"We artists are indestructible, even in a prison cell or a concentration camp I would be almighty in my own world of art. Even if I had to paint my own pictures with my wet tongue on the dusty floor of my cell.
Pablo Picasso
"Painters, do not fear imperfection. You will never achieve it! If you are mediocrities, you may try as you will to paint terribly badly, but people will still see that you are mediocre."
Salvidor Dali
Salvidor = Saviour. He saved art from the threat of dadaism, academic surrealism and abstract.
"One should respect everything one does not understand"
Salvidor Dali
"There is always one escape into wickedness. Always do the things that shock and wound people"
Salvidor Dali
"If the gods didn't exist we would have to invent them. We, as a species are too susceptible to the warm comforting lie of an ideology to stay out in the cold wind of uncertainty for any any length of time"
It is wrong to place out faith in such things, for we must remember that such things are at best an illusion and at worst a lie. Life is rich, varied and complex and ideologies are what Isaacs describes as " subjective and distilled and therefore very dangerous
People are very quick to devalue countries that are so called 'third world' or undeveloped. Yet in many ways these societies have evolved things that are far more advanced than the passage of time we're going through now.
Wittgenstein
"we feel that even if all possible scientific questions could be answered, the problems of life have still not been touched at all. Of course there is then no question left, and just this the answer, the solution of the problem of life is seen in the vanishing of the problem.
Modern science is scientifically proving itself to be unscientific. As it incorporates into itself the concepts of irrationality, chaos, probability and uncertainty, science increasingly reveals itself to be alogical.
The Interactive Arts group went to these two galleries. The Corner House gallery was ace. It was film based and had a wide range of pieces starting with cartoon strips and leading to collages and video pieces. The gallery started off with more first hand illustrative art work that you could really get close to and feel a connection with and the further up the gallery you went it came to what seemed more of a professional background of work and not as personal to the viewer. The collage itself which was at the end of the gallery seemed as if it has been designed as a film board for the behind the scenes film directors to be looking at, as if it were a script. Here is an image, It was my favourite piece in the gallery: It's not a clear image because it was taken on my blackberry.
I really liked this exhibition, especially since I'm passionate about film, especially horror and it had a few artworks that I really enjoyed because of this.
The second gallery that we looked at was the CUBE gallery. I felt that this gallery was layed out in a way that shows the environment, and then onto how people affect the environment and then moving onto the end where the environment effects the person. I felt this because of an animation of a bird in a cage. That was its environment and it was confused and trying discover what it was all about. Next to the animation was a layout of builders hats. Each one of the hats was decorated to represent a part of the environment that a builder had affected/altered. This piece also supports my idea that the exhibition was influenced with how people affect the environment. I felt encouraged by the helmets in this art gallery to continue on with the way that I work. Sometimes I feel discouraged by a lot of work in galleries because I simply don't like it and I don't have much interest in trying to like it. I work in the same kind of way, by making models to portray an idea that can seem more obvious that a splodge on a canvas. It is not because of any ignorance it just what works well with me because it is fun and adventurous.
We were given a project whereby we were to create a project and final outcome within 3 weeks for an exhibition held in the university. This was crammed for me due to a situation going on at home so I didnt have much time to come up with a new project and do very much research so I carried it on from the previous shelter project and went down the route of people being controlled. After some thinking I decided to use the concept of children being conditioned and controlled from an early age without even knowing this. For a long time I have wondered about the type of toys specific to the gender of a child. The range is very sexist and provides a role to the child which is expected of them once they reach adulthood. It is not entirely the same now that time has progressed and the job roles of the sexes have mingled but the toys have remained the same and this is where the idea for this painting came along. In this canvas picture it shows the huge franchise thats is partly behind what is given to children. It is a huge representation of the toy industry and it is advertised in such a way that make children ecstatic. The toys are given a magical ethos which can make the crappiest of toys seem heavenly and this is why I used this chain over any others. In front of the "Toys R us" store is Sigmund Freud wearing the giraffe suit which is the logo character of the store. Freud is holding in one hand a Barbie doll and in the other hand an Action Man. The reason that I used Freud in this image is because Freud was a hugely influencial psychologist. Especially in the way that parents raised their children. Many books that are written on child care are still today quoted from Freud theories and this is why Freud was used to represent a figure putting pressure on to people to believe what is right and wrong. Not so much now but in the past people believed that what he said was correct. He is stood behind the two adult figures in the foreground showing how his theory has affected the way they have grown into adults in the future. The female figure on the left shows a woman that has been conditioned by the Barbie doll. She looks slutty in Barbie glittery way and she is covered head to foot in plastic surgery lines showing how she is self conscious and aiming for the idealistic body image which is not realistic at all especially when considering Barbie's body if it were life size. She would be severly deformed. I recognised that it was a stereotype that is not always correct because not every woman that played with Barbie is a body conscious, materialistic whore. So I looked into other aspects that can lead to this such as physical and mental abuse, The media, such as playboy magazines and other magzines constantly portraying beauty as being skinny woman with a specific style of features showing what men apparantly like which isnt always the case. And so I printed off these images and made a collage out of them along the plastic surgery lines. I also took Angelina Jolie's eyes and stuck them in the same place as the drawn womans eyes as if there is a catalogue that people can pick what features they would like and buy them. The soldier on the right has been conditioned by the Action Man. He has taken on the role that has been acted out by the figurine...Again I can not stereotype that this is always the case and so I also added a collage to this image. Other situations that I feel could lead to this are things such as physical and mental abuse, the media also with the adverts they produce that are pro-join the army, propoganda messages, games and films and people that live on council estates who have usually had a hard upbringing are targeted as this is seen as a better way of life. Some of these people may feel they have nothing to lose and so without realising some of them are targetted.
