John's Notion of A Blog

Sarah Sze

John J Twomey — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:19:40 +0000

Sarah Sze is a contemporary artist who lives and works in New York City. Recommended by my tutor, like Sarah I like to work in spaces and work and build around my college. I finally have learnt to leave my safety zone my studio space and move out of my studio, looking at Sarah’s methods has made me become more courageous in my model building and to become more creative and inventive in my assemblage when it comes to space and use of materials.Sze uses ordinary objects to create strikingly original sculptures and site-specific installations. Her intricate works, each of which she constructs by hand, consist of unexpected and carefully arranged combinations of materials. Sze transforms these everyday objects into gravity-defying works in horizontal and tower-like formations that zigzag into the heights of gallery spaces.

The two above images show how Sze cleverly uses structure even aids to ease the weight of the complex sculpture

I am currently looking at Sarah Sze now as I am suspending hangers in the air all by 4 pieces of fishing line, I want to lose the fishing cut in the forthcoming months and challenge myself with other methods and reinforce my structures I currently using tie clips and twine but i want to be more inventive and am thinking of using skewers and wire. I hope using these materials to reinforce my sculptures will make my work more sturdy and stronger as a whole, so I am able to building on a larger scale and not to worry about the weight of the hangers failing under poor weak materials

A piece I am currently working on in my studio thanks to the high ceiling and lots of drain pipes and beams I am managing to work the around room and create a sense of movement

Looking at Sarah Sze has made me learn to move out of my studio space and use the college grounds as my working space!

Images sourced from http://www.sarahsze.com/index.html

Posted in Artists, College Life, Sarah Sze Tagged: Add new tag, Art, Artist, Assemblage, Building, Fishing line, materials, New York City, Sarah Sze, Sculpture, Site-specific art, Structures, studio work, Visual Arts

School Of Saatchi….Xfactor of art ?

John J Twomey — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 13:45:09 +0000

After several rumors and scrapped pitches even Sex and the city actress Sarah Jessica Parker in the works of creating a project catwalk version for the contemperory art world *watch this space* The BBC have finally secured the idea of creating a “manufactured artist” in School Of Saatchi. 6 art students are in the running prize of creating a piece in the prestigious Saatchi art gallery

Much in the same format as Popstars or American Idol or Xfactor it has an auditions round, judges/mentors including artist Tracy Emin

Each week the trainee artist superstars are given tasks to create art and be judged this includes tackling “public art” and to creating contemperory art work in The Sudeley Castle .

Work by two of the twelve remaining artists, Suki Chan and Samuel Zealey, is displayed on the beach in Hastings.

Contestant Samuel Zealey displays his contemporary artwork in Sudeley Castle.

Over all I love the idea much to the disgust of my fellow students in my studio the idea of a “manufactured artist” I will plan to watch it each week and see how the show progresses as its seems like an interesting concept to create a fully pledged artist in a matter of 12 weeks or so.

But really at the end of the day it’s still bad reality television ?? is it not ?

All images are sourced from http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p71qk

Posted in College Life, TV Tagged: Actor, Art museum, Arts, artst, Charles Saatchi, Contemporary art, Galleries, Manufactured, Public Art, reality tv, Sarah Jessica Parker, school of saatchi, Sculpture, Sex & The City, Sudeley Castle, Tracy Emin, Visual Arts

Tobias Rheberger

John J Twomey — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 12:42:33 +0000

As part of my visit to Venice Biennale 2009 German artist Tobias Rehberger. Tobias Rehberger designed the cafeteria at the Biennale pavilion (formerly known as Italian Pavilion). Going into the cafeteria to buy much needed water after looking at several exhibits I was blown away at how excited I had become. I felt like I was in Big Brother reality show. Rehberger had transformed this room into a cool funky place to chill and explore the possibilities of taking interior design to a whole new contemporary creative level. The colour’s were amazing if sometime’s head hurting as it was a mix of clashing patterns and furniture that was daring and unique tailored for the building. The installation reminded me a lot of the work of Jim Lambie again with the use of vinyl and colour it was a daring piece of work. Below is a video from utube of his installations.

