Andrea Gibson

THE MADNESS VASE

The nutritionist said I should eat root vegetables.
Said if I could get down thirteen turnips a day
I would be grounded, rooted.
Said my head would not keep flying away
to where the darkness lives.

The psychic told me my heart carries too much weight.
Said for twenty dollars she’d tell me what to do.
I handed her the twenty. She said, “Stop worrying, darling.
You will find a good man soon.”

The first psycho therapist told me to spend
three hours each day sitting in a dark closet
with my eyes closed and ears plugged.
I tried it once but couldn’t stop thinking
about how gay it was to be sitting in the closet.

The yogi told me to stretch everything but the truth.
Said to focus on the out breath. Said everyone finds happiness
when they care more about what they give
than what they get.

The pharmacist said, “Lexapro, Lamicatl, Lithium, Xanax.”

The doctor said an anti-psychotic might help me
forget what the trauma said.

The trauma said, “Don’t write these poems.
Nobody wants to hear you cry
about the grief inside your bones.”

But my bones said, “Tyler Clementi jumped
from the George Washington Bridge
into the Hudson River convinced
he was entirely alone.”

My bones said, “Write the poems.”

Matthew Darbyshire

After visiting the British Art Show at the Royal William Yard, we had to chose one piece of art and write critically about it. This installation by Matthew Darbyshire was the one that stuck in my mind. Completely put together with ready-mades, it presents countless unnecessary items, resembling a shop display or an over-decorative home. Most of us understand these objects to be modern clutter. I think that I am interested in this piece because I dislike what it is presenting. I feel that Darbyshire does a brilliant job of providing us with a 3-dimensional snapshot of what modern consumerism can lead to - over investing on solely visual value. Maybe, as an artist, I should be excited by this and use it to my benefit when creating my own art, but I can't help but feel that the way we are encouraged to continually by new things that we don't need is ridiculous. Most of the items in this installation have no obvious purpose, but to sit on a shelf. Preferably a clean white modernist shelf!

To me, it seems that people are constantly and persuasively told by our surroundings that we need to buy, collect and display in order to build on our image and to show off our contribution to the market. As if it doesn't cause dramatic damage to our world. When did our society become driven by consumerism?

I've learnt that Matthew Darbyshire's piece shares is title with another artwork from 1949, however this piece celebrated the collection of brightly coloured 'stuff', buying for only visual purpose and mass production. I'm unsure exactly where the idea came from (I think a lot of people are), but I understand that the shift to our consumerist culture was hoped to be the perfect resolution to post-war trauma. No, I can't even begin to imagine how devastating the world was during/after the war, but in no case would I believe that buying and buying and buying was the key to happiness.

So, I interpret this installation to provide awareness to the viewer of how much we need not consume. We are drowning in the concept of  'buying more to earn higher status'. Not each and every one of us, but as a whole. The importance of owning things is shoved in our face through the media hundreds of times a day, so it's hard to take a step out of it and think logically. I'm not sure if Darbyshire made this with exactly this in mind, but I enjoy my interpretation of it, as it is a topic I wish to create art about.

Now, to contradict everything I have just said, I went out on my lunch break to 'purposely' buy and item of no purpose (it was secondhand, only £1.00 and from a charity shop, but still) to write my critical evaluation on. I hoped that this would in turn become a piece of art inspired by Mathew Darbyshire's installation, as well as my response to it.

Plymouth City Museum Project

For our Curatorial studies, we have been set a group project of writing a proposal (and all additional documents) to apply for a museum space to exhibit a piece of work. We have to come up with an idea of an installation, exactly where we want it to go, what it will look like and produce everything that supports the application.
After doing some research and discussing with the group this week, we have come up with quite a list of things to complete.

- Proposal itself, along with opening letter
- Joint CV (page of artist statements)
- Funding applications
- Curatorial Rationale
- Logistical requirements
- Newspaper article/ad
- Flyer and poster
- Macquette
- Drawing of installation in the museum
- Letter to contrator
- Risk Assessment
- Review (evaluation)
- Film and Presentation

We had a really productive session on Thursday. There were difficulties as Sharon has now left and Faye was absent, nevertheless we have managed to bring together lots of ideas and come up with a list of things that we need to do. To me, thats one of the most important things - providing some sturcture to our project so we know what exact outcomes we are looking for.