Once I had finished this painting I didn't feel like it was complete. I felt that the image looked naive and I wasn't happy with how I had drawn the figures at the front. I felt that they looked like something I had drawn when I was a child.
To go with the image on the wall of the exhibition I also created two happy meal boxes with propoganda messagerie on them. I used the happy meal box because I know how children are hugely influenced by McDonalds. I know this becaue I know I was, and I also know that my little sister had never been there before but whenever we walked past a McDonalds she was all of a sudden hungry. This is because she had been influenced by the adverts that she had seen on the television or on billboards. I picked the happy meal box because this is what children get excited over and the bold colours all over them are appealing. Here are the two that I produced: I also designed a packaging for the McDonalds burger, Promoting that "It's OK" Percy Pig doesn't mind having his bollocks in your burger: Here is the painting and objects in the cavendish exhibition:
When given the word shelter, the first thing that came to mind was the shelter that a family provides. It is more of an emotional than a physical shelter which provides a great depth. I began by thinking about how parents shelter their children, even if that means hiding them from the truth. Sheltering from parents can cause children to be frightened of the world and not develop to their fullest. They may be afraid to make mistakes because they have grown fearful due their fearful parents, and not being confident enough to make mistakes. A parents over protective qualities can be the most dangerous thing for the child in the long run. Some overprotected children can end up rebelling more so than others and take more risks without thinking of the consequences. This is usually the result of the parent making decisions for them as they grow and the child is not learning for itself. These children can have an idea of the world being a big, bad and ugly place, and the media doesn't help. The child can also end up fearful and unable to look after themselves. This way they suffer in the big world and don't no what to do to be safe. This is a big problem when a child moves away or goes to university especially in a city were the person is not street wise. Kids need to feel badly sometime, this is how they learn and its good for them. This is a means of control and results in a specific personality trait which raises the question: Is it possible for people to be controlled and manipulated into behaving a certain way?
The opposite of over protection is negligence. This in turn also highly influences the way a person develops, not only emotionally but also physically and mentally. I looked into feral children to support this idea: Feral Children The first child I looked into was a young girl called Genie. She was neglected on such a scale that she was unable to walk or talk properly. Instead of walking she would bunny hop around with her hands hung in front of her. Through growing up she would be punished for making sounds and so she was conditioned into not speaking and so knew only very few words that included as little as "no more" and so her cognitive skill thus did not develop anywhere near to what they should have done and she ended up being cared for in a psychiatric hospital for the rest of her life.
Other feral children are neglected by their families but raised by animals. The effects are also very extreme in the children as they take on the mannerisms and behaviours of their carers (the animals). A few include Victor, The Wild Aveyon who was brought up by wolves for suspected 7 years until the age of 12. Because of this they struggled label him as human, as in that time to be human meant to have empathy and language, which Victor did not have. He no longer had any emotion other than fear, and listened not for the beauty of sound but only for listening out for danger or for the drop of fresh fruit from a tree. Kamala and Amala from India were also said to have been raised by wolves. The two girls walked around on all fours and had calluses on their feet and knees from crawling around. They ate and drank like dogs as well as panting. They never slept after midnight and howled and prowled at night. They could move fast and shunned all human society, they would bare their teeth when approached and had even developed the ability of excelled hearing and sense of smell which is a dramtic change that would seem to be only evolutionary. For Daniel, he was found in 1990 and appeared to have been raised by goats, he could even communicate with them. The most suprising to me is of the 10 year old boy who was raised by gazelle's. He was said to even be able to run at 50 kph and leap a high levels just like a gazelle. There were also children raised by monkeys that would walk around like their carers. Some of them gradually adapting to speech and emotion but that doesnt apply to them all. There are also reports of animals growing up surrounded by dogs and birds who have been similairily effected. It's shocking and here is a video clip of one girl called Oxana Malaya who was brought up by dogs when her alcoholic parents kicked her out on to the streets.
