Friday 29 January 2016

Pole Tay Pole

I'm working on a project right now about the Dundee whaling industry and polar exploration. It's a subject I hadn't known much about but I'm really enjoying researching it. I went to the McManus Gallery as a starting point as they have a lot of items relating to Dundee whaling and followed that up with a trip to the Discovery to find out more about Antarctic exploration.



It's been really interesting learning about an industry which was totally brutal to both man and whale, but also completely vital to Dundee's economy. We had a talk at the D'Arcy Thompson museum which was interesting to see how these polar voyages linked in with science and specimen collecting at the time.



One story in particular really stuck with me which was a case of four whaling boats being separated from their ship and having to row all the way to the nearest land which was about 300 miles. Only one man survived and he had to have a double amputation. So many of the stories I've been reading are about ridiculous endurance in the face of totally hellish conditions.




Doing this research has made me think about how I would cope in such conditions (I wouldn't) and also about the almost hidden role women had in the industry, getting on with life whilst their men were away at sea and not knowing whether they would return. There are a couple of mentions of captains' wives accompanying them on whaling voyages but as you might expect there were no female whalers (from Dundee anyway). I've been thinking about making an exhibit inspired by the cigar case displays in the D'Arcy Thompson museum putting me in as a female whaler as a sort of curiosity type thing...


I need to work on my concept and how to execute it but at the end of the project my class is putting on an exhibition at the D'Arcy Thompson museum called Pole Tay Pole which should be great! Really looking forward to seeing my work in the space and seeing what everyone else comes up with.

Wednesday 27 January 2016

Selection Box

So Friday went so well! So well in fact that we've set up a Facebook page for Selection Box and are planning to do more events in the future so keep a look out! Well over a hundred people attended including people that we DIDN'T KNOW!





I had a nice wee set-up for the stall with a paper mache stand that I made out of cardboard and a Chinese newspaper, it looks pretty cool so I'll be using it in future for craft fairs etc. I kept my stall quite simple with a few prints up on the wall but I wanted to keep most on the table for people to rummage through. Got some great feedback on my work and spoke to some interesting people. All in all the night was a brilliant success, can't wait to do another one!

Flat Earth Installation DJCAD

There's an exhibition of selected work from the third year modules up in the art school right now! It's well worth a look, there's some great work to see. It was a good opportunity for me to revisit my Art and Science final and reconsider it for a different space. My original piece was too large to assemble in this exhibition and I couldn't put up shelves so I used plinths of different levels to play around with height.




While the installation was a rushed job I actually think it looks really good in its new conception and possibly a bit more refined than before!

Monday 18 January 2016

Selection Box Poster

First day back at art school today and working on a project I'm pretty excited about! More info on that to come soon oooh... Anyway I've got a busy week ahead working on uni stuff and getting ready for an event that some friends and I are organising. It's an exhibition/craft fair at Tin Roof on Friday night.  It's called Selection Box to reflect the mixture of work that will be in the show, and we're planning to really fill the space with art to make it fun and accessible, as opposed to all the pretentious galleries with one print in a massive white room. We're getting a DJ in and drinks and snacks to make more of a night of it.

We all met in the space to discuss our plans this evening which has got me really excited! I've been sorting out loads of prints and zines this past week that I'm planning to display and sell and I'm really looking forward to getting it all in there.

One big thing we had to sort out was promotion of the event, and it took us a while to work out what we wanted from the poster. I had the idea of using sweet wrappers to tie in with the title and sent a couple of pictures to the group:


Abbie took it from there and sent over a poster using the texture of the sweet wrappers in a square with typed text over it. I really liked the idea of using the sweet wrapper letters though and Abbie agreed the poster needed to stand out more so being bossy I took the file and changed the layout and type but kept the texture and square:


I sent it over to the group and they all responded well to it, however they were all unsure about the colours. Cat then took it and adjusted the colours creating the final version:


I was really surprised when I saw the final version of the poster as I genuinely hadn't thought that there was anything wrong with the colours before. It just shows that collaboration and having different people's input really can produce a stronger final outcome. 
Here is the Facebook event!

Lino Prints

During a particularly stressful week last semester I decided to take some time out and have a go at doing some lino prints using oil based inks, just to give myself a break from thinking about projects. I loved using lino but hadn't done it for a while and wanted to see how much better an effect oil-based rather than water-based ink would give me. I didn't plan the image just cut a pattern into the lino and played about with double-printing which gave such a good effect! Definitely going to have a go with more lino stuff this semester as I love the direct simplicity of the technique.