Theme for the AS coursework unit: Discover and Explore; The Unseen
-Afterwards
The journey I started in September at the beginning of my AS course my theme was nature but I was struggling to get the observational studies of it. This has led me to work into a more personal direction. As for the first few weeks I was only focusing on the three themes faded, memories and traces. When I came towards preparing for my final piece I realised that the more personal my practice pieces, the better and more successful the final piece would be.
During my journey of AS Fine Art I have studied the artist Lucio Fontana; he has influenced me to work with sharp objects to “discover the space beyond”. I decided to use a kukri knife to explore ideas like Fontana. This then led me to enrich my own history to the course as my Granddad had used the kukri knife in the Falkland war as a solider; which gave him freedom to discover and explore new countries beyond the habitation. My Granddad’s habitation was Nepal, he gained his freedom. Then he discovered and explored new countries such as; Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and India.
My Granddad has left traces of bravery in the battlefield, The Valley of the Shadow of Death. The sharp Kukri knife was a weapon of protection and the walking stick, a means of guidance and direction.
I have used sharp objects to discover and explore the space beyond on many different mediums such as a branch, an old coat, papers, frames and many more that I didn’t even knew I could. The Coat worked very well even though it was an accident. I had successfully experimented with my own technique on discovering the space beyond the surface that is visible, in this case the visible surface was the dark violet fabric of my coat and the space discovered is the white cotton that lies beyond the visible surface.
I found out a very interesting fact during this course, my Granddad used the sharp Knife around 1962 when he was in the army and Lucio Fontana published the Spatial Concept in 1968 which was around the same period of time. I felt that this had a strong personal resonance for me and this fired me on.
I have also looked at Joseph Mallord William Turner. As Turner said "The sun is God" just before he passed away. He has had predominantly used the sun in his work to create a vibrant effect. I found this inspirational and have created sun in many different ways in different colours on my pieces to make my work expressive and meaningful. For me the sun represents spiritual living angel of my granddad.
Salvador Dali is one of my favourite artists and I find his work very interesting, the use of his creative juxtapositions to add meaning to his work has inspired me to explore ideas such as combining two different materials and work on it as one, applying meaning to it.
Robert Rauschenberg’s use of faded images to emphasise the past has inspired me to use transfer techniques to give my work an aged look. I have used transparent adhesive tape for transfer technique on my pieces. The most successful transfer technique using sello-tape was on the album cover of my adored musician. As the musician has passed away the transfer technique was perfect to give my work a faded and aged look.
Benny Andrews and Hans Hartung have also inspired me through my journey, the use of the straight lines on their art work is very expressive and I can relate them on a lot of my work. I have employed the use of the straight lines and explored the ways I can express my work by slashing and cutting in straight lines using the kukri knife on various of different materials.
The technique of showing emotion by Holly Thoburn has inspired me to show emotions in my pieces. I was able to rebuild the technique by using transferred technique called etching to show emotion like Holly Thoburn. I etched two crossed kukri knives on a polystyrene plate. Then I inked up the polystyrene plate and transferred it to a plain piece of paper. To etch I used a sharp knife to make the cuts, this then led me to explore the space that lies beyond the cut. Like Lucio Fontana, I have created a variety of different marks on a polystyrene plate using a sharp knife and successfully investigated the space beyond the cuts.
During my journey of AS Fine Art I have studied the artist Lucio Fontana; he has influenced me to work with sharp objects to “discover the space beyond”. I decided to use a kukri knife to explore ideas like Fontana. This then led me to enrich my own history to the course as my Granddad had used the kukri knife in the Falkland war as a solider; which gave him freedom to discover and explore new countries beyond the habitation. My Granddad’s habitation was Nepal, he gained his freedom. Then he discovered and explored new countries such as; Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and India.
My Granddad has left traces of bravery in the battlefield, The Valley of the Shadow of Death. The sharp Kukri knife was a weapon of protection and the walking stick, a means of guidance and direction.
I have used sharp objects to discover and explore the space beyond on many different mediums such as a branch, an old coat, papers, frames and many more that I didn’t even knew I could. The Coat worked very well even though it was an accident. I had successfully experimented with my own technique on discovering the space beyond the surface that is visible, in this case the visible surface was the dark violet fabric of my coat and the space discovered is the white cotton that lies beyond the visible surface.
I found out a very interesting fact during this course, my Granddad used the sharp Knife around 1962 when he was in the army and Lucio Fontana published the Spatial Concept in 1968 which was around the same period of time. I felt that this had a strong personal resonance for me and this fired me on.
I have also looked at Joseph Mallord William Turner. As Turner said "The sun is God" just before he passed away. He has had predominantly used the sun in his work to create a vibrant effect. I found this inspirational and have created sun in many different ways in different colours on my pieces to make my work expressive and meaningful. For me the sun represents spiritual living angel of my granddad.
Salvador Dali is one of my favourite artists and I find his work very interesting, the use of his creative juxtapositions to add meaning to his work has inspired me to explore ideas such as combining two different materials and work on it as one, applying meaning to it.
Robert Rauschenberg’s use of faded images to emphasise the past has inspired me to use transfer techniques to give my work an aged look. I have used transparent adhesive tape for transfer technique on my pieces. The most successful transfer technique using sello-tape was on the album cover of my adored musician. As the musician has passed away the transfer technique was perfect to give my work a faded and aged look.
Benny Andrews and Hans Hartung have also inspired me through my journey, the use of the straight lines on their art work is very expressive and I can relate them on a lot of my work. I have employed the use of the straight lines and explored the ways I can express my work by slashing and cutting in straight lines using the kukri knife on various of different materials.
The technique of showing emotion by Holly Thoburn has inspired me to show emotions in my pieces. I was able to rebuild the technique by using transferred technique called etching to show emotion like Holly Thoburn. I etched two crossed kukri knives on a polystyrene plate. Then I inked up the polystyrene plate and transferred it to a plain piece of paper. To etch I used a sharp knife to make the cuts, this then led me to explore the space that lies beyond the cut. Like Lucio Fontana, I have created a variety of different marks on a polystyrene plate using a sharp knife and successfully investigated the space beyond the cuts.
