Marina Abramovic

Loved the idea behind these works. I dread to think how much they cost to make, but I would most certainly love to try the shoes. The paragraph below was directly taken for a book I am looking at called 'Dream Machines.' Its an exhibition of work by different artists, selected by Susan Hiller which focuses on dreams and altered states of consciousness.

 

 

 

 

 

Marina Abramovic's crystal Shoes for Departure offer to transport the viewer into an altered state of consciousness. With the artist's written instructions functioning almost as a hypnotic suggestion, the shoes provide the means to enter a space of trance and contemplation:

"With naked feet enter the shoes. Eyes closed. Motionless. Depart. Duration:limitless

Material: amethyst"

The artist's mineral pillows encourage a similar journey into the unconscious, as viewers are invited by the artist to rest their heads on them and experience the mind-altering properties of the crystal supports: 'Smoked quartz, works on the subconscious going deep into the past of memory to balance the conscious mind'; 'Sodalite, amplifies dreams.' The works create their meaning in their interaction with the feelings and imaginations of an audience, and in the re-enacting by that audience of state of mind suggested by the artist.

 

-'Dream Machines', selected by Susan Hiller



Untitled (Smoked Quartz pillow)

 

Two More..

 

I've completed two more stitched pieces. The first one I have posted I will re-do as it is just to messy. The pink one is done on an old pillow case that I had when I was very small. I screen printed the text onto it. I think I will screen print my text onto the fabric instead of using the transfer gel. Its alot less messier and is almost quicker.

I am starting to question the presentation of these pieces. I like how you have to get really close to them to read the text, it makes it alot more intimate, but I wonder if the frames are to big and maybe need to be half the size.......

I like how the frames are wide though as I think I may place little objects on top of them.

I think when I have my photos sorted as well it might look alot better. I am also contemplating making dream catchers but that may be a bit to 'crafty.' We shall see.......

 

This is all one dream but told as if it is three different stories. It jumps around the way dreams do, from one frame to the next.

The Owl and the Pussycat

I was listening to Poetry Please, on BBC Radio 4 today while I was cooking away. They were celebrating the life and work of the poet and painter, Edward Leer, most famous for his nonsense poems. They played The Owl and the Pussycat, sung by Elton Hayes. I adored this poem growing up, so much so that its one of the very few things I took the time to commit to memory. I thought it was wonderfully sung by Elton Hayes and I simply had to share. Edward Leer was a wonderful poet.

First Piece

This is my first completed piece for this project. I am happy were his is going, but unfortunetly it looks dirty especially so in a photograph. But it does look better now that I have painted my space!

I dont really like the mark that the transfer has left arount the stitching, I am going to see if i can do this with out transfering th text, so this might be redone all together. Its been handwashed, starched and then streched onto a wooden frame, that our technician kindly made for me.

The text is rather depressing I know, but dreams are strange and this one is especially so.

 

 

 

Alice Maher

Yesterday I was lucky enough to go on a college trip to Dublin to see Alice Maher's exhibition, 'Becomming,' at IMMA.
Her work was wonderful. Dreamy and macarbe all rolled into one, nature twisted with the human form, the primitive and the complex. Her work, without sounded big headed, was very much like my own. She reminds me alot of Kiki Smith, but since they are the same age they would not have been influenced by each other, they are peers not mentors. But it is interesting to see the cross-over that imerged, I imagine on some subconscious level. Her stop-motion videos were amazing, well worth a look. I wish I could of stuck around a bit longer, but there was other galleries to be seen none of which held work as immpresive as hers.
The only other gallery that stuck out for me was the Douglas Hyde Gallery, which was showing, 'The Paradise,' by Fergus Feehily, which was an istallation about light and darkness; and especially about luminosity, and Nina Canell's 'Tendrils,' which can be described as a kind of modern alchemy, as much of it is about transformation and a search for deeper, more unified, beauty.
These were complex yet simple exhibitions that were quiet and lovely.
We also saw Callum Innes, 'Unforseen,' in the Kerlin Gallery. A series of block paintings. A theme that has become stale. Only Mark Rothko and maybe a small hanful of others have ever been able to take this theme to a higher level, in my opnion at least.
 Below are some photos from the exhibitions...

'The Four Directions' by Alice Maher
Snail Shells (This was the only piece that I could take a photo of the rest are from her site)



'Cell' by Alice Maher
brambles and wire

'Berry Dress' by Alice Maher
Cotton, Rosehips and pins



'Ombres' by Alice Maher 1997
Aseries of three images in charcoal.

 

Impulse Slight (detail) By Nina Cadell
2011
Watermelon seeds, wood, glass, copper wire

Kodak Brownie

My favorite

 

 

There is a different image of the beach bridge which is more visible if you turn it to the right, and if you know what to look for!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some photos I took with my Kodak Brownie box camera.

 

The Kodak brownie takes 127mm film but I used 120mm. The film didn't match the box, as the 127 is much wider, so the have double exposed and moulded into each other.

I like the effect tho. The larger images have been taken and cut from the two long image.

Most of these were taken in Kerry at the beach or in my garden.

 

 

Kodak Brownie Box camera

 

Francesca Woodman

I came across this photographer before via a magazine article in the Sunday Telegraph.
Here is a link for a larger article on her and her work..

During her short but fruitful life, Francesca Woodman created at least 10,000 negatives; subjects featuring herself and female models. Many of her photographs show young women who are nude, who are blurred (due to movement and long exposure times), who are merging with their surroundings, or whose faces are obscured. The Woodman estate consists of over...

800 prints, of which only around 120 images had been published.
In late 1980, Woodman became depressed due to her work and to a broken relationship. She survived a suicide attempt, after which she lived with her parents in Manhattan.On January 19, 1981, she committed suicide by jumping out a loft window in New York.