Alejandra is a stunning women. She is a mother of two and appears to be successful. She lives in Guadalajara and travels twice a month to Tijuana in Baja California Sur. Once upon a time, her heart was full of love and she had a dream to have a perfect family. She did everything possible to orchestrate happiness. However, her daily reality is harsh and in a total contradiction to her earlier ambitions, aspirations and desires. She has now reached her mid-30s and cannot see any potential for change.
I have continued with the painterly process while repeating Aries’s body in a rhythmic movement. The intention is to arrange a sensation of grace and ballet in the context of anxiety and worries. After all, Ariel has bend her moral spine and made her principles vague and ambiguous. What is she going to do next?
I was invited, for the third time, to deliver a presentation about my research project. When designing a structure for my talk, I divided the supporting PowerPoint into two distinctive sections. The first part was devoted to my recent achievements, exhibitions and awards. The second, focused on my last pieces. I have decided to cover the most current period of the last 18 months only.
Micheline lives on Madagascar – an island, which is famous for its wildlife and beauty. She is stunningly natural, pretty and used to be called a Malagasy Queen. Before the pandemic, she had a respectable job, good existence and worked as a teacher of French. Now, the dynamics changed. She is trying to rebuild her life, while looking for employment in foreign call centres. The beautiful background is a constant, but the reality can be a nightmare.
There are different schools of thought regarding the highest values of humanity. Some say that the phenomenon of life is absolute and unquestionable, while others argue that it is freedom. I support the latter. All our heroes fought hard, and subsequently, sucrified their lives in order to fight for liberty. This document and its philosophy supports my motivation for painting the Haitian series of images and from other countries.
I have started to introduce a range of vibrant details in the background space. The idea was to create a sense of cohesion and belonging. I have used a repetitive motif of a baobab tree, which is typically associated with this fantastic island. The current stage of the painterly process is below:
When reflecting on the importance of the use of colour in my work, I was trying to analyse its impact on the mood portrayed and the perception of a viewer.
As a part of this critical process, I watched a number of videos from previous exhibitions. My attention was drawn to a brief narrative by Lisa Galletti, one of art curators at the gallery. The essence of her wise words somehow summarises my inner thoughts and feeling. Perhaps, because of this incidental cohesion of views, she contacted me to invite me to take part in “Love My Body”. I was truly impressed by her spoken narrative as follows:
“Colour as a visual perception of the various electromagnetic radiations within the visible spectrum reflected by bodies.
Colour as a natural or artificial substance used as dye or paint.
What is colour for you?
Colour that causes emotion, changes your mood.
Colour is in nature; in its indefinite variations.
It is a foundation of division of the world and, at the same time, a characteristic of it.”
Lisa Galletti @madsmilano
I include an Instagram post with her final video appraisal of artwork, she was responsible for as a curator. Thank you Lisa!
I am very excited about my recent invitation by Atolye, Dubai’s Creative Hub, to join an online presentation by Dr. Joana Casaca Lemos. She is a designer, researcher and educator, who specialises in interdisciplinary work. Her current engagements include her involvement in an independent run consultancy that supports organisations with research and writing a book titled: ‘When Research is Mesearch.’ She has worked with organisations such as Daimler, Sustainable Oceans Alliance, Business Council for Sustainability, Forum for the Future, among others. Joana is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts UK and holds a PhD from Central Saint Martins College of Art in London.
The aim of Joana’s presentation was to provide a space for creative professionals to reflect and assess their personal growth with reference to their practice. She proposed to question the value of work experiences, which are transformative? The other deliberations were concerned with looking at what makes us feel uncomfortable and, therefore, challenged our understanding of the world.
Joana started by sharing her journey and reflective practice to introduce a framework drawn from her experience as a design researcher. Subsequently, all participants were guided through a collaborative activity, which enabled them to reflect on their practice and articulate their own ‘me-search’.
Joana’s intellectual provocation was very inspiring, as follows:
“As curious creatives we often draw inspiration from the world around us – but what might happen if we look into the world within?“
Leen Sadder, the organiser, explained the broader concept, which underpins the new series of presentations and stated in her invitation that:
“Insight Out is a brand new guest series hosted by ATÖLYE Dubai, featuring creative seekers, whose inward explorations have positively impacted the work they put out into the world. Once a month, we welcome you into the inner world of a designer, artist or maker to learn about the practices and experiences that have shaped their creative output.”
Despite questioning Joana’s spiritual perspective, which may have distorted and skewed her ability to critically analyse her research findings, I found this video conference very inspiring and thought provoking. Her travel experiences have a substantial impact on her thinking and this key element is also echoed in my own creative practice and exploration.
