The wall is just brilliant....

congratulations

hi guys, have a good weekend!

Ok so I've written up the 1000 word review and pasted it below. As I discovered, 1000 words is not very much and it only amounts to a few sentences each. So it's great that we've also got the blog to illustrate the process we've undergone! There's a lot of good stuff written on this blog....

If anyone has any major probs with this, please post here asap because Lina needs to print it out for the wall :) I read the U7 guidelines and I think it answers all the points as well as it can. I went for the second option of writing, which is the transcription of a conversation. Only I used all the conversations we've had with the blog entries etc. I haven't changed anyone's words, just cut and paste all the bits and pieces to fit into a structure that has some themes / categories.

Jess - I don't know your surname, so email Lina if you want it put at the top!
Tomo - thanks for the Bourriaud quote! I put it at the end because I think it sums up a lot - hope everyone agrees that this is appropriate.

So as follows:

STAGE II – UNIT 7 EXHIBITION REVIEW

             After a long time of waiting in anxious expectation - out popped a mouse!

Taken from conversations from 25^th January to 20^th February 2012.

Contributors: Lina Laraki, Tomofumi Yamasaki, Madeleine Ruggi,  Jessica, Yasmin Maksousa, Chang Liu, Yu Long Wang, Cecilie Thulin and Shefali Choudhury.

Initial conversations revolved around the nature of working together as a group, where it was difficult to pinpoint immediate common interests or practices. This resulted in starting a blog, with which to carry on the dialogue outside the studio. It also took the critical process behind making an exhibition out to a different audience on the internet, rather than assuming the audience can only interact with a finished presentation in a gallery. We also met on several occasions to discuss the critical themes behind our work.

How do you Start?

The nature of coming together to make a single exhibition consisting of separate work was a recurring theme. And this is reflected in the final exhibition, which is a chance for us to adapt our personal practices to a different way of working.

We all contributed photographs of our current practice to the blog.

On the Exhibition Title

Jessica: These are some photographs I took about a year ago, on a walk in Czech Republic. They relate to the mirror image worlds we were talking about. (Tuesday 7^th February 2012)

Shefali: The idea of the mirror image as well as domestic images kept cropping up in the ideas we've had for work. And we're also still all interested in the idea of transition, from one room to another, as well as the absurd. (Wed 8^th February 2012)

Cecilie: I’m very interested in domestic space and have previously used patterns to create wallpaper installations. I’m thinking of doing the same with these new patterns and creating a domestic space within the studio space. (Sunday 12^th February 2012).

Yasmin: Anticipation that grows out of expectations: As the person walks from one room to the next they will be expecting to see something different, or to understand the context of the clock and table. The audience may even search for it as they enter the second room. The book/box relates to the mouse - the audience has anticipated an interesting outcome, searched for it, only to discover the small, only slightly surprising thing to learn is that there was nothing to expect in the first instance. (Thursday 16^th February 2012).

The following excerpts are transcripts of a conversation on Wednesday 16^th of February 2012, discussing various themes arising from our collaboration:

Lina, Chang, Cecilie, Jessica, Yu Long and Shefali. 

Repetition and Reproduction…

L: I was thinking of filming the balloon and then projecting it. Maybe filming the balloon in the first space and then projecting it. In the second space I could have the balloon and the projection of the room.

…of the domestic space …

YL: I’m taking one part of the wall and photocopying it and then using Photoshop on that. Creating one, two, three layers.

Ch: I’m copying the house I live in, transferring it to the studio. This is the door of my room in paper but I’m using a variety of materials.  I moulded paper on to the walls with water and afterwards it dried and took on the shape of the walls.

J to S: Would you present your work on the floor?

S: Maybe but maybe on a table as it is meant for people to play with as it’s a sculpture of a toy. But maybe on the floor like children’s toys are. I like the idea of having work on the floor in this exhibition space, rather than being elevated, as it stops it from looking so earnest. 

Mirror Images: 

L to S: Why is there a difference between your two pieces?

S: I couldn’t remember and I had been thinking about it yesterday. I couldn’t understand their relationship to each other and it was bothering me.

J: We were talking about mirror worlds and Alice Through the Looking Glass. I think that was where the idea of having two rooms the same came from. They would be almost the same but with a tiny difference here and there, a bit like those ‘spot the difference’ pictures.

S: Things would be in the same places?

J: Yes so when it is installed, it does look a little bit like a mirror image.

L: That was the surprise (for the audience), that the rooms look the same.

