Ramble. Rumble. Roar.

Last Wednesday at college was watched ‘Exit through the gift shop’ that ended up being about Mr Brainwash, the Frenchman that started by filming street artists. Then ended up having a film about him. His work to me is a copy or development of all other famous artists work which is rather cheeky as he uses some of his street artists friends work which he then sold for alot of money. He’s either an idiot or a genius for simply taking other peoples ideas and changing them, ‘“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to.” ― Jim Jarmusch

Its clearly worked for him but its disappointing that he doesn’t make any of the work himself, he is merely the brain and has others to make the stuff.  His life is Beautiful exhibit that is shown on ‘exit through the gift shop’ is in a London sorting office and features most of his work see in the film, the work is funny and light. You dont need to think about it and you dont have to know anything about art to like it which is one of the reasons it works because its more commerical. You also get 3 posters and 2 postcards of his work and if your the first 25 people to turn up in the morning to the exhibit you get a limited edition spray can. These are just a few pictures i took of the exhibit. 

These are life drawing images done in play-doh. Two models were placed in front of a blank wall and had films clips projected onto their bodies, which we then had to draw with the play-doh. The aim to capture the movement and colour of the clips being played across their bodies. 

The clips we watched were; 

Malice in Wonderland 

Peppa Pig

Typography video ( Unsure of the name) 

This was hard but fun to use the play-doh as its an unlikely material for life drawing. Having images projected onto the life models made it more interesting. We carved into the play-doh, smoothed it out and rubbed it. 

Guess what….I still suck at life drawing. Hoping to attend some extra classes to boost me up though. The above are just a random selection of life drawing work we’ve done so far. 

Hockley Woods. 

When you go down to the woods today… 

This was to get us out of our comfort zone, free up our minds and to learn to find inspiration from unlikely places. Started by emptying our brains onto a page, so we stood in a large circle and walked in a straight line for five minutes ( Into bushes and round trees) Stop and then empty our heads onto our page un-filtered this task we had to do on our own and was lovely to clear out my head. We then photographed things that we liked, change nature ( I organised it into number order from one-three) I’ve become obsessed with ordering things recently. Plus it made a lovely contradiction to create order in such a wild atmosphere. The last task of the day was to make a sculpture from logs and twigs on the ground. Ours became more like a shelter but was fun to do : ) 

Small exercise to get us all talking and just loosen up a bit. 

Tate Modern- The Tanks 

Visited with college on the 11th Sept

( Below are brief overviews about what i wrote in my sketchbook about each ‘tank’)

Haegue Yang- Vechiles made built into frames made from blinds moved around the space freely in a random pattern. Within the space was also a drum and microphone in which the visitors were encouraged to play on either, making it an interactive piece. You were also allowed to move freely round the space, lights reacted to the beats made on the drums and mic. Was really cool to become part of the artwork. 

Lis Rhodes-  A dark room filled with two projectors facing one another showing blank rolls of tape, due to them facing one another a beam of light filled the centre of the space. You could walk into the light for your image to be projected onto the walls, moving further and nearer to one of the projectors. Growing or shrinking either way. Background sound was the sound of the tape passing through the projectors. Loved being engulfed by the beam of light, was really surreal and rather beautiful. Another interactive piece. 

Suzanne Lacy- Red room talking about death and growing old… Elderly women discussing their views on the matter. Was reassuring to hear some of my own views on the subject being convey by others. Compared to the other two rooms this piece was alot more thoughtful, a reflective piece. Whereas the other rooms were light and fun. 

Interactive piece- People copying movements in a random un choreographed fashion. Some people would break away from the group and sit and talk to you without introducing themselves or about the piece. They would just launch into a story about there lives and after ask you about….Loved the interaction of the piece but frustrated by not understanding it. Felt like i was part of a social experiment viewing how people react and relate to each other. 

Bill Barminski is a guy i found when looking into cardboard art, just like i did with the sellotape one. I saw the spray cans & guns made out of card and fell in love with it, i like the simplicity of it. Even though im sure the pieces were hard to make they look effortless & so cool!! I want some myself, the cans are my all time favourite. I cant pinpoint exactly why i like them, maybe its the cartoon edge they have to them either way they are awesome! I cant express my love for his work enough. Definitely some of the coolest cardboard art work i found. His work is taking the seriousness of having a gun and almost making fun of them i think. He also makes videos which he’s guns feature in, its so hard to put my finger on what he’s trying to express through his stuff but go & take a look yourself! 

Bill Barminski

After the sellotape task i looked into artists that had used sellotape & found Mark Jenkins. 

He creates really cool sculptures & installations using sellotape along with other materials ( Although for this i’m mainly looking at his tape work) His work adds humour or thoughtfulness to the area he deems to be his stage, each piece has a weightlessness about it.Which make the pieces even more awe inspiring when you see where they are placed. His themes add something and can be seen as a comment on the area, such as the horses built around trees. To me it appears that the trees & horses are a merry-go-round suggesting that nature too is a playground/amusement park of sorts to be explored. 

I enjoy his work so i thought i would share his name, & work for you to take a look at if your interested. 

Mark Jenkins website