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Tracey Emin

One of Britain’s most famous living artist who ranks as one of the most successful female artists in history Tracey Emin’s journey began when she became part of a visual artists group post Thatcherism called the Young British Artists (YBA’s). Having explored her addiction, gender and sexuality within her work she came to prominence as a rebellious, controversial artist who explored these topics through various media. Using her pain, trauma and heartbreak to tell the truth through her homespun like instillations. Some works like ‘Everyone I’ve ever slept with 1963-95’ as well as ‘My bed’ to name two of the most notorious from her collection, perfectly play with the balance of lust and seduction, contrasted against the portrayal of innocence within her work. Over the last decade there has been a crucial separation regarding whether Emin’s work along with other contemporary artists such as Damien Hurst and Marcel Duchamp is to be considered art or not. On one end of the spectrum you have many curators, writers, critics and publishers praising the contemporary works of these artists. On the opposing end, you have conventional, conservative critics denying the contemporary tendencies the right to be called art. A pioneer in contemporary art Emin like most that have followed and will continue to do so base their work on their personal lives and happenings, ‘Everyone I’ve ever slept with’ had a sense of exhibitionism that was aesthetically created and produced with equally balanced internal innocence. She insists that her work is “not autobiographical. Its more about how I express my feelings. I am always trying to find out more about myself-how I think, what makes me do things”. I relate to this statement because I have never created work based on personal circumstances, however, I do use art as a way to express my feelings, and by doing this have found out a lot about myself.

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Sasha Velour

Sasha Velour is a drag persona, she first came to my attention when she starred on and later went on to win season 9 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, the man behind the make up is Alexander Steinberg. Since his stint on drag race he has become one of the best success stories from the show, elevating drag and leading a revolution transforming a system that did not work for him. Producing, directing, staring in his own theatre productions he has shown that drag is not just one thing, he has taken it where people did not think possible. The entirety of his show from set and costume design as well as audio and visuals, is all his own vision.  RuPaul’s drag race gave him the platform he needed to take his visions and turn them into realities, his shows ‘Smoke & Mirrors’ as well as ‘Night Gowns’ have toured the world in some of the most notorious theatres. I draw a lot of inspiration from this queen, as he is a performer but not in the traditional sense that most drag queens are. Velour creates an experience each time, every photo, video and performance is so thoroughly conducted, from the backdrop to the outfit to the makeup and accessories, his attention to detail and his strive for perfection is extremely admirable. “Drag has always inspired people to come together to be joyous and fight for what matters. If we can do it through beauty and positivity then lets do it”, having myself done LGBT+ projects in the past and having recently started the art of drag it is my goal moving forward to convey a similar message through my work.

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Stephen Sutcliffe

Not having much of an academic background, Sutcliffe explained that he learnt a lot thought watching television. Much of his work consists of sourced video clips from different places that he then hijacks and destroys, to then create something new. I found this to be an interesting way of working, the chapman brothers came to mind as I see some similarities between the use of pre existing material that then the artist whether it be Jake or Dinos Chapman or Sutcliffe intervenes with. I have never worked in this style before, however, especially with film and video I sometimes find myself restricted on material or content, dismantling and reconstructing videos from the internet creates a brand-new piece of work. Something you can then take part ownership for, it is a clever way around sourcing material that may be unachievable to film yourself, I may bring this into my practice soon.

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Roy Claire Potter

From interacting with Roy Claire and having participated in their performance writing workshop I got a better understanding of their practice and the way they work, channelling personal circumstances and processing past trauma through the experience of performance art. Focusing on articulation, and a power dynamic between the audience and themselves, expanding on articulation they said it is not only how you speak, but can also be body language and how people see you. Whilst I have not considered doing this within my practice, I have made work based on topics surrounding the LGBT+ community, a community in which I identify too. Doing this has helped me to express my feelings and find self-acceptance. I find it interesting that expressing yourself through art or basing work on life experiences can help in a variety of different ways, from healing to acceptance. I found the style in which they work to be very powerful, I see similarities between Tracey Emin, Nan Goldin and Potter’s work, it is almost biographical in a way.

