aspire to enquire

Alison Czajkowskyj: Final Phase

One of the great things about being at art school is the amazing variety of work you can see going on in other courses running at UWIC. Picking out a few that run here; Illustration, Broadcast Media & Popular Culture, Product Design, or Architectural Technology, probably wouldn't be fair, because the course titles are so nebulous that they don't really do justice to the teaching content, and also, we're on a split site, so all the really funky ones like printmaking, ceramics and such, they all go on somewhere else. They have a better bar too :(

But on my campus we do have Contemporary Textile Practice, a fascinating and diverse course which is apparently one of the few of its kind in the country, and that always puts on an amazing degree show.

My girlfriend Alison is in her final year of BA CTP and has just finished the first stage of one of her major projects.

Titled Final Phase, Alison's project is re-imagining existing and often mundane objects to bring more relevance to contemporary life. 

She's focussing specifically on umbrellas. Alison's explorations of shelter and water brought her to the natural canopies that once sheltered humans from the elements – trees. Over time, these living, natural barriers have been cut back, not only causing a lack of shelter but also contributing to a changing climate, causing increased water shortages. The themes of decay, rust and mould became increasingly important as the boundary between the natural and synthetic was questioned.

She says:

"The umbrella appealed to me because being an object we are all familiar with, most of us own one, they become mundane and are overlooked.  When in fact umbrellas have an interesting history, reminiscent of many architectural constructions, both natural and man-made.  The dome like structure provides shelter and in some cultures is used to construct boats. Historically umbrellas were a sign of status and wealth, often extremely decorative and beautifully embellished.  It is this element of the umbrella I wanted to re develop, exploring the contemporary issues relating to water.  I began to explore the possibility of using an umbrella as a vessel to collect water where there is excess, conserving it for those who are without."

There are a number of materials used, including copper, felt, latex, pewter, cotton and wool. 

Final Phase questions what the next stage in the evolution of shelter will be, perhaps once humankind loses it's opportunity to nurture the natural world back to the situation we found it in. Will our own creations begin to decay beyond our own control? If we survive, what will daily life be like, and what kinds of (anti)technologies will we use?

It's a really beautiful piece of work. Ironically, Final Phase is only Alison's response to the first part of this project, with the next stage encouraging students to delve deeper into the themes they've uncovered, towards their final degree shows next June. If you're interested in following developments, you can follow Alison on twitter through @ali_chi

Mercedes Helnwein

'White Soap' 2007, © Mercedes Helnwein

I kind of feel like I should just be recommending to people that they subscribe to the awesome Lost at E Minor since that's where I pick up on most of these truly inspiring artists that I share here.

In this case, it's Mercedes Helnwein, about whom they say: "[her] pencil portraits are hyper-realistic and expressive at the same time. She stays apparently faithful to her subjects, but utilizes poses and lighting to obtain dramatic and expressive images."

I think for me it's really the lighting that strikes me. And the clothing of a lot of her subjects - it gives the scenes a sense of other-worldliness. 

I'd love to see some of this work up close, it seems like they might be absolutely huge. Well, bigger than you'd expect from a pencil drawing anyway. 

Writing, not writing

Often after returning from show visits I've tried to collect my thoughts for the purpose of this blog. Last weekend should be no exception; I've been inspired by the collective talent of D&AD New Blood, Enlightened by Interesting2008, non-plussed by Free Range, and totally blown away at the RCA Show. But on this occasion, I took no photos, and condensing the amazing work I saw into a few short posts probably wouldn't be fair.

Instead I'm posting some of the work I did when I was at i-D last summer. Only one of these made it to print, in October issue 281, and it was pretty much pulled to pieces. The other two didn't make it, for a number of reasons. Firstly, they're probably not very good. I wrote them in what I thought was the i-D Style, rather than in a manner that was appropriate to myself and the subject. And the subjects probably weren't particularly suitable for an international style magazine anyway. Nevertheless, here they are: Mario preview, Transformers preview, and Louise Bourgeois Retrospective preview.

MARIO’s got all the moves. With a heritage stretching back before 1983, he entered our lives (from the left, naturally) as a character in Donkey Kong, and rose to fame as if he’d jumped on a mushroom. The rest is multinational mascot history – He’s bounced his way through pixel-popping arcade games, the original Nintendo Entertainment System and the Game Boy, to name a few, earning a world record for biggest selling video game of all time on the way. Now he’s fixed up and looking sharp for the Wii this summer. So it looks like this plumber is here to stay.

 

TRANSFORMERS is back after 20 years to join the line of hyped-up films this summer. But it’s not just some retro spin-off – it should have enough tricks up its mechanical sleeve to have kids all over Cybertron hungry for another sequel in 20 years’ time, and the oh-so-collectable merchandising should seal the deal – the super-primed action figures are set to be this Christmas’ must have plaything. As if giant transforming robots from outta space weren’t enough, Billy Corgan’s re-formed Smashing Pumpkins represent on the soundtrack. Not so much doing the robot as blasting it straight into 2007 and beyond… best lock up your toybox.

