Birley Fields // 'Happiness'

Richard Layard has written a book exploring the Philosophy, economics and psychological research of happiness. There are seven factors that affect happiness; Family relationships, financial situation, work, community and friends, health, personal freedom and personal values. These are part of 'Adult life', which can be scary and put pressure on new students.

With 'One in six adults in the UK suffering from mental health.' It is apparent that health is key and closely links to ones mood and motivation. It is necessary that we are motivated to work, so that we are successful. Thinking in respect to students at Birley Fields, it is important to have a positive attitude towards their studies. For my concept I would like to explore happiness and what improves it visually.

Intentions | Evaluation

Without a doubt this Intentions project has flown by. I would say to a certain point that it has been successful, however I know there are certain areas that could be improved. I discovered my concept from my summer travels around south east Asia, taking inspiration from exotic fruit and vegetables. I really enjoyed the initial drawing weeks of the unit as I was able to push my exploration and experimentation through personal drawing tasks. This lead me to create a strong body of drawings, which I am very happy with.

I would say that my corrugated cardboard samples are my most successful pieces. The bold shapes and bright colours contrast well against each other. I did develop them into some laser work, however I know I could have pushed it even further. I think working with card and packaging limited me material wise. If the pieces were to be installed into its context, it would need to made of a more durable material.

I have enjoyed working with my concept of fruit, however I’d really like to explore new and original ideas in the future. I think having a strong concept will push my experimentation and keep at a steady pace throughout. I also tend to work towards an art gallery context, where conceptual work is key.

Due to the openness of mixed media, I was barely timetabled in. I had to be self motivated to complete an efficient amount of work. I have been more productive when I was at workshops or in the studio space, compared to working at home. Therefor I know that I need to be stricter on my time management in the following unit as I will be juggling two briefs at once.

Week 7

The main focus of this week was to move my cardboard pieces into laser. I’ve chosen to laser cut as it is concise and allows me to easily stack materials together. I have drawn up sections of work onto illustrator. Doing a whole piece would be very costly and I only need to make a sample of what it would be like. The materials I have chosen to use are perspex vario, acrylic and mdf, as they add a contrast of colour, density and transparencies.

Failed laser cut piece

The sessions did not go as I had planned due to a number of reasons. I had a sheet of plastic intended for a light box, which melted when it hit the laser. I also had some sizing issues when moving my files onto the laser program, therefor changing the scale of some shapes, and not fitting together correctly. I have found it a lot harder to cut these samples out than I had initially thought and have wasted time doing so. I need really focus on what materials work well and plan out the correct measurements of my files for my next session.

Fruit packaging sculpture

Linking my work back to it’s concept of fruit, I have been collecting fruit packaging to develop into my work. I have developed the design from previous drawings. The layout is simple, yet decorative. Contextually, I think it would work well on a wall of a cafe.

Week 6

I have continued to create sculptural pieces out of card this week. I’ve scaled down the green piece and overlapped it with the red sculpture pieces, which works a lot better compositions wise. The green shapes are  flatter and add a contrast of height against the other shapes. I have developed my colour palette into warm tones of red orange and yellow, however I do like the complementary of the green., making it appealing to the eye.

green and red composition

Developed card piece

Thursday Lecture | Giles Miller Studio

Giles Miller Studio is a company that creates innovative surfaces for interiors, exploring design, architecture and sculpture. They have been commissioned by many high end hotels, restaurants and bars. The clever design initiated from the fluting of corrugated cardboard. The alternating direction of the card gave a variation of tone, which then was pixilated into a design. This process has now been developed onto materials including, metals, ceramics and wood. The pieces range from subtle to the more extravagant and luxe.

Sukhothai Restaurant

Alexander Tile- Bronze

This is highly relevant towards my current project as I am creating wall pieces intended for an interior context, specifically a cafe/ restaurant. I really like the repetition and tessellation of the shapes in which are used to create a mosaic like design. I'm also really interested in the metallic surfaces and how they reflect and refract the sunlight, creating a change in tone. Giles Miller spoke about ‘RAD Friday’s’ that the company holds each week. They move away from their current project and instead experiment and investigate new directions. This has inspired me to really be playful and experimental in my work. A fun task or exercise may breakup something that has become mundane, and therefor plant new ideas or motivation back into it.