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Patricia MacKinnon-Day

 Patricia is my second-year tutor, What I found out about her is that she is from Scotland, chose to study outside of her hometown and moved to Liverpool which is very uncommon. She expressed that she felt a disconnect from her hometown in comparison to hr new home in England, and said she was left feeling exiled from Scotland. She has also studied in London, has travelled significantly across the UK with her work while also taking her many international destinations such as Singapore, Germany, Sweden and more. A common theme running through Mackinnon-Days practice I found in my research is the incorporation of others within her work, from back when she did her dissertation to even now regarding her current exhibition at the Tate Liverpool. Her practice strives to give a voice to the ordinary and to bring forth hidden identities within urban culture, having worked with police officers, architects, developers to even four female shepherds from Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland for her current Tate exhibition ‘Calling Sheds’. Her style of work reminds me of one of my personal favourite artists Gillian Wearing, who I look to for inspiration a lot in my practice. The way in which both Mackinnon-Day and Wearing use and incorporate other people’s stories, thoughts, phrases, characteristics to form a concept or spark an idea, I love. Having done projects in A-level regarding both old and homeless people, interviewing them and taking their pictures, I know that I enjoy this style project, and it is this method of working I can see similarities within mine and Patricia’s practice.

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Adam Carr

I was already very familiar with Adam’s portfolio of work going into the lecture due to him being my first year tutor, he is a curator whose work blurs the lines between curating and artistic practice. Before first year the art of curating was unknown to me, as it was Adam who delved deep into sharing his experiences and knowledge of the subject that got me to the understanding I have for it today. Carr has an international portfolio having worked in many places around the globe, one of his standout exhibitions for me would be from 2010 in Castello di Rivoli where the room was divided into two and there was a piece of work on each side that corresponded with another on the other side. Some pieces with such similarity they could not be mistaken for the others twin, others were done more subtly. Listening and learning from Adam I now put much more though into the way I choose to present my work, as it plays a huge factor in how it is perceived. Sometimes the way in which you present your work can actually be an extension of the work itself, as last year I decided to paint the plinths in the style of postcards I had made that were positioned on top.

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Ines Doujak & John Barker

Doujak work explores visual culture and material aesthetics that have a queer-feminist, anti-racist, anti-colonial charge, she often collaborates on various projects with Barker, who has been writing about political economy for the past forty years, he also writes fiction and a memoir. During the lecture they showed posters they had produced, all starting out with a date and a word, that word often being associated with textiles would be like fabric, cotton, dye etc. that word and date would then evolve into the poster that was presented to us. These posters were related to the political history of the textiles industry, a subject I knew next to nothing about prior to the lecture. A video of their work that was shown to us by them at the end was by far the most captivated the room had been throughout the lecture, entitled ‘Haute Couture no3 carnival – a mask is always active’ made in 2014 it was like nothing I had seen before. This was by far one of the craziest things I have been shown during any lecture however I was captivated by the movement of the dancers involved, entranced by the music playing and was left feeling happy and giddy afterwards. Art being subjective it did not leave all my course mates with the same positive impression, and that’s why I think the video is so powerful because it created a different experience for everyone that seen it that day.

