Tutorial / Naomi Pearce 10.3 11

NAME OF STUDENT: max strasser

NAME OF TUTOR: naomi pearce

DATE: 10.3.11

STUDENT TO FILL IN:

What points were discussed during the tutorial?

First we talked about the diversity of my work, and that a fix red thread is not yet visible. we talked about the newest work (guy with pot on his head) and naomi questioned if the scale should be smaller, more intimate. Naomi mentioned, that I seem to construct images that are outside world. I mentioned my interest in the -fake-, (such as my fake CCTV pictures, or UFO pictures), and in the appearence. also the new painting from the guy with the pot on his head appears to have another context (it actually is an image of one of the protesters in Egypt, that protects his head from the thrown stones. Naomi suggested me to spend a day searching for things that are fake, or seem to be something what they are NOT.

What issues will be thinking further on as a result of this conversation?

I will think further about the discrepancy between appearance and being within my paintings. I´m interested in images, that seem to be something, but are something else. Not in terms of formal abstraction, but in terms of meaning. I will also think about, how the title, and also the painting characteristics influences the meaning.

STAFF COMMENTS:

We began by discussing the position of your practice in relation to other more established painters such as Gerhard Richter. In terms of your interest in depicting moments of uncertainty or creating a sense of unease within the viewer we both agreed that Michael Borreman successfully achieves this. This led us to discuss in more detail the importance of scale and the possibility of building up a narrative with multiple canvases which relate in some way to one another.

I suggested looking at artists who work across a diverse range of media but still explore similar conceptual themes, these included Jamie Shovlin who repeatedly explores ‘the fake’ in his practice. Other artists that may be of interest include Gregory Crewdson and Robert Gober for their presentation of familiar and domestic scenes/objects in a disconcerting and uncanny manner.

I´m happy to have seen the exhibition of Gabriel Orozco in the tate modern. It was interesting to see, how the theme -symmetry- continuously repeats in his work in so many applications. I also liked the simplicity of his ideas, and also the accomplishment. His skill to reinterpret games, locations, objects is stunning. I would love to bring the continouity and at the same time simplicity of art projects into my own work, and it is out of that competition of bigger-more complex-more colourful-more freaky.

His work is an detailed looking at the little, special particularity of everyday life.

Tutorial / Jessica 23.3.11

NAME OF STUDENT:max strasser

NAME OF TUTOR: jessica voorsanger

DATE: 23.3.11

STUDENT TO FILL IN:

1. What points were discussed during the tutorial?

Jessica was -another time- surprised by the new direction, my painting is taking. I was telling her, that I´m getting interested in the appearance of paintings, and what´s on the other side actually really the story behind them. She liked the fact that this is a more general area, as I have difficulties sticking to a too constricted theme and working within too much structure. Working with this kind of ambiguity would offer me a wide area of possibilities. I told her about my idea, to rather work in projects, than with a -life theme-, and she said, this is probably the try to escape from a theme, a excuse (I hope, I understood that right). I also told her about a photo project I saw in german media, where landscapes are being photographed, where there are quite hidden -atomic power plants-, and I liked the tension between the apparent idyll, and the small disquieter that destroys it. She then mentioned a postcard with firemen looking at something beautiful in the foreground, whilst in the backround there appears a fire, which they don´t see.

Then I talked about my visit at the susan hiller show in tate britain, especially the -punching judy- room, where this children-story (which I didn´t know before) becomes a kind of horror at the end, which I quite liked.

What issues will be thinking further on as a result of this conversation?

There are different themes, that seem to appear in my work. The fake, appearance, and disquiet idyll. Danny treacy with who I had a guest tutorial, said, that there seems to be something uncanny about the bear-brush, and the puppet head. I very much liked that. I see connection to my destroyed self portrait, which was also an act of destroying the idyll (maybe(coward)). The newer work also appears much more peaceful, than it actually is (hopefully).

On the other hand, I could very much imagine, to paint someone with a tomato smashed in his face, that -on the painting- looks like blood. -same game other way round, but I seem to like to implant a story in the head of the viewer, that is not the right one behind the image. But the viewer decodes the appearance, not the actual “true” content.

3. Any other comments

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STAFF COMMENTS:

Max has consistently been making interesting work but the development of his themes/direction has had randomness to it until recently. One very important method of making work and allowing it to develop is to understand your own working processes. Max is someone who quickly loses interest in self-confining thematic restraints and so, this slightly more ambiguous approach developing the direction and content in the work I think had been a successful development for him. As long as he remains reflective and questions the outcomes within the work he is creating the work can continue to flourish.

I think he also needs to address the materiality within the work. He jumps around painting styles, relatively randomly, but to what purpose? Can this be part of the work, or at least it should be a considered aspect of it.

This is the photo that I mentioned about the firemen:

McLean, Virginia, 1978 by Joel Sternfeld