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Duane Michals

New Term - New Project

New Term: New Project

In the first session for this term we did an 'object lesson' the idea was that we would use an object that we picked as a starting point for our project this term.  

I chose Will Self's 'Scale' as my starting point:

I liked the idea of 'Scale' and I created sketchbook sheet with the first lines of the book: 

'Some people lose their sense of proportion, I've lost my sense of scale' 

I had a few ideas in class which will need to be developed - I liked the idea of Alice in Wonderland with the 'Eat me' 'Drink me' potions to becoming larger and smaller. This is in turn reminded me of the artist:Anne Gaskell and her 'Wonder' series 

Untitled#02 Wonder 

'Anne Gaskell crafts foreboding photographic tableaux of preadolescent girls that reference children’s games, literature, and psychology. She is interested in isolating dramatic moments from larger plots such as Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, visible in two series: wonder (1996–97) and override (1997). In Gaskell’s style of “narrative photography,” of which Cindy Sherman is a pioneer, the image is carefully planned and staged; the scene presented is “artificial” in that it exists only to be photographed.' 

Guggenheim (2017) Collection Online: Anne Gaskell [Online] Available from: https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/1409 (Accessed 11th April 2017) 

I am interested in the photographic tableaux as these staged images can create a truth more real than a documentary image if they are executed well. In this image I actually like the ambiguity as is the girl holding the other girls nose - is she trying to save her or trying to kill her?  

In relation to scale the Wonder series examines the pre-adolescent girls and uses their bodies which are in flux from childhood to adulthood just like Alice in Wonderland.  I am no longer a girl however the body and scale could be developed to create a photographic project that may work.

I will work on some sketches to develop these ideas further....

Focus On: Jenny Holzer

As I am using image and text in my project and i am creating narratives I looked at the work of Jenny Holzer

Source: Jenny Holzer Projections Buenos Aires (2000)

Source: Jenny Holzer Projections Goslar (2002)

The use of text and image in her work through light projection works well with the messages that she is trying to send out - it is commentary on politics, life, sexuality, violence and power: 

'The main topics of Holzer’s work are violence, oppression, sexuality, feminism, power of war and death. The artist is emphasising and bringing to light important issues of the capitalist society by cleverly commenting on sexual identity, gender relations and a variety of political and existential issues. ' (Widewalls 2016: Jenny Holzer)

The stories I am using are personal however as with any art piece there may be a universal meaning one that everyone can relate to and so this work of Holzer's although biased in the sense of the message shows a narrative highly visual solution to to text and image.  the image here is the location and it only the text that the artist is adding.  In the work I am creating the words are not mine but I will create or reappropriate images to highlight the words.

I will be exploring further text and image and how to make a narrative work in an art piece.

My Mother's Story On Website

Here are the screenshots and link to my website to My Mother's Story:

I may change the layout of this story but I put the story together on Photoshop and then uploaded as a page as this was the easiest way to ensure I got the layout that I wanted.  The link to my website is: Zoe Van-de-Velde

I now need to work on making the other stories consistent and finding the right images ot go with each story.  

My Mother's Story

I first left home when I was 17 or 18 and I moved in with a girl whose real name was Marion but she liked to be called Marianne because she felt that she looked like Marianne Faithfull.

Source: W Magazine: Marianne Faithfull

My Mum and Dad came home and I told them that I was leaving home, my Dad was very disappointed and the photograph that is linked to this story shows me looking very happy at the thought of leaving home except that there had been a big argument, so it was the camera telling a lie.  When I moved out I only managed to stay gone three months because my flatmate was hardly there and I got very depressed being on my own having lived with a family of six (including me) and she was having boyfriend problems which resulted in alarm clocks being thrown through the window and the police being brought in. I had to phone my Daddy and say 'please can I come home?'

My Mother & Father (1968) 

This is the picture my Mother sent to go with her story - and this is her with my Father whom she married a few years later... This is 6 years before I was born and my Dad had hair...

My Leaving Home Story

I was sixteen and just finishing my GCSE's I had a place in college to do A levels in Performing Arts but I just didn't want to stay so I enlisted the help of The Lady magazine;



Source: The Lady Album of the Week

This magazine has adverts from people around the world seeking staff for their (very big) houses.. They also have adverts for au pairs to look after their children.  I had decided I wanted to go to Germany, I thought it looked strange and romantic but also I thought it was full of all the structure that I did not feel at home.  So I applied for many jobs, as I was underage it meant that the person employing me would have to be my Guardian so it was a little more difficult.  Finally I was offered two jobs and I took the one that sounded the best.  It was a family with three children aged 11, 9, and 4.  I remember the day I left I had packed (not well) I hardly took anything with me and hadn't even packed a coat (the woman I worked for ended up buying me a coat when it got cold) I left my Mother at the airport she was upset, I don't remember really crying until I got on the plane which was full of just German business men - I felt so far away before I had gone anywhere...

I arrived at Frankfurt airport and was met by the woman from the au pair agency, I remember driving through the German streets thinking how different everything looked, a different smell, different trees, a different feel.  I arrived at the house and met the children and the Mother - they showed me my room which was in a grey basement and had a tiny window with bars and all I could see was the mason's opposite who had gravestones in his garden .  The room consisted of two mattresses on top of one another some bedding, a table and I think a chair.  The advantage of the basement was that I had my own bathroom next door to the room but other than that it was a very austere room that despite my efforts with posters never looked much cheerier!  I went out for a walk on my first night, got promptly lost and had great difficultly finding my way back as I couldn't speak German and did not even take a map with me.  I think I spent the next six months lost ....

Interlude: Zoetrope looks back...

Everyone, I thought I would blog something I found whilst I was working on my project.  It is me when I was you!

My student card at De Montfort in my first year of University.  I look so innocent that it hurts...

In relation to my project by this time I had left home six years prior to this.... story to follow.