The Meeting of the Waters

My piece consists of a collection of water samples from the River Tyne. My intention in doing this is that the river is always changing with the flow of the water. By collecting samples of the water I am encapsulating a small fragment of time, much like a photograph. The samples have been taken from Newburn riverside as that is where I have grown up, and the river has been an unconscious object from my life as I have taken many walks along side it, from dog walks, to walking the path of the roman wall to just little trips out to the park. The river has been there thought-out all those things, yet has always been different because of the movement of the water. In capturing the water, I have captured moments of my life, and moments of history. To accompany the jars, I have collaged aspects of my life into Victorian photographs of Newburn, these are all familiar sites to me as they have not changed much in the 100 years since they were taken. Much like the water these photomontages have captured moments of time from my life and Newburn Village.

My Final Piece

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Evaluation

My intentions for the piece was to capture a snapshot of the River Tyne in a different way to taking a simple photograph of the water, I wanted to catch that certain moment in time by collecting the water. The river always changes as it is constantly flowing so in collecting jars of the water I am able to encapsulate that small moment of how the river was at the time I collected it. I have paired the jars of water with Victorian photographs of Newburn village, that I have photo shopped with photos of my own childhood as this is where I have grown up. All the Victorian photographs of the village are all familiar places was they have not changed much over time. I combined the jars with the photographs as they all have aspects of capturing certain times, the photos are a mixture of history of the village and my own history and the jars have their own history from being part of the river that has been there throughout all events in the village yet they also are part of the present as well as the historical memories of Newburn.

During this project I have had lots of struggles with my ideas and where the project was actually headed, I tried many ideas until I found the right one for me. I am happy with the outcome of the project as the end result worked out better than I had imagined as I had been struggling to get to the point I wanted to make. In the end I managed to make what I believe to be a strong piece of work, the combination of the jars of the river water and the photomontages have really worked well. The photographs give the jars more depth and reason than just plain jars of water. And the jars have aided the photographs by making them blend well together helping the photo shopped images to not be as obvious in the photos as they end up distorted from having to view them through the water. The jars also make the image almost move as when you look from different angles the photographs seem to move about in the jars.  Together they both work in harmony and bring my over all interest of history and preserving memories into a 3d form.

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The Final Show

In the exhibition my job was to arrange advertisement for the work. That put me in charge of the posters and getting them to the public. Through the group not working well enough together I ended up loosing my job as advertiser as we still had not made a finished poster. This was due to the fact that we had ideas of what to do for the poster but I didn’t have the means of making it as the group wanted to either use a group photograph or photographs of the work that would be in the show. This had not happened before we broke up for Easter so I was unable to work on the poster. I ended up being ill on the first day back and due to time limitations other members of the group made the poster that day. After that the other members of the group took it upon themselves to advertise the show through emails and social media. This left me feeling pushed out of the group but in the end I was able to swap jobs with another member of the group so I could collect the money for the show. This helped me feel at least a small part in the show. So over all I felt very excluded in the making of our show but some of that was due to my own social anxiety and not being able to speak up for myself.

The final poster

Show Description as you entered the show

A View of my piece in the gallery space

Installation – Final Result & Evaluation

 

Final Result of the womb tent

Close up of the Womb Tent

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Evaluation

With my installation I wanted to create a space that brought back the comfort of being inside of the womb. I wanted to show how dark life is with representational items such as gravestones and disturbed toys to make the viewer want to go back into the safety of the womb in a form of escape from the harsh reality of life. The viewer is intended to interact with the piece by walking up a pathway leading up to the entrance to the womb tent. The viewer then has to crawl their way into the tent through a small opening. The opening is very awkward and difficult to crawl into and this makes the viewer feel self-conscious while getting into it but they then have an instant calming effect once they are inside from the soft fabric to the warm glow from the outside. On the exterior of the womb tent is a collection of teddies and dolls that are disturbed or creepy, mixed in with these are some more happy and cute toys to add a contrast as not everything in life is dark and miserable. The toys are arranged into the walk way the viewer walks down. Also at the start of the walk way is three wooden crosses made to represent death, as I wanted the walk way to be a progression of life and back into the womb, in a sort of reverse life.

