Emergence – King’s Lynn Arts Centre 10-17 January 2015

This exhibition highlights the talent of young artists working locally as well as in the rest of the UK. A few of the artists have recently graduated with BAs or MAs in Visual Arts.

The twelve artists provided twenty pieces ranging from photography to contemporary installations using steel and wood.

From the handout it isn’t possible to determine which artists have a BA or MA and perhaps that doesn’t matter but my reaction to the exhibition as a whole was the range of talent from average to extraordinary and I was curious if the MA graduates were those (in my perception) who had made the better work.

As we are well aware the onus in a fine art exhibition (or any fine art work) is on the viewer to read the work and find our own narrative or gain some insight into the work from our perspective, the author having long gone.

The works that caught my eye during a short visit are mentioned below.

The first work by Jake Francis consisted of three items. A chair with a head on it (titled Stoopid #2), a painting (titled Artist)and a table with a plate, food and cutlery (titled Gloop). The content of each piece is bizarre and set out to be controversial. The picture is of an artist palette, but no paint, instead 3 lumps of animal (could be human) excrement. The head was from some fruit and the food on the plate looks like a dolls dress with a a brown fluid oozing from inside it, resembling an afterbirth with clothes on.

Jamie Kilcoin had produced 5 landscape photographs, mostly taken around the North Norfolk coast I would guess as I recognised some of the locations. Well produced work with lovely image quality and presentation. As a group they have a connection in genre but for me three in colour and two monochrome upset the rhythm of reading them as a set.

An interesting diptych from Ivan Chambers of a female in black leather bikini. In one she is in a church, in the other outside a Soho type theater. Various labels attached beneath the two images. All I get here is irony and a Charlie Hebdo type of cartoon effect. The message is not easy to read but has something to do with the fortune of sins. Not easy but well delivered.

Jasmine Ferrari produced an installation piece titled Madonna. Made from small section (25x25) softwood the piece is a masterful example of woodworking. It is intricate and has a balanced feeling with flat panels pained in colour. I know little about this type of work, my only thought being if it was designed for a particular site then here it maybe isn’t the right place.

The next item is also an installation. Five (maybe six) pieces of plywood laminated with glass suspended from part of the gallery structure gives us a love floating piece hanging in mid air. A light airy feel, again a work that is maybe designed for a specific location and would benefit from being against a wall of darker colour.

James Linder provided the second helping of photography by the presence of a lovely DeVere 10x8 camera as a floor installation. A gorgeous thing in its own right I assume it was the camera used to make the large portrait associated with it. Also present was a 5x4 wet plate collodion negative of the same image. There was no explanation but I assume a 5x4 back was used and what we have therefore is the narrative of the image from camera to print. The monochrome print is of a portrait of a man, front on and closely cropped and framed. Very Bailey was the first impression although the treatment of the image was high contrast with large black areas and that’s not quite Bailey. A combination piece of work that I came back to a number of times.

The next installation piece is by Amber Lawrence. Amber is the Visual Arts & Education Intern at the arts centre and I have met her a few times as she was the point of contact for last years Eastern Open. Ambers piece is constructed using square hollow section mild steel. She has made four frames, some 1500mm high that form a space for smaller white pieces of stonework. The frames act as support to hang the stone pieces and it is if the steelwork is sometimes the artwork and sometimes the support for the white pieces to be the artwork. Once again the work is being seen perhaps out of context and I was bothered by the tiled floor making another set of shapes that competed with the frames.

At the far end of the Red Barn there are 6 TV Monitors showing a continuous loop of a video work titled DRONE. Drone it would seem is a game with a voice telling us about the various levels of play. The pictures however show real life footage from aircraft on bombing raids on building in the Middle East. The combination of voice, music, graphics and footage was excellent and kept me engaged. The use of six screens gave one the feeling of being in a TV control room or the control room of the people engaged in the fighting. Well produced piece of video and installation by Henry Driver.

