Apr 22th
Final ideas:
-create an object to use as a projection
-project a video through it?
Or
-Keep working with chemical and physical processes
-Make a video/ series of images after working through different layers/processes
Apr 21st
Final Park submission
I drew this as a visualization for what I would have ideally made for Park.
Apr 10th
Salt crystals experiments
After 2-3 weeks, I made the 1st images, where there was an exciting environment already forming.
2 weeks later: last images. The first crystals drifted to the bottom of the jar, creating an strange base and leaving room for a much larger crystal to form. Honestly, I was not expecting such big shapes to form just with water and salt (and blood).
Mar 23rd
Wax Sculptures
Back in Spain, I had many candles left from a past sculpture project and decided to use it in this work. I returned to the idea of using plant skins as main element. I wanted to create some kind of organic composition with them, making some kind of "mutant organism."
Firstly, I made two works using avocados as the base. I wanted to create a plant growing from the avocado, like an invented species, by mixing pistachio peels in the base and other leaves growing from them. However, in my mind I thought that the pistachios could be seen through the wax, but obviously it dried opaque. The upper part is made from a banana -I am hoping that it will rot and mold will grow in this part, adding to the idea of new growth. I also explored using salt and ink inside the wax that was in the avocado, looking at textures and destruction. Here, there are no plants growing from the "contaminated" avocado, it is left defective.
I was inspired by Katy Paterson to create a "collection" of plant skins to use. The last work shows different types of materials used and mixed to create this strange ecosystem of things, that is also a monster. I was also inspired by sculptures, such as David Altmejd or others like Carrie Grainger's work Roots. Roots is a group of three small sculptures that by their proportions and exaggerated gestures they seem figures from an animation movie, captured in a suffering position. They have a sense of being fantastic creatures, because they seem like some kind of humanized plant, they have no face and they are made from one black melting material. They are sinister but cartoony, something that I also see in my works.
The bright orange colour of the wax transmits decay and toxicity to me, and I think that a softer brown or yellow colour could merge better with the idea of the whole thing being a plant. Instead, I work with the contrasts that creates the orange. I think that this wax mixed with plants transmits a story in a sense, it is as if these are the pieces that are left from a catastrophe. In a sense the plants, although they are dry, show how they resisted and grew among this strange material. Also, the works could make us feel as if they were created from human trash, as if they evolved from what was left of things we used or manipulated. My sculpture shows an indeterminate organic creature that I could definitely take further into another media, such as 4D, and maybe I could play with making 3D digital objects from here. I could explore by adding layers of other materials like I did before, such as having glass or water in front of the camera lens.
Mar 17th
Collage and Painting
I created a collage with different types of paper, painting on top with black ink, water and bleach. I created something that seemed like a blurred landscape with an object in the front. These forms seem like hands, or skeletons -that maybe I could retouch in the future. There is a spiritual sense, a sense of time too, evidenced in the flowing forms of the paint, and in the brown and dark tones that seem to be worn out. I was inspired by Shamanism and Shinto, as they both hold that mountains, trees and rivers have a spirit. However I did not want to focus on beliefs, but on wider ideas of connections and contrasts between forms, lights and matter. Some parts seem to be detailed but further away, some seem to be gases, that mix with water. There is a great sense of fluidity and transience, as the bony forms before mentioned as hands, that could also be parts of trees, try to hold on to this "life"?
The second collage, just above the first one in the Sketchbook part, is made with pieces of skins of fruits as well as different types of paper, acrylic, ink and pastels. I also wanted to create an imaginative landscape, using abstract shapes, and the same earthly tones as before. The shapes are inspired by cliffs, but some seem to be floating in the middle of the air. The collage is much more aggressive, chaotic and bold than the previous one. I like how it looks destructive, as if something was breaking, like ruins. Here the sense of connection between the parts is different, made with more lines that are more abrupt. I used the skins of fruits to see how they could work in a 2D piece, however I find more interesting to work with them in a 3D composition. Here they added more textures and shapes but removed the delicacy of the ink and forced me to use more elements to make the work all united.
