memory. language, art. wittgenstein. books. ceramics.

all sorts of thinkings on memory, language, art, wittgenstein, books, etc, while I am getting on with my MA

Thursday 22 July 2010

A quick visit: V&A

Some ideas for my myth, mapping journeys, quests, etc.





Kupferstichkabinett at White Cube





Kupferstichkabinett: Between Thought and Action 8 Jul—28 Aug 2010


White Cube Hoxton Square is pleased to present Kupferstichkabinett: Between Thought and Action. Looking at the pivotal role of drawing in current practice, the exhibition features over 200 works on paper by some of the most significant artists working today.

The German term 'Kupferstichkabinett' describes the special collection of prints and drawings within a museum, 'kabinett' originally deriving from the small space within a castle where personal collections were kept by the wealthy and aristocratic. These regal compilations of art on paper were generally encyclopaedic in scope and served as the precursors to public museum collections.

As a medium, drawing covers a range of attitudes in art, from the immediate, intimate and subjective to investigative, analytical and narrative. Joseph Beuys described it as 'a thinking medium', both as a catalyst for processing thought, and as work in its own right. This selection of drawings and prints traces a range of subjects, including: 'Ideas Generation', where artists use the immediacy of drawing as a means to prepare and refine a concept; 'Systems, Architectonics and Abstraction', in which predetermined rules, structures and methods govern the form of the image; 'Expressions of Anatomy', where intimate portrayals of the figure assume a central position; 'Graphic Narratives / Surreal Legacies', featuring imagery from the fantastically bizarre to the comically illustrative; and 'Historia', which examines how drawing has been used to question the role of photography in the mediation and construction of historical memory.

Kupferstichkabinett: Between Thought and Action features work by 55 artists, including Bruce Nauman, Lucian Freud, Antony Gormley, Raqib Shaw, Gabriel Orozco, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Gary Hume, Luc Tuymans, Georg Baselitz, Miroslaw Balka, Tracey Emin, Mona Hatoum, Damien Hirst, Anselm Kiefer, Julie Mehretu and Rachel Whiteread, amongst others. A fully illustrated catalogue, with a text by the exhibition's curator Susan May, Creative Director, White Cube, will accompany the exhibition.

Walls covered with fine examples of profound scribling. I did enjoy it so much. There is a certain immediacy in drawing; there is energy pouring out. You cannot achieve that with printing: the process of printing involves a mechanical barrier between the viewer and the hand of an artist . Looking through the glass.


Center: Anthony Gormley, Breathing Room, 2007

Fred Tomaselli, Portrait of Marjorie, 1995



Center: Rachel Whiteread, Untitled (Steps), 1994
This one is shown the other way round in the catalogue. Is that intentional?


Then... my battery went flat again: all I have is those pathetic mobile snaps of the remaining favorite bits.

Anselm Kiefer, Unfruchtbare Landschaften, 2010

Tobias Putrih, QR/x3, 2007
The intimacy of this one is fantastic! The viewer cannot see the work from the distance, because it is so light. But as one comes close, and gets to see the lines, they loose the overall picture. The viewer is left with the fragment.

Darren Almond, Impression, 2010, Thumb press relief on silk-screened paper
Berlinde De Bryyckere, 2002








I have even invested £25 into the exquisitely produced catalogue! It's a shame, not all the drawings are included into it and not all of the artists are represented there.


Wednesday 21 July 2010

my work: monomyth journey I-1



"Mapping the Myth of My Own I"
journey 1

Mapping human experience. Where do I come from. What is the path. What is left of the source. The metomorphosis.

In simple words: I am taking personal knowledge (
dealing with disappointment, anger, difficult relatives, search for the grail ) as a background; I try to explain it and structure it using monomyth.

The drawings are a map. They represent (rather than depict) schema of the events
.
















PS: Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience. His philosophy is often summarized by his phrase: "Follow your bliss."

Joseph Campbell's term monomyth, also referred to as the hero's journey, refers to a basic pattern found in many narratives from around the world. This widely distributed pattern was described by Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949).




my work: monomyth journey I-2







"Mapping the Myth of My Own I"
journey 2

Mapping human experience. Where do I come from. What is the path. What is left of the source. The metamorphosis.

In simple words: I am taking personal knowledge (
dealing with disappointment, anger, difficult relatives, search for the grail ) as a background; I try to explain it and structure it using monomyth.

The drawings are a map. They represent (rather than depict) schema of the events
.











PS: Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience. His philosophy is often summarized by his phrase: "Follow your bliss."

Joseph Campbell's term monomyth, also referred to as the hero's journey, refers to a basic pattern found in many narratives from around the world. This widely distributed pattern was described by Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949).




my work: monomyth journey I-3



"Mapping the Myth of My Own I"
journey 3

This is all about mapping human experience onto the structure of monomyth. Taking my personal knowledge (dealing with disappointment, anger, difficult relatives, search for the grail ) as a background; I try to explain it and structure it using monomyth.

