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.