Mar 9th
Painting experiments with ink
I made two small samples on different shaped wood panels to experiment with materials. I was inspired by shapes and lines found in the wood, shapes of trees and of stars. I was inspired by Wolfgang Tillmans' ink photography and this drawing by Pippa Gatty. I found the works even more interesting when passed into digital. Through both painting and computer processes I can create unique images with processes that complement each other: with traditional painting I can manage to draw and express brushstrokes and with digital techniques I can manipulate these in a wide range of ways.
Pippa Gatty graphite drawing.
Mar 10th
Form and position of animal structure
Unconsciously I made the animal sculpture look like more human with its position: it is a bust. I find it funny and creepy at the same time, how this creature is positioned like Roman emperors, clerics from the Renaissance and Baroque and nobles of all time periods.
Bust of Cardinal Richelieu, 1640–4. Bernini, Louvre.
I discovered how changing its position could change the feeling of the work. The bust seems like a parody. The monstrous animal is placed among this group of privileged people.
The bust could stand at an eye height. On the other hand, it could be positioned on a wall, horizontally, and it would look like a typical hunting trophy, looking gloomily down at an audience.
It could also be used as a prop for a performance, as it is light and easy to hold. In this case, it would be challenging because of the smell (especially the smell of the rotten banana peels!) but this experience encourages me to if I want to make my own props, whenever I do a performance or a video in the future.
For the park project, I am planning on making an entire body of an animal, not higher than a person, a bit like a large dog. However, I could consider these reflections if I need an alternative way of presenting the work. I must consider every detail of how the work is perceived. Here David Altmejd's creature is placed in a public space sitting down in this meditative position, which evokes a sense of mysticism and power. If it was also at rest, but standing up, I would not feel such sense of confidence and I think that it could seem similar to an ordinary person in the park.
L'oeil, 2017. Mixed media, 94,6 × 77,4 × 66 cm
Mar 5th
Real Impact Seminar NOTES
We are living the coronavirus, the fires in Australia…
How can art help? What is MY role as an artist?
Anthopocene - human the dominant influence in the planet
In around 2016 the academic cirlces officially stated this era, although it has been talked about since the 70s
-theanthropocene.org film
humans have changed “from being participants to being a dominant feature”
We can see how this concern has gone into the concerns of the general public, as it is not only talked about in activist circles or science
Huge huge global problem - artists can feel that there’s no point, or be naive and think that we can change the world
-artists may contribute to the problem - we have to make ethical things, environmentally friendly materials
koyaanisqatsi film
Is Art relevant?
Art is not as relevant as we would like it to be
Science and other fields is more relevant. Linking science and art is more important in terms of solving + communicating.
But what is art? Collaborating with other field professionals (scientists) — basically it evidences how broad art is (art + architecture)
The ethical aspect Is more important each time and now it’s a fundamental base for artists (if not they’re criticized)
Art is not regarded as seriously - more of a mainstream thing
Suzanne Anker -interesting theoretical writings too
Miljohn & Ulric Heltoft - very traditional sort of victorian approach
Trevor Poglen TRINITY CUBE - FUSING SUBSTANCES - MELTING TWO TYPES OF GLASS INTO A CUBE
Katie Patterson - Future library project
Don’t follow the wind project -ARTWORK IN FUKUSHIMA BANNED AREA
THESE ARTISTS WORK WITH THE NUCLEAR ANTHROPOCENE - VERY INTERESTING AREA THAT YOU COULD TALK ABOUT
Mark Dion “Landfill” -VERY INTERESTING. He is also an artist who does activism
Mar 3rd
Ideas for future development from animal sculpture
I uploaded the Park Proposal. Want to make a larger piece, considering it will be placed outside in the park, and using more reliable methods, such as pinning the pieces together as I said before (this would also be better for the environment than simply using glue).
It would be a meticulous work, but my main idea was to make a calf-like creature, as I found that the gentle expression of the face of the piece was similar to that of a baby cow or a dog! The ears were what made me instantly think of the baby cow.
This could further connect to the animal agriculture, and the exploitation of the meat and dairy industry. Calves are born just so their mothers can produce milk for humans, making them less nourished. If they are female, they are doomed to live as their mothers, constantly pregnant, producing milk for humans. If they are male, they are kept in a small cage so they cannot develop muscles and they will be killed for meat. They are purely treated as objects for human consumption.