When I first got the brief I liked the suggestion of creating a womb, I decided I wanted to create a soft comfortable safe place that the viewer would have to climb into to immerse themselves into the space. As part of an initial research project we were put into groups and had to research into a selected artist. My group was given Edward Kienholz to research into. I really like the dark nature of his work and how he gathers found objects to create his artworks that are immersive for the viewer. After doing the research project I looked into a few artists I had found and liked during the introduction presentation for the project. To make a start on creating the womb for my project I went to a local fabric shop and found a soft pink velvety fabric. I started stitching it into a tent by adding pleats into a lot of the fabric I bought, I then added a top piece of fabric to it to make the roof of the tent and to have a way of hanging it up. I got some twine and cut a hole in the top of the tent, and had it tied to a wooden beam on the wall. I used two different sized hula hoops to give the tent a more solid shape, once I had finished stitching the smaller one in the top of the tent and a big one to the bottom of the tent, I cut a hole into the tent, I later changed it to have flaps as it wasn’t very accessible to climb inside. For the bottom of the tent I bought 4 cushions and stitched them together, I was originally going to have a oval dog bed as that would have been circular to fit inside of the hula hoop, however I couldn’t find a one the correct size and the dog beds were very expensive for what I needed it for. I then used some of the scrap fabric to make a giant cushion cover to cover all of them. Since I had fully finished the tent I worked on the outside of the tent. This included hanging some black fabric to disguise the outside of the tent that looked a bit messy. I used the same black fabric to make a walkway to place the items I had chosen to show the darkness of life. The walkway started with 3 wooden crosses to represent death, then the walkway was scattered with dark and creepy dolls and teddies, most of the toys were from older pieces of artwork I had created. A few more sentimental pieces were added, these included a doll from my 1^st Christmas, and one of my favourite toys from when I was younger. This wasn’t to add a personal level to the work, as I want the piece to just be universal of life and death rather than my own experience. Once I had completed the tent I got a group of my peers to individually go into the womb tent and spend a few minutes inside, I then got them to write down how they all felt. It was pretty unanimous that everyone felt comfortable while inside, this is the exact reaction I wanted to gain from people so I feel that the goal of my installation was successful. I am happy with the outcome of the tent, however if I had a bigger budget and longer time for the project I would work on the walkway as I felt it was a little sparse and could have done with more that I didn’t have.

Project Development – Installation

My initial idea when i was first given the brief was to create a womb from soft fabric, i would make it to be like a tent so that the viewer was capable of crawling inside. on the outside of the ‘tent’ i want it to be creepy and dark. by this i mean having a weird path leading up to the tent making the viewer not wish to walk through it. I would use things to represent life and death in reverse leading to the tent. this would be things such as disturbed toys to represent childhood, keys and bills to represent adult hood and pills and graves to show old age. These are just basic ideas and will no doubt change throughout the development of the project.

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As i still wanted to keep with the womb tent idea i started by going to a fabric outlet near my home to look for ideas of what i could use. i just so happened to find some fabric that was perfect for the job. it was a reddish pink colour that was velvety to the touch as an added bonus it was at a very reduced price. Once getting the fabric home i started with the construction of the tent. i searched online to try find some help but couldn’t find what i was looking for so i decided to wing it. i started by stitching some pleats into nearly the whole 5 metres of fabric, i did this to add texture and shape to the tent so that it wouldn’t just hang flat. I then stitched the fabric together to make it a complete loop of fabric, i used a spare part of the fabric to add a roof to the tent, through my own errors of not using a pattern or measurements as i had none to go off, i ended up with a pointed tip to the tent rather than it being flat like intended, this later aided me.

Stitching The Pleats

Close up of the pleats

The ‘tent’ laid out on the floor

Once i had the shape of the tent i used some twine that i tied through the top of the point of the tent and tied to a wooden beam hung up high on the wall. i then stitched a small hula hoop into the upper part of the tent to give the tent more shape and to help it open out i also added a larger hula hoop to the bottom of the fabric to give the tent a more solid shape so that the fabric would be stiff and not close in on the viewer.

