Research - Body and Identity - 2 artists

Body art is generally concerned with issues of gender and personal identity. A major theme is the relationship of body and mind, explored in work consisting of feats of physical endurance designed to test the limits of the body and the ability of the mind to suffer pain.

It also often highlights aspects of the body that focus on bodily substances or the theme of nourishment. Contrasts such as those between clothed and nude, internal and external, parts of the body and the whole are also a common theme. In some work, the body is seen as the vehicle for language.

Identity in modern art is a broad and exciting theme, allowing the viewer to gain new perspectives and understanding of other people's lives. For the artists that draw inspiration from their identity, the work becomes a podium for exploration, expression and connection.

Art can shed light on cultural influences from other places, historical events, cultural values, the persistence of certain traditions, and resistance and change to certain traditions. People use art to express their own individuality, but also to connect with others in the culture and express a shared identity.

Body

Trina Merry  (born in 1980) is an American multimedia artist that uses the human body as a brush or a surface. She is best known for her trompe l’oeil street art performances that camouflage human canvases into their environments as well as her op art “human sculpture” installations. Merry is recognised as one of the top body painters in the world. Additionally, Merry's work highlights societal issues such as gender identity & equality, body image, and American consumerism.

(Nude Models Covered in Body Paint Blend Into Patriotic landmarks)

After studying with Robert Wilson and Marina Abramovic at the Watermill Center, she took those lessons and applied them to her body art installations. Now, whether camouflaging models around the world or creating living sculptures, she is known as one of the top body painting artists in the field.

“I love working with the human body as my surface because my paintings are alive—they have a breath, a heart beat, a twinkle in the eye,” she shares with us via email. “Body paint creates a special connection to a person that other visual art forms have trouble accomplishing; it’s a distinctly human experience.” - Merry.

Identity

Samuel Fosso (born July 17, 1962) is a Cameroonian-born Nigerian photographer who has worked for most of his career in the Central African Republic. His work includes using self-portraits adopting a series of personas, often commenting on the history of Africa. One of his most famous works of art, and what he is best known for, is his "autoportraits" where he takes either himself or other more recognizable people and draws them in a style of popular culture or politics. He is recognized as one of Central Africa's leading contemporary artists.

He won the Prince Claus Award from the Netherlands in 2001.

(Untitled from the series African Spirits, 2008)

In his series African Spirits, the photographer Samuel Fosso assumes the guises of political, intellectual, and cultural figures from Africa and the African diaspora. In large-scale, meticulous formal portraits, Fosso dons the distinctive garb and characteristics of his subjects, recognizable from their widely disseminated photographic likenesses. These include the impeccable afro of American activist and educator Angela Davis and the browline spectacles of Patrice Lumumba, who was imprisoned and then executed shortly after becoming the first prime minister of the Republic of the Congo after it gained independence from Belgium.

I find each of these artists interesting and inspirational because of how they excecute their work. Fosso’s excecution for his works are simple, yet they tell a story, where as Merry’s works are a little more complex as it contains sitting in the nude in public while covered in paint, this could represent people blending into society and how easy or hard it may be for some people.

Erewash Museum

The museum opened in the 1980s, and focuses on the history of the Erewash area, with exhibits covering the Second World War, archaeology, and the Stanton Ironworks. The building that houses the museum is named the Dalby House after one of the families who inhabited it, and has served as a school and a private dwelling.

(view of the main entrance of the Dalby House)

And so on November 22nd, we travelled to Ilkeston to take a look around the Museum to help gather some inspiration for our own works that will be exhibited in one of the rooms there.

To get to the museum, we walked through High Street, which showed us Ilkeston's different types of architecture on the buildings and churches. We also took pictures of the areas around us that we liked so that it would give us some inspiration for our works that we would be putting on display.

(St. Mary's Church in the town we walk past)

(a bollard by the museum)

Upon first walking up to the museum, my first impression is of how historic the house and its surroundings look, as it was built in the 1800s, deriving its name from the owner, John Dalby. And on the inside of the house we saw some patterns on the ceiling above us as well as a stained glass door that leads us to the exhibits.

(part of the kitchen area)

Walking through the exhibitions, we saw many rooms, such as the kitchen that has been frozen in time so that the public can see what it was like to be in that room when the house was in its prime, during the 1800s. All of these details in each of the rooms gave us some more inspiration for our own works and what it could be based from as well as what materials we could use. For me, I have been inspired by some works that are in a room at the museum, which consists of silhouettes of tree leaves in front of the sunset, therefore I am going to do my own version of this sunset piece with a silhouette of the church (above) instead.