Week 5

This week I have started to work 3 dimensionally. Taking inspiration from Charles Clary, I have translated shapes from my drawings into Cardboard pieces. Ive then stacked pieces to create a contrast in relief and covered in paper. Ive used corrugated card as its cheap and versatile. It was however quite a lengthy process to make and perfect, and so took longer than imagined. Therefor I didn't make as much as I had planned. I think the pieces look best when they stay in the formations from the drawings. When i started to configure and abstract the placement, it looked aimless, and took away from the overall structure.

I’ve also been combining some of my drawings together to create contrast in colour, size, shape and height. In the above image, I started to combine shapes from a painting, however the scale of the squares don’t particularly look right and it is not painted yet. During my tutorial it was suggested that I should etch into the pieces to create textures. I could also make them kinetic by adding fixings or bolts- adding a sense of interaction.

Week 4

In today’s tutorial we had a group pin up session, with both Mark and Julie. This was a good way to view all of my work so far and see how everyone’s projects were going. So far this week I have continued with ‘drawing’, in terms of pushing the scale of my work. Now that I have a solid body of drawing, I need to develop them into 3d pieces. I should think carefully about what materials and scale I want to translate these formations into. I was suggested to look at Charles Clary, who builds relief pieces. I could easily cut out cardboard/ paper pieces to recreate my compositions. In terms of context, I think i’d like to work towards interior. I’d like to develop my work into wall pieces/ panels intended for a cafe or restaurant. I’ve started to look at artists that do so below.

Painting of a section of kale

Artist Research | Charles Clary

Charles Clary creates paper sculpture and installation pieces inspired by fiction. He builds up layers of hand cut paper, which mimic land formations and sound waves. These pieces invite the viewer to peer in, creating an interaction between the viewer and the magical world. I am inspired by the simple use of layering and relief. This process could be applied to my drawings as they are quite bold shapes. I think they would translate well into 3 dimensional pieces that could be mounted onto a wall within an interior space.

Artist Research | Chris Wood

Chris Wood creates installations and wall panels out of glass segments, allowing him to explore complex patterns of light. The patterns tend to change depending on the position of the viewer and the angle of the light.  I really like the kaleidoscopic patterns and how the light transcends through the glass.The simple arrangements relates to my work, as there are a lot of sections and shapes in my drawings. This could lead to laser cutting into different transparencies of acrylic/ perspex.

'Spry'

Week 3 | More detailed, abstract, macro micro drawings

Pin up of drawings

Section of a prickly pear

This week I have done my drawings in more of a mixed media approach- collage, paint, contrasting textures, building up backgrounds and layers. I've got more into my work and have enjoyed the experimentation. I like that fruit has a lot of segments in and have translated it into sections and shapes. I find the above drawing successful as its quite bold in terms of shape. The scribbled pen lines could work nicely on the laser cutter. I’ve also noticed that a lot of the fruits are vibrant tones of red, orange and yellow, which I would like to use towards my colour palette. The feedback from my tutorial was a lot more positive than last week. I should just create more drawings and scale up to even larger pieces of paper.

Tuesday Talk | Anya Gallacio

Every Tuesday the Whitworth Gallery hosts an artist talk. This week was Anya Gallacio, who is specifically known for creating installations and sculptures from organic matter. She uses material as a starting point to explore time, space and landscape. One of her pieces ‘Where is Where it’s at’ was inspired by San Diego- where she was living at the time. Gallicio collected buckets of pigments and dirt from iconic places that held a significance to her, and shipped them back to a gallery space in London. She then mapped out sunlight that hit the space with tape and filled the positive shapes with dirt. This created interesting landscape shots of a space which you wouldn't usually examine.

Week 2

Through exploring my theme of organic/Synthetic. I have bought, photographed and dissected fruit and vegetables. Then have drawn interesting details from them. My drawings have been quite small as I’ve stayed within the confinement of a sketchbook. I think I should push my drawing onto larger sheets of A2 to experiment with scale. I also prefer the freedom of working on pieces of paper.

Photograph of a fig

Drawing of embroidery sample

The feedback from my tutorial said that I should really investigate what I’m drawing, so that it is more abstract. Some of my drawings were too obvious and realistic, and so I need to keep that in mind. Although the image above was not exactly related to my project, it had a positive effect, in terms of how I should approach my drawing. It was suggested that I should explore the range of materials and medias i use, not just sticking with paint and pen drawings.

