Site Spercificity

 Site-specific art can be an artwork that is arranged to compliment a space and the community, or country, with a consultation about the land and the piece going there. 

The example I will use for this is in recent times Nottingham Contemporary invited four 

people from Nottingham to go along to discuss sharing ideas and to draw how they would like the future of Nottingham Broadmarsh to be. I went along to this over a year ago and I can see that this can be like a sculpture itself pulling ideas of 

a group and also doing what is best for that space.

 

Ugo Rondinone is a Swiss artist who works in various mediums and is well known for creating colourful landscapes. His work ‘Tiled seven 

Magic mountains’ stands in the Nevada desert and is a beautiful, neutral, earthy space with organic shaped rocks. Adding the bursts of colour and working on large scale they can be seen from a distance. It gives childlike, delightful feelings such as wanting to eat sweets, or climb, or to stand and to simply take it in. It makes me want to do something loud and adventurous.

 Ugo Rondinone Seven Magic Mountains  2016

 When looking at this piece of work is about a movement that happened in the 60s 

Pop art merging nature and city contradictions and duality  the colour palettete is in a space that lifts the natural environment around it , utilising colours and wanting people to interact. I connect my work through work from last year ‘Traces’ utilising  the man made with the natural, drawing the contradiction and duality but separate also . The work is carved using limestone boulders which will be durable and withstand the weather.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anish Kapoor Bean 2004

 

 

Anish Kapoor’s  Bean is a sculpture outside  at the millennium park in the loop community 

Area in Chicago , Illinois It has panoramic mirror shape like a bean and it encapsulates the skyscrapers carries a life of magic. People are draw to shiny things with the sun shining on it this will increase the attraction. The magnetic feeling  draws you to it even more than the mirror. It will continue to reflect, rain or shine . 

This piece of work commands to be seen, something so commanding it reflects  Anish Kapoor’s personality and his purpose to deliver art and to make something  not to be hidden in the shadows. Something so loud it takes on a life of its own  and becomes a part of the city and the community. It fades away from the artist and becomes a part of a time, a place . I see this with work I have created with music. Working with  dubstep producer Geiom on the track ‘Remenissin’ that we collaborated on. this track began being played by DJs and this changes it when people begin to associate the track with a time, a moment, a person or a a place. Although it is me singing and I wrote it the song now takes on a life of its own and becomes a part of a music scene and sits in peoples lives . 

 

 

Conflict and remembrance

 Conflict  and remembrance 

 

 

 

Howard’s sculpture is a storyteller walking through various scenes of war within the piece. It starts with the soldiers going off to war and ends with their return. It is a potentially an emotional work as it uses the figurative to draw you closer to the human experience. It gives a strong image , in the sense of confidence in its narrative from the beginning to the end of what it is showing, he process of the evolution of war. 

A drawing of the same image would not have the same power, in confronting the viewer. When a human form is put into the piece it almost forces us to confront different possibilities of life because it mirrors our image in a more realistic way. It is not mystical although at the same time, it does not mean that you cannot see something poetic about the piece. 

To get such a life-like accuracy Howard uses surrounding cameras and 3D printing which hones in on every detail to bring the figurative true to life. 

He uses his own family as models for some of the characters which makes it very personal and educates as it is so true to life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sabin Howard’s A Soldier’s Journey,beginning scene due to finished 2024

 

 

 

 

 

Guernica is a abstract piece of artwork which was Picasso’s reaction to the Nazi’s bombing of the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. Within this painting there is symbolism ,for example, the bull which stands for destruction, in this case that caused by the Nazis and the horse which symbolises the people of Guernica.

The utilisation of the minimal colours of black, blue and white symbolises a death, sadness, a lack of freedom and disempowerment.

Initially, you could look at the painting quite innocently but when you understand the culture it puts the pieces together. The question to ask is why did Picasso paint it in such a non-direct way. Does this reflect the silencing of the times? 

The use of the newspaper within the image tells how the information of that time be it true or false was through the national papers of the times.

Guernica pablo picasso 1937

objects and still life

 Objects  and still life 

 

 

Traditional still life when looking back through the  history of art was often fruit, a plate and a knife 

painted within an oil painting. This was seen as a symbol of religious fruitfulness without 

placing the person within a painting and was often the starting piece for an artist. 

This work by Daisy Linda Ward that stands in Ashmoliean in Oxford, takes the objects painted in such detail. The orange skin draws you invitingly in which almost feels  like an indulgent early advertisement playing on desire, thirst and lust  from the fruit to the drink 

 

 

 

 

 

Daisy Linda Ward 1883-1937  Still LIfe with a Lemon and a Porcelain Pitcher

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When thinking about objects in art one of the first artists I go to is an Andy Warhol piece

of the  

 

 

Andy Warhol Campbell's Soup Cans 1965 

 

Campbells soup tins. 

The work I am looking at right now is by Tony Cragg who takes an everyday object and not necessarily upcycling it to reproduce into some kind of art. Simply taking the object and displaying them in a way that makes you see beyond the object itself can be self-explanatory.  I chose this image of his work with a thought about water purity there is something  historical about the way it is displayed .

