Invigilating the Exhibition

So me and Holly had our shift at the exhibition today, we didn't really know what to expect. We had a lot of visitors from MMU and some of my course friends came along to see it as well. Everyone was really impressed and thought the work was really good. This made me and Holly really happy to have a positive response to the work. When someone came in we explained our work and answered their questions. Kate from textiles really loved our work which I was very happy about. We also had some film tutors in who recorded some snippets of our questions answers.

Advertising

After putting up the exhibition we went around the Northern Quarter and put up some posters advertising the exhibition. We also made a Facebook event and invited everyone from our courses and anyone we thought would be interested. Quite a lot of people responded so this was a really good idea. Lizzie volunteered to design the poster which was really good of her, I think it is quite a good poster and has all the information needed. We also invited all of the Manchester School of Art tutors to the exhibition through email.

We did it!!

Wow! So today we actually finished putting up the exhibition! It feels soooo good to say that. We stuck the boards up with sticky foam pieces and hung up our acetate chains using clear fishing wire. We also wanted to change the lighting in the room as we felt that the lighting was too harsh on the eye and was not creating a very good atmosphere in the space. The kind store owner provided us with with some quirky spot lights and this added a much needed improvement! The only thing we could not get rid of was the couch.. this could not be helped but I suppose it will come in useful when we have to invidulate tomorrow!

I am really impressed with the outcome of the work. Eleanor was right, 4 A4 boards was not ambitious enough, so I am glad that she was quite hard on us as we would not have had such a good exhibition. We made sure that our best work was at eye level and that our least favourite was more towards the bottom of the wall, we also had another 3 boards on a separate wall in which we kept this theme. As a last minute thought we decided to add the name of our group and a little description about the work on the first wall you see as you come down the stairs. This will be printed off ready for the start of the exhibition tomorrow.

Putting it all Together

The group and I met bright and early on monday morning to put all of our work together. I still needed to print some of my work off so put us behind on time a little but a few other members of the group had to do this also so it wasn't as bad. The only thing that annoyed me on this day is the lack of computers in the NAD building, they were ALL taken even at 9am, when I finally found a computer to use some of the printers weren't working, so this set me back in time again. When I then went to the A4 & more store it was shut!! This was really annoying as I am usually quite organised, so I got a little stressed. However once I got everything printed in acetate it was all systems go. I felt bad for letting the group down but we just got on with it and made up for lost time. We all bought 2 A1 foam boards each. This was to mount our work with.

We started by ordering our images, we wanted to have an even spread of colour and texture. To do this we started laying out the images and seeing which images worked better together. We also wanted an even amount of each others pieces on each board. This took the most amount of time as we wanted it to be perfect. We then set up a production line type system. Some of use spray mounted the acetate pieces and others used double sided sticky tape to attach the paper based pieces to the boards. This got done very quickly and we worked well together. We were all really impressed with the outcome as when we laid all the pices out onto the table it looked really impressive!

Final Pieces

These are some of the digital pieces I created using photoshop. I am quite pleased with the outcomes as I feel that I have managed to combine quite a fashion/ textiles look with the images. Some more than others. I kept the images black and white as I wanted to add embellishments using Lizzie's colour scheme which included pinks, yellow, blues and greens. I would not usually work with these colours but as I was only using them as an accent to my work I found it more playful, and the whole idea of this project is to step out of your comfort zone! I plan to print these on acetate as I feel the light shining through the acetate will allow the images to stand out more. Also when it comes to exhibiting the work, the audience will have a greater sense of distortion when they can see their reflections on/ through the shiny, transparent material.

Meeting with Adriano

On friday we had a clash of two meetings. One was a meeting with Adriano at Fred Aldous at 3pm, and the other with Eleanor for a tutorial at 3pm. We decided it was best to split the group so that we did not miss anything and we could later let each other know what was happening via our Facebook group. Unfortunately I couldn't make either of these meetings as I had an important family arrangement that I could not miss. Thankfully, however the girls are really good with communication so I was kept in the loop.

Lizzie and Gabriella went to meet with Adriano, it was a very brief meeting as Fred Aldous was not available (as we have said plenty of times!). However Adriano introduced us to a man named Joe, who took us to a shop over the road called Incognito which has a basement available for us to exhibit our work. This was great news and a huge weight lifted off all of our shoulders.

Tutorial with Susan

Topic for Discussion: Presentation & promoting Unit x Festival

So today we met with Susan again. We originally wanted to go over our ideas and how Susan thought we could progress with our exhibition over the weekend. Also we wanted to discuss the final presentation of our work. Unfortunately this was over shadowed by some major concerns about communication within this unit. We have been quite stressed and confused by the emails we have received from some of the tutors.

So firstly, we did go to the meeting at Fred Aldous but the manager had already told us that we could not have the window space, as I explained in my last post. We didn't even know who Adriano was until we received these emails. We told Susan how we felt about the lac of organisation and communication between staff and students. She assured us that our work was heading in a great direction and that we should carry on with what we have been doing. We then discussed that we needed more collaboration within the work that we had produced, we decided to share more of our own images through Facebook, allowing us to se one-anothers images. This put a positive note to the end of a stressful tutorial.

