Final Proposal, New Title

Even though I liked my origonal title Kieran Cashell suggested to me to change it because people wouldn't take my project seriously and he was dead right. So my new and improved Title is Capturing the mundane this ties in with the research I did about flashbulb memories. My object drawings in a sense are like a snapshot of a moment passed.




Capturing the Mundane



Exploration of memory and how it’s intrinsically linked with objects. Unconsciously we give these inanimate things depth and resonance by associating them with something meaningful. For this project I recorded my everyday experiences in one sentence below objects that were there but don’t directly relate to them thus embodying these objects with new meaning and memory. The experiences I recorded are so mundane that were I not to make art about them, they would never remain a memory. I’m interested in the fact that we can’t fully trust our memories; they are influenced and changed over time by our experiences, become layered and hazy. Through my work I was able to explore my own experiences just after they happened, when they first turned into a memory, fresh and unaltered by the brain. It’s been important for me to do this project because I know how fleeting and fragile memory can be, it’s the aspect about it that interests me the most and I want to record it before it’s gone even if it’s not worth recording.

In the begining....My Origonal Proposal

Trapping a Brain Fart:

I plan on exploring memory and how it’s intrinsically linked with objects, identity, places and the senses. Unconsciously we give these inanimate or intangible things depth and resonance by associating them with something meaningful. I’m interested in the fact that we can’t fully trust our memories; they are influenced and changed over time by our experiences, become layered and hazy. The layering of imagery is a method I’ve used repeatedly in print and will be bringing it into this semesters work to portray this idea. I want to explore my own experiences just after they happen when they first turn into a memory, fresh and unaltered by the brain. I don’t want to look at the memories that changed me, the ones that meant something. For this project I intend to look at the everyday silly shite, the things that if I wasn’t to make art about, they would never stay a memory because they’ve no real significance. I’ve been recording different personal experiences in one sentence below objects that were there but don’t directly relate to them similar in a sense to Chris Burden’s Coyote Stories series of prints. For this semester I intend to do one of these little sketches everyday so that when I finish I’ll have a journal of memories worth forgetting. My gran has alzhiemers and she can’t remember the big things only the little things in the moment, I remember the big things and forget the little. It’s important for me to do this project because I know how fleeting and fragile memory can be its the aspect about it that interests me the most and I want to record it before its gone even if it’s not worth recording. We store huge amounts of information in our long-term memory all our lives, not all of it accurate but it’s there and when we die it’s gone in a second. I also plan to go to my grandmothers nursing home to interview some of the residents and photograph items of theirs, particularly clothing. From these photographs I’ll make a series of prints with snippets of our conversations. I want to engage in 3D work this semester and intend to screen-print the resident’s portraits and words onto fabric and make an item of clothing or even wallpaper.

Digital Images

Whats on the box?

Cut a yer wan.

Walking through.

Limerick.

Screen prints

For the humour brief my origonal idea was to take the piss out of these practical householder magazines from the 50s and 60s that I picked up in a car boot sale. Then i read an article with a list of instructions on how to be a good wife claiming to be from an 1950s homeconomics book, it had ridiculous instructions like dont bother your husband when he gets home he works hard for the family and always remember he is the master of the house. I was laughing at how backward it was, feeling quite smug about how far we've come but when I looked into it further it turned out to be a fake there was no record of that home economics book ever existing. 

Even if the article was a fake we know a similar rhethoric was drummed into young girls at this time but I began to think about fact that we compare now and then to make ourselves feel better about "how far we've come" I went from this to looking at female stereotypes and the fact that women can be our own worst enemies. It is a stereotype but in my opinion a fairly accurate one; women are most judgemental about other women. So with this idea in mind I appropriated two images one of Sophia Loren from the 50s looking terribly judgemental and a photo of a "modern bimbo". I flipped the negative comparison of then and now.

Finished screenprint

Etchings

Staying with the spaces and structures brief I wanted to incorporate some of my movement drawings of people. Tying in the people I encounter with the spaces I encounter.

Original dry-point.

With my first etching I drew onto the plate based on a drawing of my roommate and my lithograph repeated in miniture. Both Noelle and myself felt the image was very flat so I went back to my sketch book.

I decided to work with my layered electrical wire sketch as I wanted to stay working with pattern and I liked the line, the tangled pieces.

Experiments with chine colle:

And back to the houses.

Aquatint and etching.

Final edition.

First Colour

second colour

Finished Lithograph

 

I use thread in my work to  incorporate colour but keep it linear

Got really sick of doing small agonizingly detailed sketches so I decided to do a big gestural drawing of them. I left it on the ground under my work because I want people to walk on it 

Drawing and subsequent drypoint