DOGA COBANOGLU
DOGA COBANOGLU
VISUAL ART
VISUAL ART
UNIT 1: SUBJECTIVE OBJECT
PART 1
Intro: Classifying art in to its strongest category of the three: context, concept & technique.
Many pieces of 'subject object' art (art that depict how a person has seen an object from their definite perspective, opposite of objective art) were analysed to see the strongest root of the art piece. The root could be either of the three options of context, concept or technique. Context implying how the setting and area at the time has impacted the creation of the piece. Concept being the idea behind the piece. Technique being the skill placed in to the piece.
Images were analysed in this method to understand the reason behind the subject choosing to depict the object like this.
An example is Michael Landy's radical concept in 2001 named "Break Down".
An artist named Michael Landy in 2001 destroyed all his belongings through a shredding and destruction process. The purpose of his radical idea was to oppose an act to the grown need of consumption. To become free of possessing. He also ironically took it this destruction task on the famous oxford shopping street empty rental shop.
My group and I stated the big reason behind this art was not the technique and skill as destruction is not man made but generic mechanical process, furthermore this left us with context and concept. It could be either as consumption is an growing issue with the context of time and place, but considering this fact, the concept of self consumption overtakes the root. The concept of the painting gives voice to an issue, the issue itself is a generic human issue i believe could have happened centuries ago but may be more radical now due to the developed state of humans. The idea itself is the real root, to takeaway possession.
sources;
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160713-michael-landy-the-man-who-destroyed-all-his-belongings
https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/Break-Down-Blueprint/F8FBF0AEDBB9558A
Photography:
Adjustable lenses were made to see the image wanted to be taken before taking it. This was done by using a ruler and template to sketch up plastic two rectangles meeting at a ninety degree angle. This was cut out and further used in the photography process.
We used still life of dead animals, plants and other objects using the adjustable lenses and cameras to experiment. We used the elements and principals including many aspects of a picture such as form, line, shape, variety, pattern and so on. As you can see below, although I tried to incorporate many options of the elements and principals I largely concentrated on colour, space, variety, harmony and unity.
My outcome of this photography activity was understanding the style of subjective perspective includes zooming in, I enjoyed looking and taking pictures of objects when they are zoomed in. I believe it gives a different more detailed view. I also enjoyed having a colour scheme of non-variety to have the same aesthetic or a juxtaposed colour scheme.
Here are some of my favourite photographs taken:
Drawing workshop:
The discussion of drawing in the context if a language conveys it as a communication tool that includes many of the aspects of a language itself. For example how is it "spoken", in what form and so on. My interpretation from what was explained and my own subjective perspective was that drawing is a depiction of a happening, a happening of what took place as a movement. It does not have to be still in real life, what you depict is a motion.
In the workshop we explored the boundaries of still life. To make the object depicted not just of what we literally see but what we "actually" see, implying it is a changing object. For example how it looks (decaying), changes position, how you see it (perspective) and so on.
This was explored through a fun task organised by our Art teacher whom played with many still life objects on a table asked us to draw them, further we drew these objects for an hour. Within this hour we did everything our teacher stated: erase everything we had, stick tape on to it, place glue, change colour, change media, draw with opposite hand and most importantly redraw the object after it had been moved. This was a task of drawing "still life" thus proving to us what "still life" can actually be.
I believe this was one of the calmest and relaxing tasks we had of drawing something directly, there was no stress of a grid or drawing it with pencil first then on top with another media. It was a free subjective intrepretation of a object in change with various medias.
Media used:
pencil
charcoal
colour pencils
black pen
glue
tape
eraser
FINAL PIECE PROCESS
Sunday 9th September 2018
Best pick from photography task was chosen as our final piece:
This is the image I will recreative in my own subjective view using various skills and medias. Along with other incorporation of inspiration and technique from the two pieces, each of an object(s) analysed below in investigation.
This class I wanted to interpret the wooden man and the lemon as dimensional and 3D rather than on a piece of a paper as a photograph. I attempted to do so using a range of textured and coloured papers, charcoal pencil, aluminium foil, pencil and glue. I believe this was a great experiment to show how eventful and textured paper ranges can make your art. It made the objects stand out and give them my own subjective outlook of boldness and humor. I realised I wanted to incorporate this in my final attempt in combination with other medias and techniques.
