What is a Border?

Having been given the words 'Border, City, Body, Time' to work from for the Fine Art project, I explored my initial reaction to what a border meant to me by walking the border of a car park. In addition to this, I walked the border of Haringey from Tottenham to Barnet and filmed this, recording how I felt as I was walking, the sounds I could hear and how my measure of walking changed as time passed. I chose only to film my feet, so as to amplify the sounds in the background and visually record how my pace of walking changed as I progressed.

Visit to ... Egon Schiele : The Radical Nude November 2014

A couple of weeks ago, I visited the 'Radical Nude' Exhibition displaying the work of Egon Schiele at Somerset House. Egon Schiele is one my favourite artists, for he produced some of the most radical depiction of the human figure created in modern times. What intrigues me most about Schiele's work is his varying style in depicting the body; he goes from a very flat and linear quality to a detailed and tonal depiction. In terms of content, I love the way in which Schiele challenged conventions with his 'unflinching and highly original approach, reinvesting the subject of the nude with new energy and purpose.'

As much as I liked the Exhibition, Schiele was very much of his time and thus I found my visit to the 'Catching Dreams' Exhibition at the South Bank Centre to be more pertinent to me.

Visit to ... The Catching Dreams Exhibition November 2014

Last week, I visited the 'Catching Dreams' Exhibition at the South bank Centre, which holds the United Kingdom's annual national showcase of art by prisoners. The artworks featured in the show were created by prisoners, offenders on community sentences, secure psychiatric patients and immigration detainees. I found the entire exhibition to be very powerful and moving, for the very purpose of the Exhibition was to empower those whose voice was taken. Interestingly, the artwork that I found to be the most striking was those produced by secure psychiatric patients. The imagery conveyed in such pieces as 'Birds' were beautiful in execution. yet highly disturbing when viewed in the context of the artist's situation. Remembering that a key influence of the 1920's Surrealists was the work of the mentally ill, I was most inspired by the insight I felt I was given an insight into the thoughts and emotions of the artists. In relation to my project, 'Border, Time, City, Body', I feel as though the exhibition encapsulated the concept of breaking through a border, which interest me. The very act of channeling difficult emotions into highly expressive artworks is, in my opinion, breaking a personal border.

This piece in particular reminded me of the 'Tilling Fields' by Joan Miro. The juxtaposition of seemingly random images combined with loose lines and a startling palette highlighted the sense of chaos within this piece.

This was one of my absolute favourites. Produced by a patient in a secure psychiatric unit, the piece is made up of layers of illegible writing and lines. To me, This piece is very unsettling, as I can feel the intense chaos and desperation about the piece. As well as this, I managed to pull out the sentence 'New Home Soon' from the piece, which I found to be most moving. Having  a family background of mental illness, I am familiar with the system of sectioning and of the moving of patients to different units, and thus this piece resonated with me on a more personal level. In terms of the execution of the piece, I really like the layers of writing, for it not only leaves the artwork largely ambiguous but also awards it an abstract quality.

The Flight Project - Short Film

In this short video of our installation filmed on sight, the 50's dress appears to be flying, and even disappears out of shot for a few seconds. It can be argued that not only does this give the illusion that the dress itself is in flight, but also reinforces the underlying symbol of the dress as an instrument of entrapment for the housewife, and thus the attempt to escape the confines of this image sees the dress fall gently back into position. Although unedited, I think the film captures a powerful visual of the dress in flight.

The Flight Project - Photographic Study

The day long 'Flight Project' required the Art & Design Foundation students in small groups to make something that flies. In response, myself and my group decided to make an installation, using clothing thrifted from various charity shops in the local area and suspending them with thin fishing wire between trees in a park. By doing this, our intention was to create the illusion that the clothes were flying as the wind blew. Yet behind this installation we were simultaneously exploring other ideas; using a white bodice as a symbol of feminine freedom made problematic when caught between two trees - phallic imagery. In addition, we decided to use a 50's style dress to represent the escape of the trapped housewife. In spite of this, our aim was to make the installations appear as ambivalent as possible, so as to give the observer much room to interpret the art work.

Voice for Life

My finished response to the project of 'Machines for Living' took the form of a short film exploring how the voice is in effect, a machine for life. It can be argued that machines themselves cannot affect change, but humans can, and thus I fused the idea of the machine and the voice into a single concept. The film explores how we are defined by the way we communicate, and is compiled of various clips of footage both shot by myself and extracted from other sources. The juxtaposition of the clips of footage played a fundamental role in this film, for I aimed to contrast and underline the different ways the voice is used as a machine for life so that I could achieve a powerful dramatic impact. In addition, I wanted to juxtapose the voice of the iconic with the voice of an individual for whom vocal communication does not come easy, and thus each would reinforce each other in illustrating the importance of the voice.Using different forms of editing software such as iMovie and Magic X Pro, I managed to edit down the footage and help the film to flow. I did find the editing of the film challenging, for this form of media is very new to me as well as working with the unfamiliar editing software. Aside from organising the structure of the visual footage, I additionally wanted to express the importance of the sound of a voice, and thus I opened and closed the film with raw audio footage, leaving the visuals black. I did this to both draw the attention of the audience to the voice only, thus highlighting the importance of a voice, and to also reinforce the visual footage. Overall, I am please with the outcome of the project, and feel as though as I have greatly improved my technical skill of editing and working with digital media.