In my casting session this week i decided to create a miniature man to go alongside my current project, with my casting teachers suggestion I created the model of a man out of plasticine from a drawing I had made previously, and using a silicone based sand casting technique we created the cast. hopefully it will work and I look forward to seeing the finished result when the aluminium is poured on Friday.
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Sometimes you sit through a lecture and at the end you are totally inspired and amazed about what people get up to and the types of people out there, David Clegg’s was one of those. David Clegg is a fascinating man from the moment he started talking he had everyone transfixed. His works looks at memory and personal history something that we can all relate to. Working in care homes and hospitals his work on memory loss is innovating and revolutionising. Memory is a fluid concept, each time we remember something we are actually remembering the last time we remembered it rather than the actual event itself. Therefore memory becomes unreliable and can change over time. As we remember something we recreate it using a different neurone path. After working as an artist and running a gallery for a few years, David decided that wasn’t for him anymore and got a job in a care home. Working at the care home he met an 87 year old woman named Sheila, Sheila had dementia, her memory was fragmenting she was afraid of losing it altogether but one thing she wanted to do was write her life story, and so David Clegg sat down one day with a pen and paper and Sheila began “I was born Sheila Val Jean Hugo, a descendant of Victor Hugo, writer of The Hunchback of Notre Dame." As it turned out Shelia had been friends with many famous actors and musicians: she had dated lion tamers and the infamous Acid Bath murderer. It took two years for Sheila to piece together her extraordinary story titled Dust on the Rubber Tree. By visiting care homes he met more people with dementia to collect and record their stories. He named the project The Trebus Project in remembrance of Edmund Trebus, a polish war veteran, who filled his home with things that most would call rubbish, convinced that in time a use would be found for them. Working intensively and over long periods of time with the same people he built up a fascinating record of lives that would otherwise have been lost to history. He worked with how people understood space and documented objects made by people with dementia. Collected photographs of the way people moved things in the care home things people often looked over. David Clegg told us story’s if the people he worked with, such as Francis who worked as a poet but as her memory fragmented she cut up her poems and tried to rearrange them to try and make sense of them. He told us about a woman who wouldn’t do anything but write she would write everything down in an attempt to hold on to them, she would write until the paper turned black and you could no longer see words. He even talked about his own mother who lost the kitchen the space had completely folded up in her mind and no longer existed to her. What began as an art experiment has grown to become the largest archive of first person dementia narratives in the world. David Clegg was a fascinating man whose pioneering work is helping to give us a better understanding of not only memory loss diseases such as dementia but also helping us understand memory as a whole. "if cities are not meant for children, They are not for citizens either" Aldo Von Eyck 1918-1999 Tom and Simon Bloor mainly work on projects that relate to their relationships with public space. They talked briefly about how they were interested greatly in the euphoric and historic moments, the flaws of which particularly interested them. Their leading factor is their work is their fascination with play and 'play sculptures' which becomes their foundation to many projects such as 'Design for Pleasure' and 'as long as it lasts'. Richard Renaldi created a series of photographs that involve approaching and asking complete strangers to physically interact while posing together for a portrait. He creates a relationship that isn't otherwise there between two strangers who are pushed past those boundaries we are taught of posing intimately in a way you would usually only reserve for those close friends and loved ones.
Living in such a beautiful place in the world is something we often take for granted, but every now and again something comes along which opens your eyes to the fascinating history and beauty of the Derbyshire dales. Derwent Pulse is one of those things. it claims to be Derbyshire's longest ever artwork. by using up to one thousand lights, illuminating the ancient pulse of the river Derwent the first ever factories and the history behind the countryside. the lights twist and turn through Derbyshire's beautiful valleys and weave the past, present and future of Derbyshire, its landscape and people. standing on a cold October night in front of the backdrop of the majestic Chatsworth house the floating lights drifting down the river and the excitement of the young children decorated in bright lights marching a path along the riverside was a magical experience. the river was brought to life for a short while as drums were played and children marvelled at the bright ever changing lights. Here are a few long exposure shots I took: Ater leaving the aluminium to cool overnight we returned the next day to take the cast out. the outcome was fascinating, the air spout and the pouring spout added another level to the fascinating process. after the excess was sawn off the object was captivating. Felicity Allen is an artist who is particularly interested in the crossover between the artistic process and academic learning. she works mainly in drawing, painting and the two dimensional, sometimes veering into photography and installation. she explained how she stopped making art as she felt she couldn't create art without attacking herself and her ability but continued in her writing as she felt she could do that without calling herself a writer. after nearly a decade of not painting she returned to it. she was being made redundant at the time and felt it was appropriate to to begin again. she wanted to get the hard few weeks of first getting back into painting before she was made redundant. she would do two portraits of each sitter and write notes about the experience. she started with a painting of her daughter and really didn't like the finished outcome. but she decided to keep at it and carry on. by the fourth painting she saw a little improvement. she invited former colleagues to come and sit for her. after each sitting she would write reflective notes. Felicity Allen was an interesting artist to listen to. I found it particularly interesting that she stopped painting altogether but managed to relive her passion once again.
As part of the Art Context- art and the body lecture series, we were asked to write about the modern phenomenon that is the 'selfie', here is what I wrote: A photograph to me is a memory captured in time nothing can ever change that memory and I can keep a visual representation of that time and event, all the feelings and thoughts that I experienced at that time. My pictures are something I hold as very valuable. My personal photographs cover my room walls: memories of trips with friends, family get-togethers, once in a lifetime experiences all captured in photographs that plaster my walls and it brings great pleasure to look back on all my memories and good times.
Personally I have very little interest in the idea of a selfie; the idea of capturing my face isn't a very comforting idea. I used to hate being in pictures and much preferred to be the one taking the photograph. But as I have grown up I have become more and more relaxed with the notion of participating in a photograph. Personally I think this is the increased exposure of photographs and my desire to capture the moment. The selfie I have chosen to talk about was taken earlier this year on a holiday to turkey with a few friends we are stood in front of the backdrop of the sea. We all look happy and relaxed it radiates the contentment and joy we all felt at the time. it now hangs proudly on my wall along with the rest of my prints. As most people know it can be awkward to ask a stranger to take a photograph of you and your friends and especially in a foreign country. We were having a great time and wanted to preserve the memory of the holiday and so we resorted to the most obvious answer ''the selfie''. It easily captured all of us in the moment without including a third party to take the picture. Personally I think in the 21st century there is a lot of pressure to look good online and to create an online persona. we live in a time where everyone tracks their every moment and uploads a constant stream of photos and text explaining their day to day life and every little experience. The use of many apps and technology has infiltrated our lives and the use of apps such as Snapchat and other instant messaging has become part of our daily lives. I can understand that this use of constantly being observed could be damaging to the way we look at our bodies however I can also see how that communication of sharing images could help us become more connected, aware of others and hopefully improve our lives |
AuthorHannah Watson is currently a student at Sheffield Hallam University, studying towards a BA in Creative Art Practice Archives
May 2015
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