Week 6: Dion Hitchens, Bill Riley, James Ormsby and Auckland Museum

Dion Hitchens, Bill Riley and James Ormsby are a collaborative group of artists by the name of SEEK. They have exhibited around New Zealand and Australia with James' drawings, Dion's sculptures and Bill's paintings/installations. There were a couple of things from their lecture that grabbed my attention – I have respect for them after hearing about their achievements with community work and how they managed to bring people together through art. Bill Riley  is a professional painter, but the works I saw from him have been unique and experimental, from the painted card stack installation (which was an interactive piece) to the 1200+ origami penguins that were made with the help of several children. The three went on to talk about how important it was to make an effort when getting involved and also collaborating with the community, how you lose authenticity if you aren't engaged with others.

Also, all three artists come from different backgrounds and have different religious beliefs – buddhist, christian and agnostic. They all have their own individual style, but they share ideas also, in order to make their work compliment each other's. 

I notice how Dion and James' work share identical qualities. Dion's sculptures may imitate an architectural based drawing that James has created. Guests from their exhibitions have even gone as far to comment on their visual similarities and have thought that James' ideas were based on Dion's work.

 "What is This Canoe That Swims My Way /Ko Wai te Waka a Kao Mai Nei" by James Ormsby, 2011 Graphite on Paper 760x560mm

 "Dragon King's Kingdom" (Installation) by Dion Hitchens, 2011

These are the two pieces where I see a greater resemblance and presence of collaborative ideas. There seems to be an ongoing theme of constellations and jewel-like properties in both mediums. What makes it even more uncanny is the fact that Orsmby's piece is a  representation of the sea and Dion's installation/sculpture piece is made up of three diamonds, with each one representing a particular sea creature: dolphin, humpback whale, and blue whale. His way of doing this was by inserting a recording of the creatures' distinctive sound into each diamond. "Dragon King's Kingdom" refers back to Buddhism, the reason why Dion chose to use diamonds in his work was because of the spiritual traits that they held. Ormsby didn't go into too much detail about the story behind his drawing, but I know that they were both based on their own spiritual beliefs and origins, I think it's quite clever how the two works managed to overlap. 

  

Later on that morning we met with Finn Ferrior, one of the museum display coordinators. The main thing that I noticed throughout the entire visit was his passion and enthusiasm for the displays as well as his general dislike of the way the artifacts in the NZ European exhibit had been displayed. He showed us some metal mounts that are used to keep the them in place, but didn't like how over time, the mounts become unstable and the artifacts shift. After looking up close at these mounts, I don't blame him. They are quite flimsy and look as though they wont last long. If I was to display something of mine in an exhibit I would like to think that it would be safe. We also saw a shelf display where the larger artifacts were on the bottom shelves and the smaller ones were up top, they were way above eye level yet they were tilted so they facing up towards the ceiling. His colleague, Fuli Pareira had said that they wanted to incorporate the displaying techniques of art galleries into the museum, but it still didn't look right to me. Back when artworks were displayed in salon style, the smaller works were below and the larger works were up top. So really, it looked more like a shop window display, everything was squeezed in together and didn't have much space to breathe, it took the whole meaning away from each individual piece. The Maori and Pasifika displays were an improvement, however, and was probably the best part of the visit for me. The mounts were solid and most of the artifacts had their own space. There was also a lot of information written up about each display, I also like how each subject (e.g.different islands, traditional wear, cultural/religious beliefs) had been separated into their own section as it was easy to follow.

Xavier Cortada is an artist of Cuban and American descent, he collaborated with more than 600 people on a project called "Art Bouquet" which was donated to a place called Saint Marie's Health Care in Grand Rapids, USA. Each artist had a limited space of 3x4 inches to work with and were given the choice to use any  medium, e.g. marker, paint, ink.  What I find interesting is the fact that he collaborated on an art piece with people he didn't know, I'm guessing the end result he received from each person was a surprise but I'm betting from that, they not only did something good for the community, but also created a new found bond within the art community. 