Wednesday 11th September 2018
As my investigation was still under development, instead of continuing to experiment with various types of paper and collaging, this lesson I experimented with the idea of a red and white version of the figure holding a lemon multiple times. I did this using red and white colour pencils and later on coloured chalk in orange, red and maroon. I learnt that the idea of red and white is very aesthetically pleasing to the eye and signifies the line dimension of the image, I also used line width or you could say thickness to play with shading I really enjoyed this idea as it places your photograph into another perspective with colours and dimensions of your own based upon one idea. I would like to implement this in my final piece.
INVESTIGATION
Various still life pieces that appealed to me:
(name of series not found) by Danial Ryan (DeMilked, 2018)
Wentworth puzzle covers (Tri-M, 2018)
'Untitled' by Rachel Whiteread (Tate, n.d.)
'After Lunch' by Patrick Caulifeild (Tate, n.d.)
First Piece: 'Repetitive Vision' in 1996 by Yayoi Kusama
(MoutainHoosier, 2011)
Part 1: Initial response
Introduction: I have chosen to analyse Kusama’s artwork as it portrays an original interest in the usage of colour and shape on still life mannequins. Specifically her artwork ‘Repetitive Vision’ as it uses object within rooms, quite unlike some of her other work of just rooms and large objects such as squiggles or spheres. Her work in relation to my still life task is her usage of still life (mannequins) but also because the objects are in her perspective of probably what she enjoys to see: polka dots and contrasting colours. I would like to understand why she has employed this and further how it impacts the object being depicted when shown in this manner.
Visual: My first reaction to the artwork included intrigue, awe and a curiosity for why someone would depict a huge room full of mannequins like this. The first word that came to my head was polka dots but also the term perspective, I recognized the diverse and unusual way Kusama was looking at things we see on a daily basis maybe when shopping or just a room itself. I noticed the mannequins first, specifically the fact that they were matching the colour scheme and polka dots. What drew my attention the most was the varying size of the polka dots across the artwork, along with the fact that they were on the ceiling as well.
Emotional: This piece to me was soothing emotionally. I believe so because of the contrast of red and white so calmly and in a large space. It enabled to be blanked out and open.My second feeling was of curiosity or intrigue, in which I asked myself many questions regarding why someone would choose to depict something in this way, their relation to what they have done and much more.
Memory: This image reminded be of two memories I have experienced. The first was an art exhibition in the Centre Pompidou where there were enlarged objects of a colour or pattern to match the colour or pattern of the room. Additionally, the large polka dots reminded me of the original movie of ‘Charlie and the chocolate factory’ 2005 where they entered the inside of the factory where the chocolate river was and the land and sky seemed to be in contrasting colors of pattern including polka dots.
Part 2: Contextual understanding
The artist: Yayoi Kusama was born in Matsumoto, Nagano in Japan in 1929. Her family was in the farming and seed industry. At a very young age she starting creating art and poetry. As a child her mother was abusive and her dad a sex addict with affairs other than her mother. Her mother used Kusama to spy on her father leaving her emotionally scarred. Kusama saw hallucinations which involve colours, polka dots and speaking still life such as fabric, flowers and more. At the age of 13 she worked at a fabric factory for the Japanese army in WW2. This gave her memories of B29 aircrafts and the war situation.
In 1948, she went to study a traditional japanese art style called Nihonga painting at the Kyoto Municipal School of Arts and Crafts. She found this quite uninteresting and was interested in avante-garde, a large intrigue for European and American art. From 1950 to 1956 in Japan and France, Kusama started her trademark style of polka dots on any objects or rooms she could find using oil, watercolour and more where she displayed in her many exhibits. From 1957 to 1972 Kusama was in New York, freeing herself for the woman hate and Japanese traditions faced in the arts as she stated in Japan.
Here she gave many exhibitions, made her own study and created many series of art, a famous one known to be ‘Infinity Mirrors’ involving many mirrors and neon hung up objects. This is where she developed her protrusions on to objects. Moreover, she protested the Vietnam war, writing various letters to American president Nixon along with joining protests. Additionally, implicating her point fo view in NY to develop the society such as making openly homosexual art, opening homosexual clubs and much more. Furthermore in her time in New York, Kusama met many new artists platonically and romantically, developing her style and perspective.
In 1973, she returned to Japan and placed herself in the Seiwa Hospital for the Mentally Ill and she continued to make art at a studio near the hospital until 1977, also where she wrote many novels. Even an autobiography!