The Golden Lion for best artist in curator Daniel Birnbaums Making Worlds art exhibition at the 53rd Venice went to German Tobias Rehberger.

Image of the overall cafeteria

Me all happy and like a kid at christmas sitting down for a photo opportunatity

A special thanks to my friend Claire Hurley for taking these pics as I lost my images of this day in Venice

Posted in Art and Technology, College Life, Tobias Rehberger, Venice Biennale 2009 Tagged: Art, Artist, biennial, Big Brother, cafeteria, colour, documentary, Golden Lion, installation, Interior design, Italy, Jim Lambie, Tobias Rehberger, venezia, Venice Biennale, Vinyl, Visual Arts

Art Camp

John J Twomey — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 23:53:35 +0000

I hope to attend Art Camp conference in the new year held in Dublin. It’s a first of its kind looking at the different avenues of how an artist can promote work, sell work and just in general how technology can help or affect a working Artist.

Below is the following Article on Art Camp, I hope to go and see whats it about. Check out the website

What is ArtCamp?

ArtCamp is a user generated un-conference for creatives.

Calling all creatives from visual arts, to film, theatre, design, dance, literature, photography, media, IT, music and technology to a free conference/gathering in Dublin Spring 2010. The aim of ArtCamp is to share creative experiences and expertise across all industry platforms to learn from each other; to find creative solutions and harness our collective potential. If you are an artists of words or code, images or pixels, movement or drama come along and be inspired. We have much to learn form each other.

Seriously – what is it?

It’s a chance for us all to lift ourselves out of the gloom of the endless bad news stories. It’s based on the fact that each of us has loads to learn from our peers. And we have a lot to share with as well. There are a lot of great cretive things happening in the Ireland right now- this day will be a celebration of creative interaction.

It’s free, what’s the catch?

You take the main cost of a “proper” conference away (the flown in experts) and get sponsors to cover the venue and other expenses. And then 100 or so gather together and a number of them/you/us will give short talks on things we know or have learned which will be valuable to share with the others.

Great idea, it will never actually work.

ArtCamp is based on the Barcamp concept which started in the US and has now being used in every continent in the world. In Ireland there have been 14 Camps since September 2006 – each of them successful. Click here for a full listing of those.

Ok, kinda interested now. Why haven’t I heard of this before now?

Because the Irish Camps to date have been almost exclusively focused on the technology community and promoted within that sector. This is the first to be held which focuses on all aspects of the creative community in its broadest sense, and it will be especially of interest to any and all entrepreneurs who want to build Irish businesses which can compete internationally.

I’ll sign up to attend, but not sure about talking.

At each event about 1/3 of the attendees give talks. It can be daunting for the first time. Everything about this is voluntary so don’t worry about just attending – please do sign up.

Once you have done give the idea of a talk one last chance – the day does not work without it!

I hate listening to Sales Pitches

So do we – every one of us. Life is too short. Talks at ArtCamp can be based on things like:

skill sets which a speaker will share,

experiences that are relevant for others to hear about or

lessons learned that will help the audience to avoid similar

best practice

Talks are explicitly not about sales pitches and the Rule Of Two Feet will be open to all – if you are caught in a sales pitch then stand up and walk out. We will be making this clear to all speakers to help them get into the spirit of the day.

Have fun, participate and enjoy!

Who’s behind ArtCamp?

The initiative to organize ArtCamp was first discussed by Mary Carty, David Collear and John Henry Donovan back in 2008 after BarCamp Cork. In October 2009 a group of artists and technologists came together to organise the event in February 2010.

