Hara Shinichi

Antoni Tapies

Information overload

Final seminar response

Had the final seminar of this semester this morning, which is a weight of my mind at least. For this weeks seminar my group had to read a chapter from the book "Unreal Estate" by Barry Curtis. In this section of the text he references loads of films (well over 30 or so) most of which are horror related though some are a bit harder to grasp in their relationship to the others for example "honey i shrunk the kids". Anyway with regards to the films I found it really quite hard to analyse  as I think there are only a handful that he mentions which I have ever seen in entirety and have any confidence in talking about. Never the less I was still able to discuss one in particular this being "Panic Room" by David Fincher, 2002. Bellow is the small response i wrote regarding this film and some of but definitely not all of the theories he (Curtis) brings up in the text.

  In the text the author (Barry Curtis) deals with many different architectural themes as well as horror movie themes, looking at the movies Panic Room( David Fincher, 2002) and The Ring or Ring (Gore Verbinski, 2002 and Hideo Nakata, 1998 respectively) he address the ideas of the intruder and the safety of the home as well as the ideas of the permeability of the home or dwelling, which he mentions several times earlier in the text. In Panic Room the “intruders” to the house can be viewed in two ways firstly the new tenants (character played by Jodie foster and her daughter) who have recently bought the house as the means to a new start (see motivation and social ideals earlier in the text) and also the thieves who later break in to steal whatever wealth was left by the previous owner (this wealth can be considered the ghost or legacy of the previous owner as touched on earlier in the text). In the film the house contains a “panic room” designed to protect the inhabitants from just such an event, akin to that of the medieval castle keep, though once they have entered the “keep” the new tenants soon find themselves entombed with no way to raise the alarm or indeed to rid themselves of these intruders thus the architectural design features ostensibly included to provide a safe haven to your safe haven (traditional view of your home) becomes an additional complication.  This then allows the new intruders to permeate the whole of the house in their search for the legacy of the previous owner only to find that the one place they can’t permeate is the place they need to in order to complete their visitation.

This theme of hide and seek is what the author describes as “ the labyrinthine quest that lies at the heart of all haunted house films” 

some more collage of found objects on plaster blocks cast from found objects

Rather unproductive few days at college due to beating this essay that's due soon out of my head. The reflecting on an aspect of my work part of it is really helpful and pushed me into some early trials for some work reminiscent of pre masters work, which is nice. Sorry for the shit images, took them on my phone tried to edit as best i could. 

Plaster block with record sleeve collage and printed image disk 

Record sleeve collage and printed image disk

Plaster block with niche carved for found book 

Detail of book in niche

niche carved in plaster,

niche carved in plaster with printed picture disk insert

detail of niche and picture disk cut out

final seminar sneak peak

Triad crit response

CLUSTERFUCK

Military term for an operation in which multiple things have gone wrong. Related to "SNAFU" (Situation Normal, All Fucked Up") and "FUBAR" (Fucked Up Beyond All Repair).

In radio communication or polite conversation (i.e. with a very senior officer with whom you have no prior experience) the term "clusterfuck" will often be replaced by the NATO phonetic acronym "Charlie Foxtrot."

By the time the artillery came in the enemy was already on top of us. It was a total clusterfuck

Fire and Ink video

Found this a while ago when i was looking into anyone who is crossing lines in regards to printmaking and sculpture and mixing the two in different ways. Have to say im slightly disappointed by the video as it doesnt show enough of the finished work but the mixing of process is nice and interesting.

Liminal

This word came up in a discussion with Graham Todd about my work and where im at in very general terms. It sums up quite nicely so many factors in my work, where my head is currently, where my research is, where my source materials come from as well as my methods of production and materials used.  Definition bellow courtesy of Wikipedia 

Liminality (from the Latin word līmen, meaning "a threshold"[1]) is a psychological, neurological, or metaphysical subjective state, conscious or unconscious, of being on the "threshold" of or between two different existential planes, as defined in neurological psychology (a "liminal state") and in the anthropological theories of ritual by such writers as Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner.[2]

As developed by van Gennep (and later Turner), the term is used to “refer to in-between situations and conditions that are characterized by the dislocation of established structures, the reversal of hierarchies, and uncertainty regarding the continuity of tradition and future outcomes”.[3] Although initially developed as a means to analyze the middle stage in ritual passages, it is “now considered by some to be a master concept in the social and political sciences writ large”.[4] In this sense, it is very useful when studying “events or situations that involve the dissolution of order, but which are also formative of institutions and structures.”[5]