In 1980 she returned to New York and made one of her famou ‘Pumpkin’ series and is till there to this day making floating art, her own museum in Japan and is living a free open-minded life. Creating a total of 50,000 pieces to this day.
Background: In a personal context, I believe Kusama’s family life impacted her mental illness and may have given her a childhood trauma which she excapes with hallucinations. Furthermore why she may have had hallucinations of colour and polka dots. This is reflected as the focal point of what she depicts in her art. Additionally, of why years later after depicting everything she wanted to in NY she checked herself in a mental hospital. She may have realised the significance of the content she was depicting. Also, her relations with other artist and American society may have brought modern touches to the work she created and her developing style from her pre traditional japanese schooling.
In a wider context, I believe Kusama’s restricted childhood and teenage life in WW2 and Japanese tradition enabled her to be more free souled and light hearted when she was older. She faced war tragedy, hard family life and restriction of Japanese mindset in art in her education and work created. She understood more of what she wanted in life and what she believed in when she was the most restricted. A significant impact on the art she created towards depicting her opinion on homosexuals, her literature, protests and more.
Associations and influences: I believe Kusama’s art and her mindset was influenced by the political situation between Japan and America along with each other individually. From Japanese traditional art to American occupation in the 1950s may have exposed Kusama to a diverse style of art and new set of skills. At the time in Japan there were many portesting art against the Americans and more “open” art as it seems to be. Moreover, her time in New York exposed her to her morals of war, homosexuals and protesting culture of freedom of speech.
Ideas and intentions: From what I have understood the artist in her work is either or both trying to communicate her mental illness (hallucinations) and heal, expose or understand it through implicating it in her art or/and protest what she believes in and communicate her ideas on relevant topics.
Part 3: Formal Elements
Place: Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, America
Materials: A room, formica (plastic), adhesive red dots, mannequins and mirrors
Size: Unstated
Subject matter: The work depicts many mannequins matching the floor in a white plastic material covered with various sizes of red polka dots.
Composition: The many mannequins are spread out with each having their hands and legs in different positions. The background is all mirror and reflective. The floor is matching the pattern on the mannequin. Nothing is symmetrical or “arranged”. There is no central object but many mannequins. The polka dots and whole setup is drawn attention to by the reflective walls and ceiling.
Materials/Techniques/Processes: The artist has mixed plastic, mirrors and a room. I believe she had adhesively placed them together. I believe the key process would be to make the foreground, then the mannequins and arrange their body shape and placing.
Colour: The usage of mainly white contrasts and brings attention to the bright red polka dots. They are not in harmony but give attention to each other. The usage of white makes the space more open and big.
Mood/Atmosphere/Environment: Soothing, organic, calming, curiosity, demeaning, dizzy, plasticy.
Shape/form: Figurative organic mannequins in a geometric patterned skin and gound. They are modelled. When looking at the form from various angles you could recognize other mannequins and other depictions of view sin the mirrors.
Space:The spaces between each mannequin create open space, which is widened by the colour choices and there is large areas of negative space, it is not squeezed together.
Size/Shape: Makes the viewer seem lost and small as if the room will engulf it from the large objects and their harmony.
Pattern: Geometric red circles repeated irregularly in many sizes on white shiny surface.
Surface & texture: Shiny smooth surface of plastic.
Weight: Equal weight as mannequins are not larger than each other, at times irregularity when there is large difference in hand or leg motions.
Viewing environment: Blends with the environment as they are the same pattern, thus they do not contracts but at times camouflage into each other. I could imagine you may walk into one as you may not realize it is there from the blend.
Creative hunt:
What’s the main purpose here? To display her repetitive vision of dots on to what she's in daily life: people. Rooting from her hallucinations and in relation to the name of the piece, in many interviews and sources Kusama states she is obsessed with her hallucinations of the speaking objects and their colourful polka dotted stated, she states she sees it on everything. The piece depicts how Kusama sees the world and maybe this is ongoing and infinite hence the use of mirrors to continuously reflect it. She may want to depict her hallucinations or get rid of the, both forms of therapy to what she is going through.