Working With and Exhibition Space in Two Rooms

Madeleine: The use of two rooms and making them replicas of each other reminds me of Benjamin and his idea of reproductions – which is the room that is replicating the other? Which is the first room we ‘build’ and copy from?

We are relying on the memory of the viewer, of what they see initially and then notice again in the second room. People will choose different pieces of our art that they are interested in to recognise later in the second room.

The Nature of Working as a Collective and What this means for the Exhibition Space and the Audience:

Lina and Shefali: Reflecting on the nature of our show as a group curation we decided not to have individual name labels for our work. The finished show is designed just to be one experience for the audience - and very different to a show that is conceived as a collection of work from different artists. Presenting it in this way we’re trying to address the idea of the nature of an artist’s collective, which has an innately different hierarchy to a show with one curator. (Monday 20^th February 2012).

Tomo: We started from differences and we have been trying to find the way our works can co-exist in the same space. Is this collective or not? In this collectiveness, there is a multitude of possibilities. We think that this chaos and complexity can open up the potential space and can be crystalized into one solid exhibition that the individual alone cannot achieve. (Saturday 18^th February 2012).

From Altermodern by Nicholas Bourriaud:

"It seems to me that that the fundamental question that exhibitions ought to be repeatedly asking concerns the interpretation of forms: What is the message they convey today? What is the narrative that drives them? We have an ethical duty not to let signs and images vanish into the abyss of indifference or commercial oblivion, to find words to animate them as something other than products destined for financial speculation or mere amusement." 

Shefali

Mine is in form of notes from the beginning : 

The few concepts we could extract were :
- the notion of time of waiting, a delay, an indication of a period of time. 
- the idea of expectation
- the notion of surprise, something really small, clashing with the previous part of the sentence. 

So we played around, and liked the idea of the paradox and opposites present in that sentence, like heavy/light, big/small, serious/playful.
What could surprise ?
Mirror-reflection ?

We directed ourselves to having both exhibition space totally similar, or having a tiny difference, so that the viewer, after seeing the 1st room, will expect something different for the 2nd room, and would be totally surprised to see the same things, and won't notice the slight changes as a 5cm move etc. ...

Mirroring - Surprise - Humor
An exhibition that doesn't look like an exhibition

------------------------------------------------

- one space reflecting the other

- communication - virtual documentation

- influencial sentence

- strategies of display 

- how to make a start 

- challenge to create very different work

- element of surprise

- an exhibition that doesn't look like an exhibition

- humor and subversiveness 

- of the everyday, the title adds another layer when not describing the ideas and concepts / sentence separated from its context has become something else

- the way you position and object either makes it work or not

- even if any work is weak the exhibition itself needs to be strong 

- everything has to be contextualized in the correct way to become an artwork. 

- make it more compelling, subtle relation between the object and the title

- 2 rooms litterally reflecting and facing each other as if an 'invisiblie mirror (cf Madi) was in the middle

- strong connection between the 2 rooms despite all the rooms and work in the middle

- dynamic of both reflecting each other, which one is the original one ? which one is the reflection? 

- audience should be able to get into a narrative of their own

 - link to the seminar : idea of the copy, the aura of the art object, authenticity ? 

 - where to begin ? where does it start where does it end ? an open-ended come and go between the display. 

 balloon :

- play on the idea of opposites and paradox.

- space is a breathing and breathing is a language

- how to make a start ?

- something from nothing - nothing for something. opposites and paradox. 

- making something out of nothing, making everything out of nothing

- space is a breathing and breathings is a language. 

- is there such a thing as empty space ? 

- can something really come out from nothing ? what is it in air we dont see ? 

- give a solid form to the intangible

------------------------------------

Also I was thinking after all the posts it'll be very tricky not get too far from the first point, so please take the time to explain in simple words and details the starting point idea.

i tried to link it as much to the seminars as well. 

Jessie - having the blind down is interesting as in my mind it relates to theatre and the gauzes that both reflect and transmit light, to create various effects. In the space, you are concealing the outside world but then as you move around the blinds allow one to see through at certain points where the light shines through – revealing it. I was trying to think about what the opposite of a reflection is – is it a shadow? Or is it just an object/being etc as it is on its own?

I hadn’t initially thought about the groups interest in the mirrors and its relation to my exploration of Jeff Wall’s ‘Picture for Women’ and Manet’s ‘A Bar at the Folie Bergere’ and both their use of the mirror, one using it as a space to show other details of the scenario, the atmosphere and environment (the Manet) and the other disguising it in the picture plane, Wall is placing us into the image, though we are invisible, we are the camera.

