Week 27

At the start of the week I had to deliver a 10 minute presentation about my most significant outcome of BA2b, thus I chose my publication, as to me it carries great value as the conclusion to my main project of the second year. I generally struggle with public speaking, however despite my nerves I was able to deliver what I felt was an effective presentation. It felt strange that it was my final official assessment of year 2 before deadline. For the remainder of the week I finished off my proposal, research and supporting documentation. I aimed to have all my work finished by the Thursday so that I had no trouble submitting for assessment on the Friday. Below I have included evidence of my presentation. 10 minute Presentation Evidence For the 10 minute presentation I chose to focus on the publication I made as documentation of my primary outcome from year 2 the life-size hybrid wolf/horse sculpture. Plan for the presentation: Slide 1 “My primary outcome for BA2b has been my Publication which is being passed around at the moment, the book is a documentation of my most significant work from the second year an aluminium sculpture of a horse and wolf hybrid skull.” Slide 2 ·         Give context to publication, introduce sculpture, design, material, dimensions. ·         Explain practice “I create a menagerie of unsettling creatures which reflect darker aspects of the human condition”. ·         Link theme of sculpture to practice. “In this case the hybrid skull is a reflection of human conflict. By merging the forms of two species which have been present in human conflict for centuries I intended to create an organism which would embody conflict, almost like a totem. I chose the horse and wolf as both species have been present in human warfare for hundreds and in the case of the horse thousands of years. It could be argued that the horse has been the war engine, as they have been literal engines pulling machinery, carrying troops etc. on the other hand the wolf I use a little loosely as it is really its descendant the hound which is present in human conflict, yet as the superior member of the canine family it seemed most appropriate.” Slide 3 ·         Discuss artist research: ·         Charles Avery: the islander’s project, original fictional hybrid organisms which reflect ideas and themes relevant to Avery’s practice, inspired the use of a hybrid skull to reflect human conflict. ·         James B Webster: use of life size skulls, with metallic hints to reflect his own concepts, gold= sun= life and power. Inspired me to use a metal to reflect the brutality and tactility of human conflict. ·         Quentin garell: larger than life animal skull sculptures, inspired me to work in a larger scale to create a real sense of impact. Slide 4 ·         The publication, explain how it was made… ·         Explain why you made it, talk about its importance to the sculpture, a final farewell to the 6 month project as a sense of closure. Slide 5 ·         Discuss the stages of the book, the chronological order of the book starting from mere sketches of the sculpture to its creation, its casting and the final outcome. ·         Discuss how the book is more a referencing guide for yourself, for future projects. Slide 6 ·         Primary lesson of the project, experimenting with the moulding process lead me to find a new form of hybrid moulding using both plaster and gel flex in the same mould so as to remove the risk of pinch points and help to record as much detail as possible. ·         Explain how in future you would rather start experimenting and practicing for such a large sculpture using a smaller scale practice version than starting work on a large scale sculpture as when something goes wrong it’s a huge set back, walk before you can run concept.

