London Gallery Tour
Marlene Dumas,Last Man Standing(2023).Frith Street Gallery
Marlene Dumas,Loss(2023).Frith Street Gallery
Marlene Dumas,The Devil may Care(2024).Frith Street Gallery
Tracey Emin，Pair of interiors（2018），White Cube
On September 27, 2024, I participated in a gallery tour led by Geraint through central London's galleries. This comprehensive tour offered a remarkable overview of contemporary art practices, showcasing diverse approaches to artistic expression. From White Cube to Frith Street Gallery, we encountered works ranging from emotionally charged pieces to conceptually driven installations, from narrative-focused paintings to information-based artworks. This variety demonstrated the rich possibilities within contemporary art practice, each artist finding their unique voice and methodology.
Among these varied approaches, the exhibitions by Tracey Emin and Marlene Dumas particularly influenced my practice, each in distinct ways - Emin through her powerful personal expression and Dumas through her innovative painting techniques.
Emin's exhibition demonstrated how personal experiences can be transformed into powerful artistic statements. A particularly striking piece consisted of a diptych - one panel with text and another showing a reclining female figure. Through these works, I could strongly sense her emotional state and personal narrative. The raw honesty in her expression showed how art can serve as a direct channel for personal truth.
In Marlene Dumas's exhibition, I was particularly drawn to her fluid treatment of paint in portraits. Her technique creates a unique blurring effect that transforms familiar faces into something more ambiguous. Her concept of 'Pareidolia' - the tendency to perceive specific, meaningful images within ambiguous visual patterns - provides a theoretical framework for understanding how viewers engage with abstracted figurative work.
These exhibitions influenced my practice in complementary ways. Emin's work encouraged me to embrace personal narrative and emotional content in my art, showing how individual experiences can resonate with universal themes. Her boldness in addressing personal subjects gave me confidence to explore my own family dynamics through art.
Dumas's technical approach directly informed my painting method. Her use of fluid paint to create ambiguous yet emotionally charged figures influenced my decision to work with diluted oil paint. The concept of Pareidolia has helped me understand how viewers might engage with the de-gendered figures in my work, finding personal meaning in abstract forms.
Tutorial with Anna
In late November 2024, I had an insightful tutorial with Anna that provided new perspectives on understanding the symbolic nature of my figures and the significance of painted space in my work.
Understanding Figures as Ciphers
Anna introduced the concept of figures as 'ciphers' - vessels that carry meaning beyond individual identity. She pointed out that my paintings weren't about specific individuals, but rather about the connections and relationships between them. This perspective helped me understand how my de-gendered figures serve as carriers of broader emotional and social meanings.
The Power of Painted Space
A crucial observation was about the significance of the painted space between figures. Anna noted how the negative space in my work becomes the actual painted element, while the figures emerge from what's unpainted. This insight helped me recognize how the treatment of space itself can express the dynamics of relationships.
Connection to Personal Experience
The discussion about my reading interests, particularly my connection to novels about family relationships, revealed how personal experiences and literary influences could enrich my visual expression. Anna encouraged me to explore why I return to certain books and how these emotional connections relate to my painting practice.
Future Development
Anna suggested focusing on documenting my studio process, particularly the difficulties and emotions encountered while painting. She emphasized that these experiences are valuable for critical reflection and understanding my own practice better. Rather than worrying about external references, she encouraged me to have confidence in my existing interests and continue developing them through studio practice.
Reflections on Johanna Love's Lecture: The Poetics of Dust
I attended a thought-provoking lecture by Johanna Love, the Course Leader for MA Printmaking at Camberwell College of Arts and Senior Lecturer in Fine Art Printmaking at the University of Brighton. Her work intrigues with its exploration of images that transcend human perception, often evoking a sense of the technological sublime through a combination of print, drawing, and photographic languages. In her practice, Love often combines landscape and architectural themes to generate unstable, changing material surfaces and visually complex images, providing a stage for contemplating themes of time, memory, and death.
What particularly caught my attention was Love's approach to dust found on her artworks. This serendipitous element became a focal point in her creative process. Rather than treating these dust particles as unwanted elements, Love transformed them into subjects of scientific inquiry, examining them under microscopes and incorporating their forms into her artistic vocabulary. Her work demonstrates how careful observation and analysis of overlooked elements can serve as a catalyst for deeper artistic exploration.
Love's investigative methodology has profoundly influenced my own artistic practice. Her approach of finding significance in the overlooked or discarded inspired me to begin my own artistic exploration using a found family photograph. This old photograph, discovered among family possessions, became my entry point for exploring family relationships and power dynamics. Just as Love found profound meaning in dust particles, I discovered rich narrative and emotional content in the subtle details of facial expressions, poses, and spatial relationships within the family photograph.
This approach to research and creation demonstrates how artistic practice can transform ordinary materials and chance encounters into meaningful explorations of human experience and relationships. Like Love's examination of dust under the microscope, my analysis of family photographs reveals layers of meaning that might otherwise remain hidden, contributing to a deeper understanding of familial dynamics and personal history.
Prof. Mark Fairnington's Lecture: "What's the Point of Realism?"
In January, I attended a thought-provoking lecture titled "What's the Point of Realism?" by Prof. Mark Fairnington, a renowned painter whose works are frequently exhibited in museums and galleries across the US and Europe. Fairnington uses painting as a medium to conduct visual examinations of various museum collections and histories, with his work spanning a diverse range of subjects, including insect specimens, bird taxidermy, portraits of prize bulls, the artistic and scientific language of flowers, and the concept of the "collected human." His particular focus lies in exploring the peculiarities of individual specimens that are meant to represent a whole.
What particularly intrigued me was his innovative use of mirrors in painting, especially his technique of painting eyes within mirrors. In art history, mirrors have served multiple significant functions. In Van Eyck's "Arnolfini Portrait," the mirror reflects not only the couple but also hints at the artist's presence, creating a complex narrative about witnessing and representation. Velázquez's "Las Meninas" uses mirrors to question the relationship between viewer, artist, and subject, while contemporary artists like Michelangelo Pistoletto employ mirror surfaces to directly engage viewers in their work.
Inspired by Fairnington's approach, I began to explore how mirrors could function in my own work examining family relationships. The mirror becomes not just a tool for reflection, but a metaphor for self-examination and the complexity of familial gazes. It offers possibilities for:
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Representation and Presentation: The mirror can simultaneously show and reflect, creating layers of meaning in how family members view themselves and each other.
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Observer and Observed: It blurs the line between who is watching and who is being watched, reflecting the complex dynamics of family relationships.
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Artist's Presence: The mirror can symbolize my own presence as both artist and family member, acknowledging the dual role I play in creating and participating in these narratives.
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Self-reflection: It serves as a tool for introspection, allowing both subjects and viewers to engage in contemplation of identity and relationships.