Week 1 | Personal Development Plan

The overarching theme I’ve decided to base my project on is Organic/ Synthetic. I am very passionate about food and would therefor like to incorporate it into my concept. My recent travels around south east Asia gave me an insight of new food to try, I really loved the open market stalls with stacked up groceries and spices. I’d like to explore macro shots of fruit and vegetables and extract details of them into my drawing. I would like to focus on vibrant colours and bold shapes and lines. I hope to push my skills in printing and laser cutting, and so could potentially combine these medias. Over these next two weeks I will really focus on producing a mass of drawings and visual research that will help me develop into final samples. I see my practice moving towards the installation/ art gallery context as I like to work 3 dimensionally.

After my first tutorial with mark, he gave positive feedback about my ideas within my PDP.
Given that I live just by the curry mile, I am able to easily purchase some exotic fruits to draw from straight away. Throughout my drawing I need to really explore and experiment with shape, scale and colour.

Summer Drawing | Feedback

Over the summer I went travelling around Thailand and Vietnam. I was really intrigued by the difference in culture and the bright colours and patterns everywhere. This is where a lot of my summer drawing was inspired from. My drawing approaches were influenced by the techniques from previous drawing days. This included, overlapping, looking away from the page, macro/micro and abstracting details.

Bridges under construction

Macro leaf drawing

The group feedback from my summer presentation said that this drawing was one of the strongest. They liked the contrast of the red against the black background and were intrigued as to what it was (a macro detail of a leaf). Taking just a section of an object creates a new insight of what you are viewing, and that is what i would like to push forward into the Intentions project. The group suggested I make a viewfinder to use on objects/ plants when doing my drawings to really zoom in on the details.

Gallery Visit | National Gallery

'Coastal Scene' by Théo van Rysselberghe

The exhibition Soundscapes at the National Gallery is where contemporary musicians and producers create a sound piece inspired by a painting from the galleries collection. It was interesting to see how sound was used as a medium in visual art, with my favourite piece by Jamie xx. His composition was inspired by Théo van Rysselberghe’s ‘Coastal Scene’. The dabbling spots and painting techniques were represented by soft and short sounds. The music would intensify in certain areas of the room. If you were close to the painting, you could hear the details and layovers of the music, but the further away you moved, the more unified the sounds were, as if it mirrored the painting. I really like how he explored the use of sound to create an overall atmosphere. I’ve done many exercises, where I draw from music, but this response is the opposite, making me think about how i could change my approach of simple tasks, and therefor creating new and wonderful results.

Artist Focus | Ashley Goldberg

'Chaotic' Art Print

Print

Urban Outfitters Bedding

Ashley Goldberg’s art has a sense of fun and exploration, with her work including paintings, portraiture, illustration and pattern design. The themes within her work consist of narrative, nature and imagination. She uses statement blocks of colours and mark making, which bring in elements of childhood and freedom. Goldberg has collaborated with brands including Urban outfitters and Bath and Bodyworks, creating products such as bedding, homeware, stationary and clothing.

I really like the simple and care free approach Goldberg does in her work. Her drawing is similar to something that i could achieve on a drawing day, such as mark making. It’s influential that something so simple can be transformed into a piece of art or product. I’m interested in how she injects her colour scheme of bold and playful colours into her artwork, without them clashing. Goldberg’s techniques and approach of working inspires me to really push and experiment within my drawing

Gallery Visit | Alexander McQueen

Recently, I visited Alexander McQueen’s exhibition ‘Savage Beauty’ at the Victoria and Albert museum. McQueen is known for creating explorative, Avant-Garde fashion, which pushes the boundaries of the classic silhouette. The curation of his work was like a journey, with each collection/ room having a dramatic theme, and therefor creating a new experience for the viewer. The atmosphere mirrored his runway shows to almost make it feel like it was a theatrical production.

Voss Spring/ Summer 2001 collection

There was such a mass of work to look at, with one of my favourites being this dress, which is heavily encrusted in razor clam shells. The dress itself is very contradicting as it was meant as a wedding dress but is covered in sharp objects, creating a barrier. I really like the simple use of one material and the repetition of the shapes. The exploration of mixed media materials is influential towards my preferred textiles pathway, as McQueen does not just stay within the traditional connotations of fashion and textiles.

