1) Negotiated Learning Plan:
What interests/drives you?
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History
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Society
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World
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Social issues
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Capturing moments
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Nature
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outdoors
What materials do you think you might be the best to use in your investigation?
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Acrylic paint
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Oil paint
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Charcoal
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Ink
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Cardboard
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wood
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photography
What media/area possible exhibition sites/participatory project opportunities do you intend to explore and research?
A public/open space:
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Park
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walking trail
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shopping centre
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My first idea is to create some sort of trail or to have different things set up around different place in Sunderland and maybe even surrounding areas. This creates the opportunity to have a Covid safe style exhibition as the restrictions are always changing. This allows many different types of people to view my art as a lot of people like art but don't have time or miss out on some of the more hidden art exhibitions. This allows me to have a larger target audience for my work as nearly everyone has access to go outdoors . I also myself sometimes find gallery's quite formal and intimidation when looking around, this gives people a chance to enjoy art in a more natural environment.
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The way I was thinking of doing this is to do a QR code trail. This makes the exhibition more interactive and encourages viewers to get involved to view the work. This would simply be a QR code (that I find an interesting way to present so that viewers are attracted to see what it is) that took the viewer straight to a page of my work. This would make the exhibition appropriate for any ages and is open to anyone that has a mobile phone that can scan a QR code.
How will you measure your success?
Most ​ QR code apps have a thing showing how many views your QR codes get. This would show me if anyone was actually viewing the work at all. I could also make a survey asking how much they enjoyed viewing the art to see if my work was impactful.
2) What is my Live project?
My live project is going to be an outdoor QR code exhibition. I will be finding fun and eye catching ways to display them around public walkways and areas that are surrounded by nature. The QR code once scanned will go to pieces of my work. This exhibition serves as a more open and available place to view art. It is also a Covid safe space to display my work no matter what the the restrictions or guidelines that are put in place. The idea of this exhibition is to make it as available as possible for as many people as I can. Nearly everyone of all ages have a smartphone these days and almost all of them have the ability to read/scan QR codes. I hope that I can find a way to make people want to come over and see what's on the wall as I plan for the QR code to also look like almost like a piece of art in itself. I think I will do a couple different versions of this to see what is effective and what is not.
3/4) own Art Work reflection:
My Project:
Originally for my last project I looked at nature and the things we miss on a daily basis because of how society makes it hard to really slow down and stop and appreciate the things around us. For this project I continued with the theme of nature but wanted to work based on what I see and I find interesting. To start my project off I went out into a park and photographed many different images of plants, trees ,sky and buildings. This helped me find the the things that I wanted to base my work on.
After taking these images I started to focus on the sky and the silhouette of the trees. I ended up focusing on these images the most as I really liked the look of the silhouette. I plan to take more of these images with different colours of sky and different cloud arrangements. I also plan to look at silhouettes of other plants , animals and buildings and incorporate these into my work as well. I think these pictures work well because of the simplicity of all the different shapes and lines created naturally by the environment. I like the bold contrast between the tree branches against the busier background. This is because we can see all the small details of the branches and leaves .
3/4) Own Art Work reflection:
These are the first few pieces I made after being inspired by my photography. These are all A3 and done in acrylic paint. I started off by doing colourful and interesting backgrounds that show different stages of the day and the sunset and sunrise. After doing a few of these backgrounds I then looked at all of the different photographs I took and then used them as reference images to paint these silhouettes of trees. I overall really liked how this turned out and I decided to start making work on a biggest scale and experiment more with background and the materials/techniques I use. I think out of these three pieces the two that worked the best where the pieces with the redy/orange backgrounds as it gives the viewer more to look at. I also think that these 2 pieces are more realistic in terms of how the sky looks. I also think that these pieces are a good start and baseline to help me start developing and refining my ideas for this project.
