Susan Hiller Exhibition / Tate Britain

The Susan Hiller exhibition was a brilliant one. She just brings order to things, and makes a brillian piece of art out of it. Her Approach is quite simple in most of her work - collecting and ordering and finding interesting criteria in classifying things.

But also the piece..... was a good one for me to look at. The child-story of punching judy turns out to be some kind of horror- or war-scenario, using two projectors projecting on the opposite side of one room. some sequences repeat many times, and slow-motion and out-of-focus-scenes make it authentic. Furthermore an annoying voice repeats stuff like: "This is how to do it" many times.

It was interesting to see, how she turns stuff into horror.

She also had a diverse range of works shown in the tate britain. she works in projects in different approaches. The concept for most of the projects is very simple, which leads me to a lovely conclusion:

The content of every day contains potential for a good piece of art.

tutorial / danny treacy

MA FINE ART: TUTORIAL NOTES FORM


NAME OF TUTOR: danny treacy

DATE: 24.2.11



STUDENT TO FILL IN:
1.What points were discussed during the tutorial?

At first we talked about my difficulties with research and conceptualism. If the work follows the written word, or the written word follows the work, and which role plays the instinct in art, and if research can kill it. I mentioned my problems with the question \"why\" and we discussed the validity of that question. In context with my handbrushpainting, and even more with the puppet head we discussed the role of the \"canny\" and the \"uncanny\" in my pictures. Danny was also interested in the context to my family. on base of the dolls head, we came to my interest for clowns, when I mentioned, that I think that the image of every cute thing also contains it´s opposite, the \"uncanny\" side. Canny told me about the origin of the clowns face, which is a rather horrible story.
Furthermore we talked about my cctv paintings, and Danny adviced me to think about the unity of the series, and to choose places where no cctv is expected.



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

I found the advice of Danny concerning the CCTV pictures very useful, so I´m thinking more about the context between each piece, and choosing places. He also said, that he believes, that going on working is the best research one can do, so I will try to find my way through working. I´m also thinking about involving more objects or photos related to my family in my work.



STAFF COMMENTS:

As you have mentioned above I found a strong sense of the ‘Uncanny’ in your work. There is something animated within your imagery of very dead things (the brush, the dolls head, the cctv footage). I think you are using the paint in a very interesting way to achieve this. I think you are right to be thinking about the concept/context which can unite your imagery. I would advise you to look at the work and writings of Mike Kelly, particularly on the uncanny and his collection of objects. I really think your strength is in presenting to the viewer a world that is both innocent, almost childish or naïve, yet there is a strong underlying sense of something not quite right, very good.

frank auerbach

it´s a shame that I didn´t came across this painter earlier. one of the most intensive and paste-like painting styles I know. but there also seems to be (maybe it´s just me) that sense of unsharpness like in photos in parts of that painting, where the figure and backround meet.

Graham Rawle

A very interesting lecture. The content of it was not really relevant to me, but just the way he enjoyed doing his art, and transferred this onto the artwork. Graham seemed very idealistic, in terms of who he is working for and for which project.

I also found the simplicity of his work quite stunning. A simple Idea, but consequent working on it.

He really seemed to be united with his artwork. Very inspiring for me, as I´m still searching for the "ME" in art.

interesting Borremans interview 2006

I’ve always been struck by the tension in your work between your technical virtuosity and the realism in the paintings, and this unsettling, surreal world they suggest…

All of that creates a kind of psychological impact that is interesting. It’s kind of conceptual in a way. We all deal with images as a language, we all respond to these codes, but I fuck these codes up—that what’s I do. Following the elements in a work usually leads to something, leads to a solution. In my work, it fails to do that. You have within the imagery a kind of “ideological failure” is how I put it. I look out for that, I mess around with it, because I think it makes you question not only an art work, but also an image, and with that reality and truth. You know: Does truth exist? What is it?

