Low Res – Experimental Printing
I have really enjoyed etching a piece of Lino with caustic soda and immersed myself in printmaking experimentation.
Low Res Work – Slides
Low Res – Rinsing Ink
Low Res – Seeing Project – Experimentation With Own Images
Low Res – 3D Scans by Ben
I asked Ben, a fellow student, to show me how to create a 3D scan of my head. Â He was very helpful and informative. Â Subsequently, I was given instructions how to open an object file in Photoshop and manipulate the scan further.
The three images below show the three different angles of my face. Â I exported them as jpegs to be able to include them in my blog.
Cheers Ben!
Low Res – Seeing Collaboration Project. Day 1
This was a true ice breaking exercise, which allowed to erase boundaries between the online group and London based students. Â The other benefits included integration of year 1 and 2 students, and most importantly, the project gave everyone an opportunity to expand their horizons and become much more experimental in the development of ideas and discussions of alternatives. Â Ultimately, we all become much more sensitive in terms of our observations of the Universe and the attention to fine details.
Following numerous consultations, my group settled on an in-depth investigation of our current individual practices to make the project very experimental. Our creative intention was to develop a broad range of ideas rather than focus on a visual proposal for finalisation.
This proved to work very well and everyone made a valuable contribution to the dialogue of contradictory perspectives and the element of questioning of visual possibilities and their meaning. This process was supported be appropriate enquiring discussions and evidence of critical analysis.
All collaborative participants presented their research findings at the end of the day. We were the only group to remain open minded and approached the task with a truly experimental attitude; focusing on the reflective process rather than on illustrating the narrative.
A combination of group efforts put together on Padlet.
There are some action shots from the Low Res collaborative day project – Seeing.
Fragile Little Dreams Turning Orange
I was on a totally overcrowded coach in Haiti. All seats were broken, ripped and absolutely filthy. Â I left early in the morning and with passing time, the refreshing sunrise breeze was replaced by a stinking stench of old sweat and … alcohol fumes. Â I was travelling from La Caye to an unpronounceable and mysterious road junction (as noted by a woman in my hotel) hoping to catch a connecting minibus to Jacmel. The day was extremely hot and humid. Â The bus was stuck in a traffic jam in scorching heat for over an hour. I kept looking through a dirty window to try to relax in this very claustrophobic and uncomfortable situation. Â My attention was drawn to the minibus on my right. There was a young girl staring at me through the window. Â She was expressionless, almost deadpan. Â The hot sun created an orange glare on the surface of the glass. Her face was somehow integrated with a number of layers of reflections of the surrounding area – mainly bustling traffic.
She was sat there, waiting with patience, stone-faced and humble. I smiled and took a quick and discrete photo of the bus and her.  My fellow travelers got really disturbed by this; annoyed and angry.  They did not understand my intentions. They definitely did not like seeing a tourist photographing their hardship. I realised that by displaying an expensive mobile phone to take this supposedly meaningless photograph humiliated the locals.  It created an unnecessary division between them and I. It also reinforced our differences and  the diametrically opposite sides of life and the world. However, all this had made no impression on the girl whatsoever.  She remained untouched and unmoved, with exactly the same expression on her face.  I begun to plan ideas for a painting.  The same evening, I started to draw and make notes in my little pad. I really wanted to protect my memories from being forgotten before I return to my studio and translate my observations into a painterly interpretation.
I have worked on this image for quite a while now.  Following a long process of change and manipulation, I have just blasted the red layer off and started to over-print the surface with a range of hot and creamy oranges.  These new layers have been also partially washed off to reveal little parts of the under image.  My intention was to create an ultimate superimposure of the many components and elements of this composition.
We are all waiting for something to happen, from little and insignificant things to big and pivotal changes. Â As a matter of fact, we spend our entire lives waiting for the end of a journey – the final stop. Our destination is unknown and unpredictable. Â This causes a lot of uncertainty. We are all subjected to mortality after all.
Little Fragile Dreams.
Memories from a horrific bus journey between La Caye and Jacmel have given me ideas for another painting in this series. Â Perhaps, I will reveal the background story for this piece, when I am closer to its completion.
I have initiated the process by working on an under image. Â This was then combined with a range of over layers and an ambiguous reflection of a little girl seen through a bus window. For this type of experimentation, I have recycled an old display board, which was covered with green felt. Â Subsequently, I started with some expressive colour application to the underpainting. Â This has been in turn over-printed with an A1 size screen of a $16 milk bottle. Â This is used metaphorically and symbolises how unobtainable this everyday food product is. Â I just cannot imagine never tasting milk!
The current tonation of the piece is vibrant and dramatic. Â My creative intention was to create a clash between the background composition and a suggested image of a distant and emotionless child.
The next phase will involve layers of overprints, which are subsequently blasted off with a powerful water jet. Â I would like to achieve a greater degree of mixing of layers and blending of individual colour ranges to increase the overall visual complexity of this piece.
What is distracting me at the moment is the purity of colour, which stands out too much and disturbs the overall mood of the image. Â I would also like to develop a greater sensitivity of colour. Â This should help to make the painting more holistic and melancholic. Â Perhaps, I should initiate a further experimentation with glazing and staining the image to increase the role of elements of aging and broken textures.
The image of the girl needs to behave as a distant reflection in the surface, almost with qualities of al fresco.  For some strange reason, ‘The Little Girl’ has some resemblance to Mona Lisa.  This similarity is not intentional though.
Da Vinci, (1503) “Mona Lisa” in The Independent, Farrell, J. (2017)
Ideally, I would like to develop this piece further before the start of Low Residency.
The plan is to proceed with overprinting the existing composition with a range of oranges. Â This is to age and patinate the piece and, more importantly, represent powerful and distorting reflections of the hot sun in the translucent glass.
This is what I recorded in my original observations in Haiti.
What Are You Waiting For?
I have done some research with a group of my Foundation Art students. Their ages, backgrounds and life experiences vary substantially.  Following a group introduction and a talk, which outlined the necessity to deeply analyse ‘self’ in the context of the broader needs before formulating and recording key ideas on a slip of paper, which was provided and supported with a number of prompts.
Students’ responses were very original.  They varied from trivial to sophisticated, reflective and meaningful.  I have experimented with the organisation of their responses by combining individual pieces of paper to create a long and vertical format of continuous answers.  This was less effective than the proposal with a looped animation.
I have also tried to explore possibilities for animating their responses using Photoshop. Â Initially, all litte slips of paper were scanned and than displayed as a stop frame animation.
Waiting for Birthday
HYPNOTIC REPETITION 