Album art is used for demonstration purposes only.
Petra Collins is a Canadian artist, photographer, model and director. Her photography is extremely interesting, mainly taken on film it focuses on the female form, and often life as a young woman in the male gaze. Her work often holds a dream like feel with lighting being a huge aspect of her work. ‘I THINK THE GENDER NORMS OF EMOTION ARE HORRENDOUS. BEING MASCULINE MEANS SHOWING ZERO EMOTIONS, BUT HAVING THE CHOICE TO BE ANGRY OR DEPRESSED. BEING FEMALE MEANS YOU ARE ONE DIMENSIONAL - IF YOU SHOW MORE THAN THAT, YOU ARE A PSYCHO, HYSTERICAL, OR HISTORICALLY, A WITCH.’ ‘FOR ME, ART DOESN'T STOP AT THE GALLERY SPACE.‘
WHY I NEVER BECAME A DANCER: When I first watched ‘Why I never became a dancer’ by Tracey Emin, a few things jumped out at me. The first one which is obvious is her relationship with sexual freedom. For her, it was ‘something simple’, something that she could do despite her age, despite her youth.
MY BED: Emin’s work constantly challenges what society expects of a woman in an blunt, point-blank. Beds themselves have a role to play in the history of art, all of the rumpled sheets on which nude women have flirtatiously turned their backs. Fuseli’s The Nightmare and Manet’s Olympia are a couple of iconic artworks which present women, naked, laid out on display draped over their white bedsheets. Emin doesn’t turn coyly away here. She subverts this expectation and shows people the reality of a heartbreaking situation she has been through and the reality of a sexually active young woman.
A FORTNIGHT OF TEARS: I went to view Emin’s most recent exhibition at the White Cube, Bermondsey. As I stepped in, the breath was knocked out of me. The rawness of her work dealing with her past trauma and now the death o f her mother led to an emotional exploration of human feeling and loss. Her use of stereotypically female colours such as reds and pinks reflected the real flesh of humanity and the ghostly figures emphasized the losses she has experienced. She was wide open with this exhibition, letting everyone in to her true emotions. I love the colour palette of pinks, reds and blues. The use of these colours are emotive, balanced and beautiful. They are natural and compliment each other. Therefore, they inspired me to think about the effect that those colours would have in my piece.
I viewed her work at The Photographers Gallery in London. Alex Prager’s artwork appears in the medium of high-production technicolour images, rooted in the glossy landscape of Los Angeles. THEY ARE ENTIRELY FICTIONAL. ‘Slick, contrived, consumerist, neurotic’ are words used by the Photographers Gallery to describe both her artwork and the culture it portrays. It made me actually FEEL. I felt claustrophobic and lonely when viewing her short film...
‘PHOTOGRAPHY IS A SLOW DIVE INTO ME AND EVERYTHING THAT MOVES ME, MAKES ME LAUGH OR CRY AND EVERYTHING IN-BETWEEN. IT’S POETRY. I USE IT TO METICULOUSLY EXAMINE AND EXPLORE CHARACTERS AND SITUATIONS, TO SEE WHAT’S MOVING ME, WHAT DETAILS I WANT TO PULL FROM. FILM IS ALL ART MEDIUMS HAPPENING ALL AT ONCE: SCULPTURE, MUSIC,LITERATURE, PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY TOO. IT USES EVERYTHING AND IMMERSES ALL THE SENSES.’ – PRAGER
I viewed her sculpture PsychoBarn in the courtyard of the RA. I found this piece very striking as you step into the courtyard of the RA. I came to the realization that this was the piece of art to inspire me how to format the displaying of my final piece. This combined with Bill Viola’s means of projection helped me realise that sometimes it can benefit the piece of art to reveal the initial construction of how it was made. The fact that it was based on the house in the classic American film, Psycho (Hitchcock 1960) also allowed me to make a clear connection as I used the motel room, sign and atmosphere as inspiration for the set design of my piece.
‘ORIGINALLY COMMISSIONED IN 2016 BY THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART FOR ITS ROOF GARDEN, THIS WORK WAS FIRST SEEN AGAINST NEW YORK'S ICONIC SKYLINE. PRESENTED HERE IN THE ROYAL ACADEMY'S ANNANBERG COURTYARD THE STRUCTURE IS EVERY BIT AS COMPELLING AND UNSETTLING.' - RA
Edward and Nancy Kienholz are artists who’s work up to the 1980s consisted of installation art pieces which dealt with the construction of both model buildings, rooms and people.
‘EMERGING FROM THE BEAT ERA, ITEMBRACES THE HONEST SPONTANEITY OF JAZZ, THE EMOTIONAL INTENSITY OF ABSTRACTEXPRESSIONISM, AND THE FUNKY, HOMEMADE AESTHETIC OF DO-IT-YOURSELF MODERNISM.AT THE SAME TIME, IT IS ALSO SOCIALLY CONSCIOUS REALIST SCULPTURE BY ARTISTSRESOLUTELY ENGAGED IN AN ONGOING CRITIQUE OF THE WORLD AROUND THEM.’ – David A.Ross
Mulholland drive, blue velvet and twin peaks to name a few, showcase lynch’s auteurist approach to filmmaking. His career spans over almost 40 years and across this, he has made a name for himself for his interest in surrealism, dreams and the aesthetic style that crosses over all of his films. It is this style that inspired me to create a short film set in America which will focus on my own visual style and ideas.
The warm colours, grain and use of neon lights make for an immersive visual experience. Lynch plays with colour, both in costuming and lighting. He works with the contrast between light and dark and in the darkness, he often brings colours like reds, pinks and blues into the shadows. Lynch’s use of pattern, both in props and surroundings but also in lights and reflections brings out the individual, unique styles of each of his characters. Blue velvet was released in 1986 and Mulholland Drive was released in 2001 and despite this 15 year gap, lynch has stuck with his signature visual style to the point where it is unmistakably his, and his alone. I am inspired to use this as stimulus for my video, yet to still stick to my own style and ideas.
Julian Rosenfeldt’s Manifesto is a fantastic example of film becoming art. Each short film with voiceovers depicting different creative and political movements really inspired me to work with film as a medium but combine it with literature to create an effect within the audience. The individual concept and set design of each film is different yet when presented in one room, the language ties them together creating one thought provoking experience. From this experience, I am going to take forward the use of planned set design and films as artwork, the use of literature and centering a film on a single female lead and how she is presented.