ART281 - Negotiated Learning Plan: Personal Evaluation

Back when this project started, I was under the impression that the UK had control over the pandemic, however over the course of this project I had to make many adjustments. What really detracted from my overall result is the fact that I am located so far away from the University site, and I have had medical and technical issues that have set me back. I slowly came to realise that to achieve my final outcome of a proposal would not be so simple.

Despite this, I have related my body of work back to abstract expressionism and to using the subconscious as a creative tool. The challenges I gave myself ultimately have improved upon my artistic ability, and the results and research gathered have broadened my horizons. I really enjoyed conducting the experiments, and the work that came out of them is really interesting too. If it was possible, I would have exhibited my findings alongside the actual work that was created, as I have been on a valuable learning experience that I feel would be beneficial to share.

As a result of this project, I know now that in the future I am going to always consider emotion and expression when creating any type of art. I learned that emotion naturally being projected onto a canvas through artistic mediums is always going to feel more passionate and genuine than any forced emotion. My project slowly transformed due to circumstance, and I ended up learning more about art than I ever would have expected, as the project became more oriented around my own practice and the introduction of more conceptual ideas.

ART280 - P10 - Hypothetical Live Outcome and Summary

 ART280 - Hypothetical Live Outcome and Summary

After consideration, I decided to outline my plans for the video, and what I will need to do to achieve a successful final outcome.

Summary:

• The video will be hosted on 'YouTube' if a premier is not possible.
• It will be 8 minutes long.
• I will create an ambient soundtrack for the video that will convey my outcome and fit into the overall atmosphere.
• It will include artworks made along the course of this project, and additional art will be made to allow for my creative potential.
• It will represent the Northeast's influence on the aesthetics of black metal, and the hardships and discrimination that occurs for Northern people.
• I will try to seek out collaborators to help with the video.

The next step is to create additional artworks for the video, which will be mainly figurative, with a few artworks being dedicated solely to texture alone. Then, I will make the soundtrack that will be included in it, which I will make relevant and appropriate. I am approaching the video as if it is a performance piece relative to the aggression and extremity of the black metal community. If it is safe to do so, I would like to host the video in an area such as the Shaun Project Space, which would allow an appropriately sized audience to view the film.

I also need to outline my plan in terms of gathering footage for the artwork. There are many archives with completely royalty free films that can be used under the Fair Use act that I can use, however I would like to organise a field day where I gather footage safely that can be used. This will allow me to draw comparisons between the past of the Northeast, and the present.

ART280 - P9 - Hypothetical Live Outcome

Due to how current circumstances have been with Covid-19 in the UK, I have been reconsidering how I approach a final live outcome and my themes.

In order to be safe, my final outcome will be an online exhibition. This is because booking live venues in the current climate is unpredictable as to whether it will be safe to go ahead with these events, or to cancel them under government restrictions.

I would have enjoyed to make an installation, however I feel as if I can convey a mood and atmosphere through the use of making my live outcome a video release. The video will feature my artwork alongside an experimental soundtrack, edited in a way to make the video itself an artwork. Through incorporating sound and adding motion through editing, I feel as if the black-metal 'avant-garde' atmosphere will perfectly be captured, and it will attract an extreme metal audience. 

I will decide on a platform to host the video on, and I will edit it using Final Cut Pro, which I have the most experience with. In addition to this, I can reach out and ask people in music and visual arts industries to help with the video, relating back to my theme of bringing attention to Newcastle's historical musical scene. If circumstances change, a premier could be organised that exhibits the video to an audience, where I could then receive live comments and feedback if participants wish. However, if it is still deemed unsafe, then this will be a solely online exhibition.

ART281 - Experimentation - Drawing In The Dark

For this experiment, I decided to attempt to create a drawing in the dark, consisting of my own style. So, I allowed myself a minute to prepare, and then a ten minute period of creating a drawing in darkness. This was a challenge for obvious reasons, but I was curious on how I would approach it and what the resulting work potentially could look like.

The end results of this experiment.

Over the course of the ten minutes, my eyes started adjusting to the darkness. So I could see bold, black outlines, but not the finer details. Also at the beginning I could barely see at all, which made this quite challenging. However, due to this process, the end result looks far more disturbing than what I originally had planned.

