Nam June Paik

Tate.

As I left this exhibition, my brain was actually hurting. There was alot to take in, and the abundance of flashing seizure inducing television screens didn't help.

This exhibition showcases around ninety works from all phases of his career alongside a selection of documentary materials from Paik’s performances and early exhibitions. The first piece I saw was a personal favourite, titled 'One Candle' 1988. The piece consists of a candle on a stand, that is filmed by a video camera and simultaneously projected via 4 video projectors onto a wall in the gallery space.The projection itself is made up of a red, green, and blue image of the live flickering candle. There was an obvious contrast between the modern technology and the ancient use of the candle, which was further illustrated in the contrast in colours. The warm light from the candle was soft and meditative, whereas the crass primary colours seemed to juxtapose the image they cast. I found this idea of 'anti-technological technology' interesting, and this high tech video is dependant on the light from a simple candle, for without it, the video would disappear.

Another visually appealing piece was 'T.V Garden' which was a surreal mass of tropical vegetation and TV sets, varying in size, playing colourful, crudely edited videos. It was a happy environment to be in, and the piece has a sense of movement of energy, compared to the generally static pieces, previously seen on the top floor. 'Video Fish' also caught my eye. My immediate reaction to the piece was a concern for the welfare of the fish. Strange as it sounds. The fish were in a series of tanks side by side, and behind each tank was a TV screen, showcasing flashing, swirling, neon imagery and film. Similar to many of his other film pieces. I personally can't watch this type of film art for more than a couple of minutes before my eyes start to strain and I feel frustrated and confused. These fish have this to deal with all day long...anyway on closer inspection they seemed happy enough and I suppose that's beside the point. After I'd convinced myself the fish wern't too traumatised I read the caption for the piece. The piece reflects the relationship between nature and technology, which seems to be an ongoing theme throughout the work. There was a hint towards 'reality TV' and I found myself being more drawn to watch reality-the fish, than the video itself.

Nam June Paik

Exhibition at Fact.

Im not familiar with Paiks work,  and visiting these exhibitions was an eye-opener. Video art is a realm  I don't dabble in. Mainly due to my lack of technological knowledge and patience. As Paik is widely considered to be the godfather of video art, I had high expectations.

Although there was considerably less of his work on show at Fact, one piece stood out more for me, than anything I'd paid to see at Tate, the 'Laser Cone'. Paiks 'Laser Cone' was unlike anything I'd ever seen before, and I think it's safe to say, I haven't felt so immersed and excited by a piece of work for a long time. The cone itself is suspended in the middle of a dark room. As we entered I was immediately mesmerised by the colourful lasers swirling around the cone. As I approached the cone, I stumbled around on the floor, trying to find the padded flooring to lie on beneath the cone, feeling a child-like excitement, as if entering a den. When lying down the colours and shapes cascade above you, my mind just blanked as I focused on the simple beauty of lines and shapes. I think the fact that you could lie down altered the experience completely. I felt relaxed, and spent much longer with the piece than I would normally if standing in a gallery, and the cloak of darkness was comforting. This said, I did sit up at one point to find a crowd of people crouching in front of me, seemingly unsure if they were allowed to join us under the cone, or if I was part of the art itself. I found this hilarious at the time, but was probably just giddy from the lasers.

Meeting at Student Union

Today we had a meeting with Jess Green to discuss our exhibition plans at the union. We were shown around, and there is a decent amount space available. The space itself is quite corporate, as many meetings are held in there, and it had a generally bland and clinical feel. Its not ideal for the type of work I'm showing (kind of rustic, old fashioned junk shop style) but its neutral enough to be acceptable. It would've been nice to be using a small space with cracked walls, and a hint of character but beggars can't be choosers. I'm aware I've just completely contradicted my last post, where I went on about how much I'd love a neutral space but hey ho.

Theres opportunity for me to have my own room which is exciting yet pretty daunting. I could always just use a corner of the room, but i need to consider how the scale of my work will work in contrast with the scale of the space itself. Below are a couple of photos of the room in question. It would be nice to incorporate the two narrow windows somehow. The dates are yet to be fully confirmed for our exhibition, but Jess should be in touch soon, she seemed keen to inject some art into the space, and has been alot more informative/reliable than Wolstenhome so far.