Is that why you’re drawn to this uncanny world filled with an ambiguous past? You’ve frequently used some dark imagery out of the 1940’s…

In these new paintings, I’ve tried to avoid it. But there are several reasons why I’ve used that type of imagery. For one, I didn’t want there to be an individual in the paintings. In my paintings, there are no individuals, they’re just types, stereotypes, two-dimensional images. They’re human beings in their symbolic quality, like the pieces in a chess game—they stand for something. I also wanted to avoid showing contemporary people because I think that has an anecdotal connotation, which wasn’t useful for me because I wanted to depict this very general, 20th-century man.

So I took the image of man in the middle of the 20th century. That’s an interesting period, of course, because you had the War then, and there was this time from the 1930s to the 1960s with tremendous change in society and in life. Therefore, it’s fairly significant, especially in the way we look back it, which is why I wanted to use that imagery.

It was also to erase time a bit, to make it general. But I found out that the imagery also has an aesthetic quality and that perhaps that quality was too dominant sometimes, and the work was appreciated mostly for that. That disturbed me, which is why I’m seeking a more efficient way to work out my concepts.

In changing to a more contemporary imagery, you’ve also harkened back to Velazquez and Manet and even Chardin—in doing these new portraits for example.

That’s a form of dialogue with tradition in painting. But of course the portraits are not real portraits. They’re not about people that are depicted, or making a characteristic image of them that speaks for what they are. I just use this exterior form of a portrait so that you have certain expectations of it, but it doesn’t really work like a portrait. It doesn’t reveal anything or go where we’d expect it would go. So on the surface you have a portrait, but the content of it is just not there. There’s nothing there.

There’s this amazing quality to the paint…

Yes, but that’s another aspect of the work. I think an interesting work of art—whatever it is, whether it’s film or literature—should have a whole range of qualities, and therefore you can appreciate it for very different reasons and from very different angles. Good art needs that. In a lot of 20th-century art, you have this focus on only certain aspects of art, and it was a very interesting period for that. But that’s finished now. That’s why I think I’m a very subversive and revolutionary artist [laughs]. An artist has to be convinced of that: It’s not pretentious, it’s not arrogance, it’s a responsibility.

You know, art is always a testimony, is always witnessing its time. When you look in the past, it’s always the art that tells the story, really. It’s the thing that remains, and we should not underestimate it.

Is a sense of being culturally haunted by the Second World War part of the imagery in your painting?

Well as you know, and it’s a cliché of course, that every work of an artist is a kind of self-portrait. And of course this period has an influence on me, because when I was little in the 1960s and 1970s, older people only talked about the war. It was really present still. It wasn’t that long ago. All my aunts and my grandfather and grandmother had all these stories about the war. As a child, that was a tremendous influence.

This dialogue with tradition in painting you mentioned—is this continuity of tradition part of what you find productive in painting?

I started painting kind of late. I was in my early 30s. I did drawing before and did work in graphic media. I always wanted to paint but I never dared to do it. I never found my way in it. I tried from time to time. But I’ve always been interested in the medium. Now, the more I paint, I can’t stop anymore.

One of the reasons I consciously chose to work in painting is that you can’t use it only as a medium. It has this historical connotation, and either you want [that connotation] or you don’t want it. So if you paint, you should make use of that. It’s inherent to the medium, and it’s very important. If you don’t want it, take another medium. It’s as simple as that. Therefore this dialogue with other painting is to me very essential.

It also has to do with another aspect of the medium of painting: Good painting is always contemporary in a way. I just came from MoMA, from the Munch show—he’s not my favorite painter—but his paintings are concretely there. They’re mental things, they’re not objects. They have this mental vibration, and they are here now. A painting is always now. When I see a self-portrait by Rembrandt, and it’s well conserved, it looks like it was painted yesterday. There’s this leveling of time, this erasing of time.

You mentioned starting in drawing, which is also a major facet of your work. Do you see drawing and painting as distinct projects?

