London : January 9th 2011

Today we started off our day by going to Trafalgar Square. It was definitely a sight to see, there were many sculptures, a lovely water fountain in the middle, and with surrounding buildings with amazing architecture. We spent some time talking about the Fourth Plinth, which is currently Nelson's Ship in a Bottle by Yinka Shonibare which has been there since May of 2010. Some of the topics we touched on were interesting to think about. We talked about how the sails resemble textiles and were probably done this way to symbolize trade. We also talked about how Britain is multicultural and is probably due to a lot of trading. I think this sculpture was appropriate for this monument, to show the trade between cultures and how trade in return had it's effects on Britain's culture. I have looked at recent examples of the sculptures that might be considered for the next few years and i don't think they send as good of message as the one now does. We shall see which ones are chosen soon.

In the afternoon we went to the National Gallery. One of the highlights of this museum for me was the Bridget Riley exhibit. I was surprised to see work like hers in this museum. I liked looking at her pieces that were directly painted on the wall. I also enjoyed how the rooms were set up, continuing to different artists in each room, through the years. Some of my favorite artists to see in these rooms were Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh, and Degas. I find it is also fascinating to finally see artwork in person that you have studied over and over again in school. I like having these realizations of "oh that's why we studied this" or realizing the actual size and color of these paintings that you often lose in reproductions. The painting The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein was also interesting to see. I remembered learning about this piece in school but this is a perfect example of an artwork that just isn't the same unless you see it in person. When you view this piece from the right side the image becomes more in focus, making the skull on the bottom less skewed.

Our final stop for the day was at the ICA - Bloomberg New Contemporaries. This was one of my least favorite galleries so far. In my opinion i was not crazy about the setup of the gallery and how crowded the artworks were in the rooms. It made it harder to concentrate on all the  different artworks. I found myself distracted by some and skipping over others because of how much was going on in one given room. I did find some pieces that stood out enough to make me want to stop and concentrate on them. One of them was by Chris Shaw Hughes called Sublimation. This was an Offset carbon drawing. I loved the amazing detail in his carbon drawing, if i didn't know any better i would have thought it was a photograph. This picture i think could have easily been over looked because there was so much going on next to it, between a video projection playing and crowed by other artwork on the wall. I also enjoyed Sophie Eagles video playing on the other side of the room. This was called Collapse and was digital creation of a pillar, made up of diamond forms, that collapsed over and then would repeat again from beginning.

London : January 8th 2011

Today was an off day from class, so me and my friends decided to explore Camden Market. What an experience! There was so much going on and the most shopping i have done in a long time. There were many vendors for clothing, where i bought a very cute jacket and boots. There were many food vendors with various kinds of cuisines to choose from. Over all it was a great time! 

London : January 7th 2011

Today we started off with a tour of Westminster Abbey. The Abbey is absolutely beautiful and i love looking at all the different architecture. I thought it was interesting how half of the architecture was built under one person but then when they added additions to the abbey you can see the material change. I'm glad that they made sure to keep the same design though, because i hate when they add modern additions to older architecture. I just feel like it doesn't look good and ruins the older architecture. I thought we had a wonderful tour guide and i thought it was interesting learning about the grave of the unknown warrior. This is the only grave out of the 3,000 tombs in the abbey that you can't walk on. The warrior is unknown and was one of the 1.1 million killed from the Great War. The grave is surrounded by poppies which are used to remember the event and were also the first flower to grow back after the war. Here are some of the pictures i took outside.

In the afternoon we went to the Tate Britain to view the Rachel Whiteread and Eadweard Muybridge exhibits. Rachel Whiteread is known for her sculptural casts of the spaces in or around familiar domestic objects. This show focused more on her drawings. I enjoyed seeing her thought process in her drawings and the different mediums she uses for her drawings. Whiteread has a great sensitivity of forms and has a great process for working out her thoughts. I especially like her Post Card Studies, they were a different and interesting way to find forms and study them. The only thing i that would have made her show better was to have more of her actual sculptures. I realize that this show was about her drawings but even just a few more examples would have benefited the show so people could see the outcomes of her work more clearly, since many of her drawings are very basic.
Eadward Muybridge was the next exhibit we looked at. Muybridge is a photographer and takes photographs of mostly landscapes. I thought it was amazing how he could freeze the waterfalls and other bodies of water, turning them pure white most of the time. I thought it was interesting to find out he did alter some of his photographs, using different parts of sky with different landscapes. Even though i was amazed he could do this so well, it takes away from the quality i thought his photographs had. I also loved his stereo-lithographs, i didn't realize you could made a 3D image that way. 

London : January 6th 2011

Today we started by going to the Serpentine Gallery. The artist that was currently on display was Philippe Parreno. Inside the gallery there were four different videos playing in four different rooms. What was interesting about this gallery's set up was they only played one video at a time and you had to go where ever the next video started. What would happen is once the video was done the sound would carry over into the next place it was going to so you could follow it. I found this a very interesting way of bringing you through to each space and was a good way to make sure you watched all of the videos.
In the center gallery towards the back there was a video that showed images of outside with sounds as if you are looking outside from inside a train. As the video goes on there are more scenes of outside with people scattered along train tracks watching you as you go by. The train seems to be a funeral train because of all the people gathering to watch as the train goes by and people are even taking pictures as the train goes by.
Then the next video continues into the right side of the gallery. In here we watch a video that at first flashes through scenes of a city, showing people working in a factory, fish and a Chinese dragon in the street. Then you start to see a static light form appearing in the pictures which then starts to take on an alien shape. It then shows you a boy and you follow him around in a few different rooms, the he is in the same room as alien. The video ends with showing a scene of the city snowing and then the video ends. Then outside the gallery you are in it starts to snow, which really when looked at up close is soap.
The next video continues in the center gallery towards the front. This video shows children protesting and chanting "No More Reality". This same line is repeated throughout the video showing various images of the children with signs and protesting.
The last video is show in the left side of the gallery. This video starts off by showing a building at night that looks to be some sort of electrical building. It then switches to some nature pictures and then back building in the day with a bison near it. Then there is a rain storm with lightning at night, then returns to the building in the day when storm is over again.
I found that everything was interconnected nicely. There was repetition in sound, light, absence and were all high quality images. I really enjoyed how the snow connected you to the video and then to the outside. Throughout the videos there was also a theme of reality verses fiction.

