London Trip & Inspiration from Chelsea Summer Show

Visit to Tate Britain:

I still find the money aspect of galleries quite interesting, and the way the notes looked against the mirrored floor is also funny - they are trying to make glamourise the act of donating money or making money from culture - capitalism...

CERITH WYN EVANS THE TATE BRITAIN COMMISSION: 2017

• The way the installation was installed within the space worked really well. The lighting and the shapes all hanging by individual threads work to capture audiences attention and imagination.

Chelsea College of Art Undergraduate Summer Show:

Some pieces I found interesting:

Texture using clay/ bluetac

Artist's I found very inspirational:

1) Misbah Siddique

http://www.misbahsiddique.com/steel.html

• Misbah Siddique is an artist working with the material of steel, and manipulating it in similar ways to me.
• Things to take from these pieces: The hanging methods which involved the use of wire. Also the presentation - hanging rather than using a plinth. The main inspiration from this piece is the  welding, manipulating the material of steel!
• I was instantly inspired by her use of the steel and how she has created a texture and pattern onto the material. The piece with the holes cut out stood out to me the most, instead of working to polish the surface or make the surface immaculate, she has completely gone the opposite way, trying to texturise in an (perhaps less aesthetically pleasing) way to my own work, yet it works so effectively. It also makes a strong material look so fragile!

• Her other work on website displays that she has also worked with aluminium manipulation, and she seems to share very similar material interests to me, her statement about the work is: "I seek connections with materials and processes. I think about the reactions and implications of a process onto a material, and I seek to apply the process in a way that allows the material to respond. My practice is centred on learning about new skills, materials and techniques but not perfecting them. I don’t think I want to become comfortable with making things. What I make tends to be a challenge, physically or mentally. The discomfort is valuable."

2) Marina Davidson De Botton

• Marina's work uses the material of stainless steel. The joining methods she has used is Spot welding. 
• The work is described as: 'Exploring subtle enquiries between painting and sculpture with stainless steel'. 
• This work really stands out to me due to its manipulation of the material stainless steel, from the curves in the metal, to the fingerprints left on the surface. It's clear that this series of pieces (and also Misbah's), do not care much for an 'immaculate' or 'perfect' surface that much of my works concerns. On a closer look at some of Marina's sculptures, some of them look slightly disjointed and the joins don't make a perfect join, maybe this was intentional. The spot welding is also uneven and unpolished, so this implies something of the intention for this style of aesthetic. 
• Her canvas style metal pieces intrigue me as well - I would like to find out how this could be possible to achieve such a perfectly formed 3D object from sheet metal. 

Reflections and development:

• After talking with Rob, he told me that the university doesn't have a spot welding machine and therefore, I couldn't do this style of join that is seen in Marina's work. 
• What inspired me most about this trip was Misbah's work and the way she manipulates the steel. I will see if I can have a go at cutting some shapes into my stainless steel and coming up with some designs involving this.