Initial ideas

Research // Antony Gormley

Antony Gormley, is a British sculptor. His best known works include the Angel of the North, a public sculpture in the North of England, commissioned in 1994 and erected in February 1998.

Gormley describes his work as "an attempt to materialise the place at the other side of appearance where we all live." Many of his works are based on moulds taken from his own body, or "the closest experience of matter that I will ever have and the only part of the material world that I live inside." His work attempts to treat the body not as an object but a place and in making works that enclose the space of a particular body to identify a condition common to all human beings. The work is not symbolic but indexical – a trace of a real event of a real body in time.

Gormley's Event Horizon, consisting of 31 life-size and anatomically-correct casts of his body, four in cast iron and 27 in fiberglass, was installed on top of prominent buildings along London's South Bank, and installed in locations around New York City's Madison Square in 2010. Gormley said of the New York site that "Within the condensed environment of Manhattan's topography, the level of tension between the palpable, the perceivable and the imaginable is heightened because of the density and scale of the buildings" and that in this context, the project should "activate the skyline in order to encourage people to look around. In this process of looking and finding, or looking and seeking, one perhaps re-assess one's own position in the world and becomes aware of one's status of embedment.

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I admire his work and the messages he's trying to get out through it. I like how he uses the human body and am thinking of incorporating this into my own work in some form of installation. No set ideas yet though. 

RESEARCH // V FOR VENDETTA

“Good evening, London. I would introduce myself, but truth to tell, I do not have a name. You can call me “V”. Since mankind’s dawn, a handful of oppressors have accepted the responsibility over our lives that we should have accepted for ourselves. By doing so, they took our power. By doing nothing, we gave it away. We’ve seen where their way leads, through camps and wars, towards the slaughterhouse. In anarchy, there is another way. With anarchy, from rubble comes new life, hope reinstated. They say anarchy’s dead, but see…reports of my death were…exaggerated. Tomorrow, Downing Street will be destroyed, the Head reduced to ruins, an end to what has gone before. Tonight, you must choose what comes next. Lives of our own, or a return to chains. Choose carefully. And so, adieu.” ― Alan Moore, V for Vendetta

“You wear a mask for so long, you forget who you were beneath it.” ― Alan Moore, V for Vendetta

“They say that life's a game, & then they take the board away.” ― Alan Moore, V for Vendetta

“You were already in a prison. You've been in a prison all your life. Happiness is a prison, Evey. Happiness is the most insidious prison of all. Your lover lived in the penitentiary that we are all born into, and was forced to rake the dregs of that world for his living. He knew affection and tenderness but only briefly. Eventually, one of the other inmates stabbed him with a cutlass and he drowned upon his own blood. Is that it, Evey? Is that the happiness worth more than freedom? It's not an uncommon story, Evey. Many convicts meet with miserable ends. Your mother. Your father. Your lover. One by one, taken out behind the chemical sheds... and shot. All convicts, hunched and deformed by the smallness of their cells, the weight of their chains, the unfairness of their sentences. I didn't put you in a prison, Evey. I just showed you the bars.'
'You're wrong! It's just life, that's all! It's just how life is. It's what we've got to put up with. It's all we've got. What gives you the right to decide it's not good enough?'
'You're in a prison, Evey. You were born in a prison. You've been in a prison so long, you no longer believe there's a world outside. That's because you're afraid, Evey. You're afraid because you can feel freedom closing in upon you. You're afraid because freedom is terrifying. Don't back away from it, Evey. Part of you understands the truth even as part pretends not to. You were in a cell, Evey. They offered you a choice between the death of your principles and the death of your body. You said you'd rather die. You faced the fear of your own death and you were calm and still. The door of the cage is open, Evey. All that you feel is the wind from outside.” ― Alan Moore, V for Vendetta

“I didn't put you in a prison, Evey. I just showed you the bars.” ― Alan Moore, V for Vendetta

GO TO WORK. SEND YOUR KIDS TO SCHOOL. VOTE FOR YOUR LEADER, PAY TAX. FOLLOW FASHION. BELIEVE IN A GOD. ACT NORMAL. OBEY TE LAW. SAVE FOR YOUR OLD AGE. SUPPORT THE WAR. WATCH TV. DRINK ALCOHOL. SPEND ALL YOUR MONEY ON THINGS YOU DON'T NEED. DON'T DO DRUGS. DON'T WORRY ABOUT THOSE IN NEED. DON'T FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS. STAY AT HOME. STAY IN FEAR. CONTINUE YOUR WORTHLESS LIFE AS A PUPPET.

YOU ARE NOT FREE.

Research // Cornelia Parker

Cornelia Ann Parker is an English sculptor and installation artist.

Parker is best known for large-scale installations such as Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View (1991), for which she had a garden shed blown up by the British Army and suspended the fragments as if suspending the explosion process in time. In the centre was a light which cast the shadows of the wood dramatically on the walls of the room.