All of these children have adapted to a way of life due to an affliction or instinction. People can be manipulated into behaving a particular way. Whether driven by fear or instinct. This is a means of control that I wanted to explore The things that seem natural for us and our society to do in fact scheme's put in place to quietly control us?
Are we participating in a master plan that we don't know about? Religion
Religion has always had an element of control. It conditioned fear in to people preventing them from doing certain things and guiding them to do others. For example, the 10 holy commandments. People followed these rules with the fear of being condemned to hell. They are still used now within the law. And whats more like hell on earth than jail?Placing fear seems to work
I read and agreed that "After death there is no retribution for evil and no reward for virtue only the universal return to the ultimate supreme limit. All the rest was invented to keep the people in submission and fear." When children are born into extreme religious families. They have no choice but to believe in the same things. Their thoughts are influenced and this influences the way that they develop as a person. The children of a Christian cult in America have learned to hate on a grand scale: Gays " hundreds and hundreds of Jews", all citizens of the United States, are bound upon eternal hell fire". Reports that chilren from the cradle are notorious gay hating topeka church are taught that anyone who violates their interpretation of the bible is bound for everlasting punishment. The children think like this due to the doctronation of their mothers, fathers and teachers. Above are photographs of the young children being in my opinion miss-guided into a religion based on one mans opinion, "Fred Phelps" Gays are mainly singled out by this cult, and because the American government allows diversity and does not punish lesbians, gays and transgenders. The Fred Phelps society believe that all Americans are de facto "fag enablers" and so they believe that god hates America. The Fred phelps family even go to the funerals of military service members killed in the line of duty. They praise god for taking the life of another "fag enabler" and then they let their families know that their loved ones are in hell because they fought for a "damned country".
I then looked into a 10 year old boy who is a KKK hate preacher. I found it disgusting. This American family preaches hatred against LGBT people and racial minorities. He hates "homosexual heroes" and "race mixing". He and his two sisters are being reared by their parents in the culture of hatred of all things non-white and homosexual. Andrew (above) rants about the Disney film "The Princess And The Frog" because of the mix in race. He concludes that races should never be mixed or else there will be no more white people. He finishes with "Be white and be proud. Bye". Andrews mother proudly notes that she home schooled all of her children because in a school they would be educated about "heroes of homosexuals, and that it is OK to race-mix" "They would be taught that there is a great socialist agenda in America and they can get on that band wagon". It is said that the current membership of the KKK in the united states stands at around 8,000 and is growing strongly after the election of president, Barack Obama. Police Find Islamic Extremist "training" video for children A video which shows children as young as 3 being encouraged to hold guns has been seized by counter-terrorism police in a raid in Manchester. Officers say it is evidence of attempts by islamic extremists to radicalise youngsters. It shows the two children, aged about 3 and 6 playing with a pistol and a kalashnikov rifle.
Within the house where they found the video they also found alphabet cards for children but they were doctored to say 'M' is for mujahideem instead of muhamid. Mujahideem = Struggler. they were an opposition group which rebelled against the incubent pro-soviet democratic republic of Afganistan. The officer says "They have the potential to indoctrinate. It shows the mind set of some people and what we are up against. Police also found documents downloaded from an extremist website which instructs parents to teach about Jihad, or holy war from an early age. The document says, "The key is to start instilling their values while they are babies. Don't wait untill they are seven. No child is ever too young to be started off on Jihad training. Religious Extremists - from Ohio to Guyana One case involved a girl called Fathima Rifqa Bary. She ran away from home because her family threatened to kill her for converting from muslim to catholic. It's an honour to the god to do so if you love that person more, and so they would have to kill her. She went into care to stay away from her family.
MEDIA
First looking into propoganda...It often presents facts selectively (thus probably lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or uses loaded messages to produce and emotional rather than rational response to the information provided. Propoganda can be used as a form of political warfare like when being used to promote a set of ideas. The case of radio and television propoganda can exist on the news, current affairs or talk show segments, as advertising or public service announce "spots" or as long running advertorials. Propoganda usually follows a strategic transmission pattern to indoctrinate the target group.
We are being dumbed down through control and brainwash and we need to rise above it.
Here is a good depiction of how media controls the way we think. We begin worshiping the likes of Mc Donalds. Brainwashed by ads to make people think that it is godly.
What is this brainwashing turning us into?
