Creative Live Talks

​

Alexandra Carr and Colin Rennie

4/2/18

​

This week I went to my first artist talk at the St.Peters campus, by Alexandra Carr and Colin Rennie who both work in sculpture. Although I am not looking into sculpture in my own work, I wanted to go and see how other people work and learn more about contemporary sculpture. Before I went to the talk I viewed the brief that told me what the talk would be about, it stated that the theme of their work was, nature and natural phenomena, and the combination of science art. This being something I've never heard about, I was intrigued to hear more about it. The email also said that both artists use glass often as a medium but experimented in other medias such as instillation, drawing, photography and video/visual media. 

​

Starting with Carr, she considered herself to be a scientific experimental artist. Creating new, provoking perspectives and dialogues through sculpture and intimation. My favourite work from the collection that she showed us was 'Empyrean', inspired by the medieval cosmology theory of the spiralling sun. Which is where they believed that the sun rotated around the earth like a corkscrew. The piece was presented so that the viewers could walk around it, creating an illusion, and was made up of spares of gold dots. I admire the accuracy and precision of Empyrean, creating in my opinion, what looks to be a perfect piece. 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Another piece of Carr's is 'Ether', made up of 5km of nylon thread tied into knots. The piece was made within a week and site specific for a cathedral, with the nylon thread displayed across the cathedral space. With the use of lights Carr then illuminated the thread, turning such a simple material and creating what looks to be a colourful explosion. I believe that this piece would have been much better if viewed in person, to soak up the atmosphere and experience the piece in its prime. 

 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Colin Rennie started his talk about his 6 foot glass squid sculptures, which were made up of shapes which looked to have a lot of movement even though they stood still. As the talk went on Rennie he went further into his scientific and more technology based work, using 3D programs such as Rhino to manipulate and construct his sculptures. The program allowed him to produce a framework, which then were cut precisely using a laser cutter, to then erect and hold his glass sculpture in place. I have displayed an image of Rennie most recent exhibition which took place in the National Glass Centre. 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Arabella Plouviez 

16/2/18

​

This week I attended my second Creative Live Talk with that artist Arabella Plouviez, where she discussed a number of her photography work. I have never really looked into photography artist but its a medium I am interested in at the moment in my own work. I thought it would be a good idea to see how Plouviez viewed it, and listen to her views and thoughts in detail. She started by talking about a series named 'A Perfect society', this was based on her personal experience and conversations with women prisoners at Durham prison. At the time the series was made Durham prison had a women unit, and she used direct quotes from the women in the prison and layered them on top of images. The photographs showed small stereotypical toy figures, this was very interesting as my initial thoughts was that I was expecting harsh looking women. But to then see the quotes with the blown up image's of quite 'perfect', doll/toy's was a surprise. Plouviez has gone into detail with what the inmate's have said, as shown on the image below which I believe works very well.  

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

Another series of her work that was talked about was 'Alzheimer's: a quiet story', this was influenced by an interest in understanding what scientifically happens to the brain in the case of Alzheimer's, and how photography was used as a memory in everyday life. These also did not include any people, they only showed domestic sites, but yet gave on the sense of people being there. The piece that caught my eye was 'Routine', showing just a sofa which has a look of age, suggesting wear and tear with the use of creases were someone had continuously sat/lay. I admire this piece as Plouvie's has managed to get the message out subtly, allowing the viewers to know theres a story behind it and grabbing there attention without having to use a person and there looks/emotions to do so.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​