Comission Tutorial

During my foundation year we did a project based on Tim Noble and Sue Webster, using rubbish to cast shadows on the wall turning them into shapes and forms. It was an interesting project to see the transformation of these object into art. My idea is to do the same for this project. I will transform rubbish from the halls into art by casting a shadow which will take a shape of 3 different things. The first will be a person, the second will be a rubbish bin and the third a building, as a criticise of our lives being over run by rubbish.

Time Machine Task

Giorgione (Titan), The Sleeping Venus

The goddess Venus was a very popular painting choice as of 4 BC. Giorgione never got the chance to finish the painting, he died before, Titan finished it by painting the background. Giorgione also decided to step away from tradition with his painting of the goddess Venus, as he decided to paint her a a human women, not a deity as she is usually portrayed. In the painting she is relaxed, lying with ease on a make shift bed, barely concealing her nudity with what appears to be an almost lazy movement of the hand in a feeble attempt to hide her bareness, it is described as sensual. The painting itself is traditional in the aspect of its colours, a lot of yellow comes out, but it is broken by the red of her cushion.

Manet, Olympia

Like Giorgione, Manet depicted his Venus as human as well. This painting was considered to be vulgar, and disturbing for the high image of Venus, but Emile Zola said: "When other artists correct nature by paintingVenus they lie. Manet asked himself why he should lie. Why not tell the truth?". But that was only one of the reasons why the painting was criticised. It wasn't the maid's surprised look nor the colour of her skin, the other has to do with her body language and accessories. In Giorgione's painting Venus is subtly hiding her nakedness, in Mane's she is boldly doing so and staring straight at the person looking at the painting, with bold eyes, as if she is daring the audience to come in and join her. This makes her seem, with the help of the accessories, such as the flower in her hair or the necklace around her neck, like a courtesan




In both the paintings we see an unusual approach to how to represent Venus, who is normally represented as beautiful but serene and pure, whilst in these we see a more human Venus, one with prowess and sexual attention. Both their methods were unethical at the time, although Manet's was in a way the "worst" by far. They may both represent the same thing, but one is sensual, calm and almost sweet as the other is raw, sexual and provocative of it's time.

Seminar Task: The Portrait issue

The first picture is by Finlay MacKay, its a picture of Paralympics champion David Weir. It is from a series that MacKay took of athletes at an important time of their training, the people who support them and also the people who make it possible for them to compete.

In this picture we can see Weir straining to go faster, his position is almost like the one of his wheelchair, bent forward like the wheel in the front with his arms thrown backwards as he just finished another push. It's a simple picture in he aspect that there is only one focus point: Weir, but the depth of field allows us to see the long road behind him which he most probably just came from. The picture is sightly over saturated and allows us to see more colours and makes the picture more interesting. The tree and Weir gives a sense of scale and you can tell this is a long and harsh training that Weir does probably everyday. It's a peaceful picture, there is nothing disturbing Weir and the land is green behind him, its a nice and typical view but an unusual place to train.

Finlay MacKay "Changing the Pace, David Weir"

Toby Glanville "Actual Life"

This picture is by Toby Glanville, from a book set in Kent called "actual life". This series of pictures is simple a series of recorded moments in the daily lives of the people he used for his pictures.

In this case we have a teacher posing in front of her board. She is dressed in dull clothes and appears to still be using a blackboard. her body language, especially her hands, suggest she is embarrassed and doesn't quite know what is going on, so she takes a natural portrait pose and a camera smile. The picture itself is dull, it's a typical portrait with the subject taking a typical portrait pose. The fact that it is under saturated makes us think that Glanville wanted the picture to come out "boring", there is nothing special about this women or her work. It reflects the title perfectly, this is actual life, the boring everyday life moments we all have to go through.

Ulrich Glanville "Freishneider"

This Last picture is by Ulrich Gebert entitled "Freishneider". It is a series of photographs about a man who cuts hedges for a living. The equipment makes us think that it is a dangerous job, especially he red helmet. The over saturated colours add to that thought. The series is about the man fighting this idea of the untamed vegetation, because as humans we must control it, and make it conform to what we believe is how it should look. It's man versus nature idea, the other pictures show the man holding blades to cut the hedges making look like a war or murder scene, the man is the murderer and the hedge is its victim. The extremely serious look on the man's face really makes it look like this is a life an death matter, it resembles the look on actors in action movies as they are about to make a drastic move.

All three pictures re similar in the fact that they depict the everyday lives of different members of society with different jobs, but the way the artist decides to portrait them all make them extremely different, the first picture shows the strain of an athlete in his training as it is, the second one portrays the life of a women as dull and monotone, as the last picture gives a sense of danger and extremely drastic measure.