BILL RILEY

This week we had Bill Riley as our lecture, Bill Riley is a painter and has been painting for over 30 years now. His process varies and depends on how he feels. He stated that it gets boring, at times, which leads him to use different painting tools and experiment.

Bill is also interested in the static nature of a painting. Frequency is an instillation that explores how we perceive colour and movement within painting. Bill used a CMYK mixing system. “The CMYK colour process is a subtracting colour model, used in colour printing, and is also used to describe the printing process itself. CMYK refers to the four inks used in some colour printing; Cyan, magenta, yellow and black” – Web Definitions. He used the CMYK process to see the way people perceive colour.

Bill talked about the influence of documentary films about famous artists such as Jackson Pollock and Pablo Picasso, and the way the artists seemed to be ‘puppets’ in these films, which were supposed to celebrate and explain their practice. Bill related to this idea of from his bad experience as a commissioner, where the people who fund it take the freedom of the artist away. Bill has since become a socialist. Bill describes a socialist as “not a communist, it is more about treating people equally”. This lead him to his more recent project called The 422 project”

The 422 project is Bills new focus, using recycled and waste materials, rather than expensive fine art materials. He collects left over card from packaging companies, and left over paint. By doing so he touches on conservational Issues such as recycling. Bill paints each individual piece of card and arranges them in stacks. The 422 project is interactive and members of the public are encouraged to come into the gallery and arrange the coloured sheets of card in what ever way they want. By doing so, this portrays painting as a form of sculptural practise in some way. Overall I thought his lecture about was all right could of at least brought in some of his works his did to show our class but allgoods.

Richard Orjis

I got to class late to find out that we had Richard Orjis as our lecture for today, when I got into class, it was already 10 minutes into the lesson, where he was explaining to the class his first pieces of work and so as I soon as I found a spot to sit at next to Katie Lamacraft, he then started taking us through his photography images he took and what was behind his images. I personally think that he took some awesome photographs and I thought that he had some amazing ideas that had a lot to do with beauty and nature, and he even mentioned it numerous times throughout the lecture. So Richard Orji’s blog question for that week was that we all had to choose 3 words from Richard Orjis lecture. The 3 words I choose to describe and relate back to Richard Orji’s practice is beauty, nature and links. So before I start talking about his work, I’d like to take the chance to talk more first about Richard Orji’s background. Orjis was born in Whanganui, New Zealand and studied at the Auckland Uniersity of Technology and Carnegie Mellon Uniresity, Pittsburgh earing a BVA in 2001, and graduating with an MFA from The Elam School of Fine Art, (University of Auckland) in 2006. Richard Orji’s work looked more into beauty/nature, in the lecture he also showed us a video of him making up his own cult.his works were all based around on religion, Richard quoted ‘I really like that idea I am connected with everything around me’, and one thing Orjis mentioned in the lecture is that he said he doesn’t believe in modernism, he also stated that ‘we are always connect to something else’… God, bible, tree huggers, burning tree. By looking at his work I’ve noticed that all of his work all link up in way that it’s a like repetition, his works repeat constantly that it all looking the same to me. Overall his lecture was pretty good.

Steve Rood

Unfortunately I wasn’t there at Steve Rood’s lecture that Tuesday due to being ill, but I had the chance to ask some of my peers like Alli and Brittany about what Steve Roods lecture was all about and how he was really interested in technology and as well as photography. I was told by Brittany to go look on google to search up his work on his website, so I did just that and so I went on his website, saw his images and I thought it was awesome. Listening to what the girls had to say about him, they each said to me the same thing about how that I missed out on a great lecture about Steve Rood’s work, which I have already regretted, they also mention that the lecture he did that Tuesday was funny and that he’s an ideas-man quoted by Brittany. When I viewed his website, I knew his photos and images looked more in the line to do with advertising and marketing for me, I heard a little bit about his background from other students that he started out with a passion for film making, and then he somehow ended up in the photography industry in Milan, but he wanted to study more so he than went to Holland to get educated and he later went on to become a advertiser in photography. But then found out that he wasn’t really interested in doing that, and he also did work as an art director.

Fran Alison

Fran Allison is a contemporary New Zealand jeweler based in here in New Zealand, working and teaching at Manukau School of Visual Arts. Her jewelry has rendered the ideas of re-formatting and past-histories.

The inspirations for her work varies and is influenced by many things including interest within the idea associated with found and discarded objects. She quotes Julian Schnabel: 'I work with things left over from other things' as a reference for her interest in found/discarded objects.
Fran’s works are often made from found items, household material, such as handkerchiefs, doilies, pins, fabric etc.

In regards to Collaboration and collective,

The Audio English dictionary describes Collaboration as the “act of working jointly” Or as Richard Loveless may put it "Collaborations become great only when everyone in them is free to do his or her absolute best — and is committed to seeing other members do their best as well” Collaboration may also give artists the opportunity to take risks or experiment in ways, that they would not be able to achieve working alone. Where as an artist collective is an idea that is the product of a group of artists working together, usually under their individual supervision, but with the same aims. The aims of an artist collective can include almost anything that is significant to the requirements of the artist. This can range from sharing equipment, space or materials purchasing bulk materials, through to following shared philosophies, visual and political views. It appears that a collaboration is a group of people working together and a collective is a group that is somewhat influenced by each other. Fran explained how collaboration raises questions about ‘ownership’ over the finished work. I feel that this could result in a dispute due to several proud artists wanting to claim credit for the handwork they put in. I can recall an example of a successful collaborative piece done by Deborah Crowe and Eldon Booth entitled Cantilever.