These paintings are A1 sized. The background is done with watered down acrylic paint that I splattered to create this blue shape. I used a couple of different colour blues to give the background depth and make the black stand out more. For the black I first painted inside my outlines with black water colour. After that I used charcoal to create the shading around the edges. I think this gave the pieces a really nice effect and I especially liked the backgrounds I used for this and will use it in future work. I think these pieces where a good next step within my work and by working on a bigger scale it allowed my to try out different techniques such as the splatter background which I think adds a lot more contrast against the bold black shapes of the silhouettes of the tree trunks. I think so far these are some of my favourite pieces I have made. They work well as a pair and they are very impactful close up and far away.
These two pieces are done on wood boards and are part of my experimentation with texture. The background is done with acrylic paint and the trees are made to be textured. I used a palette knife and a mix of filler and black paint. I think these pieces worked really well. You cant tell in these images very well but this texture is sort of a bubbly/bumpy texture and makes the contrast between the orange and the black stand out even more. These pieces have made want to explore more with different materials to see if they can give my work a different effect. I think I like these two pieces even more than the last two blue pieces that I made. Although these are smaller in size than the last two pieces I made I think it really works for this type of piece. I think I like it mostly because from far away you can't fully tell there's something different about it but the closer you get the more interesting and attention grabbing the piece is . I also think this colour orange is a perfect choice.
These are four pieces that are A5. They are done with the same splatter background as the blue A1 pieces. I still think this background effect is one of the most effective I have used so far and I really enjoy doing it as well as the result. I think these two colours (red and yellow) work really nicely together and give the pieces a softer and more calming effect than the vibrant blue I used for the other pieces. The flowers and leaves are drawn on with fine-liners and I used my own photography as reference pictures to create these layouts. I think what works in theses pieces is the simplicity of the simple line work flowers and the more busy/chaotic background. I think this set of four was a good choice because although they are small, together they make more of an impact. If I had done more of these pieces I think there would have been too much going on and would make it so the viewer wouldn't know where to look.
This piece is done on driftwood and is based off my own photography. I was out later on in the evening as the sun was setting and saw this seagull stood on the top of this pole next to a streetlight and I just felt as if I needed to take a picture of it. I then made this pieces as I thought there was something quite beautiful about the simplicity of the bold black shapes I have used to recreate the picture I took in my own way .
This is a oil painting I have just started of Roker beach that is also influenced off my own photography. I wanted to try and some work that was less abstract and less simplistic .Overall I think that when this is finished it will look really good and I will do more. I like how moody and dark the atmosphere is in this painting that I have created by using a a darker yet still vibrant colour scheme. I especially like how the sky looks
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This is just an experimental piece using the same backgrounds but done slightly differently. This piece is just using a fine liner and again using my photography as refence pieces. As these where just quick practice attempts I will be doing more that have even more detail. I think these bigger splats work well with the bigger flower drawings as it allows the viewer to focus more on the drawings as there's not as much going on compared to the previous splat background. I think the backgrounds work a lot better than expected as it almost looks like petals are scattered behind the flowers. These overall worked well but I still want to focus more on silhouettes for the main section of my work.
This piece again uses the splatter backgrounds but for this one I did the drawing a lot looser and more carefree to see the different effect I would get. I like them both but overall prefer the first one as I like the little bit more detail. I also think the pink works really well here and again looks like petals that are scattered behind them.
These are a couple more smaller pieces that I did just to test the different type of splatters I can do in the background. I think these overall was ok but I think this test has shown me that these pieces work best on a larger scale.
QR code research:
This is my research and planning to see how easy it is to generate/create these QR codes and see if it is easy to do for free and what websites/apps can help me achieve my plan. I will first look into websites that can help me do this and see if they have the features available that I want. Here are a couple of the best websites that I found:
This website Flow codes is the first one I tried out and is quite simple to just upload a photograph or a link to somewhere. I tested it out with a photo of a bug that I took and seems to work quite effectively.
flowcode.com/codes
QR Code Generator
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This website is on a free trail basis. It allows you to have more control over the deign of your QR code and is simple to use. I don't fully like how the photo appears because they use a half black half white background .
