VE Studio Task 1

VE Studio Task 1: Take 2 Influences

          The two influences that I have chosen is firstly the Artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954). I have used the idea of creating a book because I have been influenced directly by the publication of her diary.

Kahlo, F. and Lowe, S. (2005) The Diary of Frida Kahlo, an Intimate Self-portrait, New York:Abrams

          My second direct influence has been my job, working for the NHS, as a Medical Laboratory Assistant within the blood bank Department. My specific role is dealing with Ante-Natal samples that test for antibodies and antigens that could be potentially harmful to the unborn foetus. This short description gives an overview of why there is testing on pregnant women to reduce cases of ‘Hemolytic Disease of the Unborn Foetus.’    

          “Hemolytic disease of the newborn, also known as Hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn, HDN, HDFN, or Erythroblastosis fetalis,[1] is an alloimmune condition that develops in a fetus, when the IgG molecules (one of the five main types of antibodies) produced by the mother pass through the placenta. Among these antibodies are some which attack the red blood cells in the fetal circulation; the red cells are broken down and the fetus can develop reticulocytosis and anaemia. This fetal disease ranges from mild to very severe, and fetal death from heart failure (hydrops fetalis) can occur.” (Accessed 29/2/2011)

          At this moment I am trained to be able to set up the analyser and to deal with the samples as expected within my job role, however I am lacking in the background knowledge therefore I do find looking at cells and how the analysers recognise cells, and the biological aspect interesting.    

          I created collages using pieces of paper, which I added cut out coloured card, glass paint, coloured pens, glass pens and text. With these pieces I then torn and added them to more paper using parcel tape. In doing this I created fractured images that were then incorporated into a book.

          The images that really influenced me from Frida Kahlo’s diary was a drawing that she doodled of a frightening type of creature that she named ‘Eyesaurus’ continuing from this on the following page she writes.

          “Astonished she remained seeing the sun-stars and the live-dead world being in the shade.” (Translated 2005 pg 237)

         

The page in which she wrote this sentence has circles or rings drawn over and over again, creating for me the symmetry of red blood cells, combined with the text was an influencing factor when I was creating the pages for the book.

The result is a rough scrap book, because of the torn pieces. Furthermore it feels glutinous as you pull the pages apart. I contacted Pam Fleming regarding this project; Pam was interested with vibrant colours and the thickness of the glass paints. The glass paint does glisten there is a sense of viscosity because of the drips and dribbles of glass paint. There is text covering the pages either by using a gold pen or glass pens of gold, silver and black. The text related to words used within the laboratory vocabulary and at times still feel foreign to me, and I feel uncomfortable using this language at times.

          What I discovered as I created this piece is that my process was based on creation, destruction and then recreating. A piece that reflected a cycle of work on a physical level clearly shows those elements of destruction, repair and then layering.

          After speaking to Jonathan Holden today there was a discussion to whether or not the pieces I had made were too literal, and that the book read of anger or frustration as well. This could have been influenced by the issues I have had with the technological aspect of the MA and with certain personal issues, so once again the aspect of being torn maybe very literal within the piece but it obviously plays a very important part.

          If this project was to be continued I would make more pages and then cut areas out and allowing the next page to join the first page so it would be a continuous piece. I would bind the book properly possible make the covers using a form of vinyl. Furthermore I would use acetate as extra layering with a translucent aspect, and add more text and images that relates to my job.

          The result of this project is a rough scrap book, which feels very unfinished, one comment from Jonathan about one of the first pages was that it reminded him of someone attempting to use cake decorating for the first time, and he is right at the start I was very tentative however as the pages developed the levels of layers extended themdelves, and this is something that due to the time limitation I could not extend.

          Jonathan Holden’s work was based on one of his pieces; it was of a man’s head with an arm across that cut through the imagery. He extended the abstracted viewpoint by using a cardboard box and recreated this image by using stripes of coloured plastic and attached them at angles within the box, and as a starting point did work very well.

          Jonathan then broadened this idea literally out of the box onto a corner of the wall in his studio, again using stripes of plastic. The shadows created and the imagery from the photographs completely removed the original portrait and turned this into something different, furthermore white stripes were then added to certain areas, which stretched and extended the coloured stripes adding more of a linear line.

However he then added a black square around this creation. I felt that Jonathan had almost stepped back into the very formal structure of the square, which he does use consistently within his work. He was able to then extend his idea even further by envisioning extending this space to huge proportions and has created a model of what he would do. 

I have to admit that I feel that my piece was very scrappy and not well thought out considering the range and depth that Jonathan has given to this project. I believe that at the time of making this piece I was ill prepared and I did not take the time to rationalise how I wanted to make the imagery, or considered the materials used and what the final piece would look like in its entirety. Furthermore I believe that in doing this studio task has given me the opportunity to revise how I approach tasks set throughout this course.