Ai Wei Wei at the Royal Academy of Arts

Ai Wei Wei at the Royal Academy of Arts 

The very first exhibition i went to before the start of my third and last year on my Bachelor degree in fine art was the Ai Wei Wei exhibition taking place at the RA. 

Ai Wei Wei is an Art phenomenon, he has reached far out into the world with his voice against political issues and stunned us as he tells us about his life. 

What ill do is show you a few images of this exhibition but i really recommend that if you're not too late, you should go and experience this yourself. 

His work truly fascinated me, this was an exhibition you just don't forget about. 

One thing the RA did that made the visit even more pleasurable was that in every ticket purchase was a free headset audio discussing each piece individually plus some other interviews, documented images and videos about Ai Wei Wei and his life. This headset secluded us away from the audience and noise and kept us completely focused on the exhibition itself. I found this extremely absorbing. 

I always wanted to see one of these vases up front, this was a first. 

I find it fascinating how Wei Wei can destroy something so fragile, unique and historical simply to give birth, create, translate it to this contemporary piece of work. 

i mean the vases he paints on or dips in industrial paint are Han Dynasty Urns or Neolithic vases that can be dated back 5000-3500 BC. 

Looking at these, it made connections toward my current practice which revolves around street art, graffiti. Graffiti on walls are continually destroyed to reproduce new work, this is how i see it. For something new to be created something first has to be destroyed. To create is to destroy. 

Marble work... beautifully executed. 

By the way, this cube above me is made out of tea leaves... yeah... tea leaves. 

Jade Handcuffs, he discusses his time when arrested by the police.

This was  still performance/sculptural piece, inside every box is a stage made by Wei Wei to describe his time when held by officials. Peek inside the boxes to see, almost like peeking into his life, his past, his timeline, to this time. 

Very detailed

I can say that this was my favourite exhibition this year of 2015, no doubt. An experience no person should miss. 

Brick Lane Market #10 and Failed piece

Brick Lane Market #10 and Failed piece 

This is my most current piece of work 

I haven't been able to do a lot of practical work considering the essay hand in and TOP presentations but i still manage to do little by little everyday

So far the symposium presentation went very well

Symposium day went extremely well

Unit 5 TOP was a great success through my perspective 

However i look at this painting, as much as it is aesthetically pleasing and relates to my practice, i feel as if my practice isn't developing 

As much as i enjoy painting these, i feel as if i should step it up a notch and look into ways and processes in which i could develop my practice further 

This is Brick Lane Market #10, 2015

Most current 

Failed Work

A few weeks ago i tried doing a larger scaled painting 

At first i thought it might work, i stuck with it. 

But as i continued....

the scale made it feel..... less precious, delicate 

ironic how graffiti is suppose to be this street, urban feel, yet when i translate this research into a A3 size painting, i feel as if its delicate, must be taken care of. i

The is definitely because of the process

Applying spray paint to a brick wall or a metal door has completely different characteristics as say when applying paint to a canvas with a thin fine brush 

Because of the process, this is no longer street graffiti, it may be inspired by it but the context is completely different, now that i have applied it with my own hand through my own process

This large scaled painting failed, which is good because i learned from this 

Visit to a Potential gallery space for Off site Exhibition

Visit to a Potential gallery space for Off site Exhibition

So i have already started to look at potential spaces for our off site exhibitions

I an a group of 2 others, are working in collaboration to put up an exhibition 

I have emailed many different spaces to talk about pricing and spaces and location and times. 

This was the first that looked and felt promising 

Last year, the exhibition we put up was educational. We learned the rights and wrongs and especially ways and methods in which we can make the exhibition better

Last year, me and my group got our space for free. No Charge. This was definitely one of the benefits and as easy as that would be to do again, i wanted a change of location and venue. 

This venue cost a lot more, a lot more, but instead of most people seeing it as a potential waste of money, i see this as an investment

I plan to show with my group a collection of work, private views, week long opening to the public and hopefully attract a customer base willing to buy work. 

In the gallery, there are 2 spaces. Gallery one (Smaller) and Gallery 2 (bigger) 

Above is picture showing the entrance into gallery 1

Below is an image showing gallery one 

Its spacious, but because of the glass window and the 2 entrances, it limits the wall space for artwork 

Below is Gallery 2

Now this space is a lot bigger

Discussions on terms and conditions

A hallway with wall space on either side

Possibly sculptures displayed on plinths in the middle?

