Tag Archives: Part1

Exercise 1.5 Transitions

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My starting point for this exercise was Turners Bell Rock lighthouse. A painting that I had time to examine while once waiting for a job interview. I was very taken with the waves and the way that Turner has worked the light within the scene to create drama.

I thought about how the lighthouse looked on calm days and how that would make a comparison and a transition from one scene to another.

It is advised by the text that before undertaking this exercise to jump ahead and read the text for Assignment six as this will be the cumulative work taking in points for all along the course. As the subject for Assignment six may be influenced by my choice in this exercise I want to ensure that I choose a subject which can not only be personal to me but will stand out.

I noted a number of ideas and what the possible causes of the transitions within the scene may be, then I had the opportunity to have a chat with my tutor who was able to help clarify my choices and options.

 

  1. The Royal Mile, this street is in almost constant change as it switches between seasons and events. There are numerous transitions going on; as the locals move between the remaining artefacts’of previous events as well as the tourist churn, weather and big events like the festival and the fringe where local people are pushed into the side streets to get away from the ongoing performances in the Royal Mile itself.
  2. Tantalon Castle from across the bay., this ruined castle sits atop a cliff overlooking a tidal bay. The transitions I was thinking of are, light/dark, weather and the sky.
  3. Dunbar Bridge, there is a small concrete bridge which crosses a river, the river itself is part of a tidal bay and the ends of the bridge are submerged at high tide. The transitions I was thinking of are tide height, light/dark, weather, usage of the bridge and position of the bridge as part of the overall bay.
  4. Edinburgh East End from Calton Hill, Calton Hill overlooks the St. James development area which has recently been demolished and work is ongoing to replace it with a large hotel. Here I was thinking of the transition of the building, the workers, the cranes and all the surrounding parts of the development as the building goes up.
  5. My back garden, as a disabled student this is the easiest idea, the ongoing season changes and planting changes which would happen in the garden over the spring and summer seasons.
  6. Edinburgh and its social balance, I have been reading recently people’s reactions to a planned development in a part of Edinburgh. The development will destroy a local venue used for live music performances and replace it with student accommodation and a hotel.

After discussion with my tutor, I had decided that I would like to continue long of the lines of social politics that I started to explore during my “Context and Narrative” course. I plan to examine the divides in society in Edinburgh through a series of Landscapes. Trying to capture the transitions with in the scene of the class divisions and the protest against some of the gentrification of areas which are ongoing.

Part 1 Exercise 1.2 Photography in the museum or in the gallery – Reflections on ‘Photography’s Discursive Spaces: Landscape/ View’ by Rosalind Krauss.

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We are asked to read and review the essay which was available online at

https://macaulay.cuny.edu/eportfolios/lklichfall13t/files/2013/09/Krauss.pdf

The essay was first printed and published in 1982 in Art Journal, Vol. 42

The essay starts with an analysis of two images of Tufa Dome, Pyramid Lake, comparing two contrasting images of the same space. The photograph by O’Sullivan (1868) is described by Krauss as mysterious, hallucinatory, abstract, as the image shows the rocks as undifferentiated, the water and sky connect in a seamless mist which disconnects the rocks from reality and makes them float, no longer held to material space rather that they are alone in the vague luminosity leaving the viewer alone and left to interpret what is in the background and what is or is not there.

Krauss then proceeds to describe the second image which is a lithograph print of O’Sullivan’s “Tufa Dome” published in a scientific journal, using such terms and expressions as: explained, definitive shape, detail, massed, gravity and direction restored, as we can see the foreground and background are clearly defined in the lithograph, the rocks cast shadows and their detail defined in the contrasts.

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Comparing the photograph to the lithograph, Krauss points out the ‘demotion from strange to commonplace’, she attributes this change to the distinctly different ‘domains of culture’ that these images belonged to and the differences in the ‘expectations in the user of the image.’ The photograph can be seen to be closer to art while the lithograph is more of a scientific document.
Krauss then goes on to question the reasoning behind the origin of O’Sullivan’s photograph. Did O’Sullivan want to create an image intended for geographical/topological research or was he aiming to create an image intended for interpretation and discourse. It also asks where does the final photograph stand, is it art? Certainly, in the nineteenth century landscapes were being increasingly displayed in galleries and the drive for commissioned landscapes helped to push the landscape into the modern aesthetic as more and more artists interpreted and displayed the world around them as they saw it.

Sullivan’s image is reminiscent of an image from fellow war photographer Roger Fenton. O’Sullivan like Fenton captured images from the battlefield, O’Sullivan show his competence and skill in “The battle of Gettysburg” where he is able to frame and capture a landscape of destruction. It is a much closer and tighter frame than Fenton’s “Valley of Death”.

