Unit X - Artist Research

Unit X - Artist Research

(Image taken from Hannah's website - www.hannahleightonboyce.com)

For the start of my Unit X brief, I began researching artists to help with inspiration for my own brief. I had already decided to carry on my work from the Practice Brief as I felt that I could take my ideas a lot further and push my samples into the next Unit. I found the Manchester based artist Hannah Leighton-Boyce. Her work is very similar to the work that I have been creating, focusing on data and displaying that data. Although, Hannah displays the data that she finds, exactly how she found it, no visualizations. This differs from my work as I am translating the data that I have found and creating another piece of artwork from my findings. What I like most about Hannah’s work is the way that she displays her data. She uses a huge sheet of paper, made from smaller sheets, displayed onto the wall with her movement drawings on this. I like the way that her drawings escape the paper and go onto the wall. This is also a very simple way of displaying her work. This is something that I want to translate into my own work, a very simple way of displaying my data findings.

Third Year Practice - Research

Third Year Practice - Research 

(Art Bin, 2010 installation view, South London Gallery, London - Taken from www.thomasdanegallery,.com)

('Sweep To Victory' 1996 -Michael Landy- Taken from www.tate.org.uk)

This artist was suggested to me in a tutorial and I was told that he would be very inspirational to my work. Michael Landy created a piece called ‘The Breakdown’ where he took an inventory of every single item that he owned, created drawings of items and writing little notes about why he has then and what they meant to him, and then burnt everything so he was left with nothing. I found this work very inspiring, if not a little odd. I loved the idea of taking an inventory of things, perhaps not on the scale that he has, but perhaps an inventory of things I see at that exact moment, or things in my bag or pocket. I could take this further by taking an inventory of other peoples things, making a list and creating drawings of them. I liked the idea of things meaning different things to people, one mans trash is another mans treasure idea.

Third Year Practice - Collection

Third Year Practice - Collections

My work is focusing on turning data into something visual and I am really struggling with this idea. I feel that everything that could be done with this topic has already been done and that I cannot take it much further. I also found that it was very graphic based and struggled to find inspiration within this topic. I decided to take a step back and look though my blog and sketchbook to find where I was really going with this work. The word ‘collection’ came up a lot and it was a word I used to describe my work so I started from there. Instead of looking at my work as ‘data’ I started looking at it as a ‘collection’. I started my research again and found a lot of inspiration and context, which is helping with my brief. I am beginning to look at my final outcome to be something of a collection of things, perhaps things people do not care about or want anymore, such a bus tickets, receipts, empty wrappers, etc.

( 'Louise Bourgeois – Aller-Retour’, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria, 2006 © Kunsthalle Wien / Photo: Stephan Wyckoff)

('Louise Bourgeois – Aller-Retour’, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria, 2006 © Kunsthalle Wien / Photo: Stephan Wyckoff)

Louise Bourgeious is becoming a huge contextual influence on my work. When reflecting back I realized that I had a collection of drawings and would like them to be accompanied into my final idea. I like her work, especially her drawings, as they are always displayed as a collection, rather than just a single drawing. This is very influential of my work and something I would like to bring to my own brief. Her work is displayed in simple frames and placed next to each other in a simple manor, perhaps not to take away from the drawings. I really like this concept of displaying the work. The frames is something that I am unsure about however I do like the liner and very rigid way that she displays her work, almost as to be viewed as one large piece rather than individual pieces. I really like the concept of creating a large scale piece but it being created using smaller pieces.

Third Year Practice - Research

Third Year Practice - Artists Research 

(Taken from Keri Smiths website - www.kerismith.com)

 When starting a new brief, I always indulge in artist research. It is my favourite part of a brief and I like to think that it is one of my strengths. My first source of research is Keri Smith. She is an artist that creates an instruction manual for people in order for them to document their lives or collect data. She publishes a book that has a list of instructions in them for people to follow. Her work is very heavily based on collecting data and objects. Her idea is to capture as much of the un known as possible. This is part of my inspiration for my brief. I will use her ideas and instructions as a starting point for my own brief. This will give me a basic starting point in my primary research in order to then start building up my own data.