There are similarities, thematically, between my drawing and my painting, but they are different things, because they have a different function for me. The drawings are more literal, the putting on paper of ideas really. Painting is a more passionate thing. There’s much more risk in it. There’s me and there’s the painting, and we have to come together in a way. Drawing is my medium, I control it much better. The painting I don’t control that much. It’s like a mistress.

But your paintings are so assured, the technique is so assured…

That’s how it’s got to look [laughs]. I always think I can do better. That’s why sometimes I have to postpone a show—I postponed this show three times. Sometimes, mentally, I’m just not finished with a group of works, and I often make the same painting several times, just to see if I can do it better.

There’s an example of that in the new show, with these two paintings of a man’s legs…

Yes, but in that case they were both interesting. That’s why I made a diptych out of it, because it gives something more to the whole. It was an interesting accident.

Let’s go back to the drawings. You tend to work on very intimate material—envelopes, passepartouts—materials that aren’t necessarily traditional drawing mediums.

What has always fascinated me about drawing since I was a child is that you can, on an envelope or whatever, evoke a complete world. You are god. That has always been completely striking for me. I can do anything, and I don’t harm anyone.

But your drawings and paintings are often about seemingly harmful experiences, or about being controlled.

Yes, but what’s wrong with that? It’s all around us. In fact, it’s less there in my work than in the real world. That’s part the romantic element to the imagery, too, in the sense that’s there’s no way out, that we’re all prisoners—I mistrust institutions. It’s like Caspar David Friedrich. He used nature as a metaphor; I work in the interior.

You also work from photographs; what do you think has been so productive to a whole generation of painters about translating a photographic image into the medium of painting?

Well, you have to be able to deal with it. A lot of painters stay too close to the photograph, and it’s clear when you see the work. You have to leave the photograph, to manipulate it a bit. And the photograph doesn’t have to be interesting; it’s the painting that has to be interesting. I never use a good photograph because that’s finished. When you have good photograph you cannot improve it anymore. So I always work from an image that has a lot of shortcomings. Then I have a feeling that I am creative, that I am changing the original image.

And since photography has been there it has been an aid for artists, a device for painters. You don’t have to have a model standing all day in your studio, although that gives a different kind of painting. I paint from nature as well from time to time. It’s important to do that. When I paint in small formats, I often do it from nature.

You mostly work in small scale—except for this huge painting in the new show. Is that influenced by your training as an etcher?

It’s practical—such a big painting like The Avoider is not practical. I’m a pragmatic person. Painters mostly are, because it’s a medium for pragmatists. You don’t need much—with drawing even more so. Sometimes an artist has to rebuild a whole museum, and I can get the same impact on a small page.

I’ve also been experimenting with film, small 35mm loops. Film is not a pragmatic medium, but it’s actually very close to what I’m doing in painting. The relationship between painting and film is much closer than painting and photography. Painting to me is a moving image when it’s painted well. To me there’s a connection, and experimenting with film is a very obvious thing to do—it comes out of the painting.

Mid point review

Comments /notes

Brave to destroy work.

Looks like destroying, but some beauty. Lovely layers and brush strokes.

Not destroying, aestheticising. Spray painted image more dramatic. Resonances with graffiti and vandalism. Left painting seems affected.

Questioning the idea of painting as self-portrait. Conveys sense of the artist in the conventions of representations of artists.

Unknown Kettle’s Yard exhibition where an artist destroyed self-portrait using a blue square. Aware it is a portrait of Max in both images.

Pasolini film (Theorem) depicts an artist’s movement through the rhetoric of painting. Sequence in film about object, gesture, movement. Work feels rhetorical.

Canvases warped. Part of the aesthetic? Alter pieces?

Greyscale and relationship to photography. A dialogue. Passport photo, identity, identity theft.

Scale odd. Political portraits. Dictators. Maybe relates more to ways of destroying photos. Paintings difficult to destroy. Image destroyed, not the painting.