What are the parts and their purposes? I think the three many parts of this piece are the mirrors, the pattern and the mannequins. The mirror is able to amplify what is taking place and place to be “ongoing” furthermore infinite. Also, display the key pattern from any view. The pattern itself is what fits Kusama's hallucinations of what she says to be seen. Lastly, the mannequins are a symbol of how she may see people under this hallucinations, each mannequin looks powerful in her own pose, maybe displaying her current emotional state in relation to the hallucinations and her illness or just in general.
Which are especially smart or creative? I believe the mirror is a very intellectual aspect as it can be used to make the audience think of their surroundings even more as there is no escape from it: you either look at the piece or the walls which also display what is happening. I also believe the fact that this piece is in a room, it is metaphorical to as if you are “living” what she sees on a daily basis: her world.
Who is the audience for this? Anyone willing to see everything from her subjective outlook: her version of still life. Anyone willing to love colour and pattern infinitely in a room. Anyone in the emotional state to be dizzy and awed in a closed space. Anyone willing to understand what is happening in Kusama's life. Additionally anyone interested in modern wide spaced art.
Second Piece: 'Nature Morte 2' in 2017 by Cindy Wright
(Jackson's, 2017)
Part 1: Initial response
Introduction: I have chosen to analyse Wright’s art as to me it depicts much more than still life, as you may have noticed from the name ‘Natural morte 2’, thus there is a large depth and significance to the piece from what we may see. Her relevance to my project is firstly the depiction of still life within the piece and secondly, I found the fishbowl effect a technique I would like to know why is employed and how I may employ it in my own piece.
Visual: My first reaction to this piece was fascination as here I was looking at a squeezed fish in such a clear bowl, I wanted to understand the correlation between its meaning and what I was seeing. The first word that came to my head was size or capacity, was the fish too big for the bowl or was the bowl too small for the fish? I noticed the fish first the the bowl and lastly the reflections of the room on the bowl. What drew my attention later on was the blue and red fish which I assumed was two fish but as I was reading I realized it was the fish's guts.
Emotional: It makes me feel guilty. I feel guilty of all my past relations of enclosing a living creature in a closed space and thus in my instances where these “pets” died. I felt clarity as well, the painting is ever so realistic it does not bring any mismatch or issue.
Memory/experience: Other than having my own fish, the painting reminded me of dead animals and their guts due to what was present in the piece. Along with, a specific scene from ‘Cat in the hat’ by Dr Seuss the movie where the fish bowl and the yellow goldfish was constantly present. Fish and the fish bowl is a constant clipart or image used in cartoon, movies, books, poetry and more.
Part 2: Contextual understanding
The artist: Wright was born in Herentals, Belgium on the year of 1972. As a student she graduated in Antwerp from a school name The Royal Academy of Fine Arts and furthermore also in Antwerp in 2009 a Postgraduate Laureate from The Higher Institute for Fine Arts. As a person not much is mention on Wright's personal life growing up or as an adult. Her art is known for displaying large scale macabre; fear of death and a photograph like realism: photorealism.
Currently she lives in Antwerp and to this day has had a large amount of exhibitions (group and solo) all over Europe and America including museum openings, awards, fashion shows and much more. It is stated her use of death and decay is aiming to reflect the joy of life and the worth for life. This is related to 17th century Dutch art: inevitable death.
Background: In a personal context, as the majority of her personal life is not present, from what is understood no conclusions can be made.
Inversely, in a wider context, I believe that because Wright grew up in belgium and went to a fine arts academy I am assuming in European style of art, she was exposed to many European styles through the ages, in this case her common style of the 17th century Dutch macabre or death inevitability. Reflecting the cultural influence of her destination and education.
Associations and influences: She is associated with paintings of still life and life in a photorealistic manner, including the style of 17th century Dutch realist paintings including death, decay and gratitude for life. This may have related to her European classic art style influence and the forming digital age of art in the 1990s.
Part 3: Formal Elements
Place: Guildhall, London under ‘Natural Morte’ exhibition
Materials: Oil done on linen
Size: 140x140 cm
Subject matter: A dead fish and its guts in an either filled or unfilled small fish bowl on a white wool lace fabric on a white background, with a room reflected on the glass bowl. This arises the social issue of placing a salmon into a goldfish bowl: the actions of humans on other living things and claustrophobia.
Composition: The majority of the square piece is of the bowl and fish. The focal point is the fish and the remaining small amount of negative space is white. While the bowl and white fabric is symmetrical, the fish is not, as if it does not fit in.
