Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Beautiful Alone
Labels:
art,
beauty,
desire,
karla black,
love,
mona hatoum,
pearls,
sculpture,
sexuality,
vanity
Studio Installation - Site Place Context
After having experimented with drawing the landscape, I took my ideas back into the studio and thought about the space I was in, and how i might draw contours for the studio. This led me to take interest in what was happening within the space, between the walls and the floor for example, or between the floor and the furniture upon it. Taking inspiration from artists such as Monika Grzymala and Sharyn O'Mara, I started drawing out this relationship using black straws and graph/lined paper, as a sort of 3D line moving around the space, exploring different surfaces and planes. I set to work in my corner where I made a 3Dimensional drawing that tumbled from wall to plynth, plynth to floor, floor to chair..
Labels:
contours,
drawing,
environment,
installation,
line,
monika grzymala
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
drawing the landscape
Labels:
art,
bellahouston park,
contours,
drawing,
environment,
landforms,
landscape,
ribbons,
subsidence,
trees
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
watch out, avatars about...

After having spent some time using the Second Life virtual world, I found it difficult to see how I could create something in these spaces that I really believed in. For me, the best thing about it is that there isn't really gravity, so you can make objects suspended in the air and then fly around them. I made a floating, pink, spherical object on the GSA island which excited me for about five minutes but as for using the world to communicate and live a second life through my avatar, I'm not too fussed. So I wondered, how could this be taken further in an art project to create something that I truly believe in, and then I found out about a Chinese artist, Cao Fei, who uses her learnings from Second Life to not only to create work within the virtual world, but who's findings have fuelled her to make work in Real Life too.

Cao Fei has taken the idea of the avatar alter-ego and created these wacky, super-hero type costumes in which people wear in the real world to take the life of the avatar out of the computer and onto the streets. She calls these works "COSPLAYERS" and is an experiment to give young people dressed as game characters the ability to traverse the city at will, and to engage in combat within their imaginary world. They expect their costumes will grant them true magical power, enabling the wearer to transcend reality and put themselves above all worldly and mundane concerns.

The images here are photographs of her COSPLAYERS out in the real world, and she documents these as photos and films. As well as doing this, Cao Fei reflects on the behaviour of avatars in the digital environment of Second Life and the motivations behind people who explore and inhabit virtual worlds. She makes video installations using these sites and has even gone on to create her own virtual utopia, RMB City, in which she is both participant and observer through her Second Life avatar, Tracy China, who acts as a guide, philosopher and tourist.
To find out more about her virtual world, log onto www.rmbcity.com
To look at more of her work outwith second life visit www.caofei.com
Labels:
art,
avatar,
behaviour,
cao fei,
china,
environment,
experiment,
film,
photography,
second life,
video,
virtual worlds
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
Wind In My Hair
Lara Favaretto
at the Tramway 23rd Oct - 13th Dec 2009
Lara Favaretto creates such an atmosphere in this exhibition space, a feeling that was totally new to me. I was able to really feel the presence of this work as well as see them, hear them, it was an incredible experience. Colourful hairy giants of all shapes and sizes swirling at random, you could feel the wind in your hair as you moved around the room. It was a beautiful thing. And as I walked around I could feel the energy of the people too - everyone smiling, laughing, getting a real buzz off her work. I've never felt an atmosphere so electric. Maybe it had something to do with the free booze that was on offer at the opening, but either way, I think its lush. I'm going back again - sober this time. I'll probably love it more.
Labels:
art,
colour,
fun,
installation,
lara favaretto,
laughter,
movement
Sunday, 18 October 2009
Art On The Subway
This weekend, while waiting in the underground for the next train, I expected to get in a carriage, sit with my head down and listen to my i-pod. The train pulled into the station and I was drawn to one particular carriage. Not because there were more seats or that the Johnny Depp look-a-like I’m trying to find happened to be there, but because I could see through the window, a huge globe, made from hundreds of origami birds, swinging from the ceiling. I walked into the carriage and the lady whose creation this was apologised for the obstruction. I assured her that it was anything but, and that I was delighted to be in its presence. As the train moved away from the station, the globe started swinging all around the carriage, only just missing the noses of the other passengers, making this work look like it was specifically made to hang in the interior of this carriage.
Its moments like this that I will always remember, and carry with me day to day. In an artistic city like Glasgow, the ordinary is met with the extra-ordinary and is a talking point for those present. Art brings us together in a way we should celebrate, and not take for granted. So keep your eyes peeled, and the extra-ordinary things will jump out at you and make your day that little bit better.
Labels:
art,
glasgow,
observation,
paper,
public,
sculpture,
subway,
talking point,
travel
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