Evaluation

The theme of my project is 'Memories'. I collected primary resourses, through collection of the objects throughout the summer and kept them in a box, such as photos, a top, a bow, a calendar, a candle etc. I also kept a journal through the summer, annotating, adding photographs, tickets, food packs, drawing and painting, to present every single day of my summer. It was all my own personal primary research. Me and my peers Johnny and Eva created 3 mindmaps of different subthemes, which were about the obvious that we all went through during the summer, which were; 'Being close to friends and family', 'The end of summer' and 'Enjoying youth'. We all gave several personal ideas to each subtheme, yet in the end we all chose our favourite that linked to our memories the most. I decided to go with 'being close to friends and family' as my experience during the summer was only surrounded by those two.

When I came back to school, I began to create an artist research and found 8 artist that all link to my theme in several ways. At first I researched Andy Warhol who linked to my theme by the collection of objects that meant something to him and kept them all in boxes, which I have then linked to Audrey Flack, who presents objects in different compositions very thoroughtly, linking to my idea as once again, she collects objects and uses them to emphasise her memories. These two artists perfectly link to my summer box, which gave me the idea to chose my one object from the box and expand it further in m future artist researches, however at that time it was too early for me to chose that one particular object.  Then i moved to Howard Hodgkin, who uses colour to emphasise his meaning or memory, yet doesn't explain what his works are about, which makes his works more personal to him. Due to the memories being emphasised through the use of colour, I found a relative artist to this idea, Charles M. Russell, who enhances colour to present his childhood memories, from what he saw when he was a little boy, living between cowboys. The painting techniques of Hodgkin and Russell are completely different from one another, Hodgkin is dreamy and distorted, whereas Russell's is realistic, yet the idea of emphasising a feeling or a memory through the use of colour are very similar aspects of both of their works. This research showed me that I do not have to use an actual object to present my idea, I could use colour to emphasise the meaning just as well as the feeling that I felt in a memory of mine. Then I moved to Peter Callessen who cuts patterns from paper focusing on the idea of Life and Death. The moment I saw his works, I fell in love with them, I found so much inspiration and possibilities of what I could possibly do in my future works. I linked this idea to my theme and came to a conclusion that most of my summer I spend at my uncles (Godfathers) house, keeping him company and spending as much time as possible with him as he suffers from incurable cancer. The idea of Life and Death made me think of my uncle straight away, as this was the most powerful and meaningful memory to me, this made me think that I could expand this idea further. In reference to Callessen's work, I found Elsa Mora's work who also cuts patterns from paper, transforming them into childhood stories such as Red Riding Hood or Alice in Wonderland. She does it to emphasise her childhood memories. The idea that I took from her work is if I plan to use paper in my final work, I should use colour to emphasise the feeling behing my work, which also links to the ideas of Howard Hodgkin and Charles M. Russell. The final artist I have researched is Ebon Heath, who cuts words from paper transforming them into a big pattern/sculpture, which I could use in my work to use the literal emphasis of an idea, and the pattern I would then transform the words into would be metaphorical. In my view, this is an amazing idea to consider in my final outcome. I have also used Tom Phillips to relate to Heaths work, as Phillips chooses meaningful words from a text, scraching all the words around them, emphasising that the meanigful ones should only stand out. This gave me an idea that instead of choosing random meaningful words, I could use this technique to circle words that in the end create a sentence that would be meaningful, which I could use in my final project. This idea also links to Elsa Mora's presentation of childhood memories, I didn't exactly have to use my summer memories, they were only the start of inspiration, I then moved further to my childhood with my uncle, who I use to spend a lot of time with. Therefore presenting sentences from childhood would eventually link to Mora's works.

After collecting such research, creating mindmaps and connecting the ideas together, I have decided my work to be about my uncle and used the literal use of words, metaphorical use through the shape of a candle and metaphorical use through colour. I used a candle from my box (Warhol/Flack) which I collected at a cementary at my aunties and uncles when I went with them to visit my greatgrandparents, which are their parents. I have also used wax to create words/sentences (Callessen/Heath) from it at a large scale and transform them into a shape of a candle. The idea of wax initially came from the use of an actual candle. However, after the consultations with many different people, I came to a conclusion that wax on its own has a lot more meaning to this work, it could imply how fragile the situation is just as the wax is, yet as long as its taken care by the happy memories and experiences, which are the sentences, it will stay strong and so will he. I also used colour (Hodgkin/Russell) through the use of light, to emphasise how I felt when I spend the happy moments with him and the ones I hopefully will. I used an orange lightning purposely as it radiates warmth and happiness, combining the physical energy and stimulation of red with the cheerfulness of yellow. Orange offers emotional strength in difficult times. It helps us to bounce back from disappointments and despair, assisting in recovery from grief.

Before researching new artist after another, I always had different ideas influenced by each of them, that have always expanded each time I researched a new artist, wheather it was the meaning or the technique. For example, after researching Warhol, Flack, Hodgkin and Russell, my plan was to focus on the momories I had with my boyfriend during the summer and the fact that our relationship is a long distance one, which is of course very meaningful to me, yet I did not know how to clearly show it. After, I researched Callessen, who has completely changed my idea onto the theme of Hope, from his Life and Death, however it has influenced me a lot to focus on my uncle instead, who is my family. Next researches of Mora, Heath and Phillips was nothing but the enhancement, improvement and most importantly inspiration for the idea of my uncle. The idea has slightly changed from life and death onto hope, and technique from the use of paper, onto the use of wax.