Jan Pienkowski:
This is the illustrator Jan Pienkowski. He is well known for his illustrations in haunted house and Meg and Mog the children's book. I really liked Pienkowsi's style and I chose him because his work kind of has a similar feel to mine. I really liked his chaotic background that he uses and I also think his silhouette style has given me some inspiration to add more details into my own work.
Kara walker:
Kara walker is an American artist who does print making, filmmaking and is a professor. She explores the themes of race, gender, sexuality violence and identity in her work. She is most known for her rooms filled of black paper silhouette cut outs. I looked at this artist as although We are both doing completely different themes. I really like the simplicity of the layout of her work and how she tells the story.
William Kentridge:
William Kentridge is a South African artist. He works in a wide range of media but in the 2000's he began working with silhouettes. He again is someone who uses race and societal issues as a theme within his work and shows this with the imagery we see and the text that is behind it that is very relevant to what he is trying to portray. Overall I looked at his work because I like his layout and designs even if my work does not share a common theme.
Kumi Yamashita:
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Kumi Yamashita is an artist that focuses on light and shadow, creating silhouettes is the focal point of her work. I looked at her work because I wanted to look at different ways that light can used. I overall really like her work because we can tell she has thought very clearly where and what the objects are doing.
5) Creatives live Talk reflection:
Prem Sahib talk:
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I really enjoyed watching and listening to Prem Sahibs talk about his work. His work is all very visually appealing, well thought out and follows similar themes through out even if they change slightly or are represented differently.
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I particularly find interesting how he looks at the idea of temporality and how he combined that with themes of domestic and home with his 8 minute video of the makeshift table he make in his garden and filmed overnight.
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I also liked how he approached the exhibition title of "side on" because he made took that as meaning an alternative view and his work reflected this. I also liked the way that he said the backstory of his pieces don't have to be understood by the viewer because its is also shown psychically in the materials used.
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In his work he also does this thing where he sees how little he can get away , eg how little detail can he do before it becomes not the intended message and example of this is the steel that he bent at a 90 degree angle that he used as a laptop within his work. This works because he he put this in a context that makes sense and makes your brain put all the pieces together to figure out what it is.
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overall I think his work is very thought out and I like how carefully he choses how and when to use materials when trying to convey different themes and mood. He plays around with light placement and the connect between each item he groups, I really liked his work.
6) Exhibition visit:
Cover Versions Group Exhibition, Sunderland
27 Fawcett Street, Sunderland, SR1 1RE, UK
This is the Cover Versions group exhibition in Sunderland. This exhibition explores the idea of originals and its copies, echoes, and mutations in art, film and music. I really enjoyed this exhibition. At first when I saw this wall of painted album cover I thought they where all prints, but when you look closely they are all hand painted and was even left with the sketchbook paper that had been ripped off still left on which I liked. The ripped newspapers that had been stuck back together was one of my favourites, i liked the overall effect of this and the fact that they have literally put history back together again. I also found it interesting how different everyone's individual work was yet it all made sense together. This exhibition was a really nice space with some interesting pieces of work to be seen.
6) My Shaun Project Space Crit:
These are the pieces that I selected for my Crit in the Shaun Project space. I chose these pieces because I liked the contrast between the blue and orange when they where next to each other. I also picked these because they showed a size variation. I got some helpful feedback and ideas from this Crit which has made me think even more how I can develop and expand my work. This experience also made me plan an indoor exhibition as I had never pictured my work in a gallery environment as I wanted to present my work about nature in nature itself but I think the gallery set up really adds value and importance to my work. I think seeing my work next to to other peoples also helped me see that my work could fit within a gallery context as my work fit well with one of the other artists themes and pieces. I think seeing them next to each other made me want to do a collaborative exhibition with a few other people as this really just makes viewing the work more interesting. This especially applies if a few people have similar and relating themes.