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2008/10/artists_unite_to_offer_hospita.html

Here are more links showing other examples of some collaborative work that he's done.

http://www.cortada.com/2006/moca.htm

http://carta.fiu.edu/500/default.aspx

For more on Dion Hitchens, Bill Riley and James Ormsby

http://www.paulnache.com/exhibitions/current.aspx

Week 5: Eldon Booth and Elephant

Today, Eldon came in and talked to us about his work in film and his different approach to it in terms of genre - which he said was a mixture of experimental narrative films and docudrama/experimental doco. By the sounds of it, making films is an around-the-clock job, with Eldon recalling stories about how he would gather footage from real life events, set up acting workshops for amateur actors and so on.

He became interested in this style of filming after watching television shows like "World's Dumbest Criminals." He explained that in most shows such as these, they tend to have amateur camera handlers. But because there is so much spontaneous activity going on the camera tends to pan erratically and the image appears out of focus a majority of the time. In saying this however, reality tv and documentaries are probabaly the most attention-grabbing, as the subject is followed around we become aware of the fact that there is indeed a camera crew present and we're made to feel as though we are a part of it.

We were shown a few of his works, "Withdrawl" stood out the most to me. It was presented in the style of a split screen and the camera follows two men, (one younger, one elderly) during different stages of their lives and how certain issues had affected them both. Eldon had used a lot of long, continuous shots as the camera follows each actor. But being infuenced by these reality shows, the camera was hand held and it was shot in the persepective of somebody who was actually there. The camera shots range from extreme wide shots to close ups and the light source is provided by the sun/daylight and street lights so this contributes as a key factor to the piece being more of an  experimental documentary. He also mentioned that he and his friend wanted to use the old cheap VHS tape to shoot their video to create this illusion of reality.

"Five Good Reasons" is a good example of how Eldon wants to blur the line between fact and fiction. He had hired the actors to talk about an event that had taken place. In between there are shots of an actual car accident that took place in Papakura, with hoards of people flocking to the scene to have a look. I like his way of improvising, how he looks at a concept and decides to film something completely candid and work it into his films.

We also saw a quick teaser from his upcoming feature film, "Finding Honk." There are definitely cinematic moments in there that he should be proud of, like the scenes that had been filmed with a phantom camera. The phantom films at around 2000+ frames per second, which is around 80 times more than the original 24 frames per second and is one of the hardest cameras to gain access to in the world. I like how the intense build ups in anticipation for certain actions had been shot in slow-mo. Again, the camera handling is also quite unstable and somewhat random at times, Eldon said that he didn't really tell his camera operator what was happening most of the time so he would have to react the same way as the actors.

"Elephant" is a documentary/drama directed by Gus Van Sant that is based on the Columbine killings in America. I see how Van Sant had also done what Eldon had with Five Good Reasons, trying to blur the line between fact and fiction by taking real life events and putting them into a film context.The story reveals itself through the points of view of the high school students who may or may not have actually been there in real life. Just like Eldon's work on "Withdrawl," the light source is completely natural and the camera shots are also very long, there is a lot of walking (as the film/situation took place in a high school) so it is basically fixated on these subjects the entire time. Although the camera shows a smooth transition while following the subjects from the style of documentary to drama, there are times where the content within the frame shows a shallow depth of field to give momentum, like when one of the shooters is walking down the hallway towards the end of the movie. I prefer how Eldon had used slow motion in his movie, as opposed to this one. There are parts where Van Sant had also played with slow motion to emphasize on a particular action. Although it is a good method, I'm not too sure whether he used it at the right parts (boy playing with the dog, girl checking out football player) I personally would have preferred to have seen it at the most intense points of the movie.

"The Fourth Kind" is a mockumentary/science fiction film that also tries to blur the line between fact and fiction, it follows a psychologist whose patients have been haunted by the apparent encounters/abductions that were carried out by aliens. What was claimed to be a true story was actually a sham, which I think would've been the main contributor to their world wide failure. In most scenes, the movie was shown as a split screen, with the supposed real life footage being shown from the perspective of the psychologist's as well as the police who had been brought to the scene. On the other side we see the re-enactment of the events. I think the movie was quite well done, but apart from the documented footage, the rest of the scenes are shot in a cinematic style so the camera is less obtrusive.

