Here are some photographs I took with some brief notes I made throughout the day.
Not Vital
Self portraits compress two hind beaten silver boxes. I find it really interesting how the dimensions were based on Vitals date of birth. 15-02-1948. Larger box represents the year and is 19cm x 19cm x 48cm. The smaller box is 15cm x 15cm x 2cm. Work contains a sundried goat - an animal common in everyday life in Vitals home village and the scent of his studio at home in Agadez, Niger.
Heads (inspired by Buddah)
Vital began to paint portraits 7 years ago after he was surrounded by so many faces in Bejing. He began painting portraits on others before focusing on himself. It seemed like he considered how a persons identity would change if the circumstances changed. (location and political control). He used soft brush strokes, muting the grey and white tones. I get the impression Vital focuses on the internal character and personality of people, rather than the external appearance. The shiny and darkened surface of the heads makes them stark, compelling and concentrates the viewer on their relationship to the object and themselves.
Eight Halves
Repeated form of a deer's hindquarters, surreal strand. Animal bisected, multiplied and reconstructed.
Sled
Relates to life in the Alpes. Stillness contrasts with real life - speeding down slopes. Snowball appears to be held in suspension, frozen in time and space. I like how the 'snowball' has been removed from it's typical context.
Mountains
Native Swiss terrain experience of China. Stones and geometric shapes allow their presence to be the main focus. Piz Nair is a representation of a mountain in the Engadin that Vital has known intimately since childhood. It was made from coal that was mined from deep inside the earth in Mongolia. Ideas could've come from a child's imagination but with stark, minimalist aesthetic that contrasts with the exuberant concept eg a plane, a boat, a car (means of travel, relating to a Sled)
David Shrigley
Hand giving a thumbs up. Simple gesture and could be a self fulfilling prophecy eg bad things including the weather, the economy and society may benefit from positivity. David Shrigley uses oil paints and acrylic paints on some work and his work could inspire my 'text and image' project as his distinctive combination of drawing and text to create these large scale works on paper.
Seizure
Roger Hiorns - nominated for the turner prize in 2009. Hiorns creates sculptures and installations using materials and processes which he has little influence over eg fire and chemicals. In 2008 he transformed an empty council flat in Southwalk, London into a sparkling environment of blue copper sulfate crystals. He pumped 75,000 litres of liquid into the former bedsit and crystals formed on the walls, floor and ceiling.
Litter
''Litter had quite a long gestation, it started as an observation a number of years back. I was driving to give a talk at a college and I passed what I thought was a field of white rabbits. Rabbits do not occur naturally so on my return I parked my car to up find that they were white rubbish bags discarded after a picnic and my art is based on that.'' Leo Fitzmauris.
Nishat Awan
Traces boarders of Europe, along the black sea and documents areas of refuge crisis. Visualises the continent from the perspective of those who inhabit it's edges and those who are in transit. I feel like there is a historical connection with this piece - how the States represent themselves through maps and how citizens and non citizens are defined. This project took 2 months to be documented.
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