Rachel Whiteread’s Interior Space

During last tutorial. Andy showed some works of Rachel Whiteread whose sculpture is really interesting. Many of her sculptures are casts of ordinary domestic objects. In her work “House” (1993), she  showed the interior space of a house, which was we have never seen before. The transformation gave audience a chance to look at and  know the inside space of a house which is always covered by the surface. It’s imaginative and interesting.

In my work, the windows are covering and simplifying the inside space of the building. Meanwhile, it’s a kind of  separating outside and inside.

House 1993

Tim Head

Andy suggested me to contact Paul Coldwell whose research has common points with mine. He is very kind and recommended several artists to me. Tim Head’s recent artworks are interesting and similar with mine.

Treacherous Light 2000 by Tim Head

Treacherous Light 2000 by Tim Head

“Treacherous Light 2000 is a projection in which each pixel of the computer screen has been enlarged to become a distinct visual element. He describes this process: ‘The work explores certain features of electronic space, specifically the digital space generated on screen by a computer program. It attempts to isolate some of the intrinsic properties of this electronic space stripping it down to certain prime elements to carry a raw skeletal electronic message. Attention is focused on the peculiar and unique physical properties of the digital medium itself and specifically on the computer-generated array of light-emitting pixels that form the illusive fabric of the screen’s surface.’ [5] Colours are randomly generated (from a palette of over 16,000,000 colours) at the edges of the screen and then move, pixel to pixel, across the image, both horizontally and vertically. The work is ‘live’ – not pre-recorded or looped – and takes place in real time in front of us, never repeating itself. It resembles a vast kaleidoscope, or veils of colour which move past each other in an indeterminate space. Close up, the process is clearly visible and the sensation of movement is strong. At a few metres distance the image becomes a swarming amorphous mass. Areas of colour and density coalesce and disperse before it is possible to fix our attention on them. From further back it is a pale grey, still rectangle of light.”—- from his website

Each enlarged pixel makes of a simple pale grey, it’s a kind of complicated simplicity, isn’t it?

architectural projection

Here are two videos about architectural projection, especially the first one which inspired me to do a projection on collapsed building if I will present my work about post-disaster area.

The projection that film projects on the wall of Rochester Castle is interesting. When they used the fake shadow of the front wall to present a 3D effect, some patterns  flew  from one window to another looks really interesting. I like the texture of stones which can be used as background.

the complicated simplicity in earthquake-stricken area

©cfp.cn

©cfp.cn

When I was in Greece, 7.1-magnitude quake hits Qinghai Province, China. Just like two years ago parts of Sichuan Province were hit by a devastating earthquake, I was unable to do anything for  these people who lost their families. The above picture was taken by a photographer of cfp.cn, which moves me deeply. The quake zone is in chaos, rubble of houses makes the helpless woman and her baby so lonely.

The next photo shows that these kids are going to put their money in the donation box, they are disordered but have only one simple wish which is to help these people of disaster area to rebuild their home.  It’s so powerful because of  these kids are main characters, and the composition of the box and them is great.

I’ve seen lots of pictures about the quake. There are so many photos which contains complicated background, but I always can see the beautiful and simple wish from these photos. I am thinking about taking some videos or photos from the area.

Chris Jordan–mass phenomena

Crushed cars #2, Tacoma 2004 44x62"

Cell phones #2, Atlanta 2005 44 x 90"

 Chris Jordan who is known for his works depicting mass consumption, waste and particularly garbage. His works contain a bold message about unconscious behaviors in our everyday lives. These complicated and mass garbage that were all discarded by their owners constructed a whole, simple picture. They were treated the same as each other.

I am trying to use the same method to present human’s complicated behaviors which all have one reason or result. It’s a kind of relationship between simplicity and complexity.

Tutorial

I did a tutorial that I missed two weeks ago with Andy yesterday. It helps me to stop thinking without direction. About my project, I really need to throw all these messy ideas, and think about the beginning of my aim. Andy showed some artists’ work which are really useful.

Andreas Gursky : The photo has a simple shape, outline, but a very busy complicated modern life or grid visually. It’s an obvious contrast between simplicity and complexity.
Andy gave an example that how to shoot it as a film to express the relationship.

Gursky's May Day V (2006), at Matthew Marks.

Power of Ten

Power of Ten : the film is made by Charles and Ray Eames in 1977. The film is all about scale, moving 10 times further every 10 seconds.

The relationship should be the main point, like a journey from simplicity to complexity. The big problem is how or in what way, like Andy suggested time, shot.
I must start filming ASAP, do some experiments.  At the same time, I have to move house next week, will be really busy.

Some artists as reference

I searched some more practicians who did many brilliant abstract films.

Len Lye (1901-1980) was a New Zealand-born artist known primarily for his experimental films and kinetic sculpture. (from wikipedia)

Color Cry
Swinging the Lambeth Walk 
a colour box

Jules Engel (1909-2003) was a Jewish-Hungarian American filmmaker, painter, sculptor, graphic artist, set designer, and director of live action and animated films, and teacher. (from wikipedia)

Swan
Silence

Oskar Fischinger (1900-1967) was an abstract animator, filmmaker and painter. (from wikipedia)

Early Abstractions
Fantasia

Norman Mclaren (1914-1987) was a Scottish-born Canadian animator and film director. (from wikipedia)

Synchromy
Lines vertical

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I am preparing for my research paper as well. I want to discuss somthing about how to use simple visualization to give more immersion.

abstract painting

Paul Klee’s Flora on the Sand, which used rectangles of different sizes and colours to represent a complicated scene.

The cubes of different colors look like blurred focus on flora on the sand. Paul Klee reduced many details, and arranged these colors into cubes to get the abstract painting. The method is impressive.

work for a complex nature

Here is a video about John Maeda’s Nature series which is showed at La Fondation Cartier in Paris. The Nature series consists of a series of seven “motion paintings”.

Piet Mondrian’s abstract paintings especially these composition trees are made from nature as well.

I want to focus on visually simplifying complex nature in visaul part.

two brilliant projects

An interesting processing work by Burak Arikan. He did an installation which shows the relationships between transaction item and their effects changing overtime. “Each node represents a transaction and connected to each other through categories and dates. Thickness of connecting lines shows the total spending amount of the paired transactions. At a given timeframe, the last day’s purchases and the two weeks of past spending are shown. ”
Discloses the artist’s personal financial records by exploring and revealing essential patterns in daily transactions.
MY POCKET: Transaction Graph

When these daily transactions are excessive, it’s a sort of complicating our life. I can use the similar idea for reference in the life part of my project. However I need to find more samples from daily life not just about spending.

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We Feel Fine
by Jonathan Harris and Sepandar Kamvar

An exploration of human emotion on a global scale using data gathered from blogs.

It’s a huge project which created by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar. They did amazing job to collect enormous information, classify them, design the feeling colours  and representing data visually and logically. They show their Methodology on the website which I should learn.