However, for the project I suggested another alternative. A calf-sized decaying fruit monster would certainly attract dogs and I thought about making the legs just with metal, but despite this dogs could probably still reach the food. My other idea was to make sculptures that could be held higher up. Instead of a calf, I could make a chicken-bat thing, which could be easier to make (smaller) and stand on a wooden or metal column.
If it looks like a chicken, it would have similar associations and meanings like those of the calf. But chickens are not found flying high up. The piece could then also have other connotations as it could relate more to how we as humans can play with genetics (animal and plant genetics) and make new creatures, or it could relate to the idea of the scary and the funny. I will see how this develops.
Park Proposal
Feb 26th
Animal sculpture
A great inspiration of mine was Patricia Piscinini. This artist produces realistic sculptures of creatures that seem deformed and eerie but gentle at the same time. They are in a point in between. The creature I made seems in between macabre and innocent. It reminds me of my dog.
I made the skin using sweet potato skins mostly, as they sticked very easily to the shapes of the surface and they had a unusual skin-like appearance. The eyes were made with avocado peels and the expression is achieved by folding the potato skin around them. I experimented with the potato skins and how they form folds when dry. Working with dry and soft pieces made me think about the passing of time and their different effects and methodologies they require. I prefer working with dry pieces as they already have formed very interesting rigid curves, but they are more delicate generally.
I also used peanuts, oranges and banana. I used the tip of the banana and avocado skins to form the ears, that give the creature a likeness to a calf. Bananas were not easy to work with, because of their mushy texture that was difficult to stick to the work and I could not sew it as it instantly broke down. I learnt that different foods also require different techniques to modify them, and to stick them and make them work. They each have totally different textures and qualities, for example although both peanuts and avocados have dry skins, peanuts' are curvier and more rigid and may need more time to be shaped and stuck to a piece.
Initially I wanted to sew everything together but I did not have a needle delicate enough and the surface beneath was too rigid to sew in. In the end I mostly used PVA, superglue and transparent thread. I would like to use other techniques in the future, such as pinning the work together with very thin pins, as it would be more environmentally friendly.
The structure underneath was made with a very basic wood "skeleton" and then placing balls of paper with tape, and strips of paper with glue to form the shape. It is a technique inspired by the Fallas, large figures built in the streets of Valencia during the traditional holiday (traditionally they were built with wood, paper and similar materials).
In this piece I intended to use plants to make animal skin, to transmit the uses plants can have and the overall idea of how we can replace any animal product in our lives with a plant-based option. I am using human waste, further highlighting the idea as they are not any plant but plants we produce for our own use. The was plants here are selected based on their associations reminds me of the Mannierist painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo as he also used plants to create portraits based on their symbolism.
4D
-Animation of your drawings/paintings in the style of Katy Dove
-Recover the idea of projection through glass
-Include animation last term?
-WRITE TITLES OF CONTEXTUAL RESEARCH (10 or until now)
-WRITE FUTURE IDEAS
-PRINT QLONE + print big images A3 of future map… this will a map that will be a trial “invented” - maybe in the future create new paintings to then create maps based in real info
IDEAS
-CREATE A MAP WITH YOUR PHOTOSHOP EXPERIMENTATION. RELATE WITH LAST PROJECT PLACE
-QLONE WORK WITH SCULPTURE
-CREATE NEW SURFACES TO PAINT ON WITH DIFFERENT MATERIALS THINKING ABOUT THE THEME(S)
-CREATE ANIMATION WITH PHOTOSHOP WORKS (VIDEO)
-WORK WITH PROJECTIONS (ON YOU, ON OTHER OBJECTS, THROUGH WATER OR GLASS)
May 3rd
Final Images
The lockdown's restrictions benefited me in a way, because it helped me focus on my ideas one by one in a time when I was quite lost, and in the end I ended up producing moving image, photography, sculpture and painting. I made a video but for the purpose of the publication, decided to make a series of images instead of moving image.
The image "bomb" was a revelation for me. It showed a post-apocalyptic, toxic landscape, that seemed to be in another planet, in a microscopic atmosphere and under the sea at the same time. It is surreal, shows a strange eruption, a bomb. This image showed me that the salt experiment had a great potential. I never imagined that this could be my final piece, but I am very satisfied with the mesmerizing final images!