‘It was about trying to trap something that wasn’t conventionally beautiful to show that beauty comes from within.’
- Alexander McQueen

Romantic Primitivism Collection

The ‘Romantic Primitivism’ room/ collection had a strong concept, exploring the relationship between predator and prey within tribalism. The walls were covered in bones, highlighting the fashion pieces. Again, McQueen approached this collection by the heavy use of mixed media, using materials such as hair, latex, beads, mud and crocodile heads. The horns on the mannequins introduced a fetish quality.

Plato Atlantis/ 2010 Collection

Plato Atlantis/ 2010 Collection

McQueen’s most recent collection before his death was ‘Plato Atlantis’, which has a strong theme of nature, inspired by Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859). He explored the devolution of the humankind, creating digital engineered prints, and exhibiting them aside a visual piece. Nature in a way is put side by side with technology. I like that the digital printing makes it look very futuristic and modern. The simple use of reflection make it unified and create a kaleidoscopic view. I’d like to explore digital printing more within my practice and i think it would be relatively easily to achieve. I’m also really intrigued but the colours and finishes inspired by fish and reptiles.

It’s amazing to see how much work McQueen created through his career with such a high quality. The presentations of fashion, performance and installation expressed his creativity and his aesthetic point of view. I love that he pushed the confinements of fashion, turning his pieces into beautiful pieces of artwork.

Unit X - Research

The Research weeks for Project X consisted of trips and lectures by artists and designers. I found the trip to Blackpool dull and uninspiring. Instead I explored Manchester’s town, focusing on shop window displays and pop up pieces. I came across James Donegan’s wooden structure at the Craft and Design centre. His inspiration taken from the mathematical patterns found in macro shots of nature. My interest of this made me realise that i wanted to focus/design/build a large scale structure for the project. I had experience of installation work and felt confident in creating a piece for a gallery context.

SEED: James Donegan

SEED:James Donegan

During the initial MM meeting, I established my collaborative group, consisting of Hannah, Georgia, Jack and myself. I’d previously worked with these people, and so felt confident and comfortable with them. Our initial thoughts were centered on creating an artistic piece with the element of participatory practice. Specifically inspired by Luke Jerram’s work (and artistic talk) which holds elements of public interaction. My research and experimentation focused on the use of sellotape, where I could create a comfortable environment that people could interact with. This followed up with leaving finger prints (DNA traces) on the tape, which would build up and change overtime from the viewers.

Artist and Tape Inspiration- Numen/ For Use

Sellotape web, with finger prints

With Project X being collaborative, there were some struggles working within a group. The change of dynamics and input from four people overcomplicated our ideas. It was apparent at group critiques, that we were too focused on the concept and audience interaction, rather than the development of our own practices. I really needed to step back and refine my thoughts and ideas, before continuing.

Unit X - Reflection

Upon reflection, I have found Project X quite a struggle, with many up’s and down’s. The panic of not having a solid idea and path to follow, left me unmotivated. I think I could improve on staying confident and open minded. Having said that, once our concept was put into place, my work load and attitude towards the project rapidly improved. As the piece can only be fully viewed once it’s installed into the gallery space, its difficult for me to fully evaluate it. However I am confident that it will be successful and well received by the viewers. I’m hoping that people will be intrigued, and interact with the Pop Up Shop.

Working in a group was a new, yet important experience. I believe I made a strong commitment by regularly meeting up, presenting ideas in weekly crits, and staying in contact with my group via Facebook. When Hannah and I started working collaboratively, it really helped me focus on the structure and created new ideas. I do worry that I haven’t exactly developed my skills in terms of making, due to the simple process of the acetate piece. However I have gained experience from working in a group and having to adapt with people and their ideas. I know that I can apply this knowledge in the future as collaboration is necessary. If I had more time, i think I could really push and explore different materials. I am happy that we chose to not fabricate the acetate, as we wanted it to be clean and simple, to hold the heavily embellished scarves. I would however like to to introduce a source of light into the piece, to create interesting shadows. I would probably have to assess this when I visit the gallery space. My biggest learning outcome during this unit is that adapting and refinement is key. Less is most defiantly more.

Unit X - Lines Of Enquiry

Upon refinement of our ideas, we decided to carry over the theme of the body and DNA. This lead to the idea of creating a structure, acting as a ‘skeleton’, which would be embodied by scarves/ bandanas. Again, inspired from elements of the body. The natural, fluid bandanas would contrast against the rigid, man made structure. The suggestion of having a product, initiated a stronger individual focus for each member of the group. People could still interact by removing and replacing the bandanas in different areas of the piece.