Materials/Techniques/Processes: The artist has used a detailed process oil and linen to depict the image to be as realistic as possible, thus be a reminder of the concrete meaning behind it.
Colour: The use of red and blue contrasts and brings attention to the fish. The general usage of white brings attention to the content of the piece and not just the colours. It places the audience into the focal point of the piece and not just the foreground/background.
Mood/Atmosphere/Environment: Uncomfortable, claustrophobic, guilt, unease, sympathy, recognition, reminder: the artist is creating an uncomfortable vibe in something as domestic as a fish in the bowl. I believe you would be able to smell dead fish or hear the water sway if it were to be in the moment.
Shape/form: A spherical round shape that reflects the room in front, scaling and abstracting of the fish.
Space: Reduce negative space, illusion of just the bowl on your mind today.
Size/Shape: In real life, I believe because it is quite large: width and length nearly 1.5m, the impact stays as if it would. If it was to be smaller there would be less of aguilt reactor as it would be a demeaning relationship from viewer to piece, personally size impacts how much it impacts you as much as the content.
Pattern: Geometric scale pattern of fish scales. Top of bowl has curved repeating pattern. Spherical bowl pattern.
Creative hunt:
What’s the main purpose here? The main purpose of ‘Natural Morte 2’ is making something normal to be an uncomfortable situation bringing thought to the root of it. In my detail, a goldfish in a fish bowl is a “norm” of domestic life. By placing an unfit salmon with its guts in a bowl too small for it makes the situation no longer acceptable, juxtaposing domestic life. The person looking at it thinks through the idea of squeezing a fish in to captivity. The ideas of animal consumption, animal in fashion, pets and more arise to the viewer. Is it okay to do this to a living being for our own consent → natural morte, natural dead, potentially implying the death of natural beings?
What are the parts and their purposes? The salmon: depicting the suffering of an animal in our day to day society, the guts a symbol or example of the pain. The bowl: the human hand in the pain, what a human potentially does to a fish. The negative white space: hygiene or clinic like, making the painting so much more real and clear.
Which are especially smart or creative? The usage of a domestic fishbowl, something so simple yet powerful as it holds the idea of human usage of animals. At times the negative usage such as the meat industry, leather industry and more.
Who is the audience for this? A viewer who i able to relook and reevaluate their morals in what they do, speak and think. In this situation empathy or sympathy for a living being in a clear and concise analogy. For example, their own consumption, pets and lifestyle.
Sources:
Response to investigation: Through analysing Kusama and Wright's artwork I have understood many aspects of Dutch and Contemporary art in relation to depicting still life. This includes the aspect of having a meaning behind a piece, the techniques used and the ideology, In terms of reflecting this in my own piece, I have decided to incorporate the powerful contrast of red and white to bring attention to what the red is depicting due to the negative white space as Kusama had done. Furthermore, I would like to incorporate making something more exaggerated or "odd" thus bringing attention to the meaning at hand.
Sunday 16th September
Today I started upon my final piece in class, depicting the base of it in pencil to have a general understanding of what will take place. I have centred and minimised the wooden figure holding the lemon whilst a holographic or shadow of exaggerated buffness is given to the figure. Additionally, a large amount of lemons have been repeated as if being endless, repetitive and making up the background. I am emphasising the lemon as metaphor to plants and plant usage in diet to how strong it may make you body, benefitting your well being, more or less the positive impact of the vegan diet.
Wednesday 19th September
This class I finished sketching the remaining lemons and outlining the entire piece in red colour pencil. I did not use thickness or shading, it was a continuous line of composed thickness and red shade throughout the whole outline.
From there I used yellow origami paper with orange and red flowers as the skin of the lemon with scissors and glue I covered the skin in this. Many of the pieces were very small and it was lot of layering and trying to cover space.
From there I used acrylic paint for the inside of the lemon using only red, white and yellow mixing to make pink and orange to shade and a gradient within the piece. The mid section of the lemon was always red and the remaining areas changed for each lemon. I chose to only do the lemons at the front as to make a "closer" or "layering" effect of positions. The closer ones would be given colour to. I believe this gave more attention to the effects of the lemons being in this state.
Additionally, yellow and red was used to amplify the muscles and arms that were enlarged in effect of the metaphor of power for health; plants for health where the lemon is the health.