175 Defaces of Chemistry

When I have been looking into stitching into photography and distorting our imagery I have became more enchanted by the idea of 'defacing' the face. Over the next few days I am going to experiment with this further, using the imagery that the group have shared with one another, collaging this, distorting it and then bringing in this concept of 'defacing'. However I am yet to share this idea with the group, we have a tutorial later this afternoon and then we are going to meet to discuss our ideas further straight after, I will use this time to ask them their thoughts on the idea.

de·face

 [dih-feys] 

verb (used with object), de·faced, de·fac·ing.

1.

to mark the surface or appearance of; disfigure: to deface a wall by writing on it.

2.

to efface, obliterate, or injure the surface of, as to make illegible or invalid: to deface a bond.

Maurizio Anzeri

After the last tutorial, the rest of the group and I were really keen to look into stitching into the photographs that we had already taken to create a more textured, 3D feel to the photography. I have been looking further into this over the past week and have found some interesting works by Maurizio Anzeri. He is a Graphic Designer who collects images from flea markets and car boot sales, he never actually knows the subject in his work.

"His embroidered patterns garnish the figures like elaborate costumes, but also suggest a psychological aura, as if revealing the person’s thoughts or feelings." 

The above images have been taken from a piece that Maurizio helped out on for Dazed and Confused magazine. He did not take the photographs, he just contributed the stitch to an already styled shoot. I much prefer this work than his work with vintage photographs, it is sleeker and more contemporary. 

I have found Maurizio's work very inspiring, to me the stitch looks very Spirographic. The geometric stitch is juxtaposed by the vintage photographs used as a back drop. The stitching actually transforms the photographs and almost changed the character of the subject. My group are looking at distorting the face however I like the concept of 'defacing' the face.

Tutorial

Today we had a tutorial with Susan Atkin, the topic for discussion was processes & materials. Most of the group showed up which was really good, but unfortunate for those who did not as I feel that we learnt a lot from the tutorial today and I know feel quite inspired to power through my work. Firstly we went through everyones sketchbooks to see the progress that we had individually made so far. We also discussed what our current ideas were and how we would like to go forward with these ideas.

A few of the pieces that Gabriella had created really stood out to me, we spoke about collaborating our ideas, so she is going to send me some of the images of people she has taken. She has really experimented with the idea of expression, she came up with 175 words to reflect a persons expression, personality and emotions, then drew these words on her friends face and photographed this. I was thinking about looking at this from a different angle, incorporating my idea of stitching into the face, I could stitch words into the face, using different typography. This leads me to many questions, what scale? what colour? how many words? These are just a few questions that I need to ask myself in order to move forward.

The group discussed the issue of colour today, I must say it has been at the back of many peoples minds as we have such a strong idea that we have been concentrating more on the photography side rather than the actual concept itself. I think I was possibly the only member of the group (that showed up) who has began to consciously use colour, which is evident in my machine embroidery development work.

So what I have taken form the tutorial today was that we need to use a lot more colour, even if its just experimental, also that texture and a 3D element is important and needs further development. I also plan on using more photography, combining my own work with the work of other members in the group to start to collaborate our work into a final piece.

Satin Stitch

I have drew a small drawing of a little girl in fine liner, I have then used some embroidery thread to stitch into the image. This was inspired by an artist named Hagar van hu, whom I found on Pinterest. Their way of working has really appealed to me throughout this project as I feel it links to a lot of the criteria that our group is trying to reach. Portraiture, distortion and covering the face. This is just a basic idea at the moment but I would like to discuss this further with the group in our next tutorial, bringing in the ideas of 3D and texture.

To take this idea further, it could be done on a much larger scale, on a number of different materials and textures, and also in many colour ways. This is all down to experimentation which I plan on carrying out in the upcoming days left of the project. However, our group is yet to settle on an idea for a final piece, so I will act quickly on this experimentation in order to settle on a final piece soon.

Continuation of Work

So yesterday I posted about the pastiche I was doing, I have sort of finished the piece, I did not complete the full thing as I felt the idea was translated well already and it was just an initial piece to showcase an idea that I had about creating texture within an image by stitching into it.

I dont think that this is one of the best pieces of work that I have done but it certainly portrays the concept. The concept of expression really stands out to me here. The group and I have spoken about the idea of expression, using more peculiar facial expressions than general model-like poses. We have discussed the idea of covering the face or highlighting certain areas of the face, which I will no explore. Instead of using machine stitch I am going to look into hand embroidery to see if I can create a softer texture.

Making Progress

I really feel like I am starting to make some progress finally within this unit! It has taken a while but slowly but surely it is coming along. I have dug out my sewing machine and made a start on my pastiche of  Nikos Gyftakis' work. It is coming along a lot better than I expected. The only struggle I am having so far is the heaviness of my lines and the contrast between light and dark. The face is quite hard to copy as the skin is stretched into every direction possible, so to keep one fluid line is also quite difficult. This is an image of the progress that I have made so far, I will post an image later when I have completely finished the piece.