Parker's compelling transformations of familiar, everyday objects investigate the nature of matter, test physical properties and play on private and public meaning and value. Using materials that have a history loaded with association, a feather from Sigmund Freud's pillow for example, Parker has employed numerous methods of exploration- suspending, exploding, crushing, stretching objects and even language through her titles.

I like her work as it's not something you'd expect. She's almost changing your perception on how you see ordinary things (the garden shed). To me it's more of a metaphor of everyday life, of how if we changed our perception on things we saw in everyday life then everything would become art. 

Research // Mona Hatoum

Mona Hatoum is a video artist and installation artist of Palestinian origin, who lives in London.Mona Hatoum explores a variety of different subject matter via different theoretical frameworks. Her work can be interpreted as a description of the body, as a commentary on politics, and on gender and difference as she explores the dangers and confines of the domestic world. Her work can also be interpreted through the concept of space as her sculpture and installation work depend on the viewer to inhabit the surrounding space to complete the effect. There are always multiple readings to her work. “I wanted it to appeal to your senses first maybe or to somehow affect you in a bodily way and then the sort of connotations and concepts that are behind that work can come out of that original physical experience.” The physical responses that Hatoum desired in order to provoke psychological and emotional responses ensures unique and individual reactions from different viewers.

Hatoum’s early work consisted largely of performance pieces that used a direct physical confrontation with an audience to make a political point. She used this technique as a means of making a direct statement using her own body; the performances often referenced her background and the political situation in Palestine. In her work, she addressed the vulnerability of the individual in relation to the violence inherent in institutional power structures. Her primary point of reference was the human body, sometimes using her own body. She says of her focus on the body: “I wanted to make I wanted it to appeal to your senses first maybe or to somehow affect you in a bodily way and then the sort of connotations and concepts that are behind that work can come out of that original physical experience. This is what I was aiming at in the work. I wanted it to be experienced through the body. In other words I want work to be both experienced sensually and intellectually rather than just one dimensionally if you like.” One of her first major pieces, Measures of Distance, explores the themes topics of her early art. “I made a conscious decision to delve into the personal – however complex, confused, and contradictory the material I was dealing with was… Once I made the work I found that it spoke of the complexities of exile, displacement, the sense of loss and separation caused by war. In other words, it contextualized the image, or this person, “my mother,” within a social-political context.”

Her work consists of confrontational issue-based performance work, fuelled by anger and a sense of urgency.
  

I was told to look at this artist as her work highlights conforming to social politics. I like how the pieces seem to be one thing but when you look into it the meaning becomes clearer. The swings (to me) symbolise that everybody is free to 'swing' as they please, but sooner or later you're going to crash into someone. The doc marten boots tied to the mans leg I believe symbolises that man is controlled and held back by his material possessions. This is all subjects I'm attempting to highlight in my own project.

Research // Tracey Emin

Tracey Emin is a British artist who is part of the group ‘Britartists’ or ‘YBA’s (Young British Artists)’.

Emin’s monoprints are a well-documented part of her creative outlet. These unique drawings represent a diaristic aspect and frequently depict events from the past.

Often they incorporate text as well as image, although some bear only text while others only image. The text appears as the artist’s stream of consciousness voice. Some critics have compared Emin’s text-only monoprints to ransom notes. The rapid, one-off technique involved in making monoprints is perfectly suited to immediate expression as is Emin’s scratchy and informal drawing style.

I've always admired Emins' work and have referred to it a lot thoughout various projects. I like these monoprints and how they obviously express her emotions. I really like the linear/simplistic style of these and would like to do similar monoprints linking to my work. I like how she uses text in her work and her style of drawing. There simplicity almost say 'Anyone can do these', which I think links back to my projects concept well as it's showing humans have the capacity to do anything they want to achieve and shouldn't confine themselves to societies boxes just because they think they have to. People go with the motions whereas Tracey Emin steps out of the box and does her own thing, which I find very inspiring, plus I love the outcomes. 

Research // Subliminal Messages

Subliminal messages are messages that only your subconscious mind notices (you don't think you notice them, but you do).

The video below is taken from an episode of Derren Brown in which he takes two advertising professionals (people used to including subliminal messages in there work all the time) and (using subliminal messages himself) he manipulates their thoughts and creating an outcome which he'd already predicted. It shows how easy it is for your thoughts to be manipulated and for you to think your thoughts are your own when they're actually being controlled. This video is more of a metaphor of how advertising can affect our subconscious mind. Very Interesting. 

Research // Lauryn Hill

"You know the real you is more interesting than the fake somebody else. I just want you to know that."

"What are you trying to fit into a standard for? We were each created to be individual standards, you know. And we’re trying to fit into a standard? It doesn’t make any sense, you know. So now I’m just, you know, after all that, I’m just ready to be me. And it’s a lot to work through, you know, because all of us have hidden in these little boxes purposely, because of parts of ourselves that we were unhappy about. And it’s because we didn’t understand, you know, because there’s all this social doctrine that says, you know, that the infinite God, with all this expression, who created every single one of us, absolutely different, on purpose, wants everybody to fit into the same suit. But like, you know, that’s deception. That’s deception."