The drawings are a map. They represent (rather than depict) schema of the events
.

Trying to map the workings of my mind.







PS: Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience. His philosophy is often summarized by his phrase: "Follow your bliss."

Joseph Campbell's term monomyth, also referred to as the hero's journey, refers to a basic pattern found in many narratives from around the world. This widely distributed pattern was described by Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949).







my work: monomyth journey I-4


"Mapping the Myth of My Own I"
journey 4

Mapping human experience. Where do I come from. What is the path. What is left of the source. The metamorphosis.

In simple words: I am taking personal knowledge (
dealing with disappointment, anger, difficult relatives, search for the grail ) as a background; I try to explain it and structure it using monomyth.

The drawings are a map. They represent (rather than depict) schema of the events
.








PS: Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience. His philosophy is often summarized by his phrase: "Follow your bliss."

Joseph Campbell's term monomyth, also referred to as the hero's journey, refers to a basic pattern found in many narratives from around the world. This widely distributed pattern was described by Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949).

Tuesday 20 July 2010

my work: T.S.Eliot Waste Land



"Reading Eliot"
handbound edition of 25
2010
When reading complicated writing, sometimes, we drift away. A line from a poem may trigger a memory, and we stay with the thought, while turning the pages of the book, and not seeing the words. We get to the end and we realise, that we had not read much, really. We remain with a few lines of the poem interlaced with a list of our things-to-do, drops of memory and random springs of thought.










Monday 19 July 2010

my work: monomyth journey II

"Mapping the Myth of My Own II"


Mapping human experience. Where do I come from. What is the path. What is left of the source. The metamorphosis.

In simple words: I am taking personal knowledge (
dealing with disappointment, anger, difficult relatives, search for the grail ) as a background; I try to explain it and structure it using monomyth.

The drawings are a map. They represent (rather than depict) schema of the events
.
.














I like those drawings. They look like they hold some sort of truth in them. However, I will have to narrow down in the future.

Saturday 17 July 2010

Camberwell final MA Show







?




It's that time of the year again, when some students finish their arts degrees and proudly display their fantastic and not so very fantastic work for the scrutiny of the public.

I went in to see our MA show today and - well - there was some truly sensitive and beautiful work.

First, I saw Designer Maker. I have a soft spot for them, because that was the course, which had also offered me a place and I chose not to take it. I have never stopped wondering, if I did the right thing.



Julia Bailey had a totally surreal dreamworld. She does ceramics and she combined that with a video projection, resulting in a very poetic and dreamlike experience.
It was really good to talk to Julia. I saw her presentation during Symposium 2 and I got curious about her work. She is part-time, like me, and she seemed to have gone through the same kind of experience: from being all over the place to narrowing down her range. Seeing her final pieces was a great encouragement, that my work might end up somewhere good too :-)







Jessica Zoller had a multitude of china cups, illuminated from behind or with tiny led lights. A bit like Bodo Sperlein fairy lights, only more grown up, more sophisticated.


They also had another room for the designer-makers: the one with a table and some other stuff. There was something by somebody that I liked, however, as I pulled out the camera, they were very quick to warn me, that photography was not allowed in that room. Totally bizzare, I thought! I assumed they were there to promote themselves!



Anyway, fine art had some interesting and clever pieces. My favorite was Naiomi Uchida. I loved her scroll. Maybe it is the possibility of beautifully produced simple narrative that I liked so much. Oh - and it is in the New Contemporaries!



Jim Threapleton - I did not take a photo of his work, because my camera was discharging. So this is from the Camberwell website.

Paul Gale's and Alexander Daniel's work was left unphotographed too, because of the flat battery (since I had my camera fixed, it's battery discharges very quickly!)

Paul Gale used to work with deterioration and degradation of materials, before he moved onto deterioration of mind, mental illness.


Daniel Alexander used to make extraordinary vegetable prints. Now he takes photos with a pinhole camera and makes etching out of them.They are so much more complex and sophisticated. You can really spend time looking at them and into them.




Here are some illustrators I liked.

Luca Pizzari



I-Ying Yeh


Petra Kneile



And finally - last but not least - here is our Book Arts table! People have been saying how strong our show was!




Erin's (Erin K. Schmidt does not have a website) table wins 10 out of 10 for display. There is also a stunning boa made of feathers, printed with diary - to complete the setting (how could I not take a picture of that!). I like Erin's work for it's bravery and shameless honesty, wrapped up in this very sensitive design. Well done, Erin!

Roland (Roland Brauchli) had this heavy ball on autocopy paper. A visitor would pull the paper and the ball would roll, leaving a mark on the next sheet. Very clever interpretation of chance.





And this is Michelle Mulherton's miniscule life fragments.

I will put a separate blog for the Book Arts MA show a bit later...