Monsters of the Id Exhibition Review

'Apparent Horizon' 2012

   The current exhibition at the John Hansard Gallery is David Cotterrell's 'Monsters of the Id', (co-curated by Helen Sloan and SCAN) is a body of work which spreads across video, audio, interactive media, artificial intelligence and hybrid technology. Upon meeting the artist himself he stated "I work as a war artist, but not in the way that you see in the media, I try not to dramatise the war torn nature of Afghanistan, but try and focus on its landscapes."  The works are derived from a 2 year span of his trips to Afghanistan where he took over 2000 images during each trip, yet not one of them were anywhere to be seen with in the exhibition. Cotterrell also told me "The hardest part of putting this exhibition together was hiding all the technology, while trying to make it run smoothly, which has been a bit of a challenge." 

'Searchlight 2' 2012

 

Birdseye view of 'Searchlight 2' 2012

  
    What's fascinating is that each person who visits this exhibition play some part among the work, as when stood in front of 'The Observer Effect' various people walk up to the screen almost interacting with the viewer, this correlates with 'Searchlight 2' as what appear as little black 'ant like' dots scurrying across the chalk terrain are in fact people, and is just a different perspective of 'The Observer Effect'.

'The Observer Effect'

   The final room is untitled, displays what appears to be a military base set up.

'Untitled' 2012

  

   In this small installation consists of an army tent desk and military communications equipment, which perhaps constructs the underlying view in which Cotterrell perceives the current war in Afghanistan. The question is does this set up represent that of an obsessive teen playing war games (due to what appears to be a gaming control to the right of the laptop) or an actual military set up, put in place to control drones?

   The ultimate question is, are we in control?

Websites
www.cotterrell.com
www.hansardgallery.org.uk
www.scansite.org

A Day in The Life of a Superhero.

I love EVERYTHING superhero, from comics to the films. Even as a child I have had this obsession with superheros. I think it was an escape from reality, as they didn't really have to concern themselves with everyday life as much as the average person, they had bigger fish to fry. But photographer Gregg Segal has looked at the other side of the life as a superhero, in his series 'Super Heros at Home' 2006, where he takes great interest in the impersonators of the glamorous Hollywood Boulevard. Where he then follows them home, capturing them while still in costume showing the reality of things not actually being super at all, just highlighting how monotinus their home daily routine is in comparrison to that of a "superhero".

   By following the subjects home he unveils the true nature of these people and with them still in their costumes creates a contrast between the amazing and the mundane. Unmasking them through their homes and their chores. In that domestic context, the need to dress as comic book characters becomes more pronounced and obsessive, that on the street where it makes some sort of sense.

Gregg Segal - 'Captain America getting his mail' 2009

   Segall states, 'While I photographed Batman, a family pulled over to take his picture. He strode up to them with super hero confidence and the children approached him with awe. He was Batman because he was Batman to them. Then late, in his apartment, when he'd taken off his mask and cape and was reheating leftovers in the microwave, he was merely ordinary.' 

Gregg Segall - 'Spiderman hanging laundry' 2006

Gregg Segal - 'Spiderman drinking grape juice' 2006

    These vivid portraits succeed in both being funny and poignient, mixing the reality with humour produces what I feel a well rounded image. By following the "actors" home he looks beyond the obvious, giving the subject more of a sense of individuality and a voyeuristic look in to the real worlds of the people. Also i feel prehaps by masquerading themselves as these icons and posing for pictures with tourists, it allows them an illusory sense of stardom.

Gregg Segal - 'Batman on his bike' 2006

    Whilst looking at Segal's work I came across the works of photographer Agan Harahap, and his series 'Super Hero' which looks at memorable black and white political and war time scenes, and then placed with in these scenes are superheros, as if there to hel the situation, much like in the superhero films.