I think that the fingers have worked the best throughout this process, however I do need to define these more, as I have only used three of the 5 colours I plan to use. It's not perfect, but it is a start! I really like the texture that this technique creates, however for me, it is not polished enough. I have also been looking into distorting the face, using my scanner at home I scanned a few images of my face to see what the outcome would be like. The final images are slightly strange and I do not think I will be taking this any further.

More Meetings!

My group decided it was important for us to meet today, so we made a last minute decision and all met in the Holden Gallery. Items on our agenda were; what was said in our tutorial? Where to go from here? and what has everyone done so far?

A lot of the group is concerned about the speed we are currently working at. Personally I would like to pick up the pace a little, as there are only three weeks left to do everything, and I am starting to panic. Here is a copy of the feedback sheet we were given.

Most of these points were already on a lot of the groups mind before we had seen this sheet, as only one of our groups members managed to attend the tutorial, as myself and Lizzie both had out CP lectures which conflicted with this. I really like the idea of adding more texture to our work, as I have said in previous posts that this was an idea that I wanted to push forward with. I may experiment with tis tonight, adding words, objects and stitching to distort the objects face, firstly I'll ask my flat mates to let me take a photograph of them!

The final comment on the sheet is 'BE MORE AMBITIOUS!' which I feel is very necessary, we are thinking too literal and not experimenting enough. Personally I feel that the final outcome should not be just one final photograph, it could possibly be a number of things, expressing all of our ideas collaboratively.

Sketchbook Work

I have been looking into a few different artists, which I have mentioned on my blog before, today I have been looking further into Nikos Gyftakis, like I said before the use of colour and expressive fluid lines really spoke to my style of work. I have attempted to recreate his way of working. The outcomes are better than I expected however still need improvement. To develop this work further I am going to try recreate his work using the sewing machine, creating the lines with stitches and the couching technique. I plan to do this as I feel it links to my textile course a lot more than what my group are doing at the moment.

Allison Diaz

Today I managed to get to the library and print off a lot of imagery that I have been meaning to get for a while now. Allowing me finally get some work down into my sketch book. I have started by looking into our initial idea about the 175 project, taking photographs of peoples faces. So I found a artist named Allison Diaz. I have been stalking her blog today and found out a lot about the images I found of her work.

The meaning behind what she has done is really intriguing and interesting and really challenges you to think deeper into the photographs. This leads me into our Unit X project, we could ask the person in the image what they think their most recognisable feature is, what they like/ hate about themselves most, or even what is the first thing they see when looking at someone? I tried Allison's technique with just two images that I had collected. I think the outcome works well, however I am interested to see how three images could look like with different races, ages and genders in the mix.

Stitch & Photography

So my group have decided to go down more a photography route.. so i have been looking at ways in which I can still incorporate my style into the images and maybe enhance/ distort the images. I found this great images from Hagar Van Hu on Pinterest. The artist has used stitch to distort the image and enhance it. I love the first images of the faces, as our group plans on hiding the face/ exaggerating something that the person in the image does not like about themselves. I just thought this idea was quite different to what we have been currently looking at and slightly more on my level.

Communication within Collaboration

Our group for this Unit have done quite well I feel with communicating with one another so far throughout this project. We have a group of Facebook which we use to share our blogs, pinterests, ideas and we also discuss meeting up. This morning before our lecture we decided to meet up for a quick coffee and to just update one another on what our thoughts are, if we are on the same track and where we think we can take the project. We are starting to become more aware of the little time we have left.. and starting to panic a little. Personally I feel that I have done a considerable amount of research so far and NEED to start drawing and developing my ideas. After speaking to the rest of the group my mind has been settled a little as we all feel that we are in the same boat.

We have been thinking about our final piece, which I feel is still a little early to think about. However we are thinking about have a photography outcome, using different images of peoples faces and exaggerating this persons insecurities or something that they love about themselves. These will be collaged and mounted onto A1 paper. Although, this is just an initial idea, we are going to book a room within the photography course and start taking images and we will them separately work on the images ourselves, but checking up on each others blogs to see if our work is relating to one another.

Also we have made ourselves a time table as uni have not provided us with one this term. We have set deadlines which I feel is very important as we have goals to meet and we do not want to let one another down. I am currently in the process of printing out my research imagery and responding to this. I plan on working into my images with the sewing machine and seeing what outcomes I can create with this technique.

Nikos Gyftakis

Another artist which I found myself on Pinterest is Nikos Gyftakis. He has created a number of self portraits using a fluid-like technique. It looks to me that he has used oil pastels to create these using a large scale of colour.

His portraits are so life like and fluid. I am going to try and re-create this type of drawing myself to see what outcome I can get, although these will not be self portraits, they will be portraits of other people, and I think that I will try and incorporate some of my textiles style into it by using couching to create the fluid lines that Nikos has used. I will use different threads and thickness' of stitches to create this. I believe that this could look quite interesting as a lot of the work that I have been looking at this past week have been more embroidery based.

Ernesto Artillo

One of the girls in the group posted an image from an artist she had found and I thought it was extremely inspirational. So I looked a bit further into the artist and found a few images that I thought related well to our project and could help us develop our concept further.I find these collages really interesting as they are very abstract, this is something I would like to look into myself.