Isolation and Egon Schiele

Within my project, I decided to create the sub-theme of isolation. This has become a reoccurring theme throughout my experimentation, with all of the paintings, drawings and even photos looking at isolating themes. I decided, not to look in the literal sense of isolated or derelict locations, but instead use them as inspirations for personal attitudes. I believe I noticed the theme when I was feeling isolated in myself and the ideas seemed to stand out within the work I was producing.
It will be interesting to see if I can progress with this idea, producing work centered around my mood and emotions, as well as focusing on my inspirations from location work.

Egon Schiele is an artist who I have found particularly useful here. I looked through a number of books exploring the artist: "Egon Schiele and His Contemporaries" and "Egon Schiele Sketchbooks" proved very useful to me and brought me to one of the most intriguing paintings I have seen by the artist: Tote Mutter.

Egon Schiele Tote Mutter

I explored different ideas within this painting considering sexuality, isolation and distortion. (Detailed analysis featured in sketchbooks.) I was very pleased to happen upon this painting as it does certainly work as a from of inspiration for these newly developing ideas.
Not only does it suggest isolation but it also incorporates the idea of inclusion of the human form to suggest the theme. The black alone would create a strong, isolating atmosphere and I did experiment with this idea, creating images using black ink and masking fluid to create harsh dark space to contrast colour or stark white.
Many of my experiments progressed in this manner and working in the incorporation of colour became rather effective, particularly when using watercolour, again a contrast to the stark black ink.

I definitely intend to explore the idea of contrasts within my paintings and further experiments as I feel they work well. Not only just creating interesting juxtapositions, but also giving a stronger isolating feel by having particular elements stand out alone against a different background, perhaps making them so different that they do become isolated from the rest of the painting around them.
Exploring this in more depth and on a large scale will be of definite use to me.

Incorporating the Human Form

In looking at all the previous posts, as of late, it is definite that my project is veering directly to the incorporation of the human form. I feel as though I need this presence in order to tell my ideas through the paintings I am to create. 

I intend to remember all the research I have been collating and ensure that it stays relevant and predominant throughout the production part of the final major project. 

Henry Moore.
Yorkshire Sculpture Park,
Wakefield.

Martin Parr - The Rhubarb Triangle.
The Hepworth,
Wakefield.

Humans of New York

In looking at the human form in a space, I realised an obvious point of research would be The Humans of New York Project. This project has become such a successful piece of work that is now spanning so much social media, gaining followers from all over the world.

humansofnewyork.com
The projects website.

Human of New York
The projects Facebook page.

@humansofny
The projects Instagram account.

The project features images of ordinary, everyday people, something seen with a number of photographers before, but there is more vulnerability here, for the subject has a story and the story is not private, instead it accompanies the photo that is then published online for the extensive followers. There is something very powerful in documenting all these stories and human beings, bringing together all their stories, all their worries, joining them in solidarity. There seems a strong support network surrounding the project also, which makes it all the more significant and powerful.

I feel that this can link to my project because of the themes of isolation I am exploring. In isolation, you feel you are the only person, but this project reminds its audience that there are so many other people leading different lives all around you and there are definite, strong messages in that.

The Yorkshire Sculpture Park

As well as visiting The Hepworth while in Wakefield, I took a trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
I have the opportunity to work with so many possibilities from the photographs I gained from the park. I was particularly intrigued by Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore. These were two of the artists I knew best, there were others I was familiar with, but these were most known to me and I do believe they stood out the most also.
I just loved Hepworth's sculptures. I loved how they captured and framed the space around them so wonderfully. The use of holes, spaces and different shapes made for so much to look at. It wasn't just the sculptures, but the way they aligned with one another, how they created little viewfinders and even the ways in which the light caught the bronze and how this light cast interesting shadows. There is so much to a Hepworth sculpture and they were so delightful to see.

I have seen Henry Moore sculptures before, but only ever much smaller works, situated in the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, so seeing the huge structures in the park was a wonderful experience. Seeing the craftsmanship, the dents and curves, on such a huge scale was something very impressive. I have always been intrigued by Moores' drawings and paintings but there is something so much more about seeing the shapes of his 2D works brought into 3D on such a grand scale.

Seeing these sculptures in the park was definitely inspiring to my ideas of exploring space and the human form. The way they claimed the space was something I really wanted to capture and document as I feel this made them so powerful and effective. 

Martin Parr

Martin Parr is a photographer I have only discovered through the duration of the course this year and at this moment, he is a very important artist to explore in my current project.
Parr photographs people in locations, often in a candid manner and in garish, bold colour. Despite the excessive brightness of the photos, there is something enticing about them, especially when they are presented in bulk.
I recently took a trip to Wakefield, to visit The Yorkshire Sculpture Park and The Hepworth Gallery. In looking at figures in the landscape, I had wanted to visit the sculpture park as a call to my location visits and I then discovered that The Hepworth was a short drive away. I had been told about Martin Parr's The Rhubarb Triangle, a photo series exploring, quite simply, the rhubarb industry. I was certainly intrigued by the absurdity of the idea, who would think of visiting a rhubarb factory in order to make a work?
The photos I had seen online were also appealing so I made the visit to the gallery.

[My photos taken from the exhibition]

I gathered photos of my own of the exhibition and also purchased postcards of the exhibition. It was definitely interesting and beneficial to go and visit the exhibition. Just seeing the ordering and curation itself was worth the trip. The use of colour throughout the exhibition was so significant: the hints of red all the way through, becoming more and more pronounced, from the red stalks in an industry setting, to the red everywhere curtesy of Parr's photographs of the festivals.

The thing that became relevant about this project was the idea of photographing within an industry environment, capturing people in their every day occupation. I think something as mundane as a rhubarb factory and industry is so peculiar that it helps add to the appeal of the series. This also adds relevance to my project, for it looks the figures in the space, and here it is certainly an unconventional space, but it works.

Parr's website
The Hepworth