Graduate Exhibtion

Only 45days to go until opening night!! if only we had that long to complete our work, haven't posted on my blog for a while, iv been busy filming, recording and picking up pearls off the floor!!

My work seem to have changed quite a bit recently, (for the best, I hope) My main theme of my work know seems to be based around personal identity and the tensions created!

For my Graduate Exhibition, My piece will consist of a sculptural installation representing a snap shot of a domestic environment, a film will be showing on a monitor close by, this will be of anxious actions i.e. hands twiddling a pearl necklace, which builds up to reach a climax.

When this climax is reached, there is a release of sudden sound and the film shows the pearl necklace snapping and the beads falling to the floor. The viewer is unaware of the nature of the struggle and what caused the necklace to snap, this may create feelings of confusion and trepidation. I want the combination of sudden sound, film and installation to send the viewer into a state of shock.

The film will show close up views of a person’s hands nervously and anxiously fiddling with a pearl necklace, a build up of tensions and emotions are created until they finally become released when the pearl necklace snaps the film then jumps from the hands to the pearl beads falling to the floor. The film has no sound up until this point, where the viewer is presented with a loud burst of the noise of the pearls hitting the floor.

Here are some stills from a test film i have recently done..

Check out my Webpage..

Have a look at my webpage, its got lots of information about myself and my work and also lots of images.. =]

http://sites.google.com/site/holliejessicafawcett

Thanks

Brief statement about my work..

My current studio practice as it is dealing with the theme of identity and the personal struggle surrounding it. My current work slightly focuses on the role and position of women and the tensions that are created. The lack of a mouth in the image in my installations symbolise the silenced views of women’s identity. The use of objects such as bracelets, chains, necklaces act as a substitute for the lack of ability to speak and help bridge the gap between personal identity and feelings to the viewer.

Tony Oursler

It was recommended that i take a look at the work of Tony Oursler, he is known for video, performance and installation art.

Oursler is best known for his sculptural video installations where faces are projected onto ball-like screens to present faces that talk, scream, watch and engage their audience in the gallery. Frequently combining spoken text, moving image and sculptural object, Oursler’s works seem like animate effigies in their own psychological space, often appearing to interact directly with, or confront, the viewer. Signature works have been his talking lights, such as Streetlight (1997), his series of video sculptures of eyes with television screens reflected in the pupils, and ominous talking heads such as Composite Still Life (1999). An installation called Optics (1999) examines the polarity between dark and light in the history of the camera obscura. Oursler creates installations that consistently disturb and fascinate to great popular and critical acclaim

[taken from Wikipedia]



"Caricature", 2002. Plastic, paint, video projector, DVD-player, performance by Constance DeJong. Exhibited at Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall Sep-Dec, 2002

Tony Oursler in the Pompidou Centre



I am really interested in his work, especially the way in which, the sculptural objects that he projects on become so life like and hold human qualities.. I am going to read more into Tony Oursler, to see if his pieces can have any impact on my future work.

Beginning to project..

Moving on, I decided to have a go projecting some on my images, here's just a few examples of different things i tried out... I tested out projecting images onto my body and also onto objects such as a chair.

Face Projection.. you tube

i found this video on YouTube..
it gets quiet intressting a few minutes in, moving images and video's are being projected onto the persons face. this links into my work and has given me a few ideas.

http://

Rimma Gerlovina, Mark Berghash and Valeriy Gerlovina

I came across Rimma Gerlovina, Mark Berghash and Valeriy Gerlovin’s Magic Square 1987, they looked into the use of numbers and using the human skin as a parchment. They believe that the face is a window, and mirror of experience. They also inscribed the numbers onto the face itself. They think that odd numbers are male and even female, with number 5 being androgynous. They created something that they called the magic square, any three numbers in a row equal 15, they believe that it can unlock the mysteries of the mind.

Rimma Gerlovina, Mark Berghash and Valeriy Gerlovin’s Magic Square 1987

Numbers

This is just an overview of last semesters work, i had a slow start, but as my work progressed my theme seemed to change. At the beginning i went thorough a stage with being obsessed with numbers that related to people and things close to me, this maybe had something to do with the film 'The Number 23' i used these numbers to 'secure' memories of the people around me along with portrait photographs.

Portrait with Numbers. Black and White Photographs.

When writing these numbers down I began repeating them over and over, this was a way for me to remember them, but also by repeating them, it is securing the memory of the person even further. The trace of the numbers will always be left behind even when the person no longer is. I found that the longing I have, of not wanting to forget, is an insecurity of mine and not wanting things around me to change. I feel by having these numbers and photographs of the people who mean something to me, the memories can be anchored down for longer.


On Display: Portraits with Numbers, and Numbers. Photocopies.

I wanted to interlink the images with the numbers on and the printed numbers that represent the person. To do this I decided to display them in lines, repeating them twice. This represented how things tend to be displayed in a gallery. Being like this produced an intense and overbearing feeling. They were set out like pages in a book, so that the viewer had to move closer to them to ‘read’ the pages. The idea was that they would look at the page of numbers to get more information about the pictures.

Beginning of the year..

I began this semester thinking of other ways apart from just a photograph, that I can anchor down certain memories of people and experiences that I don’t want to be forgotten.

These feelings of keeping everything anchored down and secure was triggered by the act of my Nan throwing away old black and white family photos. She no longer valued these and as her life was nearly over, she didn’t want to dwell on the past. I had to intervene because I couldn’t let my ‘past’ be thrown away. These photographs were of family members, and held memories for me that I wanted to remember and secure these memories. I no that change is inevitable, but I want to create pieces of work that can help slow down this process.

An obvious choice was to use photographs to remember a moment or experience. A photograph produces a trace of the moment, so I took portrait style black and white photographs of my friends and family. Each person in the photograph is looking directly at the camera so as to engage with the viewer.

Portrait 4. Black and white Photograph.

Thrid Year Work..

Moving on from level two work, this blog will now be focused on my final year studio practice.

The theme of my work has progressed from level two, i am now focusing on:

• Personal memory
• Securing of a memory
• Identity
• Experiences and Longing to become.