My work

These photos are of the work i exhibited for 'M'. To be honest I am quite proud of my work, I feel that they are visually exciting and managed to capture a deep meaning. 

M is for materiality, which was the starting point for our project, In my previous project i looked at memories, and soon realized that my memory is in fact very poor, meaning that i was unable to remember childhood photographs, and those 'treasured' times such as birthday parties and holidays. So i began painting myself out of photos, as in some ways it was unfair for me to be in them if i had no recollection of them, these created ghostly images that raised curiosity and questions. 

This work is a progression from that, I am now using the negative film from my childhood photos and manipulate them through experimental methods in the dark room. Creating new distorted and abstract images that are a closer representation of my memories than the original images.  

The Opening Night

The opening night for the exhibition was a great successes. Everyones work looked great and received a great response from the visitors. The turner out as well was a wonderful surprise too. With the room being packed and it being difficult to move at times. I had a great night, and i believe/hope everyone else did too. I think we all did a fantastic job and we should all be proud of the successful, independent exhibition we put on. I would also like to thank the tutors and college for their support and guidance.  

The work begins

The Arches

The lead up to the exhibition was an exciting journey, but at first looked a long one. The Arches was a great find, and a fantastic space oozing with character but required a fair bit of work. Being in the logistics team meant that I had to participate in the labor work and duties, which included; painting the fence boards, setting up new display boards, cleaning etc, to make the space into a high standard, professional looking exhibition space. The work took awhile to progress due to a slow start, but as the deadlines loomed closer everyone pulled together to get the work done. The final product was a very professional looking exhibition space with unique character found in the walls that gives the exhibition a special edge. The excitement and energy for the exhibition was beginning to build up in us all.

Lead up to the exhibition

In preperation to our exhibiton being prepared and hosted i thought it would be extremely valuable to view some other current exhibitions being held in Leeds, to look at it from a logistics perspective (being as that was the group i decided to work within) opposed to the perspective of a viewer/audience. This time when i went to leeds national gallery i looked at elements such as hanging and fittings, the layout of the exhibition, where the names cards were placed etc etc, so that i had some previous experience when it came to our own.

come see

http://www.m-exhibition.co.uk/

These website consume far to much of my time

http://inkbutter.com/

http://www.changethethought.com/

http://www.lostateminor.com/

Social Context

 

 

Our brief for this project was social context, and with a great interest in street art I thought this would be a prime opportunity for me to get work up in the streets of Leeds. At the time i was fairly new to Leeds and its surrounding, so I soon noticed the vast amount of signs and symbols located throughout the center. As street art often takes a comical approach to its work I thought I would do like-wise. I made my own street signs to go up in place of those from the council, that were a close imitation but with a comical twist. Some of these stayed in place for several months. 

 

 

Site Specific

 

For the site specific brief we were located at Thwaites Mill, in Leeds City center. The Mills primary product that it once manufactured was chalk, which was the medium that I used to created my final pieces from. I saw the mill as a living thing, so I found extracts from old poetry that viewed mills in a similar light.  I was heavily influenced by the industrial shapes that were located throughout the mill, so I created a collage of aesthetically pleasing stencils to compliment the use of text, which i dotted around the mill in discrete yet visually exciting locations.

Who says you can't change the past?

My current project has continued from my previous one on 'memories' but has developed. Alternatively I am working from the original negative images, opposed to old developed photographs; with the negative format I am manipulating them through a variety of experimental manipulation techniques within the dark room to create these often abstract and erie imagery.

 

Memories

For my previous project I explored the concept of memory, in hope of creating imagery from a collection of powerful and personal memories that i had collected over the years. I soon learnt them my memory was terrible, to the point of where i couldn't even remember photographs of past birthdays and holidays. From some heavy influence from the fantastic film; 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' I began erasing and taking myself out of the photos i could not remember, and in someways did not deserve to be in. Here are a few examples of the more successful images, that i created through the use of mix media. 

firstblog

quite upset i've become a blogger.