While we were walking around the outside we saw Anish Kapoor's reflecting mirrors. They were so nice to see, i always love seeing his sculptures. I only wish it was sunnier out so we could see the reflections in the mirrors better. 

In the afternoon we visited the Satchi Gardens. I thought this museum was very interesting and i was sad that i wasn't able to spend more time here. I found a new artist that i really love and enjoy looking at. Her name is Tessa Farmer and the artwork is called Swarm. At first glance i thought this is just a tank with bugs hanging inside it, and even though that is interesting, i thought it was anything special. Then when you get up close you see that these are not your normal insects. These insects are dragonflies and bumble bees with small flying creatures riding them, fighting each other and before long i realize this is whole environment with some sort of fight or war going on. I am so drawn in now and i can't believe the amazing detail each one of these creatures have. I took some picture details so you could understand what i was seeing.

London : January 5th 2011

Today we started off our day by visiting the London Eye. It was the most amazing view and something just totally different than anything i have experienced. I couldn't believe how tall it was and how we ride in these capsule type things. There was a beautiful view of Big Ben and Parliament from the top it.

In the afternoon we went to the Tate Modern museum. I thought it was very interesting to find out that the turbine hall was originally a power station. The exhibit that was being shown in the Turbine Hall was the artwork of Ai Weiwei. Ai Weiwei is a leading conceptual artist in China. I was amazed by his sunflower seeds, there were over 100 million of them spread out over the floor. Each sunflower seed was cast and then hand painted by artisans. To Ai Weiwei these sunflower seeds are a common street snack shared with friends and carry personal associations. During Mao Zedong's brutal cultural revolution, individuals were stripped of personal freedom. The seeds are a gesture of human compassion, a space for pleasure, friendship and kindness in a time of poverty, repression and uncertainty. Making this a comment on the masses and the individual. When thinking and discussing this artwork there were many different thoughts and ideas that came up. Even though this artwork is Ai Weiwei's concept and made through his management skills, he wasn't involved in the actual making process. Over 1600 artisans made the seeds and then hand painted them. Even though this provided jobs for people in China, as a ceramist i always wonder how much involvement you need to have in the making of your artwork for it to be your own. Is it enough for it to be just your idea? In my own opinion i think it is better to have assistants that help you with certain jobs, but you still have a hand in the making of most of your artwork. Then again this artwork might be an exception because of the Ai Weiwei's reasons for creating this work. The other thing i questioned was how in the beginning you were able to walk on the sunflower seeds and now you can't. I was curious what was the point of walking on the seeds. I'm sad i missed out on this experience though. They stopped letting people walk on them do to health issues from the dust of the porcelain. I feel like it should have been to experience the piece at your own risk. And if the real concern was for the workers than they should have had to wear dust masks instead of taking away one of the aspects of the piece. Overall this piece was very moving and has helped me to be a more informed artist and i think definitely have an influence on my own ceramic artwork.

In the evening we saw a theater play called War Horse at the New London Theater. This play was set during WWI and was about a boy who loved his horse so much he joined the war just to find his horse. I couldn't believe the way the horses in the play were made. They were puppets but made out of contour lines of a wood material with people controlling the movements of the horses. The details they were able to achieve was amazing and very life-like. When they flicked the tail every so often or twitch the ears, i almost forgot it was a puppet. This was a great play to see and a welcomed change from the other events on the trip.

London : January 4th 2011

Today was a free afternoon so me and some of the girls on this trip decided to experience some of the markets. Went to Portabello Market and walked up and down the street. There was a lot of shopping and different food venues but a little on the expensive side. We did try really good fish and chips, which was a first for me!

Then later in the afternoon i went to the Contemporary Ceramics Center. This was a smaller gallery, but had wonderful pieces of ceramic from many different British artists. One artist i thought especially stood out for me. I'm a ceramist myself and work in porcelain, and i just loved the look of Valeria Nascimento's ceramics on display there. The way the porcelain was so thin and shaped into the delicate cones, then put together to create the bigger forms were so appealing. I really find so many qualities in her work that i can relate to in my own work.
Here are some images i took of her work and i included a link to view her website.   http://valerianascimento.com/

London : January 3rd 2011

I arrived in London at 10:33 am on January 3rd. We are taking a bus tour on our way to our apartment flats. We had a quick tour as we drove through the west side of London.  Many of the buildings we passed were developed during WWI and WWII and are mainly in the art deco style. As we were traveling and being told some of the names of places, i noticed that there are many similar names in London compared to at home.

Once we figured out our apartments and unpacked a little bit we were off to the Tate Museum to view the Turner Prize show. The artists that were shown were Dexter Dalwood, Odalith Group, Angelo De La Cruz and Susan Philpsz. I found out the reason they call it the Turner Prize show is because the patrons wanted a name associated with great British art. To be accepted for this you also have to be under 50 and living in Britain. This show is a chance to showcase new and upcoming artists.