"We took…we were in, um, Florida this weekend and we took the kids to Disneyworld, and um, you know we were going, they gave us a tour. They escorted us through the back. And when they escorted us through the back, we got to see how, you know, there all these people workin all hard, and it was like, real dirty back there, and of course, in the front it was all immaculately clean. And I said, I said, you know, People need to see the reality, they need to see, you know, how these people slave to maintain this illusion. And it felt like my life. I said, If people only knew what it was. It’s like, you know, a bunch of musicians, listen, bustin’ their ‘mm’ workin all hard to make it look easy. What’s the point? You know, Oh, uh, I just threw this together, uh…(audience laughs). You know, it’s like, you know what I’m sayin? I mean, you know. Slaving. Slaving to act like, you know, I wake up like this. And none of us do, you know, none of us do."

"Because we always thought we could get, you know, we could get reality by just putting on the clothes and wearin’ the face and you know, lookin hard in the video. But, you know. Reality is..it’s like I’ve always told to my husband, it’s like, look, you know, we look at Bob Marley, you know, and we say Ok, let’s just grow locks and wear the clothes and have the band and we have no many idea how many years of struggle and pain and suffering that made that content. You see what I’m saying? You can’t get it from the outside in. Truth is from the inside out."

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I watched this video recently and it hit me because of the things she says are extremely true and relevant to everyone. If you take out the religious side to this speech and use her words into everyday life you realise how correct she actually is, how she can see how reality is the only way, don't get lost in the fantasy. Wise woman. Much respect.



Research // FIGHT CLUB

 THIS IS YOUR LIFE, AND IT'S ENDING ONE MINUTE AT A TIME.

This was freedom. Losing all hope was freedom. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, Chapter 2
This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, Chapter 3

You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you're satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, Chapter 5

The gyms you go to are crowded with guys trying to look like men, as if being a man means looking the way a sculptor or an art director says. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, Chapter 6
"It's only after you've lost everything," Tyler says, "that you're free to do anything." ~ Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, Chapter 8

You're not how much money you've got in the bank. You're not your job. You're not your family, and you're not who you tell yourself.... You're not your name.... You're not your problems.... You're not your age.... You are not your hopes. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, Chapter 18

The things you own end up owning you. It's only after you lose everything that you're free to do anything. ~ Fight Club movie, screenplay by Jim Uhls, directed by David Fincher, novel by Chuck Palahniuk

Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. ~ Fight Club movie, screenplay by Jim Uhls, directed by David Fincher, novel by Chuck Palahniuk

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Fight Club opened my eyes to a lot of things and without a doubt is the trigger for this whole project. The way the character of Tyler speaks of life is true about how everyone see's their life, without even realising it. He not only tells us the problem, he tells us the solution. He basically tells the audience to open their eyes and see the truth, not what they've been taught to believe is the truth. Fight club changed how I think and I would like to attempt to do the same thing to others.



Research // MIND CONTROL

Mind control (also known as brainwashing, coercive persuasion, mind abuse, menticide, thought control, or thought reform) refers to a process in which a group or individual "systematically uses unethically manipulative methods to persuade others to conform to the wishes of the manipulator(s), often to the detriment of the person being manipulated". The term has been applied to any tactic, psychological or otherwise, which can be seen as subverting an individual's sense of control over their own thinking, behaviour, emotions or decision making.

Theories of brainwashing and of mind control were originally developed to explain how totalitarian regimes appeared to succeed systematically in indoctrinating prisoners of war through propaganda and torture techniques.

Statement of Intent // Proposal

For my final major project I would like to highlight the issues of mind control and how everybody is a victim of mind control without even being aware of it. We live our lives completely controled by advertising, telling us about things we 'must have', convincing us we need these things to survive. I would like to attempt to show things as they are and show the reality of everyday life and how controlled we actually are, and how each of our ideologies are not actually ours at all but opinions based on other peoples opinions, variations of other peoples thoughts.

In order to do this I'm going to need to do some research into mind control, the history and how it has been used in various situations. Situations such as prisoners, politics, wars, religion and media. Most people have heard of the illuminati and how it's using the media to influence society to act in a certain way and believe various things for the benefit of this 'secret society', yet people dismiss this as just a myth.

People are controlled in everything they do everyday without even realising, ever since birth. Their education has been decided by other people, what they learn, how they they're taught. We're 'brainwashed'. Every aspect of our lives has been manipulated by something else. Our beliefs are based on other peoples beliefs and adopted as our own. We don't understand how we really feel about anything because we're told how we should feel.

I plan to use a variety of different media such as drawings, printing, photography and film in order to create a body of work leading upto my final piece. I may even do a few surveys to see how people see their lives. I havn't thought much about my final piece as I want all my back up work to lead me to decide what my final piece will be. To document this project I shall mainly be using this blog to showcase my research annotations of bits of work. I 'll also be using my journal.

People like to think they're free from the confinemens of life, but in todays society, everybody is confined. What they own ends up owning them. Nobody's free until they realise how imprisoned they are.