Good Night & Good Luck

As the ArtExpress 2009 Exhibition winds to a conclusion I thought I would post my last blog entry. To end I thought I would leave you with a few tips/pointers which may help in future HSC artworks but also hopefully help you to think outside the square. So you can see where I'm coming from my statement can be found here: http://www.insideartexpress.com.au/artists/hardwick but keep in mind that the artwork was much more than the one panel (with books, polaroids, canvases & stockings-stretched to make mix-media canvases)

My Work:

Those tips/pointers:

1. Experiment: Despite what I say in the Gretel Killeen interview (part of 'Art After Hours' program my work) the concept and physical art evolved as the year progressed. I think it was 2001 when the HSC syllabus was revised for Visual Art, a notable change was the shift from 'Major Work' to 'Body of Work'. I would encourage you all to understand what a Body of Work includes and mean -don't be limited by the traditional view of art making, contemporary art practice of many artists is no longer linear (in the sense of materials explored) and neither should your work-. My concept was driven by the physical experiments which I did. Often you will find that these experiments will be:
   

a)integral in the foundation/formation of your body of work

b)not included in the end product but you will have used skills/materials that will be

There is never a point in your practice which experimentation should stop, right down to how you assemble and present your work.

Examples of the experiments I did which were then turned into a two books (not displayed):

2. Use the world around you. Artists, like many creative professions, do not exist in a void of artistic practice or knowledge. Draw on artists that you like. For instance I love the presentation of Janet Laurence's translucent artworks, thus I investigated how she assembled her work and adapted it to my own need and concepts. I also followed the practice of environment/time based artist Andy Goldsworthy. Just because an artist/musician/architect/graphic designer may not be exploring your concept their skills and the tools that they have used in the creation of their work may be of use and interest to you. Don't re-invent the wheel, the HSC is stressful enough without personal pressures of grander and ground breaking techniques and concepts.

3. Visit galleries & view art. As a student of Architecture I am beginning to appreciate how important it is to view buildings, objects & artworks in the flesh. I don't think the trend of some galleries (the Brisbane Art Gallery is of note within Australia) towards virtual galleries and virtual exhibitions of physical works is the future for art galleries. There are a number or reasons why not:

a) The rendering/appearance of these spaces are not to a high enough quality. Computer games have higher graphics than many of the simulations being used ... so why aren't galleries using computer game editors to create their environments?

b) Galleries can/have been able to successfully break down the stereotype of 'the art galley' and intern make them more accessible to the public. The success of the Tate Modern in Britain is proof of this fact. Yes we have a smaller population in Australia but more money spent on engaging social design of our buildings and artistic programs (ie satellite galleries/gallery franchises so that works and exhibitions can be accessed and viewed outside the city) would be more worthwhile & exciting than online exhibitions. Of course electronic & video art is a separate issue and with some effort could work online but I haven't seen any efforts on a large scale in Australia to make this work. 

To bring this rant back to the point there is nothing like seeing art and the detail/technical skill which artists put into their work. The visual library of images & techniques which you will build will last you a lifetime if you keep an interest in art. Its all very well talking about how brilliant the Sydney Opera House is but its another thing to actually experience the space. 

All in all I hope that the exhibition (and even more hopefully my work) gave you a few new insights into how to produce your body of work. Remember this is one of the vessels where you can vent your imagination so don't waist the opportunity to do something a little left of field (be this in your concept or materials or presentation etc). Its a repeated cliche but enjoy the year.

Stay creative and never sell out!

Just passing on some nice comments from an English visitor

I just wanted to say how glad I am that I came down to level 3 in the Art Gallery of NSW. I have looked around most of the gallery this morning and have to say that this exhibition has been the most inspiring part of my trip and has shown some exceptional talent. I have to say I prefer the work here to some of the more contemporary pieces in the main galleries by a long way!!
Look forward to seeing some of the names from this exhibition in the galleries in the future.
I would be grateful if you could forward this on to those involved.

Helen Morris, London, UK.

Greetings ArtExpress blog fans

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....

Virtual walkthough

Hi All

the virtual walkthrough of the exhibition is now available. It gives another perspective on the exhibition experience and its layout. Tristan

Link to The Weekend Australian ARTEXPRESS Review

Hi everyone here is the link to The Weekend Australian's review. It's an interesting article that expands beyond the exhibition to discuss the teaching of art and the syllabus. Thanks for alerting us to it Tessa.

The Weekend Australian- Review

Has anyone read the article on ArtExpress in the Australian, "Teen Spirit"?
Slightly scathing.
Just like you all to know I think your works are a huge achievement,
whatever the journalists say (:

ARTEXPRESS 09: Some perspectives and a review of sorts

Hi All,

The Artlife blog has posted some perspectives and a review of sorts about this year's ARTEXPRESS exhibition at the Gallery. Check it out. See what you think.

