Moving forward with the project i wanted to play around with photography and using my body as a medium.
Thinking about restrictions in terms of material using plastic has this overwhelming and obvious connotations of suffocation and feeling confined. String carries with it these similar connotations as well as it also being quite soft and flimsy unlike plastic.
NEON
with inspiration from artists like Tracy Emin and Bruce Neuman i had wire from a prevoius project iwanted to play around with wraping it apround my body creating these amazing images.
My favouire images atre the ones where they resemble pants as i think they carry with them these sexual connotations about the restrictions. Focus on the sex and forbiddances of it because fo the current circumstances making it almost even more desirable and highlighting its absence.
starting this week i wanted to explore this idea of how my normal routine had been boxed in or interrupted by current restrictions and rules. I thought one way i could pursue this would be through using repeated circular patterns as i think this encompasses ongoing repeated days. I also think it also still produces free flowing easy lines even when layered on top of each other.
Onto of these i then wanted to interrupt the pattern so i experimented using block patterns and stitching into the paper around the shapes as well as holding them together.
Boxed In Printing
I wanted to make a print to represent the 7 weeks we were in official lockdown so decided boxes to represent each of the days layered over free flowing more organic shapes and brush strokes would work well. The contrast to represent the lack of control and the control would work well. It also shows the contrast of flexibly of daily life before in contrast to the 49 days spent in lockdown.
I then used a mix of ink and paint to create free flowing organic shapes and lines.
starting the project i wanted to explore the way we have changed communicating with one another. Thinking about phrases that were not part of my everyday un till covid-19 and will probably continue within our language for the foreseeable future. again as i always want to start with text i feel i exhaust it quite quickly so started sketching screenshots of facetimes, zoom calls and texts i had had over lockdown. Thinking about how all are communication had been done over a screen and was all contained within boxes and rectangles. After exploring this idea of communication i decided to move forward thinking about restrictions and restraints that we have to cooperate with on a daily basis.
Tied up
following on from this idea of being physically restrictive on what we can do and where we can go now, i decided to illustrate this by using neon wire and physically tying myself up. I think the ones that i took in the dark create a very strong image and communicate that the focuses seems to be on the rules and restrictions rather than the person that is being held back (tied up).
boxed in
moving forward with the idea of being constrained i decided to make a wire cage, originally wanting to create a box with 6 sides but to make each side became so time consuming so just ended up making 3 squares and playing around with shape form line and shadow when taking images. I really like working with wire as a material and think id like to continue with this way of working as i feel i could expand on this idea of feeling trapped and caged by these current circumstances.
I also took sketches of my model with the different lighting as well as physically using it to draw, overlapping it and keeping my pen within each of the squares repeatedly. I liked this as it limited my movement to the singular space reflecting the current restrictions and how you can feel like going in circles repeating actions in such a small space.
Moving forward into next week i want to take forward the idea of feeling trapped tied and being restricted by the current covid-19 circumstances.
This drawing i wasn’t happy with so decided to cut it up into strips and re arrange it in a different format and play with the lines and composition a bit. Then broke up the drawing even more by cutting it into smaller parts and again playing around with composition and form. I then began to stick the squares in an arrangement I felt worked better. I think the layering of all the little cubed shapes works well as it added physical texture and depth to the page. I felt this was a good way to start my week as I still wanted to experiment a bit more with materials before making more resolved drawings.
Ink And Free Movement
Rather than controlling the ink which i had done perviously i wanted to allow the colours to mix and move around the page freely so rather than using a paint brush i just pored the ink on and moved the paper around to move the ink. This lack of control made i feel some very interesting shapes as well as a better understating of the media i was using.
Again i felt These shaped spoke of a 3d object or space. Though abstract I also thought they looked almost like dancing figures. The large more bulbed shaped dots where the ink is initially pored onto the page before traveling around or of it i think almost looks limb like.
Drawing With Tape
I decided to experiment with layering and using tape as a medium to create drawings . I again liked the fact that the texture was physical and i was able to take rubbings of it with oil pastel to further enhance it. I also liked the process of physically layering the tape. seeing it build and changing as i added and took away from each of the pieces.
Daily drawing booklet – staring this week i wanted to keep a book where i could collage and draw ontop of any scraps i had lying around and just have something i could do kind of care free when i was feeling stuck or was struggling with a drawing.
I also started with my 10 3D drawings thinking about textures and folding as well as moving drawings.
From these 10 drawings and my daily drawing booklet I went back into 2D and started think about compositions and layering collage into some of my drawings. I also started to consider using colour however this was’t my main focus this week
after reflecting on the drawing i have produced this week i an happy shape wise and composition wise however i think i need to go back and think about depth and texture as i feel these elements are lacking.
While Barlow is best known for her sculptural work, her majority of these have been destroyed. This leaves behind her drawing archive as the only surviving record of her earlier sculptural practice. Her drawings show influences from Arte Povera, Pop Art and New British Sculpture amongst others.
Its easy to see and draw a connection between her primary working drawings and her resolved sculpture work. she draws all throughout her creative process, both to aid developing work and to visualise ideas which are later translated into three dimensions. The drawings are fluid and create a real feeling of space like stepping into another hazy colourful dimension. Primarily using pencil, pastel and charcoal using cross-hatching, scribbling or covering expanses of paper in washes of flat colour, her mark-making appears deliberate but at the same time free flowing and spontaneous.
Her bold use of vibrant colour as a means of expression is the thing I find the most interesting as I think colour is a big part of my own practice. Looking at her work and moving forward with this drawing project I want to carefully start including colour in the form of pencils and pastels. I want to create drawings that feel like a small vibrant space that could be visited while still being abstract enough that it can be interpreted in different ways.
Sonia Delaunay’s Drwaing’s
Delaunay’s work pioneered the movement simultanism. This movement revolved around the idea of colours looking different depending on the colours at surrounded them. In her own words “Colour is the skin of the world.” “One who knows how to appreciate colour relationships, the influence of one colour on another, their contrasts and dissonances, is promised an infinitely diverse imagery.”
She was a multi-disciplinary abstract artist and key figure in the Parisian avant-garde alongside her husband, Robert Delaunay. While she is now known for her large abstract and wildly colourful painting i am most drawn to her smaller drawings and colour studies. These show such movement and again appear almost otherworldly. While the colours are mostly contrasting when arranged and placed in her thoughtful swirling compositions it feels totally harmonised. The contrast of the chaos and the calm i find the most interesting.
I think I am most drawn to her work as I also consider colour to now be a large part of my practice. After coming out of lockdown and everything that was going on I feel like I want to explore and incorporate it more in my work as I really feel like iv been lacking it. As well as this I have been living with someone who is colour blind and having them as an impact on my everyday life, having them see things completely different to me i think has inspired me to consider it more.
Eva Hesse
Hesse was a German-born American sculptor known for her pioneering work in materials such as latex, fiberglass, and plastics. Like Barlow she is most known for her sculptural work and use of materials in this field however i find her working drawings and sketches most interesting. She strongly establishes the type, feel and shape of the material in the drawings despite only using drawing materials with no text to label what is what. Also its easy to see how the materials will react and communicate with each other just how they overlap on the page.
The abstract forms suggest figures and objects interacting and almost becoming one with each other. They speak of positive stories and spaces, something transports you into a new and imaginative space.
CHARLEY MILLAR ART 