Links on Tumblr

I have continued some of the projects I have produced over these last couple of years and put any artwork relating to such projects online onto other sites. As stated before, for example, the outcome of my first project brief from university, so far in continuation up until last summer, is called Project Anthill. This was to carry on the idea of creating small figurines to be scattered throughout various towns and cities, often in unlikely locations:

 

"...much like ants making their nest within the walls of someone’s kitchen, it’s all a simple matter of ‘innocent intrusion’. What I mean in saying this is that one of the problems street art, even the sort as wholesomely innocent as this, is that it still has to put up with the very likely possibility that its presence will only be deemed as vandlaistic in nature and barely anything more...

 

However, if I completely avoided the notion of placing Anthill’s populants in such locations, that would more or less defeat the entire premise of the project. Urban living all too often steers us away from being fully aware of the world we created and possess but do not possess by our own right. As much as we may like to think our homes and towns and cities serve to shelter our kind alone, all forms of life may make their home in these environments too. The entire reason I named this project Anthill was to serve as a constant reminder of that and the ‘ants’ of this Anthill take on more human form because no matter how much we choose to form the land we inhabit, we are still a part of a grand and complex ecological system. This entire project works under paradoxes. In looking into the little things in life, one can find more appreciation for the grand scheme of it all."

- one of the posts on Project Anthill.



Project Anthill on Tumblr

 

Also, following an understanding of my interest in costumes I eventually created another Tumblr blog dedicated specifically to all costumes I produced. Though, this wasn't set up until partway into my second year, when I would eventually come to acknowledge artistic merit in another subject matter I will elaborate on another time in the future. I could the Tumblr blog Becoming the Myth, partly to carry on from my initial project title from the start of second year, where I aimed to establish some understanding in how I may try to identify with figures of myth by attempting to model myself after them in costume. As stated before, I will provide a more in-depth explanation however, on how I would come to the conclusion on expanding to what extent mythology itself has become prevalent even in our modern culture.

 

Becoming the Myth on Tumblr

 

Finally, my final major project from college had too expanded beyond its set brief. Since I knew how invested my interests can dwell on mythology and other relatable subjects such as occultism, demonology and even cryptozoology, I decided to organise myself with the expectation of producing more artwork under such themes beyond my time in college.

 

Myths & Mysteries on Tumblr

 

Although many of the works featured on these links will have crossed over from works shown here, I feel they will warrant more intrigue than the general presentation I offer through this particular blog.

Self-Directed Project: 'Defining Practice' Pt. 2

For the last segment of my project brief, I once again revisited my interest in exploring costume as a medium for my artwork. In fact, I worked on two separate costumes though one of them mostly involved re-using components of my previous costume piece, The Dealer. This costume was based on the Japanese mythological creature, the Tengu.

Tengu (2012)

Much like the Dealer, I chose to present myself publically with this costume, amusingly enough while being escorted by volunteers for a charity group.

At the point of undertaking this more unconventional means of exhibition, I was in the process of making my final piece for exhibit on our first year show close to the end of the year. This costume was actually a development from the Beelzebub piece. I used the wire torso from the original Beelzebub project and covered it in cloth and latex. The hands were reused too but I had to make the arms again from scratch. This time, I built them from cardboard and latex. This was to create an insectoid form.

The idea of this piece was based on how sources suggest that Beelzebub's name may have originated from a insult directed towards a Middle Eastern deity. I intended to therefore portray the character as having been pulled down from its former grace, now pathetically crawling around hoping for aid, unable to hold its own body together, let alone stand up.

I originally planned that I would wear the costume throughout the week of the art show but instead decided to only do for the private viewing.

Baal-Zebal (2012)

During the improvised performance, I had arranged for it all to be filmed by a fellow student.

At this point, I increasingly come to understand the relevance of costuming in my artwork, at the least in understanding that I found an invested interest in it. On another note, I was surprised to find an interest in lino-cutting and printmaking. This may have been because of my experience in exploring the works from the likes of the Vorticists, as mentioned from my last post.

I know that into my second year of university, I hope to further explore costume as a medium in my artistic practice and better develop an understanding on my growing interest. From this, I hope to therefore draw conclusions on what I hope to do as an artist.