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Mark Wright

Looking back on Wrights notes not much of what I written makes sense to me, this isn’t surprising due to the lecture itself being difficult for me to follow. I found it difficult to connect to Mark and his portfolio of work because much of it consisted of high complex language, techniques, equipment and so on. Whist I was able to see and appreciate the work presented to me during the lecture, it was the explanations of what and why I struggled to comprehend. Why had he made this along with what was used to make this, both questions presumably answered about each individual art piece but said in a way in which I could not translate. Mark comes from a scientific background, and transitioning into the world of art he had to adapt his approach to research. His work ‘Connecting Cities’ was the standout from his practice for me, a seaside like telescope would be placed in the middle of a busy city, however when you look into it you get a digital live feed of a different city to the one you’re in, along with your eyes being live fed to a digital screen in that said city. I don’t understand the nitty gritty behind it, as I am clueless to what equipment was used to be able to make that happen. The outcome however is brilliant, and the concept is really intriguing. This piece of work got me thinking about other possibilities for him and his practice. Incorporating technology in his work comes down to the fact that technology is forever changing, meaning new developments mean new possibilities, the extent of technology used within my own practice consists of a camera and a little Photoshop now and again. Mark’s work interestingly links very heavily to my sixth form Art and Design essay entitled ‘How has technology changed the way in which we view and make art within the 21st century’.

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Rory Macbeth

 Rory travelled Epitope Street painting classical paintings and identified himself a painter in his earlier practice, during this time people would throw money at him and he loved it. Since his degree a painter he is not, having moved considerably away from painting he has explored many different mediums and methods. On the opposite end of the spectrum to classical painting, one of Macbeths work was a performance piece in which he took a group of people on a fake guided tour of a gallery, fed them lies about the paintings and the artists and had plaques made to support his false facts. One series of work that resonated with me in particular consisted of him finding abandoned objects such as burnt out cars, scooters and other objects which he then spray painted entirely one colour. Colour is a common theme throughout my practice, having last year created an installation of a women eating pasta and the entirety of the room and everything in it being orange, the idea of that block colour similar to Rory’s objects he finds and re-paints has a way of captivating me. Following on from last year’s orange room I have plans to carry out a project where I paint someone with body paint one colour, in a series which will consist of six different people painted the six different colours of the rainbow. I see an occurring theme within Rory’s work and that is comedy, his work doesn’t have an agenda, meaning or purpose, I get the impression he thinks up an idea and just creates it, artwork that is simply what it is with no underlying message I really identify with, and I see this within mine as well as Rory’s work.

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Jacqui Hallum

Jacqui Hallum won the John Moores painting prize in 2018 and has since been awarded fellowship in the LJMU Art and Design building, which she worked in during last summer. The work Hallum created during this time and within this space is now exhibiting in The Walker Art gallery room 13. Hallum’s lecture was in conversation with Dan Howard-Brit who has worked alongside Jacqui for several years, he has also curated several of her shows including her current Walker exhibition. Seeing how Hallum really utilised the third floor studio space during her stint there in the summer was really inspiring, and the outcomes of work she produced during this time was my favourite work she presented in the lecture. Her style of work has changed throughout her education and studio practice, all whilst sticking with her unique method of adding chemically active substances to the paint. “I enjoy watching the painting make itself as it reacts to hardware substances on the canvas” Before today I had never seen this done before and have never done anything remotely similar to her individual painting technique. She mixes materials such as Ion Oxide, stain, gloss, crystal forming sulphates and more, all mediums I am very unfamiliar with and have never considered using in my art work. Whilst the outcome of mixing these materials with paint leaves a mesmerising, trancelike, one of a kind effect on the canvas that I can personally really admire and appreciate, her work style is very dissimilar to mine and I struggle to make connections between our two methods of creating.