Exploring structure- made from paper straws

The obstacle of using tape was what I needed to explore. The material was too temporary and not appropriate for the brief. Instead we experimented with acetate, which is a lot stronger and easier to work with, but still has transparent qualities. Focusing on the DNA structure, Hannah and I created some simple maquette’s made up of acetate tubes. From there we continued to develop and explore the compositions, experimenting with different sizes, and eventually enlarging the scale. The sculpture on a large scale is simple, yet well executed. Cornelia Parkers, Cold Dark Matter, has influenced the idea of hanging the piece. Although a simple technique, it can still create great impact.

Acetate Marquette

Shadows from acetate structure

Large scale piece

Cornelia Park, Cold Dark Matter

PE | Task 2

When Doing the knit rotation I found it challenging to think of what context i wanted my work to fall into. After online research, I came across Co-operative Design, a fashion duo who use clashing patterns and modern designs. This helped aid me to follow a fashion context.

Co-Operative Design

Knit sample

 There is an initial relationship through the use of bold lines and clashing patterns in my work. It seemed appropriate as my concept is line. Their use of colour also inspired me, in a way that it is mostly a monotone palette with pops of bright colour. For me I was knitting with earthy tones, but used the bright yellow yarn, inspired by road surfaces, as the accent colour. This really made the samples stand out and identified my use of line. 

Umbrellium

         

Response

Moving back into Mixed media for the last three weeks, I had already decided my context was a gallery piece, so I had an idea of what artist/ designers to look at. Umbrellium’s piece, Assemblance really inspired me to look at light and shadow. Their light installations are very atmospheric, in a way that you can interact and manipulate the beams of light. This helped me create my concept, which was capturing the physicality of light. This was a quick initial response, where I was shining light through a cup and string, focusing on the beams of light. This really got me thinking about how I could translate these lines of light into a three dimensional piece.
      

Drawing Space

 

Inspired Sample

Continuing with the idea of light, I came across a Korean artist called Jeongmoon Choi. Her piece Drawing Space is made up of string and UV light, which i felt really captured my ideas. This lead me to sew into paper pieces I’d made, toying with pathways of light, which was represented by the thread. I later moved these onto coloured acetate, where i was able to capture new shadows and shapes.

Had I’d done more contextual research for my knit and embroidery rotations, I think i would have a stronger body of work. These last few weeks have certainly made me realise the greater influence of contextual research and has helped the directions of my work. I will keep in mind that i need to continue to keep up to date and have realized the importance of research.

Embroidery | Week 2

This week I have continued to embroider the abstract patterns but have experimented with scale and materials. I’ve started to use parcel packaging and bubble wrap in my samples as they add a new texture and play with transparency. I'm still sticking with the idea of bold simple shapes and not over complicating my designs.
   

     

Here I have done reverse appliqué using layers of paper. The end result was not how imagined because the paper was temperamental and kept ripping. However i do like the spots of transparency when held up to the light, which I could push forwards using another material.

   

This sample I have embroidered by hand, inspired by a drawing I did at the Tate. Although I really like the qualities of hand stitch, it is very time consuming and not ideal to create a mass of samples. I am thinking of combining the geometric shapes within this sample to contrast against the abstract patterns. I will do this playing through appliqué and using the cording foot to create line density.

Embroidery | Week 1

During the first week, I have learnt basic skills and techniques used in embroidery, including machine bernina stitching, embellishing and hand embroidery. The task was to create 10 samples using a monotone palette. I used my visual research from the trip to London as a starting point. A lot of my imagery had bold, abstract shapes, which I have applied to my work. At the beginning, I found it quite difficult to create my samples, as I was making them for the sake of it, rather than thinking about the overall content and compositions.

 

After the Tuesday crit, I have come to realise that the above sample was most successful, and therefore would like to push forward. On this sample, I free machine embroidered an abstract pattern taken from a laser cut pillar (found in Anthropology). I think the simple lines work well with the denser spots of embroidery. I also really like the heaviness of the black wool, and would like to continue working with it.

I think I need to explore more techniques, and combine them in a way that gives them the best quality. This week I would like to experiment with layering my fabrics and using both appliqué and reverse appliqué. I also need to consider my fabric choices and try to push the boundaries of what can be embroidered into.