Documentation
Week 1 - 4 Autumn Term
Week 6 - 10 Autumn Term and Week 10 Show: U Ok Hun?
Week 1 – 4 Spring Term and Week 5 Interim Show: Attack of the 50ft Womb-Man!
Week 6 - 10 Spring Term: Nightglow
Final Exhibition Plans
The beginning of the year was concerned with getting ideas together, researching themes and choosing the mediums to best express them. Scientific phenomena and natural structures are ripe for exploration within art and I wanted to make work exploring these themes: the relationship between humanity and giant abstract structures and our reliance on cosmic systems that are out of our control.
The result was a series of photographs of our sun taken from NASA satellites. The original photographs were the modified into two different colour groups, a pink and purple neon scheme and a photonegative, black and white scheme. The negative scheme was chosen, and these images would become the basis for works in various mediums.
Moving on from Sun, I wanted to explore the options for creating work with a narrative structure. This meant creating a film using a slightly more conventional cinematic language: camera movement, editing with purpose and the inclusion of sound effects and music. Doing this was a chance to see how the image would feel projected in a manner that would be more overwhelming and demand more attention than the pervious work.
This was also the first step in bringing in multimedia aspects to the project, with basic narrative elements that could be adapted into future written works and the possibility of using sound to convey concepts.
The piece shown in the week 10 show, Dark Star, was the result of this process. The piece is a short film that loosely traces a narrative of exploration around the negative star, with a fairly clear introduction, crescendo and denouement.
Moving on from Dark Star, I changed medium again and began to work with oil paint. This change was made because I wanted to use the interim show as an opportunity to experiment with a medium that has much more physicality and texture than a projected image, with the intent to bring the media together in the final show.
Dark Star (painting) was the result of this experimentation.
The final element of my multi media approach that needed exploration was the written aspect. The piece, Nightglow, which will be a part of the exhibition catalogue, is indicative of the writing style and thematic content that I will use for the final exhibition, making use of literary devices and written in a conventional prose format.
Week 5 Autumn Term Show
NASA Originals
Neon Edits
Photonegative Edits
The week 5 show was the result of early experiments with the image of the photonegative sun. The aim was to create a video art piece rather than a film with narrative structure and to experiment with the placement of the projection and how it affects the reading of the image. The piece consists of a continuously repeating 5-minute loop of 4 images that phase into each other.
The placement of the projection in skylight of the central gallery was chosen to evoke the placement of the sun in the sky, looming over the viewer, a presence not always seen but continually felt.
Dark Star
Sun
Dark Star (painting), Oil Paint on Canvas, 2040 mm x 1890 mm
Nightglow
There seems to be a distinct change in my psychological state when I look to the stars. I don’t know if it’s measureable on any scientific scanner; an observable serotonin shockwave sent through the neurons in my brain in response to overpowering environmental stimuli, or whether it’s a more paranormal phenomenon. Either way, something tangible happens. I can’t say it’s the same for everyone else, not with any certainty, but something this powerful can’t be mine alone. A gut churning force that simultaneously weighs down from above with a barrage of light that has travelled distances inconceivable, and terrifyingly expands the consciousness into the vast spaces in between.
Urban living’s assault on the night sky doesn’t support the sharing of this experience. The wonders of the high are held hostage, collateralised for requirements of a more earthly origin. Perhaps we can go back. But we can’t ever go backwards. Not willingly. It would take more than we are prepared to sacrifice for a little existential shock therapy. Besides, the gains have not all been ill gotten. Carving out a little order in the chaos is as noble an ideal as any. Sometimes, however, a shift in perspective is needed.
Darkness is desired not only to show us where we came from, but to recharge the consciousness, collective and individual, and redress the balance of a world that is awake 24 hours a day, yet increasingly unaware of its surroundings. Written in the stars are tales of the abstract, tales of uncaring and bleak worlds, of scale unbound and implausible and horrifying. But there is also an opportunity to move beyond the constraints of the contemporary, to see things scarcely imaginable.
Maybe it’s not worth it. Maybe it’s not what we need right now.
I’ll keep looking though.
The aim of the final exhibition will be to bring together all of the mediums that I have experimented with and create a mixed media piece that will involve painting, writing and filmmaking, employing central image of the black and white photonegative star that has been used throughout the year.
The painting will be oil on canvas, 2450 mm x 2450 mm and located in Studio 4. The film will be show in the lecture theatre and will be approximately 5-10 minutes in length. The written piece will be located near the painting and consist of a story that will tie in to the painting and the film.