Ideas...

More discussions 

 Entrance into Gallery 2

Embassy Tea Gallery London

We still have a lot to discuss

But we decided to plan early, and get started early

We want to sell work, which means marketing has to come early

Early preparation could lead to a very successful exhibition 

Looking forward to this!!

See you soon

Symposium Event at the Tate

Symposium Event  at the Tate

The day of the symposium 

This picture below is showing a clip from our video based on the theme of appropriation 

Appropriated scenes from movies, quotes throughout history, images and popular internet memes...etc were all mashed into a video. 

This is showing Marilynn Monroe's and Charlize Theron's Chanel No.5 Perfume Advert. 

In my opinion, the video went brilliantly. 

It was fantastic to see this project, that we had been working, on a laptop size scale, being projected into a large cinema size scale. 

Overall, throughout this TOP, i evaluate that our group worked extremely well. 

We communicated effectively through social media when we were unable to meet

We exchanged ideas and knowledge on the theme of appropriation even through we work in different disciplines 

This taught me more, not just learning about painting but the medium of film and photography 

Exchanging interest and knowledge to one another whilst working together is far more effective than if you were to do it solo 

By doing this it expanded the target i had when researching 

no longer contested under the limits of one practice or their artists, it spread which was very helpful and helped come up with ideas on how to develop my practice further and better. 

These group arrangements were extremely beneficial, and i hope there is more to come

A very effective collaborative learning strategy 

Other groups were too interesting.

Some were not

But overall it was insightful to see what others had come up with for their presentations. 

The topics that they were discussing and how they discussed it 

The presentations overall i thought went brilliantly  

The Panel discussions were too very educational and fun

This was the panel in which 2 members from our group took part. 

What was interesting here was that it lead to a date on feminism, which is a turn from appropriation but this kind of debate was rather helpful. In a short period of people debating on a subject, the audience and oneself actually has the ability to learn about that subject in a matter of minutes. 

Panel discussions were very helpful and very useful. 

Overall this day was a success. 

Presentations went exceptionally well

Panel discussions were insightful 

Overall the whole day was extremely educational 

Looking and learning into other people's interests and themes as well as seeing what creative outcome they came up with for the presentation 

Very good day!!

Hope we have more like it 

Symposium Beforehand (at Tate Britain) - Initial ideas, Planning, Making and Site Visit

Symposium Beforehand (at Tate Britain) - Initial ideas, Planning, Making and Site Visit 

Initial Ideas

We sat down to discuss initial ideas 

Many ideas were being flung around but what stuck from the very beginning was that it should be something visual, a video piece. 

We talked about getting the audience to participate in the presentation. 

Speaking. 

Statements

Then Jan, our new member to the group, he showed us his work that he has been doing. It consists of multiple videos being played on a screen, flashing, repeating. 

This then led to us talking about how we should find clips and images of appropriated themed images and videos. 

We discussed what there was, and there was a lot. 

-Hitler speech 

-Chaplin Speech

-Kennedy Speech 

-Martin Luther King Speech

-9/11

-Hindenburg

-Famous speeches from presidents 

-Clips from TV

-Famous internet clips 

-Clips from shows such as "The Simpsons" that have appropriated from historical events and people figures as well as internet memes and such

-Godzilla New york

-King Kong New York

and so on.........

so our task was to find as many of these clips as possible, collect these and transform it into a video piece

Planning

This is a rough layout plan we had in place 

We created a Facebook communication page between the four of us so that we could change our ideas and put on any clips that we find that can go towards our video 

Making

Making process of this video was using a software called iMovies

We used the clips we found and put them together, editing, altering video and sound

Site Visit

The site visit was very interesting.

It wasn't as big as we all thought, the space we mean

The projector screen was big though, very wide 

We were discussing about how big our video will look on the screen, which isn't necessarily a bad thing as it will make viewers more engaging. 

Its good that ours is a video because first, it will mean the lights are off meaning that we can't see the walls. In my opinion the orange on the walls are a little bit out of place. Secondly the stage is rather small, if it were a performance as such, we may not have enough room. 

Cant Wait.....