The term has passed into broad popular usage, and arguably at least 'the very wide extension of the notion of liminality had the unfortunate consequence of undermining its initial power'.[6] As an anthropological concept, liminality can be applied to “a variety of concrete problems of transformation in the historical, social, and political world”.[7] It is particularly useful as a tool for analyzing both contemporary events and problems, and for analyzing and comparing various historical periods.[8]

hmmm

Some new photos, havent put anything up in a while due to beating myself up over this essay we have to do. Anyway, had a chat well several chats with my tutor Graham Todd over the past two weeks and through conversations with him decided that experimenting with colour was the way to go down. He originally suggested bring my background in printmaking into this by trying to print a flat colour over the top of the plaster blocks as printing a flat colour can be a challenge even with normal printing materials, but due to the depth of plaster in these blocks i have just painted  this on (still using mixed inks) more of a trial than anything else. The text is a tag i have used in the past, just wanted to try out something not as traditional or legible with regards to stone carving and sculpture etc, like the contrast though preffered it without the colour def needs something over the top again to just knock it back abit and bring back the subtle nature of the white gouges in the white plaster. Maybe some half tone images from my found library.....

summer project photos. (old)

Came across these while clearing my memory card, old progress shots of carved door during summer.

next source of material?

57.637827,-5.789198


its a google map reference. type into google maps and zoom out to see exactly where.

Project Space crit response.

Have put off dealing with this for almost two weeks now, despite feeling happy with the eventual project space collaboration and exhibition. The reason for this lies within that feeling of satisfaction at having put together a successful collaborative show and not wanting to ruin that by dragging myself through a prolonged and deep reflection on it preferring to accept it for what I feel it was.

Anyway on with this response, will try to keep it brief....

During the crit Neil decided to trial a new method of critiquing the work, that being everybody gets a chance to ask a question/ raise an issue or simply comment upon the the work. This worked well and im presuming was instigated to prevent domination of the crit by either one or two people which is frequently the danger. The everyone gets a chance format allowed me to take notes for each person and their individual comments which in turn allowed me to see what issues cropped up repeatedly this meaning that these were the issues/ things most important to the viewers and these are what I will address.

1. Nostalgia/ memory/ aged- This was the most commented on, people were immediately drawn to the worn and slightly degraded appearances of the works. This was nice to hear as from the start Iain and I had strongly discussed this as a main theme of the work, that of being centred around history/ memory and the dislocation or degradation of these, so to hear that this aspect came across in the work was really heartening.

2. The material - alot of comments were directed towards the nature of the materials used especially that of the absorbent nature (with regards to light) of the plaster blocks. Again this was good to hear, the importance of natural light in the work and the changing aspect of this meant that the materials used had to blend with the ambient light, moving with it and working with it so as to enforce the transitional nature of Iain's image giving a life to the still image that had maybe been slightly lost in its transition to print as well as linking to the changing light in the video installation.


3. The video installation- The video installation was unfortunately not placed within the same room as the rest of the works due to installation problems and with the required natural light being too powerful to allow the projector to project the image across the space as we had intended. This meant the durational aspect of the work was sadly not as obvious. The method of display (with the projected film) also drew alot of discussion though having been to see the "Beholder" exhibition at talbot rice gallery (where there were projectors everywhere) im not sure it was fair comment to include a projector as something to be criticised upon as it was clearly a means to an end.

Anyway all things considered it was in Iain and my opinions a good show a good collaboration and was well received which is the main thing.

I know i said i would try to keep it brief but that proved to be impossible. Have been going at this for a while and shortened it all i could. If you read it all I'll buy you a beer. :)

Plaster Texturising- get it? comedy gold right there.

Experimenting with thinner plaster blocks and trying to transfer text to the surface during the casting process in a similar way that I have done previously with old phone book pages on mdf then printed over. Dont think this is too successful  bit disappointed really had high hopes for this but thats what trials are for. 

Film Footage

Film footage that was installed at project space exhibition by Iain Sutherland and Gregor Morrison.
Be warned the whole film is half an hour long.

project space images

Selection of photos from the project space install, photographic single colour screen prints on cast plaster blocks. By Iain Sutherland and Gregor Morrison

Sam Taylor-Wood

uh oh

three days till project space and everything seems to be falling apart on me. really not helping get this project off the ground.

Project Space invite

Project Space will be on Firday 11th of November, new collaborative work by Iain Sutherland and Myself. Co2 Project Space Edinburgh College of art

Henna Nadeem

Found this artist courtesy of Simone Pereira Hind.

Fantastic stuff.

plastercaster

oh shit does this make me a sculptor...

It seems I can no longer get by without now being referred to as a sculptor, apparently referring to what I do as "3d collages" doesn't cut it.

Went to visit a friend of mine doing the illustration masters and she introduced me to her contemporaries as: "this is Gregor he's a sculptor" . 

Not entirely sure how I feel about being pigeon holed like this, I guess it kinda balances out the fact that I used to call myself a printmaker when the general term of artist would be more applicable. Makes the age old question "so what do you do?" even harder to answer without sounding like either a rambling fool who cant seem to make their mind up or a complete pompous ass.

the first scrapings

Trial carving first block of plaster, the T was done with my chisels but soon worked out that they dont work properly with half wet plaster. rest of the word was done with a knife and it worked wonderfully so quick and clean lines.  