Spray paint over face – censorship.

The relationship between the two paintings allow you access to what has been erased by the spray paint.

Beginning of a series? Negotiating destruction.

Scale cold be larger e.g. graffiti murals. If enormous, deconstructs the self.

Evokes feeling of punching your reflection in a mirror after a bad day.

Read in relation to the capitalist realists, e.g. Richter, Frize.

Parody of anti-concept in painting?

Where does the work go next? How valid is the self-portrait in contemporary society? What space does it create for the viewer? Does the work have a romantic character?

Interesting to see the canvas destroyed. Addition of lots of layers, like layers of graffiti.

Want to see the process in relation to the work, e.g. the grid.

Playful element of sprayed face on plinth. Maintaining a lightness would be wonderful.

Gesture of erasure seems reluctant (spray paint). Tentative.

Third painting could be destroyed absolutely and set up a different relationship between the first two. Process of erasure could be documented (video).

Destruction can be cathartic. No sense of release in the work.

What is the next stage? Could have pedagogical or interventionalist aspect. Joseph Beuys. History of art being defaced and destroyed, e.g. the suffragettes.

Painting a very genuine process. Could raise questions of what’s real, i.e. has the erased portion actually been painted? Example of a unknown piece in the Istanbul Biennale. Three dimensional faxing of the David.

Could use different blacks to improve.

Next steps? Erasure painting into a corner.

Defacing photos in newspapers. Walter Benjamin.

Lots of ways forward. Could be menacing – Talking head, the broken digital image.

Longing for colour. Greyscale easier? Greyscale produces a different temporal relationship.

My Comment to the comments:

I liked the discussion, if it is actually an destructive, or an aestheticising act, because it is what I wanted to arise. I also liked the connection made to identity, and passport photos, as it goes above the fact, that it is just a self portrait, as it contains something else. I´m still not sure about the question, if the "destruction should be documented or not, as a video would add another form of aesthetics, and visual impressions, that I´m actually not interested in. Documentation would be a work of its own, not really connected to the painting. I got really interested in the question if the erased part of the painting really got erased, or not. So it arised the idea to make -fake- destroyed self portraits, with parts, that seem to be destroyed, but actually never have been painted. Also the connection with censorship gets another face, as only a blank part of the canvas is censored. I would stick to the black and white portraits, but would “destroy” in another colour, randomly chosen. So a completely “overpainted” canvas with colour, in the context of a series, would appear like a destroyed self portrait, that it actually never was.

baselitz

As I am writing about the abstinence of content in the work of Gerhard Richter, and how he tries to avoid the suject, it reminded me of another german painter -georg baselitz- which had the intention to make the image a painting again. his way of doing it is, that he paints the picture upside down. This aims to give the viewer another approach to the picture, and wants to put the painting itself in the foreground the image in the background. Sometimes he also replaces the black with white, and the white with black, which furthermore abstracts the image.

one could ask, why he doesn´t do abstract painting, if he intends this kind of approach, but actually I love questions left with the observer. If one has every answer to every question, is the painting of any interest anymore? Does the magic remain?

Sonntagsbilder (Sunday Paintings)

both 60 x 60 cm / oil on canvas

Whilst talking to Jessica in a tutorial, I mentioned I would really admire people that finish a painting every day. I meant one in particular, Edward Gordon, who sells a painting every day on his blog. Jessica recommended me to give my work also some kind of rule, or maybe regularity, so I started to search for something to paint every sunday, and paint it on the following week (not being consequent enough (and able) to finish a painting every day. I liked it, as long as I found the object on my daily way to somewhere (shopping, visits etc.) but in the third week, I did not go out of the flat at all, so I had to go out especially for searching something that I could use as a template. This felt very artificial to me, so I thought this would never be a long term project. I went home without anything which was the end of the series.

