Steve Rood - Photography

Steve Rood is a photographer and lecturer at MIT. Steve spoke of how his life changed from a picture he took when he was 10 years old, which really interested me because who would have thought that at such a young age, one action could have a great impact on your future? On Steve’s website, the 3 aspects that really caught my attention were Pour, Dark and Live your Life.

I was really interested in Steve’s Pour photographs because of how he caught the continuity of the liquid as it was poured out of the bottle. Even though the photographs look simple, the actual process Steve had to go through to produce this image was very difficult, where it really tested his patience and endurance.

With the photographs from the Dark category, I was intrigued by how Steve made the vegetables look very capturing. I think the way Steve placed the vegetables and how he used the lighting to focus more on the onions pulled me in to actually look closer.

In Steve’s Live your Life category, I really liked his photographs because of how he intentionally blurred the figures. When I look at these photographs, they make me feel happy for some reason. I’m not sure why this is, but I guess some things we feel don’t need an explanation?

One artist I noticed who has works that are similar to Steve’s was Andy Small. Similar to Steve’s Dark photographs, Small also photographs vegetables and makes them look really eye-capturing, yet unlike Steve’s realistic and sketchy photographs, Small takes a more bright and colourful approach. I really liked Small’s photograph of the inside of a cabbage because of how the squiggly lines remind me of when you start mixing paint together, it forms that milky way type of look.

Emma McLellan & Xavier Meade - Printmaking

Emma McLellan gave a lecture about her practice of printmaking and her influences and inspirations. McLellan spoke about how she was very interested in intricately designed wallpapers and animals, which influenced her work. What I really liked about McLellan’s works was that she used layers and layers of screen-prints on top of each other, which I thought must have been very hard to do, because aligning the screen on top of a print already done is quite difficult. I was surprised and to be honest, weirded out at some of McLellan’s works where she morphed several different animal parts together.

We also had a lecture from Xavier Meade, who works in screen-printing also. It was exciting, yet difficult to understand whenever Meade spoke, because of his heavy accent, but from what I could gather, Meade’s works really interested me. Unlike McLellan’s works where she uses realistic animals to create wallpaper type designs, Meade used screen-printing to make posters. Meade spoke of how he had a great passion for posters, and how this influenced his work. I was really interested in Meade’s statement about the people in Mexico having problems with reading, which was why most of their signs and posters relied heavily on the images rather than the text. I think it’s great that Meade uses this cultural context to drive his own works because it would benefit not only Mexican people, but also other people from different countries, which would break that language barrier.

In this image is a pottery design by William De Morgan, which I thought reminded me of McLellan’s animal works, because of how the figures are placed, and how decorative it looks. I like this piece of artwork because of the bright colours, and also because it somehow makes me think of those great Michael Angelo stained glass paintings.

Nathan Suniula - Personal Response

This week, Nathan Suniula gave us a lecture about his works and the inspirations or history behind it. Nathan spoke about how he was interested in the physical properties and the language of paintings whenever he saw them. The idea of curiosity and asking questions, “why” was something Nathan related to greatly, which made me start asking myself questions about my own works. I was surprised when Nathan talked about how his works express an event that disrupts a field. For some reason, I jumped to the conclusion that Nathan’s works consisted of lines and arrows. However, I found it creative how he not only mixed physics with art, but also with his Samoan background. I really liked Nathan’s works with the ie toga, because despite Nathan’s context behind his works, the ie toga itself has its own story.

I guess Nathan was right when he said that as a Pacific Islander, people seem to think that you make Pacific art, which ends up almost pulling you into that direction despite your initial ideas. It was great to see that Nathan didn’t completely steer away from the ie toga in his new works, but instead developed it further by dragging a nail or comb into the wet paint to represent the fine weave. I really like how Nathan’s works are so thick, that where the comb has scratched some of the paint off, the residue still remains, which makes the painting look more dynamic and almost 3D.

An artist that Nathan mentioned was William Turner, and his Fishermen at Sea painting. I noticed a few similarities in Turner and Nathan's works, with the colour palette and the brush strokes. When you look closely at the way Turner painted the sea, it almost looks like the lines Nathan makes in his paintings with a comb or nail. I really like this painting because it reminds me of the bible story where Jesus calmed the storm.

Mary Curtis - Display

Mary Curtis gave a lecture about how the idea of display is important in her practice. Similar to Fran Allison, Curtis also collects everyday household materials and objects such as Tupperware, kitchen cutlery and also brooches. In an exhibition Curtis was working on, she used large glass cases to house her small works inside, where she experimented and played with the space. I think this was an interesting approach to displaying work, because naturally, when you think of a large glass case, you would assume that the work inside would be quite large. I really like the way Curtis used the glass case to play with space, because it causedme to wonder “why” which is a good thing for artists. You want people to actually think and question not only your artwork, but how it is displayed, instead of just looking at it and understanding it straight away.

I remember going to FRESH Gallery in Otara to see Leilani Kake’s work, Nga Hau e Wha - The Four Winds, and feeling “bombarded” with naked women floating in water. No matter where I turned, there was a woman right there, which meant I either had to close my eyes or just look. By displaying the works through a projector onto all four walls, it was like Leilani was forcing me to view her work, which impacted the way I viewed it greatly. Instead of feeling uncomfortable and seeing it as something explicit, it almost made me feel quite soothing, which sounds pretty wrong (which I’m not trying to imply). If it was displayed in a larger room with only one projector facing one wall, I guess I would have walked straight out, because I’ll feel like I can.