Project space?

New plaster blocks cast using old print frames. really pleased with the uniform flat surfaces. more to be done to them after they have dried out some. Struggling with connotations, sculptural overtones, burial, biblical, architecture, permanence..........

London

"The Park is Babel. But in Trafalgar Square, at the foot of Nelson's column and under that patriotic bas-relief of the Death of Nelson-for the British god is a sea god-you hear the Voice of the people. (They have put amplifiers on the noses of the lions there, which gives these soapy figures a new professorial look.)"

"In any case London is traditionally free of hysteria, stoical and disciplined, but not beyond the resources of nature."

The Hardcore and the Gentle

Right project space last Friday was excellent. I can not say enough about how I felt that it was the most successful project space so far this year. The three people involved;- 

Simone Pereira Hind

Kate Grenyer

and 

Brittonie Fletcher

The work transformed a normally drab and quite honestly boring space into something dramatic, considered and thought provoking. The windows had been roughly blacked out with cardboard box's (see image) lights off broken glass scattered over the floor and some low ambient noise playing. The project space was very much a holistic experience, just about every sense was catered for. For me the space took on the qualities of many abandoned buildings i've wandered through especially the industrial ones that have similar feelings to chapels/ churches and cathedrals with the similar proportions, large windows and the reverently quiet halls. 

Anyway well done to all three, greatly enjoyed the space. 

simon munnery

Been staring at this for a while now in work and finally took a photo of it, quite like it. Think its by Simon Munnery dont know if he printed it or just put the words together. 

Co.

:)

just had our first Triad crits this morning, was quite apprehensive about this as it was to yet another group of people i didnt previously know and thought it would be a case of having to start from the beginning again with regards to describing what it is i think i do.

crits comprised of three students and one tutor with three roles to be assigned between the students, these being ; -

Speaker, who talks about thier work for ten minutes.
Listener, who listens to the speaker and then replies to them for ten minutes.
Observer , who listens to both speaker and listener and sums up for five minutes.

The crits actually went well with some interesting talking points arising between the others in my group though mine was perhaps the least well thought through approach in terms of describing my work succinctly. Anyway it was interesting to get feedback and help in this way where you had to keep focused taking notes in order to form reply's to the speaker, the only frustrating part was not being able to speak out with your turn for example after the listener has replied to you or after the observer has summed up. Though frustrating at the time it does leave scope to go on and continue the discussions out with these triad crits and in this respect it is really good for creating dialogue between people who would not ordinarily converse in such a way.

really enjoyed it in the end though as i said might structure my spoken part for next time.

Bundle of knots

Trying to talk through joint Co2 project space while preparing for what i predict will be a disastrous presentation tomorrow does not help my mental state any. Up to my eyeballs in film criticism and the best way of describing what i had in mind for my work this year is "past histories" what a dumb word combination... might as well have said "future times to come".

Ok so pop art film theory, as with the previous reading we had to do a presentation on i am finding it less than interesting despite the word pop being in there about a million times. Dont really know what to make of this and a very unstructured approach to tomorrows presentation is not helping. Tomorrows presentation will be taking the form of an informal chat amongst our group raising the various points for and against Lawrence Alloway's theory on film criticism. Not entirely sure how this reading is helping me understand research methods for my own theory work but its a necessary evil i guess.

JUST WANT TO MAKE SOME WORK.

Alec Finlay

Alec Finlay, Loop, vinyl on wall, 2006

Get your tools oot.

New stone letter carving chisels. let the chips fly.

Gramophone Records

the first chips..

Booked myself onto a decorative letter carving course this weekend to experiment carving another material, in this case stone. Was a really interesting course though my finished carving left a lot to be desired. Anyway all in all a useful day and now I have plans to carry some of it over into my practice. Maybe some carved found stone? paving slabs, plaster slabs? we shall see. 

Detail of part of my carving, rough I know.

Jonathan Owen

So last co2 project space was by invited artist and ECA alumni Jonathan Owen. The work was really interesting and well installed. some interesting discussion surrounding public sculptures and their anonymity nowadays etc. Was really interested by his carved antique nut cracker (maybe due to doing abit of carving myself at the moment)  which he had then carved again. Really interesting stuff bellow are someimagesof his work from the doggerfisher website

Michaelmas Terms, 2002

cut out gas mask, Jonathan Owen

Untitled, 2010

Found carved figure with additional carving, wood. 

Jonathan Owen 

(new) Website

New website finally up and running. Bit rough around the edges in my opinion but hey its a website. More images to be added shortly...

:)

www.gregor-morrison.co.uk