Tufa Dome may have been influenced by Fenton’s Crimean War work as there are reflections of “Sebastapol from the redoubt des Anglais” each image has a clear foreground which stretches off into an unclear distance where the horizon is difficult to see or define, both images achieve a dreamlike state through this effect.

Krauss then asks about the purpose of the gallery wall as a ‘space of exhibition’; the gallery space to provide a display, the ground of criticism, and the explicit inclusion or exclusion of an image on the gallery wall ’ and the resulting influence on the gallery aesthetic where the exhibition wall becomes a representation of ‘exhibitionality,’ and once a painting or photograph is displayed for exhibition in any shape, or form then it is considered as being art by both the gallery and the people who view the image or images. This then asks the question on the purpose of the gallery wall and who decides what is shown in these spaces.

Krauss points out that there is always a requirement for discourse on discursive spaces in photography, due to the need for different subject matter and where these images are presented and the differing aspects to the display of a single image in of their diverse forms, dependent on the type of display and audience. Krauss however appears to be focussed only on painting and that the gallery space can be filled with other objects; from sculptures to large installations and she does not define their place in the discursive space. So again, while I agree that there is an element of inclusivity on the gallery space, it is not merely a device from which to display the value of the exhibition.
Krauss mentions the other end of the artists collection which is the personal collection which has been created over time. Krauss focussed on Atget and his “Paris” photographs, through the “Old France” exhibition at the MOMA in 1985. Her essay then goes on to ask if his collection of images held within his own filling system could be viewed as his Oeuvre and that his collection is unstable and unfocussed. I believe that Atget was a continuous learner and that he shot and reshot “views” as he came to understand how the process worked and how that it could be influenced by previous artwork. Atget is an artist as his thinking and processing work can be seen in his collection; most of which was for his own personal view. He may have been too modest to gather his “best work” for display. Only through time can our view now and the view of curators can we see his work. Krauss article is based on only one quarter of the images display at the MOMA exhibition; they went onto show three more exhibitions of Atget’s work, means that Krauss had based her views on only a part of what could be seen and that Krauss had sped ahead of the museums curators and that she had not made a complete consideration of the complete work. As Papageorge pointed out in “core Curriculum” Krauss did not wait for the collection to play out and that meant that Krauss was unwilling to consider photography as Art per say.

Krauss does make a good point about exclusivity and how certain styles can be pushed to the forefront due to their popularity within the gallery and outside the gallery by what people commission. I disagree with Krauss regarding photography as Art, from its inception Photography has been intertwined with art, both as a guide for later paintings but also allowing Artist to experiment with composition quicker and if many differing styles.

Macaulay.cuny.edu. (1982). Photography’s Discursive Spaces: Landscape/View. [online] Available at: https://macaulay.cuny.edu/eportfolios/lklichfall13t/files/2013/09/Krauss.pdf [Accessed 15 Feb. 2018].

Gordon, S. (2017). Shadows of war. 1st ed. Berkshire: The Royal Collection Trust, pp.164-165.

Papageorge, T. (2011). Core curriculum. New York: Aperture. pp12-29

 

 

Part 1 Exercise 1.1

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In this, the first exercise, we are tasked to draw a rough sketch of a landscape or describe and make notes of a landscape. Either way the exercise is to examine the preconceptions about landscape that I may have and then to review these preconceptions to see how they fit with the reality of landscape and Art.

While I went straight to reviewing images from Turner and Constable before the course material started I had already started to realised that I had a number of preconceptions. When the course material arrived and I started this exercise I realised that these preconceptions can easily be challenged and some of the “rules” that I instantly thought of can be broken. At this point no rules are really set in concrete and this course should help me challenge myself.

What I sketched was a simple view looked over a road and off into the distance, I could see people, movement, a fixed foreground, deep depth perception as the view moved off towards the horizon.

I can see that straight away I fixed the horizon in the middle of the view and that this itself is one of my main preconceptions which I shall have to break.

The exercise also asks that I write a few lines on why we chose to study this course and what we hope to learn from it.

I chose landscape as I wanted to continue to challenge myself; I had just completed my last level 1 course (Context and Narrative) and I enjoyed the challenge of that course and I felt that I was time that I stepped up. Personally, I am fascinated by landscape artists and I want to learn all that I can about the style, technique and challenges of not only putting the countryside into frame but also seascape, architecture, cityscape and the combination of these together. I want to see how I express myself through this work and help strengthen and expand my voice as an artist.