But now I see the links to to my first portraits I did (the black and white big ones) as they also were randomly found objects - in this case people - which I painted afterwards. I like to paint things, that are confusing people with the question: Why is he painting this, does it have a relation to him? Are these objects or people really worth being painted by someone - as it needs time and energy to do so??

I like playing with expectations of the viewer, what painting should depict and be. Painting is a good way to do so, as people know, that it needs time (better as for example photography), and the historic backround painting has.

Gasworks

We had a small, and very short exhibition at Gasworks gallery. It was a lovely experience, even if the rehanging of stuff was a bit annoying. It would have been better, if the curators would have been in the gallery from the first day on, to make it bit less stressing for people at the end. But it was great, as the whole course (pt.2 & full time) got together, and put up a show, which was a very good one at the end. It also was a good opportunity to get to know the people, that we are actually studying with.

I showed Paul, which looked great in the gallery space - could have been streched better. -Next time.

Good atmosphere, and a lovely evening.

Thanks everyone

Tutorial / Jessica 19.1.11

NAME OF TUTOR:

jessica voorsanger

DATE:

19.1.11

STUDENT TO FILL IN:

1. What points were discussed during the tutorial?

Jessica was surprised, how the visual language of the paintings changed, and how the

newer work conflicts with parts of the written proposal. I mentioned my problems to

follow self-given rules, and also expressed my feelings about the content of my

pictures, and that I wanted to liberate me from that. I told Jessica about a project that

came in my mind over the christmas holidays (make the content google-dependent...),

which I abolished, because of the unpersonal charakter of the internet.

We also talked about the possibilities of the “fake” (CCTV).

We reviewed the possibility to work with randomness to give the content, and how it

could influence my work. We also discussed methodologies that work with temporal

and local constraints (e.g. searching for an object to paint on the streets on sunday) to

make a series of paintings.

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

I will try to think in projects, that run over a previously defined period of time, whose

content comes from self given constraints and methodologies. I want to include

randomness of content in my work, and want to work in series (which I tried often,

but never managed it).

3. Any other comments

The name of the artist I mentioned with the camera on the back of his head is

- Wafaa Bilal -

its a misinformation, that the pictures are directly forwarded to the internet.

sorry

Max (19/1/11) comments:

Max and I discussed the new directions that the work has taken since his proposal. He, very

interestingly, stated that he nds it very hard to follow rules, even if implemented by himself. I am not

too concerned with his veering o into another direction from the proposal as that allows for development

within the work. My main concern is that in his continued altering from his chosen ‘series’ or

paths that he will miss out on some key points of reection. These become essential points of

learning & understanding his work. The ‘random’ element that he strives for can certainly be key to

the development in the work as long as he is working from an informed perspective and with a

reective practice.

street art destruction

Street art has long been a tradition in New York. However, in recent years several now-famous artists have graced the streets with their work. Art by Banksy, Swoon, Faile and others have found a safe home on the streets of Brooklyn and Manhattan. However, these works have been challenged by an anonymous artssassin. This destroyer of the streets has been coined as 'The Splasher'- and splash he does!

Apparently he, she, or they utilizes buckets of paint as an arsenal of artistic destruction. The attack is simple enough- a quick 'splash' of colors hits the target- a task that could take mere seconds to accomplish. No one has been able to catch the Splasher even though teams have been assembled to 'guard' works that have yet to be destroyed. Also, the works that are targeted are all works by artists who are now famous- the Splasher does not target common sprawl art.

this short text is nicked from Brian Sherwin

Once street art was a form of activism, a protest against whatever - now the activism has turned into a big lucrative market, as money in not stinking.

It´s just interesting, that people are bristeling against the destruction of - now established- street art, although communities have been, and still are spending huge amounts of money for the buffing of tags, street art and graffiti pieces, which looks at the end quite like the splashing.

