The Chapman Brothers

Rhizome, 2000, mixed media, 36 x 98.5 x 98.5

The End of Fun, 2010, mixed media

Hell, 2000, mixed media

The Sum of All Evil, 2012-2013, mixed media

Unholy McTrinity, 2003, painted bronze, 180 x 210 x 60 cm

I really enjoy looking at the work of Jake and Dinos Chapman because of the exquisite craft behind what they make. Often, the Chapman brothers create tiny scale models although these models are epic in scale and detail. This enrapturement due to wondering about the processes behind the artwork creation is exactly what appeals to me about making dioramas and then painting from them myself. A further similarity in artistic concerns between myself and the Chapmans is the themes they explore which I would postulate can be defined as dystopic. Often the Chapmans work with war and Holocaust imagery paired with the corporate icons of our generation (particularly McDonalds) to reflect on the universal trends of society. This imagery is commonly vivid and explicit, however the Chapmans are successfully able to bend it into parody through scale. As I would also like there to be some element of parody behind my work I am very much inspired by this use of exaggeration. I like that their work is both conceptual and representational simultaneously, meaning their intended themes and ideas are clearly conveyed to their audience but are not boring and lacking in intent.

I think it is interesting that the Chapman brothers proving 360 degree views of their dioramas by constructing them within glass display cabinets, whereas I have the tendency to favour one viewing point for my dioramas. Whilst I love that in the case of the Chapmans, the viewer has the chance to fully explore their work from all angles which allows for new discoveries of what the work contains, I think it is important for me to continue boxing in my imagery at this stage to continue exploring the relationships between the 3D and 2D and therefore the transition from space to the picture plane.

Diorama Development

I'm really happy to have been able to finally start on the diorama I intend to paint from. I am going to create quick craft replicas of the motifs I have been researching all semester, collage them together into a scene, photograph the scene and then create a painting. I am keen to emphasise the artifice of my construction, particularly by revealing elements of the construction process such as making the walls of the diorama visible and painting in the flaps in the paper background. So far I have made a 60 x 36 cm room box out of black foam core which is adhered together using PVA glue. I then found a generic image of a sunset (link), and printed it out in sections using A4 copy paper. I have stuck these on the background using folded over pieces of masking tape, resulting in an intentionally slightly textural and wonky finish. I also added a supersized moon as I think it creates some degree of eeriness and contributes to the apocalyptic imagery. The goat was made by creating a wire armature wrapped in pipe cleaners and then felting wool fleece onto it. I also sewed on two small black beads for eyes, and embroidered a black nose using embroidery cotton. At this stage I have just stared to construct the trees by painting cardboard tubes brown, and I will then add green tissue paper and possibly pom pom fruit. I still need to start making rocks using expanding foam, one of which I would like to sculpt into the suggestive shape of a skull, sew a small felt moth, create a portion of a monolithic structure and some barbed wire fencing to surround it, and reflect on any other elements I feel the diorama requires. So far I am happy with how the construction is coming together, however time restraints are beginning to affect what I can achieve so I will need to keep in mind just how detailed the diorama can be.

Paul Sloan

Primarily, I wanted to have a closer look at the artwork of Paul Sloan because I noticed his use of repeated skull imagery, but I found it interesting to read on his website that ideas of the apocalypse and dystopias/utopias are not consciously incorporated into the work. Sloan states that his inspiration comes from a variety of sources, such as "light in the Australian landscape, our relationship to natural history, found images of social uprising, revolt, revolutionary activity and points of flux [and] the relationships that exist between music and art" (Paul Sloan About), but whilst I am not pursuing any of these themes, I can still see parallels between his art and my own. I like the way that Sloan works across a range of mediums, incorporating drawing, painting, sculpture and photography in various ways. I like that he employs the appropriate medium for the idea behind specific artworks he wants to make, which highlights the need to be adaptable and experimental in how to convey the message right. It is interesting to see the aesthetic differences in his practice, such as the looseness of his gouache paintings compared to the atmospheric moodiness of his photographs. I think this is the strongest message I take away from looking at what he has made - that it is okay for me to work between mediums to find what is specifically relevant for what I want to make. I like how he has represented the skull both through an actual object and the representational image of one, and I particularly enjoy the way his painting of the skull is abstracted and minimised. I would like to use a similar representation of a skull in my diorama in that it will be suggested, but not meticulously replicated. I also enjoy Sloan's largely monochromatic and naturalistic use of colour, which encourages me to continue working with black and white although I could probably experiment more with how precisely I am trying to paint.