Week 26

I had aimed to spend this week writing my proposal, however due to my strong dislike of public speaking I was distracted by the presentation on the following Monday, despite this I was able to settle on a strong bibliography and finished a large portion of my proposal. I spent the last three days of this week planning and preparing for my presentation. I wish it had been earlier in the unit as at this point I only want to focus on research report and practice. I am really feeling the effects of not having a studio space I feel quite lost. Below I have attached my bibliography for my 1000 word proposal. Bibliography ·         Baker. S. (1993) Picturing the beast, Animals, identity and representation. Manchester university press. Chapter 3. Mad dogs and rhetoric of animality. 77-116. ·         Beresford. M. (2013). The White Devil: The Werewolf in European Culture. Reaktion Books. ·         Blom, J. D. (2014). "When Doctors Cry Wolf. A Systematic Review of the Literature on Clinical Lycanthropy". History of Psychiatry 25: 87–102. Available from: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0957154X13512192 o   [Accessed last- 21/01/2017]. ·         Byrne. N. (2012) Art-icles: William Blake’s Nebuchadnezzar. Available from: https://revelsmagazine.wordpress.com/2012/09/19/art-icles-william-blakes-nebuchadnezzar/ [Accessed last- 03/02/2017]. ·         Coppel. S. (2012) Picasso Prints, the vollard suite, 1st edition. British Museum Press. ·         Culler. J. (2004) Narrative theory: critical concept in literature and cultural studies, chapter 8: Story and discourse in the analysis of narrative. 117-130. Routledge. ·         Dodds. J. (2011) Psychoanalysis and ecology at the edge of chaos, Complexity Theory, Deluze/ Guattari and Psychoanalysis for a climate in crisis. Routledge. ·         Fig.1. Blake. W. (1795) Nebuchadnezzar, Colour Monotype print with additions in ink and watercolour. Available from: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-nebuchadnezzar-n05059 [Accessed last- 13/12/2016]. ·         Eilsler. R. (1978). Man into wolf: An Anthropological interpretation of Sadism, Masochism and Lycanthropy. Ross-Erikson Publishers Inc, U.S. ·         Ellis. S. (2010). The man who lives with wolves. HarperCollins. ·         Linnell. J. (2002) the fear of wolves, A review of wolf attacks on humans. Available from: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1026&context=wolfrecovery [accessed last- 29/01/2017]. ·         Lopez. B. (1979). Of Wolves and Men. Simon & Schuster; Revised edition edition. ·         Marvin. G. (2012). Wolf (Animal). Reaktion Books. ·         O’Connell. M. (2017). ‘Your animal life is over. Machine life has begun.’ The road to immortality. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/mar/25/animal-life-is-over-machine-life-has-begun-road-to-immortality?CMP=fb_gu [Accessed last- 04/05/2017]. ·         O'Neil. O. (1988) Plains Indian and the Wolf: The Pawnee. Available from: http://www.wolfsongalaska.org/chorus/node/178 [Accessed last- 03/02/2017]. ·         Penny Dreadful, Season 3 Episode 3 (2016), created by John Logan. Sky Atlantic (TV). ·         Shrestha. R. (2014) Clinical Lycanthropy: Delusional Misidentification of the self, Available from: http://neuro.psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdf/10.1176/appi.neuropsych.13030057 [Last visited- 05/02/2017]. ·         Taake. K.H. (2016) Solving the mystery of the 18th century killer “Beast of Gévaudan”. Available from: http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2016/09/27/solving-the-mystery-of-the-18th-century-killer-beast-of-gevaudan/ [Accessed Last-02/02/2017]. ·         Taylor. S.C. (1909) the origin of the werewolf superstition.1. Available from: https://ia802606.us.archive.org/9/items/originofwerewolf00stewrich/originofwerewolf00stewrich.pdf [Accessed last- 02/02/2017]. ·         Wells. C. (2013) Psychoanalytic Approach to Little Red Riding Hood, Available from: https://prezi.com/f9i7iqjr2uc4/psychoanalytic-approach-to-little-red-riding-hood/ [Accessed last- 01/02/2017].

Week 25

This week I had my last tutorial to discuss my 1000 word proposal for my research report next year, which I have been working on the back burners (so to speak) all of BA2b, my main concept is too focus on a similar plan to my 3000 word text from BA2A; as the concept is close to my practice and of great interest to me. Overall the topic of the text will be to consider the margin between Human and non-human, furthermore how the hybrid of the two shatters the linear margin separating the two, thus explaining the stigma with which society views such figures. The topic will be studies focusing on Wolves and humans as the two have a rich history with varying views and relations across different continents. Furthermore the lycanthrope is perhaps the most famous hybrid of the human and the non-human certainly perhaps the most interesting.