We have decided to go back to an initial idea of having some kind of theme to the piece. Meaning behind it may make the proposal stronger and the art piece more exciting. We have chosen to go with the museum theme, going back to our thoughts of how we could somehow extract from the public, through visual pictures, what museum means to them. Elena suggested adding it as a subtite.
Make Your Mark: Your Museum

It was so great talking with James and Adam in our actual cura session today. They have so much knowledge to offer and I am finding it so interesting picking their brains! I am learning vast amounts about the art and curatorial industry every week. Although I don't agree with some of it, it is so great building knowledge to base an opinion on!

As for our project, we have made significant development to our initial ideas. The problem with Faye being absent is that she may have many ideas and different opinions that we would have loved to co-oporate with. I feel like we definitely missed her today. We will 'propose' what we have come up with to Faye and then hopefully start to produce some of our outcomes.

Consumerism

1 of 4 parts

Stock Take

Last week we had another short project - allowing us to create a piece of work based on any of the ideas we have used so far this term. I wanted to explore developing my Articulation in Space project, which we completed the first week of college. This is where we were all given a space to work in and as I had one of the largest, I wanted to make a shared, interactive piece. I constructed a map installation using giant rolls of felt, representing a open, accessible world, where everyone is equal; although we are on different co-ordinates, we are all part of the same world.

So last week, I created 3 tiny (high in contrast to my 4x3m map) ping-pong ball sized globes, each with different regions of the world on. I painted the so called 'first world' on one, 'second world' on another and 'third world' on the other. I did this, not because I support this classification system, but because I disagree with it. I wanted to produce something to make people visualise what they are saying. It is not only wrong with an ethical mindset, but in literal terms, it is also incorrect. We are not 3 separate worlds. We are all part of one world, and until we treat it that way, this categorising will continue to exist.

I believe that if everyone worked towards treating the rest of the world with an equal level of respect, there will substantial benefits, and not only for those in poorer environments. I think there needs to be a complete shift in globalization. Instead of societies being driven by capitalism and consumerism, we could use our economies to help countries who have not yet reached a crucial point in development. Under no standards should we convert other cultures into our currently over-developed lifestyle, but bringing them up to a level where overall health, happiness, safety and education is improved, would be a nice priority.

I have learnt that the first, second and third world concept, came about after World War II when capitalist countries were given the title '1st world', communist regions '2nd world' and everywhere else (which included areas of great poverty) was referred to as the '3rd world'. I know that these days, a lot of us have used these terms to talk about different countries, but I want to raise the point that we should not be categorized into different ranks, and that working towards the dismissal of these will be better for everybody.

Powerful stereotypes have developed in which we assume a 'first world' country has the best standards and every 'third world' country is struggling . In actual fact, their are countries included in the 'third world' bracket which are doing very well - India and Brazil being two, and there are huge flaws in America (major '1st world' contributor) that seem quite hidden from peoples attention - their shocking health insurance denials for example.
I don't mean to get so deep with such a small project, but I wanted to represent the classifications by separate, recognisable but unfamiliar globes.

I then experimented with making art that represented the merging together of the worlds - something I understand seems impossible, but with extensive amounts of time, effort and co-operation, I don't think it is out of reach.

References:
The Spirit Level: Why equality is better for everyone, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, 2009
Aid and Other Dirty Business, Giles Bolton, 2007
http://www.globalissues.org/issue/235/consumption-and-consumerism

Video clips

A Skate Foundation - skating for children with autism

 

A BBC video of effective art therapy helping veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Art Therapy - PTSD

Shoes

As well as jumping barefoot into dog poop, I've had to remove five pieces of glass from myself now. One was major! I think I have to wear shoes whilst in this city.

Connan, Pippa and I

Autism photography

Yay! I had my first meet with a mother and son in West Hoe Park at the weekend, where I took lots of photos of them. He was 3 years old, non-verbal and loved watching the leaves blow in the wind. I had the best day since I've been in Plymouth. It's strange how just an hour or so of hanging out with a wonderful kid with autism can make me feel better about living here.
Today I sent her a CD of about 200 photos of them. She has already seen half of them on facebook and loves them all. She's so appreciative and has been recommending me. I hope to make lots of other children and parents happy through this. I'm so excited.


(won't post photos here for confidential reasons)

Some visual aids I've made to provide structure

Thinking through drawing

We have finished our drawing project now. We presented a few items (and some more) in small groups yesterday. One of our tasks during the last 3 weeks was to go to the Civic Centre with a large piece of paper folded into 8 different rectangles and draw 8 different things that caught our eye. I prefer trees to building so I seemed to naturally focus on things outside of the building... reflections in the water, leaves blown into the corners, light coming through the tree branches etc. We then had to go back to the studio and develop one of them. (picture below)

 

We also got to experiment with silk screen printing. I worked with Sarah to come up with this image of two cardinals. We chose cardinals because their meaning is to renew vitality in life, add colour and return joy and balance to mind, body and spirit. On the back of our shirt we wrote a Joanna Newsom lyric
"That night, black airplanes flew over the sea"

We also got to try lino printing, where, of course, I drew a tree.

