Thurday 27 October 2011

Today we had an two lectures that came to our class to talk about what there passionate about and what they do when they research into that idea and how they can developing it or extending those idea to its limit. Richard Orji’s idea was amazing why? Because I never knew that artist can use cult for a ritual in his work. Mr. Orjis is a photography and a sculpture, his artwork is about conflicting about humans and mother earth nature that deals with physical and psychological that there are not created or being controlled by humans and that his work is about rituals with this mysterious feeling while watching his video called the gravy is a non-existent shadowy group of mysterious people covered in mud or cult completing his ritual he did to summon nature. He was very passionate about his artwork how he was working with lots of different things, but everything he did he would stay in the same place but it revolve around ritual, religious, cult, human and nature. This can also relate to how I can be passionate about, because I love exploring a lot of things about my culture, my religious and how I can become an better artist. What I love about his art is how he seeks to connect contemporary things like culture with cult, human and nature, and bringing in religious ritual that all connects to what his form of art means. His passionate also relates to another lecture that came to our class today, her name is Rebecca Ann Hobbs and she came to talk about what is she working on and how we can we research, so she showed us how we can start of like having an beginning and a ending, so she talked about her work on this project she is working on till now, about sounds, and stuff that relates to sex and aids. This video that I snap shot of YouTube is the video that Rebecca show to the class. What I do understand is that this video that Rebecca showed us, is what she wants to work on and how she is researching, many things that relate to music and sex. This also can help me with my situation, I am passionate in knowing my own culture and this strategy is keep researching a lot of things that contains information about my culture or relate my artwork to other artist. This is what I want to do when I am have a degree is to know my own kind, where I came from, because I was born in N.Z and I wasn’t raise in the island and this is why I am passionate to do.

Steve Lovett

On the 13^th October we had a lecture name Steve Lovett, he came to talk to us about his development through his art practice works, where he has been exploring the formal qualities of the point of art and that the point of his Art relates back to sending people an message with Art, or the message is to be send in some kind of Art form language in my opinion. Steve has already made or printed; he printed images that are about the history of representation and the polilitics associated, his primary concerns are with the time and narrative forms and that his practice has been about history and story telling. It is how we participate in public space that surrounds us to become part of Steve practice what he calls it public discourse and historical record. His motivation for his own practice is the people that he communicates with for his practice. On this picture is an Artwork form Steve, it is called the Millennium walking. His artwork on the billboard is a transcription of series and he has been interviewing a lot of his volunteers, which had participated to his practice. Steve has engaged into his practice because his practice relates to what he had been about in my opinion history and telling story. While Steve was collaborating he spent time listening to stories and having a conversation, and in that billboard is the people that volunteered to tell there story. The reason why I choose this billboard that Steve has created is that his Artwork theory makes me understand about how he works with identity too in his practice. And how his movement through his Art practicing increases with the motivation he has of collaborating with other people that would volunteer in his practice.

Tiffany Singh

On the 14^th October we had a lecture with Tiffany Singh, an artist that is alive with her artwork, through the meaning of colours. Singh has transformed her artwork by interacting with a lot of people and has been working extensively. She has also been volunteering working in Aotearoa, India and Nepal and especially Samoa. Her practice is sculpturing and she also uses music and in her artwork she uses wax to make Buddhism and other religious stuff in her art. (My view) In her practice she uses a formula she made up for her practice, Singh is very interested at what people would do if they exchange stuff for her artwork. The colour she uses in her practice reminds me of the colour of the rainbow and that her art is also seems to feel so alive is because of the colours she uses in her practice. Singh also says ‘that the colour is what blinds everything together’ I really don’t understand but I have a feeling what she means by it. Every time I look at a colourful paper my eyes seems to can’t stop staring un-till my eyes start to blur and that I can’t see straight. But in her case she uses the seven chakras system, (my point of view) a meditation method use from monks to concentrate to adapt energy inside of them. They use nature or elements or religious stuff. This is the meaning to the colours she uses in her practice is that when she makes an sculpture of the virgin Mary and other gods she uses the colours to embrace the Gods (which means every colour has a meaning to its own purpose).

My favourite colour is Green because it’s the colour of freedom. The reason why I choose this colour is that its one of my personal life and that it would stop the discrimination around the world and stop wars like killing other people or judging others and that this colour would bring us together as one.