The mentioned splashings look like an artistic response to the street art pieces, as they often come with manifestos, glued next to the splashings. Interesting, that anti capitalistic street art idealists and governments have both interest in destroying the established street art scene - a scene, which once had maybe the same anti capitalistic intentions as the splashers.

an example of cleaners:

Fontana

By slashing the center of his canvases, Fontana allowed three–dimensional space to intrude into an otherwise two–dimensional surface. Fontana first introduced perforations within his works in 1949 and referred to these as "spatial concepts." He then began slashing his canvases in the early 1950s and added the term "Expectations" to the title. While these works immediately conjure acts of violence and iconoclasm, Fontana claimed "I have constructed, not destroyed."

pascal danz

a wonderful translation of the photographic template into painting from pascal danz.

errors of photos are a good possibility to indicate to the photo as template, and not having painted directly in front of the objects.

influenza

favourite mispelling # 26, st.gallen CH

Eric Yahnker

McHale's Navy Scramble, 2010, charcoal and graphite on paper, 102 x 72 in.

Genious Eric Yahnker - love the way ho he deconstructs faces.

Schöner Bub (Nice Boy) & Handbürste (hand brush)

86 x 76 cm / oil on canvas

As I was, and still am very interested in making painting from random encounter, I decided to also include objects in my painting. Even if the first one is actually a copy of a human face. but painting a copy of a copy (and making another copy of it with the painting) seems to be quite interesting for me. both paintings are basically portraits of objects, but also of faces (animal faces as well)

Both are objects that I have a relationship with. My after-painting-brush, and my grandmother´s doll-head, that I found whilst the christmas holiday in germany. I don´t know, if this relationship is really important, but it gives it a sense of nostalgia. Painting in colour felt surprisingly good, I really enjoyed to mix the right colour together. I was also very interesting to depict that sense of out of focus photography, which is a bit stiff to paint, but in the end quite satisfying.

I would love to find a way to combine a painterly, expressive style with that photographic (especially out of focus) way of painting.

Martin Newth lecture

Yesterday´s lecture was a very good one

Martin Newth about his work:

"My work is an investigation into traditional photographic technologies in order to explore time, space and movement within the contemporary context of the advancement of technological means of production (including film, video and digital technology)."

I loved his work, especially the long exposure time bed-series (which name I forgot), and also the work about the bunker. It is the simplicity of his work, that fascinated me, and the fact, that he produced an artwork whilst sleeping in hotel-rooms.

Amazing idea, and brilliant outcome.

Charming Baker

Ludovica Giosci

Brilliant collages by Ludovica Gioscia. I love the unclearness, whether the strokes are a constructive, or a deconstructive addition.

CCTV 1&2

64 x 43 cm / oil on canvas

The CCTV-cameras are incredibly present in london. I´m not very used to it, and it sometimes really annos me being watched with every step I take. I wonder if the state is trying to protect people with it, or only itself. It must be thousands of cameras in this city, following everyone till the door. People don not seem to realize it anymore. they are used to it, don´t care about it, or just forgot about it, as the cameras are sometimes well hidden, and very small.

I personally hate it, to be honest.

The intention is to make a series of about 9 paintings, that will be put up on the wall in a grid like in the surveillance centers of the police. There is nothing happening on every painting, no person is being seen. The sense of CCTV is, that something is happening, someone suspicious is doing something that is worth being monitored. If there is no one, the whole system is senseless, the money for all the technology is being spent for nothing. all we have is footage of streets, parks, parking lots and all the sites, but nothing else.

senseless image material of a paranoid society.

Paul

ca. 190 x 190 cm / Oil on Canvas

Another try of a -more or less- randomly chosen face, that I encountered. This time I´m more happy with it, as the backround is more seperated from the face - the foreground. I wanted to lead the eye of the viewer to his eyes, the hair is a bit more blurred, a bit like in an out of focus photograph. The backround turned a bit too much into yellow, because of the use of linseed (maybe too much) , but I had good response to this yellowing effect from other students. The black and white imagery gives it a slightly historic touch. Many people said, if it is someone they should know. It´s an interesting effect, that making portraits big seems to be the indicator of someones famousness. Interesting to confuse people that way, questioning importance, and unimportance.

tutorial / jessica dez.2010

1. What points were discussed during the tutorial?

we talked about the content of a picture in relation to the size. we discussed, whether applying paint and marks is or is not influencing the content which is communicated. We also talked about the disjuncture between the written context (in the proposal) of the work, and what is actually seen on the canvas.

