DESIGN 2

Here is a new design that was created after having a meeting with Nico. He wanted us to make it before the exhibition and to be smaller so the changes can be shown better. The size is now 1 meter by 50 cm and if we want to adjust the hight then we can put it on a table or plinth.

(1) The reason we made the Installation smaller so we can see Johns sculpture on the top [as there is 6 of us we can all have an equal size each].

(2) We need to give the structure open spaces so all the work can be seen and can connect our work more together.

(3) Another reason why the structure is open spaced is so it is easier to hang up work like canvas, 3D objects, silk materials etc...

(4) A base to hold the sculpture up. Depending on the size of John's sculpture on top we can work out the hight of the base.








We are having another group meeting on Thursday 12th April and discussing more about our blog, the Presentation and the Installation with the final showing.

Katie

Life from an artist's prospective... by Paris

Modern American art may be seen as a form of lyrical humanism: meaning - how we value and revere one another, how we interact with and affect people.
If most art reflects life – last century was as fragmented and confusing as a shattered mirror. 20th American century society saw massive changes in day-to-day lifestyles - war and growth, a global media explosion, and a visual cacophony of imagery on everything from furnishings to billboards to miniature TV screens and increasingly ubiquitous technologies.
For an innovative artist, working amid the rapidly changing world of the 20th century, this presented massive challenges in trying to achieve both power and meaning in their work – power that could be noticed. Perhaps that’s why some believed that it is only by abstraction, or in the seemingly trivial moments of existence, that we can find truer and deeper reflections of the true meaning of life.

As Barnett Newman put it, "The problem of a painting is physical and metaphysical, the same as I think life is physical and metaphysical."

The Physical and the Metaphysical in Art and Life

Newman’s statement seems to contain some truth. Life is indeed both physical and metaphysical in some respects. Certain paintings that are highly abstract may somehow transcend the physical world by their content or under-lying invisible message.
For artists Barnett Newman and Jackson Pollock, the primary subject of their abstract painting was the artist’s view on the truth - of the artist's own existence, and more generally, in the limited freedom and strength of the human spirit. This reflects the quest for the hidden meaning.

Read This Next

• Pop Life Exhibition at the Tate Modern
• What is the Purpose of Art Today?
• 20th-Century Artist-Writers

Can Paintings Elucidate the Meaning of Life?

Throughout history - artists, scientists, philosophers and indeed all of us have asked – what’s the hidden meaning of life? Some individuals may have known the answer, but has art answered this? And is it closer to solving this old mystery?
There are very many meanings associated to different paintings throughout history and some may contain truths or messages but I do not feel modern art has solved the mysteries of life or is any closer than it was - when art began.
The wider audience may not understand meanings behind certain paintings, and motivation for buying abstract work may be on a more aesthetic level. Understanding what’s hanging above the sofa at home, would be secondary. Whatever the motivation, as long as the work brings the viewer some lasting enjoyment – then I guess ultimately the painting works.
Modern art complexes the way we interact and see art because it keeps our mind in the unknown. When viewing abstraction it may evoke all kinds of emotions within us leaving us none the wiser after looking at a painting. Artists create this art for many reasons and we could end up much further from the truth or meaning of life if analyzed too much.

Modern Art and the Meaning of Life

So how does modern American art reflect the search for the hidden meaning of life? Artists have an added ability to communicate messages through a medium. They have a direct bond between their eyes and hands enabling them to portray emotions or the truth as they see it. Coupled with philosophy and inner vision, modern artists could be seen as messengers using abstraction for communicating hidden meanings of life. Which could make no sense to the physical eye but within the mind’s eye it may become a lot more apparent.
American modern artists have established a style of painting that is very unique and fresh to them. We could say, their depiction of how they see life and the world around them comes through their art in a very diverse and mixed form. This reflects the question of the meaning of life, because in the end none of it matters much. We are all passing through this world with whatever little time we are allocated and the meaning of life is pervading all around us all of the time and happens everyday – paintings are an extension of the human spirit – which in turn is the truth

UNIVERSAL FREEDOM IS......

GEORGE KROKOS

Freedom from hunger and freedom from pain,

freedom from loss and so freedom from gain.

Freedom to give and freedom to share,

freedom from want and that of despair.