The Point of No Return

Hi! I'm Neha and I did those really tiny black, red and white drawings at ArtExpress. This is pretty much about:

The 5 things I learnt whilst doing my major work 

(because I like reflection)

• Creating a body of work takes planning.
  

I’m a big fan of spontaneity – so big in fact that I was originally going to just chuck ink on canvas and draw around it (it’s called automatism). Obviously that didn’t work out and composition saved my life halfway through the HSC when I realised that I’d spent most of the year scribbling in my VAPD with nothing to show for it.

• Change is your best friend.
  

Waiting for inspiration to hit me on the head wasn’t working (a euphemism for bludging during first term) so I decided to sketch out ideas in tiny little squares. By doing something as simple as that, I quickly found a new sense of direction and just took it from there.

• Sometimes things don’t go according to plan
  

At the school exhibition, one of my drawings fell off the wall and the frame received a massive dent. Instead of having a hysterical hissy fit, I just said- “Yeah, this dent right here adds character!”

• Hard work pays off
  

Again at the school exhibition, someone said to me, “You know, you could have spent half the effort, just taken photographs like I did and passed.” Yeah, because when you’re passionate enough about something, you want to accomplish the bare minimum and pass, right? Doubt it. Put the effort in, whatever medium(s) you choose, and people will recognise it.

• It’s nice to have support
  

I used to carry my drawings around school in this long tube (the kind you can get from the post office) and randomly people would stop me and ask to see how much I’d done so far. Yeah, it was an effort to roll out my work (sometimes in the rain!) and roll it back again, but it was worth it when people appreciated all the little details.

What’s my work about you ask? It’s all in those details.

On a side note: ArtExpress was amazing. It was really humbling to have my work displayed because the standard was so good. If your work was a)colourful b)inventive c)a drawing - then I loved it. Also, everyone was so friendly - definitely a night to remember.

hello

Hello everyone.

I feel terrible for not writing on this blog yet.
Hi, I'm bhen and my work is PASSED QUARANTINE.
I wish i had met more of you at the gallery but i was so bamboozled by everything - and most of you weren't wearing your tags TSSK TSSK TSSK.
I met Rob, Brianna and Laura. Im a huge fan of all three artists!
Im going to write a much better blog next time which I know you will ALL read because i have read yours.

P.S

Lets discuss more. No more laborious blogs and more confrontational youth discussions! yay.

How did you come up with that? (blog #2)

The 'Pretentious Line' from my Body Of Work (BOW) Art for the Blind .

The main problem most students have with creating a major work is figuring out what to do.
This is beyond daunting.
I (like most people) was completely screwed. I had zero direction and concept until the end of October.
It was 2am. I had an epiphany that got the ball rolling. I began thinking about the exclusion of the visually impaired from the art world.
I was worrying about my lack of concept and thinking about some odd ideas for drawings because i couldn't sleep. I had been obsessively listening to a CD with braille cover art for a month or so (Blue on Blue EP by New Zealand band Cut Off Your Hands - pictured to the left. Click image to go to Special Problems website). I suddenly considered incorporating braille into my BOW, then I thought, 'Blind people don't go to galleries WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!'
Exactly!
Visual arts!
The beginnings of my concept were materialising...

So my original idea for my BOW after that ephiphany featured pronounced tactile qualities. It was supposed to be the vison impaired equivalent of 'visual' art through touch. I wanted to turn the tables by totally excluding sighted people (yes, I know I'm sighted too...) the way that vison impaired individuals are almost totally excluded from most art experiences (galleries, exhibitons and so forth). I was going to use braille extensivley to the point that the sighted audience would experience a bit of the exclusion that vision impaired people encounter when 'viewing' art.
As I thought up text that poked fun at art as a sighted art form I'd keep automatically coming up with simple, but ironic images that embodied my opinions. At first these were just ideas I laughed at privatley. Before long I had built up a collection of a few images that i couldn't ignore anymore, and these consumed my thoughts more than my 'official' BOW. My original idea hadn't progressed very far, so I abandoned that and started refining images that delved into contmporary notions of art. These became my finished BOW.


The opening of ARTEXPRESS 2009

My favourites were:
II (Two) by Jessica Jade Honeywill
Technical Questions (An inquiry of authenticity) by Christine Kim
Ang moderno at Ang Iua (The mod and the matriarch) by Robert Kennard
Can You Read Me by Maria Lourdes Millaire
Memoirs: Reminiscing Rome, Impressions of a Modernist's boulevard, Venetian vestry by Aleksandra Rakic
Person/Prison by Laura Stortenbeker

The highlight was meeting Del Kathryn Barton. I got a photo with her and she signed a catalogue I had of her paintings. I asked her what working with Australian designers Romance Was Born was like said she it was 'Lots of fun,' but she was taking a break from the collaboration for a while.

