Greetings ArtExpress blog fans I’m artist number 48, if you are wanting to take a closer look at my art work and its statement you can find me on the website. My works title is: “Fear Only to Stand Still” ( I assure you it’s not as foreboding as it sounds!) If you did or didn’t manage to acquaint or familiarise yourself with my work, it has been assembled with the aid of street billboard posters on display with photographic images below to document the process of placing the posters in their final form, in situ.
Skim read if you want. I got a little carried away...
I can guess most of you would have had difficulties trying to decipher the concept of my work until you read the statement which would have assisted you to get a vague idea of the overall concept, which is the juxtaposition between terror and beauty. When I noticed a pattern from the selection of images, which I found from a variety of sources to use as collage and paint application, it all came down to beauty and terror. The only worry I did have was due to the large size of my work thinking all the images may bombard the brain and create to many conflicting ideas, which is when my teacher introduced me with the term ‘cognitive dissonance’, and there I found myself staring absent minded at her. Cognitive dissonance can be described as the feeling of uncomfortable tension which results from two conflicting thoughts in the mind, which increases with the significance of the subject and the inability to rationalize and explain away the conflicting ideas. This dissonance is often associated with personal beliefs, so why not de-code the work yourself?
I. CHALLENGE. YOU.
I deliberately chose images which portray current global issues which saturate the media, particularly the influence of the Iraq war which people neglect as they resort to beauty, which describes today’s people within the narcissistic modern world. When selecting the posters to use as the primary base, I chose ones which had strong visual appeal. One of the posters which stood out to me advertised the most recent Foo Fighters album with the atomic bomb as a main feature which constituted for my concept of “beauty and terror”. It became evident that through my art making process visual aspects were inspired by the original images or words visible on the original poster surfaces.
The other day being 20th February I took a day trip to the Art Gallery with seven of my friends and there I saw them familiarising themself with my work. Inquisitive, they said things along the lines of “ So what’s it about?” or “What do all the images mean?” and my first response was,” I want you to tell me what you think it’s about! I am interested to see if you have differing thoughts on the overall concept..” So obviously with all my friends being non-art students I told them to resort to the statement to better their understanding.
As I am sitting here at my desk at approximately 1am, words are becoming worse for wear so bear with me. I may as well spook all you current year 12’s out and say I think the art body of work is.......... a thrilling process, now that I am in Art Express 2009! If you are one of those student bogged down with major works there is hope for you too! I was also a design and technology student, so I created yet another major work with not one, but a few folios. Design Technology was a tedious and painful experience! I can tell you at this time last year in art I was lagging behind in terms of my works progress, and I can assure you my art teacher was slightly concerned. But I did have a seven metre long poster billboard sitting in my garage which was my promising medium. I deliberated whether or not to use these posters as a base, as the surface could go horribly wrong due to their fragile nature. To obtain the poster surface I went with my assistant (dad) on a scandalous midnight raid to a train underpass which is when we noticed the posters detaching themself from the brick wall.
12.45am on a school night, Ella and her assistant tear down the pacific highway in their 19 year old station wagon, note the inanimate object covering the entirety of the cars exterior.... This night marked the fun and humorous part of art making, stepping into the shoes of an artist.
Now I had my surface, the next challenge was to choose my concept. Being brought up with art as a first hand skill, I have been immersed in the art world my whole life thanks to dad and my grandma, practising artists themselves. I have always been creative and passionate about art, just to give you a taste; I ate paint at 2, made puppet people out of toilet paper rolls at 5, hammered bits of drift wood together to create abstract forms, attended art classes. Having sufficient knowledge about art and my preferred painting style, I didn’t find it difficult to make a work look appealing, although I struggled to think of underlying concepts for the basis of my HSC work. To help me in the idea generation of my works qualities I was inspired by artists Robert Rauschenberg for his potent bold images which have been collected from a range of sources to depict the cultural and political representations and aspect of America, where I was inspired by his use of painting, print and collage. I was also inspired by the founder of pop, minimalism and conceptual art, Jasper Johns with his iconic target which lead me to the resultant globes and target found within my work as a recurring motif along with the grenades. Whist in the middle of completing my BOW I attended the Frank Gohier exhibition in Surry Hills which made me laugh as I noticed a very similar style of painting in this artists work. I was also inspired by pseudo-anonymous British graffiti artist Banksy.
The six photographs displayed beneath the posters provide insight to the instillation approach to my work, as I thought it would be effective to put the posters back in their original context. I thought the addition of photographs would challenge the notion of high vs low art, as my work has been taken from the street to be viewed in a gallery space. The lighting in the photographs highlights the scandalous nature of my work, as myself and friends could be mistaken for graffiti artists, hence I used spray paint as a medium.
So what is it like having your work exhibited in the ART GALLERY OF NSW? It is rather surreal I suppose, never did I see myself making it this far. I can remember visiting ArtExpress in previous school years on numerous occasions, but when we went for an excursion last year all students and myself particularly was filled with trepidation, standing in front of works which were the epitome of having satisfied HSC markers expectations....with my mouth gaping at the sights of few works I had one thought in mind I. HAD. NO CHANCE...
All I can say to current year 12 students is be consistent and persist in the development of your work, don’t leave it for a long duration of time if you are the type of person who will grow apart from your work and get less motivated! You need to be passionate about your work and most of all enjoy the process! If you are having difficulties getting into it I strongly recommend using the art room in your lunch times or after school or to get the momentum going, find the closest power point and blast some tunes which is guaranteed to get you into the zone.
On a final note. Don’t underestimate the importance of the Visual Arts Process Diary aka (VAPD) It’s a necessity, the building foundation to help with the BOW’s development and it is a guide to clarify ideas.
If you have any questions I’d love to answer them....
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