Thank you Atolye for your invitation and another remarkable cultural and professional experience.
In addition to all of my current duties, I have spent the last three months working hard to organise an amazing and challenging venture called artpandemic.co.uk
Due to the many limitations of the current crisis, our summer show has been moved online. Despite these compromising conditions, which you might think, would prevent me from organising a major celebration of learning and achievement, I have put together something very special and much bigger than the usual final assessment exhibition.
As a leader of Art & Design at my institution, I have invited Hi-Tec and Digital to join with me for a unique online international exhibition. Additionally, I have approached a range of former students, staff and artists from all-over-the-world to celebrate creativity and resistance to the damaging impact of the current pandemic. I am also delighted that Richard Wilson – one of the most renowned British sculptors agreed to exhibit a range of his artefacts with us, including his famous architectural interventions.
The Virtual Summer Exhibition 2020 took place on Friday, June 19th at 6 pm UK time. A scheduled link was distributed to those invited and activated on the night. The celebrations were possible thanks to Zoom – a multi-screen videoconferencing and interaction platform.
During the Private View, I was joined by artists from 18 countries, who were supporting my innovative response to the crisis, by producing their own work to enrich the exhibition.
I was asked to make a statement for a press release in Devon Live:
“It’s really exciting in these difficult times to be able to construct an exciting and revolutionary platform for students to present their work. The prospect of disappointing everyone by not having a summer exhibition and denying our learners an opportunity to show their talent was unacceptable. The idea of organising this ambitious online venture came about from my involvement in the prestigious Dubai Ideathon 2020. I was selected out of over 300 applicants to play an active role together with 100 fellow international artists and designers. I realised then the potential in connecting hundreds of people simultaneously could be achieved, and immediately knew, this would be the perfect solution for our students”.
The notion of an online art magazine seemed the natural way to go to prolong and elevate the artwork long after the event and give the work longevity. I have worked with three Foundation Art students on the design and format of the brand new Art Foundry Magazine. The first edition includes interviews and work produced by Richard Wilson, alumni, current students and a selection of collaborating artists. This publication will be updated on a quarterly basis.
This was my last tutorial before the final submission at the beginning of July. We had a long conversation about my project and its refined and evolved meaning. Jonathan approved the changes, which I have made in consequence of our previous discussions. All my work was converted into video files and supported by a computer generated spoken narrative explaining each piece. This element of juxtaposition of image and related stories is integral to my investigation. It gives important additional insights and explanations, while contextualising my work and thinking.
We progressed to discuss the impact of the current pandemic on my research, visual investigation and the overall achievement. I explained how I would like to continue with the development of my project and ideas, and we discussed the plan for extending my visualisation during the forthcoming trip to Madagascar. In case of prolonged sky closure, I intend to identify another, appropriate to my creative intentions, location such as Serbia.
The second part of the tutorial was dedicated to reviewing the blog and its curation. Jonathan confirmed the final design of my online exhibition space and asked several questions regarding my proposal and its rationale. Subsequently, I was advise how to improve the initial part of my unit 2 assessment plan. I was advised to elaborate on a list of headings to explain their content and significance to progress. I also learned that some of the links in this document did not work and needed to be corrected.
I fully embraced all advice given for my consideration and actioned every suggestion immediately after the tutorial. I am very grateful to Jonathan for taking a lot of time to help me refine and improve my submission, which is now much more thorough and comprehensive, therefore increasing my chances for the top score.
In the context of the current pandemic, our final show will take place online. Additionally, several fantastic opportunities have been recently created to display and promote our work through a variety of exhibitions and using different digital platforms.
At the moment, the main focus is on collaboration with Aristotle in order to present my project using Cables. Following a lengthy process of negotiation, refinement and improvements, the design of exhibition is rapidly taking shape. I have documented the thread of our discussions: https://www.fineartdigital.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12
The idea for the show is inspired by the clarity and aesthetics offered by platforms such as Behance and Instagram. I really wanted to display all of my artefacts on a plain and long white wall, without any unnecessary distractions. However, due to the limitations of the software I was forced to opt for the grid idea, organising all of my paintings and video work in three rows, 7 pieces in each and 21 in total. Each item included is supported by a computer generated voice in order to contextualise and explain the outcome of my visual investigation and exploration. This method also allows me to detach myself form the entirety of my experiences and, subsequently, view my work as a distant observer. Supposedly, it is all in the past… yet my memories are becoming more and more vivid.
As a coping mechanism, I keep repeating to myself the same sentence, over and over again:
‘Do not be sad that it is all over, but smile that it had ever happened…’
The new research adventure in Madagascar is just around the corner!
HYPNOTIC REPETITION 