Gallery visit: DAVID COTTERRELL - Monsters of the Id

Based at the University of Southampton’s Highfield Campus, the John Hansard Gallery is currently showcasing ‘Monsters of the Id’, a collection of David Cotterrell’s most recent body of work.
The project was generated from his many trips to Afghanistan where he has explores the ideas around what it is like in similar military surroundings.

We all have preconceived ideas about war through seeing photographs and films. Even news bulletins have an impact on our understanding, but the question is, is this a true portrayal of life out there?  Infact, after speaking to David Cotterrell himself, he said that this study takes on a completely different perspective and presents war in a way that we expect to see it (influence of media etc.)  He doesn’t ‘dramatise war-torn environments, instead shows them like a landscape.’

The four-room exhibition enters a new kind of dimension and explores new ideas, experimenting with never been seen before technologies.  He challenges our expectations, incorporating a variety of different media such as ‘video, audio, interactive media, artificial intelligence and hybrid technology.’ (Quote from Gallery booklet)

In the video you hear David talking about his interactive landscape, Observer Effect, saying ‘As long as you are here, they will stay..’.  He went on to explain more, this projected landscape is to involve the viewers in this ‘virtual community’.  Set up with Xbox Kinect devices, it cleverly picks up human presence in the room and then the characters begin to appear/disappear according to our existence .

Search Light 2
Generative mobile data-projections

Searchlight 2, a sculpture which reflects the actions seen Observer Effect.  It represents a strip of desert terrain where shadows appear to travel across; we view it from an aerial perspective.  David spoke about this work and said that ‘none of it was made in Afghanistan, it is all real time and will never be repeated again’ – this explains contemporary artists relationship to modern day technologies.

David spoke afterwards about physically putting together this show, after a busy 3 weeks at the gallery, setting up the instillation pieces to make sure the equipment ran correctly.  Searchlight 2 uses over 1 ¼ tons of chalk which had to be imported and even new rooms had to be constructed in order for each display to be exactly how he visualised.  But before this he had 3 months of intense work getting ready for the show and 3 years for the project to mentally make sense to him.

Metaphor AND Allegory.

Metaphor:
A figure of speech - when a term is transformed into something that it doesn't actually mean.
A comparison showing two things that are not alike, but in a similar way.
'It is' rather than 'like' or 'as' (which would be a simile)

Allegory: 
A story with a meaning other than a literal one.
An extended metaphor.
A symbolic narrative.

I had previously learnt about metaphor's but the word allegory was new to me..
Here are the examples we looked at when using these terms to analyse:

Sarah Lucas - Self-portrait with Fried Eggs 1996

• At first glance she looks like a man, with a macho pose with legs spread wide apart.  Wearing old, tatty and androgynous clothing.
• The worn arm chair is also one which you would expect an elderly male to own and heavily overuse.
• I didn't realise that the subject was actually a women until somebody in the session said.
  I then noticed that she was just flat chested and the two fried eggs connoted her breasts.
• The makeshift black-and-white floor shows that everything is not as simple as it first seems.  This could also be a metaphor for the kitchen (making reference to the stereotype that women should be in the kitchen).
• The camera view (panning down) is also very significant and connotes vulnerability.
• Cigarettes by her feet, something which is also more of a manly thing, but also shows a certain life choice which she has chosen. 

Sarah Lucas - Au Naturel 1944, Mattress, water bucket,
melons, oranges and cucumber

• The objects in this photograph represent the reproductive organs of a male and female.
• (Photographers view) This is an allegory for old married life - they are settled into it, a hollow shell, no passion left only now..a well practised relationship.
• Suggesting that the husband no longer cares about how she looks, her breasts (melons) blend into the mattress (not visible to him!)  
• The room is empty, is this a subtle explanation/vision of the marriage?
• The decayed mattress = a decayed relationship?
• There are also no children in the shot, is it all about sex or is there substance and love?