These series of images embody in my opinion many ideas that I had explored in the past and connected them with my research and with the proposal (using physical and chemical processes… Trevor Paglen, David Altmejd, Carrie Grainger, Tillmans… human body and natural process of producing salt literally merge). I used chemical reactions, explored saturated solutions and crystals and literally experimented with them by adding a "secret" element: blood. I think I never mentioned it before, but the blood is real (no more beetroot juice) and it was collected with a menstrual cup. There wasn't much for the size of the jar, but I expected it to turn the water red and dissolve completely. I remember that in the beginning, the jar was black. Then, somehow, "algae" forms started to grow... I think that the blood particles (now dark brown) joined and weird shapes appeared. There is this literal sense of something growing, the word "parasytes" comes to mind, but also the word "cycles" and the idea of these crystals, organic shapes and floating particles are in between life and death. The images are also in between showing something "toxic" and something natural, something that is "healing."
I also had another jar of salt crystals without blood. They followed the same process, but the water evaporated a lot faster because it was a smaller quantity and there were only purely white crystals left. I wonder if the "human intervention" in the other jar was what produced the life and weirdness captured in the photographs (these were then edited - I did play around with the colours a lot. You can find the unedited ones in the SKETCHBOOK page and the edited ones in the OUTCOMES)
Concerning the presentation of the work in an exhibition, I may present the images printed in a larger format, alongside the jars or maybe documentary photography of the process.
Apr 23rd
Online Seminar: Discussing the situation
Jean Luc Nancy quote from After Fukushima1
“There are no more natural catastrophes, there is only a civilizational catastrophe that expands everytime”
Dietric Bonhoeffer (went to prison during WW2 because of political reasons):
“there is a meaning in every journey that is unknown to the traveler”
There is certainly a parallel between this pandemic and disasters such as Fukushima's or Chernobyl's. I have thought about this before, like when I go out, I find that there are more birds in the streets, and I feel like the abandoned, quiet, traffic-free streets look like a city streets after an evacuation. I get reminded of scenes seen in documentaries about Fukushima and the Chernobyl Netflix series that told the story very vividly.
Then I've also thought about animals being in “lockdown” all their lives, like animals in farms, for us to consume. In Spain, many "corridas de toros" have been cancelled - an event related to the bullfighting acts, where bulls are confined in cages and run down the streets full of crazy people that lead them to other cages. Finally for the first time, many bulls will not be going through this exhausting and tragic act, whilst on the other hand humans are the ones confined and whose freedoms are restricted.
Another point discussed is the uncertainty concerning the future of the art world. For instance, the economic crisis will obviously affect everyone, and I must say that the arts specifically are not part of the first necessity fields. As young artists, it is scary to think about how much more difficult will it be for us to find a living in the field. The art world will become different to how it was for the people who came before us.
The digital space has gained more and more importance for absolutely everyone in society, for example even elders have become familiarized with technology. As artists we think, are we loosing site-specifity? In art, technology has changed the way we display, consume and discover art, with online exhibitions, online galleries, selling art online and specifically to us, by making art directed at or based on digital platforms (video pieces, apps, investigations on social media...). Someone said, is the art world gonna become like the music world has become? We have also made work around green areas. Parks have been elevated and valued. For me, I have been discussing with friends and family about the relationship between nature and humans.
In the seminar we discussed: what constitutes art?
-I have been using materials from my kitchen, using photography and video - so is art about the materials and disciplines?
-Give value to an object: remove the function of an object and value it in other ways
-Respond to a situation
-Create and grow in times of crisis - use creativity to process through strange unexpected situations.
What about the future of art?
-More focused on online platforms and technology - as discussed before
-Interaction between people and art: will we be able to touch, use, pass an object from person to person? Will interactions be more virtual?
Art in response to COVID-19: what are our responsibilities?
We are consuming art and maybe changing people’s behaviors. Creators could consider the work they put out as information - as in how is information getting to us (leaks of information, over-information, censored information...). How do we absorb the information: we see what we want to see and ignore what we want to ignore… This has happened in today's fast-paced world, for example with the fact that we were receiving these news from China and Western countries were not taking it seriously.
Critical reflectiveness and the “Information fallout” phenomena. How are we supposed to know what information to TRUST? Same as after Fukushima. It was seen as a Japanese only problem, people were not looking at the global, long-term effects of this radiation. What is actually going on?