Pixellation Development

After the small sketches I made of pixellation studies I wanted to get on to making larger versions to accompany my diorama painting. Just as with the text-based paintings I wanted to begin with an umber layer so that there would be some depth in the layers of the work and also to assist in seeing what areas have been painted in or not. I generated the ordering of the squares by using a random number generator. Starting at the top left hand side, I generated numbers between 1 and 10, re-doing the generation if I got the same number twice in a row. So far I have only painted in the white squares (number 1), but I am going to work my way through a range of greys (numbered from 2-8, increasing in numerical darker the more black that will be added to the mix), before painting in the final black squares (number 10). I am painting from light to dark for the practical reason that working with wet paint the colours may smudge together a bit and it will be better to accidentally mix a small amount of a lighter colour with a darker colour than a darker colour in with a lighter colour. I have taped the bottom of the work by about 10 cm so as to keep a section of the panel I am painting on as exposed wood. This is because I tend to work in a very precise and detailed manner, and I am trying to bring more elements of experimentation into the painting stage of the work. I am excited to see how this combination of finished and unfinished surface will work together, particularly because I really love the colour and warmth of timber.

Lecture Notes - She/he's lost control again

-be brave! Embrace smudges, accidents, etc.

Generative art - process of encoding artistic idea into some sort of system
-there has to be a logic through which the artwork is generated
-system must be autonomous

su13art1531.wordpress.com/2013/07/11/71/

Surrealism - pure, psychic automatism
-artlessness - method over product
automatic paintings and drawings
Unica Zurn

Antoni Tapies - voids
Palla i fusta, 1969, straw and wood, assemblage on canvas

Cy Twombly
-mass of mars, erasures and words
are smudges intentional or accidental?
-respond to the specific needs of each work?

Les Moutons de Panurge - Frederic Rzewski

Basquiat - informed his work by trying things outside the realm of painting, e.g. dj-ing
-paintings are experimental jazz rhythms?
Brother's Sausage - 6 hinge panel - everything is revealed
small drawings controlled, paint splatters loose and free
-appropriation from all sorts of sources

Ghada Amer - embroidered paintings
thread ends adhered to canvas using gel, technique akin to paint dripping
control of embroidery + loss of control of thread ends
La Ligne
The Black Bang - reference to male artists

Tracey Emin
I Can't Believe How Much I Loved You
-don't give everything away in your painting - there has to be something for the viewer to imagine
Keep Your Darkness Away - embroidered calico

Susan Hefuna
-ink and pencil drawings, multiple layers of tracing paper
-networks and systems
NOTATIONOTATIONS - choreography and drawing - mapping of people

Text Development

This is some of the progress I have made so far with the text based works I am painting. I have chosen to paint them over the top of a burnt umber ground as it means that when the final colour goes on, it has some depth and textural interest through the ground being visible still to some extent. I am liking aesthetically how the works are looking even before I paint on the background colours, and I think if time were permitting I would not only experiment with doing black and white paintings but also sepia ones. I am finding it to be quite a lengthy process to do each of these paintings as it takes a while to transfer the text and also paint it in so finely, but I also consider it quite a meditative process of almost colouring in. At this stage I am eager to finish these paintings completely so I can reflect on how they are working together, and also be able to fully dedicate my time to working on the diorama and getting the painted version of it started.

Ricky Swallow

I can see parallels between the work of Ricky Swallow and my own as there is an evident obsession with craft in his highly skilled wood carvings. There is also the similarity of subject matter, as Swallow deals with vanitas imagery, particularly in his repeated use of skulls. I really think Swallow's work is pursuing the idea of replicating motifs which symbolise death and mortality but in a corporeal form which will last for years. Therefore, there is the concept of making manifest the ephemeral, an idea I intend my diorama's to convey as the notions of the apocalypse and even utopias and dystopias only exist in the arts, so making a physical object of them creates a dialogue between concept and execution.

I like that whilst many other artists that I have looked at because of their consideration of vanitas imagery have been painters, Swallow is one of the first who has done so quite explicitly as a sculptor. I can therefore see the clear relevance of his work to mine in the making of the 3D, although I then intend to transport this into the 2D plane of the painting. I think what I most take away from studying his work is the effectiveness of minimalism, particularly in the sense that most of his work takes advantage of the natural colour and stain of the wood he has used. I believe this monochromaticism allows the details of Swallow's work to be properly appreciated, therefore I am encouraged to pursue using a limited palette in my own work.

Everything is Nothing, 2003, Jelutong, epoxy putty, 21 x 32 x 14 cm

The Exact Dimensions of Staying Behind, 2005, English limewood, 70 x 110 x 105 cm

The Arrangement, 2004, English limewood, 115 x 46 x 51 cm

Come Together, 2002, Jelutong, 66 x 64 x 81 cm

Younger Than Yesterday, 2006, English limewood, 20 x 20 x 20 cm