working to deadline, there's something appealing in that and makes me feel alive. 

I love repetition but in screen printing the kind of repetition it has is not the one that excites me. Screen printing process for me is very mechanical, a bit robotic, it involves equipment and and a stencil. I like the sort of repetition were you make it with your hands.The repetition that you make with your hands such as drawing a pattern on paper allows human error to occur and so the pattern will have some differences every time. I consider this to be the best part.

Although after a while i started to lose interest in screen printing as a process i am still glad that we had an opportunity to try it, and at least now i know how i feel about it. I am not going to rule out screen printing completely but at the moment i don't see myself using it, however that may change over time. We made our prints on paper so next time i will experiment on different surfaces e.g. wood panels and see if i am still interested in this process of art making.

Some of the prints that were made.

Layers of different prints.

~Ev

Show

Making a show in the first weeks of university was a great experience and opportunity! We jumped right into it! 

Working as a group with people you just met wasn't easy and we had a hard task at hand, which required us to show other groups work. Everybody was a bit unsure of what to do at the start, as having to show work first as a group was quite frightening and we didn't know our limits - what we were allowed to do and what we didn't. But for me that was exciting! Not knowing anybody who is making work for us to show allowed our imagination to flow and expand, as we didn't have any personal connection with the artists. This allowed our show to be fun and a bit disconnected with the work produced and people who made it.

We didn't know each other in our group so it made it harder to communicate as everybody seemed a bit shy and maybe uncomfortable. However we managed really well to overcome this in short space of time - 2 weeks -  to make a show. In two weeks we had to work together as a team but at the same time bonding in the process, finding more about each other and what is everybody interested in. We were all ambitious in our ideas and everybody seemed to enjoy the project. 

The worry and chaos on the last day 4 hours before the show was unbelievable. Everybody was alive and the energy in the room was amazing. We as a group desperately tried to make it work, putting the show together, however the last minute decision that we have made changed everything for the better.  It was very sudden. This makes me think that pressure of time running out as well as the atmosphere in the room with all the groups worry allowed us to make a decision fast which felt right - we were trusting our gut feeling, not like the previous ideas that we had. We ended up putting everybody's work on a CD and attaching balloons to it, which isn't much but that decision was the best we have made. It felt right and that's very important. We planned to set of the balloons from a balcony about 15 minutes into the show. Of course something went wrong (technical problems as usual) and we ended up doing that 20 minutes later than planned. It was intense and our group was panicking! But we managed to pull it through. After the show i was talking to people who came to see it and they loved it! Some of them. One person told me that they loved the anticipation of it all. The waiting of what is going to happen next. All they saw when entering into the studio were blank walls and floor with work nowhere to be seen. It was interesting to observe peoples reactions when they came - some looked disappointed, some intrigued and some confused. When the balloons were set off we all shared a moment of watching it go which was special.

As a group we wanted to make an unusual show and we in my opinion have succeeded as people after the setting off of the balloons were cheering and congratulating us on good work. It wasn't a typical show to make and it was very fun to make too! Although it sounds like we haven't done much work, the decisions and try outs that we have made before hand led to this big decision at the end. Without the time and effort put in and the group work we did we would not have come up with this sudden decision which made our show work.

~Ev