Friday, October 2, 2009

weekly post 10/2

Did: photographed plastic quilt outside/in the river & edited a few of the pics (2 hrs)
emailed contacts about getting into a pool to photograph (1/2 hr)
worked on quilt...cutting and sewing... (5 hrs)
word mapping/brainstorming key words (1/2 hr)


Discovered/accomplished: Here are a few images from this weeks experiments with the quilt outside...

I think it was kind of funny to watch the geese as the quilt floated down the river towards them. They were a little confused...
I realized that camera angle makes a huge difference in how big the quilt looks. In the photo above, the quilt looks very small, but in the one below it looks as if it occupies much more space.

I liked the flexibility of the quilt to take on different forms. This photo reminds me of a miniature version of Christo & Jeanne-Claude's Wrapped Coast project in Australia.
As I have been constructing the quilt, I have been wondering about different ways light could affect it... These photos kind of happened by accident as my mom lifted the quilt with the light behind her. As clouds passed in front of the sun and the light's intensity changed, her silhouette became softer which I thought was really beautiful... It has given me a lot to think about in terms of playing with shadow and silhouette behind the quilt.

I have played with color adjustments in photoshop as well... the image on the left is closer to the original color of the photo straight out of the camera.
I made a word list in the hopes that it would help me figure out more about what I am really trying to accomplish... here goes:

bizarre/boundary of reality
surreal/surreal landscape
eerie
ephemeral
ghostly
shadows
illusion
floating/fluid

I also love this quote from the book Land Art:
"Places of this kind are outside of all places, even though it may be possible to indicate their location in reality." - Michael Foucault

I was also asked to answer WHAT my project is and WHY I am doing it, in order to prepare to write my proposal.

WHAT:
Art that explores human relationships with water and creates a surreal atmosphere that pushes the boundary of reality.

WHY:
I intend to inspire deeper thought about our place in the world. My work should prompt questions about the role of humans in natural cycles.

Do: 1. I want to make silhouettes that I could place behind the quilt in order to create an illusion of a landscape/place that isn't really there.
2. I am going up north this weekend, in order to help my parents move, but I would like to experiment with a couple ideas I have had for outdoor installation ideas involving plastic.
3. I would like to do more research & consolidate research that I already have, especially plastic leaching into water & food. I want to read the water issue of Good Magazine.



2 comments:

  1. Courtney,

    It seems that you are worried about slipping into the label of activist artist or becoming "preachy", but that in the process of figuring out an alternative, you may be encountering a disconnect between your research passions and your visual ideas.

    What do you want people to think about in regard to humans and natural cycles? I am wondering if you want to convey a message promoting conservation or distributing information, etc. When you make work with the hopes of inspiring deeper thought, you are also trying to guide them to think in one direction or another. You can do this subtley without becoming an emphatic "artist with a message" type. Your why is still very very general. Try to pinpoint what thoughts you are trying to evoke.

    Your quilt looks like an aerial landscape in winter. Is the landscape reference intentional?

    -Erica

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  2. Hi Erica,
    I completely understand what you are saying. I want to reach a place where I feel like my work is based in actual fact, but the images can still have the aesthetic I want. If you get a chance to read my proposal I would be curious to hear your response and see if you think I might be coming up with a solution... or at least a temporary one :)
    Courtney

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