Here’s a list of everyone involved in organizing the event:

Mary Carty @marycarty

Heather James @heatherjames

Jason Roe @jasonroe

Sarah O’Farrell @sarahofarrell

Posted in Art and Technology, College Life, Links Tagged: 2010, Art, art practice, Artcamp 2009, Barcamp, blogging, conference, Dublin, Internet, Ireland, Photography, technology, Theatre, Visual Arts

Jim Lambie…..studio reference

John J Twomey — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 23:33:22 +0000

Lambie specialises in colourful sculptural installations made from everyday modern materials including pop culture objects, such as posters, album covers and household accessories. The other trademark theme in his artistic practice is using brightly coloured vinyl tape arranged into patterns around the floor of the gallery space, tracing the shape of the room to reveal the idiosyncrasies of its architecture.

I like the movement in Lambie’s installations and the freedom in his work, he inhabits spaces and creates these great environment, I would like to incorporate the use if colour and wall floor relationship more in my work. Looking at Jim Lambie’s use of objects such as chairs andhousehold acessories all mixed create this unique works

In my own studio work im trying to incorporate the floor and wall relationship into my practice and using sites around my college has made me more visually aware. The below images are some of my slowly working progress.

Images sourced from http://www.antonkerngallery.com/

Posted in Artists, College Life, Jim Lambie Tagged: Album cover, Art, Color, colour, household objects, installation, Jim Lambie, objects, Popular culture, Sculpture, space, Vinyl, Visual Arts

My Hangers Experience….Well Hung!

John J Twomey — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:11:16 +0000

As part of my studio practice I work with found objects and multiples .This year my studio practice has brought to look further into the retail world and commodity. Using Hangers as my starting point to my studio practice, this year I decided to collect approx. 600+ hangers and counting, from all high street shops collecting masses upon masses of hangers. Each week I have collected transparent hangers, wooden hangers, black plastic hangers, all serving the purpose for me to play with !

Image 1: First week and started in my studio Space seeing the potential to expand and explore possibilities of going outdoors

I decided to make the hangers a very 2D object become 3D and come alive, I started connecting the hangers and through trail and error i managed to create 3 dimensional clusters of hangers. Seeing the potential I decided to branch out even more and expand my obsession and create monumental Sculptures

Image 2: I decided to go up in scale and not solely rely on structures alone.

In week three I decided to be brave and go out into the colleges foyer, an old listed building, I built in a large open space. I built around the stairs, the beams of the college and the supporting pillars. It was a challenge and was harder than the last time as I was building in a public walk way so lots of distractions was to be had from tutors to security telling me all about health & safety and ENDLESS hangers jokes. I managed to hang on… and create a whole room of hanger structures. I was happy as in different parts of the sculpture I worked into it making it more complex,rigid and using tiebacks and fishing gut i created a claustrophobic sculpture.

Image 3: Being Challenged by the building I managed to bear all the hangers jokes and health & safety rules to build literally in space!

I learnt to confront the issue of space and working around with what I faced with and also the issues of working in public areas and making compromises to abide certain rules. Over all I enjoyed the building in space and broke down a few creative barriers I once had.

All images are my own documentation for my studio practice

Posted in College Life, Public Art Tagged: Add new tag, Art, Assemblage, Building, building in space, College, consumerism, Found object, Hangers, High Street, objects, Plastic, Public place, readymade, Retailing, Sculpture, Structures, studio work, Three-dimensional space

Matthew Monahan

John J Twomey — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:15:26 +0000

Matthew Monahan works deal the subject of death and funereally in nature made from wax and paper mache, the sculptures are encased in glass cases. Wax and paper mache, a material that is quiet crucial in the history of sculpture and more importantly as a material, has a suspicious relationship to death. Death masks in the past were made of was and the wax was laid on the face of the corpse’s to preserve their expressions forever. Therefore the very basis idea of the death mask was a fight against time. So wax, paper mache and drawings and the use of plexiglass sheets are the objects that Matthew Monahan uses to create his sculptures. Often self portraits of the artist, but they are self portraits consumed by a strange fractures in which figures appear limbless, knocked over or crushed and are seen as precious.

To me the works are formal and show a lot of emotion, I am drawn to the idea of encasing the sculptures and preserving something in a unique way. A way that Matthew Monahan uses successfully and I had used this idea in last years end of year work, I made glass boxes to contain perfume bottles and other materialistic subject matters. Keeping them out of reach and sacred. The images Below are from my own work from last year when I used glass.