We got some in-depth knowledge of the area around us from the Stanton Ironworks and World War II exhibits, with some artefacts that we could take a look at.

'Sherwood Foresters

In both world wars many local men joined the Sherwood Foresters regiment.

WWI

Altogether, some 140,000 men, served with the Regiment during the war. Nearly all were from Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire - 11,409 never returned home.

WWII

The Sherwood Foresters fought bravely in many battles across the world during the war. battalions from the regiment were involved with the evacuation at Dunkirk, in France, and at the battle of El Alamein, in northern Africa.'

'By 1939 war had once again broken out under the dictatorship of Hitler, Nazi Germany had invaded large parts of mainland Europe. Britain declared war on 1st Seplember after Germany had invaded Poland.

British forces would fight in Europe, Africa and Asia, on land, sea and air in a war that would engulf the entire world and cost millions of fives.

Men between 18 and 41 were called up as soon as war was declared. By the end of the war conscription had widened to include men up to 51 and women between 20 and 30.

Air Raids

The summer of 1940 saw Germany bomb targets across Britain. The plan was to weaken Britain to the point where the German military could carry out a full invasion.

The Royal Air Force successfully defended Britain and no invasion took place. However, cities across the country suffered terrible damage and many thousands of people died.

Bombs were dropped in this area on 27th - 31st August, the 4th September and 30th September.

Stanton Ironworks was the main target because of the important work being carried out there but residential areas such as Shipley and Sawley were hit.

Thankfully there were no reported deaths, but there was much damage to property.'

The Stanton Ironworks Company, later called Stanton and Staveley, Invested in local young people by laking on apprentices. In 1947 the Training Centre was opened.

Trainees would usually spend six months there before moving to the ironworks. One day per week would also be spent at the Ilkeston College of Further Education learing theory.

In the 1960s boys were encouraged to spend a month in the Lake District climbing, swimming, and sailing, in the hope that it would develop leadership skills and produce well-rounded employees.

The work was hard and often dangerous but the ironworks offered young people a chance to gain employment and learn skills. Many started out as apprentices in their teens and stayed at Stanton for all of their working lives. It was common for several generations of one family to be working at the Ironworks at the same time. Skills and knowledge were passed down helping to build a legacy of community and family at Stanton.

Gold watches were presented to long serving employees. 30 years' service for male workers and 25 years service for female workers, By the1960s over 3500 gold watches had been given by the company.

Exhibition walk through at the Nottingham Contemporary

Today, November 16th, we took a trip down to the Nottingham Contemporary to look through their 4 galleries that are full of works, that are either contemporary or traditional.

The Contemporary organises four to five major exhibitions a year, bringing the work of the world’s contemporary artists to Nottingham. The ideas raised by the exhibitions are explored in educational programmes for all ages.

Each piece of work differs with a unique range of materials and media’s that have been used, such as paints, oils, metals or even digital.

To me, I feel like each exhibition is an insight to what the artists mindset could have been and what they could have been thinking about. And their mood reflects onto the viewer in hopes that they will feel it too, for example, an exhibition with a dark setting and theme with dark colours can reflect a sad and empty, yet liminal feeling. Whereas brighter colours could represent the opposite; a more energetic feel.

When we first stepped into the first part of the exhibition, my first impression had set me up for the rest of the exhibition, as I thought that it was wonderful as all works had their own story with each of its unique set of details, from the large to small and basic to detailed works.

(Inferno, Caragh Thuring, Oil on linen, 2018)

Each and every gallery space throughout the Contemporary has a mix of traditional works and contemporary works (more modern techniques), and for each, I found a piece that I really liked.

For traditional I found NOUM, The Sleeper from the Depths, from the Illuminations series, 1962 created by Hamed Abdella. Which was created with silver, aluminium, tar and oil paints on a board to create thick layers with a shine. Even if this work seems more contemporary than traditional, as this work used modern ways to create a historic piece, however, it is still traditional as it is essentially a painting in a frame on the wall.

‘Egyptian artist Hamed Abdalla (1917-85) had a lifelong interest in what he called the "silent darkness" of caves. As a young man, he explored caves across Egypt, and while living in France during the 1950s often visited the grottos in the Vercors region. The geological forms he encountered resonated with his own artistic experiments. He began to conceive of painting as a kind of fossilisation, sedimentation or crystallisation.’

But I found the contemporary piece more interesting, created by Matt Copson, called Death, Again, it is a 9 minute cycle of lights in a certain sequence that creates the vision of dragonflies flying around a slowly turning skull that eventually distorts and becomes solid again.