Fran Allison - Collaboration

Fran Allison gave a lecture about her practice as a jeweller and working in a collaboration. Her works are inspired by ready-made or found objects that she takes and distorts or repurposes to create jewellery. I really admire how Allison can take something we see everyday, ugly or pretty, and turn it into something great that we can wear to almost anything.

I found all of Allison’s works innovative and beautiful, but the one work that stood out for me was the Doily Daisy Chain, 2007 made from recycled and reformatted white crocheted doilies and lollipop sticks. I really liked this work because it brought back childhood memories of when my cousins and I would go out and pick the little flowers on the grass, and make necklaces and bracelets to give to the girls.

River of the Moon: Room of Lovers - Rebecca Horn

One of the artists that Allison mentioned had an influence on her work was Rebecca Horn. In her work River of the Moon, I noticed that it looked similar to Allison's work of her brushes on the bathroom floor, in the sense that she has used everyday objects and placed them in a room.

Allison worked within the Weeds Collaboration, which she said started to have an impact on her practice, going from household items to cake and biscuit tins to actual weeds. I think this is an important statement because whether we plan to or not, when working in a collaboration, we become influenced by those we work with. Personally, I think there are positives and negatives when it comes to collaborating. When in a collaboration, you are able to feed off each others ideas, and construct something big and great. In contrast, collaborations can cause you to steer off your own practice, which could result in you making art more for what other people want, rather than what you want.

Richard Orjis & Rebecca Hobbs

This week, we had lectures from Richard Orjis and Rebecca Hobbs. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it in time for Orjis’ presentation but from what I managed to catch really interested me. The Youtube clip of Orjis on The Gravy gave me a clear insight on his passions and how he channels them through his practise. Orjis said that he was really interested in Pagan rituals, and it clearly showed with his use of performance and coal during his exhibition.

Orjis is also interested in Robert Rauschenburg, Terence Koh, Andy Warhol and Frances Upritchard. I had a look at Terence Koh’s work and noticed that Orjis and Koh’s works looked quite similar, but different. In Koh’s work, Warhol remains as a Chinese Winter Garden in my heart (Self Portrait) 2006, Koh has covered himself with what looks like white paint or flour with a white background, whereas in Orjis’ work, Arron (2008). Orjis has used coal and a black background.

In Orjis’ photographs of people with coal rubbed all over them, the use of the black coal on the person makes it look as if he is trying to camouflage himself into the black background. I guess for Orjis, through photography, he is able to channel his passion of Pagan rituals.

Rebecca spoke about her interest and passion towards dancehall and how the dancehall movement came about. I really liked Rebecca’s video of a girl walking over a bridge in South Auckland where she would bust a dancehall move. I found it quite normal for some reason. I guess the fact that the people in the background didn’t seem to notice the girl dancing, played a big part to the actual video. What really interested me though, was that Rebecca was so passionate about dancehall, that she actually practises it also. Just goes to show how passionate Rebecca really is about dancehall.

I admire Rebecca, because to be honest, I don’t really know what I’m passionate about. I seem to like everything to a point. For example, I used to be passionate about the guitar, where I would play almost everyday until I learnt how to play the bass. I really like dance, music, building, sports etc, but passionate? I don’t know. I guess I’m still yet to find that something I’m truly passionate about. Maybe this is why my works always change.

Tiffany Singh (Colour)

In Tiffany Singh’s works, she uses the colours that are found in the rainbow, which are ROYGBIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet). Personally, I think the colours Tiffany uses, not so much make up the work, but essentially ARE the work. From the images Singh showed us, in every or most of her works, the same colour pattern is repeated, but in a different way. From a linear arrangement to the circular arrangement she’s doing at the moment, Singh has recycled and reuse the same colours. I liked Singh’s use of the rainbow colours because it allows any audience- young or old, to engage with her work.

I also liked the idea of using the 7 colours of the rainbow because it can take many different meanings. Take the rainbow for starters. When I was young, every time I would see a rainbow, it would remind me of the Great Flood in the Bible and how the rainbow appeared at the end, almost like a sign that everything bad was now over. I guess everyone has their own interpretations of the rainbow and how it makes them feel.

Similar to Tiffany Singh, Dan Kennedy uses a rainbow-ish colour palette in his paintings. This piece, Darwin’s Ghosts (older than dirt), 2008 gives me a sense of childlike, Willy Wonka kind of feeling, where everything is “tasty.” I really like this piece because although it looks friendly and fun, there seems to be a dark side to it with all of the images compiled together, because it makes me wonder as to why you would go to so much trouble putting all those images together, unless there was something behind it you were trying to hide.

When I was 7, my favourite colour was blue. At 9 years old, it was red, 10 years, brown. I found it really hard to choose one specific colour as my favourite. Maybe the reason why I don’t seem to have a favourite colour so much is because of the rainbow. I always seemed to change my answer whenever someone would ask me about my favourite colour. Thinking back to it, I sort of wish I said rainbow, because deep down, my favourite colours are all those 7 colours.