DeviantART anyone ?

What teh heck you's waiting for ~
if you gots a DeviantART gallery SHARE IT !

Mines : http://cowcow217.deviantart.com/
muahahaha ok ima jet x3

Drawing Machines

Hello fellow art-maniacs!

My name’s Christine Kim and I created the BOW “Technical Questions, An Inquiry of Authenticity”, honoured with its inclusion in ARTEXPRESS 2009; my body of work included drawing robots/machines which drew instead of me: the “Artist”.

I’m writing this post mainly for students who are feeling a sense of unease or are unconfident about how their BOW may turn out, with the hope that I could provide you (a fellow student) with a sense of comfort – I want to tell you about the processes that I went through to complete my project as it might aid you with a greater understanding of the kinds of processes that you too may encounter throughout the year… I had a tough HSC year, and I hope that my experiences can make you feel a bit better…

I never envisioned my project to turn out the way it did (as you can see it in the Artexpress exhibition)… If you asked me at the beginning of year 12 “how will your major work end up by the end of year 12?” the description I would have given you would be very different to what it actually ended up being.

I finished my HSC year with what ended up being a large-sized project (6 drawing machines, 40 drawings, 2 flip-books, 1 photo book, 1 video = a total of 50 bits and pieces = a lot). A student once asked me “how brave were you to think of doing such a large project?” but to be perfectly honest… I was never brave, I was a consistent worker... I worked on one thing at a time: a thought became an idea, an idea became a drawing, which lead to another drawing, which lead to a robot, which lead to another robot…

and a single thought just continued to GROW.

of course, that is simplifying things a bit… there were a few ups and downs in between

By the end of Year 11 (the stage where you go into year 12), everyone in my art class was panicking:
“I don’t have a concept for my major work”
“I don’t know whether I’m a drawer, a painter, a sculptor, or an anything-er”
“I don’t know what kind of materials I want to work with”

and soon enough people became so stressed they become stressed about small things like “I don’t know how to sharpen my charcoal-pencil and I need to find the teacher to get permission to do it because it’s got something to do with OHS and I don’t think I’m allowed to sharpen it myself unless I might be able to get away with trying to sharpen it with scissors – will scissors be sharp enough…? Maybe I can figure out if it will be sharp enough or not if I just test it on the edge of this wooden table but then it might leave a conspicuous dent on the surface and that would be awkward… OH SHI* I WASTED TIME just sitting here WORRYING – WHY AREN’T I GETTING ANY WORK DONE?!”

By the end of the 4th term of the year, everyone had a vague idea of what concept/materials practice they wanted to work with: one girl wanted to explore the concept of “beauty”, another wanted to work with fabric materials, another wished to do charcoal drawings… the list goes on… everyone had a vague idea, except for me.

To find out what I thought I was good at, I tried making collages and acrylic paintings in my own time, I tried collecting materials to see if I felt a certain affinity with anything in particular. I tried everything, but found nothing that the teacher and I both agreed on… this was a bit scary for me for two reasons:

1) Everyone else seemed to know what they were doing

2) I started art a bit late, you see, (I started visual arts in the second term of year 11 because I was silly and took too long to realised that economics was a waste of time to learn and dropped it a bit late) and the other students in the class always seemed to be a bit ahead of me and always seemed to know more than me: know what they’re good at, know what ‘conceptual frames’ were, know the difference between the Dada movement to Cubism to expressionism to realism, and simple things like know where the teacher kept all the equipment

To make long stories short, I decided to make drawing robots, which was even more scary for me to agree to because I’ve never made robots in my life… let alone drawing ones…

During the holiday (you know, that MASSIVE one in between year 11 and year 12), everyone was given a holiday assignment (by the teacher) to finish over the holidays to get things started.

I was asked to collect junk to begin creating a complex machine… this is where problems at home began…
me: “Dad, I need your help… I need to collect junk… and LOTS of it..”
dad: “what for? You’re going to filth up the house… we already have enough junk in the house” me: “it’s for my HSC project”
Dad: “oh really? Oh in that case sure – tell me all that you need and I’ll do it for you”
me: “I need junk… and LOTS of it…”
dad: “what are you making?”
me: “drawing robots”
dad: “……………………..”
me: “………………………..”
dad: “you’re not going to make drawing robots…”
me: “but the teacher suggested that it’s the best option…”
dad: “no… you are going to.. that’s a silly/ridiculous idea… you’re going to make a collection of photoshopped images… I’ll even print them out on MASSIVE canvases for you (because my dad sells ink) trust me, it will be great”
me: “no… teacher said drawing machines”
dad: “no… that’s just silly… that’s really silly… you have no idea what you’re talking about…”

and it was hard to work when parents didn’t support me – he was reluctant to help me collect junk, which I needed a car for, and no junk meant that I didn’t have anything to work with.