The first image that I spoke about is a metaphorical piece as it is trying to suggest something which is opposite - portraying her as another sex with all the masculine connotations and stereotypes we already have as viewers.  Whereas the second photograph is allegorical and uses an extended narrative, suggesting more than what our eyes first see.

18/02/12 - A DAY IN THE CAPITAL..

Last week my family were over visiting, I took this perfect opportunity to travel up to London with them, have a full day of shopping, dining out and most importantly.. go and see these exhibitions I had discovered on Spoonfed!
A bright start meant that we could get to the Saatchi gallery nice and early to see The Sunday Times Magazine exhibition which showcased some the most successful images to have been published over the last 50 years, since its launch in 1962.
The show was incredible and displayed well known images from world-famous photographers including David Bailey, Sam Taylor-Wood, Don McCullin, Eve Arnold and Richard Avedon.
Shown below are some of my favourite images from this exhibition..

Kylie Minogue by Uli Weber, 1993

Portraits of Power by Platon, 25th April 2010

Daniel Craig by Sam Taylor-Wood, 22nd August 2004

Robbie Williams by Hamish Brown, 18th November 2001

All of these capture well known celebrities, it is interesting to show how each photographer presents the model in a different way, in order to portray the desired meaning to us as an audience.  My favourite is the image taken of Daniel Craig, this was taken before he had been given the role of James Bond.  It was part of Sam Taylor-Wood's series 'Crying Men' where she ''encouraged Hollywood A-listers to break down and get-red-eyed purely for the benefit of her lens.''  Having never seen this approach used before I thought it created some unusual and unexpected outcomes; I could try a similar experiment when shooting for my 'representation' project.

Among the images in the show there were many which had quite a shocking nature behind them. Not only displaying photographs of hunters with their dead catch and an amazing image of a 5 second old baby, the show also touched on deeper issues to do with addiction, the rise in crack cocaine and the problems of binge drinking.

Casualties of War by Eugene Richards

War was also featured a number of times.      
This image which I took on the right shows Eugene Richards, 2009(published) work.
It had a huge impact on me as the subject matter was unbelievable.  It captured a National Guardsman who once served in Iraq before being in a grenade attack and losing 40% of his brain.  The emotion that the photographer has captured between he casualty and his hugging mother is incredible and very moving.

Beachy Head by Peter Marlow,
7th Dec, 1997

I could go on to talk about this exhibition for hours it really was that great, but to finish with, another image which really had a strong effect on me was 'Beachy Head' taken in 1997 by photographer Peter Marlow.  The picture on the left is a copy I found from Magnum Photos Online.  
Initially I thought it was just a landscape piece, but when I examined the text alongside I discovered that it had a very different meaning.. In an average year 20 people throw themselves off this cliff and commit suicide, this dramatically shocked me.
                                         At the time of shooting these photos Peter also
                                         managed to stop a woman from jumping off and                                              killing herself too.

After the Saatchi and a spot of lunch it was time to view one of my all time favourite photographers work, Guy Bourdin.  His work is on display at The Michael Hoppen Gallery which was in the same area as we were for the first visit.
I have always loved the work of this practitioner and researched him numerous times.  The gallery space was fairly small but still displayed some rare, limited edition pieces which I had never come across before, this made them really fascinating to view.
You can see some of the images featured in this exhibition on the Michael Hoppen Gallery Website but my favourite photograph was one I have never seen before called 'Photo France, July 1987'.

Guy Bourdin - Photo France, July 1987

Both of these exhibitions were free to enter and if you have the chance to visit them then I would definitely recommend it!

WK3. Semiotics

At first glance if you have never come across the term 'semiotics' before, it can appear to be very daunting whereas it shouldn't be.  We have been doing our whole lives, it is simply the study of signs and how meanings are made.
Two models which try to explain what makes up a 'sign' can be seen in the theories written by linguist Ferdinand de Saussure and philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce.