7) 5 books:
8) Artwork reflection:
These each one of these two pieces are a little bigger than A1. I did these after finished my smaller one like this that I did that I displayed in my Crit in the Shaun Project space. I think the smaller versions of these work really well and they are still my favourite pieces. I think these bigger ones where not as effective in my opinion as the texture didn't look as visually appealing. I think what I liked most about the smaller pieces is that you had to look closely to fully understand what was going on with the texture. I'm glad I tried doing these types of pieces on a bigger scale as its made me think more that bigger scale isn't always going to look as good or be better. I still like the use of this colour orange and I will now maybe experiment with smaller versions of these to see which size pieces would be the most effective to show in my exhibition for this project.
This is a piece I did on canvas that I did on canvas. I really didn't like the outcome of this piece. As you can see from this picture I created quite a texture and raised background surface. This is one aspect of the piece that I liked. I think the thing I don't like about it is that I used quite a big brush when painting the tree trunks and branches and this made it so the lines are not very fine and looks quite bulky and not to realistic overall.
For these two pieces I knew I wanted to make them to go in my indoor exhibition. I made sure that I learned from my previous work and took my time to really create a couple of pieces that I was fully happy with. I used smaller brushes to create these small delicate tree branches that I think worked really well. It also took me a really long time to create the smooth blended coloured backgrounds. I think these backgrounds are subtle enough to not distract from the main silhouette yet still noticeable to create a nice overall piece. Another thing that I think made these pieces my favourite is that I used the blackest of black paint. This paint was really fun to experiment with and I think it created a better contract against the orange and the matte finish really fitted the piece. I loved them
This piece is an A1 size. I have used the same splatter effect that I used for some of the work I made earlier. I really liked the colour combination of these splatters from the smaller A5 pieces I did and decided it would look good if I did a bigger piece to see how it looks. I again used my photography as reference. For this pieces I decided that I would draw a shape (in this case a triangle) and see how that effected or changed my work. I think the outcome overall want my favourite but I do like the way it turned out overall and I think its nice how I creates a sort of net of flowers that hang off the shape.
These are the pieces that I created for my first outdoor exhibition. These took me a really long time to make and I put a lot of work and care into making them look interesting and eye-catching so that people would stop and look and even if they didn't scan the QR code they would still sort of see a piece of my work. I wanted to make Displaying the QR code a piece of work because I think It would have been a waste of time and not very effective if I had just stuck up the QR codes by themselves. These pieces where made with expanded foam and then painted with acrylic paint. I was just experimenting with it and then started created these weird shapes and thought it would look good if I created some sort natural/organic looking piece. I used real leaves to use as a sort of border and then put a black pipe cleaner round the QR code itself so it look more clean and neater. I overall loved how these turned out and cant wait to find a place to display them.
OUTDOOR EXHIBITION 2(LEAVES):
These are some more pictures that show the pieces slightly better and how I displayed them. I put three on one pillar of the bridge and 3 on the one across from it. This way they are all together but spread out. This also means no matter which direction of the bridge you walk down you will be able to see them clearly. I think there was better places I could have put them but it still worked.
For this outdoor exhibition I decided that the best place for these where in a park. The other spot that I chose was a little bit more out of the way and I wanted to put these ones somewhere where even more people would walk through as well as make sure that different ages where more included. This spot on the bridge that I chose was right next to the kids park so it seemed like a good idea. This bridge is also just a place where a lot of people will walk across anyways as it is the main way to get to the other side of it. I decided the these strange and unusual green leaf sort of pieces would go better here compared to the flowers because they are most eye-catching and something you don't expect to see there, this will make people want to see what it is all about. I think another cool thing about this placement is that it is eyelevel for kids which means it is easier for them to get involved. Even if they don't get get excited for the art which would be more for the parents they still get to see and tough these wierd pieces I have made and can even help scanning the code.