Plan:

Wolves + humans

Discuss the relationship between humans and wolves throughout history, the fear rural villages and towns in Europe viewed the creatures, the mass culling's during the 1800's and the cease fire in WW1 between Russia and Germany to hunt a super pack of wolves killing soldiers from both sides. Furthermore the respect with which the wolves were seen with by Native Americans mostly the Pawnee tribe who were called the Wolves by other tribes.

Origins of the werewolf story

A discussion of how the werewolf has dominated modern media in horror and sci-fi, but look at how the werewolf began through tales of rogue beasts, and animalistic murders in Europe, and superstitious tales of members of the Pawnee tribe who possessed legendary wolf like abilities to hunt and fight.

Clinical lycanthropy

Look at how some people have beliefs of lycanthropy yet suggest how clinical lycanthropy hasn't captured the medias attention as well as the fictional physical metamorphosis from human to wolf due to the possibility that the clinical lycanthrope is still just human yet with animalistic tendencies. Alternatively the physical werewolf is a human with the physical superiority of a wolf allowing him to realise and indulge the dark aspects of the human condition. Case studies including Sigmund Freud's investigation into the wolf man.

Human/ non-human margin

Either in a separate discussion or conclusion consider the margin between human and non human organisms and how the werewolf is a controversial figure for shattering this margin. 

Furthermore this week I have started painting again to try and find a new medium to convey the themes of my practice. I aim to create a detailed portrait of a human in a violent state perhaps a still from a tv show or film, therefore I settled on a scene from Vikings in which the main character Ragnar is covered in blood. Vikings seemed appropriate as the characters act impulsively and truly to their basic instinct. Once I've finished the portrait I want to scan and print it onto calico which I will paint a stitch into.

Below I have documented the development of the painting this week:

This has reminded me how annoying painting can be, normally 80% of the time I hate the painting its only in the last 20% of the paintings development that it starts to take shape, alternatively with sculpture theres a sense of the works progression throughout the works development hence why I enjoy sculpture so much more.

Furthermore later this week I disposed of the stop motion stage (which failed) which I made several weeks earlier, as I was pulling it apart I made an accidental discovery, the single layer of latex which I painted over the stage was pulled into a thin transparent sheet which I then started to push my hand through, I was trying to use the latex to disfigure the human form:

Easter vacation

My first publication finally arrived this week, which I published using the website Blurb, The book is a form of documentation following the development and production of the aluminium hybrid skull sculpture. This was my first attempt at creating a book therefore some margins are slightly too small however ultimately the book was as success, I'm considering using publications more in the future to help document projects or to act as a compendium of my research.
Below I have attached a digital version of my book having scanned and edited the pages...

Furthermore this week I have continued researching themes for my project and have started forming my proposal for the upcoming research report which I intend to continue from my 3000 word text from BA2ba, I want to continue to research and evaluate the relations between the human and non- human and as an extension the possibility of  a hybrid of the two. This week I re visited the notion of tribal body art or natural face masks as a form of invoking the primal uncanny, a great example of this shown in modern media is the poster for the BBC drama taboo, in which the title character who dresses in civilised clothes has an ash based face mask. I therefore tried to research how such a mask would work, therefore I covered my face in wet ash, unfortunately when I asked my house mate to photograph this for documentation I assumed they knew how to use the camera also I scrubbed the ash onto my face in seconds it began stinging and when I removed it my face was marked for about a week. Below is a photo of the results...

 So the ash was a bit of a failure therefore I want to try dried clay next I still think that this concept has potential.
I have also started considering returning to portrait paintings which I studied in my first year of A levels. Therefore I tried to consider how I could use portraiture to dehumanise a human face, to incorporate the non-human. Therefore I started looking at the work of Andrew Salgado who's paintings explore the human forms using an expressive style which sometimes disfigures the subject matter completely. Therefore as a study in my sketchbook I printed a copy of a Salgado's work on to calico which I then painted onto and later stitched into with a sewing machine to emphasise the marks and layers of the non-human features I tried to work in. I've scanned and attached the sketchbook page below.