Fran Allison

Last week on the 6^th October we had a lecture, her name is Fran Allison and contemporary New Zealand jeweler. Her practice involves a lot of collaborate, she also specialize jewelry. Fran is interested in collecting pre-existing objects, that relates to her work. Some objects that she finds comes with an already established history and once Fran finds these objects she then likes to mess with the history/ reading in some way, and that it challenges her to reconstruct the figure found fragments that she obtain. Her most recent jeweler addresses ideas of re-formatting past and history. In her collaborate history, she work with many artists; she is also in a group called Weed (a group of New Zealand artist involves in objects and jeweler), collaborate is a group of artist with many different unique ideas, it is important if you are going to work with partners because you must participate and co-operate as one. Fran describe how collaborate works, she is interested in making work and progress and listening to other peoples ideas and giving tips to how they could develop that idea. I like how Fran uses collaborate because I can understand the aspect of it and how she is influence from many areas including other artist that associated with her. I found this inspiring myself because having an team is good, because they help you improve skills, they also develop your ideas and push it even further, I really do like Fran’s artwork because working with a group of artist, working together as one team is a BIG influence, because you can also look up to one another and be by each other sides.

Filipe Tohi and Deborah Crowe

On the 29th September, we had a lecture that came to our class, she talked to us about her practice and how it work. She also talked to us about her experiment, ideas/themes, and her research, what materials she uses, relationships and outcome/outputs. Crowe love for art is amazing she has made art unbelievable. Crowe done her research, her artwork in sculpture is something, when I first saw Crowe artwork, I believe it was beautiful, the structure of her metal/steel weaving because she also told us 'she also loved constructing weaving'. In her weaving she likes to use many random materials/media like use of light, wood, steel, metal, text, patterns, flowers and other things that relates to her practice. Crowe also loves large things like scaffolding, fabric and frame structure of a building or a bridge too, she also has this weird interest thing when she was little, she got locked into a cabin or something, and she would imagine herself in another world, where she thinks and uses her imagination. Crowe big influence was her mother, she was a very good sewer and weaver as she made and repaired their clothes when they were little.

After Deborah Crowe talk, we went to a Gallery in Mangere Town Centre called Nga Tohu o uenuku. This Artist we went to see was similar to Crowe artwork but the material they use were completely different but they were also sculpture artist. The artist name was Sopolemalama Filipe Tohi; he immigrated into New Zealand in 1978, and has been sculpturing wood, stone and steel since 1992. His artwork explores the pattern of lalava, an old Island tradition, using of joining and binding materials together. One of his artwork was a lalava/ sennit Haukafa; it is the name of Tongan tradition binding methods. The lalava is usually done with two colors, while weaving. “My work transforms the technology of the past into a modern representation of identity and experience.” Yes I really do I agree what Filipe saying, he is transforming his ideas and making/ expressing the Polynesian heritage, while he is constructing many new things that relates to what he wants to do for the community. Like I said again I really LOVE, and admire this artist artwork. I love his passion to art and how he expresses it in his own way.

Grant lecture and a trip to the new re-built Auckland Gallery

On Thursday 8th September we had Grant for today lecture and he came to talk about form and function. He said 'dose form follows function' or 'function follows form'. "In my point of view, I believe that form follows function because without function the form will be useless and wont exist." (Here is an formula that Grant showed me.) It represents form follows function.

Grant showed us many examples like, water falls, Jugs, buildings, chairs etc. The reason why he showed us these examples is to make us understand that form is nothing with out function. He also told us about a man called Bauhaus and Louis Sullivan, Louis was the one who figure out to prove that form follows function, he said 'high buildings lacked unity. They were built up in layers' and with the layers he used to build a skyscraper in 1890.

My first time visiting the Auckland Art Gallery, and my impression for the gallery BLEW my head away because all I could do is say WOW! its freak-en AMAZING! all I did is look left, right, up, and down, felt like my world was spinning too fast. All I can say in my head that everything was here, the building was good, the style of the building was excellent and the Artwork was outstanding. In my head I said, this is the Gallery I love the most! While I was walking around the building something hit me that I couldn't stand in one spot and all I could do is keep moving and moving because looking at the building and art work kept me going. It felt like I wanted to start over again from where I started.

Emma Mclellan and Xavier Meade and another artist that relates

THURSDAY 1st SEPTEMBER 2011

In this lecture we were fortunate to have two artist, one was an male and the other one was an female, they come to present there Artwork, they are both do print making but there ideas they showed to us are not similar from what I expected. The male name is Xavier Meade, an poster designer, his print making way is pop art. His project was to respond to the idea of myths and legends, creating twelve posters that tell of legends and contemporary political myths, challenging our complacency with war, the planet, colonization and life. It tells a story allowing to tell their tale in Maori, spanish and english.

