Done and Dusted!

Well, the brief of 'Where are we from? What are we? Where are we going?' is officially over with! I am happy with what I produced and presented on Thursday 13th of October, and for the first time my final piece was ready days in advance!
I hope that through my artist's statement, I have explained that although the final installation piece itself is simplistic in nature, the meaning and concept behind its creation is one with an in-depth meaning.
Here are some pictures of the final piece with some students engaging with the artwork followed by my artist's statement.

'My Life, My Time'

Artists Statement

The piece is a direct response to the brief of ‘Where are we from?’ ‘What are we?’ ‘Where are we going?’ by concentrating on the separation that exists within time, through identification of our prior self, and the prospect of ourselves in the future, and preserving what we are due to the apprehension of what we could become. Through time we change and our life changes and therefore our state of mind is almost relevant to which time we are at in our lives.

Through this installation, I am representing myself, and how I have developed over time. The installation is a direct projection of myself through numbers, as each number is symbolic of each moment I have lived in my life. 599184000 is how many seconds there are in 19 years, 9986400 is how many minutes, 166440 is how many hours, 6935 is how many days, 990.714 is how many weeks and 228 is how many months there are which all make up my 19 years of life. This illustrates that every number is a documentation of where I came from, the present moment and the prospect of there being another second, and another minute which will make up my life over time. 

599184000 9986400 166440 6935 990 714 228=19

The repetition of the tiny numbers creates the deception of every number being insignificant, whereas this is not the case. Each number is miniscule for the viewer to realise that although there are many seconds which make up a life time, not every moment is appreciated, and loses value over time just as anything repeated begins to decline in importance. If the viewer decides to look closer, then this signifies that in life some people choose to follow time, whereas others decide to ignore it. The magnifying glass epitomises the choice that exists within time by either appreciating it, or merely existing in time and highlights each moment that exists within my life. It could also be seen as a surveillance tool used to focus in on every moment in my life, so far.

The ticking clock exemplifies that although I have preserved this moment in my life, each second that passes is another moment obtained into my future. The sound can only be heard, and the question of where it is coming from is irrelevant, as time is a constant continuation that is not tangible, but the effects of it can be seen all around us, and this is why the installation is 2D.

The grid like composition is a direct make up of myself as there are 19 lines in each grid which is representational of my age, and the grids make up my height of 62 inches in this stage of my life. This symbolises that even though I might not look like a part of the piece, there will always be a constant connection with myself within it as the whole piece is a conceptual projection of me over time.

This space was directly chosen as it is a wall which is easily seen, yet many people walk past and never really observe. As I have mentioned, it is down to personal preference to follow time, or ignore it just like this space. It is there, and is a vital foundation to our building yet many other factors help support the structure. Just like this small structure, I have many more years to live, but the first short 19 years of my life have taught me to be the person I am, and will be a part of the foundations to my future.

Fundamentally, this installation is made up of observations, identification and time which again reflects onto where I came from, What I am presently, and the prospect of what might happen over time. If the viewer takes the time to appreciate the finer details of the piece, they will realise that the numbers are only just the beginning...



Busy, Busy, Busy!

Well, I am guilty of neglecting my blog for the past few weeks as I've been so busy with my Creative Practice project along with my Video Class.. So here is an update on both;

Creative Practice- I have moved on a lot since my last post as I have now *nearly* finished my final piece! In my initial PLP I described that I would dissect clocks in order to represent time and how time is the essence of us, and more importantly, me. I have chosen to look at the brief of 'Where are we from? What are we? Where are we going?' at a more personal level, and in doing this I looked into different ways of representing time, which made me think of numbers. By looking at numbers, I am still following what I stated in the PLP as numbers make up time, which makes up our past, present and future. In doing this, I want to create a final piece which illustrates my time in a less obvious manner and intrigues the viewer to look closer and appreciate the time we have had, and the time still to come. I looked into how many seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years make up my life, of 19 years. I took this information and created my own equation of numbers which represent my time so far:

599184000.9986400.166440.6935.990.714.228=19

In order to relate this more to myself, I decided to make the text size 5, making it extremely difficult for the viewer to read unless they are up close and then repeat this 19 times into a block/grid style. By doing this, I want the viewer to come closer to the piece, and realise and appreciate the time that has went into the piece by hand writing every single number onto the wall selected, as well as appreciate the time we all have on this earth. Some people choose to ignore time and and not let it restrict their life, while others follow time, and plan accordingly which the viewers can do with this piece; ignore it or appreciate it. Whatever they decide, the piece will still exist as an exact representation of myself at this moment 'in time'.