Every time I drew sketches of potential robots dad would look worried and tell me he thinks photoshopped images are a far better idea…

It was scary to think that you have to shift your ideas in the absence of your teacher, but to keep dad happy, I changed my WHOLE concept – I wasn’t going to make drawing robots.

I made plans for my new idea – made sketches of various potential photoshopped images, etc, worked very hard, etc…

I came to school and the teacher really didn’t like what I did over the holiday… I was quite upset and couldn’t keep myself from crying because I had worked so hard… I worked so so so hard… I nearly completed one VAPD by now… all for nothing… it was frustrating… it was also hard because I was having other problems at home other than my school work as my parents were struggling financially and were in bad health…

BUT IT WAS OK!! Because year 12 had only just begun, and I had a whole year to redeem myself :)

So after long/frustrating talks with rents, I began making robots again… I initially wanted to have just ONE drawing robot (about 1m cubed in size), and perhaps ONE drawing with ONE DVD…
Things changed, and I ended up with a very different outcome (as mentioned in the beginning)

hhmm… this post is very long... sorry I just realised…

But there is ONE THING I wanted to let you know: no matter how uncertain things might seem, no matter how discouraged you might feel when things don’t work, no matter how hard things might be at home, you will be ok in the end – no, you will be MORE than ok – you will be fantastic… as long as you want badly enough to be! :) I can say that with complete confidence because it's the truth...

Completing a BOW is very rewarding… you feel like it was a busy year, but it was a year full of personal achievements and growth…

I hope you enjoy every moment of your BOW like as if it is the last you will ever do, regardless of whether you get into Artexpress or not...

because in the end it’s not really about the work… it’s about what you learnt from doing it

Christine Kim

P.S. This is an incredibly long post… there were lots of things I didn’t mention because I thought I might bore you. If you have any questions that you’d wish to ask me about HSC in general, more specific processes of completing a work, or would like help with VA HSC exam questions, or anything, email me or leave a comment on this post - I will try to get back to you asap.

Art Express opening

you might catch yourself. . .  here. 

i know i took pictures of one or two of you wearing those tags.

STILLS

These are some stills from the film, just because I can...

IDEALISM

Hey

My names Ben Wilson (as you can tell from my blog name thingy) and this is my first blog and I don't know what to write to I guess I will just start by talking through the process of making my film. Here we go.

My film is titled 'Idealisme' (it has an e on the end because it is the french spelling of the word idealism - nobody can pronounce it and half the people think it's a spelling mistake which I think is the point). Anyone who has seen the film will immediately recognize that I was inspired by filmmaker Michel Gondry. It tells the story of characters Boy and Girl who are bored with their lonely, mundane lives and develop a romantic relationship in their dreams. Eventually, their dream world begins to interfere with their realities until the two worlds combine into one ideal world.

THE PROCESS:

Well, after ages and ages of figuring out a story line, I began story boarding. I found it was very important to plan everything especially because the film involved different worlds that related to one another as much as possible. I asked my two friends Melissa Brownlow and Miles Szanto if they would like to be the main characters. I then spent a week turning my garage into a film set - constructing a bedroom made entirely out of cardboard. After the set was complete, my two lovely and dedicated friends came over for a week of intense shooting. Because I wanted to control the lighting, we could only shoot the dream world scenes at night so shooting usually finished just before the sun came up and when it did we went around filming the reality scenes. One night my beautiful makeup artist friend Annie Noakes made the actors up as dolls for the dream world, we shot all night and at about 4am decided that we didn't like the doll idea anymore and it would work best if they were real people. So we shot everything again the next night. On the last night of shooting we finished at around 4, packed up as much of the set we could into Mel's car and I forced her to drive an hour and a half to a beachside grass hill place where we shot the final moment where the two worlds combine at sunrise (except everyone thought it was sunSET so our sleepless night went unrecognised!)

Needless to say, we were all glad when shooting was finished. We ended up with 6 (I think) hours of raw footage which I had the very tedious task of editing down to 5 minutes.

So yes, that's the process we went through. Filmmaking is obviously a team effort so I'd like to take this opportunity to thank particularly Mel and Miles who are extremely dedicated actors and inspiring people. If they didn't put up with a week of sleepless nights and all of the hard work and have so much creative input, making the film wouldn't be possible, so thanks guys.

Now I think I'll talk about the exhibition opening at the AGNSW. It was so exciting to see the film played on a huge wall with actual chairs where people could sit down and watch it! And the exhibition itself was amazing - yellow walls are really in. And all of the works were so good - I have to say my personal favourite was Nick Levy's '3am/Exit Signs' which was the beautiful paintings on cardboard. It was so good. It was such honour an to be part of that amazing exhibition. 