An experience looking at unfamiliar art and thinking about the "thinking" that the students had gone through to get the work completed and on display. It is difficult to say how any piece is likely to influence my own practice but it is good to see work at the level I aspire to.

The Arts Centre Website is here.

Probing some new Ideas.

The three images below are the start of a new idea using shallow depth of field to connote the short sightedness of society, especially in the rural environment and economy. It is difficult to know where this is likely to end, it may have ended already.

The remains of a hedge.

National speed limit - really !.

Once a forest.

Assignment 4 - Adjustment to scope.

The research reading is going well, but has made me consider another possible change in the context of the essay. It will still be based entirely on Post-modernism and the critical theory associated with this fascinating and at the same time difficult subject. I feel though a need to refer to more photography and photographers rather than use all the words on the French philosophers and the academic thinking of the late 20th century. The subject clearly spans across literature, religion and other humanities based subjects but in order for me to connect with this I must bias my research towards photography. In doing so I will attempt to analyse how the works of Sherman, Wall etc may influence my own practice.
An issue that is puzzling me at the moment is how I came to be the owner of a Kindle version of Postmodern Art-Photography: A Mediatheoretical Approach by Andreas Lohmann. It isnt advertised as a Kindle book and I have no recollection of how it came to be on my iPad. The paper version sells for over £150. Senior moment perhaps but thank you to the techno gods for my present.

Assignment 4 Critical Review - Title fixing and research

For some time (4weeks) I have been working on an idea for the essay, in conjunction with my tutor. Good practice suggests that you choose a subject that you are interested in, but in this instance I have chosen a subject that I am curious about rather than intrinsically interested in. Postmodernism or PoMo as it seems to be refereed to in some quarters (although you will be a long way into a Google search before it comes up) is a term often used but I guess seldom fully understood, simply because it defies understanding in a way we like to understand things. My lack of in depth knowledge came to light in the exercise on the Liz Wells essay when asked the question "To what extent does the writer rely upon Postmodernist doctrine?". Doctrine seemed a strange word to use and perhaps as I have had pointed out to me is just semantics and could equally be taken as belief, concept or tradition. With this in mind I have researched Modernisn and Postmodernism enough (?) to suggest to myself a few titles. The title may seem less than important but in fact that is untrue. Once the argument has been established and fixed in the introduction, it is then my responsibility to argue or defend than statement. 

1. Postmodernism - Doctrine or Theory ?
2. Postmodernism is a Theory not a Doctrine.
3. Is Postmodernism a Doctrine or a Theory ?
4. Postmodernism - Doctrine v Theory
5. Within contemporary photography is Postmodernism a Theory or a Doctrine ?
6. Is Postmodernism only a Theory ?
7. Postmodernism is not a Theory

They are all similar but I am cautious about having to prove it is not a Doctrine because I am sure there are those who think it is and if my research doesn't cover them I will be marked down. In addition there is a limit of 2000 words and to cover more than one aspect of the subject this will not be enough. It is more likely that I can provide enough cogent argument to argue that it is a theory with considerable weight and suggest it may have a doctrinal following, but not within the main stream.

I will pick one during the next few days.

My reading list to date for the essay includes or the whole or parts of the following.

Butler, C., 2002. Postmodernism: A Very Short Introduction.(Kindle Edition) Oxford University Press.

Belsey, C.,2002. Poststructuralism: A very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.

Wells, L., 2003. The Photography Reader. Routledge.

Bate, D., 2009. Photography - The Key Concepts. Bloomsbury.

Clarke, C,. 1997. The Photograph. Oxford University Press.

plus various You Tube videos and reference to Wikipedia for secondary sources.

To illustrate the essay (2000 words without something to look at on a subject which is abstract could be boring) I will use some images that will act as visual statements.
In particular I am thinking of Cindy Sherman and Jeff Wall.