 

 

 

Cumlus 1998 Tony Cragg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

portrait

 When looking at portraits the traditional way is to see the individual  the model, the muse posed sat there, for example, the queen and many other figure heads before. 

Here this portrait although it is of an individual you see,  this is someone who is known so although this is an individual, it is hard not to separate the environment from the portrait.  The story is told through the crown upon her head this can highlight the person’s identity and blind you from truly seeing who they are. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DAME OF THRONES
The Queen, photographed by Cecil Beaton to commemorate her coronation, in 1953.

 

 

 

Caroline walker  grimm.gallery.com

 

 

 

Caroline Walker Ultra Sound 2021

 

 

 

 

This painting is from an exhibition of early 2021, titled Birth Reflections. 

When looking at Caroline Walker’s work she pulls you into a world which is unstaged. 

 The appearance of the authentic nature has you looking into a world unknown. This subject, birth reflections, is a subject that we could be drawn to as it is life and nature. 

Finding familiarity in her work as it is life-like. When looking at her paintings they 

appear to be inspirational for women, making these spaces tell the stories of women in relation to nature and the environment which she chooses to share through  the  use of paint. 

 

Nick Fear 

Not titled 

 

 

A portrait artist, based in Leicester, working through the medium of oil paint.  He works closely with the client and bases the outcome on what the client is wanting.  His skill is bringing his style into it. 

This is a staged portrait; however, this does not mean his work does not capture the essence of the person. This sits close to the family photography places where you go to see a photographer and you posse until you find the right one. With Fear’s work he will do sketches or work from photographs, also building up an image of how you wish it to look.  I personally find these images give me two different displays of portraiture. Caroline Walker’s is poetic with people and the display of the environment self-explanatory with and an element of mystery. Nick Fear’s work does what it says on the can. His work is about capturing you without source for depth or meaning although it might have meaning to the customer.

Landscape

 Landscape painting was often captured with the landowner, celebrating their status and wealth in owning the land or people working on the land.    

 

 

 

Thomas Gainsborough society painter 

Painting of people who owned the land 

You had to be significant to be painted. 

Rich people were pale as they did not work in the sun. This changed via Coco Chanel and the arrival of the little black dress when the suntan became fashionable.

The painting was as much about the rich landowners as it was about the landscape. 

The landscapes were often staged to reflect this. Our relationship with the natural is unnatural. The historic art  landscape intervenes with the landscape where you change the narrative.

 

 

The artist Christo works with the land, interrupting  the space by bringing something to the land material.

 

 

Conceptual landscape is bringing an idea to the space. This may be abstract utilising materials that are not authentic to the space, sculpting it to disturb the space and communicating something that makes you absorb the space and see it through different eyes. This is opposed to the traditional landscape that brings a person into view with the space. Although you can appreciate the view it is about the person’s status showing the land that they have access to or own thereby portraying them as wealthy and high status.

 

Ugo Rondinone is a Swiss artist who works in various mediums and is well known for creating  colourful landscapes. ‘Tiled seven 

Magic mountains’  stands in the Nevada desert and is a beautiful neutral earthy space with organic shaped rocks adding the bursts of colour and working on large scale they can be seen from a the distance. It gives childlike delightful feelings such as wanting to eat sweets, or climb, or to stand and to simply take it in. It makes me want to do something loud and adventurous.

 

 

 

 

Flint Castle is a painting by J.M.W Turner . When looking at this piece it draws you in with the hopeful sun. Turner’s emotional style of painting echoes some religious art with his use of golds and blues within the space of everyday life.

 All three of these landscapes are about the land in different ways. Gainsbrough’s work is about the power and status of landowning.  Rondinone’s landscape adds to the natural landscape bringing bright bursts of colour in a celebratory manner.  The Turner painting feels like there is a higher purpose to being part of the land 

consumerism

 Consumerism within art.

 

 

 

 

 

Steve Cuts social media 

 

When I look at this image it plays on the world as a zombie state. In fact it echoes the comic walking dead everyone is lost and being led by their phones they have become a slave to their phones have become their world and sucked the life  out  of them . With the technology giants displayed in the back an  apple Samsung. The utilisation of a comic style image like walking dead draws you into want to see the next chapter if there is one ,showing how the nation is enslaved , presented in the dystopian  animation of another world. The escape through comics is now shining back as reality 

 

 

 

 

Andy Warhol Campbell's Soup Cans 1965 

 

This art piece looks mass production of a product how it enters our lives becoming a part of society engraved in our minds that often we don’t even question. The power of what is placed before us, a commercialised brand. It appeals to you as it is familiar and homely. It is a piece of genius. Where does the boundary cross between a product and art? What does this art piece mean? Does it mean a mass scale of something so the commercial finds a place in the world beyond? The production line runs through this piece. How can a product become art?  What does this mean? Andy Warhol piece was said to have been one of the first displays of pop art of the time when things began to copy originality. Although it’s still out there this was the beginning of something profound. He was mirroring back the reality of mass buying of things which had become a household name although they did not hold any weight in gold. The world was changing, buying these now new latest trends packaged and sold in a way that  had the world believe it was buying into status,  a way of being . This all happened after the war potentially giving people a sense of hope, sculpting their lives for what was known as the American dream.