Watched. (Acrylic on canvas) Rosie Burnett, 2010
Wednesday 24 November 2010
Photographic Research
This is one of a series of photographs I took as research material for my project.
Friday 5 November 2010
British Art Show 7: Review of selected works
I have chosen to review works from the British Art Show 7 – In the Days of the Comet. The exhibition, although having a loose theme, is extremely varied in the work it presents. I found the exhibition as a whole fairly unpredictable, and by some means lacking a logical order. However this quality wasn’t necessarily detrimental to the overall enjoyment of the work, if anything the show is more exhilarating as a result. As many have mentioned, the subtitle (In the days of the comet) brings a much needed cohesion to the show, it also provides a platform from which to build your own narratives and acts as a catalyst to many discussions. Historically the show is about making art more accessible to communities outside London, therefore provoking the discussion of the work and encouraging people to engage with it is vital to the British Art Shows success.
When viewing the exhibition for the first time, artist Phoebe Unwins paintings instantly appealed to me, initially I thought this ‘appeal’ was simply on an aesthetic level, however I soon realised it was her methods of concealing information and forcing you to fill in the gaps which held the allure. I am going to discuss the collection focusing on Queue for words, 2010 (Fig 1) and Cinema, 2010 (Fig 2). I am also going to examine the work of Maaike Schoorel. Maaike Schoorels’ seemingly subtle paintings did not grab my attention as Phoebe Unwins loud textural pieces did, however when I scrutinised the ideas and motivations behind her work some exciting questions emerged.
Phoebe Unwin uses mixed media on canvas to create her bold textured pieces, utilizing methods of pattern and layering to convey meaning. I admire her technique of overlying the background and the foreground so they interact with one another as this brings an intangible depth to the piece. Unwin has discussed the experience of looking at a painting as one that is ‘physical, felt […] and is in a sense always in the present’. It makes sense then, how a person would be drawn to her paintings and discover a profound empathy with them. There is also an urgency to her work (particularly in Queue for Words, 2010), Tom Morton (curator for BAS 7) touched on this when he mentioned her ability to ‘tune us into the kind of mental event that seems almost too fleeting or modest to be called a feeling or thought’.
The mixed media (oil, ground pastel and pigment) piece Queue for words (Fig 1), initially looks like a piece of lined paper, any words that may have been there have been obstructed or concealed from view with bold rectangles, almost like tip-ex in a note book. The overlapping composition and change in scale of the bold oblongs suggests a conversation, possibly a collection of conflicting views or voices. When discussing this piece Lisa Le Feuvre (curator for BAS 7) wrote ‘If there were ever painted words on the page, they do not belong to the finished work.’ This reiterates my point that it’s the act of communication that’s important in this piece not what is being said. For me it’s about the often futile act of communication, and the struggle to be heard in a place where there are so many voices and opinions.
In the piece entitled Cinema (Fig 2) the first thing I noticed was how the environment imposed itself on the audience (by audience I am referring to both: the figures in the painting and the viewer). The screen appears to be blank so it seems that Unwin is using the ‘cinema’ simply as a space where interactions occur and taking the obvious focus off the film. Although the figures appear to be seated, and one would assume they were stationary, they still possess transient qualities. This quality suggests that their presence in the space is short lived, or it may connect with the fact that the figures attentions are elsewhere, separate from their bodies.
Five of Maaike Schoorels paintings were selected for the Nottingham division of the British Art Show, all of these were oil paintings on canvas. I wanted to talk about Maaike Schoorels body of work as a whole without picking out individual pieces; this is because I think the tensions between the works are just as significant as the individual paintings themselves. Within the collection there is one small dark painting (Fig 3) offsetting the rhythm and creating further tensions, people mentioned that this seemed incongruous within the set; however, I feel its presence helps draw the eye around the collection. When one first encounters Maaike Schoorels collection it appears as a set of plain canvases with a few nondescript marks adorning the surface (Fig 4). Then as the eye becomes trained to the subtle marks, figurative qualities begin to emerge. On one level, you could look at these paintings as a test of how little you can put down on a canvas and still retain meaning and recognisable form. However I think there is an underlying motivation to slow down the viewer’s perception of the work to allow more time for the processing of thought.and ideas, this technique seems prevalent in all her work. I soon discovered that the images were all self-portraits taken from photographs, this provoked questions and issues surrounding intrapersonal perception. The paintings seem to highlight the elusive task of locating the ‘self’ and portray a shyness concerning the presentation of a person’s true identity. I think the beauty of Schoorels work lies in her ability to present the audience with less information which actually evokes them to get a lot more out of her paintings.
