SHE CAN'T GO OUT IN PUBLIC WITHOUT A DISGUISE AND A BODYGUARD 

New start

Volunteering at the Whitworth Art Gallery

I spent the summer volunteering for the family programme at the Whitworth Art Gallery, in the run up to their closure this week with a festival in the park. As well as helping out with their childrens' classes a few days a week over the summer (DIY Art & Colourful Sundays), I worked at the festival with a kite making workshop and various childrens' activities, helped make some of the decorations for the park, namely cutting, decorating and sewing together about 300m of bunting, and also helped put together the 'Memory Shed'.

As well as gaining experience in a creative job area, I have made contacts with people at the Whitworth Gallery (for when they re-open as I will be finishing my degree), and have also gained some inspiration for my dissertation, being around kids in a creative environment. I got to speak to some like-minded people, and some that have done similar degrees to mine, and spoke to them about what to do after a degree if you don't want to be an artist. 

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.

Pablo Picasso

I WANT ALL MY IMAGES TO BE FOUND.

FRONT COVERS, ADVERTS, PHOTOGRAPHS THAT COULD BE ALBUM COVERS, PORTRAITS, POSTERS, CAREFUL NOT TO USE IMAGES THAT ARE ALREADY SOMEBODY'S WORK.

DISSERTATION ...

Child art and artists inspired by child like art styles

2001 Whitworth exhibition on child art - Wonderland? 

Children as audience in an art gallery

Galleries that embrace children - workshops, activities, encouragement 

Interpretation of art work, all audiences 

Artists that encourage a specific response and interpretation, and those that leave it to the viewer

BARRY MCGEE X JIM GOLDBERG

EARLY DISSERTATION IDEAS

Creativity & imagination
Importance of creativity in education
Importance of creativity outside of the art industries and in every walk of life - innovation
Children and craft, imagination with materials
Differences between adults and children in terms of craft and creativity
Childhood fascination with tactile and brightly coloured objects
Art and craft bringing out the child in adults
Do successful artists have the ability to use their imagination in a childlike way to come up with ideas, have they maintained that from childhood?

Potential for interviews, case studies and external project at the Whitworth Gallery (child and adult programmes).

STEPHEN ANTONAKOS

Painted furniture and backdrop white to be pasted with manuscript for the music room scene and installation

Done

Online review of our exhibition

http://style-etc.co.uk/art-life/

Set up for assessment

I've hired a light box for assessment. My work is at it's best when illuminated.

I want the tutors to see the work presented as it would be in a more professional exhibition environment.. Or just somewhere more flexible and practical than my current studio space. For example I can't display on a window and I don't have the resources to wall-mount a large backlit piece of work. I was very pleased with how my work looked on a small table-top light box, the viewer can see the illuminated marks and layered colours of the work and also control the on/off switch. This is an idea that I could use in a show environment - the viewer able to control the viewing of the work, whether it is seen/illuminated/communicating as they would as a consumer in the real world concerning advertising imagery.

Cut! Reproduction and Recombination. The Wretched of the Screen journal

I found this essay very interesting, here's an extract talking about the reproduction and stunted communication of images.

One week left to finalise ideas ready for assessment. Need to take a step deeper into my ideas, at the moment I'm just dipping my toe in the water. I can make this step by exploring methods of display. With my work, it is the display and scale that brings context and definition. And with all art works scale and location define value. I will make a few more brand new works for assessment that weren't in te exhibition and think about interesting ways to mount it.

What new step can I take next, using what I learnt from putting on my show and showing my work outside of my studio?

Showing on the window and blowing up to a large scale were both very successful.

During the show I found myself worrying that the work was plagiaristic and not original enough. I am satisfied with the images I'm creating but are they plagiaristic? Or is this an issue I can discuss within my work? And embrace it?

There were comments about the work being intimidating like Russian propaganda. I'd never thought about provoking feelings of unease because you can't read the text, but I'm pleased.

FUTURE NOW

A symposium for graduating fine art students. Talks, discussions and workshops.

Mark Titchner
Put a word on the wall and people read it. Turns wall works into works away from wallpaper, not ambient anymore.
Appropriated text. Remove it from it's source. Hierarchy of who's speaking.
Light box works.
Emptiness of language, lack of meaning.
Billboards on underground facing real billboards, talking to adverts.
Corporate language (Coca-Cola)

Look into internships at the Arts Council, Cornerhouse, Manchester international festival and Ear to the Ground.

LAUNCH

There were a few tasks left to the last minute like the numbers along side the works and setting up the lights but it all came together nicely in the end. People came, all the beers were drank and people left when they ran out. I don't have much experience of exhibition openings but it seemed to run smoothly! There were no accidents, breakages, arguments or disasters. The hand-out mounting was successful, they ran out fast but there were the outtakes for spares.

We took some more professional shots of the work and event, these are the ones I took on my phone for the time being.

Our aims for the show were for it to be fleeting and temporary, in a space that was in a state of change itself. We didn't want it to last long, and for it not to be a big event or statement, but for our comments to be subtle, reserved and mysterious. I think we achieved all of these goals.

The hand out worked out in the end. After the photocopier spitting out or jamming every other print, we only ended up with 33 for the limited edition, and I didn't have time to get more newsprint.

We always wanted the hand out to look throw away, cheap and disposable. This is why we chose to print onto newsprint and to print using a normal inkjet printer. And also I think the blurry and smudged 'mistakes' were actually quite successful in enhancing this effect.

We hand numbered 30 of them to be mounted for viewers to help themselves to. This made them a limited edition and a gift for the visitors, and simply the numbering makes it into an artwork itself rather than just obligatory piece of information. People will retain it. The numbering gives it value, even though yhe materials aren't worth anything.

PROMO

DAY 3

This morning we put up the last of the works. Vic is under the weather so will come up later to mount the rest of the work. In the meantime she has finished the hand-out and sent it to Ian to be printed. I will go back to the uni later to pick them up.

Charly is cutting up the squares to write the numbers for the work on and is bringing in a brush and a dustpan and brush later.