I decided to visit an old peoples home. My grandma had numerous superstitions, and i began to wonder if beliefs were directly related to different generations. Here are some rough line drawings i did of the old people while there (they didnt mind)

Here are some of the more obscure superstitions they gave me.....

•Green is unlucky

•Never clip your toenails on a Tuesday

•If you head footsteps behind you, never turn around: it may be the dead walking following you

•Never face the foot of your bed towards the door, for that’s the way the dead used to be carried out.

•Its bad luck to light three cigarettes with the same match

•Ghosts love the smell of lemons

•Your reflection in a mirror is your actual soul,therefore breaking the mirror brings bad luck.

•If the flame of a candle or fire turns blue, it means a spirit is in the room.

Its been a while blogspot. I'm going to try and summarise my year of work. Here goes.

OK. Folklore. Theres tonnes of it. More than i ever knew. I developed an interest in obscure folklore traditions and superstitios behaviour that have stood the test of time. I became intruiged by films such as 'the wicker man'

Unsettling superstitions are evident throughout the film , for example, the local apothecary has foreskins pickled in a jar, Myrtle must swallow a frog to cure her sore throat, tied to a tree over Rowan's grave is her bloodied naval skin.

Although many of the traditions in the film seem laughable today, superstitions are still evident in contemporary society and have stood the test of time. Exploring how even to this day, we still cast rational thought aside when it comes to certain superstitions.

Photographs by Paul Trevor

13 May to 25 September 2011

This exhibition of photographs taken during the 1970's of working class estates in the poorer areas of liverpool, demonstrates how significanty things can change over a relatively short period of time. Despite the impoverished conditions, the families and people living within the area seemed to be having a happy and content life. Families are seen to live together in apparent harmony, with a strong community spirit. The photos are captured honestly, documenting a moment in time that was not staged nor posed. Whether or not this was an accurate depiction of the general mood of the people living within this era is unknown, but the photos ultimately illustrate that happyness is found in relationships, not necessarily in the aquisition of material goods that modern times suggest will make us happy.

 "In 1975 Paul Trevor came to Liverpool to document inner city deprivation for the 'Survival Programmes' project. His remarkable photographs tell a different story however. Their backdrop may be the dereliction of post-war Liverpool. But these images go beyond this bleak cityscape and get close to his real subject: families and children.

Paul's direct and honest street photography shows life as it was lived in a community defiant in the face of poverty, unemployment and the state of their surroundings. He depicts a place where the streets and wastelands became playgrounds, the family was a constant, and where children seem fun-loving and free.

Paul returned to the same Liverpool communities in the summer of 2010. After a lively reunion with local residents, one said:

"Paul, it's like you’ve never been away!" - Walker Art Gallery

VG&M

The Quay Brothers
I was advised to go and see this exhibition by a fellow art student (shout out to Reuben), as he felt the work had the same 'atmosphere' as my final installation. The work consisted of a series of box setups that were dark and surreal. The Quay Brothers create stop-motion animations within these sets using puppets. The films avoke half-remembered dreams and long suppressed childhood memories. I have a massive urge to start making puppets over the summer, but have no knowlegde about film, and wouldnt know where to start with a narrative. I could always cross that brigde when i came to it. I think im a 'maker', i've always enjoyed creating physical objects, and creating film within box with dark puppets would really push me to try new things, and  could be an interesting development of my previous work.

 A few photos of installation.
I found it particularly hard to take photos of my installation due to the low levels of light. As soon as i used a flash it bleached everything, and made the room look corporate and bland again. I edited these abit to enhance them, but decided to film the work aswell. I slowly walked round the space as the viewer would and recorded it simply on my camera.

Boarded up windows

Inrtrospection. D-Day.

 For the first hour on our opening night there was a general sense of tension, we all had our doubts as to whether people would actually show up. I also felt pretty nervous about how people would react to my work, however the turn out was pretty good, and everyone was positive about my piece (at least to my face). I got mixed comments regarding my installation, generally along the lines of 'its really creepy in there'.

A friend kindy gave me some feedback which has been really useful, thanks stuart...

'My first thoughts are of spiders - a good image, they're very lyrical creatures. Probably because there are so many legs. Not only the abundance of tied-up and dangly things (as if in a web), but the dolls' limbs reminded me either of dismembered flies, or the multiple legs of spiders. Again, in my eyes, this is all good, ok?

