CUBES
The Process, 2013
The Artist’s experience fundamentally centers the embodiment of the artwork. Regardless of what the artwork manifests. You may perceive this animation in any way you would like, To me it is a Painting.
click: www.whyisthishappeningg.tumblr.com/one
This Animation was shown at Bridges Exhibition at Unit24 Gallery April 18-20th 2013. For more information about Bridges Exhibition visit www.bridges-exhibition.com
Bridges Exhibition April 18 2013 at Unit24 Gallery, London
“When the sun goes down and the lights come up”
Artist and Author of Chromophobia, David Batchelor is known for his three-dimensional works, photographs, installation, paintings that relate to his long term research and interest in Colour. Batchelor has made the provocative claim that we are ‘scared of colour’. That’s what he argued in his book. It is clear to me that he has tackled colour as a notion in many of the works he has produced. Currently showing at the Hayward is the Light Show. Batchelor’s “magic hour” (2004-2007) is a set of screens illuminating vibrant colours up against the wall, only the back of all the screens were immediately visible. The light boxes radiate a halo of muliticoloured lights closely against a wall. As a viewer you could see all the wires and the work that allows lights to actually go up, the technical set-up. The sensation of being absorbed into the world of lights was fascinating. Because I dont work with lights, I was really interested in seeing how Artists have challenged the the existence and value of colour through light. I began thinking how I can push my work with other mediums. Walking around Batchelor’s ‘Magic Hour’ I was immediately drawn to look passed the wires and boxes to see and understand what the colours looked and felt like, I was amongst many glaring at the lights and numerous vibrant colours that you could not see so immediately. It shows how curious human beings are to always see the colourful side of an artwork, how colour is an important and prominent subject whether present or not. “If colour is unimportant, I began to wonder, why its so important to exclude it so forcefully?”. David Batchelor discusses how colour is ignored forcefully in his book Chromophobia, which I felt is what he did specifically at the Hayward, purposely facing the screens towards a wall so abruptly. His work was created in relation to artificial lights and the awareness of their existence. I think there was more to this piece of work in relation to colour. Why were we as viewers denied the beauty of his work. It is to attract our attention in order to continuously make his point, that people are “simultaneously both attracted to and repelled from very bright light and colour”. Chromosaturation challenges the traditional relationship between the artist and the viewer and the concept of art. I believe that David Batchelor has also created a new atmosphere of experience with the participatory aspect reguarding the viewers attraction to colour, how we as viewers were drawn to the colours with instant immediacy. This relationship between the viewer, the artist, and the work was new to me. This is something I do want to explore in my work, the depth between the viewer and the artwork is much larger than going to an exhibit and seeing pretty lights, Batchelor created an curiosity that draws the viewer to see behind it…literally
Carlos Cruz-Diez
Chromosaturation(1965-2013)
“A SPACE WHERE COLOUR ACTS WITH ALL ITS FORCE”
Carlos Cruz-Diez describes colour as “not simply the color of things or the color of form but rather an evolving situation, a reality which acts on the human being with the same intensity as cold, heat, and sound.” Cruz- Diez is a Venezuelan kinetic and Op Artist who emerged in the 1940s as a Social Realist. Maintaining his search for a more participatory aesthetic, during his journey as an artist, he questioned his role as a painter. Cruz-Diez lived and worked between Paris an Caracas throughout his career. In an interview in Bomb magazine with Estrellita B. Brodsky, he describes the work he came across in Paris as repetitive, and that Art needed to look for a new horizon, “It couldn’t be the canvas anymore”, this led him to search for a way to communicate, and take paintings out of their own contexts.
Cruz-Diez has created an interesting situation for viewers to interact with colour exploring their participatory and sensory possibilities. The Chromosaturation is a space created by Cruz-Diez in 1965 an installation of three empty rooms illuminated in red, blue and green. The projected colour into the empty rooms creates an artificial environment allowing the viewers to to be a part of a situation that is physically experienceable to the viewer immediately . The rooms explore the kinetic movement of colour creating a manufactured interactive chamber that attracts people to confuse themselves and rethink the existence of colour in their everyday lives. I have seen the Chromosaturation at the Hayward Gallery in London and I walked out with a clear awareness of colour and how it affected me physically. The rooms were empty with no guide or any representational forms, my mind was freed from everything I ordinarily think and ask about. It was simply the infinite light and effects on my body. I was confused and intrigued all at the same time. The installation is compelling because you exist in it, modifying your skin, hair and all your clothes. Carlos Cruz Diez altered and pushed the traditional relationship between the Artist the viewer and concept of art.
Anthony Mcall’s You and I (2005) was my favourite experience at this exhibit.
In a darkened room, a projector shining light through a faint haze in the air creating a cone shape of light that you can walk through. Although I was surrounded by many visitors the experience was isolating. This exhibit raised questions in my head as I left it. I began thinking about how much I use and never really acknowledge light. Its just always there.
I found it to be intriguing to get lost in a room that was manufactured by someone to specifically evoke that. With the simplest Idea I felt that the artist really created something that anyone could walk into and somehow walk out feeling almost saturated in the space and lost in their own thought.
Being in a dark room and being able to play with light using your own hands and existence felt ver physically connecting to the work. I was attracted to that. I want to see if I can interpret that in my own work. I want to be able to physically evoke feelings and emotions to myself and others. Walking out of this exhibit I had Ideas coming out of every part of my mind.
My friends took turns sitting on a stool. We began drawing and asking them questions. I got this idea from a workshop I attended with Lady Lucy at Chelsea. The Drawing Exchange. The exercise was interesting to see everyones interpretations of each other. We have been surrounding each other as friends for years yet we’ve never stopped to draw each other. I found something very sentimental about the situation.
This interactive experience was interesting to me in the sense that the drawing exercise was personal and intimate and at one point comedic between people who already had known each other before they began drawing. I began seeing distinct styles in every single person drawing. I realised how each of us perceive see and all function artistically. There was something rhythmic about drawing and listening at the same time. I barely looked up. I drew from what I heard and how I imagined and saw things from the words I was listening to.
The questions being asked and answered had an impact on one of my friends drawings, she drew every answer she heard and combined them so closely together. One other friend is quite simple, maybe she was just too distracted in listening that simple lines are what came out of this exercise. All in all, It was interesting and I will continue doing this with different or the same circle of friends. Hopefully next time I can get some words or short videos of the exercise
