Environment

This project developed themes of scale, material and audience. It also further developed the ideas of narrative, context and interpretation.

I thoroughly enjoyed this project brief and I found myself asking questions like

• Where does art really belong?
• What factors influence the meanings we associate with places?
• How might I influence of alter perceptions and ideas by exploring context and juxtaposition.

I visited the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, where I collected visual and textual information / data. I considered the landscape and the exhibitions. I thought about the landscape as an environment for art. I also thought about how it might be read – socially, culturally, politically and historically before applying it to a gallery context, thinking about how individuals could relate to it.

Yayoi Kusama was the first artist I researched for this project. Yayoi Kusama was born in March 1929 and is a Japaneese artist and writer. Throughout her career she has worked with a wide variety of media including paint, collage, sculpture, performance art and environment installations. I like how her work usually shows a strong interest in colour, repition and pattern – exactly like my work although it looks so different. She is influenced by minimalist and feminist artwork.

Image : www.pinterest.com/yayoikusama

Kusama started creating art at an early age, going to study painting at Kyoto in 1948. In 1957 she moved to New York where she produced a series of paintings which were influenced by abstract expressionist movement.  Personally, I find the European/American art more interesting although some of the most interesting abstract artists are from Japan. Yayoi moved back to Japan in 1973 and became an art dealer but her business folded and after a few years she was admitted to a mental hospital… I can see her work includes psychological content.

Then, I looked at Martin Creed’s work. He is a British artist and musician who currently lives and works in London. He was born in Wakefield but moved to Glasgow when he was 3. He studied art at the Slade, London. Creed’s work is often a small intervention of the world and uses whatever materials he feels are suitable. One of my favourite pieces is “work No. 200,” where the cubic space is filled with balloons. I could’ve tried something like this as I think it’s a really interesting way to get the audience to engage with the environment. I really like how the majority of Martin Creeds work seems to be very structured and organised. This is exactly how I plan my work to be – especially when working with geometric shapes.

Image : http://observer.com/2016/06/10-things-to-do-in-new-yorks-art-world-before-june-10/

Martin Creeds work is sometimes quite controversial. At one of his exhibitions, a visitor threw eggs at the walls of Creeds empty room as a protest against the turner prize, declaring that Creeds presentations were not “real art” and that “painting is in danger of becoming an extinct skill in this country”. I feel like this is very ironic as Creed has been exhibiting paintings in nearly exhibition he has done over the past years. In 1994 Creed formed a band called ‘Owada’ and he used both his music and art talent to form an even better piece of visual work.

Bridget riley was born in April 1931 in London. She’s an English painter who currently works in London, Cornwall and France. Between 1956 and 1958 Riley nursed her father (who was a well-known printer) as he had been involved in a serious car accident. Her early work seemed to be figurative with a semi impressionist style. She was also a teacher at this point, until 1960’s, when she began to develop her signature art style. I like how she mainly uses black and white. I love how the patterns and geometric shapes she creates have quite a distorting effect on the eye. Riley’s style seems to have been influenced by a number of sources and I feel like her work greatly influenced me as I loved the variety of geometric shapes and forms she uses, which produce sensations of movement / colour. They make me feel slightly “sea sick.”

Riley began investigating colour in 1967, the year she produced her first striped painting. Her trip to Egypt inspired her to use hieroglyphic decorations. She created her own ‘’Egyptian pallet”. Could I’ve used a holiday or a different tradition to influence my work?

Sol Lewitt was born in 1928 in Hartford and worked up until his death in 2007. He studied a fine art degree and then worked as a graphic designer in New York. I especially love how his work always maintained the idea or concept – what can art be? Sol Lewitt was probably my biggest inspiration whilst completing this project. 

Image : http://massmoca.org/sol-lewitt/

 I like how most of his work is colourful, similar with the contrast in Bridget Riley’s work. I like how its abstract and conceptual. Lewitt believed that the idea itself is a work of art. I aimed for my work to be colourful and abstract, including a few black and white pieces, or even a main black and white piece!  Lewitt’s work ranged from sculpture/painting/drawing. Most of his conceptual pieces often did take on a basic material form. Larger scale of wall pieces were not completely controlled by the artist as apprentices carried out his instructions, which were deliberately vague.

My work didn’t involve anybody else but if I was to leave a team with instructions, the emphasis would definitely be on the process and materials rather than producing work with a narrative. I don’t see meaning as a requirement like other Artists. If my work is aesthetically pleasing - I’m happy.

Here are some photographs of my final piece for this project. I experimented with different ideas before producing the final outcome. Here are some of the questions I had to ask myself / test out during the development stage.

• Am I going to work directly onto the studio walls or onto paper?
• Am I going to continue working onto the floor, until the tape runs out?
• How much tape should I buy?
• Should I leave the tape and roll stuck to the wall once it's coming to the end of the roll
• Think about what colour tape I will be using
• Think about the background colour or contrast
• Are there any other objects I could work on in the studio environment e.g. a chair?
• Will I plan it out first or will all the lines be spontaneous? 

My final piece