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