"The Blairwitch Project" is another example of a mockumentary but the footage is very raw and shot in the style of a home video, with scenes in between of the subjects working on their documentary about the legend of the Blairwitch, a creature of supernatural origins who had supposedly kidnapped a group of children and killed them. We see the events unfold from the perspective of each subject in this film, as they all take turns at holding the camera. The camera handling is very amateur. There are plenty of establishing shots as the three friends trek through the woods and we see the camera follow them as they struggle to find a way out. But other than that, the shots are very shaky and out of focus, with very little use of clean cut camera angles used towards the end. Just like Eldon's piece "Withdrawl", the lighting is provided by the sun and also by torches, which I think creates that ominous mood and comes across as more believable.The movie is good, due to interviews they conduct with citizens who live in the area so they pull you into the story, making you think it's real.

http://io9.com/5397359/the-fourth-kind-is-a-hoax
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/nov/09/the-fourth-kind-sleep-paralysis

http://www.blairwitch.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blair_Witch_Project

Week 4: Leilani Kake and Te Tuhi Gallery

Leilani Kake came in and talked to us today about her work as a video installation artist. She said that she doesn't make a lot of money from this line of work, but I'm guessing by the inspirations behind the works that she does it purely out of enjoyment. The first thing I noticed was her strong family and cultural grounding and how every piece she had worked on was inspired by her origins (Maori/Cook Island/White American) and her family,
Her moving image piece that touched me the most was Tino Rangatira tanga, which was shown to us after her lecture. The piece consisted of three stages focused on her father, Richard Kake: firstly, there was the tattooing scene, where he was receiving his tamoko. The very first thing I noticed was the combination of green and red ink. I've seen it in small Maori designs before, but never on the face, so it was new to me. Although I was aware of the traditional protocol when having a tomoko done, I admit I was taken aback to see him emotional once he had gotten up off the table and had his blessed, but I came to the realization that it was probably due to him feeling like he had made a great achievement, he knew he had earned the official marking of his iwi (tribe) and ancestors. The second stage was of Mr Kake in hospital, after suffering a stroke. He had family surrounding him, serenading him and taking care of him during his final days. Thirdly, we see his tangi procession and the camera pans through the marae at loved ones as they sing waiata in celebration of his life. It was obviously a very emotional piece, Leilani mentioned that during the family kapahaka group performance for her father, the air around her was buzzing and electrifying. She wanted the actual installation exhibition viewing to be restricted to one person at a time so they could capture the raw emotions of love, life and the loss of life. My reaction to the piece came down to a mixture of emotions, I was proud to see that there was a strong sense of culture within her family and how having the right connection through a great person brought people together. You really get to see how great the Maori culture is. I also like how Leilani wasn't afraid to be different with her video installation by taking her camera into the marae - which is usually not allowed. But I'm pleased to see that she went ahead with it anyway so she could document this part of hers and her father's life. It also made me sad, to have to see him in pain and also because I come from a large, but dysfunctional Maori family on my mother's side. It was a painful reminder that the chances of me enjoying the full experience of my culture and sharing it with those family members would be pretty slim.
After the lecture, we all made our way to Te Tuhi Gallery to see the exhibit Rapid Change, which focuses on the economical and environmental issues facing the world today, resulting in many homes being foreclosed on and abandoned. The large scale photograph and video piece that gave us an insight into the architectural installation, “Ice House Detroit” was fascinating, it was shown on the news a few weeks back so I was definitely looking forward to seeing this and learning more about it. It turns out this work was created in the middle of winter, the two artists who worked on it: an architect, Matthew Radune and photographer Greg Holm spent 24 hours a day, for 30 days straight freezing a house by blasting it with water to build up on the layers of ice, they did this after seeing a house in a similar state after a pipe had burst. Also, while researching as a student, Matthew Radune had played with the concept of architecture that had been affected by the forces of nature. To me, the overall effect had a sombre energy, but after hearing the story behind the installation, it kind of reminded me how with cryopreservation, when a cell is close to death, it is preserved in low sub zero temperatures so when it's recovered, the chances of it dying are reduced. This house had been foreclosed on and was due for demolition. I like how the artists were able to rescue this house, visually enhance it with all of their hard work and then were able to give back to the community by deconstructing the house after the installation had run it's course so the left over materials could be used for other projects around the city.