I hope some one read this and that it helped. If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them.

byeeee

3am/exit signs

hey bloggers. my work just got hung, which is pretty exciting, as it would be for everyone else on this blog who has been hung. brief history of the work: I wanted to explore the idea of heightened emotion at night, that sinking, overwhelming melancholy that comes at like 230 am, or 3 am, as the name may suggest. I was also interested in the amazing effect of soft electric light in near darkness in making perfect surfaces, especially human skin. reducing it to suggestions of the human form and face. The look sorta developed beyond this but i tried to keep the idea of light reducing forms to pristine surfaces. All of the pieces ended up being set outside, so there wasnt a whole lot of soft lighting. Street lights ended up being the major source of light. Through that it was fun to experiment with ciaroscuro (spelling?). Geoffrey Smart (spelling?) inspired this interest in the urban environment, portrayed through detailed painting and the relationships between people and the urban environment. Bill henson was a big influence on the look and emotion of the works, one of my favourite artists, as opposed to jim henson, who, despite my best efforts, did not get a jersey in contributing to my major work. The cardboard came out of neccessity, i couldn;t be bothered to buy canvas, but i liked the way it looked and acted with the acrylic paint and ended up becoming part of the conceptual makeup of the piece, the contrast of the rough edges and worthless cardboard to the detailed painting reflecting that dichotomy of pain and beauty in extreme emotion. the dimensions, ie space at the bottoms of each were inspired by rothko's powerful compositions, wow they're awesome. also huge influences, or if you want to get my concept a little clearer than my rambling read John Keats' Ode on Melancholy or Missy Higgin's nightminds. sorry for going on, hope you got something out of it. I LOVED THE OTHER WORKS!! WOW! everyone is so talented, and goodlooking...

Blog 2_Response to the exhibition:

Well what a blast, the exhibition opened yesterday and officially to the public today. I had a ball walking around in the bubbling atmosphere to view my contemporaries works. Many of the works delivered and were thoroughly enjoyable. The way that James Anichich’s colour filled the space, or the detail of Prudence Bell’s paintings or the expressive surfaces of Andrew Smith’s and Goondiga Edgar’s canvas’. I’m looking forward to viewing the exhibition in a quieter time in the coming month.

The way my work is constructed it is important that it is displayed correctly so that it can be ‘understood’ by the audience. It is really a linear work which starts in the realistic and ends in the relative abstract. A slight limitation of my work was the fact that I didn’t include a holistic picture to assist the installers in its set up. However not surprisingly there was my work set up nearly as I had set it up for my school art show, except Tristan that the installers had shown me that it didn’t have to be linear mounting some of my works above and below that linear line that the artworks read and viewed at.

I think like many of the other exhibiting students I was nervous to see how people would approach my work, view and well generally how they would respond it. No emotion is a bad one. Relief struck when I saw people looking at bits in close detail and photographing snippets of it.
One strength of an exhibition like ArtExpress (which is really a group show) for students and certainly for me is the variety of techniques, methods, mediums and concepts on display. Whether or not I liked a work on the whole I saw many small snippets which interested me a lot. I hope that my work at the very least shows students another way to approach there subject matter. As my work is classified as a ‘collection of works’ I have embraced the concepts behind ‘a body of work’ and used many different mediums and materials to explore my concepts. I hope that through this stretching and in depth exploration of my concepts viewers are able to think themselves outside the square of how to approach their own practice.

Going on a little rant.

Felt a bit bloggy so here goes my little ARTEXPRESS rant..

So a couple of months ago I was discussing with someone, the act of giving flowers to people, I’d always figured it was a gesture of kindness or perhaps infatuation because flowers are [generally] nice-looking and make people feel positive and cheerio (personally I don’t understand the psychological aspects of it much so can’t really think of a very sound explanation). Their interpretation however, was that what people were really giving to each other were plant genitals and hence a subtle invitation for sex. That flowers were genitals, I could only agree and sat in silent wonder thinking about how absurd it really was. It's a little crazy. I am mentioning this because it does coincide with the supposed concept I gave to my Body Of Work (BOW)..

My name is Estelle Felix and my work “Whimsical Lunacy” has been chosen for the ARTEXPRESS 09 exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW.

It’s a rather strange feeling to have things you’ve spent forever fiddling with, displayed in some kind of gallery of sorts. Today was the exhibition opening and as I walked through the muddy park and up the steps of that huge schmancy building I couldn’t help but feel somewhat intimidated.. almost as if I cheated my way there. I mean people make art for years to get in a place like that and there I was with a single years worth of “serious” artmaking experience behind me. In other words, I’m really quite ecstatic that my work’s been chosen for ARTEXPRESS. It’s true. See ---> :D

I’m yet to begin a Bachelor of Design degree at UNSW which will cater nicely to my interests because I’ve had a lot of trouble with deciding on what area of design I’d be best in- graphic? maybe textiles or jewellery? Who knows.