Stitching the hula hoop at the top of the tent

Stitching a large hula hoop to the bottom

After i had finished with the stitching of the tent i created a giant cushion so that you wouldn’t be able to see the regular floor and so that there was a bit more comfort to the tent. I made this by stitching 4 regular cushion inserts together and creating a large cushion cover from left over fabric. i then worked on the entrance to the tent, i originally only cut a slit down the front of the fabric but it was too hard to climb inside of the tent so i cut flaps on the bottom of the tent so that there was a wider entrance making it easier to crawl inside.

The original entrance

The final entrance to the tent

To finish the tent part of my piece i hung up some black fabric to disguise the outer edge of the tent so that you couldn’t see all the stitches of the tent. i feel this was a necessary step as it helps create a sense of wonder to the viewer making them want to see what is behind the curtain.

The curtain covering the tent

since the tent was compete i made a start on the walkway leading up to it. i started off by laying down the same black fabric as the curtain as to cover the regular floor. i placed a bunch of creepy and disturbed toys from previous works i have made on other courses. at the start of the walkway was 3 different sized crosses to represent death. My initial idea for the walkway wasn’t going to be achievable as i wouldn’t have been able to get the supplies needed in time and would have cost a lot of money to get it to the amount of objects i wanted. I feel that i still achieved what i wanted from the piece with my budget and time considered.

The final walkway leading to the tent

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For the sound of my piece i wanted to get sounds of the mothers heart beat from inside of the womb. i got this sound from a toy i had for my son when he was first born, this object is used to calm and sooth a baby as it is a familiar sound to them and helps them to sleep. The sound it makes sounds really distorted and unrecognisable to a normal heartbeat, but is apparently a familiar sound everyone would have known before and just after birth.

The baby toy with the heartbeat function

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Viewer Input

I asked people in the class to go into the womb and tell me how it made them feel. i gave them time with and without the sound playing so that could tell me what was more effective.  Below is what people had to say;

I was Very camped but was comfy
reddish glow
Creepy with sounds
Comfier without sound
Awkward to get in due to height

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Good that the body curls up like a foetus
Slightly off putting
Surreal
Height of the top made it seem slightly less womb-like

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Comfy
Very comforting space
Feeling of security with and without sound
Space was slightly cramped
However still peaceful

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Comforting with and without sounds
Sounds added background noise
The colours inside were quite soft and warm
The space is small but doesn’t feel claustrophobic

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Comfortable without the sounds
The sounds made me aware of the environment i was in

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Felt comfortable but after a while felt claustrophobic
Felt it was better with sounds

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Very cosy
Relaxing
Homey

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Over all most people felt it was a comforting space and that was my whole intentions with making the piece so i feel that i have achieved my goal in this project

 

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Tent Accessibility

As the tent is meant to be small and comforting on the inside yet it had to be big enough for most people to be able to fit. I got 3 different sized volunteers to crawl into the tent, i got someone who was very short and petite, someone who was a more average size, and someone who was a lot taller. i got each of them to go along the walk way and climb into the tent, with this test i was able to find out that with each different person they were all able to fit, and from the outside of the tent you were unable to see that someone was inside no matter their size.

One of the volunteers climbing out of the tent

Artist Research – Tracey Emin, Everyone I have ever slept with

This is a piece of Tracey Emin’s work that i have always admired. I feel that this piece is very relevant to my installation project as it encourages the viewer to climb inside of the piece to truly experience it, much like what i intend for my piece to do.