This artwork appears feral; the chaotic linework paired with areas of very high and low contrast in turn make the artwork feel more violent. The face also becomes more haunting, as features fade into the apparent dirt and hair implied by the line direction. I do realise that this artwork is not necessarily the most aesthetically pleasing, however I really am pleased with the outcome, which is inspiring me to be more bold with my mark making.

ART281 - Current Changes, and Adjustments to NLP

To say that the world has been chaotic recently is an understatement, as the government Covid-19 guidlines keep consistently changing. So after some consideration, I have decided to focus this project more on evaluating my own artstic ability, in order to keep others safe. 

My final outcome will be a reflection of my overall project, commenting upon my body of work and how I approached each work with subconscious expressionism in mind. The restrictions in each experiment force me to just create rather than think, eventually painting a picture of how my emotions take hold when producing art.

The artists I am researching a still valuable despite this change, as they will allow me to broaden my knowledge of how different abstract expressionists, conceptual artists, and performance artists think. By evaluating and comparing their work, I will have a wider range of knowledge in regards to artistic intention, and how to successfully present ideas to a viewer.

This change has affected the project, so I will reflect upon the overall success of this when discussing how my project went at the conclusion of this module.

ART281 Research - Alberto Greco

Argentine conceptual artist Alberto Greco's work focused on a deeper message rather than traditional aesthetic. Fascinated by the trivial and quotidian, he notoriously created the 'Vito Dito' ('Living Finger') series in 1962. Greco intended to draw attention to the everyday occurences of life by signing multiple people, animals, and objects. It was also recorded that he drew circles on the ground, signing his name near them, and in one instance he apparently would not let a man leave the circle.

Greco rebelled against artistic normality by not limiting himself to flat canvasses, allowing artworks to conceptually reach gigantic proportions. The seeking out and drawing attention to objects reminded me of Marcell Duchamp's infamous 1917 'ready-made' sculpture titled as 'Fountain', which boldly placed a urinal into an art gallery setting. It is interesting to see how Marcell Duchamp's work has influenced art, and how this could possibly have lead to Greco's 'Vito Dito' idea.

I also found it fascinating when reading about his personal life, and multiple controversies. For example, his first live exhibition was called '30 Mice From Neo-Figuration', which was a glass box painted black in the interior, also containing thirty mice. Due to the apparent smell, Greco subsequently had his work removed from the gallery. His dedication towards artistic intention and becoming fulfilled through his work has inspired me to consider approaching my own artwork in a more abstract manner.

His mixed media work also is inspiring me to explore using collage for this project, as it would be interesting to reflect upon how the medium allows the artist to express themselves subconsciously.

J.F. Kennedy Assassination, Act 1, 1962-1963

ART280 - P8 - Dan Seagrave: Artist Influence Reflection

Despite primarily working with death and grind metal artists, Dan Seagrave's influential works are also key in inspiring this project. Seagrave became notorious for his intensely detailed surrealist landscape work, such as for his painting for the band Entombed's 1990 release 'Left Hand Path', and during the same year, Nocturnus's album 'The Key'.

I already had seen a large amount of his work because of my passion for extreme metal music, however upon digging deeper I found a series of figurative works that Seagrave describes as 'not exactly pretty' which he created over the course of 2002. One painting in particular caught my attention, which was a 4' by 6' acrylic on canvas piece titled 'Walking The Skin'. The figure in it is distorted and almost melts into the background, implying that it is 'emerging' from it. Earthy colours highlight the pallid skull of the entity, whose head loosely faces the viewer upon their androgynous body. 

This painting really inspired me for a number of reasons, one of which was the use of lighting. There is a light source, not in frame, that is to the top right of the painting. It highlights the top of the entity's head, the right side of their body, and the top of their right arm. It highlights the skin tone of the entity which allowed Seagrave to imply, rather than outright realistically portray, areas of bone and tendon. I thought this was fascinating, and would like to explore depicting more macabre subjects with subtetly through form and tone management.

The earthy coulours are visceral, and remind me of both the human body and metal corroding over time. Also, due to Seagrave's mark making technique, it appears as if there is a scratched-up foreground which reminded me of an old photograph. I would like to experiment with these colours as I feel it would appropriately and successfully allow me to portray my own disturbing subject matter, however I will adjust my approach so my work fits more into traditional black metal aesthetics.

'Walking The Skin', 2002