The artistic intentions I had for my BOW:
Well you see, to continue with the "flower-fact" I opened this entry with, when I first started my BOW I kept conjuring up ideas that were usually entirely illustrative and fairly obvious. I didn’t understand that by doing these sorts of things I was restricting others from their own subjective viewing of my work... i.e. I was turning my work into a diagram of sorts, equipped with instructions for ‘how to view it’. This was because I thought that if I had an idea to tell people about, then I really had to make sure they absolutely and completely and irrefutably understood precisely what it was I was trying to express (in it’s entirety) at first glance. It seemed as if I was almost too aware that people can interpret, misinterpret or reinterpret pretty much everything for themselves.

After a while I think I saw beauty in subjectivity and ambiguity. I looked upon Surrealist artists I admired and realized how much of there work was left open for people to take what they want and to see for themselves and be affected by the artwork in multiple ways depending on the viewer. I then began to understand how seemingly primitive the idea was to force people to see art in a 'one-and-only' way.. take for example, portrayals of biblical narratives through classical paintings.

Armed with my new appreciation of subjectivity, I created pieces that are unrestrictive in almost every way- colour, subject matter, space and use of unconventional materials (like socks and other found objects). I wanted to use the idea of the ambiguous subconscious mind to create works that expressed the constant flow of often irrational ideas just so I could say a big fat,

“go on, imagine a little and take what you want from it” and then going on to ask,

“see those shapes? What do they look like to you? And how can you expand on that idea by using the other absurdities around it?”. Then hopefully (or ideally) they’d reply something like,

“oh wow, they look like dog ears! Yes! It’s a dog with crazy crazy eyes, one of which is framed by fake eyelashes in the form of mathematical ruling devices and it’s got swans running profusely out of its windowed fortune cookie nostrils! Alas! I am inspired!!”. So, in a way, its kind of like cloud watching but with colour and not as limited in terms of shape variation.

Yes so really I’d like to encourage people to interpret the art they see for themselves.. it’s certainly more enjoyable that way and more helpful too especially if you’re in the process of artmaking and developing your own style. Someday one may get so advanced with this skill, that they can see something like “Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride” and think to themselves,

“goodness! that the woman looks as if she has horns!.. Therefore she must be some kind of diabolical goat who isn’t actually pregnant but has a small-but-lethal sized canon hidden underneath her dress that will blow her husband up to smithereens so that she can get all his money and go holidaying with some other man!... Yes, I am sure it is so!”

Strangely, even though I thought I did indeed create a BOW by which each person could interpret [my madness] for themselves, when we had an art and music soiree at school one young gentleman did come up to me claiming quite enthusiastically that my collection of works was (and I quote) “exactly what the inside of my head looks like!”. I was quite taken back to be honest, but ah :), it was probably the most wonderful comment I’ve received from it so far.

To finish this up though, I have to say that from what I've seen today of this years ARTEXPRESS exhibition, I am just so grateful that my work has made it amongst some of the most impressive and aw-inspiring BOWs I have seen thus far.

Hitler failed art exam

Did you know that Hilter left home (and his mother who had breast cancer) at 18 to become an artist? In 1907 he failed the entrance exam for the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts and after that he ended up doing some commissioned watercolours and such, but he returned home to his dying mother in dissapointment. That scares me. I understand how creative people could go too far. Many artists create their own philosophies (eg. Hundertwasser) and just a few ridiculous judgments can take it to the point where you think it’s quite fine to become a Holocaust leader or going to extreme measures to preserving and protect 'precious' works of art incase of attack during a war, but not showing the same courtesy to living, breathing human beings. Think about it. Anyway….

I’ll start off generally by touching on my intention, my opinion of art galleries and a little bit of background. My next blog will go into the process and realisation of my BOW.

I’m Margaret Sevenjhazi.

This is completely nuts.

I’m obviously really excited to be included in the Art Gallery of NSW as part of ARTEXPRESS 2009

My body of work (BOW) is titled, Art for the Blind.

I wasn’t really aspiring to get into ARTEXPRESS because such a small number of people made it in and the selection process seemed to involve both luck and a strong artwork. Some people in my art class would talk about it every lesson, but I kind of blocked it out because I didn’t want it to be a constant thought that might change my ideas.I previously attended ARTEXPRESS with my high school art class a couple of times. I did want to do well in the HSC, but I didn’t want to compromise my ideas so I just selfishly created my body of work to satisfy myself. The ironic thing about my BOW being exhibited in the art gallery is that the main issues presented explored ideas like:

• perceptions of ‘art’ and its value (by both art lovers and the general public)

• the commodification of artworks

• the often snobbish and uninviting atmosphere of galleries

I do feel a little bit anxious because I’m basically criticising galleries and now my artwork is in one, but the fact that it is in a gallery makes the message more potent. I’m hoping that people will take a step back and re-evaluate the way they’re viewing and interacting with the artwork when they get to mine. I hope people will stop, think and possibly be able to say, ‘Wait! I’m being a pretentious bastard! I don’t actually like that expensive painting.’ So of course some people won’t like what I’ve done, but I don’t care. It was a fulfilling process. Everyone has their own opinion. Everyone likes different types of art.