A couple of days ago I went to a lecture/meeting regarding the course as a whole, as many students have been confused by deadlines etc. I feel more clear as to what I need to do, and for when, but it's all pretty daunting. That said, it was comforting for Juan to say its not unreasonable to not know what your interests are when asked flat out. I was asked this at the start of the year by my tutor and responded with 'erm....shadows?' I said this simply because I'd once done a project on shadows and it seemed like a reasonable arty answer. He asked 'why? why do they interest you?' I had no idea. I felt completely stupid, and couldn't think of anything on this planet that genuinely interested me. I'm not a vacuous person (i hope) but it definitely made me question myself.

Anyway, the exhibition side of the course is still up in the air. I am still yet to see the Wolstenhome space, due to communication problems between our group, and the gallery itself . We have only recently received an email back from them, but the dates available to exhibit  are not suitable, due to members of our group being away from Liverpool at the time. Negotiations are still happening, but the Student Union is a potential back up plan. Althought Wolstenhome was an aesthetically pleasing space, I don't mind where I exhibit, as long as it's pretty neutral and not drenched in context that I need to consider and potentially alter my work accordingly. I know every building has a layer of context and background but still, neutral-ish would be good.  I don't really want to decide how I'm going to exhibit my work until I've seen the space, so this gives me a good excuse not to think about that, for now anyway.

My work in studio is slowly progressing, I've been thinking about how I want my work to be seen...

Using a small table gave these collage pieces a sense of importance. Simple as that.

Considering "relationship with floor"... I've got hold of some more wood and began to contruct this structure around a pillar in my studio space, I plan to arrange objects/photos on and around it.

I got hold of this old fashioned table cloth to place this box on. I think it works pretty well all in all, and frames the box well.

Below is my attempt at suspending objects to create a box formation. It didn't go as well as I'd planned. I used one of those grids that you cook chips on, and used fishing wire to suspend the objects. I was hoping if I used the grid I would eventually have a cube of objects, but due to the scale they just kind of clustered. I might come back to this idea, using a different scale, but the process was massively faffy and if I do it, I need to do it properly.

The Bluecoat- Underwater Exhibition.

'Underwater is about the experience of total submersion; we invite you to return to the watery depths once more. The exhibition of painting, sculpture, photography and video by ten international artists brings together the most compelling underwater- inspired artworks of the past decade, and proposes that underwater is a compelling motif of our times.' (http://www.thebluecoat.org.uk/)

I had heard strong mixed reviews about this exhibition and these strong opinions were echoed in the comments book, which i read after my visit. This exhibition seems to induce a love/hate reaction, and reactions varied from ' a beautifully constructed imaginative exhibition' to 'psuedo art, lacking in originality'.

The first piece that I saw in this exhibition was Dorothy Cross's film piece, constituting of a naked woman floating in clear water, surrounded by an abundance of translucent jelly fish. Her face is out of sight, floating above the water, and her hair swirls and pulsates, reflecting the movement of the jellyfish. This all sounds very poetic and beautiful, and although it had the potential to be, I personally found the way that it was filmed didn't quite give it justice. In contrast, the lighting and general editing of the piece are much more impressive in Bill Violas piece 'Becoming Light' in which a naked man and woman tread water in a deep blue abyss. They appear to be in a trance like state, dancing, and flailing around together. This piece was particularly mesmerising, and I particularly liked how the water reflected onto the skin, forming ripples of light and shade.

Other pieces which caught my attention were Seunghyun Woo’s sculptures of imaginary aquatic flora and fauna.This could have been due to the fact that they took up so much gallery space, and were physically unavoidable. On a positive note, there was something playful and childlike about these pieces, speckled with neon candy colour that appealed to the child within. The work was not obviously aquatic based, and looked more like specimens from an alien landscape.

Tutorial.

My one-on-one tutorial was generally positive. I was advised to consider scale, and how I want my work to be viewed. The term 'relationship with the floor' was used, which confused me at first. I wasn't aware that I had a relationship with the floor, but in an art sense, using the floor can dramatically alter the viewers perspective, on a physical level, and in how we react to the work itself. My work in my studio space is arranged over a table and window sill. It is messy and unorganised, and doing itself no favours. I was advised to try to separate my work, by displaying it in different forms. I got hold of a small table and put two of my small collages onto it. These immediately gained a sense of importance, that they lacked when engulfed in the mass of miscellanea that is my studio space.