The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

Today I visited the Modern Gallery in Edinburgh where Roy Lichtenstein's work was the main attraction. It was a great opportunity to see his and other artists work in the flesh. To see pieces in the context they were intended to be in is always a comforting experience, in that you feel the physical presence so much more. 

I like to stand directly in front of pieces of work especially paintings, and just try to imagine the artist standing in a similar position whilst creating it. I like to look closely at brush strokes and when possible inspect the corners of the canvas or paper, and just enjoy how the piece has aged. I was able to do this today when I discovered a few of Picasso's paintings. 

I just felt so lucky and happy that I was standing looking at a Picasso painting! Being such a well known name worldwide and having a reputation such as his I just couldn't quite comprehend being in the same room as one of his works. 

It is possible I'm exaggerating as I quite often do but this can only confirm how strong the feeling is.

Being able to walk around and see Lichtenstein's work was great. It was so satisfying scanning the vibrant colours overlaid with the trademark comic book dots. The size of some of the pieces was surprising but this only added to the experience.

As I entered the exhibition space I was completely taken by surprise when I spotted 'Monster' by Douglas Gordon. I researched Gordon for my Final Major Project whilst at Borders College and instantly became interested in his video and installation work. This cemented for me the importance of seeing a piece by one of your favourite artists in the flesh - I felt amazing. It was a lot bigger than I expected, being a photograph from the 90s I imagined the quality to be slightly grainy or weak but the closer I got to it the sharper it became! 

'Monster' by Douglas Gordon 1996

The visit was off to a great start. 

French born artist Aurélien Froment based in Dublin was the next artist that caught my eye. His piece was a video installation with the first part showing a miniature version of an industrial paper making machine. The camera pans from right to left following the mechanical process before moving back from left to right. The footage was overlaid with the voice of a child reading from a sheet of paper detailing the origins of paper making and ending with the introduction of larger scale production.

Part 2 presented us with a bright yellow jellyfish floating through a deep dark tank of blue sea water. The commentary over the visuals gives us a detailed insight into it's habitat, survival techniques and natural environment.

I enjoyed this piece. I liked the darkened room it was in, how it was projected straight onto the wall, the audio was sharp and clear and I felt it was a reasonable length too. The long panning shots of the machine was particularly interesting to me. After filming material for my Final Major Project I have grown closer to moving images and video in general. I have come to appreciate it as a craft and look forward to pushing ahead with my own pieces and experiment with subject matter. The use of audio with the girl reciting and the man narrating was a nice touch. I have found with my small projects adding or even deciding what audio to include is a huge task! Whether or not you want it to coincide with the visual, or it to completely contrast with it is not an easy decision. But I think coming to see exhibitions like this one helps my personal development a lot.


Exposing myself to video work and installation pieces is something I need to continue doing. 

The next piece that I took a particular liking to was by Billy Apple. 

'For Sale' by Billy Apple 1961

I like this piece for the use of typography and the message it conveys. The point it makes that Art is made to be bought and sold is very obvious. My interest in letter pressing and type was what originally caught my attention. I have created work in the same vain as 'For Sale' with the intention of questioning the art piece itself. Kind of like a parody of itself I guess! 

Final Major Project filming = done!

On Thursday I went along to Hawick Knitwear and finished up filming for my project.  I spent about 3 hours in total at the factory and made sure to take notes to include in my sketchbook. Human Resources and the staff in general were consistently helpful and genuinely interested when it came to what I was filming. I began at the very 1st stage of production and followed the process through the mill capturing visuals that looked similar to each other. I was considering composition with every shot I took. Having the tripod definitely helped me frame certain shots, and even allowed me to venture from stationary recording to slowly sliding the camera left or right. I made sure I spoke to each operator a little before I began filming at their machines, every single one of them were more tan happy to help out and even gave me a basic run through of what it was they were actually doing. This made a huge difference when it came to understanding how long I should film for or how zoomed in I should be etc. I let them know the exhibition dates and that I would provide them with a few invitations nearer the time to show my gratitude for allowing me in to film.

Our love is Like the Flowers, the Rain, the Sea and the Hours

Last Wednesday we travelled up to Edinburgh to attend the Generation exhibit at the National Gallery on Princes Street. Although I had visited twice before earlier in the year I still felt there were things to see and take in.

The piece I gave more attention to this time around was the installation in the largest room. I hadn't heard of Martin Boyce previous to the Generation exhibit but very much enjoyed interacting and viewing 'Our Love is Like...'

As I walked around the dimly lit room illuminated by the light strips hovering over me, I was thinking about why Boyce had created this. I thought 'Why these colours?' and 'What does this part mean?' and 'This reminds me of something...'. Of course it wasn't until I read the accompanying summary of the installation and artist responsible that it became clearer to me Boyce's intentions. Instillations in general excite me. For me, the more there is to get your head around - the better!