I like this piece because it is the polar opposite of traditional, as traditional pieces are usually made from paints, as well as it’s vibrant colours and height that make it stand out more than the rest.

Anything created looking like this can be seen as art, but Death, Again is seen as art to show how simple it can be as art is interpreted differently to each of its viewers. Whereas, for example, a simple statue could be seen as art to some people, but not to others.

Created between the 13th and 14th Century by an unknown maker, this statue is called 'Nottingham Green Glazed Salt Figurine.'

'A well-preserved piece of earthenware in the Nottingham Light-bodied Green Glaze tradition. This form of glazing was particularly common in the early to mid-14th century. This figure is missing its arms, which possibly held a basket.'

Matt Copson (b.1992) uses computer-generated laser projections, hand-drawn animation, murals, sculpture and music to explore life and death. He works with a cast of characters, including birds, skulls, babies and the recurring figure of a sly fox. As Copson has said: "I think of my laser works as cave drawings. They are a continuation of and reconnection to our beginnings, and to our need to process the world in crude form. To illuminate the darkness with magic."

Research - Consumerism

Consumerism are artworks that have been engaged with the idea that the acquisition or ownership of goods reflects status and self-identity. Artists explore or criticise this idea in a variety of ways, usually featuring consumable goods, sites of consumption, the acquisition of goods, or advertising imagery in their work.

“This new type of consumer values creativity, design and the power of personal values. These consumers will look toward companies that can “present an offering that solves a problem, does some good, and delivers aesthetically.” They also look for products that engage the senses to discern truth. In other words, they believe what they can experience. Authenticity is paramount, and stories and images are powerful means for communicating messages.” - Wiki

An artist's example of this is Scottish artist Eduardo Paolozzi (1924 – 2005), known for his sculpture and graphic works. Paolozzi studied at the Edinburgh College of Art in 1943, and then soon at the Slade School of Fine Art at University College London from 1944 to 1947. While in Paris from 1947 to 1949, Paolozzi became acquainted with other artists such as Alberto Giacometti, and Fernand Léger. This period became an important influence for his later work.

Paolozzi's graphic work of the 1960s was highly innovative. In a series of works he explored and extended the possibilities and limits of the silkscreen medium. The resulting prints are characterised by Pop culture references and technological imagery. An example of a series of works is called As Is When (12 prints on the theme of Paolozzi's interest in the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein; published as a limited edition of 65 by Editions Alecto, 1965).

A popular work of Paolozzi’s is a sculpture called ‘Newton,’ also known as ‘Newton after Blake,’ created in 1995. The large bronze sculpture is displayed on a high plinth in the piazza outside the British Library in London. The sculpture is based on William Blake's 1795 print of ‘Newton: Personification of Man Limited by Reason,’ which depicts a naked Isaac Newton sitting on ledge beside a mossy rock face while measuring with a pair of compasses, but with the figure looking more modern as it seems that it has vaguely robotic limb joints as well as some form of goggles that go over the head and eyes.

Blake's print would later serve as the basis for Eduardo Paolozzi's 1995 bronze sculpture Newton, after William Blake, which resides in the piazza of the British Library.

Another artist called Richard Hamilton, (1922 – 2011) was an English painter and collage artist. His 1955 exhibition Man, Machine and Motion, at Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, produced for the This Is Tomorrow exhibition of the Independent Group in London, are considered by critics and historians to be among the earliest works of pop art.

Hamilton taught at the London Central School of Arts and Crafts and University of Newcastle upon Tyne; he gave up teaching full-time in 1966. He designed a typographic version of Duchamp's Green Box, published in 1960, and in 1965/66, with Duchamp's guidance, reconstructed Duchamp's The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass).

An easily notable work of Hamilton’s is ‘Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?,’ a collage created by him. It is now kept in the collection of Kunsthalle Tübingen, Germany. The image contains a yellow room with different types of objects in them, from normal household furniture to a fake window with a show front inserted, as well as models. 

Created in 1956 for the catalogue of the exhibition ‘This Is Tomorrow’ in London, it was reproduced in black and white. In addition, the piece was used in posters for the exhibit. Hamilton and his friends John McHale and John Voelcker had collaborated to create the room that became the best-known part of the exhibition.

In 2007, an article by the art historian John-Paul Stonard, the collage consists of images taken mainly from American magazines, The principal template was an image of a modern sitting-room in an advertisement in ‘Ladies Home Journal’ for Armstrong Floors, which describes the "modern fashion in floors." The body builder is Irvin "Zabo" Koszewski, winner of Mr L.A. in 1954. The photograph is taken from Tomorrow's Man magazine, September 1954.