More notes:
-This last part makes me think about how GLOBALIZED we are today and how we will urgently need to take more seriously global threats like global warming. This is a GLOBAL world, a GLOBAL vision. Where do we go from here?
-Clapping for the NHS workers: kind of a performance, unity. The boundaries of art are open to a wider audience.
-Once again this pandemic relates to the ANTHROPOCENE
1In this book, the philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy examines the nature of catastrophes in the era of globalization and technology. Can a catastrophe be an isolated occurrence? Is there such a thing as a “natural” catastrophe when all of our technologies—nuclear energy, power supply, water supply—are necessarily implicated, drawing together the biological, social, economic, and political?
Mar 20th
Projections over water
In my Sketchbook page, you can see process images and the set up.
I projected my last images over water, through a water jar, through the glass alone and through the glass and water. I first projected my final video piece from Part 2 as it was an idea I had for the final presentation but did not have the time to try it. I like how instead of being a "rectangle" (like on a screen or a projection on a flat surface) the format of the video seem to merge with the environment in much more diffused ways. It became an environment by itself, as the images followed the shape of the jar acquiring more volume. I am talking about the photographs of the process - to present this maybe I would need to do it differently.
By moving the jar, I created new shapes with the light. The compositions that were "closed" shapes seemed to me like paintings. In a way, I am returning to the first stage of these images, where I played with light and liquid. They are images made with many layers of experimentation.
Mar 15th
I remember I did a 3D scan of an object in the beginning. It
looks fleshy, great for Blender animations, but I prefer working with 2D and video first, maybe later I may explore further if I have an idea I want to develop.
Mar 14th
Salt crystals failed experiment
Following one of my ideas about using blood in my work, I made this experiment before leaving London due to the pandemic. I used salt like in chemistry class a long time ago. I wanted to capture the blood stains in some way other than using them as paint. I thought about ice, glass and now salt crystals. I placed two glasses near my window with a saturated solution, adding beetroot juice to one and blood to the other one. It was a failed experiment, because (later I discovered) that I needed more direct sunlight to make the crystals grow. Maybe there would have been better results if I had stayed there longer but I had to pack up.
Mar 7th
Beetroot juice images
I decided to create images by "painting" on liquid. I experimented with the patterns created by drops of acrylic in the liquid. The deep colour of the juice contrasted with the white acrylic and worked very nicely. It also wasn't too opaque, meaning that I could manipulate light from the outside and illuminate areas inside of the liquid.
The colour of beetroot juice seems like blood, so in my mind it is symbolic of blood, or rather it is the blood of the fruits of nature. It shows the end of a cycle, of the growth of the beetroot and the processes it has been through until finally the juice becomes all that is left.
Using lights on the liquid was a great technique to brighten the photo, show the small details and textures inside the juice and accentuate the contrast of the colours for the end result, but I thought that I could also use it as a main element. I created some images where the light becomes a central part, covering large parts of the composition, against the deep colours of the juice -with no traces of paint at this point.
Similarly to the ink paintings, I edited the images, in some aiming to show the shapes more clearly. They looked like close ups of real blood, but I think its obvious that they are from no real tissue, as the shapes do not look like they belong to any organism (they look like lines made by drawing). Other images were totally decontextualized, looking more fantastical and surreal. They became abstract and some colours could remind us of something sci-fi. They look toxic, and suggest explosions.
Mar 4th
Ink drawings and photographs
I brainstormed a series of drawings inspired by Antony Gormley's drawings I saw at his exhibition in the Royal Academy a while ago, and by drawings of mushrooms by Cy Twombly I discovered at a recent show at the Somerset House.
These drawings are quite rough, unrefined; very different to what I usually do. I tend to avoid drawing in this kind of experimental way as I don't feel they are good enough to put in my project - although they are very fun to make. These artists seen before pushed me to embrace drawing just as a means of quick brainstorming, despite not making final pieces that are drawings. I find that many times within first idea development stages, like this, is when very creative images are formed - invented forms.