Emma Mclellan

The female Artist name was called Emma Mclellan and her ideas were about animals mutation. The reason why Emma choose to use animal as her art practice is because she was influenced by animals behavior and human behavior, especially patterns, wallpapers and fabric. The technique that Emma uses for her practice is painting and a print screen with papers and panels, and layers of paint than masked it with patterns(victorian dress patterns). What I love about Emma artwork is that how she explores her curious hybrid animals and duplicate her paint practice on the board.

Sarina Brewer

I also found another Artist that relates to Emma artwork, her name is Sarina Brewer an artist and naturalist, and she the deepest respect for animals too, the same as Emma Mclellan, but the difference between Sarina Artwork and Emma Artwork, is that both artist practice are different. Emma dose screen printing, but Sarina dose sculpture, using animal parts. (My view) "What I love about Sarina artwork is that her work looks beautiful but scary at the same time. I don't hate what she dose but her artwork gives me the creeps, and its also freaky when i look at the animal sculpture. But i really like how the animal mutated its pretty awesome and amazing.

Auckland Museum Trip

Visiting the Auckland Museum was amazing and funny at the same time, we had this guy take us around the museum, he talked and described about a lot of things around the museum, but the most funny stuff he included while he was speaking about was handles, windows, slide windows, hingers and other stuff. He almost talked about everything i walked pass and touch around the museum. Its funny however he was so full of life, energetic, active and when I look into his eyes while he was talking about the figure it made me realize that Art is still alive, how he describe the figure, the form, the function of the object, it made me understand. I really enjoy his speeches while walking around the museum, but my favorite part of the museum was the Island nation, it showed me a lot I didn't know about.

Dion, Bill and James collaboration

On Thursday 25th August we had Three Artist that came to the class that day to talk about what they do and what they did in Melbourne. The Three Artist names were Dion Hitchens, Bill Rile and James Ormaby. While i was listening to Dion, Bill and James talking among themselves, my mind was focus on their logo/symbol that James told us and also said something like chaos which relates to all of our work and that i still couldn't understand. (This logo/symbol/code Z=Z2+C) This is the code that got me thinking a lot! it made me frustrated and confused, I also research the code and all i got from it was a lot of mathematic equation and it still made no sense at all. They also talked about their project (SEEK) a collaborative project that they have shown at the Melbourne Art Gallery exhibition in Australia. In this show, the three Artist combined their Art work in one BIG Gallery, with Dion an Sculpture Artist, Bill an Painter Artist and James an Drawer Artist. In my point of view I think that team work is very handy because with team work you can push your ideas further and with friends around they can give you advice and help you develop that idea even further, for example "Dion said something about his art work relates to James art". The exhibition was called the BIG BLACK BOX, the reason why they called it that name is to make people think whats inside the box and to attract many audience to there exhibition. All i can say while they were sowing us there artwork in Australia it was amazing made me feel that i was their at there show. The materials they use was good, the construction of their work was good and the space they use was good as well. Inside the BIG BLACK BOX, i thought it was empty in first, but when the lectures showed us what they did inside, it was AMAZING looking at Dion sculpturing and Bill artistic skills and James ideas of developing. But most of their stuff in there art were donated by the community and little kids, and in return there stuff became part of art in the exhibition. I like the way how they have communicated with other people in the community in Australia because its good to get other people involve with Art and i like the way they think, how they didn't spend thousands of dollars on expensive stuff but instead they use what they got from the kids and the community.

Dion Hitchens

James Ormsby

Bill Riley

Eldon Booth and The Movie Elephant

On thursday 18th August, one of an old student from M.I.T that use to study here, came to our class and told us what he dose and love to do in his life. His name is Eldon Booth an film screening, his techniques are to deal with experimental films and to investigate film conventions of documentation/ drama techniques that he looks in to fact and fiction. What I thought about Eldon mix of fact and fiction experience was useful because he gave showed us ideas, to make short films. He gave us experience how to shoot short films, by showing us examples from his channel and his work that he has been working on. While I was watching his short films, I did not know what was his footage was about but as i follow through I started understanding what was short films about. Eldon showed us a lot of useful shots that he told us, how to use the camera, the angle of the camera, wide shots, long shots etc.. I know this because he is my teacher in studio. I like Eldon work because he inspirers me not to give up in class and keep working on when he tells us funny jokes.(he talks about him not making it to HOLLYWOOD in a funny way) :D

