Continuing my interest in perfection and the representation of beauty, I've begun looking at selfie culture on social media, particularly on Instagram. By taking photos and heavily editing them I intend to reclaim the 'flaws' that we all hate. Rather than aspects to hide with filters and clever lighting I want to turn these natural imperfections into interesting, if not beautiful images.

Jeff Koons Exhibition at Norwich Castle

My favourite pieces in this exhibition were the advertisements Koons created to publicise a New York show in 1988.He entered the ads into leading art magazines- directly confronting both viewers and critics with his work. I find Koons' idea of transposing this imagery back into the media format it originated from really interesting. The controversial questions of the value of kitsch that are so frequently raised in 20th century art are given a fresh angle by placing the work back into the realm of main stream culture.

 From Hamilton's collages to Warhol's Cola bottles Kitsch influences often infiltrate the art world, but are the pop culture references that also preside over Koons' career worthy to be viewed as 'Fine Art'? Do cartoons, cheesy slogans and brand names have a place in the cultured White Cube? Koons renders this debate obsolete. With this series he reminds the superior magazines which argue this question of their hypocrisy: he appropriates their own visual language and also their very identities to prove the value of such work, and cultural significance of pop art. 

Francis Bacon and the Masters

This exhibition at the Sainsbury Center presented both works by Bacon and by several old masters (including Titian, Van Gogh and Rubens) with which he had an "obsession" (although I don't entirely agree with this phrasing- don't all artists have an interest, or obsession, with the masterpieces shown?). 

Jonathan Jones of the Guardian calls the exhibition a "cruel exposure, a debacle": showing Bacon's work next to such greats as Bacon's beloved Velasquez, for instance, taints and diminishes his own work. While I agree that paintings such as Van Gogh's Landscape full of vibrancy and atmosphere outshine his own paintings this was not perhaps due to Bacon's work itself. Many of the works shown were unfinished- paintings the artist did not want exhibited, and some were even simply used as his palettes. Is it really fair to compare an artist's trash to Titian? Personally, I would be mortified if my work presented in this way. 

sketch of Michaelangelo Sculpture

Despite this, several of Bacon's pieces do stand out- I especially loved a portrait of Lisa Sainsbury. The dark background and white skin of the subject are typical of his work. They leave a ghostly impression, an imprint upon the canvas of the person that was once present. Vertical brush strokes streak her face, like rain drops on a window pane, washing away a reflection. This deterioration, the damaged glimpses of pale delicacy reminds me of Basil Hayward's master piece: Dorian. The same sense of beauty's fragility; how something so young and fresh shall be left scarred and altered by the passing of time.

 

“But we never get back our youth… The pulse of joy that beats in us at twenty becomes sluggish. Our limbs fail, our senses rot. We degenerate into hideous puppets, haunted by the memory of the passions of which we were too much afraid, and the exquisite temptations that we had not the courage to yield to.” 

― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

For me, this strong awareness of mortality, of each day whithering more, presents a darker side to Rubens' portraits. Although the Old Manis frail and wrinkled the warm tones celebrate the life which is surely soon to end. Is Bacon just perhaps a realist, casting off the romantic veil that shrouds the masters' work? 

Lisa Sainsbury, Francis Bacon

In the final room of the exhibition his works take on a more modern feel, revealing his contemporary influences of abstract expressionism. Vast planes of colours are interjected with fleshy, organic takes on the human form. My personal favourite is the bull fighting triptych; he uses shapes that stray from traditional art vocabulary (stylised circles and arrows) which create even more of a jolt when juxtaposed against the raw, wounded leg on one canvas. The sterile empty planes place the pain in a clinical setting- a hospital? The connotations of this again being creeping death and mortality. 

Triptych. Francis Bacon

I really enjoyed this exhibition and do believe that the tortured existentialism of Bacon's work does indeed stand up against older venerable master pieces. As an artist, it is interesting for me to see Bacon's working methods, however,I feel it is unjust to present these as part of the same context, if not for the sake of the audience's pleasure, then for the artist himself. 

 As a visual to accompany my sound piece, I have almost completed a video to be shown uncomfortably big, intimidating the audience. As with the sound, I have taken gestures from make up tutorials and removed them from their original context revealing them as strange grotesque even, abstractions.

   Continuing with my interest in text I have been working on a sound piece this week. By transcripting make up tutorials from Youtube I have taken the words completely out of the friendly, youthful original context. The bizarre phrases seem normal when accompanied by a smiling face and jaunty backing music, but how would the audience react when I change these factors?

I have also been thinking a lot about identity. The idea for this piece was originally intended as a feminist statement on beauty standards, but after watching the film Paris is Burning this is changing in my work. The film shows the drag queen and gay culture of 80's Newyork; is my focus on only women and make-up too narrow minded when there are many other complicated issues to explore?

This prompted me to use male voicesto read my script, subverting the traditional gender stereotypes. I am notyet sure how to edit the clips: whether to play them simultaneously; either on one track, or on several different speakers; whether to split the tracks so parts play at different times, or to change the volume of parts to change which are more prominent at different times. I am experiementing with all of these options, however using the computer program is proving hard for me (I struggle with new programs) so a lot of work is needed before my piece will be finished. 

(image from http://www.oystermag.com/sites/default/files/wp-archive/2011/01/paris-is-burning-poster.jpg)

David Lynch Exhibition at the MIMA

The small exhibition featured a selection of greyscale, ambiguous images. The theme ‘naming’ united the collection and really made me think about how we use language. So many major works by influential artists rely on text: from Barbara Kruger’s intimidating poster-like pieces to Bruce Nauman’s provocative neon messages- but would these pieces mean anything without the viewer’s participation in the work, bringing their own assumptions and interpretations to the text?

Therefore the indistinct style of Lynch’s paintings make them rely heavily on the audience’s own opinions of the meaning behind the scratched disjointed words. Each painting features a limited number of words, often innocent and childish for instance “dog” and “man” juxtaposed with more obscure, mysterious mark making in black paint. The vagueness of the text allows room for a more sinister reading of the images by avoiding the rational and the blunt. Fearful emotions are triggered by the feel of the paintings resulting in the simple words connoting much darker personal meanings.

I find the ambiguity of this really interesting because it makes each person’s response to the work unique and the uncomfortable aspect is something I would like to create with my own word-based work. By taking the beauty slogans found in the media and removing them from this pop culture environment I intend to challenge what the audience feels are acceptable statements, revealing the vapid and degrading nature of beauty advertising.

The exhibition also featured photographs that pictured somewhat bleak scenes of contemporary life; logos and company names prominent in the images. The businesses look closed and vehicles abandoned against the grey skies, with no figures present to refute this.  What do the names signify given this desolate context? Does our perception of simple words change based on the atmosphere? Are we to believe that the diner is a diner, purely because a collection of letters is presented overhead?