ART AS KNOWLEDGE IA1 Investigation Phase 1
Response to Excursion with Glen Skien Personal: ■
I felt it had an air of mystery about it
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Quiet
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There was something creepy about the area
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Peaceful area
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There were random items on the ground that showed that there had been people there before, yet they were not there at the time of the excursion
Cultural: ■ Aboriginal land ■ Originally a hunting ground of Indigenous Australians who were camping on the bank of the Bulimba Creek
Formal: ■ In the early 1920s the quarry opened to provide gravel for roads being built in Balmoral Shire and timber was cleared from the forest to make homes
Towel left on the bank of the quarry
Contemporary: ■ Burnt ground and sticks in some areas ■ Private ■ Pathways that seem to be frequently used even though no one was around that day ■ Old stuff left behind (bottles, towels, clothing items)
Glen Skien ■
Brisbane based artist
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Trained as a print maker in Townsville
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Graduated with a Doctor of Visual Art from Queensland College of Art in 2015
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He was the 2018 recipient of the State Library of Victoria Creative Fellowship which included a 3-month residency and special access to the library’s collections and special access to the Library’s collections and staff expertise. This allowed him to adopt a poetic gaze towards the library’s archives of unnamed and unidentified photographic images.
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When describing the outcomes of his fellowship, Skien says: I have produced a series of small hand-held bound books that feature the photographic etchings of unnamed figures from the photographic archive of the Library. Titled Foto-Metafisica, the intention of this work had always been to create a series of book-objects that withhold the same intrigue and unknown ‘aboutness’ as the images themselves.”
Developing an Inquiry Question ■
Where I wanted to go with my experimental works and focus was trying new art styles, other than realistic, and to focus on the different contexts, but mainly my personal context of the place.
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Since the environment was such an important part of our excursion and was an important part of the quarry itself I wanted my question to have a focus on this as well as my experimental works
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My first question was: “how does the environment affect the way a person perceives a place?” –
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The next was “How can manipulating an environment with different art styles and contexts change a person’s perspective?” –
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This was too general and did not include the art style aspect of my focus.
This one was too closed and did not provide enough room to experiment with.
My final, and chosen question is “How can an art style change the message of an art work?”
Different Art Styles ■ When choosing the art styles I wanted to focus on I looked from different contexts, mainly looking at personal and contemporary ■ I wanted to abstract the landscape to try and give it a different meaning, partially inspired by Sam Tupou, this experiment is from a contemporary perspective. The landscape was abstracted by pixelating it and there is a focal point which is a different art style again. I chose to do pop art in this case since Sam Tupou’s work had bright colours and reminded me of pop art. ■ In my personal context experiment, I wanted to focus on my favourite show – Gravity Falls – because the quarry gave off mysterious vibes, and had an eerie feel to it, especially on the rainy day. ■ Photography – compiled a collection of photographs from the excursions in order to show the different in the meanings of the two visits (rainy day vs clear day)
Art of Gravity falls
Sam Tupou ■ Cairns based artist. ■ Incorporates the patterns of traditional Tongan tapa designs, but they are rendered in high-key colour and industrial or mass-production materials. ■ Retro and futuristic imagery, patterns, and colours ■ Contemporary perspective ■ Graphic works, screen-printed on Perspex ■ Images from his Tongan cultural inheritance with imagery from pop art and popular culture (equal parts tapa and Wahol)
Experiment 1: Personal This experiment is based on my personal context – the art style is based off of the show Gravity Falls which I watched and was obsessed with when I was younger. The Quarry itself gave off an air of mystery which made me link it to the show, which is all about solving mysteries, and especially ones others are not aware of. I used the app Procreate to create this experiment.
Experiment 2: Contemporary I wanted to focus on the turtles that we saw on our first excursion. I used water colour paints and decided to make the turtle the main focus of the experiment so I pixelated the background, which represents the rest of the quarry. I used a permanent marker to create the bold black lines. Since I wanted the turtle to stand out, I chose to use the art style, pop art, which uses bright colours and bold lines.
Experiment 3: Contemporary
Clear day These images show a bright day with bright green vegetation creating a bright and positive meaning.
Rainy day These images show a dull, overcast day which in some cases, people see as negative, giving off a negative meaning. They also show the same kind of places/things as the clear day showing the difference that the weather can make. The flower in the second image is fake but it really stood out against the dull day.
Bibliography ■ Glen Skien research: http://onespacegallery.com.au/news/solo-exhibition-glen-skien/ last updated: 21 August 2019. No Author stated. ■ Sam Tupou research: https://ima.org.au/exhibitions/samuel-tupou-new-tapa-summer-collection/ Last updated: 2006. No author stated. https://michaelreid.com.au/artist/sam-tupou/ Last updated: 2019. No author stated. ■ Gravity Falls Art: https://characterdesignreferences.com/art-of-animation-5/art-of-gravity-falls Last updated: February 22, 2018. No author stated.