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Bedwyr Williams

 The way in which Williams delivered his lecture was kind of jagged, with quick explanations to try and showcase his whole portfolio in the little time he had. Bedwyr began by explaining his current situation, this was that he creates all his work on an iPad in bed or on the front room armchair of his father’s house, he then posts these doodles onto Instagram. Williams was bold enough to make the statement “Instagram is ruining all of our lives” whilst continuing to explain how his own Instagram platform landed him his most recent art project. This consisted of him designing the London underground tube map, as well as some posters, other than this one project he expressed that currently work has been slow and not much is happening creatively. A moment I seen myself within Williams during the lecture would be when he was explaining his technique, this was “make now, research later”, he then laughed and told us not to write that down. I found this method of work extremely relatable to my practice, as I too create the idea as and when it comes to me and then backtrack for the research afterwards. A video of a virtual reality he has created was shown to us, it consisted of “controversial buildings” on a hill, the voice over that he had done himself consisted of phrases like “on the park as a boy flying a kite” and “a girl about to experience her first kiss”. These phrases sounded nostalgic to me, so I struggled to see the correlation between the virtual reality video and the sound piece placed on top. William’s work didn’t leave a lasting impact and it was an easily forgettable lecture. Lovely artist and I see myself in him and the way he think, and his work ethic, although the work itself did not resonate with me.

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Jai Chuhan

Jai began the lecture by explaining her work is inspired by things she finds and sees around her in everyday life. Having been born in India we found out a little bit of family history of her two grandmothers, one made clay ovens so well she would make them for people in the village in return for food or other offerings, the other was a seamstress, she briefly touched upon the fact would this be considered as a trade or art but didn’t delve into this matter. Chuhan expressed she herself really enjoys clay and sculpture, however we did not see any of her own but rather a variety of other artists who impact her and her craft. Jai’s early influence came from expressionist painters, “they were really trying to do the opposite to impressionism which is trying to capture the visual sensation of seeing something in the moment”. Chuhan then continued to show us a series of paintings that consisted of women in interiors, not clear who they are, what they are doing or their race, the women she portrays are completely anonymous. The painting ‘Bride’ was one of her most interesting pieces, my initial impression was a figure of a women sprawled sensually on striking red silk sheets. ‘Bride’ is actually based off a photograph Jai took of a still life model in a pose she found intriguing, she explained the configuration of the colours and how they are arranged say something about what she is trying to portray in a painting. This particular painting she chose red for the sheets, red in Indian culture symbolises fertility and it’s the colour most often worn by brides and young women in India, I found this fact extremely interesting because of her use of the colour within the painting on top of my own interpretation that stemmed from the colour choice.

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Gabrielle De La Puente

Gabrielle studied fine art at saint martins, always considered herself a painter from an extremely young age. When asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, she would always reply “a painter”, and would never be as broad to say an artist. Gabrielle later discovered a new passion during her university years, the new flame in her life was art criticism and critique. She and her friend were unsatisfied with the way in which art was being critiqued by “rich old white men”, this sparked the creation of an Instagram page called ‘the white pube’ with the purpose of writing about how the art world operates as well as honest exhibition reviews and so on. This led onto her now current job, which is running Output gallery which she founded, located here in Liverpool, a space she has created for local Liverpool artists to exhibit their work. An interesting concept Gabrielle came up with during the time ‘pic or it didn’t happen’ phrase was at its peak (2015), she curated a fake exhibition with posters, reviews, a Facebook page, etc. The exhibition never happened but she has picture evidence to suggest it did, I particularly like this concept especially because of the engagement of social media and modern-day culture, and the concept would not exist without the then popular phrase amongst the younger generation. I feel it is important to keep engaged with current affairs and I really enjoy art that jumps on these bandwagons as their work is only relevant for a hot minute, it is also a genre that is a quick and renewable source of never ending ideas and concepts.

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Alex Frost

Frost began by showcasing an array of sculptures, “as someone that makes things, objects in various different ways, the traditions of my life and the facilities I have access to decide what I make”. Based on context, placement, the site and its conditions he creates what could be a large or small sculpture specific to the space. He touched upon the fact that sculptures give him headaches, as once made and exhibited he has no reason for them or place to store them. Some of my favourite work he shoed during the lecture was his sand sculptures. Even though these are 3D objects because of the nature of sand and gravity they often collapse, indent or fall, therefor his explanation of the art is that it only exists as an image. This is because its forever changing by the second, minute, hour, the fact that the sculpture can look one way in one imagine and another way in another because they were taken at different times is an intriguing concept to me. As he expanded on this concept, he explained he began to introduce elements into the sand that contributed to the context of the space the work was being exhibited in. I have never experimented with sculpture in my own practice before, on reflection of the lecture and Frost’s work it has not inspired me to start incorporating sculpture into my practice. However, I can really appreciate his work, and the concept of art that changes over time is something that may influence my work in some way in the future.

