The Pop Art Design Exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery
I really loved this exhibition, there were a lot of interesting sculptural pieces from the 1960s period. Obvious its not from the same period as my project but the variation of abstract forms reminded me a lot of Dada theatre and how they defied the traditional ideologies of theatre. An artist I was particularly drawn to was Alexander Girard. This was due to his simple shapes and colour palette. I liked how naive his artwork was, but still charming and had a performative feel to it. He had a wide variety of work but the pieces that inspired me the most were his sculptural works. In particular, a piece called 'Untitled' (1960), reminded me of a set design. It consisted of a building made up of different simple shapes but was embellished with all sorts. These supposedly were more folk like works of the pop art movement.
I have researched more into his work since and have discovered his print work. These two are very simple shapes, and remind me a lot of paper cut artwork. This is something that i have been looking more into this week, as i attempt to bring my linear drawing techniques into my 3D paper modelling skills. His work has really made me think about using colour within my models. For the considerable time on this project, I have mainly black. I think its important that I start adding colour as soon as possible.
The image on the far right is a poster for one of his exhibitions. This is has simple forms and is extremely effective due to its composition and bold colours. I think this is an inspiration for the theatre poster I am currently working on. I have been making the process very hard for myself by coming up with very complicated compositions. Instead I should choose one image for each poster composition, making it to the point and fulfilling its role to promote rather than tell the whole story.
An added bonus at the Barbican Art Gallery was an exhibition called 'Intervals' by Ayse Erkmen, which showed a series of scenic paintings, that the spectators interacted with by each scene moving up and down within the gallery. This prevented the spectators from walking straight through, as they were unable to get past each piece. I thought was extremely clever as it made the viewer stop and appreciate set design much more than perhaps if they saw a theatre production. Her style of painting was beautiful and whimsical. There was a sense of escape in her images, that ranged from interiors to vast landscapes, from embellishments to patterns. I have attached a youtube video that shows you the effect of the moving scenes:
"She has brought the language of theatre into a visual arts gallery, which is perfect kind of marriage whilst we're here in the Barbican centre". Alona Pardo, Assistant Curator
I also bought myself a few pieces of material for my project and future investigations. These included The Game of Shadows (2013) by Herve Tullet and two pop up cards, one by David A Carter (2011) and the other called The High Street by Emily Sutton for Art Angels. All explore papr art in different ways.
The Game of Shadows requires the reader to interact with the images by holding a torch up to them to create shadows. The reader, aimed at 3+ years, has to answer questions set out by the author. I love the performative aspect of this book, it wraps storytelling and shadow theatre into one. I also think the ap plication of shape has been done really well, the unfussy detailings make for smooth images. They only require a small torch light as well to create well executed shadows. This is another aspect I should consider when photographing my made objects, if i want to add shadow.
The two pop up cards are both very different. David A Carter's pop up card jumps out at the viewer. Again is very simple in its form, yet makes a big impact and could still be described as beautiful in its forms. I like his limited colour palette as well. In the shop, you could choose from three different colours with all the same design. This is a nice touch for the consumer. The Highstreet pop up card was a lot more sophisticated in the imagery, including a lot of detail in it each store. However, the pop up effect is a straightforward concertina, still retaining the presence of a pop up card but with little engineering. This means less is taken away from the illustration. This card reminded me a lot of a book I read as a child, A Street Through Time (1998) illustrated by Steven Noon, where the reader could spend long periods of time soaking in the narrative of many different characters within the image.
At some point I'd really like to explore making pop-up images. This most definitely fits in my interest with illustration as a performance encouraged by this and previous projects. I think it would give my practice an edge if I could bring across theatre in pop up illustrations.
Whilst walking round London, I spotted a few pieces of work that really inspired me...
The first is a poster I spotted in the London underground. It uses sculpture in 2D format. This is the same concept I'm looking at for my own work. There's a definite element of performance in this image. The london eye setting the scene, with figurative sculptures as the performers. The limited colour palette also works well, focusing in on the festive theme of the advertisement.
We also had talks by Matthew Bromley and Pete Fowler. I have huge respect for both of them. However, I was particularly awestruck by the variation of Pete Fowler's work. He covers so many areas, yet approaches each area with such individuality.
No comments:
Post a Comment