Baal is Dead! (2012)

Self-Directed Project: 'Defining Practice' Pt. 1

Even without hindsight, this seemed like a rather presumptuous and overly ambitious concept of a project for first year, albeit the final brief for that year. This project was to run for the entire semester.

I actually struggled a considerable deal at the initial phase, as I contemplated looking back at the illustrative style of my older works prior to university and try explore the relationship my artwork may hold with commercial interests. I initially took off on this idea by creating a series of wire sculptures of insects and spiders. Though the whole process felt extremely lacking.

Spider #1 (2012)

Mayfly (2012)

Spider #2 (2012)

Cockroach (2012)

However, after a fruitless attempt of a survey and a relatively in-depth discussion with a tutor, I decided this was unnecessary to explore (from this point, at least). Instead, I chose to explore a growing interest in some media I more recently looked into and attempted to see what I could develop from there.

Throughout my first year, I had produced a series of stylised sketches of tutors and peers during lectures. There was something about this chosen point in time and place where I felt there was something more real in drawing the people when they were not aware of being drawn. For me, their expressions often felt more genuine at that point. Despite the former lack of satisfaction in exploring the media back in college, I decided to turn back to print-making and the process of lino-cutting, as this seemed appropriate in relation to how I drew the people for these sketches.

Andrew (2012)

Emily (2012)

This style was something I developed from my experience in seeing numerous works produced by a group of artists referred to as the Vorticists. Vorticism was a rather short-lived artistic movement that started in the early 1900s but declined by the early years of the First World War. With elements of Cubism present in some of the artists' works, many of them produced figures possessing angular forms.

Becci (2012)

Salome (2012)

Katie (2012)

Tom (2012)

I also went on to explore the potential to lino-cutting in other drawings of mine.

Peace of Mind (2012)

This was taken further after my trip into Madrid, where I was able to go into Museo del Prado. Here, I managed to re-establish an interest in classical art and apply this into my modernist-inspired drawing style. The result is something I'd like to consider comparable to the works of Eric Gill.

The Dead Christ Supported by an Angel (1646-1652)

by Alonso Cano (1601-1667)

Drawn interpretation of Cano's painting.

Lino-cut from drawing.

Interestingly enough, although the printed piece may be the usual expected outcome, I was more invested in the production of the lino-cut itself. I feel that the main reason drawing and lino-cutting seem to work so closely for me is because my drawing technique focused on form, particularly since some of my drawing styles have been influenced by sculptors.

'Worn'

For some time, the university has set a project brief for the end of the year in which the first years create an art piece that can be worn, as if some piece of clothing or costume. As part of an event towards the Christmas break, these first years than present themselves with their work as part of an unofficial catwalk.

I immediately took to this project with little to no problem, already well aware of what I was going to base this piece on.

The Dealer (2010)

The drawing shown above is of some unearthly figure I can recall seeing regularly through dreams I had in my rather angst-ridden period of living in Singapore. To this day, I have still yet to fully understand the sense of purpose in existing that this figure has always had for me. In any case, I decided to incorporate this character as the basis to this project brief.

I made the mask for the character primarily out of canvas, to give the head some structure while flexible enough given the shape I would make it into. Upon finishing the canvas head, I added layers of latex to work as its 'skin'. Yarn thread was also applied alongside the latex to recreate most of the details shown on The Dealer's face.

For rigid form, I made the horns firstly out of card before wrapping them in canvas and held together with latex. This would all be painted into what felt like the appropriate colour at the time.

Over the eye-holes, I decided to place acetate, which where then painted as well, as yellow. I tried to make sure the colouring over the acetate was more like a light wash, so as to not impair my eyesight.

In hindsight, I can't help but feel I made the colour of the Dealer's too vibrant. When thinking of the character more, I have lately begun to consider its colour more comparable to that of pale human skin.

The costume, nevertheless, seemed to have been well received.

 

I set to have better quality images of the costume taken in-studio and uploaded them onto Tumblr.

