Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore

Went to see the Mark Leckey exhibition at the Manchester City Art Gallery. An incredible use of sound in his work. Spent a long time watching 'Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore', almost to the point of bursting my eardrums. Feels like the images are in constant competition with sound. Both engulfed me but I can't process both equally, I must focus on one or the other. After Whitworth talk by the artist, I doubted that I would like his work, but I was drawn in completely. The film is incredibly evocative and the whole piece truly conveys the spirit and feeling of a tribe or a gang that the music gave to the youth of that time, almost felt a part of the movement for a second. Plan on returning soon. I could still hear the noise from the bottom floor, a cacophony.

Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore: http://vimeo.com/5632791

Illusion

Portrait Schmela and Portrait Dr. Knobloch by Gerhard Richter

I'm drawn to these portraits by Richter simply because he manages to capture movement in his painting. I like that he's put movement back into a still image.

Where To Go Next?

I've been experimenting with halftone and breaking down my photographs into separate CMYK colours. Here I have four slightly different images, taken with shutter speed. I have tried to put the movement back into the image

after taking it away by photographing rather than videoing.

Screen-print continued

Simon Le Ruez 9.02.12

‘It’s meant to be an infantile world, in order to make us believe that the adults are elsewhere, in the ‘real world’, and to conceal the fact that real childishness is everywhere, particularly among those adults who go there to act the child in order to foster illusions of their real childishness.’

Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulations

I have chosen to look at the work of George Condo in reference to this quote and in particular his painting of ‘Skinny Jim’.

Firstly, I notice a link between the childish ideals of both the painting and the quote. However on closer inspection, both have elements of a sinister quality. Skinny Jim, a clown, reminds the viewer of children’s parties and infantile entertainment, but his face is contorted to seem bizarre and grotesque. An expression which would no doubt scare a small child. Similarly, Disneyland creates an environment for children to thrive on the imaginary, yet the warmth and affection of the park is only a simulation of a make-believe world.

I would also argue that both create a false sense of security to the viewer or visitor. In addition to the facial expression, Skinny Jim holds a lit cigarette in his hand, perhaps not immediately recognised but again making him less of a childish figure and more of a threatening presence. Likewise, a first impression of Disneyland may be positive however, perhaps the draw of the park is not what it offers on the inside, but an escape from the ‘real’ world on the outside. As also stated by Baudrillard, ‘You park outside, queue up inside, and are totally abandoned at the exit’, suggests that Disneyland is not a friendly place, but designed out of greed.

Finally, it would seem that Disneyland also attracts adults to revel in its childlike fantasies, as mentioned in my chosen quote. In contrast, the childlike figure in the opposite case seems to be George Condo himself in his relentless reproduction of distorted individuals. As written in the Sunday Telegraph (6^th November 2011) of the Hayward Gallery’s retrospective, ‘the show presents and ever-changing fairground gallery of enigmatic grotesques’, which in turn could also refer to Disneyland itself.

Cindy Sherman

From the Sunday Telegraph Seven Magazine, 05.02.12, written by Lucy Davies

Simulation and Re-production

I began looking at human emotion, collecting photographs of people laughing, frowning and being caught off guard, and studying them through drawing. Recent lectures have sparked an interest in simulation and the difference between a true emotion and a staged emotion. I asked friends to laugh on cue while I photographed, the results were awkward and unnatural, an obvious fake emotion.

I've used screen-printing as a starting point because I like that I can print more then one image over the other, in order to simulate the movement of my subjects without using film.

Eileen O'Rourke

Contour States at the Cornerhouse, 1.2.12

My first impressions were negative, I found Samantha Donnelly's work immediately difficult to connect with. The overall feeling of the show was brash and chaotic, particularly on the top floor which housed a selection of towering sculptures of neon colours and thousands of different materials.

After discussing with the group, I felt that I began to understand where the artist was coming from. I appreciated the message she is trying to convey, but I still questioned the execution, especially in 'Outlining Venus'. Why had she erected swaying polystyrene monolith, painted to look like concrete? In comparison, all other pieces seemed to be linked, whether it be through materials, construction, or something else.

I appreciated the smaller, wall mounted pieces more. They seemed more concise, easier to digest and in my opinion, more effective.

The message is clear, Donnelly is commenting on the way women are perceived in society, in particular through the fashion world. As described in the booklet, she is concerned with 'breaking down subjects and moulding then anew in an altered state'. It seems to me that she began with a conventionally 'beautiful' idea (fashion, femininity) and deconstructed it to the point of being ugly and uncomfortable to look at, therefore questioning and inverting the original subject.

I left the exhibition more appreciative of the work then at the start, but I would still question whether I understood the artists execution of the work.