Peirce says that 'we think only in signs' and 'nothing is a sign unless it is interpreted as a sign.'  He believes that it it is logic and it is 'capable of learning by experience.'  - Basically meaning that we read signs in certain ways because of our previous knowledge of similar subjects and begin to relate them to familiar ideas and conventions that we know about.

Saussure has a different opinion when trying to explain peoples understandings, suggesting that each sign consists of a 'signifier' and a 'signified'.
SIGNIFIER - (Material aspect) ; What we physically see, the form which a sign                                                 takes.
SIGNIFIED - (Mental aspect) ; What we learn or interpret, the concept which it                                             represents.

For example:
If you see this 'open' sign it is a signifier and the signified code that is then generated in our heads is that we can enter the shop because it is open for business.



I had already learnt a bit about semiotics before and also understood the terms denotation (non-coded iconic message) and connotation (coded iconic message).
The difference between them being, denotation is what you can see whereas connotation is what you understand by what you see.

IN PHOTOGRAPHY YOU CAN NEVER MAKE SOMEONE BUILD A SPECIFIC OPINION ABOUT SOMETHING WHICH THEY MIGHT NOT KNOW, IT IS ALL BASED ON THEIR OWN KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCES - THIS IS WHY AUDIENCES READINGS OF IMAGES VARY SO MUCH.

WK2. Structure & Diet

Lectures this week have helped a lot with explaining to me about how we will physically construct our exhibition reviews.  Tutors have given us tips on writing structures, what to include and how we can split down the text into smaller parts - allocating a flexible word count to each 'section'. 

FORMAL OR INFORMAL?

- Write in the 3rd person (Don't use 'I', 'Me' or 'My' etc..)

- Be more creative when writing and avoid repeating the same words too often.

- Use correct terminology.

My New Diet Plan

• Firstly, to make a noticeable change to my lifestyle I need to become more active by partaking in more independent learning outside of Uni.
• Determination and commitment are key factors!
• Begin to introduce new texts and forms of media. 
• Think of it as a new food plan, packing in all the correct nutrients that I need for success and a broader awareness of what is happening in the professional photographic industry.
• Make sure I get a varied nutrition by consuming all sorts of publications such as journals, books and websites as well as audio and video products.
• To keep my metabolism high, start this new plan by visiting the library weekly and try to read different magazines/journals such as 'Source', 'Image', 'Photoicon' and 'Fotomagazin'.
• Keep up to date with the latest tips and articles that are available for me.
• For better results track my progress every week (through this blog) and write about new things that I have discovered.  If necessary I can then make adjustments to my new diet.

Hopefully this should give me a healthy start to a new lifestyle which will allow me to exercise and build on my general knowledge of what is happening within the wider photographic and current artistic movement.

What is contemporary?

After our discussion on the Charlotte Cotton text I continued to think about the term 'contemporary' and what it actually means?  And what qualities need to be included in a piece of work for it to be classed as contemporary? 

WHAT IS CONTEMPORARY?!?!

- Can't put a specific date or time on it.
- Is contemporary a movement?
Also, if a new creation is made now does it have to be called a contemporary piece of work or can it not fit into this classification? 

CONTEMPORARY DOES...
- Challenge conventions
- Break rules and boundaries
- Reject traditional ways?
- Something that is different.
- Could be classed as ''cutting edge''

CHARLOTTE COTTON TEXT DISCUSSION.

Our reading this week was a section from the photograph as contemporary art written by Charlotte Cotton.
In our seminar groups we were each given a number of pages to analyse, all different from each other (mine being pg. 56-63).  After discussion this helped us to get a wider view on the book as a whole without having to study the entire text.

After the reading I understood that 'contemporary photography' focuses on the ideas of narrative very strongly.

I first looked at how Cotton has investigated the narratives in the work in this chapter and from this I noticed that a lot of these photographers images are linked to wider ideas and start to use specific imagery and cultural codes for their narratives.