Reflection on piece:
My piece conveys my own personal and cultural expression according to my plant based lifestyle, I have attempted to depict the power of "plants" through the use of a lemon as a metaphorical example of making us stronger through how the figure was depicted. I chose to use collage in my piece due to my experimenting in lesson 1 and my understanding developed on how it can add boldness which is what I need upon the lemons. Additionally due to Yayoi Kusama and my experimenting with red I understood the value of colour contrast and depicted it in my piece to give attention to its structure. Lastly, my analysis of Cindy Wright's piece enabled me to understand that exaggerating a piece brought more attention to the meaning behind; the fish guts vs the fish bowl.
Thus in my own piece I took a risk through using my own belief incorporated with what I have learnt through experimenting, analysis and concluding on what was learnt through both. I have incorporated both collage, acrylic paint and colour pencil to subjectively display the power of lemons metaphorically plants on humans.
I used yellow paper as the lemons skin to give texture and attention to the difference between the inside of the lemon and the outside. The inside was in a gradient phase with acrylic paint to contrast and shown the dimensions of the lemon. Further, the paint was used around the figures biceps, arm muscles and fist to amplify the exaggeration and bring attention to the metaphor. I believe exaggerating the figure through these means pushed the boundaries of "human" figure thus bringing attention to why he was so muscular in relation to the objects in the piece, this was amplified by the use of red structure and paint around exaggerated areas. The red structure itself gave it a contemporary and large amount of negative space.
I know understand the power of media collaboration, impact of experimentation and mainly the value of exaggeration on bringing up a topic in an art piece.
WWW
1. Usage of many types of medias to give texture and boldness to the lemon, thus attracting attention to the power of the plant and the metaphor.
2. Exaggeration of figurine to play the correct role within the metaphor by using paint, sketching and red structure.
EBI
1. More accurate space used for each lemon in terms of blank white spaces; uneven collaging and leaking paint. Change the time spent on lemons with detail.
2. Use thickness of red lines to define shading and volume of lemons, rather than lines with equal thickness. Although thin lines have an opposed effect of striker, I believe the usage of this would bring better dimension and attract the remaining red lemons.
I have chosen to depict my father using ten objects that make who he is. When I imagine my father he is intellectual, caring, humorous, relaxed and constantly happy person. The objects that depict this include his very own:
(1) High school and university calculator: hardworking
In relation to him the calculator is displaying his focal interest in mathematics, physics and the act of solving, calculating so on: working hard in something he enjoys. It symbolises his interest in the form of all the hardwork he put in when finishing first in his city high school going to the top engineering university in Turkey in 1983 still top now (ODTU) and finishing first in his major.
(2) Engineering textbooks: love for his job and interest
His passion for his current career is displayed by his lack of complaining, constant intrigue and well being at his job. The books are stored on his own bookshelf with all his textbooks regarding his job area of petroleum engineering. Something I and a lot of people aspire to have; a job we love.
(3) Olive oil: love for nutrition and taste + his purity and natural mindset
My father is a big believer of natural oil and the usage of extra virgin olive oil for its taste along with as a base in foods too. His favourite combination and now mine as well is olive oil and ground chilli with norlander bread. Olive symbolises his love for food and taking care of what he consumes and its taste, along with the strong pure taste of food.
(4) Books by the author 'Livaneli': literature
As a constant and fast paced reader my father reads a wide genre of books from non-fiction gene development to a murder story in the Ottoman times on a basis of illumination stealing from one artists to another. His potential favourite (he has not stated it is) is a man named Zulfi Livaneli whom has written more than a hundred books and I could proudly say we may own a majority of them. Never does a day pass when a Livaneli book isn't on the coffee table being read throughout the day.
(5) Ada tea: home in Elmali
In the summer my fathers biggest hobby is walking the mountains near our house before a large Cobanoglu (20+ family at home of course more around the globe but on average 20+ together at all times) breakfast, in his walks he collects ada tea leaves from this own tree which is then dried and taken back home where he brews them in Oman. Elmali the name of his home town is a big deal for my father as it symbolises his child hood, adulthood and families presence there. Personally, it is also one of my favourite places to be.
(6) A ball: sports in his life
He is involved in football, tennis, running, snorkelling and more, an all around person who enjoys taking time for physical performance on a daily basis. My dad believes in the 60%-40% where 40 percent of you is still defined by your physical health which includes sports.