After Eldon presentation, Telsa showed us an movie. The movie was called Elephant, an drama film that is an true story, the film takes back in an high school called Watt high school, in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon. This epic drama event surrounds a school shooting massacre. The movie is an achieve(my point of view), because it has many main character in the story, so in this movie, every body in this movie has there own story to tell when they wake up in the morning to go school but didn't expected that they were gonna die. This movie is an example to what Eldon was talking about, an genre, camera angles , wide shots, etc.. What I like about this movie is the ending because it felt alive, shocked, sad, and angry because he killed people for no reason. The reason why I didn't like the beginning because i felt confuse? board? didn't understand? and LOST!! but at the end i understand what this movie mean. This drama movie is kind of similar to Eldon work, because this is what i feel when i watch Eldon work and the movie, confuse in the beginning and at the end it all comes together. But i really enjoy watching the movie and especially the drama movie.

LEILANI KAKE and My Trip to Te Tuhi

Leilani Kaake: Tino Rangatira Tanga

The work of Leilani explores about Richard Kake (Leilani father) and his Ta moko( Maori facial tattoo) and his last breath where he ends at their Northland family Marae, where he laid to rest. I choose to discuss about Leilani father because Leilani presented to the class about her father that Richard Kake was a BIG IMPACT in her life. This film/ documentary speak about her father being the strongest supporter of her Artist practice, because he is always being consisting o be filmed. Mr Kake said "he felt it was his obligation to record the living culture and history of tangata whenua(family)". This film/ documentary shows an effect, an heart felt, emotional loving film about the death of Leilani father, while i was watching this film, this made me feel apart how Leilani feels because i too lost someone close to me, my grandma, this film made me feel close to Lielani film.

My response to Te Tuhui show;

To today we had to go to Te Tuhui Gallery to look at there show that was happening and when I arrived at Te Tuhui Gallery, the show was called Rapid Change. Rapid Change explores issues faced by cities that have been transformed, responding to the dramatic changes that have been affecting, for example Auckland. For the photo that has a frozen house with ice around it, that has been covered with water for 30 days in winter to create this effect, but before they were gonna take this photo they used Hollywood set up lighting effect. The background for this photo is to show that things like global change, urban change and increase of empty houses in Detroit can be due to these changes.

Thursday 5th August 2011 (Merry)

MERRY CURTIS

How has Mery used collection or a display?

In Merry work she puts a lot of effort in her art work and presentation when she was telling us about what she does and do in her life as a jewelry artist and what she finds out, she can use to display on her work. Merry uses a lot of features like brooches, rings, earrings and necklaces etc, which all focused on her experimental and her exploring direction with in her collection, because she said she use many techniques she show us about Art. Its interesting looking at her art work because she inspires me when she was presenting to our class today. She takes photos of a lot of her art work while working on her jewelry designs, thats why i am fascinated with her art work.

what is your experience, postive or negative of an artwork or collection?

My experience to artwork is sometime negative and positive, because there are many things that i don't know about art. Mary talks about many things in what she does and think about collecting stuff that makes art. In my thoughts in my head, I never knew that collecting many stuff like objects and materials in the streets could be Art??

In my experience when I was young, I look back into my mother and father history where they came from, in the Island's called Samoa. Samoan people are very easy to tell, for example, there Traditional patterns, how we dress, the way we talk and many things. But I am always happy and positive of our cultures patterns and fascinated where it came from? and how it was use to tell many stories in the form of Art? I don't know the answers but i know that it all began from our ancestor back in the days. I am always positive when it comes to the Art of samoa, especially when it comes at looking at the patterns, how they collect patterns and objects and form it into a 'story telling sequence' (like reading comic books). I know an Artist who does the same thing as using patterns to tell story's too, his name is John Pule and his methods are similar to the samoan Art form, but the difference is that Mr. Pule talks about his life.

FRANCES HANSEN

FRANCIS HANSEN

How does Frances uses collection in her art work? Frances uses many stuff and things to define art and tries to explain what is art? In her art she uses a lot of things like material and phrases and combined them into one object. Frances art work is very neat and tidy and extraordinary when she uses head boards, oven mitts, photos and many other materials that zooms into Frances head and creates art in her own way. I notice that Frances uses mix media in her art to create the certain type of objects in her practice and other objects that exist on the fringes of our market economy( things that are too good to be thrown away). How would i use collection in my life? I would take pictures of a lot of things around the world and combine the objects that catches my eye. Name one artist who works with collection also? There is an Artist name Seraphine Pick that combines the photo she takes and uses it in her art work.