Through some basic analysis of these works I have found many parallels between the work of Unwin and Schoorel, one that stands out is how the artists both touch on aspects of the human condition in contemporary society. It has become evident that the culmination of these and the other 37 bodies of work exhibited in the British Art Show have created an engaging and varied experience. It’s early on in the exhibition but from the discussions I’ve encountered surrounding the show it seems very few will be disappointed.
When viewing the exhibition for the first time, artist Phoebe Unwins paintings instantly appealed to me, initially I thought this ‘appeal’ was simply on an aesthetic level, however I soon realised it was her methods of concealing information and forcing you to fill in the gaps which held the allure. I am going to discuss the collection focusing on Queue for words, 2010 (Fig 1) and Cinema, 2010 (Fig 2). I am also going to examine the work of Maaike Schoorel. Maaike Schoorels’ seemingly subtle paintings did not grab my attention as Phoebe Unwins loud textural pieces did, however when I scrutinised the ideas and motivations behind her work some exciting questions emerged.
Phoebe Unwin uses mixed media on canvas to create her bold textured pieces, utilizing methods of pattern and layering to convey meaning. I admire her technique of overlying the background and the foreground so they interact with one another as this brings an intangible depth to the piece. Unwin has discussed the experience of looking at a painting as one that is ‘physical, felt […] and is in a sense always in the present’. It makes sense then, how a person would be drawn to her paintings and discover a profound empathy with them. There is also an urgency to her work (particularly in Queue for Words, 2010), Tom Morton (curator for BAS 7) touched on this when he mentioned her ability to ‘tune us into the kind of mental event that seems almost too fleeting or modest to be called a feeling or thought’.
The mixed media (oil, ground pastel and pigment) piece Queue for words (Fig 1), initially looks like a piece of lined paper, any words that may have been there have been obstructed or concealed from view with bold rectangles, almost like tip-ex in a note book. The overlapping composition and change in scale of the bold oblongs suggests a conversation, possibly a collection of conflicting views or voices. When discussing this piece Lisa Le Feuvre (curator for BAS 7) wrote ‘If there were ever painted words on the page, they do not belong to the finished work.’ This reiterates my point that it’s the act of communication that’s important in this piece not what is being said. For me it’s about the often futile act of communication, and the struggle to be heard in a place where there are so many voices and opinions.
In the piece entitled Cinema (Fig 2) the first thing I noticed was how the environment imposed itself on the audience (by audience I am referring to both: the figures in the painting and the viewer). The screen appears to be blank so it seems that Unwin is using the ‘cinema’ simply as a space where interactions occur and taking the obvious focus off the film. Although the figures appear to be seated, and one would assume they were stationary, they still possess transient qualities. This quality suggests that their presence in the space is short lived, or it may connect with the fact that the figures attentions are elsewhere, separate from their bodies.
Five of Maaike Schoorels paintings were selected for the Nottingham division of the British Art Show, all of these were oil paintings on canvas. I wanted to talk about Maaike Schoorels body of work as a whole without picking out individual pieces; this is because I think the tensions between the works are just as significant as the individual paintings themselves. Within the collection there is one small dark painting (Fig 3) offsetting the rhythm and creating further tensions, people mentioned that this seemed incongruous within the set; however, I feel its presence helps draw the eye around the collection. When one first encounters Maaike Schoorels collection it appears as a set of plain canvases with a few nondescript marks adorning the surface (Fig 4). Then as the eye becomes trained to the subtle marks, figurative qualities begin to emerge. On one level, you could look at these paintings as a test of how little you can put down on a canvas and still retain meaning and recognisable form. However I think there is an underlying motivation to slow down the viewer’s perception of the work to allow more time for the processing of thought.and ideas, this technique seems prevalent in all her work. I soon discovered that the images were all self-portraits taken from photographs, this provoked questions and issues surrounding intrapersonal perception. The paintings seem to highlight the elusive task of locating the ‘self’ and portray a shyness concerning the presentation of a person’s true identity. I think the beauty of Schoorels work lies in her ability to present the audience with less information which actually evokes them to get a lot more out of her paintings.
Through some basic analysis of these works I have found many parallels between the work of Unwin and Schoorel, one that stands out is how the artists both touch on aspects of the human condition in contemporary society. It has become evident that the culmination of these and the other 37 bodies of work exhibited in the British Art Show have created an engaging and varied experience. It’s early on in the exhibition but from the discussions I’ve encountered surrounding the show it seems very few will be disappointed.
Ideas.
The main themes and ideas I aim to explore are issues surrounding interpersonal and group communication. I am particularly interested in the transition of moods and feelings as a result of a presence in the room / space. People act and behave differently if a figure of authority or someone who holds great importance to them is present. I aim to illustrate these subtle changes by exploring the transition of emotion and behaviour demonstrated by an individual and the whole group.
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