Diary of a Victorian Dandy 19.00 hours, 1998

Yinka Shonibare created a series in 1998 called 'Diary of a Victorian Dandy' where he takes on the role of Dandy.

The work is a recreation of 'The Rake's Progress' written by William Hograth in 1735.  
It is heavily constructed and each scene is set in a historical interior, displaying a cast of models all wearing Victorian fancy dress.

Referencing past products such as novels, plays and traditional paintings is a common quality to spot in contemporary photography and follows postmodern ideas suggested by theorist Fredric Jameson.  He believes that modern media creates nothing new and that it only recycles old ideas, images and texts either through parody, pastiche or self-reflexivity.  He also says that we have 'lost our understanding of history' as it is no longer being accurately depicted - this links to what Cotton suggests next in the text...
She stated that  ''A dreamlike quality is often created by reducing the specificity of a place and a culture to such a degree that it closes down our expectation of uncovering the 'where and when' of a photograph.''

This can be seen through another postmodern theory written by Jean Baudrillard surrounding the ideas of 'Simulacra' and 'Hyperreality' as photography now blurs our understanding of a time and place in which an image was taken.

Some other photographers shown in the text who use an unreferenced narrative I will show below..

Sarah Dobai, Red Room, 2001.

Wendy McMurdo, Helen, Backstage, Merlin Theatre (the glance), 1996.

Both of these pieces use empty locations to the best effect, there are no personal objects in either of the images so this makes it quite hard to connect with the subject, as no information about them is being offered.  They are both quite uncomfortable photographs to look at, 'Red Room' has a sense of awkwardness and Wendy McMurdo uses digital manipulation to the best advantage in her piece, managing to puzzle the viewer.
Stylistically the work shown by Cotton was varied but I did notice a quality that was used a number of times, see if you can spot what it is from the selected images following?

Frances Kearney, Five People Thinking the Same Thing,  1998.

Hannah Starkey, March 2002, 2002

Justine Kurland, Buses on the Farm, 2003

Did you notice the similarity between the images? What I picked up from the work displayed was the element of hidden identity, in the work of Kearney and Starkey is it obvious as the models are positioned facing away from the camera, in the last not quite as noticeable but I feel it is still present.

Frances Kearney - Five People Thinking the Same thing, 1998

After viewing Kearney's work for the first time in this publication it made me want to research further into it as I guessed, due to the image title, that there must be additional photographs in the series.. these are a few I found.

By depicting the figures with their faces turned away from us it leaves the characters unexplained and creates anxiety and uncertainty about the meaning of the image - this is a key factor of 'tableau photography'.

SOMETHING NEW THAT LEARNT THROUGH THIS READING.. TABLEAU PHOTOGRAPHY..
Never coming across this term before intrigued me to find out more..
- 'Tableau photography' is to do with narrative and how a single image tries to tell
   a whole story by itself.
''For a piece of art to qualify as tableau it must be produced for the gallery wall (large print), it must be pictorial (beautifully composed) and must take into consideration the intrinsic qualities for the camera (chance).  Digital manipulation is often a prominent technique used.''
- They are all deliberately produced in this certain way to make the viewer think
   deeper about the work that they are consuming.
Cotton said.. ''One of the great uses of tableau photography is a format that can carry intense but ambiguous drama that is then shaped by the viewer's own trains of thought.''

My own response to TABLEAU PHOTOGRAPHY in the seminar discussion:

These images are constructed (under tableau photography) and the elements are primarily there to make the viewers reading a bit more difficult in the sense of simplicity. Either through how they purposely compose shots, frame it in certain ways, choose and direct their models or even at the moment in which they capture the photograph.. they are all there to make the audience work.

If we are going to get a meaning out of these pictures, understand what, who, where and why it has been shot and presented to us in this way.. then we strongly have to examine the artistic creations in order to depict any kind of sense!