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Rick Creed

“Stop thinking about whether it fits in or not. I do work for myself and its alive and its real for me and that’s enough. All the time I’ve spent over the years thinking is this right? Will a curator like it? It’s a fashion thing catching the wave all the time, but when you find a direction you want to go in move ahead and be yourself. Don’t give a shit about anyone else, concentrate on yourself and what you want to do”. I loved Ricks raw approach to the lecture, he was extremely honest throughout not only about his work but the art industry and what it entails. How situations have affected him in the past, being very focused on colour and composition within his paintings, a comment that stuck with Rick made by one of his tutees. “you shouldn’t use colour at all, you are not a colourist”, made him question his practice and affected his sensitivity. Creed has since worked through his own self doubt and has realised the only person he needs to please with his work is himself. I personally need to take a massive leap towards that way of thinking, to stop putting pressure on myself of what other people might think of my work when my opinion is the only one that should matter regarding my work. Creed says he often works with acrylics because it allows him to produce a lot very quickly, I don’t paint often or in fact at all in my practice. However, I am so focused and fascinated by colour, Ricks work is all about colour and therefor I really enjoyed the lecture, from the work he shown, to the approach Rick took to deliver this lecture.

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Fiona James

This lecture was different to any other I have encountered, instead of James showing her work she instead spoke about phycology and how it can be used to inform, create and inspire your practice. Fiona being a therapist as well as an artist and radical feminist, she sees the three, rather than separate, intertwined and they influence each other.  Introducing the lecture with “notes to a younger self” there were four key things she focused on, 1st steer by your values, 2nd find your pleasure, 3rd trust your intuition & 4th befriend your fear and what it immobilises. These were the four subheadings that she expanded on in depth, I found her advice to be helpful. As the lecture went on, I did unfortunately get more and more lost, as scientific and phycological language was being used more frequently. The only insight into Fiona’s artistic background was when she mentioned briefly that she studied sculpture for her BA, and that her sculptures explored the importance of time, bodies and bodies intertwining. As well as tackling with sculpture as her medium, tackling how to work with an audience, however I struggle to understand how she did this with sculpture, it’s something I would have liked to know more about. Unfortunately, she did not divulge any further into her practice or education, she spent the remainder of the lecture talking about techniques we could try on ourselves when stressed. Not knowing what medium she used for her sculptures or what her current practice consists off I am unable to see similarities between our practice, other than she uses her therapist qualification and phycology to influence her work, which I do not.

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Richard Jackson

Unfortunately, I have never came across Richard Jacksons work until very recently, because of the sheer admiration and owe I have for him and his practice I decided to look more into him and his work, resulting in a blog post. Jackson is a now an 80-year-old contemporary artist, much of his work consists of action painting influenced by expressionism. Creating sculptures that cause eruptions or trickles of paint, often meant to suggest bodily fluids covering gallery walls, ceilings and floors in an unconventional approach to painting. He is known for his playful sense of humour and sharp wit that he incorporates into near all his work, I am particularly drawn to Jacksons work because of the bold, bright and beautiful colours he uses. My practice is based on and around colour a significant amount of the time, Jacksons use of colour gives me inspiration for my own work. Recently painting my body, the six different colours of the LGBT+ flag for a piece of work geared around of course LGBT+ but also what led me there in the first place, colour. I proceeded to create additional work by pouring coloured paint over my body of whatever colour I painted, this resulted in not only having 6 different photos but also 6 videos which could be considered performance painting.