 

The Dealer @ BecomingtheMyth.Tumblr.com

Self-Directed Project: '1970s Ankou' & 'Beelzebub'

Originally considering the idea for a large-scale performance piece, I began preliminary work into photographic portraits of mythical figures of my choice to follow up on my college FMP piece 21st Century Baphomet. I considered the idea of working on two types of images for this project; the first one will feature a complete costume which will feature photos taken on location. The second (set) will focus on a partially developed costume piece and will be limited to studio space.

For my first costume piece, I decided to create photographic portraits for a costume I developed towards the end of October called 1970s Ankou.

Because of the general aesthetic of Ankou, I chose to take the photos in the sculpture yard of the university campus, providing an industrial environment that felt appropriate. Although I took numerous photos for this piece, I only selected three for the final presentation.

1970s Ankou (2011)

The second piece involved initial construction of a new costume project, this one was to be based on the demon Beelzebub. I decided to focus on the popularised image of this figure as a literal 'Lord of the Flies', as shown from its illustration from the book Dictionnaire Infernal as well as various examples taken from popular culture, most commonly from video games.

Original illustration of Beelzebub in Collin de Plancy's Dictionnaire Infernal (1863).

Engraved by M. Jarrault.

Beelzebub depicted in game series, Shin Megami Tensei.

Illustrated by Kazuma Kaneko.

Beelzebub depicted in Final Fantasy II.

Illuustrated by Yoshitaka Amano.

Beelzebub depicted in arcade game, Ghouls n Ghosts.

Illustrated by Tokuro Fujiwara, Shinichi Yoshimoto and Hisashi Yamamoto.

Since I didn't intend on producing for a complete costume piece, I decided to only focus on creating a prototype of the costume for the upper part of the body (anywhere above the waist).

I constructed a wire structure for the torso, using wire wrapped around itself as the 'ribs' and a wire mesh as the 'skin' in between. I created segmented limbs from mod-roc and the hands were created from cardboard covered in latex. The materials used for the hands would be further incorporated into the later development of this costume.

Beelzebub (2011)

I hadn't developed a complete idea on what the head could appear as but my designs and the final presentation in the studio involved a novelty mask I found some time before I initiated on the project. The cling-film scattered around the main sculpture was actually from when I cast my own arms for the mod-roc segments. I wished to develop on the form of the wings for when I set out to complete the project in the future.

This project was the start of me further exploring the idea of costume as part of my artistic practice and the relevance in how I attempt to identify through these various figures.

'Manifesto'

n. pl. man-i-fes-toes or
         man-i-fes-tos
A public declaration of principles, policies, or intentions, especially of a political nature.

An artist's manifesto may follow this conventional definition to an extent. However, they often differ in the vagueness of the subject matter and opinion. Thus, many of such manifestos can be broadly interpreted among individuals. It was through this nature of art manifestos that I considered how I may produce my own, according to specific A0 format we were required to produce our piece on. My intention was to produce a 'manifesto' based on the vaguest possible response/s developed for the most common basis to questioning:

I set out to persuade people to provide me a series of questions for me to respond to, as long as it was possible to answer them by only stating 'yes' or 'no'. Even then, my answers did not correspond to the order of the questions which I received them, making any understanding to my response lost to anyone besides myself. This was to adhere to a personal element behind my manifesto while letting myself confide in productivity despite a disinterest in expressing the project brief to such limitations.

My 'manifesto' Yes/No as presented for exhibition.

Yes/No (2010)

However, once I was able to produce this response, I immediately delved into an additional project that was still closely knit to the intention of the project brief. As an attempt to express concerns over the pressures art in British academia has been facing, I toyed around with the idea of the notion of pursuing and supporting arts as a rebellious attitude, albeit minor.

Therefore...

I also wished to toy around with the unusual commercial accessibility and exploit the anarchy symbol has experienced and therefore incorporate it into an accessible and commercially exploitable slogan:

 

I developed this through a simple media, as fabric paint onto t-shirts as bought on-masse from a major clothes shop.

I was able to get multiple students and even some tutors involved getting them to wear the shirts. I asked for appropriate shirt sizes in advance of buying them for painting.

"I am Anartist" (2011)

I definitely found the t-shirt the more entertaining of the outcomes I developed for this project brief and it also drew in the most intrigue compared to my more restrained project idea.