I liked the arresting nature of the room - the sound of the ventilator outside forced me to concentrate on whether it was a soundtrack, traffic, or ambient noise - i decided on the latter, but it seriously complemented the atmosphere, which i think i've said was very effective.

As for your qualms about the plugs, i found that, with the door to my left and the dangling fishnets, i could line them up so that the socket was obscured, and - as far as my perspective was concerned - the room was entirely analogue, which fit with the overall 'affekt' one of the first half of the Twentieth Century being summed up, not as fifty years or five consecutive decades, but one block of fashion.

Particularly arresting were the newspapers around the room. I don't know if you intended it, but no headlines were left unobscured, and so the identity of the funeral's subject had to be either deduced or simply guessed. Similarly, the pallet of yellowing paper, wood, and blue was really well-balanced. The only tiny tiny tiny tiniest point would be that some more lighting, perhaps more spread out, or more from below, would have really added to the already quite expressive shadows cast from the low-level lamps.'

 

(My space turned into quite a social envionment, with people chosing to come in and sit on the floor, which can be seen in photo above)

The space itself was quite easily modified, although there were many features that were unsuitable, and detracted away from my work, such power sockets in the middle of walls which intruded and took significant effort to disguise as these fought with the overall character of the room i was trying to create. I incorporated some of the existing features, such as the radiator, which acted as a support for one of my pieces. I tried out various arrangements of the work in order use the space effectively in keeping with my vision and my growing understanding of spatial awareness.

T. Before entering the room i had drawn up a selection of possible layouts, but was keen to stay flexible and react to the room. I utilised the available space in the room by creating a central piece surrounded by focal points in three of the four corners of the room, the unused fourth being the corner with the door. I also occupied wall space with individual pieces highlighted by the blank canvas created by the walls .I wanted to remove the natural sources of light in the room in order to generate an atmosphere using specifically selected and positioned lamps. I blacked out the windows using torn up card (for a rustic hand made feel).

 I used newspaper to make a piece for the floor which can be walked over, so the installation has another interactive dimension, which furthers the impression that the viewer is enclosed within a larger construct.  When entering, the light and shadow effects created by the curtained area draw ones eyes and trigger a sense of curiosity as to what lies beyond. I created this area as a partition within the larger room, to act as a box within a box. The pieces within were selected on the basis that they are  generally individually contained structures.

 As your eyes adjust to the dim light, other pieces become clearer.. The piece in the corner to the left is a sculpture contructed using fragments of a broken crate. The traditional form of the crate has been deconstructed and reassembled in a alternate fashion that still allowes items to be contained within the form. It spills onto the floor, invading the space around it in an organic manner.

Adjacent to the deconstructed crate piece is a collection of work which is more abstract free standing and has a darker theme to evoke a change in mood. Causing the viewer to consider darker aspects to their memories and past.

In the corner to the right is a piece made up of hanging wrapped objects. It could be seen that the objects are being partially obscured by the past, part-forgotten memories drifting almost ungrounded to the present. I have lit the floating objects from below and placed a singular drawer on the floor with objects that are less tightly bound, and more distinguishable to give a hint towards what might exist in the others. Again the narratives are left open to the viewer.

 To the left of this is a more enclosed box form, which invites the viewer to peer through the  opening, beyond the threaded interior which obscures the montage of photos/postcards within. I chose to hang it at eye level to encourage viewers to investigate the contents. Once the viewers have reached this part of the piece their eyes will have adjusted to the low level of light.

Alhough the prospect of filling an entire room was initially daunting; i have enjoyed the challenge and feel that the work has come together in a coherent form. Ive created a dark and mysterious atmosphere, in keeping with my previous pieces..  Ive tried to maintain a continuous level of curiosity within the viewer as they explore the room. I spent a good deal of  time inside the room in order to get a firm feel for how my pieces would interact with the space as a whole .Ive tried to consider the room as a larger spatial object encompassing my work, whilst also being a piece of work in its own right.  Ideally upon entering the room the viewer would become immersed in an amalgamation of memories and confused narratives that together challenge the individual to take an introspective look at their own past.

. Peter, one of the tutors popped in, and the first thing he said was 'theres a nice atmosphere to this space' in reference to the lighting/layout I'd employed (hopefully not in  sarcastic reference to the stressy tense atmosphere  I'd created around myself..). On Tuesday i plan to go into the space, check nothing has fallen off the walls, but a couple more bits up, tidy the floor, cut up the edges of the floor piece, neaten the windows, reassess composition, stick up artist statement then have a drink of the alcoholic variety and hope for the best.