Core studies week 3

Before we got to the topic of the day, we discussed the examples of public art that we'd brought in. These included the Diana memorial fountain in Hyde Park; "Full Stop" by Fiona Banner near the London Assembly building; a huge flower by Eduardo Catalano in Buenos Aires; the Traffic Light Tree in Canary Wharf (voted "Britain's most popular roundabout recently); "The Sequence" by Arne Quinze outside the Flemish Parliament; the statue of John Betjeman at St Pancras station; and Elizabeth Frink's sheep in Paternoster Square. The Botero Venus in Broadgate is apparently not public art - it's on private ground...

The topic of the day included much discussion of the contemporary context ("the information revolution"), and comparison of painting, photography, and film/video (time based media) - what does each offer that the others don't?

Work discussed:
Still life by Sam Taylor Wood;
Between cinema and a hard place by Bill Viola;
Sunrise by David Claerbout;
Wipe Cycle by Frank Grillet and Ira Schneider (1969)
Corridor by Bruce Nauman (1970)
and also Andreas Gursky's epic (manipulated) photos,
Bruce Nauman's film of what happened in his studio when he wasn't there, and
Langland and Bell's virtual reconstruction, The House of Osama bin Laaden, as well as interactive media - The shy picture by Narinda Reeders and David McLeod. And also Job Koelewijn's Cinema on wheels - you watch the world outside "on screen" - through a hole cut in the "cinema"s wall.
Discussion of the Fluxus movement culminated in a fluxus-type art event - throwing paper airplanes, then after a while opening them to see what the homework assignment might be. "Become invisible by distracting everyonw from you physical presence." How would you do that?
An exercise I didn't enjoy - because of the inescapability, the intrusiveness, of the sound artwork - was the one where there were art works round the room and we had to interact with them - a video, a sculpture, a painting, an installation, a conceptual object. The object of the exercise was to make us aware of the role of the audience in the recption of various art works - how they engage with the art, and what the effect of the art is on the viewer.

Also we had a session about writing a "personal statement" - needed for those UCAS applications, and indeed for the end-of-course show. What's its purpose, and what information should you include (think of the info in terms of past, present, future...).

Then the drawing exercise - we were told we'll be making 100 A4-sized drawings in this class and next week. There's a list of instructions - and we have to work quite fast! These are:
4. Draw with your left foot (is it cheating to hold the charcoal between your toes and move the paper?); and
5. Draw with your mouth.
These are 16-19 - details within a 5cm square in the middle of the paper (using any media) -
and here is drawing with charcoal and drawing with a biro (ballpoint pen) -
Feelings in the class were mixed about whether this was enjoyable - some people didn't like the way the drawings looked clumsy, and others were glad that the instructions released them from having to produce "perfect" drawings, and also the working fast meant that you had to sacrifice some control.

I really liked following instructions and using a sequence of media - but would I do this on my own at home? Being in the class situation certainly added focus and impetus. And I suspect there was an element of competition, or at least of not wanting to be left behind.