Freedom to think and freedom the know,

freedom to achieve and freedom to grow.

Freedom from bondage and freedom of liberation,

freedom from ignorance and any unknown situation.

Freedom to come and freedom to leave,

freedom to stay and freedom to conceive.

Freedom from struggle and freedom of ease,

freedom to enjoy and the capacity to please.

Freedom from failure and freedom of success,

freedom from denial and freedom of access.

Freedom from illusion and freedom of reality,

freedom to become what we are in actuality.

Freedom to live and freedom to die,

freedom to laugh and freedom to cry.

Freedom to speak and freedom to listen,

freedom to act based on wise decision.

Freedom from hate and freedom of love, 

freedom to below and freedom of above.

Freedom of the past and freedom of the present,

freedom of the future and what it can represent.

Freedom form war and freedom of peace,

freedom to begin and freedom to cease.

Freedom from sickness and freedom of health,

freedom from poverty and mishandled wealth.

Freedom from wrong and freedom being right,

freedom of the day and freedom of the night.

Freedom to choose and freedom to reject,

freedom to imagine what there is to expect.

Freedom from wrong and freedom from greed,

freedom from anger and freedom from breed.

Freedom from jealousy and freedom from pride,

freedom from within and freedom from outside.

Freedom of always not having anything to hide.

Freedom from space and also freedom from time, 

freedom from attachment and freedom from crime.

Freedom to work and freedom to play,

freedom to believe and freedom to pray.

Freedom to experience a rebirth someday.

Freedom from the body and freedom from the mind,

freedom from the ego and freedom from being blind.

Freedom of transcendence being of the spiritual kind.

UNIVERSAL FREEDOM IS ETERNAL AND INFINITE BLISS

WE SHOULD ALL THEREFORE BE ABLE TO REALISE THIS.

Katie

       

FREEDOM

                                                                

Katie

Artist Mark Quinn...By Paris

Since 2005 Quinn has become known to the general public for his sculpture of Alison Lapper, which was on prominent display on a plinth in Trafalgar Square in front of the National Gallery.



It was part of his series "The Complete Marbles", eleven life-size portrait sculptures of men and women who were born with physical disabilities or have had limbs amputated due to accidents or illness.
Quinn had previously made several sculptures using fragments cast from his own body, as in The Etymology of Morphology 1996, or his body deformed through sculptural process in No Visible Means of Escape IV 1996, before he was inspired to work with actual physical deformity.
Looking at fragmented classical sculptures in the British Museum, he wondered how viewers would respond to bodies that had been damaged during their lifetime rather than after being transformed into objects through artistic representation. He explained:

"It’s about the difference between art and life. Also about inside and outside and how people impute an inside to someone from a reading of their outside ... Traditionally marble is the medium of cultural and social acceptance and celebration ...the marble is used ironically and non-ironically at the same time. The sitters are heroes who have conquered their own interior worlds, and yet disabled people are invisible culturally, in art history. I wanted to celebrate them and use the medium in its original way as well."
(Quoted in Marc Quinn, p.60.)

Quinn contacted sporting associations in order to find disabled people with bodies that were well developed and maintained. He cast each person in plaster before Italian craftsmen copied the casts in the whitest possible marble, selected to represent a kind of Platonic perfection. He commented: ‘this marble, which comes from Macedonia, is like the idea of marble. It’s even bad taste, beautiful in a way that’s almost nauseating ... I wanted it to be absolutely clean, to be super real, hyper-real.’ (Quoted in Marc Quinn 2002, [p.39].) The subjects are depicted in semi-heroic attitudes, the result of a compromise between the model’s need for comfort and the artist’s requirement for a dynamic, positive pose that would highlight the strength of the character portrayed.

Alison Lapper (eight months pregnant) with the artist


Alison Lapper and her son Parys

New technology- 4D Scans.

 Pregnancy is a very personal topic to myself as i am currently pregnant. There are three types of scans given through-out a womans pregnancy originally two but a new growth scan has been recently introduced to take place during the early stages of the third trimester. In the first trimester a first scan is given and checks for a heart beat and checks on the current state of the baby, i,e if feet, hands, eyes important organs are functioning correctly, also a down syndrome test is taking. In the 2nd trimester a second scan is given this can tell the sex of the baby and also a check to see if there is any abdormalities.