(7) Anything pickled: heightened experience of taste and flavour, living life to the best
The fridge always has a minimum of 3 jars of pickled vegetables, from super spicy pickles to moderate, there is a pickled vegetable for every occasion. Home made, my father loves pickled food, depicting his love for strong flavour and all types of strong flavour. He is living life to the outmost of what he likes.
(8) Photograph of my dad and mom: familial value
My father always puts family first, at home, at work and in every situation. There hasn't be a situation where he hasn't come to school or any place to defend my sister ,mom, our dog Cooper or I for an issue regarding our well being, grades and respect. His love for my mother is endless.
(9) His bedside clock: sleeps a lot and is constantly relaxed
Daily routine includes two to three naps a day and always a solid 6-8 hours of sleep. The clock is a feature of his love for sleep and further how relaxed he is in relation to life. Never rushed, at a constant pace.
(10) Lemon: his happiness
Lastly my dad is a large consumer of lemons (on food, raw...) thus I believe not only symbolises his taste buds and healthy diet of legumes, fish and fruit, but also an object of his happiness. No other object comes close to depicting how happy he is other than a lemon in my head. The colour and calmness represent exactly how his happiness stands.
PART 2
Composition of 10 objects:
QUESTIONING:
How many 'objects' do you own?
Firstly, my perception of an object is a material subject that is made of atomic matter rather than organic; a living organism. This makes me question, are food organic or atomic substances? In the composition above I have classified them as atomic. Precisely, an object is now a material substance that is made of atomic matter or/and does not have a central nervous system: plants do not have central nervous systems (central nervous systems emit pain).
In terms of how many I have, I don't think essentially I have a large amount as a majority of the objects I use on a daily basis are shared between myself and my family. My personal objects would be every object in my own room and objects I carry around with me. Mainly including books, clothes, skin care products, my electronics and more. I am guessing 1000 objects in total.
At specific times in their life I believe people get the urge to not possess any objects. As if you are removing any emotional baggage you have to other subjects other than yourself. Examples of this form of minimalism is:
500 possession reduction - https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/how-i-got-rid-of-500-possessions-in-one-month
Reducing to travel - https://www.peacefuldumpling.com/i-got-rid-of-my-stuff-travel-the-world-how-it-feels-to-minimize-your-life
This is inverse but related to Landy's Breakdown look upon at the beginning of part 1, as he is not getting rid of it but destroying it. Thus it is fully discarded and can never be found again. The total relation between the object and the subject is demonised.
UNDERSTANDING THE UNIT:
Statement of inquiry: Our relationship to the objects we choose to surround ourselves with communicates information about us.
My interpretation of it:
From the mind map I can conclude that the objects do not make us but the objects are reflections of us, our emotional values and our identity.
Thus,
STATEMENT OF INTENT:
I intend to create an art piece of still objects that make up who my father is. The piece will be a photograph of my father chest up or only of his face in his state of main emotion: happiness and relaxed. He will be made up of a minimum of ten objects (objects above and more) that depict who he is: caring, intellectual, relaxed, tea loving, loves his taste buds and more. The objects will be used intellectually to match his face shape. It will be done with photoshop. Usage of colour, object, object dimensions and shading will be thoroughly considered.
I will know I am successful if I achieve the following:
1. When looking at the piece it is understood my dad has a happy and satisfied soul.
2. The objects in the piece signify much more than still life but who he is as a person.
3. There is correspondence between object dimension and colour and his face shape and colour.
INSPIRATIONS
(name of series not found) by Christian Pierini (Design Your Trust, n.d.)
(name of series not found) by unknown (Acid Cow, 2013)
(name of series not found) by Yung Jake (Vice Magazine, 2013)
EXPERIMENTING
October 7th: Playing with ideas and experimenting with emoji usage on object
A blank slate was filled with random emojis according to their colour to form dimensions on a 2D outline. I enjoyed the quick yet fun process of making this first trial. I used an stereotypical average male face shading to follow the shading on the face while also referring to inspirations above and more. Conclusions I have made are in my final piece I will need a colour scheme plan + objects chosen to match my father will be used correctly dependent on their colour. Although snapchat is great for experimenting like below, it is very macroscopic thus it will be better to choose photoshop as my media choice.
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(Beauty Check, 2002)
Outcome: Direction towards realistic objects for final piece rather than emojis in combination with real images of fathers objects. Relative to image done by source Acid Cow in inspiration section.