Owen Eric Wood is a video installation/performance artist, whose work, “Quality Time With the Family” was inspired by his family, but with this piece, he had a different concept in mind. Instead of showing a tight knit bond with his relatives like Leilani Kake had shown with her father and extended family, he recreated the experience of having dinner with his family (for the performance part of the work) Instead of having his family there with him, he sat at a table on his own with TV monitors in their place, but he had a video playing back on every monitor of  each individual relative eating dinner and talking. The whole idea was to emphasize on that feeling of exclusion that some family members often experience when they are ignored or left out of conversations during dinner discussions, or anytime spent with them in general. It was also a response to what the artist said was part of typical American culture, how TV sets have taken over and come between the bonds of family and friends. I thought it was an interesting concept because I haven't really seen a work like this before, but I understand why the artist would do this.

http://www.owenericwood.com/qualitytimewiththefamily.html
http://www.owenericwood.com/qualitytimewiththefamily/installation.html
http://www.dwell.com/articles/ice-house-detroit.html http://icehousedetroit.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-01-15T17%3A56%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=7
http://icehousedetroit.blogspot.com/

Week 3: Mary Curtis

Mary Curtis' way of collecting objects and presenting them in her work was very impressive, the way she would use household or industrial objects to enhance a piece of jewellery, making it her own unique design. Her concepts are also very clever, like her ring made from light panel screws, for example: from a first glance, they looked like jewels comprised from a kind of stone. The part that stood out to me the most was her love for museums and the way they display their exhibits, as well as how she was able to incorporate that into her own work. I admire the fact that she went through the difficult task of collecting vitrines from all over New Zealand for her exhibition and how she displayed one piece of her jewellery in each one, so the viewer could walk around and examine the piece from every angle.
At one stage during her career, she collected small round objects with holes in them, a project that was actually kick-started and influenced by her colleague, Frances Hansen. This would eventually become a part of a show at Fingers Gallery called "Stuff." The objects were displayed in a strategic manner, where the public were able to witness a moment in the life of a determined collector, but at the same time they are given the opportunity to observe each piece individually, so they could see why she would be attracted to such objects. As one of her biggest influences, Herman Junger said, "You have to observe something to see the beauty in it." Her collections and the way she displayed her works weren't just inspiring, they also mirrored my own habits of collecting during my childhood and brought back many fond memories.

As for my own personal experiences, displays that stood out for me the most were at the New Plymouth museum in the late 1990's (now called Puke Ariki) When I was about 6 years old, our school used to go on field trips to the museum on a regular basis, I remember 3 displays from that time:
As you walked into the entrance there were about 2 or 3 flights of stairs you would have to walk up to get to the main display area of the museum - opposite to each stair case there were mannequins dressed up as miners descending down the walls. They were displayed in vitrines and there was also mining equipment surrounding them, either suspended from hooks or on glass shelves, complete with flickering light bulbs to give that whole underground effect. The entire display was so convincing. But also from a child's perspective, the mannequins were so big, it was quite intimidating walking up the steps and seeing these giant miners leering down at you.
 Around this time, there was also a big display room with Maori artifacts, including kahu huruhuru, (feather cloaks) tools and weapons used for hunting, gathering and preparing food.There was also a miniature version of a marae (meeting house) right at the end of the room, a pātaka (storehouse for food) close to the entrance of the room, and a waka, that was actually blocking the entrance, but there was still enough space for us to fit through to the other side. I remember thinking that this method must've been used as a way to show that this was a sacred area, I also remember feeling scared when told by the teachers that we were allowed to go through but we had to be quiet and extremely careful. They had the entire area surrounded by bush and ferns with different coloured lighting contrasting against the various shades of green. All in all though, out of all the Maori displays I've seen in museums and art galleries during my lifetime, this one moved me the most, it definitely had to do with the way it was displayed and the energy it gave off – it felt as though we were actually there, reliving that moment in time.
There was also an old wooden table with drawers built into them. When you pulled the drawers out, they were covered with a glass top, to protect the different breed of butterflies that were preserved inside. I remember being amazed by these butterflies, of course I was 6 years old at the time, so I thought they were still alive and that at any moment their wings would start to flutter, they were perfectly mounted into the drawer, wings fully splayed out . Even now, I still think the way butterflies are preserved and the method used to display them is very clever.
Burning Man is an event that occurs once a year in America, thousands of participants gather in the Las Vegas Black Rock Desert and they create their own community called Black Rock City. They all stay there for a week, the whole point of the event is to make new connections through art and music. Something they are most well known for are their large art installations, which they display in the desert, for everybody to enjoy.