The above images are sourced from http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/matthew_monahan.htm

Posted in College Life, Matthew Monahan Tagged: Art, Artist, death, Glass, Matthew Monahan, Papier-mâché, Poly(methyl methacrylate), Sculptors, Sculpture, studio work, Visual Arts, wax

Rachel Harrison

John J Twomey — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:33:39 +0000

Over this college term my studio practice has much been in the vein of multiples and working in spaces with use of consumer culture matter. Having been advised by my tutor in 2nd year to look up a book called ‘UNMONUMENTAL the object in the 21st century’ I came across artist Rachel Harrison - Harrison’s art draws upon modernist sculpture’s obsession with the form and Pop Art’s consumer goods panche.Yet dispite her obvious interest in art history,Harrison is equally attuned to the present, and her artworks often pointed, funny commentary on the absurdities of contemporary life.

While in Venice I was lucky to stumble upon her work by complete accident, and the following image worked well in my opinion as it was a lobster and box placed on a plint. I like her material matter and the placement of the lobster so simple.

Image 2 close up of the lobster (all images taken by me)

Although a recent emerging artist I found a website of her most recent collection of work from the Greene Naftali Gallery based in New York

Posted in Artists, Rachel Harrison, Venice Biennale 2009 Tagged: Art, consumer, Contemporary art, Greene Naftali Gallery, New York City, Painting, Pop art, Rachel Harrison, Sculpture, Venice, Venice Biennale 2009, Visual Arts

Neu/Now

John J Twomey — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:40:51 +0000

Today while busy making my hanger creations in college, a tutor informed me of a festival she is currently involved in NEU/NOW, the premise was interesting to me as the whole idea of the festival was based upon how internet proposes different opportunities for new artists to submit work online through email. My tutor who is on the Visual Arts jury of the festival. She will visit Lithuania and will get to see new, contemporary art works from all over europe. These have been designed via email with the artists and it shows how the internet can play a role in the creation of offline art. Traditional art, mainly painting, is now being left behind by technology as it is very hard for painters to get participation, via the internet, with their art. For example Movies, media, documentation of sculptures can all be done online. A painting just hangs on the wall.

Check out the NEW/NOW website to see who is taking part, and more info is below!

The NEU/NOW Festival provides an innovative platform for talented graduating artists – emerging from Higher Arts Education Institutions and Universities across Europe – to present themselves to wider European audiences in the NEU/NOW online festival and in the NEU/NOW Live festival.

The European League of Institutes of the Arts received hundreds of nominations from art institutions from 28 European countries from which an international jury selected 145 projects to be part of the NEU/NOW online festival. In a second jury selection, 30 projects were selected out of those 145 to be part of the NEU/NOW Live festival. This first iteration of the NEU/NOW online and the NEU/NOW Live Festival includes projects arranged across the following five broad arts discipline categories:

Design

Film

Music

Theatre and Dance

Visual Arts

Posted in Art and Technology, Events, Links Tagged: Art, competition, Contemporary art, Dance, Design, europe, European League of Institutes of the Arts, Film, Lithuania, Music, neu/now, online art, Organizations, Painting, technology, Theatre, Visual Arts, Website

James Hayes ‘as time flies….’

John J Twomey — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:20:31 +0000

My 3D art tutor, Artist James Hayes, who taught me in 2nd year and 3rd year of college, is having an unveiling of his new sculpture. It was commissioned by Cork City Council and will be unveiled by the Lord Mayor of Cork Cllr. Dara Murphy on Friday 27th Of November 2009 @ 6pm. With me being a good student and James being my former tutor, and he not having a Blog or Twitter account, may I add , I decided to plug the event of him. I wish him luck, as I can’t attend as I am a poor student and have to working.

See poster below.

Posted in Events, Public Art Tagged: Art, College, Cork, Cork City Council, Councillor, Event, Ireland, James Hayes, Lord Mayor of Cork, Sculpture, Tutor, Twitter