 

Sometimes subtle, often unmissable: Seven decades into her career, Louise Bourgeois is still proving she’s ahead of her game. This season sees her building on the success of the 35ft spider installation that set the scene for the opening of Tate Modern with a new retrospective there. It’s set to showcase the paintings, sculptures and drawings that have separated her from the crowds since the 1940s, and introduce her to a whole new generation. But reaching out like this is nothing new; In 1982 she was the first woman to be given a major retrospective at MOMA, and having taught at New York’s Pratt Institute during the 60s – the art school that’s nurtured such i-Cons as Patti Smith, Paul Rand and Jeremy Scott – and standing up to be counted for the feminist movement throughout the 70s, she can safely add her name to the list of vital contemporary artists of the last 100 years. Inspiring successive generations to do their own thing, her prolific and varied works are deeply personal, referencing the life of a contemporary critic, wife and mother. 

Tim Walker

I visited the Design Museum last week to see the Richard Rogers exhibition.

Upstairs, until September 7th, which I wasn't really planning on seeing, is a fairly large exhibition of works by Tim Walker, possibly my new most favourite fashion photographer.

His work is intensely theatrical, and really lends itself towards large-scale reproduction. The colours come across in a way that you probably wouldn't appreciate in a magazine, which may be why I haven't really noticed him before, although I do have the i-D with his Lily Cole cover. A lot of his work seems to appear in European publications though, which may be another reason. That's interesting in itself - the difference in commissioned work for different editions of Vogue.

I bought a beautiful poster and intend to buy his book, and I would recommend you go along to the show if you can. Not only do you get to see some beautiful prints, but some of the sculptures from his shoots have been installed, as well as 'behind the scenes' videos, and tons of spreads from his sketch books and contact sheets. There are itineraries, props, everything you need to get a real sense of his working method and inspiration. Go!

Images from spreads taken from his agent's site, which has a load of other shots too.

Honor Bowden

Honor Bowden's line + watercolour illustrations are really beautiful. Her website is packed full of her work and lots of things to buy and download, well worth a look.

Found, as usual, via Lost at E Minor

Cardiff Characters

Popped into Dan Green's 'Cardiff: Characters' exhibition today in the Old Library, The Hayes.

It had definite potential to be a bunch of low quality (not because of Dan's work, just the subject) snapshots of the Queen Street faces and not a lot else, but I'm happy to report that the show is far wider-reaching and of a very high standard. Having said that, it is also very sympathetic to the familiar faces of the town centre. I especially like the portrait of 'toy mic trevor'

And Ben 'the statue man', Ninjah, and 'the RAC man' all make welcome appearances.

But it's not just people like that, Dan's managed to leave the City Centre and capture people from the cultural and everyday worlds across Cardiff. He's captured a group that I wasn't aware of, who meet for football every Sunday on Roath Park Rec, 'United Colours of Cardiff':

The exhibition's a lot bigger than I expected, with contributions from other artists as well as a collection of Dan's other work. There's also a widelode video that reminds me a little of the new VW advert, as well as numerous projects by uwic friends.

The captions to each portrait are upbeat and positive and really portray the sense of community and friendliness that I believe exists in Cardiff, most of the time.

Dan was the perfect chap to put this work together, he's a top bloke and has been around in Cardiff for as long as I remember, always smiling and always ready to have a good chat. His warmth towards his subjects has really helped this exhibition gain real character. I hope he can find the time to keep on documenting Cardiff in this way, I think it will be something well worth looking back on.

The value of this kind of work is proved by places like the Butetown History and Arts Centre.

The show is on 10-5 Monday to Saturday, and 10-4 Sunday, till May 29th, 1st Floor at the Old Library. Go check it out!!

Joshua Petker

I've been into the work of Joshua Petker for a while now, I thought I would share that here. He's not showing while I'm in the States later this year, which is a shame, but his website gives a taste of some of his awesome 'renaissance street art'.

Gregory Crewdson

While I was in New York t'other week I spent a day checking out some gallery shows recommended to me by the good people at Black Frame. Although I've not really ever done more than the big public galleries here in the UK, it seems like the independent art scene in NYC is far healthier and far more open to the general public, which is really good. I could be wrong, like I said I've not done enough hunting in London.

But anyway I spent a Saturday strolling through Chelsea visiting these recommended galleries, and some of the ones in between. One of which, I now know, thanks to Lost at E Minor, was Gregory Crewdson's 'Beneath The Roses'.

I don't really know why I didn't try to find out more when I was there, other than having a heap of other shows to get to, because I found his work extremely powerful. There were two in particular, in their own little room, that worked really well together. I took some bad blurry photos:

The thing that you can't really appreciate at 400 pixels wide is the haunting clarity of Crewdson's photographs. These prints were probably 4 or 5 foot across and somehow he's managed to completely remove any depth of field with objects in the background and foreground in equal crystal clear focus.

In both of these pictures there is a really interesting dialogue between the two characters and their surroundings, with so much unsaid but implied at the same time. At the risk of sounding stupidly pretentious without really knowing what I'm on about, I'll leave it there, but if you can get along to see any of his work, I'd highly recommend it. There's a book too. He's even showing in London right now!! See you there.