Monday, 1 August 2011

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

2 comments:

  1. Thanks Rose!

    Jenny Odell is great! I had not heard of her before. What a resource!

    I'm also curious to find out that your big interest is satellite images and images of the earth in general. A fascinating obsession to have!

    You have really turned the tables, and my expectations about "physical" collections have been updated into the digital era. Good work!

    TX

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  2. Thanks Tessa, I think I took a liking to Google Earth because after I watch a certain movie, documentary or listen to a song where they might mention a place name, I really want to search those places so I can see what they look like, and if they have changed since the movie's production/album recording. Websites are still all good, but Google Earth/Maps gives you the freedom that normal internet pictures can't.
    I also do it to kill time - I like roaming the streets in other countries, I also just discovered that I can aim the satellite view at the stars, the Moon and Mars...haha

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