Everyone I have ever slept with, Tracey Emin

Close up of the inside of the piece

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Below is an extract from my essay i completed for my contextual studies module;

Tracey Emin is an artist who was born in London, England in 1963. Tracey Emin is part of the Young British Artists movement that is otherwise known as the YBA’s. This is a movement of young artists who began exhibiting art together during the late 1980’s and the 1990’s. A lot of the artist work provided shock tactics and openness of materials and processes. The most well known of the YBA artists is Damien Hirst who was the one that organized the first exhibition entitled Freeze in 1988 while he was still a student at Goldsmiths College of Art in London. Tracey Emin has worked with many different mediums such as painting, drawing, film, photography, sculpture, sewn applique and neon text. Within her artworks Tracey Emin explores self portraiture by using her own life experiences. One of Emin’s most notorious pieces is the piece titled Everyone I have Ever slept with from 1995, this piece was made by the artist sewing around 100 names of everyone she had ever shared a bed with, but not just in a sexual manner, these names included family, friends and even her two aborted fetuses. These stitched names were placed on the inside of a store bought tent, to view the piece the viewer had to crawl inside of the tent, this was done to gave a sense of safety within the public space of an art gallery. The piece was sadly destroyed in 2004 along with a lot of other contemporary art pieces when there was a fire in a Momart art storage warehouse. Tracey Emin’s tent piece was often judged by people on the fact that they would mistakenly think it was a list of the names that the artist had had sex with rather than had fallen asleep in the same bed with. This was because of the euphemism connected to the saying slept with. When Tracey Emin’s piece was about more than just sex.

Artist Research – Jessica Stockholder, On spending money tenderly

The artist, Jessica Stockholder used found objects to make the piece. This piece plays about with scale, colour and texture. What i like about this piece is that there is so many different components to the piece that it makes you want to explore them all to see what they are and examine them closer. i also enjoy the bold colours of the geometric shapes on the floor and walls of the space.

On spending money tenderly, Jessica Stockholder

Artist Research – Ilya Kabakov, The man who flew into space from his apartmant

This piece was created by Ilya Kabakov in the 1980’s. it creates a world in which a man has created a slingshot and fired himself into space to escape from life. what i like about the piece is that the artist was able to create a whole new world within his installation that makes you want to know about about the character that would have lived there. it almost feels like a scene from a story book or something.

The man that flew into space from his apartment, Ilya Kabakov

Artist Research – Kurt Schwitters, Merzbau

Kurt Schwitters started to work on Merzbau in 1923 and continued to work on it up until he fled germany to escape the Nazi’s. The studio where the piece was made was bombed in 1943, destroying the piece inside. I really liked the look of the piece as there is a lot going on with it so there is many parts you can study. i like the fact that is was a ‘living’ piece of artwork as it was always being changed while schwitters added to it.

Merzbau, Kurt Schwitters

Artist Research – Edward Kienholz

As part of a research task my class was split into groups and given one artist to research into. as i had been placed into a group of 3 we had to spread the tasks out more and so i was given the task of researching the artist, Edward Kienholz, and looking at two pieces of his art, i chose to research Roxys and The Merry Go World. While other members of the group researched into his ideas and concepts and different pieces of Edward Kienholz work. Below is a link to view the powerpoint with all of our information on it

Research powerpoint instalation

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While researching Edward Kienholz for the research task his work seemed really familiar to me. That was when i realised that i had seen an exhibition by him back in 2005. I remember there was a few pieces in the room however the main piece that i remember is The Merry Go World. That is why i chose to research this piece for the research task. For more information on this piece refer to my slide on the presentation. What i remember about the piece is the flashing lights and the Childlike wonder of the piece. However i was only about 11 or 12 at the time as was too nervous to go inside of it as there was an interactive part to it, however i now regret not going into it.

The Merry Go World – Edward Kienholz

Metamorphosis – Final Result & Evaluation

 

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Metamorphosis Evaluation

At the start of the project I was unsure where I was going to take the project however I knew I wanted to play around with latex to change someone into some form of monster. I feel this would link into the idea of metamorphosis. I struggled to come up with more of an idea than just playing about with latex, then while experimenting with ways to distort a face I found out using some black fabric to create a veil had a creepy vibe. I also experimented with some black ink in water and dripping it on my hands, these clips ended up feeling religious and almost like lady Macbeth from Shakespeare.