I like this idea that we have created an imaginary mirror, running through the middle of the studio (inbetween our two rooms)

The use of two rooms and making them replicas of each other reminds me of Benjamin and his idea of reproductions – which is the room that is replicating the other? Which is the first room we ‘build’ and copy from? Does this matter? Does this alter if we are entering the studio from different sides (the two entrances/exits at either end?)

Initially after reading the previous posts I was trying to think about what makes something surprising? It was here I began to think about colours (perhaps after my recent trip to India) and the use of bright colours, particularly against the black and white wallpaper. (This is something I have noticed in colours in London which stand out against our dull landscapes, but are also slightly muted due to the lack of sunlight/ light beneath the clouds we live under)

What is the significance of two of the same thing, of reflection/something doubled? Will the works have more impact or less? If we were to use mirrors (although I know we’re not) it would bring the viewer into the context of the art works surrounding them, (questionably) becoming a piece themself.

Reflections interested me in that we cannot see our present self in the mirror at the exact point in which we look at ourselves because of the speed of light. This is something I am currently trying to understand further.

The walk in between the rooms creates an anxiety which then perhaps will turn into surprise as they enter the second room.

We are relying on the memory of the viewer, of what they see initially and then notice again in the second room. People will choose different pieces of our art that they are interested in to recognise later in the second room.

So, I am still not completely sure of what I am showing yet, I am enjoying seeing the space develop and making work from this, I like this idea of movement through the space imbetween the rooms and what thoughts the viewer may have during this moment. Cecilie’s pattern evokes a kind of movement I think and today I was messing around with a little video on the wallpaper which could (if I decide to continue it) edit in some way and project on another different surface (though this is just a brief idea). I also thought about a film of someone talking or some kind of sound, in one room then repeated in the second room, but completely in reverse. Hope this

Sorry I realise there are lots of questions, many of which we will realise when the rooms are set up which is exciting,, and I’m sorry about the mass of words just thought I’d get them down.

Some inspirations:

Natalie Escobar

Athena Procopiou prints

My video, experimenting around the studio, just on photobooth, quite like the kaleidocope effect, again mirroring the subject 

Madeleine 

hahaha

Please be aware my friend

Thing in front of you is just one and another deception

It's close to us, but closer

You see it smiling to you; you hear it talking to you

But don't be serious

Because it's just another lie in your life.

In someone's eyes, it's colourful

In someone's eyes, it's black and white

But no one knows that colourful is really colourful or black and white is really black and white

Because we can only see things through our eyes

If one day you found

That red is not red, green is not green

Please don't be surprised

Because it's just another lie in your life.

I wake up late, because I'm in my dream every moment

You can also say that I've never been awake, I just kissed my hair

So, every move I made was just somnambulate

So, every word I said was just fudge

If you think you are awake, then my fudge is another lie in your life.

I was not natural born like this, neither were you

Stretching out and thinking about making miracles

Only for leaving radiance without colour in our this lives

We are breathing, sighing, fancying but restrained

Wondering if you remember that day we sit together around a table

Talking about our voices inside

We were all seemed smiling, but thinking about escaping, too

If you realised something

Please don't be so serious

That is just a lie we created together.

It starts

What would you like to drink, help yourself

We have tobacco ash tea, frozen canvas coffee, plastic wine, and paint water

I'm sorry that I don't have ketchup blood cause I'm not a vampire

We also have toys which you can enjoy

If you feel someone's behind the curtain

Then please touch the seemingly black and white wall

You might find something special

Or you might find a paper door under the blue balloons

Does it make you feel warm?

If it does

Please be aware that it's just another lie in your life

Once you step inside

You are supposed to get into another same space

No matter the time stops or not

You will go back to the first space again

If you smile

Congratulations

You and we just created another lie in our lives.

 

YuLong

Hello all,

My initial plan of how I wanted to stick up the wallpaper has ended up being a little too over-ambitious so I’ve come up with plan B which is going to involve a lot of double sided tape and a keen eye - so your help would be much appreciated.

I have work Tuesday but I will be in on Monday and Wednesday to set up.

Another change is the fact that the two wallpapers won’t be inverted versions of the same pattern. They will be two individual patterns. I’m hoping they’ll create the same atmosphere and appear to be the same, but at a closer look are completely different.  

Many of the things being mentioned in previous posts are really interesting – I’ve enjoyed reading them - and I’m finding it hard to add to the points made.