Balloon Chain, by Robert Bose, NYC

Duel Nature, by Kate Radenbush

Big Rig Jig, by Mike Ross

 I like they way they just leave it out in the open. It also has a surrealistic vibe, the installations teamed with the surroundings reminds me of Salvador Dali's paintings where he had combined odd subjects with a desert landscape.Hopefully I will be able to participate in Burning Man one day, I've seen many photos over the past few years of the people, the activities and the art and I'm just amazed at what some of these talented artists come out with.  

http://www.burningman.com/installations/11_art_honor.html

http://www.magazine13.com/the-coolest-art-installations-in-the-history-of-burning-man/

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2007/08/big-rig-jig/

You can see more photos from past events on Brad Templeton's website.
http://www.templetons.com/brad/burn/

Week 2: Frances Hansen

Frances came in and talked to us about some of her recent projects. Although the overall look of the work she exhibited isn't my preferred style, the collecting process behind her works were unconventional and quite fascinating. I'm amazed that she was able to come up with a piece of work just by recycling bits and pieces of found paper, product packaging, and other materials and surfaces. I was most surprised by the face cloths she purchased from the opshop and then had embroidered with real estate text and talk, which were actually memories from her childhood.

I love her book, Keepsakes. It is probably the most cleverly thought out recipe book I have ever seen and the amount of effort she put into this book by collecting so much imagery for it really shows. I had a good look at it one day when I was in Whitcoulls and noticed just how detailed each page was. I love how she collected and combined her own family photos, pictures from books and magazines and imagery of different textures to suit a particular recipe. One of my favourite pages was actually a recipe for a rice dish, on the opposite page there was a photo of what I believe was a close up shot of a knitted piece of clothing, the pattern of the knit looked just like rice grains. I thought it was pretty amazing how she could make two irrelevant subjects relate to one another.

I also noticed how I also collect, not just in my personal life (Music, books, movies...stationery, international travel catalogues) but for my own projects. I like to look at a lot of images in books and on the internet, I sometimes take screen shots from documentaries (on DVD or YouTube) that look at the earth, the population and different architecture from different parts of the world. I also buy a lot of nicnacs and craft packs from different stores and I listen to music and collect lyrics that I can somehow incorporate into my own work. I noticed how my process of collecting is somewhat similar to Seraphine Pick's, how she would take an image from a magazine and paint it in a different surrounding. Here's a drawing of mine where I have done something similar...

 

 "Porcelain", Charcoal/charcoal pastel on A2 paper. 

I drew this last year while I was enrolled in another art programme. The inspiration behind this was the song by Red Hot Chili Peppers, also titled "Porcelain." The aim of this project was to interpret the lyrics into a drawing, so I collected a lot of images over the internet and from my correspondence life drawing DVDs in preparation for this, including portraits, nude poses and several pictures of clouds showing different qualities of light. 

"Untitled", Plaster of Paris, Clay and Paint.

I bought a pack of seashells from a discount store I was working in at the time. I'm not too sure what the aim of this particular task was, but I remember wanting to try something different with my plaster of paris face moulds, because I had done so many of them but had only painted them, so I used this shell as a guide to mutate the face cast into a seashell.

So being a fan of documentaries about the earth, I ended up researching a Californian artist by the name of Jenny Odell, who has a very odd and interesting way of collecting for her art - she collects images from Google Maps, eg. she will find all of the golf courses all over New York city and compile them together into one piece of work. She has also done this with parking lots, swimming pools and even cargo ships. This project is called "Satellite Collections."The reason she does this is because she believes that land spaces like these are often overlooked and not fully accepted as a part of our environment. But when you see them from a satellite point of view, they appear to be visually pleasing as they stand out from their surroundings. 

My most favourite work of hers would be "81 Miles of the Great Salt Lake"  

Each square represents approximately one square mile of the lake. I took a liking to this one straight away - not only do I actually get to see 81 square miles of the lake, the composition in which the screen shots were taken are all different, from the various rippling patterns in the water to the different shades of blue and random tinges of red. I think that this is an interesting take on collecting for art and it's given me many ideas of my own, now that I've looked at her website. I am also a big fan of Google Earth and can spend numerous hours on there exploring the world in all of its wonder. 

To see more work by Jenny Odell, click here: 

http://jennyodell.com/

http://www.jennyodell.com/type.html

http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2011/07/29/138766174/-collecting-swimming-pools-and-stadiums-art-made-from-google-maps