As part of research we were told to watch Un Chein Andalou, Entr’acte, Ballet Mecanique and Voyage Dans La Lune. They are all experimental film pieces from the early 1900’s and I really liked the highly experimental and disjointed story line they pretty much all had. I knew I wanted to make mine very experimental too and play about with different techniques such as slow motion. As part of a mini group research project we were given a film to watch and research into together, I was given the film L’age D’or, this was a French film from 1931 by Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel. I really enjoyed this film as there was a definite story line that I could somewhat easily follow even though it was all in French. I don’t think I will take this further for my own film as Id prefer to have mine a lot more open to interpretation than an actual story.

I looked into the film The Cabinet of Dr Caligari from 1920, this movie was said to be the first real horror movie. I really enjoy this movie as the ending of the film leaves you wondering what exactly was real and what wasn’t I like the idea of leaving the viewer confused as to what happened. Dr Caligari was a big inspiration to Tim Burton, who happens to be one of my favourite film directors. You can see close relations to Dr Caligari in a few of Burtons films such as Edward scissor hands.

After researching into films I had a few more ideas of what I could film from my own movie. The whole purpose of my film was to make the viewer feel uncomfortable and curious as the storyline of the movie is not clear. I found editing the movie enjoyable as I could get clips exactly how I wanted them. I chose to change my whole movie into black and white so that it removed any harsh colours of skin etc. so that it wasn’t distracting to what was actually happening. I also liked that the scenes I used ink ended up looking more like blood and it made it have an even more disturbed sense to it. I am happy with the music that I chose in the end for my film, I chose to find the music once I was happy with how the editing had gone as I wanted the music to fit the film not the other way around. I found a slightly hypnotic piece of music that had creepy yet calm tones to it. I felt this fit the movie well and helped bring the piece together. The title of my movie is Les Yeux, which means The Eyes in French, it was suggested by a tutor as I was struggling to come up with what it could be, I feel this fits my movie well as I was heavily inspired by the old French experimental films and the eye is something that features all throughout the film.

Overall I am happy with the final outcome of my film as during critiques people have always had the reaction of it being creepy but they like it, exactly what I wanted my film to do. However, if I had more time I feel that I would try make more clips to fill out the story, or even have an actual storyline to it but with a similar disjointedness as Un Chein Andalou where you’re left thinking about what you just watched.

Metamorphosis – Project Development

When i first received the project i was unsure on where i would take take it, however i knew i wanted to use latex to change the appearance of someone to create a humanoid monster. I want to do this as one of the definitions of metamorphosis is a change in appearance, character or function.

In the early experimentation of my film i changed my face by covering it with some black material. i felt this added a creepy vibe as it had an almost religious feel to it, another experimentation i had was dripping black ink onto my hand, and also washing my hands erratically with the ink, this gave it lady Macbeth feel to it. I am going to continue with these scenes further into my film

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I experimented with latex and cotton wool to make a creepy disturbed face. i added layers around my eyes to give my eyes a sunken back look. i also covered my whole mouth to further dehumanise the face. I am happy with the outcome of the latex face and feel it will help make the viewers be on edge during the film. if i was to redo the latex i think i would make the cheek bones stand out more to give it a more skeletal shape.

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After taking inspiration from Dr Caligari i decided to create my own straight jacket and have the figure trying to escape from it. i wanted to make the viewer question if the creepy figure was just a figment of the imagination. I made the straight jacket out of the same material i used as a veil, it was tied behind my back to make me trapped and i had a black belt tied around my hands to give it a more realistic vibe. 

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When choosing the music i left it till i was happy with the final edit of my film. i did this as i wanted to find music to fit the film rather than trying to fit the film to the music. i found the music on youtube and i felt that this fit the piece very well. it has a calm but creepy vibe to it. Paired with the film it gives the overall film a hypnotic tone.

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The title of my film is Les Yeux, which means the eyes in french. i chose to have my title in french as i was so inspired by the early french films from the 1920’s. The whole of my film is in black and white for the same reasons.

Title card from my film