Another activity as part of this project was a performance art workshop. I learnt about different artist who use themselves, models or members of the public in their art. We had to come up with some kind of drawing/diagram/plan for a piece of performance art using an everyday object. Seeing as I had a window, I wanted to concentrate on autism awareness. I made a picture schedule of clear steps of how to brush your teeth. I presented it with a piece of writing that simply said 'some people with autism need this amount of structure' and a big diagram of a sink.... In reality, if I was putting this piece in a gallery it would have been a real sink with a toothbrush and toothpaste, and the directions beside it. I wanted to play with the fact that I don't think people in a gallery would actually use the toothbrush as it is communal, in a public space and part of an art exhibit which usually means you can't touch it. I wanted people to realise that something like brushing your teeth which a lot of us do without any conscious thought at all, some of us have serious struggles with it. Some individuals with autism can be pick up a toothbrush and not relate to it until they are shown what to do. Providing visual structure can mean that they learn to complete this task independently.

I want to take this further and create an art exhibit that not only promotes awareness but helps people with autism enjoy art galleries. I want to create a visual system of visiting an art gallery, with clear steps and a definite end, including the duration of the visit so that people who require a lot of structure can access these places without heightened anxiety. I would make it as an art project also, so that members of the public can also pick up this visual schedule and use it to make their way around the gallery.


Erwin Wurm - Performance Artist

Drawing in translation

This project has been going on the last 3 weeks. We have experimented with life drawing, observational drawing, abstract drawing, composition, screen printing and have more to come. I enjoyed our session of life drawing, however it was so challenging! We had 5 second poses and had to get the body and weight distrubution accurate in that tiny amount of time. It was real fun and made me speed up my drawing, which can't be a bad thing!

 

 



Home for reading week

I've come home to the Isle of Wight to see mum and company. Some much needed family time for all of us. Really great to see Laura too.

I haven't done any art this week, other than this quick drawing of my sister playing a game on the laptop at about 1'30 in the morning!

A film clip to My Sharona, for Monica!

Creative Expression

I want to volunteer here!! I've contacted and been told I can't for atleast 4 months, but hopefully at some point I can join one of the Art Therapy groups.

Autism puzzle pieces and a geocache

A couple days ago, I sent off the first part of the Geocache package that Emma, Tara, Elisabeth and I are creating. It's second stop is Ohio. It will hopefully end up as a big container full of random items and a log book signed by all of us. I hope it reaches Monica within the next few weeks.

Today, immediately after feeling the need to send Elisabeth something, I painted all these autism puzzle pieces on a canvas and popped it in the mail, along with some yummy treats.

Sunrise Sunset

Our third project was to document the sunrise and sunset for 7 consecutive days in different ways. This meant getting up at every sunrise (I missed a couple) to record something from that time period, evaluating it, thinking of a different method for sunset and ensuring that I don't miss it, then planning another different idea for the following sunrise. Every day. Whilst continuing our regular weekly schedule!
It was great fun but very challenging for me to come up with short, sweet ideas twice a day. I like to make art and develop it over a period of time, so without the chance of furthering any of these ideas, I feel like most of them are a bit pants!

Changing of light in Freedom Fields, during sunset

Pebbles I collected and painted to create a composition of colour

A rock I collected from the seashore and painted with a picture of sunset at the Hoe. I think the two work well when presented together.

The sunset how I imagined it behind the thick, grey mist. Acrylic paint on canvas.

A negative photo of the city lights from the top of my hill, using a slow shutter speed and manual movement of the camera. I wanted to get circular effects to represent the cycle of sunrise to sunset

As well as these, I filmed the sunrise from my terrace and adjusted the speed to make it faster (really jolty fail), made an oil pastal picture, sketched all the dustbins out on the lane one morning before the folk come to remove the trash, took some video clips of the park lights coming on at dusk, attempted to sing and play a song that represents the change from night to day and wrote down the lyrics, tea-stained paper and cut out the word tea, and had my housemate draw around my elongated shadow that was cast at sunset.



Mapping Stereotypes

I wasn't sure how I felt about this at first.

http://alphadesigner.com/project-mapping-stereotypes.html