Agan Harahap - 'Greenham Air Field, June 5th 1944' 2009

Agan Harahap - 'A Camp Near Minsk, 1941' 2009

Agan Harahap - 'Cherbourg Normandy 1944' 2009

 Websites
www.greggsegal.com 
www.behance.net/aganharahap
www.melmanandthehippo.blogspot.co.uk

Taylor Wessing

 On the 31st of January myself and my fellow photography degree students went and saw the prestigious 'Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize' which is the leading international photographic portrait competition and offers you the chance to see sixty pieces of work by some of the most exciting contemporary photographers from around the world. With works ranging from editorial to advertising to fine art. The photographers are asked to interpret 'portrait' in the widest sense of ‘photography concerned with portraying people with an emphasis on their identity as individuals.’ with the winner receiving £12,000 and open to anyone 18 years or older.

   Jooney Woodward won this years coveted award with her portrait of 'Harriet and Gentleman Jack'

Jooney Woodward 'Harriet and Gentleman Jack' 

 This image was shot on film using a Mamiya RZ medium format camera using a tripod, and was an opportunistic shot and was the first of the photos she took. Woodward states 'I prefer the quality and depth you get from using film; unfortunately it’s a dying art. I don’t mess around with Photoshop so what you see is what you get. Enhanced images can portray a false sense of reality, whereas my work celebrates the people and places as they appear every day.' Woodward's image has caused a bit of controversy within the competition due to the fact of the winning entry by David Chancellor
in the 2010 'Portrait Prize' called 'Huntress with Buck' from the series 'Huntress' which also depicts a young sullen red headed girl posing with an animals. Despite this I rather like the Woodward's image as the young girl's hair complements the colouring of the fur on the guinea pig, there is however a down side to this piece and that is of the lack of emotion within, making it difficult to relate and connect with the subject. Woodward states the she finds the image 'unsettling' but i find this hard to see what is so unsettling about it.

Second Prize

Jill Wooster - 'Of Lili' 2011

Third Prize

Dona Schwartz - Christina and Mark, 14 months, 2011  

 Fourth Prize

Jasper Clarke - Wen, 2011

Fifth Prize

David Knight - Andie, 2010

Websites
National Portrait Gallery
Jooney Woodward
Jill Wooster
Dona Schwartz
Jasper Clarke
David Knight

War Games

        June-July 2011 issue 172 pages 16-23

While flicking through this particular Hotshoe magazine I came across the works of photographer Arpad Kurucz and his series 'Military Camp' 

'Military Camp'

   

In 2004 army conscription ended after a 135 year tradition, so the images have a sense of nostalgic indoctrination in to the history of the Hungarian military traditions, where children can learn whats it like to be soldiers. The military camps for the children ('Military Traditional Association in Moguorod) aim to let the children know how soldiers passed their week days decades ago, allowing them to acquire the knowledge which was taught to the soldiers in their month long basic training.

'Military Camp'

Some members call themselves National  Socialists (which can almost be interpreted in to Nazi's seeing as the images are reminiscent of the Hitler youth).

   The military style is not just about the fashion and grandeur as for the extreme right 

wing sees it more as a part of mental and physical training.

'Military Camp'

    These images are disturbing scenes innocence and indoctrination, disguised in a form of military nationalism which masquerades as a nostalgic play, with the over sized rifles and helmets which puts in to perspective just a young and small these children our, you can see this most prominently in this in the picture above., not because of the rifles or helmets, but because of the towel hanging on the washing line with the dolphin on it, showing the young impressionable nature of the children, as you wouldn't really see a grown macho soldier with a towel of the same nature, because of this fact i find it rather worrying that children are exposed to such things.

   Another photographer who has looked at a similar subject is Craig F. Walker (photojournalist) Walker won the Pukitzer Prize for Feature Photography for his intimate portraiture of teenager Ian Fisher who joins the Army at the height of insurgent violence in Iraq, who poignantly searches for meaning and manhood, and I would highly recomend that you all go and check out his work.