Fran is a member of Weeds (a group of New Zealand artists involved in Object or Jewellery making). They were all angry by a 'Bone Stone and Shell' lecture, which suggested these materials and this traditional style as being the definition of New Zealand jewellery practice. As a result Fran got together with Lisa Walker, Shelley Norton and Andrea Daly, to change things. The objects prepared by all four artists involved in Weeds is far from the traditional ‘bone, stone and shell’ jewellery, which they were against, it is more domestic and hand-made due to the ‘craft’ materials, symbols and techniques. Weeds gave Fran the opportunity to move her ideas, for her practice, from the house, into the garden.

Although I’m not much of a jeweler, Allison’s work has encouraged me to be more experimental in my own personal art practice.

Deborah Crowe

14^th of September, if I could remember on that day we had Deborah Crowe come to give us a lecture about her practice. I remembered she showed us a slide show of her pieces of artworks and practices she made well coming up as a young Scottish artist. In her works I noticed that she uses a lot of different types of materials and also notice one thing about her is that she constantly pushes her ideas of concepts in her practice. Well to kick start off this blog about Deborah Crowe’s lecture, I had to back and look at my notices I wrote down about her. Deborah Crowe was originally from Dundee, in Scotland, she immigrated to New Zealand twenty years ago. Going through her photos of her work on emit, I noticed a pattern in her practice in where she uses a lot of bridges, space, containment, architecture, weaving, recycling pieces of her old works. As I checked on Emit to try and remember what Deborah’s work looked like, I remembered this work she had called ‘Beneath the surface’ where it was all to do with “containment of the body” in one of my notices that she quoted in the lecture, she said ‘the idea of how women contain their bodies, and in the way torture themselves. She also looked into torture as a part of her work, putting people in the room with objects, creating space i their mind imaginations.

Another key thing that Deborah uses to show her ideas is that, she does a lot of planning and drafting her work. One of Deborah’s works was held at Te Tuhi. The ideas in her practice how she plans and draft her work become actual drawings. Pretty cool.

Overall I thought her lecture was great but sadly just wish I could of wrote about it, due to my late blog entries I am forced to type them all up at once. Sorry tessa XP

Steve Lovetts

This week I was very delighted to have Steve Lovett to come and show us some his works of art pieces, and also which he goes on to tell us some of the statements and ideas that when on to make and produce of his fantastic pieces.Well for what I have come notice in his work is that he’s basically based his most of his work on the relationship, the relationship between his friends and family and also making a political statement, and at the same time while he’s also doing this kind of work and how he’s approaching it in he’s own way by hitting what he wants to bring to life with he’s type of artwork. What I’ve noticed now with Steve Lovett work is that he always uses different the styles of layers and color tones of an image, which also puts the image out of place.

I really liked one of his exhibitions that Steve showed us the one where the screen prints on the wall are like talking to each other, I really liked that piece, I thought that was very creative in a way that how he managed to capture there voices and also playing them through speakers, making it sound like as if his artwork pieces were talking to each other in the gallery.

I later heard that those images on the wall were good friends with him that have passed away.

I truly think that was really effective, it’s as if the images came to life with the sound of people talking, still can’t manage to think how he would come up with that idea. The other piece of art work that Steve done that I really liked was the one that was called ‘remain’, that work alone shows what Steve’s like (personally wise) and what he must have been feeling. Overall Steve's work was truly jaw-dropping for me, especially from that audio imagery one because it was mainly bringing what he thinks art is to him was.

Frances Hansen: My process

This Tuesday we had my old life drawing teacher France Hansen come into show and tell us about her work and she talks about how she balances being a art lecture and being a mother and how her ideas of her practice all came about. To start off the lecture she showed a slide show presentation of some of her past work and her most recent project. Out of all the pictures on the slide show I only remembered one, which shows that I haven't been paying close attention to France's lecture, damn.. I should of typed it up straight after class, oh well.. I'll explain to you her work from what I remember from tuesday's contextual studies class. From what I remembered about her work on tuesday's class is that her work is very creative and very original, and it also reflects on who she is as a person, because I think Frances is a very smart, creative and also aery intelligent lecture.

One thing she really didn't really mention in the lecture is nature, I like how she applys nature in art practice and it reflects on her work and her transition of being an artist and a mum, and it's also how she arranges the objects in many different ways by 'developing' it before settling on the final design. One the key fatcors in her work is 'gathering'.. gathering materials, ideas, information, collecting organic goods and recycling them by reusing them in her sculpture pieces and paintings etc. One thing that stood out for me in the lecture is that, she said that she likes to go through her neighbours (trash) organics stuff, while walk about with one her little sons, looking for some materials that will help to develop more idea for her work, which I think that is very smart and interesting.

That's another word that was not mention in her list is 'recycling', recycling play a valuable rule in France's work, I mean I would never have thought of that idea, I really like how she's uses those found objects and how she experiments alot with them such as one of her paintings can't remember which one, but I remember she painted a stencil shape of that Ajax spray cleaner in one of her paintings.What I can take from learning about her and how she works? is that I need to be more out their just like Frances, I need to go 'plan' my idea then 'gather' my materials then just develop and experiment with them such as Fances herself.