Finalised Essay Draft - Study Task 3

 

 

 

 

Went went well?

• I found giving each image a succinct, detailed description easy because I had to do it a lot in history of art at school. I think that this is rally important to just give a sense of each of the works before I went on to analyse them.
• I also think that I have used I good selection of images to analyse. I think that the Pop Art example works really well to both tie the other works together and challenge the opinions of the writers. 

What challenges did I face and what could I have done better?

• I struggled to tie my three image analyses together and ended up analysing them separately. This was because if I were to analyse them together I wasn't sure where to put the descriptions of each of the works. i couldn't put them all at the beginning. I was going to try to rearrange the essay but it just became to confusing with the references, so I have just left it and am going to wait for feedback.
• I was really unsure about in text citations and where they are necessary. I have put them in for all of the writers but I wan't sure if I needed them for factual information about the images. I am also going to wait for feedback on this because it is too late to ask. 
• Lastly, I think that I could have spoken about some of my writers, like Fearon and Read more. I think that I maybe put too much focus on Brody because his opinions allowed me to raise the most interesting points about my images. Maybe I could have found another writer?

Visual Journal and Powerpoint Feedback - Study Task 6

 

It's so annoying my ideas were all so clear in my head but the second that I walked into cop I got confused and couldn't express them clearly at all! Why does this always happen? It makes it really difficult to get good feedback.

What feedback am I going to use to push my ideas forward?

• It was suggested that I really look into what separates fine art from commercial art maybe play around with blurring the distinction between the two. Everyone thought that this was a more interesting route than the simple exploration of ways of representing status. 

• The images, where I looked at reproduction appealed to everyone in my group (the reproduced and the one off being something which quite distinctly separates the two areas).They suggested that I try taking a photograph (my own or commercial), rip it up, collage it, then try and redraw it to see what happens (moving from something commercial to something one off). They also suggested drawing into a piece of commercial art and to look at the reproduced pictures in Wilko, which have the texture of a canvas printed on them. Lastly they suggested looking at mass produced images and objects, which are expensive and collectable. 

I think that all of these are interesting ideas and they have really helped me get out of the rut that I was stuck in. I did really want to try to move away from collage and using appropriated imagery, to using more simplistic shapes of my own. However, at the moment I'm not sure where to take that, so I am going to complete my 30 pages following my feedback before reevaluating.

Powerpoint Presentation - Study Task 5

I actually found creating this power point really useful. It really helped me to draw all of my research together and to see how everything links. Before, everything was all quite bitty.

http://issuu.com/indiapenny/docs/indie_powerpoint_presentation

Image analysis - Study Task 3

The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Eyes of Someone Living - Damien Hirst (1991)

• 13 ft tiger shark, suspended in formaldyhyde in steel glass vitrine - divided into three lengthways cubes
• Commissioned by Charles Saatchi for YBA1 exhibition
• Example of contemporary conceptual fine art
• Shark taken out of original setting - illusion of life (swimming through clear water)
• Initial shock factor - intended (like most YBA work) - 'real enough to frighten you' (Tate)
• Death slowly decaying in tank of formaldehyde
• Shark replaced in 1993 because it was decaying
• Looking at the theme of death and decay - its inevitability - mortality - we are subject to degeneration over time
• Not original artwork - constructed by Hirst's team (not himself) - concept is taking precedence over crafting - artist's tough
• Conceptual element, can't be understood easily by everyday viewer - Brody
• Does it lack intellectual esteem? Can anyone do it - Fearon - 'But you didn't' - wiki
• Bought by Steven A Chen for lots - 12 mil?? value = status? 

Barack Obama 'Hope' poster - Shepherd Fairey (2008)

• Stencil portrait of Obama - front on, head tilted up to left - we look up at him 
• Face = block colours - red, blues, beige
• Below is the word HOPE - bold blue capital lettering - stretches across whole image
• Created independently by Shepherd - distributed on street (290 printed copies, produced in a single day) - also digitally
• cheap cheap cheap - doesn't need a commission - anyone can create art like this - don't need to be hand picked - does this affect quality of dome art produced ? - Swagner / Langer
• Lost copyright court case in 2009 - lied about which photo he used - community service plus 25 grand
• Represents Obama's qualities - support for occupy movement - stand against imbalance in over and helping the average American - change/ a step in the right direction 
• approved by presidential campaign in 2008 - became widely recognised as symbol of Obama campaign - lots of imitations (some commissioned by campaign)
• Obama as hope for the future - a push in the right direction
• The message of this image is explicitly obvious at first glance - focus on visual communication -immediate
• High impact and spread far through mass production - widely understood 
• Does this obviousness make this image 2D? - Brody

Campbell's Soup Cans - Andy Warhol (1962)

• 32 separate canvases - 50x40 cm each. 
• Exhibit a can - floating in white space of canvas - focus on the label - silk screen print and hand painting (to individualise each can?) 
• Different flavours (32 on offer at time)
• Flat, graphic, lack of modelling (only small reflection on top) - like mechanically reproduced (also repression) - ref to world of industry and commerce
• Appropriated image - not Warhol's original artwork
• Want to 'be a machine' - lightly challenging world of commerce and mass production by drawing our attention to its characteristics - not offering comment - think for selves - act of control?? Glenn, wiki
• Obvious unlike most fine art - no deep meaning (Broudy) - understood by everyday viewer - status?? or two dimensionality 
• Pricing - jump from mass produced commodity to ££££ - through recontextualisation - what has changed? same aesthetic. Maybe aim of work? from something 2D to something that challenges the 2D thing - still 2D?
• Swanger - shift from non art to art
• Why does Warhol have more status than the creator of the original soup label? Simply copying? - Read