An artist called Rachel Whiteread was asked by Austrian authorities to create a work in remembrance of Austrian Jews killed during the Holocaust. Her work involves negative space and so she created a piece called, 'the nameless library.' because of the Berlin Book Burning . With this idea, Rachel filled a library full of concrete so that all the walls are made of concrete casts of books with their pages facing outward, not their spines.
I like this work because it is creating something out of nothing because normally, we don't even think of the negative space of a room etc but because of her work, we now appreciate it.
Whilst I was looking at Rachel Whiteread, it got me thinking of how you can look deeper into a space through the theory of negative space. It is like she is creating something wonderful and creative from something that is ordinary and boring. I was thinking of how I could relate this idea into the theme of stories and so I decided I would do my final piece on a story which had a deep meaning to it which would be shown to the viewer through negative space. The negative space being the person not having a head so that the viewer cannot see the person's emotions in the story meaning the viewer has to interpret the story.
Tom Phillips:
Tom produced a piece of work where he bought a book randomly, then painted, collage or draws over the pages leaving out some words which are left without any painting on them. He then created another story from this book.
I like his work because not only is it recreating the work into something more creative, but he brings the stories he makes to life by adding drawings to create something new.
This work is the creation of something new from something which already existed. In a lot of ways, it is like the work of the artist above, Rachel Whiteread. The idea I got from this work was that the people viewing my final piece should make their own story from my story so I had to leave the story very brief and not giving any clues away at all why the person is acting the way they are in the story.
Tom Hunter:
His work involves taking work from other artists in the past and then recreating them to fit in with issues today. By doing this, he is creating a new meaning to the story and making it relate to today. For example, this photo is taken from an old work called 'Girl Reading A Letter At An Open Window.' by Johannes Vermeer. Tom has changed this photo by calling it 'Woman Reading A Possession Order.' By doing this, he has taken away the reader's interpretation of what the letter could read and replaced it with his interpretation of today's society.
His work is creating something totally different to what the original artist wanted by putting his own interpretation on their work to relate it to now. The idea I have taken from this work is for people to make their own interpretations of what the story behind the final piece is so that it can relate to today or the past. I want the work to relate to their lives by not putting in my own interpretation.
John Wood and Paul Harrison:
Their work involves performative actions around architectural shapes and geometries which fit around the human body. They try to make their work non-repetitive to get different results. To plan their work they draw detailed drawings and storyboards and then they perform them on film. When performing and making the films, they use a deadpan expression, a plain background, a person (or people) and an object and they explore compositions and actions in stories.
This storyboard shows in detail exactly what is going to happen in the film that they will make. I think that it is a very good idea to use a storyboard in the process of making my film because it will minimise the chance of making a mistake when filming because I will know exactly what I am doing.
I like this work because the way they explore the shapes and ideas around them in the films is very unique becuase they go into situations that we don't normally think about.What I will take away from their work is the plain background and the expressionless faces, however, their work doesn't have a story behind it, only the story that is going on in the film, my film will be based on a story becuase that is the theme.
Stephen Gill:
Stephen Gill is a feildwork photographer who takes series of photos. One of his series is called Buried: In this project Stephen takes a picture of a place and then he digs a hole at that place and buries the picture. After a week or so he would come back to the spot, dig and find the picture again to see how it came back.
I like this idea because the picture will have the same texture of the place that was photographed. The paper the photograph is on will have the same effect of the photograph.
Some of the photos were effected more than others. Weathering could have effected the photo a lot making a big impact on the photograph. However, the photo could be ruined by the soil and weather because it could cover up the actual picture and so we couldn't see the picture taking away the effect of the picture.
I like this project because it is interesting to see what all of the photos would look like. It makes us interested in the project because we haven't seen anything like it before.