COLLECTING
ONLINE IMAGES:
TAKEN IMAGES:
IMAGE OF DAD:
PHOTOGRAPHED OBJECTS:
BASE PHOTOGRAPH OF SUBJECT:
Sunday November 4th
GIMP software downloaded, a similar composition to photoshop. It was used to open base image and start playing around with resizing and positioning objects on to subject. As issues of where tools are and how to use them arose, google was used frequently where answers were clearly present. Today's progress was mainly on understanding the software. Main conclusions: how to resize image itself and not whole peice, how to move image and not whole layer, how to zoom in and out, how to copy paste, how to lasso and delete and how to get a specific undo. I have also figured that I need much more images that represent my father and match the face colour needed, or I could change the colour of objects. This will be played with. For now:
Wednesday November 7th
List of additional objects made that are related to the person in the image. This will be useful as much more images are needed. Additional parts to hair done, black and white theme in the hair to show the white streaks and combo colour in the hair.
Monday November 12th
The hair was completed using previously found image and new image from the created list. The red and white colour scheme is completed. Some parts were drawn out with black pen to finish off the hair and empty spaces.
From there the t-shirt began. I put the face aside as at the time my interest was more upon the blue colour scheme. Through the collect I found objects related to my father that were blue I began to crop and arrange them on GIMP. I was satisfied of the happening aesthetic and wanted to continue adding more blue objects.
Wednesday 14th to Friday 16th November
(revert to photoshop from gimp)
I started with continuing the t-shirt with blue objects, as I went forth I realised I did not agree with how it look it was too bundled and not reflective of my simplistic dad.
Thus I decided to fill in the t-shirt appropiately with 3 of his favourite books. I filled in the background with a vibrant colour which was also his favourite: green.
From there in reference to the inspiration by 'Acid 'Cow', I used objects that represented him with relevant colour choices to make up the face. At times when I was stuck I searched up object lists and went through them until something matched my dad.
Once this was done, I felt the final piece was too uptight so I doodled with appropriate colours to match the digital look.
Reflecting
I believe the peice itself is able to convey an aspect of who it intended to depict as person through the objects subjective to him. All objects used in the peice showed a small part of him that makes up who he is through the use of them on a basis in life, from his daily habits to virtues my dad displays, the objects are subjective to him. When one would look at the peice it is not the many objects making up the person but the person made up of the many objects. I intended to show his intellect, calm, happy, caring, good food taste, culture and life style. I chose what would fit who he was and the colour scheme. Thus it is evident shading and colour was taken into consideration in some areas.
The process was very variated and unlike other art processes. Due to many MESAC and photoshop/gimp issues I was constantly facing obstacles not in what I was doing but the means of it such as tool issues, transferring images and moving images. Once those two obstacles were overcome through problem solving and compromise of at times losing progress, I realised how unsure I was on depicting my dad through this form of photoshop and layering images of objects in-comparison to other media choices I could have made such as paint, chalk and more hand based art. This is where I attempted to match the media to my ‘style’ of art making through adding my likeliness to colour and humour rather than blocking images. This made me more comfortable and happy with the forma and gave me inspiration, especially the doodles in the finale.
Inspired through many modern art forms, this piece uses similar techniques in the ‘untitled’ piece by Acid Cow. The artist used of a range of objects carefully crafted to make up a person. Similarities with the artists included the colour match up in both pieces of the original areas colour to the objects placed in and the repetition of objects at times in large areas to block a colour. While differences between the pieces include that Acid Cow chose to make up the peice solely of objects while mine used coloured space in the background and drawing too which is something i thought would add to to the piece as a whole.
I believe my use of colour scheming was a great point where the final aesthetic looked natural rather than an unbalance of colour. this was seen in the face and arms. Additionally, making lists, researching and thinking objects through brought value to what was put on to the piece. I was able to think it through which was my interpretation of subjecting the objects of how I saw my father.
Peer feedback from Stefanie from my art class reflected that colour and shade was considered very accurately while the face was displayed as a ‘face’ should be in terms of structure but could have had more detail. I agree with Stefanie in that my two improvements would be going in to more detail in the face through placing more objects and planning it out through testing or on paper. Also, choosing a better picture for this type of peice where the face made up 60% of the peice thus detail would be easier and more emphasised in the peice.