Marina Abramović

Yesterday Siobhan and I were talking about the performance piece I have in mind (not in great detail though) and I mentioned Marina Abramović . I said that I had seen some of her work but never used to be fussed about it. Until recently, I didn't really consider performance art as a subject I'd dabble into. Siobhan told me there was a piece where her ex boyfriend turned up and what happened was great. I found the video she was speaking about.

Watch the video of "The Artist Is Present" here;

 

At 1:16 her ex boyfriend walks towards the chair. Remember, she can't see these people coming because she has her head down. She can only see them when they are sat in front of her. It's really beautiful.  She begins to cry and then they hold hands. Something as simple as this is just so powerful.

First Installation Idea

My mind has been buzzing with stuff for FMP recently. I've got an idea for a performance piece that I'm not actually going to perform but instead record and put onto a blank dvd. I want to do it RIGHT NOW but I'll have to wait until the weekend until I get everything I need.

I've also been thinking about installations and where my ideas might be heading. I've had little bottles with corks for ages that I was planning on crafting with. They were 99p for 6- bargain! But then overnight I had a great idea for them. I put messages (my typical indirect sweary sentences) on a teeny tiny bit of paper, threaded that through the paper and up through the cork, back down and secured it. Here are the results-

You can't see the messages here. I bunched them all together, varying the lengths, and hung them from the ceiling. On reflection, I'd spread them out more. 

Normal light didn't really have an impact with this, so I turned on the projector and focused it on the bottles. I thought the shadow was really nice and added something to it. 

Decided the whole projector light wasn't really doing anything for impact. Cut out a crap circle, as if it were a spotlight. 

This had a much better effect. 

Pictures really don't justify this. Just that bit lighten up in a dark room was really nice. I can't really explain it, but I was super excited about it. I could imagine it being a darkened area that you have to walk into with hundreds of bottles containing messages hanging up. 

I just ordered more on ebay. 30 for just over a tenner. Woop!

Screen Printing FMP

 For my FMP I'm covering techniques I have learned in the last two years. I loved screen printing in our Printmaking unit, so I was excited to try it again on my own for this unit. I went for a typography piece as my work is primarily based on words etc. I took some pics as I went along.

Flooded screen

Final Product

 I tried to combine illustration with it and I think it has worked well. The paper was fiddly and I didn't know if they ink would push through the hand cut stencil in some parts ("A Mile") and I worried a little, but I didn't have to. In total I produced 14 prints in about 30 minutes. I decided to use black as I like how bold white and black are together. The great thing about screen printing is loads of prints without having to clean it every time. Sorry about the picture quality, for some reason google shrunk my images and they are all pixely looking.