China Triumph and Turmoil

With China's economy on the boom and the rest of the world on it's knees for China aid. However their morals, ways of living and working are alien to our freedom in the UK. Our Capitalist run society has fallen and failed unlike their controlled Communist society, which make questions appear out of the cracks of our western fall. 

Hong Kong is a very interesting topic to look at an English port invaded during the opium wars in which the English raised Hong Kong as a Capital society now given back to the Chinese they have decided to keep the Capitalist government within a Communist nation.

In this blog I have only touched the surface of this topic but there are two most recent channel four programs, which I urge you to check out if you are interested in the subject at all and there is so much to discover in this alien world to ours. Check out the following links on 4od I have put below! 

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/china-triumph-and-turmoil

 

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/gok-wan-made-in-china/4od

Dave Haslam

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 The focus on David’s talk was based on margins vs mainstream. The word spread in the late 1970’s / early 1980’s creating an underground network of all kinds of art forms (concentrating on music and fashion) that rebelled against the norm. Hassalam goes on to say the marginal became mainstream, which led to other groups to go off and create their own interpretations of music, fashion, art and so on until the vicious circle reoccurred over and over again.
 My main point to consider is in 21^st century mainstream has absorbed most of the originality of things and makes me question now is anything original????
 The margins are now the mainstream with high-street shops selling the shirts of independent bands such as; The Pixies, The Smiths, Joy Division, Sonic Youth and so on are now all being sold on t-shirts to the mainstream where a large percentage will not know or care who they are. Now the mainstream has added all factors of what was once original and manufactured it into a watered down profitable style to be sold on the high-street.    

(If you liked David's talk check out John Robb -bassist and vocals for post punk band The Membranes also is a a music journalist who claims to be first to ever inteview Kurt Cobein of Nivarna)
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Slides

Hey guys here's the link for the website to buy 35mm slide;
www.firstcall-photographic.co.uk
it also says try Fred Aldous or Lomography shop on Oldham Street!
You can analogue cameras from the AV store.
www.genieimaging.co.uk >process E6 slide film and quickly and cheaply.
Ask John Davis for plastic slide mounts or search online
..................................................................
If you liked the hand tinted slides check out the recent Scorsese film HUGO! See you all tomorow!

David Hockney

The David Hockney exhibition 'a Bigger Picture' is on at the RA from jan 21 - apr 9th. If you get a chance over easter to visit London, definitely go.

Honestly i think its one of the best exhibitions i have ever seen, purely because of the profilic way Hockney works. His addiction to detailing the landscape and analysing it through paint is incredible. He studied at the Royal College of Art in 1959 - 62, moved to Los Angeles for a period of time, and settled back to his Yorkshire roots in stints as well. He focuses on representation of space, seasonal changes, representing the natural world and pictorial space. He uses a lot of 'artistic licence' within his work and often has worked from memory within the studio, as well as observation in the landscape.

You cannot question whether or not Hockney knows the Yorkshire landscape well, because its clear from the sheer amount of work he has produced. That he has literally devoted his entire career to explaining it to the viewer through paint. I admire his colour palette and style, for a relatively 'old' painter he works in incredibly modern ways, the vibrant colour is placed almost 'haphazardly' on the canvas. In some instances almost childlike.

In recent times he has begun using his ipad as a drawing tool, and has dispersed with his sketckbook for the timebeing, i personally am not sure what to make of this. Will this be the future for all artists?.......

I admire the fact that he creates his own work and doesnt subcontract his work out. He also still owns a vast amount of his own work. I think this proves hes genuine.........not really it in for the money, its a true devotion.

China Triumph and Turmoil

With China's economy on the boom and the rest of the world on it's knees for China aid. However their morals, ways of living and working are alien to our freedom in the UK. Our Capitalist run society has fallen and failed unlike their controlled Communist society, which make questions appear out of the cracks of our western fall. 

Hong Kong is a very interesting topic to look at an English port invaded during the opium wars in which the English raised Hong Kong as a Capital society now given back to the Chinese they have decided to keep the Capitalist government within a Communist nation.

In this blog I have only touched the surface of this topic but there are two most recent channel four programs, which I urge you to check out if you are interested in the subject at all and there is so much to discover in this alien world to ours. Check out the following links on 4od I have put below! 

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/china-triumph-and-turmoil

 

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/gok-wan-made-in-china/4od

Cube Gallery

CUBE Gallery is one of Europe's most exciting art, architecture and design centres, dedicated to broadcasting the ideas and issues that lie behind the buildings, spaces and cultural networks that make up our built environment

heyy guys I took a trip to the Cube Gallery - the exhibition that was on was 'The Guardian Underground Telephone Exchange' thoguht that it may be interesting for anyone who is looking at buildings or architecture.

the exhibition showed images of the underground tunnels which were one used in the 1950's as bunkers to protect  national communication links in an event of an atomic bomb. these images were balck and white and showed the long lines of electric cables. Also showing maps where the lines travelled.

here is the link to the website

www.cube.org.uk

unfortunately the exhibition is no longer up to visit, however there is info still available under 'exhibitions' 

 

 

A pleasant morning at Special collections

Although I had been to the special collections archives before I was particularly impressed with  the amount of 'stuff' the curator had prepared for us from previous student's work. I had never ventured in the special collections library because I never knew where to begin. I would definitely recomend going there for more inspirartion, it helped that the curator tried to explain the reasoning behind some of the work. I feel more confident to go up there and ask for anything because the staff in special collections are willing to help. 

I think everyone and anyone should go you wind something to inspire you in your project (you are bound to)

Here are some of my  favorable  images from some the collections 

See the full gallery on Posterous

See the full gallery on Posterous

Museum of Science and Industry

See the full gallery on Posterous

I mainly looked at the Textiles Exhibition and exterior of the building, because the shapes found in the windows and machines were quite interesting in terms of geometrical patterns. It included many old machines and processes, which I think some people might find helpful if you're looking at old machines it will be a worthwhile visit. They also have live Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 demonstrations of cotton production in the 1800s on the actual mass production machines. Cotton has quite an Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 intriguing process if anyone wants to read into it, from cotton plant to the various processes of spinning before it's commercially sold.

The Thistledown coat by Adrian Bannon was quite amazing; I wonder how she managed to piece the delicate indiviual seeds of the thistle plant together. It seems like it'd blow away any second.

I love Jennifer Collier's work, I found it to be a refreshing take on creating fabric.

She's a British textiles artist, I'm not sure where she is from Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 specifically but she has a few exhibitions on around Merseyside.

 

"My practice focuses on creating work from paper; by bonding, waxing, trapping and stitching I produce unusual paper ‘fabrics’, which are used to explore the ‘remaking’ of household objects. The papers are treated as if cloth, with the main technique employed being stitch; a contemporary twist on traditional textiles. The papers themselves serve as both the inspiration and the media for my work, with the narrative of the books and papers suggesting the forms. I tend to find items then investigate a way in which they can be reused and transformed; giving new life to things that would otherwise go unloved or be thrown away."