I visit galleries in person and online (probably online more, just because it could be 3am on a Sunday and the website won’t be closed). My body of work presents my perspective perfectly (haha). I don’t go to galleries excessively because the atmosphere makes me feel a little uncomfortable at times. The level of pretension (internal and external) makes me laugh. I like observing the way people interact with and interpret art in a gallery setting. People say some horribly stupid things with the intention of seeming knowledgeable. On the other hand visiting a gallery can often be an invaluable and inimitable opportunity to experience art in person and this cannot be replicated in words or by merely viewing pictures of art in books or online. This ultimately strengthens my connection with art, particularly if I’ve read about it, talked about it and seen pictures of it because seeing it in person is totally different.

I’m going to study law.

No, I’m joking. Haha.

No matter what I do art will always be high on my list of priorities. Right now I was to pursue graphic design, although I also have an avid interest in textiles (I did textiles as part of the HSC) and design in general.

This year I’ll be studying and working. I’ll be trying to get some industry experience. I’m going to do a diploma in graphic design at TAFE. I was considering university, but I think the increased practical skills, ‘hands on’ work, equipment training, and the fact that I can work while I study (more so that university) will be far more beneficial and conducive to a career in the creative arts (rather than far more years and money spent sitting around arguing and writing highly strung essays). I’d rather learn things first hand and from experimentation and experience rather than from textbooks, theories and essays.

So the opening’s only days away. I can’t wait! Hope to see you there.

Art.

Hi my name is Jim and I am thrilled to be accepted into this exhibition. It's quite a surreal experience in which I am trying to make real - but because I've never had it before it's mighty hard to do so. I think that producing a work of art in year 12 is quite a feat because of the incredible pressure we receive from other things in the year. To free the mind enough to think of something smart is hard while not letting go of the 5 or so other subjects that demand equal attention.

I approached the beginning of year 12 in the summer holidays trying to pump out an art work hoping I could finish it completely and wouldn't have to do any more in the year, freeing up time for other subjects. I tried, and failed. I went on into the year panicking because I thought I was behind. Little did I know, a Wookiee would come and save me. The first term was hardest because of this reason but then an idea was sparked when I saw a Frenchman strut his style and everything literally flowed from then on. 

I found that I learnt a lot from going through the various processes I went through during making my stop motion film. Often when you're just mucking around at home with no pressure, there's no sense of urgency that pushes things out of you and reveal things to be learnt. For this reason I really loved going through year 12 and I really do want this for the rest of my life (the push).

I truly believe that a good piece of art is when someone realizes something new and expresses it freely out of that mind. Also that simplicity is the key. People are drawn to things that show the way - in simple steps.

my first post...

It's hard to describe ArtExpress and HSC Visual Arts – there's so much to say! I think I'll write a couple of posts trying to deal with different aspects/ ideas etc.

Being chosen for ArtExpress was probably one of the most exciting things I've ever experienced. I found out about having been pre-selected as I walked out of my final HSC exam which was Visual Arts. I was so happy to have been pre-selected AND to have finally finished my HSC exams that it was almost too much to deal with! It was a great feeling though, I was just beaming – filled with a sense of accomplishment and completion both in terms of my HSC and of Visual Arts and my work's pre-selection.

Getting chosen for ArtExpress is a huge honour. It's not something I was specifically working towards. I just wanted to make a major work which was something of which I was proud and was to the best of my ability. The completion of a major work – an artwork that I completed fills me with a sense of pride because I can look back and say that I DID that. I dealt with a subject matter – that of migration and multiculturalism, in which I was interested so I can honestly say that when you're doing something you love and are interested in it actually feels like a release particularly because you're always doing different things as opposed to the monotony of the learning and studying for other subjects.

My artwork, entitled "Scattering the Grain" is a work that is comprised primarily of print-making and through the additional incorporation of sculpture the way in which various cultural identities have combined is expressed. It is unconventional in that the panels of my major work (of which there are four) are displayed on a table top and thus are viewed from above. The photo I have uploaded (if it worked - I was having trouble uploading it) is an aerial view of my work. In short, the idea behind my work is that in a multicultural society people come with an initial, unique identity – as symbolized in my work by the different types of plants for example wheat is synonymous with Europe, bamboo with Asia etc. The use of books and stamps convey the notions of language, movement and dispersion. The works are displayed in and out of museum boxes implying that cultural uniqueness and identity is at its essence engrained but is simultaneously vulnerable to corruption as the essential grain can be modified.