If this method of control had not effected us before, it deffinately is now. We are turning into animals. We are walking right into their hands. It is getting past the ignorance that is the solution.
An example of an ignorant being is a zombie and so I played around with a few images on photoshop:
Here I used the idea of everyone jumping on the band wagon...But only because they dont have the intelligence to be independent and go with their own views. Perhaps out of fear of being outcasted. A brainwashed, zombified attitude.
Back to uni and the first few weeks back in Manchester are as usual amazing...Turns out we have a bit of the Coronation Street set in our studio, my Nan was well excited about that.
As well as a huge Freddy Mercury in the Arndale
And the car from Back To The Future! When they re-released the film...Exciiiiting
Lawrence Malstaff On the 2nd of october I volunteered to work for the artist Lawrence Malstaff where I was assisting in one of his projects. This project involved being shrink wrapped in plastic. The idea of the project was to provide the person inside the plastic with a meditational sensation, and a re-connection to how it would have felt to be in the womb. My job was to assist someone who was in the plastic, this involved helping him in and out of the plastic, sealing it up properly and making sure that my he was comfortable and safe. I was provided with an emergency stop button to press if my partner became discomforted or was struggling to breathe. Here are a few photo's: This was the shrink frame that Lawrence Malstaff used in his project This is Lawrence showing us the techniques and how to function within the plastic This is my partner guy. Impressed by the moves. And below is me giving it rock all. The sensation is really sickening if you were as hungover/still drunk as me...wasn't a good move
One of my partners was the editor for Dazed and Confused so I landed myself on the website I would like to add :D http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/gallery/22/8711/0/lawrence-malstaff-shrinks-dazed First and second year party So we had the party and as usual I raced for the free gin and dominoes pizza. We had the word "builders" to base our party on and be inventive. So here's a few quicky photo's of what "I" did...my group did, I was still in bed due to a hangover but woke up for the hair of the dog that would be available there.
Trip to the galleries The Interactive arts second year all took a trip to the City Art Gallery and Cube gallery. The City gallery was a lot better I thought because there was more interaction with the art work. I got to play around with them so it was fun.
Trip to Liverpool Biennial
Here is a video I made from a few photographs of me playing around with a piece of art in Liverpool. I could have spent hours in there.
This room was great. The idea of it was too look up into the mirror and become one of the crowd. The crowd was purposefully multi-racial. I think the point trying to be put across was being one of the same. Being a society that didnt involve predjudices or differences just because the colour of somebodies skin. I really like that. If only everyone could see like that...
Once I had seen the entire exhibition it became clear that it was about globalization. I really liked the room that is documented above. It supports the "shelter" project that I will discuss later. My take on the room is "propoganda" and how the media big up the flag of their countries. A persons pride in their country and the feeling that they are "the wining side" through Ad nauseam (a repition of a logo that causes it to seem to be the truth). This type of propoganda causes the people to jump on the bandwagon.
This is an example of the work of Ryan Trecartin. His work is always intriguing. You must carry on watching but the sickness you go through by watching them make you want to pull away. It's a game of tug of war. His work is great but drives me crazy. It always seems to be a bunch of raging homosexuals trying to express something in a dramtically bitchy way, as if they are praciticing in front of a mirror, especially due to the repetition of the scenes, as if trying to make something seem perfect to their supreme westernised obscenity. The video in Liverpool that I watched involved a whole bunch of transexual men bitching like crazed Paris Hilton's. They were banging on about globalization but none of them seemed to know what they were actually talking about. They seemed to be more concerned with their appearance and looking good in the eyes of the viewer. As if by acting like they gave a shit about globalization their fan population would grow. Which seems like a perfect depiction of western society (celebrities) today...No one kissing your arse anymore?...Buy a African or Chinese baby. Then everyone will think your oh so great! A western trait I'm not proud of. So I loved this video just not for about 10 minutes after watching it once the sickness had passed.
There were also some pretty sick paintings, which I guess can have a lot of meanings to them...But just made me feel a bit ill.
I guess this could be a metaphor for "Being fucked by the system". I loved this piece, it was pretty crazy. My idea is that it is showing the journey that air takes and that it seems so exposible and we don't seem to think about it. But it is the most important thing to our lives and without it we deffinately would be! Once I saw this piece, I was inspired to make paintings with wax myself. Especially if I'm wanting to do a lot on gore and horror. It looks really effective and I want to experiment with it quite a lot in the future.
I've cut and carved at books before and they looked great but I really liked this. I had never thought to do anything like it before so I want to give it a try some time.
Antony Gormley's Statues at Crosby beach Each statue is a cast of the artist's own body, weighing 1,433lbs (650kg) and standing 6ft 5in (1.96m) tall.