(Using ink and acrylic on brown paper, tracing paper and photograph)
I enlarged sections of these works and edited them with Photoshop to create new abstract forms. I played with colours and filters. Some look like maps, others like clouds in the sky. I could use this experimentation in the future to create backgrounds or landscapes. I was very interested to see other ways of creating imaginative environments or paintings. Here I am creating a painting through photo edition mainly, as these images are very manipulated and they come from a very small section of a sketch. Our intuition may show us things in these shapes, such as smoke in the sky, mountains, or trees. The shapes are flowing and there still seems to be a motion of paint included, I wonder what could happen if these shapes were even more manipulated so that there is no trace of a brush. The original rough background adds texture that adds ambiguity as it adds depth to the "painting" in a way that could remind us of a collage or even a video.
Feb 28th
Ideas for new materials to use
For the first time I used "objects" to cover another object with my animal piece. I find very interesting how these objects by themselves carried a meaning that got modified when I changed their shape for my sculpture. The foods transmitted ideas about decay, the passing of time, living organisms and the raw truth of nature (sometimes it can be messy and disgusting).
I had a rather strange occurrence of experimenting with blood. It is connected to what I last said, as I am referring to menstrual blood. I think that it is not something disgusting, but simply a natural process of our body. It is one of our body's primal survival instincts, our body's natural cycles. At the same time, periods are something that we can nowadays control and manipulate. I want to experiment with blood sometime in my life, by making it the main subject of my work. I would like to maybe freeze it as with ice, or with resin, glass...?
Then, linked to Olafur Eliasson's Tate show I saw and discussed before, I would like to recover an idea I had about exploring water, in regards to painting and video. I could project a video through water, to create new images.
Feb 24th
My interests -brainstorming for future inspiration and starting points
Personally, I am very conscious of the human footprint on the planet, I worry about animal right issues, animal agriculture (and the environmental consequences of the exploitation of animals) and having an ethical relationship with the environment. I would like to include my personal investigation on these themes, which I consider socio-political issues, and investigate how could people feel more emotionally connected to such issues. I am aware of most people already being aware of these global problems, so I am not trying to solely "inform" them, but maybe see how to make them feel a deeper connection between such issues and their lifestyle, and maybe investigate the role of nature in our lives and see where can that take me.
There is this old dream of “living in nature” many people have. Nature is always included in the image of a typical idealized place. This is exactly that: an image. Some people who dreamt of living out in a big house in the countryside, like their parents did, never achieved it. This is something discussed in the 1949 play "Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller, where this idea of nature falls in the theme of the American Dream. But nowadays we are seeing how many young people are actually moving to the countryside1. As society changes, so does our relationship with nature. I find these examples of images of nature very interesting and inspiring. Also, I find ironic too that the desired "house out in nature" sometimes is the opposite of an environmentally friendly property. We can see this in rich people's mansions that have the advantages of the countryside with the wasteful luxuries of their lifestyle. This is another contradictory image that has evolved from the American Dream.
On another note, I also have questions about spirituality and nature. How do religions bring us closer to nature? Is this “divine beauty” of nature similar to religious devotion? Do we need this type of devotion to respect nature? I do not know if I will explore this, as it is a very broad topic, but I wanted to note it down too.
1 Clip of documentary about a Spanish couple who left their stable jobs for lower salary jobs in a peaceful village: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf_nL3jd700
Feb 20th
Review of last works
After going through my sketchbooks I have found several recurring themes from which I have decided to base my next works. The main theme is our relationship with nature. This is a broad theme, but in my works, the idea of what is nature to me, as well as the devastation created by humans are more specific things that I have been touching on repeated times.
For instance, I edited images of the superficial, famous lifestyles of celebrities to make them seem fake, with a "virtual" and computer-made appearance, criticizing how they blindly promote damaging and unnecessary products or services. I also made a series of photographic self-portraits about this, inspired by Cindy Sherman. I worked with landscapes, making futuristic scenes, imaginary cities and virtual worlds.
By exploring techniques such as: manual manipulation of photographs and digital edition, cropping and mixing materials (analogue and plastic, oil and ink…), painting textures on photographs or creating shapes by ripping images, I have learnt many ways of image-making. I would like to keep on exploring, link directly to my theme. I would also like to explore 3D and 4D like I did before, but pushing it further, connecting these techniques to wider disciplines, similarly to what Olafur Eliasson does (physics, mathematics, geometry and architecture are key in his investigative art pieces).