That's all from me for now and I will write again soon!

Blog 1_The initial response:

Let me start by introducing my self, I’m Angus Hardwick one of 62 or so students who are pumped and excited about ArtExpress09. Reading through the previous posts and the scaffold questions I’ve decided that instead of committing the crime word vomit and self-indulgence I’m going to post 4 blogs throughout the exhibition. In this first entry I’m going to focus on the questions which deal with the excitement of the exhibition. I’m sounding (or reading) like a broken record when I say how fantastic and exciting it is to be hung in the gallery and to have made it into the final cut.
It will be interesting making the yearly pilgrimage to the gallery without my art class to see the works as like most schools since year 9 (05) I’ve seen the ArtExpress exhibitions. I’ve noticed that as I’ve gotten older and grown in my artistic knowledge I am more critical of some works and there inclusion, but always in awe of the fact that they made it. Certainly I remember walking out of 08’s show with my mates having a burning desire to produce a work ‘better’ than some of the ones I had seen. However I was constantly reminded by my teachers from year 9 that ArtExpress was not the be all and end all, that be all and end all was the HSC. I had to be reminded that Visual Art was worth the same amount as English or history. Yet like every other post I have read the thought of getting in was incredibly exciting and I will admit that once I was shortlisted I was as nervous if not more nervous to find out if I was in the show than I was to receive my UAI.
As art and creativity are so important to me I’m looking forward in 09 to studying Architecture and pottering around the studio. However as I enjoy these endless holidays I’m pumped for Friday

artexpress? me? not likely.

Hi, my name is Tess, and I am extremely honoured to have my work chosen to be part of ArtExpress 09.

For the last three years I have made the day trip down from Camden Haven High on the Mid-North Coast, to the Gallery of NSW's ArtExpress exhibition with my Visual art classmates. Intimidation was the key emotion of these trips, feeling like a country hick as we clambered out of the minibus and queued to get a glimpse of the epitome of high school art. I remember feeling, 'I want that, I want my work in the gallery of NSW, I want my efforts to be recognised...'

I am the biggest perfectionist, and this has worked for me during my HSC. So producing an artwork that I was happy with, staying true to my own self, was the most important thing. Now, I'm having trouble imagining my work on the wall of the gallery. I'm sure when it comes to the opening and I see mine I still won't understand how it got there...

My artwork is entitled "The Nature of Us".

'Nature':
a) encompassing the physical, natural environment. Mother nature. etc.
b) Human nature.

'Us':
a) Humanity in general, the individuals who are single spokes in a huge wheel of fortunes. Our individual strengths, flaws, emotions, minds and morals that make us different, yet the same, the likenesses that bind and connect us.
b) Those close to me: family; through the ties of blood, but also the family I could choose; my friends.


So I guess my artwork in essence conveys relationships between people and people, people and the environment, people and their past.


I haven't thought this much since I graduated from school, so I may write more later before my brain implodes (:


Look forward to meeting you all at the opening!

Tess

Hop's Notes #1

lol ...

geez ...

it's all too ...
black and white

I haven't much to talk about except that art needs to be fun

...there probably is some kind of winning strategy...
...or maybe you have to have an intense vocabulary...
...you might even have to be born in a certain month...

but one thing's for sure ..
that there's nothing you can be sure of !
(^W^)b
an artwork stands out best when it's built with passion
marks aren't given based on how much you wanted them
but on how much you have to show that you love art
umm...
i never really had an idea or intention for my artwork,
i draw a lot of things, scribble in my VAPD during maths
and physics (it's not a good idea to get in trouble though),
i've always been working on random drawings, creating
small storylines for some characters i made up.
"Where'd the characters come from?"
Don't ask me that ... because they were all born from the
most simple entities. A boy, a girl, a rabbit, it doesn't get
any more complicated than that, and can't be any less simple.
so up towards the end, all i did was draw ..
oh and also, i tried to come up with some kind of grid,
a blueprint, or layout to place all my artworks.
tried.. but failed again and again..
at one time i had planned a scaffold of around 300 images,
but i ended up using around 60-ish ...

well ... i think that's all for the newbie's post ..

I'm hoping to see some REALLY awesome works from all of you >=D
( i'll never get the hang of this posting thing ... )

PS. sorry, i just can't stand reading black and white over
and over and over... and that colour thing was too tempting !

Hey wait, maybe i could do something awesome with these colours xD
theyre a bit skewed >.<

(\_/)............ _//
hop................ (o_O) .......c(o_O)................ imp
c(vv).......... \(>)>

ok bye now !!