Art and design

Nature drawing

2011-12-07T10:18:00.000-08:00

A bar at the folies-bergere

2011-12-06T16:00:00.000-08:00

A Bar at the Folies-Bergere, 1882

Artist: Edouard manet (1832-83)

In this portrait, you see a lady at work in the Folies-Bergere. The Folies-Bergere was paris’ first music hall. The woman seems unhappy and worn out, as if her life revolves around her job. She also seems alienated from her surroundings that consist of drinker’s lovers, thieves and businessmen. Everything we see is painted in every detail of textures, such as the velvet of the barmaid’s jacket, the waxy skin of the oranges, and the crinkled gold foil on the champagne bottles. The female is stood behind a bar and looks to be looking into a camera lenses belonging to the man in the reflection in the mirror next to her. The man seems sinister, as if he is taking her picture without her permission. Another way of seeing the picture is that the barmaid is looking at the viewer, not necessarily the man, but anyone whom she thinks would acknowledge her vulnerability. She looks directly at the viewer, while the mirror behind her reflects the large hall and patrons of the Folies-Bergère. Manet seems to have painted the image from a viewpoint directly opposite the barmaid. It makes you think, does the artist want you to acknowledge the viewer’s point of view more than what the barmaid sees or feels? Or maybe he wants you to recognise the entertainment reflected behind her. A Bar at the Folies-Bergere is not just about a bar, it is about mystery of the unexplainable expression on this ordinary young woman’s face, it’s about the entertainment going on in the room, it’s about champagne and oranges and tobacco smoke, it’s about the man you see in the reflection of the mirror. It is not just about the things in front of our eyes, it’s how we perceive it, from the angle to which objects are painted, to the direction of light. All these things lead our imagination astray….

Jerwood gallery

2011-12-06T13:02:00.000-08:00

In October of this year, I visited the Jerwood space gallery. Walking around the gallery, I realised that it was not a big one and that it did not have much art, but there were two images that caught my eye.

The first image was of a picture created in biro pen. This was created by an artist named Janine Brook and is untitled.

Looking at this picture, it reminds me of femininity. The swirls and curved lines remind me of locks of hair. Looking closer at the image, I see outlines of heads, as if this was a social gathering. I also see a woman in the middle of this gathering holding a baby with other people staring and admiring the child in her arms. I like the fact that it is drawn in black pen, as this technique defines the curves more. If a pencil was used to draw, I don’t think that that it was have the same effect. You can also see the image as rage and anger, as if a group of people were having a fight with each other or over something. Overall, this picture shows me how a simple use of pen and paper, can make an image full of many stories.

Another display that caught my eye was one by an artist called Lottie Jackson. It is a mini folded booklet called ‘Imagery Imagery’. With all the splashes of colour and the different patterns, the booklet leads your imagination through different stories or situations. One image I get from this is the weather. The sections remind me of a hurricane and bad weather conditions, especially the fold that has the dark blue and pink colouring spread on the page, looking like a gush of cloud. This inspired me to create my own fold, telling a story with different colours and imagery.

Tacita Dean

2011-12-06T10:37:00.001-08:00

In October 2011, myself along with friends paid a trip to the Tate modern museum to spectate and analyse a Video by Tacita Dean. The 10mintue video, entitled ‘Film’ is a film full of imagery and is completely mute. I think the reason for having no sound, is for the viewer to have their own perception of the images shown. With inspirations of nature, industrial and abstract features, touching on artists such as Paul Klee, random motion clips are put together to form a unique production. The film is displayed on a screen that is approximately 12 to 13 metres high and towers vertically over passing spectators. It is formed to look as if the images run through a strip of film tape. I have a couple of perceptions of the film. One perception I have, is that it reminds me of New York. My reason for this is because in most parts of the film, you have two sets of squares with images and colours travelling across it. One square has straight, vertical lines running down it and the other square also have straight vertical lines running down it but with an added horizontal line across the middle of the square. The two squares consisting of lines, remind me of the way a New York building is built. This only came to my imagination when brown and grey colours filled the squares. The added illusion of having the film screened within a film strip took me back to vintage style New York back in the 1960’s. Moving on to another perception, as the film draws closer to the end, a nature theme starts to appear. Witnessing images of trees and water fountains, the fact that the screen is stood vertically really emphasises the image in which a tree and a tall water fountain is normally seen in. This gives these natural images more of a realistic feel. It is also as if you can also almost smell and feel the presence of the nature because of the size of image, making you more drawn to the realness. Overall, I think that the film is an interesting form of random clips. The way they are put together and the ratio of the images, plays with your mind to make you create your own story of what you see.

Saatchi

2011-10-12T11:50:00.001-07:00

I took a trip to the Saatchi museum last week. Admiring the various artistic sculptures, I was drawn to one particular display. It was a tall sculpture that towered over spectators. It was a piece that looked like it had been made out of 100% glue. It had a rainbow of colour embedded in it, reminded me of melted ice cream! The dried glue was formed so that it would Drip all over the sides of the black platform it was placed on. The added shine gave the sculpture a good outcome. This Theme gave me an idea for something fashion based. As I would like to study fashion more in depth in the near future, I thought that a splash of rainbow colours and patterns would be be a good idea for a garment.

There was another sculpture that caught my eye.

It was of 6 human sized figures that were painted green. Some of them were made to look zombie like others were made to look like they were a family. Looking closer at the display, I notice that the people are made to look like they are from the medevil times. The costume tells me this, as I witness one of the figures wearing a jester outfit and another wearing a medevil type of hat. Even though the figures seem like they were made to look friendly, such as the family, I do believe that it has a unusual scary twist to it. They all lay, stand or sit upon a foam log that is painted brown. The figures were made out of foam and paper Mache. This sculpture reminds me of Halloween. The greens, browns and unusual look of the figures reminds me of costume suggestions people may consider wearing on Halloween.

Comparing these two sculptures, they are both very eye catching with their themes and colours. Both works of art can lead viewer’s imagination to lead to different things, such as the sculpture made out of glue reminds me of ice-cream. This could remind people of something else….

Overall, The Saatchi museum is a much recommended place to view!