Andrew Kerr (Untitled)

It was exciting to see this painting as its really quite close to my painting that I was doing for journey. Although before the journey project I don’t think I would have found this as interesting, but I think it may be quite a conceptual piece. It shows the top of the building leaving space for the bottom half. Its the covering up, concealing maybe even protection thats interesting. Although on looking at this I would never have thought that. It was only after talking with the tutors that I could see this.

Conceptual Artists – Sophie Calle

I have had a total turn around in my idea about conceptual art. I used to almost completely dismiss it, but I didn’t know what it was about and I didn’t really want to. 

I’m looking at Sophie Calle, I really like her work. She is a conceptual artist in the sense that her concept leads her work. She uses photography mainly to document her work. Her work is very personal and she almost uses her life as her work. She uses projects or games that she wants to play and documents these events and actions. She has followed people, been followed, invited them into her bed, asked people about the worst time in their lives. She usually compiles very elegant books for each project.
I found out about her work though her exhibition in the Venice Bienalle where she displayed, ‘Take Care of Yourself’.

This title was taken from the end of a break-up email sent to her ending with those words. She took this advice literally by asking 102 women to read and examine the letter with respects to their own profession. There was a criminologist, lawyer, police captain, writer and actor among the many others. So that the writer would describe the letters style and the lawyer defends Calle’s ex-lover. These all appear as written texts and really great photos of each woman. The actor and singers were filmed. The work publicly displays her private life and its great to see honesty throughout her work.

Another work I’ve been able to see is her book, ‘ Exquisite pain’. This is another piece about a break-up. This is an earlier work dealing with the worst pain she and other people had experienced. She tells the story of a 92 day journey, away from her lover, through the east by train to Japan. She was given a grant and she decided to go somewhere uncomfortable for her somewhere she didn’t want to go, as a way to get the most out of the experience. She chose Japan as she had never wanted to go there and it was totally foreign to her no idea of the place and language. It was planned at the end of the three months that she would meet up with her lover in a hotel room in India. He had arranged it and when he didn’t arrive on the given date she was devastated. She received a phone call in that hotel room and new it was over. The book shows how she told people this story and asked them about when they hurt most. She asked around 92 friends and as she heard their stories her pain gradually dulled. The book shows her story becoming less and less emotional with each new story. These all are accompanied by a telling photograph.

 In, ‘Double Game’ her works are collated together and are very interestingly presented. The book is influenced by another called, ‘Leviathan’ . This is a piece of fiction by a writer called Paul Auster. In it he asked Sophie Calle if he could use some of her life to include in the book. For about seven or eight pages the character Maria takes on the life of Calle. Paul Auster adds his own rituals and games for his character. In, ‘Double Game’ Sophie Calle has three parts. She first of all takes on the roles Auster adds to her own character and makes them real. She follows his instructions for the chromatic diet and letters of the alphabet controlling a day. She eats only yellow food on a certain day, red, green, white in keeping with the book. She lives a day under the influence of the letter C. Spends all day at the cemetery at her father’s grave.

The second part of the book is the real life projects Calle has enacted and are used for the character of Maria in, ‘Leviathan’. These are fascinatingly original projects, totally exciting and enchanting. She plays around with privacy and peoples lives. She decided to stalk a man by chance in the street lost him shortly after, then later in the evening saw him at a party, overheard his plans to travel to Venice the next week. She took this as a sign that she should follow him. This took her to Venice for over a month. After tracking him down with a lot of time an effort she began photographing him in the street and would photograph the things he just photographed. Building up a relationship with him without talking to him. She discovered his likes and dislikes through where he would go and what he would do. Incredibly interesting and slightly creepy. I love her ways how her projects lead her life and if she wasn’t regarded as an artist she would still continue to do these projects irrespective of people knowing about them. I am extremely taken with one project in this part where she took it upon herself to dress a man she thought good-looking but poorly dressed. She did this by sending him a new item of clothing ever Christmas anonymously. This may be an on-going project and she has said she would love to be introduced to him when he was better dressed in his new clothes. I find it extremely interesting how she uses this surprise to better a stranger’s life without taking any credit for it. He would be completely perplexed and intrigued who would be sending him clothes but so happy to have this ritual each Christmas waiting for something new and exciting. Each mystery package bringing something new!

The third section of the book is documentation of Calle’s project dictated by Paul Auster. She asked him to give her instructions. He responded by giving her notes to beautify part of New York city. She decided to decorate and up-keep a phone box, placing note pads, pencils, flowers and a mirror, with other things. A generous project adding a little surprise and joy into people’s normal lives by something slightly out of the ordinary. The work is documented by photographs of the both and written responses on the sheets of paper, comments on crumpled paper.

I find all these projects exciting and interesting because they are all actions, ideas and instincts that Calle really goes with. She doesn’t hold back and lets the projects take her places, literately. They unfold in ways she couldn’t imagine when she starts and this is exciting to read about. Her photographic documentation really helps illustrate the stories and brings them to life. She is daring which is very inspiring.

Celebrities

That them off the tele?

Futurism

- before Futurism there was impressionism and a lot of classical  Italian painting/ sculpture.I’m sure impressionism had a fair impact on the futurists but that’s just a guess. I know they wanted to reject everything to do with the past. They went so far as to hate the past. They wanted to burn down museums and looked to the future instead

- The movement began in Italy in 1909 with Marinetti’s futurist manifesto declaring a love of the future, technology, industry, violence and a hate for the past

- They felt Italy at their time was going no where and needed new energy and a forward looking country to progress . They also took influence from Cubism for fractured compositions- Fascist art movement glorified war

- They influenced dadaism and surrealism

- Major themes included speed, energy, capturing movement, industry

- They went beyond painting and sculpture and Marinetti played around with typography in paintings to show bomb blasts and create images with words. They embraced the video camera and made futurist films, some surreal influencing surrealism.

- Umberto Boccioni, ‘Unique Forms of Continuity in Space’ The sculpture of a man, (perhaps the Nietzsche Esq superman, artist they Futurists thought of) depicts in 3-D the exaggerated effect atmosphere has on a person running/ walking. The whole body is moulded by the wind and changes into some kind of very solid but out of shape person.

 -Giacomo Balla, ‘Abstract Speed: The Car Has Passed’ looks to capture the effect a car has on the atmosphere through it’s rapid movement. It depicts a simplified road scene where strong, ‘force lines’ cut across the page trying to convey the idea of rapid movement.

  

- Giacomo Balla, ‘Rhythm of the Violinist’ painting the movement of a man’s hands as he moves through the air at speed. Slowing down a scene that we all see but never in a still. Inspired by photographs of people moving.