This is the second lot of pieces that I created for an outdoor exhibition. Again I wanted these to look like pieces themselves in case someone didn't have time to scan the QR code or didn't have access to a scanner. These pieces where made with filler on top of carboard. I then painted then red, orange and yellow. I think these overall worked really well as attracting viewers. I saw a lot of people after I put them up looking at them and taking the time to understand what they where. I think that the bright colours where a great idea because although they aren't big, they stand out and are hard to miss, especially the yellow ones. Overall I'm not sure out of the two outdoor exhibitions I liked more. I think they both work for different reason. These one are more eye-catching and fun to look at whereas my other ones blend into to nature a little bit more and are unusual and interesting to look at which makes people want tpo see what they are about.
OUTDOOR EXHIBITION 1 (FLOWERS):
This is the first exhibition that I did outdoors with my QR code idea. I think these flowers worked really well in an outdoor setting, especially these big brick walls that I chose to display them on. I chose under a bridge in these big arches as its a walk way that people like to go down and see the river, walk dogs and is just a nice place in general to take in nature. This works perfectly for how and where I wanted to display my work as its the out the way enough for someone to just subtly come across it , yet still in a good place where many people will walk past each day. I decided that I did not want to advertise these outdoor exhibitions and make it something that is more found organically and naturally as that sounded to me like a more fun and exciting way to view it.
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A QR code exhibition like this allows me to mix a modern /technological concept with the traditional physical artwork. I could have even, to develop this idea, put these types of QR code works in a traditional gallery setting and it would have worked just as good. I'm glad I did these outdoors though because I wanted it to be less formal and more natural feeling so people could enjoy art whilst going round and living their daily lives.
Above you can see that I wrote these little explanation on a piece of paper explaining what it is and asking people to have a look. This is the only thing I left explaining a what it was. This is because I wanted to say as little as possible and let people figure it out for themselves. Below this is a couple more images that show a little more context to where the pieces where. It was hard to get good picture of these as they where all spread out so I made sure the video showed this.
This is a video that shows more context as to where these pieces are and how I have displayed and laid them out. This video serves almost as a walkthrough exhibition as this documents it as I knew it was a temporary thing. I knew that some of these would disappear, go missing or get taken down so I wanted a record of my work.
This is an indoor exhibition I did with; Ashley, Chantelle and Rachael in the Shaun Project Space. I decided that it would be good to do an indoor exhibition as well as my original plan to just do outdoor exhibitions. After having my Crit in this space it made me realise that my work did also suit being in a gallery setting and I especially liked seeing my work with other peoples. Overall I can really see the development of my work through this exhibition. I really liked these pieces, especially the two more recent ones I did on canvas. I think this Shaun Project space exhibition has been a good representation of what it is really like putting an exhibition together, for example deciding where everyone's work was going to go and just general problem solving on how to hang and display things correctly/more effectively. I'm glad that I didn't just stick to the outdoor QR code exhibition as I think this adds a lot to my works and adds a different sort off feel to my work, which I like.
INDOOR EXHIBITION (TREES):
9) live outcome Documentation :
My Live Outcome for this project was Originally just going to be a QR code outdoor exhibition which is obviously a free space to use as it is in public/in an open space. For this I am finding interesting and visually appealing ways to present my QR Codes so they are eye-catching enough to make people stop and see what they are all about. I have chosen that I will pick 6 pieces to this with and these will be displayed in open areas surrounded by nature. I have only decided to do six pieces because I will be doing 2 or 3 different versions of this exhibition in different places. This is because my art is all based on nature and environment and I think this idea would work best if I display the same work but in different areas as this increases the chance for my preferred pieces to be viewed by many different people.
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Outdoor Exhibition 1 (flower):
MATERIALS NEEDED:
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Acrylic paint
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Filler
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Cardboard
As the space is free the only costs I would have to think about is materials used to create the work. These are all things that I have or can buy pretty cheap. I will also be using a standard printer to print off my QR code so there will be no extra cost like there would be if I had it printed as stickers or on a different paper making this an affordable exhibition.
