reading

This week I took some pictures of people in Manchester and Liverpool reading.

In the same style as A I wanted to try to capture people in that moment of being engrossed in a book. I felt my trip was quite successful, I found more people to photograph than I expected. What is funny is that I actually felt that I was intruding on these people's personal space by photographing them reading, even though they were all in public spaces. I don't know what I'm going to do with these images to take them further, but I had fun taking them and think they make a nice body of work if nothing more.

Liverpool on a shoestring

A few of us had already planned to go to Liverpool this weekend so we took a little road trip in Helen's car! I've never been to Liverpool before, although I have been meaning to go for years!

There's so much to do there we didn't get round half the places we wanted to go but it was still a very productive trip.

We also visited Fact gallery which, although the 'Yes Man' exhibition wasn't actually there (very badly advertised) we did come across this little gem.

In this dark room there was a spinning table in the middle with zombie figures round the edge. Each figure was in a different pose so as the table moved it became like a moving image and looked the little zombies were dancing to thriller (which was playing). Add a flashing strobe light to create moving shadows projected right round the room and we had ourselves a very bizarre but cool 3D zombie flip book experience!

Another exhibition there called 'primitive' by artist Apichatpong Weerasethakul. This thai artist 'rejects conventional narrative structures in favour of open, collaborative processes that highlight hidden histories and capture real human experience'. His work consisted of seven films and an artist book.

Some interesting things from around the city...

While we were trying to find the 'Yes Man' exhibition we stumbled across the cathedral.

I can only say that I thought it was a hideous monstrosity. It was certainly different from any other but the dirty concrete and shiny panel sheeting stuff was just horrible. I thought it looked like a cross between a factory and a a rocket launcher.

When I got up close to it I could appreciate the grandness of the structure a little bit more... A little bit... but the colours and the lines created were just so harsh and unwelcoming.

Inside it was much nicer - vast and circular with everything leading towards the middle rather than the front.

We came across the most beautiful tapestry hanging in an alcove, which took 6 years to make. The tree branches actually came of the canvas and the water was woven with glitter.

In the shop I found this beautiful fold out timeline of Art history. It was designed by Sarah Fanelli especially for the Tate. If I'd had 7.50 I would have bought it, but its a good example of a folding document!

The Cornerhouse

Exhibition: Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2009

There was so much good stuff here, including some work by Jack Newling and Sam Plagerson I had already seen in London underground which was cool, but I've tried to just pick out the best stuff and what influenced me the most.

Konrad Pustola - 'The dark room series - realised in clubs in Poland, this is a gaze into territories that usually remain hidden and therefore subjective to stereotypical presupposions.' These photographs are beautiful images of deserted spaces that suggest dark stories. Definitely represents silence through absence of people and oppressed connotations.

A film/moving image by Dean Kissick- 'Surrounded by unspeakable horrors, the young boy stood up and waded through pools of clotting blood to the illuminated dance floor, on his own.' The film was made up of still images (the same as La Jetee) but they were played extremely fast to music - so fast you can hardly make out the images. The effect is that you get distorted bits of images, mixed with others and certain bits become imprinted on your mind. It wasn't untill I looked back at these photos that I saw the strange white imprints that seem to have been created.

Having seen two totally different effects created by just using still images, I am now seriously considering experimenting with moving image for my silence project.

Francis Mason- These photographs of building sites have become almost sculptures as parts of the image have been filled with concrete. Very effective and decieving to look at.
I have to admit I don't usually watch films in galleries for more than a few minutes then I tend to get bored and move on, but there were a few that caught my eye in this exhibition. This film by Una Knox frames together physical and mental labour as the metaphors between the two relationships unfold. The two men go up in a lift to fetch this massive box and while they are working they're discussing things like human existence. Its a simple but I found it really fascinating watching the interactions so closely.

Paul Knight - Although these photos are quite explicit, they don't feel like they're meant to be pornographic. Knight is exploring how intimacy and bonds is created between couples. I think a few people have looked at silence and the intimacy it can allow and these photos I think show that really well.
Realised I didn't write down the name of this artist but in the centre of the gallery there were two large hoops suspended in mid air, majestically turning round. I thought they were a good representation of silence - watching them spin certainly evoked a sense of silence in the viewer.

David Price- These pieces looked pretty impressive, exploring the 'eternal fear of humankind', with images of strange under the sea scenes kind of melted into the defaced carpets.

La Jetee - by Chris Marker (1962)

Oh how I adored this film. It was so mesmerising. The images were so atmospheric and communicated so much. I've never seen any piece of moving image that seemed to work so simply. I never would have thought of using stills as being an effective way to create moving image. I particularly liked the use of shadows in the images, so much was unseen or covered.

It also interested me how important the narrative was to the story. I'm really interested in reading at the moment - in my silence work i'm experimenting a lot with looking at the experience of reading as opposed to looking at visuals and how it differs. The stills gave a strong indication of what was going on, set a visual scene, but the narrative was vital. I wondered if you took the images away, how would the visuals materialise individually in people's minds? No doubt it would be a totally different experience for each person. Something totally unique.