Cumbria - November 2014

A five night stay in Cumbria during November was a pleasant break from the normal routine and while no photography was planned there was the inevitable bag of cameras making the trip.
It is easy to fall into the Lake District trap and get carried away with the magnificence of the place (remember I live in Norfolk) but that is now behind me and while I am happy to watch light chase across the fells I don't feel the need to try and capture the grand vista with a 5x4 as I did in the past, but did find time for one at dusk. When walking I tend to look for some detail or think of Fay Godwin and her fascination with the enclosure and access. However the following images are not forming part of the module but I include them purely as a note. All here are with the Leica MM and 35mm or 75mm lens.

Nigel Shafran

Nigel Shafran (1964 -  )

During Assignment 3 I photographed some washing up on the draining board in the kitchen. The image was never used in that assignment as it didn’t  fit in with the style I needed although on its own it is a  strong photograph and was later used as one of my entries in the 45^th Eastern Open, where it was selected and won an award.  Another reason for not selecting it into the assignment was it didn’t say much about being a Carer, we all have washing up and it could have been the washing up from any home. What washing does show is a punctuation mark in the day. It comes after eating, which it turn comes after cooking a meal and so is part of a simple narrative of the day. What I didn’t know about this image was that it looks very similar to the work of Nigel Shafran. Such coincidences are rare and it is embarrassing to have to explain that I am not plagiarising Shafran’s work as I found him after making my image. This confirms that there is nothing new in image making and gives me confidence to continue in this genre.

Shafran began his photographic career as a fashion photographer in the 1980’s and worked on a number of prestigious magazines, only to become disillusioned with that world and has since turned his camera inward, onto his family and his own close environment, employing techniques in still life usually associated with painting than photography.

Having found Shafran and viewed his work online I obtained a book of his work, Edited Photographs 1992 - 2004, Photoworks, 2004

Shafran’s work is inspirational and he is now on a small list of photographers who are having an influence on how I think and work in photography. The shared interest is in how we can trace human activity through the statements that are left behind when the humans have gone, the placing of objects, the constructions and ephemera, as seen in washing up.

The images are simple, almost to the extent that they are banal, but there is language in them through semiotics and interpretation, often something left for the viewer to complete and an element of ambiguity.

Shafran’s images are not studio constructions, they are found objects of every day life. Similar in some respects to the work of Edward Weston who had a similar affinity with the found objects such as his toilet, peppers and a cabbage. There is however careful placing of the camera and an acute awareness of the natural light falling onto the scene. In recent years there is wide discourse on the “real” and the realist. Straight or pure photography is a strong voice with many in contemporary practice and I am one who feels at ease with this genre, in preference to work that is being described as “post photography” with its reliance on overt manipulation and the inclusion of the bizarre. Some confuse straight photography with simple photography and that is in fact far from its intention. The connotations, the signified and the semiotics within an image do not require the work to be overtly complicated.

Shafran works mainly with a large format camera (often using a Polaroid frame before the main image), making his work as life unfolds and this requires a dedicated approach with strict criteria and an artists eye for what is right and wrong to include when surrounded by endless potential. His high production values are a feature of his work I am interested in and seek  to include in my own work. I no longer have a 5x4 camera but will continues this type of work using 6x6 format film.

Shafran has attracted much critical discourse and during an interview in 2000 with Paul Elliman Shafran explains “why washing up ?”

“I wanted to start the New Year with something optimistic. And Personal. Something with lots of shapes, where shapes would change, keep changing. Also something in which the light was important, the kitchen window or the overhead kitchen light, I mean, I really wanted to have one lit by lightning, havent got that yet. There are signs of ageing in it, like signs of time, of course”

Charlotte Cotton talks of his work and its intuitive nature.

“With an understated photographic style, use of ambient light and relatively long exposures, he transforms these scenes into poetic observations about the ways we conduct our lives through our unconscious acts of ordering, stacking and displaying objects. There is something highly intuitive in Shafran’s way of working”   (Cotton, 2009, p.121)

Shafran’s work is widely published. He has six books, numerous awards, five solo exhibitions, many group exhibitions and has lectured and a number of  universities and art colleges.

References:

Cotton, C., 2009. The Photograph as Contemporary Art. Thames and Hudson

Photographs to be added when permissions received.