Here are some pictures of the piece in progress...

A lot of time and dedication has been spent on this project along with precision and accuracy, which I hope shows in the piece on presentation day and justifies the concept and brief to its fullest potential. 

Video Class- I haven't mentioned that I have an ongoing video class every monday morning which, if im being honest, wasn't looking forward to at the start of the term, but after roughly 7/8 weeks of the class, I have really enjoyed it and found myself considering using video in one of my next projects. I have learned a lot, and appreciate video art more now as I understand how the basics work,and the time and effort required along with an imaginative persona. We were asked to produce a 1 minute video in response to a theme of our choice, and I chose to look into lights and how they guide us through life and create journeys. As of today, I have passed the class and managed to produce 2 minutes of video footage which I have edited and altered to justify my theme by tampering with black and white effects, backing tacks and other editing tools which I named ' Lights of Guidance'.

Hope to upload pictures of the final piece for Creatice Practice next week!

Slowly but Surely ..

Well, I have now created three initial concepts as I understand that by doing this, I can possibly interlink parts of the others to create a concept which relates to the initial brief in many different ways. The time concept which I explained in my previous post is the strongest in my opinion and this is the one I have chosen to take further into development. In saying this, I also want to combine elements of my third concept which relates to the initial wording of the brief; Where are we from? What are we? Where are we going? These all have something in common, they are all questions which brought me onto the thought of connections, and inner connections. When considering this, I began to consider inner connections through our neural networks within our brain.

My initial thoughts are to interlink parts of the third concept by focusing on time relating to our prior self and the prospect of ourselves in the future alongside inner connections, the connections which could be responsible for the way I now think about the future and my past, and the link that I try not to make between the past and what lies ahead. Instead of relating my project to everyone around me, I have decided to focus in on myself for a change and investigate into the way I work, and how I think and I believe this is where the third concept will express.

Alongside these thoughts, I have been investigating into numerous artists which have caught my attention either media wise, or concept;

• Bill Viola
• Anne Truitt
• Andy Goldsworthy
• On Kawara

Chiharu Shiota-http://www.chiharu-shiota.com/works2007_4.htmllook(I find this type of artwork amazing!)

I look forward to incorporating inspiration from these artists into my developmental work, onwards and upwards!

Fingers Crossed..

Tomorrow is hand in day for my PLP (Personal Learning Plan) and I'm dreading it since I have never created one before! But, after showing one of my tutors my first draft today, I’m feeling a bit more confident with what I’m submitting. My initial thoughts in response to the brief of ‘Where are we from? What are we? Where are we going?’ lead me onto the thought of time. Time passing and the preservation of time in relation to ourselves, as life is made up of seconds, which make up the experiences that essentially make us who we are presently.

I also decided to delve into the question of what does any of this matter? Does it really matter where we are from? Or what we are? Or where we plan on going? Questions only raise the matter of uncertainty, as we ask the questions because we are unsure! Then again, this brings me back onto the subject of time, as we rely on this mechanism to provide us with the current time which usually our whole life revolves around. We often hear people questioning the time of day, every day and this proves the matter of the need to preserve the here and now for the fear of the unknown; the future. To some the future seems exciting but to others the mere thought of not knowing what tomorrow could bring strikes fear, and it is this sort of separation within ourselves that I want to capture using time.

On another note, you can see I enjoy rambling on and on and if none of this makes sense, then well it wouldn’t be the first time.  I’m still trying to think of ways to develop the concept aesthetically and will post about this at a later date. After final adjustments to the final PLP, I feel I have done all that I can to summarise what I intend to do and how I plan on doing it. Next steps, research!

So, yesterday I was asked to create a blog which I will continue for the next two years.. Scary stuff! I've never really had a diary so this will be completely new to me.
Started my 2nd year Degree last week which will be a big jump from the HND, but I'm definitely up for a challenge! Decided for my first brief to go down the route of the 'Contemporary Art Pathyway' as this is what I'm used to and create a piece in response to;
'Where are we from? What are we? Where are we going?'
Its all very conceptual! What are we? Well im going to spend the next month or so trying to answer that, but for now this will do for my first blog. Looking forward to the year ahead, bring it on!