Furthermore another issue discussed was the idea of translating the imagery of CCTV into painting, and how there could develop a project out of it. We also talked about the presence or absence of people within this project, and how the absence of people could perhaps even support the theme of people in this context. Jessica showed an application on her I phone which could be interesting for me in this context .

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

I will think about refining my proposal and reconfigure it around what I´m actually making - or what is actually seen for the viewer on the canvas. I will think about size in relation to the context, and how size can support, or disturb the content communicated.

I will also predict a small, rough work plan within the proposal which makes clear, that I am planning to experiment the first month with different themes (as things are coming too fast in my head to realize a complete project of it) and decide afterwards which theme to furter develop, and which to throw over board.

In context with the CCTV idea I ´m thinking about where to get the images of CCTV footage or if I make fotos myself at exactly the places I see as appropriate. I will also start to experiment with this project practically and try to find a good way to execute it via painting.

STAFF COMMENTS:

When we discussed the proposal fitting what you were doing better it wasn’t about the proposal fitting around the paintings you were currently making, but that the ideas expressed within the proposal were something that you wanted to pursue further within the paintings as you hadn’t yet addressed the ideas that were in the current version of your proposal. The idea is that the proposal will still push your work forward and that your work will progress. If the proposal is written solely to work around your current practice than how will it progress? The new version of your proposal should relate more to the specific themes that currently interest you and that you are addressing within the paintings. As we discussed, the series of CCTV paintings will do this. But to keep the images true to the relationship (and implications) of CCTV, they should be genuine CCTV images rather than constructed ones, otherwise you are created a false truth. Unless that is your intention, it could be very misleading.

Working Process_Paul

study for a riot

From Alexandros Vasmoulakis and Manolis Anastasakos:

"During 2010, Greece came under the supervision of IMF and EU. The fear of poverty and financial recession has built up a feeling of social unrest. Memories of the Greek riots of 2008, according to the media, have created the expectation in Greece and abroad, of a new, more violent riot. Influenced by this atmosphere, we created in a deserted ceramics factory in Athens a series of actions during May 2010. At the time we wanted to give form to feelings intuitively provoked by the signs of unrest we received from all around us. We used the objects that were plentifully scattered in the ruins of the factory: red powder, ceramics, wood and ropes. We installed sculptural structures and we recorded, on video, short collision-scenes. Red powder represented the outcome of every human violent act. The deserted industrial setting was used as a metaphor for the financially devastated country. The multiple-screens structure of the video is a reminder of the surveillance cameras used by the police. The sound was recorded live during each of the actions. We doubt the efficiency of violent rioting and search for a new way. Essentially we have found nothing yet, however, we enjoy searching".

without title

A encounter, and a resulting image. no one important, just one of many meetings in life, one face, that is interesting.

I think, we built the wrong idols, and make them big on screen, surrounding our lifes with them in television, magazines, and billboards. I never met the Beckhams, Angelina Jolie, Heidi Klum or Johnny Depp. But I met this person on the Street near Camberwell Green, had a chat, and loved his face (and the voice as well). So I decided to make a homage of this meeting, as it is one of the many, that make life interesting.

Formally I tried to get the backround and the face together, to make it one layer. It did not really meet my expectations, and I think seperating backround and foreground fits more with me. I wanted to support the fact, that he did not have an easy life with a quite expressive, painterly appliance of the paint, scrached in his face, nearly punched it (which was not easy, as I really liked him). I think the next face I paint, will be less expressive, and foregroung and backround should be more seperated again.