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Outdoor Exhibition 2 (Leaves):
MATERIALS NEEDED:
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Expanding foam
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Paint
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Pipe cleaners
Again by this being outdoor this a completely free space to use. The only things that I needed to buy for these pieces where the expanded foam which was again pretty cheap and I also used regular printed QR codes again to save in printing prices.
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Indoor Exhibition 2 (trees):
MATERIALS NEEDED:
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Canvases
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Wood boards
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The blackest of black paint
Overall this was one of the exhibitions where I had to buy a few of these things such as the blackest of black paint which I think really added to the quality and overall professional look to my work. If I had rented a gallery space and held a real exhibition in an independent space it would cost anywhere from £75( a day)at the very cheapest to £500 at least for a useable exhibition space, they can often coast a lot more if they are bigger or more well known space.
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After my Crit in the Shaun Project Space I realised that I liked seeing my work in a gallery context. Originally I chose to do an outdoor exhibition because I liked the idea of my work about nature being in nature itself but I think its also nice to see my work in a gallery space. I am going to be doing a shared exhibition with three other people. I think this is also an important factor as I find that I like my work to be seen with others styles and subjects. Originally I thought that my works place within a gallery context would be best alone but I like the contrast and differences that adds and creates more of an experience for the exhibition viewers.
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Poster for Indoor Exhibition (Shaun Project Space):
LIVE OUTCOME DOCUMENTATION:
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These are examples of a few places that I put my posters up around the university. I put one in the lift, near the studio spaces, outside the Shaun Project Space and another one on the first floor. I did some on there own and others with othere exhibition posters.
10) Assessment Summary:
This project has been one of the ones I have enjoyed the most. At the start it took my a while to get into it and find out what I wanted not only my work to be but my overall idea for the live outcome. Once I picked a subject for my art I found the project really fun and the idea for mainly stemmed from covid restrictions. This is because back when we first started This module the restrictions where still kind of on and off and I didn't want my exhibition to get cancelled and I wanted it to be available to as many people as possible.
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I also think that the use of technology in art is vital to keeping work new and exciting. Traditional art galleries are great and have a whole experience associated with it but many people where still weary about going into indoor spaces with others around. I also am really glad I did a couple of outdoor exhibitions as it allowed people to view art in a less formal and more natural setting, it is also not taking time out of anyone's day as they will see it as they go around their everyday lives. I have also found that this QR code exhibition was more successful than I thought as on the website that I used to create the QR codes it allows you to see how many people have scanned the QR codes and on what days. These are the results from a couple of the QR codes.
For context this is the result for a couple of the QR codes over a few days. I put these outdoor exhibitions up on the 4th May and took them down on the 11th May. I found that a lot of them had been taken , but this is something I expected. This is why I have only included these 3 days as after this is when a few of them where gone and the numbers weren't quite as high. This went overall better than expected and I'm happy with the result.
As for the artwork itself I was really pleased with some of my work, especially the two canvases I did towards the end that I did for my exhibition. I really saw an improvement/ a shift in quality of my work towards the end of the project and I think this is because I started to really get into the work and enjoyed it more because of this. I think knowing some of my work would be displayed in an outdoor non-formal space I felt there was less pressure and judgement on the work I created.
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Saying this I also enjoyed creating work for the group indoor exhibition but I again think I felt less pressure because it was a group exhibition and not just focused on my work only. I think the group exhibition brought my project to an end really nicely and I liked that my work fit well and looked good next to other peoples art and group exhibitions are defiantly something I want to do again in the future.
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Overall I really enjoyed this module and forming my project. I think that after going out and taking the photos of the things that I found interesting it really got me excited to what sort of work I made based of of them. I think I have been braver with experimenting with new materials and even size of paper, canvas or wood. I think I have really found that for certain types of work I like to work smaller and others not overly big but big enough to add more little detail. I have learnt a lot about my preferences within this module.