IA1Inquiry Investigation
INQUIRY LEARNING Inquiry question - “How does the audience’s personal experiences of the environment effect the way they view the artwork?” My personal viewpoint - a tranquil and calming atmosphere of the wilderness as well as displaying a contrasting and vividly monstrous effect in the centre of the painting. - felt inspired by my national identity of being an Australian citizenI felt inspired by indie video games. - The main theme – contrast I have constructed this question hoping to create a visual interpretation for the audience and be able to challenge and question the audience’s perspective and first reactions towards the project. Context – Cultural context towards the Indigenous civilisation.
RESEARCH OF ARTISTS Two artists that have supported my making process Glen Skien and Judy Watson. Glen Skien is a Brisbane Based artist who specialises in printmaking in the Central Queensland coastal city of Mackay, being well-known for his hybrid books/box works. He explores the making of prints and other artefacts woven into a material to create a signature design such as birds, wings and aircrafts.
RESEARCH OF ARTISTS Judy Watson also focused on screen-printings, which depict both her backgrounds as a indigenous native of Australia. Her link to Australia has revolved around her ancestors being her central inspiration of her print-making and painting. Her artworks consist of various colours of deep rich blues, browns and yellows on top of black outlines of different plants, constellations, mathematical practices and shells. She mostly uses ink of numerous tones and shades, that magnifies her cultural perspective. Both of these artists display their making-processes in different pathways to build my knowledge on conceptual and contempory interpretation. Heron Island Suite #7
EXPERIMENT 1 - Koala – one of Australia’s iconic animals - I first tried to use ink, saturating the colours to red, yellow, blue and aqua to express a indigenous light and meaning onto the animal, but then I didn’t like it, so I went back to acrylic paints using light and dark tones of brown and grey. This blended the two compositions together, creating a radiant yet grounded painting of a realistic koala. The technique – blotchy using a medium paintbrush, as well as strokes. Digital filter for second painting– a grayscale filter that causes the colour of the painting to turn grey while the white background turns into a cream colour – signifying the death and extinction of the Australian animal. - Multiple interpretation for multiple artworks. Different people can have the same perspective and opinions on the painting – it’s an animal that shows a lot of representation. - However, it’s the experiences of different people that can change the perceptions. Mum – “Looks like a koala”, “In an Australian environment”, “on a greetings card” Lauren – “First one is happy native koala, while the second one is dead koala”, “bushfires, so all the koalas are injured or dying.” – “How we killed our planet”
EXPERIMENT 2
The Indigenous aspects covering the history of Australia. Using acrylic paint, I created a rust red and black background that represented the fires and passion that the Indigenous Natives bring to Australia. Used a large brush to mimic the appearance of a eucalyptus tree, and decided to place them on the side of the paper instead of the bottom. The hand using white acrylic paint appearing from the side-ways forest- shown from the Australian Native’s perspectives, the white acrylic paint is a connection to the British settlers when they first arrived in Australia since their skin is mostly white. How we perceive this painting explores the connection and tragedy that the Indigenous people experienced. The audience Audio – me walking through the Hemmant Quarry – imitates the sounds of the forest around me. Supposed to imitate the surroundings of the Indigenous Natives when the settlers first arrived in Australia. Mum – “Aboriginal work”, “connects me with other pieces of art that I have.” Lauren – “Like a quill in the persons hand”, “Doesn’t look like a fully indigenous artwork because of the straight lines instead of the dots”, “connecting with our stories between the white population and the indigenous communities connecting to one.”
EXPERIMENT 3 • Collage of different materials. • Printmaking – use of newspaper, black printing of seashells using acrylic paint, string, printed images of shells and black watercolour. • Printed seashells – cut into strips and laid them in patterns across the edges of the page, while one stayed intact. I originally printed out three pairs of each shell but only used two. • Used acrylic black paint to paint over the physical shell, then pressed down to create a shell line texture across different areas of the page – the decay of the environment • Ripped up pieces of newspaper and glued them in areas of the page – supposed to resemble the fragmented stories across Australia about the aquatic environments due to humane problems (such as oil spills, climate change and nets) such as the Great Barrier Reef. • This answers the question by bringing together different material, which challenges the ideal perspective from the audience. • Mum – “reminds me of the beach, and reading the newspaper.”, “pollution” • Lauren – “ • Erryl – “beachy feeling”, “all the twigs washed up to shore.”, “can see myself walking along the beach in peace,”
REFLECTION: The external and internal views - a revolved decision and actions towards my final work My external analysis – my family heritage of being an Australian and the concept art of their environment. The colour and the mood they both portray shows a calm and tranquil yet adventurous perspective on the flow of the art styles. I tried to include that in my experiments – focusing on the surroundings of Hemmant Quarry which is an Australian site. Discuss colours, tones, forms and balance in my final designs for the experiments.
CONCLUSION: Overall, I have completed my analysis and experiments involving the unique works of Glen Skien and Judy Watson. They both view the world and their progression as artists in a stylized technique, which is reflected in their profound creations. My final evaluation takes these viewpoints and conceptualizes them in a unique way to challenge the primary idea of the audience.