The blog of an art student

Tom began the lecture on an interesting note talking about his works that he really didn't like, describing his enthusiasm throughout the process of researching and making the work to then think the end result just didn't work. For example Tom spoke of a long process of researching before making his sculpture. The initial idea came from him looking at book covers where he found a 2nd hand copy of 'the interpreter' by Brian Aldiss, which had an artificial looking sunset in the background. Leading from this he looked at artificial sunsets on social media and psychologist studies of colour use on phones speeding/slowing down the brain. I found how Tom spoke about the processes more interesting then when he spoke about the sculpture he made, I actually cant remember what the sculpture even looked like, or if he even showed us it in the first place. After this he explained how he continued looking at skies, this time looking at whimsical and idealised skies leading him t...

Here I am, just casually shopping around Liverpool, popping into the Odeon to watch the Crimes of Grindelwald and BAM there is a big installation in the middle of L1, so of course I drag my friends over to see it. The installation features IBC tanks filled with synchronised lights, put together in a colosseum like structure. The crazy thing about this installation is that just a couple of weeks ago I went to the junk yard to look for materials and came across some IBC tanks, at the time I didn’t know what they were but I was really intrigued by it and was saying to my friends I would want to make something with it but they where to big to carry and now I’m just shopping and see this installation, if phones aren’t listening and stealing my ideas I don’t know what’s going on. Anyway this installation is called Poloris by the artist Mark Robinson who explains how he was inspired by “ the brightest star in the constellation” and that this installation represents Liverpool at its core, ...

'One year bridging the gap' was a student run exhibition curated by Helen Leary. The exhibition aimed to talk about global issues and widen the audiences knowledge of the damage being done and the changes we need to make to stop climate change. Although there was an overall objective for the show each of the artists had very different approaches and spoke about different issues.  In the centre of the exhibition there was a rail containing a variety of clothing which turned out to be a cloths swap. I like this idea of interacting with the audience and spread the message of how negative buying new cloths all the time can be and taking that step to swap and work with others to reduce this.  Another artist Gemma Strachan used clothing in her work as she transferred images onto jeans. The piece speaks about the true cost of "cheap jeans" as she narrates the life of a Cambodian sweatshop worker and how they ...

Mike spoke about how he had done a lot of expressive paintings throughout university, but he never really felt like they where finished, feeling more like an activity to him then work. After university he became tired of painting so he tried to create 3-D forms of his paintings, experimenting with new materials such as wicker. Mike explained how the sculpture started of as three guitar bodies and he ended up layering and layering this sculpture, using many materials such as resin, creating a dripping effect. Mike didn't speak much more about this sculpture, but I actually really liked the sculpture,due to the freeness of the piece as Mike was just experimenting with this and having fun which i think can be sensed in the sculpture.  Carrying on with the idea of more sculptural work Mike explained how he was inspired by Barbara Hepworth and tried to create a larger sculpture using foam, but ended up getting frustrated with this work and kind of gave up. Although this sculpture wasn...

I was a little bit late to this lecture and did miss the beginning but by the time I came in Louise was talking about how she uses a lot of found objects, whether that being objects already around her home or items she finds in charity shops as she finds the idea of being able to manipulate and transform these items an important aspect of her practice.  Leading from this Louise created a painting of her room where she mirrored the image to create an interesting affect, highlighting the flowers towards the centre as well as trying to experiment with colours more at this point in her practice.  Louise explained how she later found herself looking into art history and how old artwork can be refurbished and questionnaire whether this is still the original or now a new piece of artwork. This led her to looking at older paintings and painting over them to create a modern twist such as paint...

I had actually recently seen Jasmir's exhibition Distopolis at the Victoria Gallery where I read up on her practice, so I already knew quite a bit about some of the works and techniques, however it was interesting to meet her in person and explain where some of her inspiration comes from to create these abstracted paintings.  I actually found it difficult to pay much attention and get good notes throughout this lecture as I felt Jasmir spoke quite dull, following exactly a script she had wrote for herself. However I did find myself interested by the piece to the right called 'Underpass' which wasn't at her Distopolis exhibition. Jasmir explained what she thought about when painting this piece. Thinking about forgotten underground places and how the figures who stay or go there are forgotten figures  Overall I don't think I got much out of this lecture at all and I feel bad for saying it, but I was kind of bored to death hence the doodles on my notes.  Not...

This week our lecture was from 6 of the Fine Art MA students, each student gave us separate mini lectures one after another.  Mathew Merrick.  Well Mathew didn't actually lecture us at all as he was running late but had a video he wanted to show us and then decided he was only going to show the video with no other explanation. So I don't really have too much to say about his "lecture", but I didn't really like the video, I actually found it quite irritating as the voice over wasn't in time with the lips which for some reason really stressed me out. This may have been the effect he was going for in which case it worked.  Charlotte Hill.  Charlotte was the second student to lecture. Charlotte's main medium seemed to be acrylic painting's but the process of her practise and thoughts of these paintings where extremely interesting, almost giving the paintings another depth that I didn't see at first appearance. Charlotte Spoke about how she uses s...

Throughout the lecture Chris Evans spoke about how important day to day conversation is in his practice and how this along with individuals public life and roles are what his work often  evolves from.  An example of one of Chris' works that demonstrate this element of his  practice greatly is 'The Rock and the Judge' which is a sculpture made using white plaster. When making this piece Chris was responding to a drawing of a judge made by a policeman which was then framed and hung on a wall. Which lead him to make this rock like sculpture which he felt was the prisoner and the animistic value given to a prisoner from people such as judges. Chris installed this piece in a dark blue room with the framed drawing hanging above the sculpture almost looking down at it. Chris then took this sculpture further installing it in many different situations and environments such as a police office and jail.  With this piece of work I have found myself m...