David Oliveira

 For my 3D pieces this week I have been trying to create wire sketches.The artist recommended to me by my tutors was David Oliveira , who creates beautiful scribbled wire sculptures. The Lisbon-born David Oliveira 's  delicate figurative sculptures look like manically drawn ink sketches.I think there is both 2D and 3D elements to his sculptures and I love how his finished pieces look like large doodles taken straight from a sketchbook and hung in a gallery space! They create a sort of illusion...

 



 



 If these photographs of the sculptures were taken against a totally white background, the viewer could think these were merely 2D sketches. This is a quality I really like about these works!

My Light Projection Images...

  So, I'm finally posting my photos of the light projection images I took weeks ago! I hope they convey the idea of our trace upon a space. I also think they can be seen as the trace/imprint of our space/surroundings upon us!  All the images I projected onto me or my beautiful sisters are very important spaces to me (my home, garden, holiday destinations etc! )  I like to think some part of me is left within these spaces and I know they have imprinted on me and influenced my life! Ok, so that's my deep and meaningful , totally sappy post of the day!! But I like the end result and the process was a lot of fun....so here is just a few samples!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Work update....

 Over the weekend I have been trying to create human figures in stages of movement and it's proving more difficult than I expected!  After a pathetic attempt, I have abandoned clay as something I might work towards as opposed to something to start with. Today I decided to work with wire instead, and make wire figures as a structural aid for when I make them paper figures.
 Anyways here are some photos of how my work went last week....

Images of my swinging girl drawn onto acetate, and hung over my desk, literally swinging.....

My wall....

 

Some studies for my 3D work...

 

 

3D !!

  I've been sick this week....I blame the beautiful weather up here in limerick....so most of my work has been drug fuelled..(.the legal anti-biotic/ paracetamol stuff) ! I don't know for sure but it could be the reason I've been working in 3D this week....something I NEVER do !! And I've been enjoying it! So after my wire 'swinging girl' I moved onto paper sculpturing...I'm finding it a lot harder than it sounds....after two hours today I was left with two useless paper feet and a dodgy leg...But I started to discover things :lighter paper is far easier to use than card, rolling is a good technique as is double sided tape or glue! I've also been really looking at Richard Sweeney's 'Angel' for inspiration.  So the plan for the weekend is to make 4 free standing paper figures in stages of movement... to tie in with my concept of our trace upon a space, and or imprint upon it!

Hopefully I'll get the photos up next week, once I get beyond the legs...!

Denis Connolly + Anne Cleary; Here There Now Then

Denis Connolly + Anne Cleary;   Here There Now Then.

An interactive exhibition conceived for the Limerick City Gallery of Art

 I've had this research about Connolly and Cleary saved in my drafts since last week, when I went to Limerick City Gallery of Art to see their exhibition 'Here There Now Then' . Following advice from my tutors I went to the gallery yesterday only to realise I missed the exhibition by just a few days! I was so disappointed but the lovely gallery workers gave me a book about the works and some leaflets so  I was still able to learn about the works.

  I researched the couple on the Limerick City Gallery of Art website and found out about their backgrounds...'Paris based collaborative duo, Denis Connolly and Anne Cleary working collaboratively have developed a practise which they call 'observer participation', bringing the public and other collaborators into works that they call 'entanglements'. This has led them into partnerships with musicians, dancers, writers and teachers. Their work has a uniquely personal style, combining documentary, experimental film, installation, performance, photography, computer programming and text, with a recurring theme; the boundary between art and life. There is a strong message of active civic engagement behind their work, which engages with ecological and social that are significant today. '

Here There Now Then

  The artists work with either a fixed camera computer and plasma t.v. screen or they project images onto a wall. I don't full understand the technical side...but I learnt that with some installations some images taken with the cameras are sped up or slowed down to highlight peoples movement through a space...past and present......like their trace upon that space! See  how relevant this is !!! 

  I read through the book from the gallery and it also had a great c.d, on which I could watch the actual exhibition work....almost like I was there...but without the personal engagement.
The ideas/concepts I liked the best were :

• Encounter between the spectator and his own image.
• Movement in front of the camera generates sounds...appealing to several senses.
• The installations focus the visitor on his/her presence in time and space, through movement and through stillness.
• The work makes visitors consider the path they have taken through the space, therefore making them aware of their 'trace'. 
• The cameras supply feedback of immediate past, as well as present and long-ago past.
• Mixing stream of video, previously recorded from camera with live video coming directly from the same camera. 
• Transparency to the works.

  

It was only this week that I realised Connolly and Cleary have an installation here in the college...in the form of a  camera and plasma t.v screen. It mixes live and pre-recorded videos on screen. It challenges the viewer to verify what is happening on screen with what is happening in the reception area behind you. Standing in front of it for a few minutes today was almost unnerving, as you had to keep looking over your shoulder to see were those people really behind you....9/10 there was no one.......

So here is the evidence...

Even when I was no longer standing in front of the camera you can see my 'trace'...

I'm not posing...someone just walked past saying ' ah taking pictures of yourself is it?'  : ) 

 

Swinging through a space..............

  So I made a little swinging figure out of wire yesterday, it was my first time using wire and I really liked it as a medium. I used a very light and bendable kind so it was very easy to manipulate! 
 
  I wanted to create a 3D piece that a viewer could engage with, and actually imagine the trace/ imprint left once the figurine moves through the space.

 

Light projection photos....

   I found this photographer on Tumblr and I love his work. It's the kind of  art that I really wish was my own ! I especially love his photographs of the female form in which he projects  images onto the models. To me the result is utterly beautiful!  Its the method of photography that I was working with over the past two weekends.  I want to do some editing to my images before I post them though!

 Davis Ayer; 



I think this is my favourite, the projected image becomes like a beautiful tattoo, a permanent part of the model.

Some work from earlier this week.....

  These are some photos of acetate drawings I did over the weekend. I hurt my thumb this week so all I could really do was take photographs...thankfully it is getting better, which is good because I really have a lot of work I want to get done over the weekend.
  So with these images I was trying to capture the sense of an imprint upon a space, the trace of someone once they have temporarily occupied the space. I was looking at the acetate from different angles when I realised there was kind of a projected shadow of the drawing on the wall when I held it in front of the lamp.....So I had a bit of fun with the different ways of documenting this one work.......

In reality , the shadow that was created was far stronger and clearer than this. It really didn't photograph well, but I liked it when I saw it as a stronger projected image.

I find this one the most interesting. Not being egocentric but I like how my reflection can be seen in the photo...it's like my trace left behind...see what I did there....???!

These are black and white copies, the images almost become transparent.

I like this for the same reason as the similar one above.