Craig F. Walker - 'Ian Fisher'

Websites

www.arpadkurucz.com

www.pulitzer.org/works/2010-Feature-Photography

www.nocaptionneeded.com/2010/04/a-second-look-the-warrior-child

Pencil vs Camera

Not many people seem to combine disciplines, often it's one or the other, drawing/painting or photography. Which is similar to the way I think, I have a big passion for fine art and even graphic art (I studied GCSE art again taking it up at A Level) yet I never seem combine my two passions, and I don't have a clue why, I guess it has just never really occurred to me, until now. I stumbled upon the works of multidisciplinary visual artist Ben Heine, and in particular his series 'Pencil vs Camera' which mixes drawing and photography, imagination and photography. His first image from this series that was published in April 2010. The main themes approached in this series are; love, freedom, the after life, friendship and nature. Heine states on his website "I just make art for people. I want them to dream and forget their daily troubles. I used to write poems many years ago, I want to convey a poetic and philosophical meaning into my pictures, each new creation should tell a story and generate an intense emotion, like a poem, like a melody".

Ben Heine - #12

Ben Heine - #57

 There is no real boundary in Heine's work, the majority of the work in this series, the drawings are done in black and white yet the background is very colourful, which creates between the two disciplines. I feel that the drawings represent tradition and fantasy while the photographs represent modernity and reality.

Ben Heine - #41

Ben Heine - #61

  
 'Things happening in my daily life are a big stimulation for me. I think sources of inspiration are everywhere; most people just don’t want to see them or they perceive and interpret them differently. Ideas often come to my mind at random moments.' - Quote from Heine taken from an interview for 'Something We Like'

Websites
www.benheine.com
www.somethingwelike.com

The Photograph as Contemporary Art

   This week in our seminar we were to look at the book by Charlotte Cotton 'The Photograph as a Contemporary Art'. Specifically we were to focus on Chapter 2 which 'considers the use of storytelling in contemporary art photography'.

   The narratives investigated in this chapter are that of contemporary fables, which are dramatised with a sinister edge, such as the work of Deborah Mess-Pelly who uses voyeuristic camera angles and a mixture of story lines, and Anna Gaskell both who works have intense story telling qualities.

Deborah Mesa-Pelly 'Legs' 1999

Anna Gaskell 'Untitled #59' 

   Cotton also focuses on the works that have a sense of uncertainty, anxiety and paranoia, with examples from Jeff Wall and Philip-Lorca diCorcia.

Jeff Wall 'Insomnia' 1994

Even in the title of Wall's image 'Insomnia' there is an aspect of narrative, as it tells the viewer that the subject within the piece is perhaps suffering from insomnia, hence why he is lying under the kitchen table not knowing what to do with him self, with kitchen scene guiding us in the understanding of the subjects movements of this restless man in the lead up to the final capture of the image. The kitchen in correlation with the man suggests that this is his life style in his restless insomniac state, due to the lack of homeliness in his surroundings.

Philip-Lorca diCorcia 'Eddie Anderson; 21 years old; Houston, TX; $20' 1990-92

Even in 'Eddie Anderson; 21 years old; Houston, TX; $20' (from the series Hollywood) there is a sense of narrative within the title but not in the same way as Wall's image does. As with this piece by diCorcia, he gives us the model's name and age plus where the man in question is from, which starts to give us an indication in to who the person is not just as a model but as a person. The title also indicates the sum of $20 which is how much diCorcia paid the young man to model in this image for him, which also suggests that the young man is probably having financial issues due to the measly amount paid to have his photograph taken (especially seeing as he is in Hollywood) and the fact that he is topless gives us the impression that there is an underlying message of the sex industry as he has been paid for the photographic use of his body.
   There are many different approaches to the works which have been shown in this particular chapter of Cotton's book, some have been based on stories, as I have previously mentioned along with reference to paintings such like the work of Sam Taylor-Wood with 'Soliquy' which was based on 'The death of Chatterton' by Victorian painter Henry Wallis. along with Tom Hunter's series 'Thoughts of Life and Death' which shows the contemporary reworkings of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
   Overall this an excellent chapter to read especially if you want to gain a better understanding of the terms 'narrative' and 'tableau', and is both challenging and overall it engages you with a refreshing and revelatory dicussion in to the photographic artist expression.

To New Beginnings

    This is the start of a new chapter, and I have been asked to create a blog for my Visual Exploration unit  (part of my University Degree). It shall consist of all things art and photography, things that i find visually interesting, meaningful, and inspiring.
   So here it goes... I hope you enjoy reading my thoughts and opinions.