The location I will place my work in will be a window placed in my school, right at the front of the main entrance on the left wall, where everyone passes and can clearly see it. There are four windows right next to each other on one side, mine is second from the left, Johnny's third from the left and Eva's fourth. The measurements of the window are; height 60cm, width 29cm and length 35cm giving me a wide space to create a massive, 3D, strong piece of work. Large space on the inside, divided from other windows through a large board, the outside frame of the window is wooden, with a lock therefore no one will be able to open it apart from me, and a glass window, dividing the outside from the inside, therefore all locked up yet allowing the viewers to see the work clearly.

I have created three different sketches of how the work may look like, first one presents an average sized candle, fire hanged from the top, material/fabric all over the walls and the background, with lightning coming from the bottom. Second sketch shows a candle that's tall enough to almost reach to the ceiling of the window, which would allow me to create more words/sentences, everything else would be the same. Third image shows the words/sentences of the candle being slightly bend, creating a dreamy feeling of the candle, yet even though wax is easy to manipulate when melted, creating words that all together are bendy would be a very difficult task to do.

The changes I made during the creation of the window are:
The letters broke throughout the making therefore, I had to fix them all and go over all sentences with another layer of wire, to make them stronger and more steady. Also, when I got to the window with all my sentences few of them broke, so I had to go back to fix them and then hang them up. Then at the very end, I planned to use little lights, put on each corner of the window, however, due to the fact that I could not change the colour of them by placing paper on top of them as it would then stop the light completely, therefore, I had to switch them to led lights, that were as effective as I hoped for them to be.

Final Outcome! Memories

I would like to present how I created my final outcome, by the help of photographs that I took on each stage of my work. First three images present the materials I had to use to create the wax letters, first one presents the pot which melted the wax by heating it up to a very high temperature, second image presents plastic letter frames that children use to play about with in the sand, and finally the third image presents the wax already poured in the plastic frames, with the metal wire dipped in each letter, so that it all stays together, and so that it would be able to hang later on. Me and Ms Jaffer decided to order two bosex of the plastic frames, one had large letters another small.

The image below presents a close up example of what I exactly did with the wire, purposely for it to be able to dip in the wax. I took a piece of wire about 20cm longer than the word it was used for, and bent it in the places of where it was ment to be dipped in, to be able to keep the letters next to one another, without falling apart. After few tries, I've realised how strong the wax gets when it dries (which takes over an hour) therefore, I had no worries of the wire to break out of the wax, as it was perfectly solid and strong.

    

After creating all the words, by the end bits of the wire that stook out on each end of the word, I joined them with other words, which eventually created sentences. At the begining and end of each sentence I also left about 10/15cm piece of wire hanging, purposely if I needed it in the window to hang them up. The image below presents all of the 9 sentences completed and ready to hang.

Also, at the end of creating each sentence I went over it one more time with a wire, as one piece seemed to be not strong enough to carry a whole sentence, which initially came out to be very heavy. Therefore, I have decided to go over it one more time, which was a good call as then the whole structure of the sentence seemed stronger and more stedy. The image below presents what I did.

However, just because the idea of going over the sentence again with a piece of wire, doesn't mean I had no problems during the development. For instance, the bottom image shows how strong the wire in the wax was as long as it stayed in the wax, however because the wire right over the wax was bended to move to another letter, the fact that it was bended and moved quite a lot, it easily broke (just like presented in the image, wire inside wax stayed unmoved, outside wax it broke).

Because those parts broke so easily, I had to overcame this problem by going over the whole letter with the wire, so that it could be connected to the ones next to it, not break, and be strong enough to keep the sentence together. Image below presents the idea.

There was also another problem I faced during the development of the structure of the sentence. Sometimes when I was adding another layer of wire, the letters broke in my hands, wchich was not as bad as the wire problem because then I could fix it by sticking it together with a hot wax, therefore, overcoming this problem was not that difficult.

Then, by the help of a trolley that my friend found in our school, I moved all the sentences to the main entrance to the window, so that I could begin hanging them up. However, I had a problem as few of them broke on the way, therefore I was capable of hanging up only few, then I had to go back to fix them and repeat the whole story.

Images below present myself hanging up the sentences.

On top of my window I had two, large wooden sticks so that I could hang my sentences on them, however, they weren't enough to hang all 9 sentences up as they were increadibly heavy, therefore I had to go to the D.T departament with my teacher, and ask for more wooden sticks, so that I could create a strong and solid base, that would be cabable of holding them all.

Two images below present the almost fully complete piece. All wax sentences are hanged, facing foreward so that they are easy to be seen/read. However, the only thing that was left were the lights, yet at that time I did not know which lights I was going to use in particular.

Then I had to decide what kind of lightning I wanted to use for the window, therefore I tried the small batterry lights, about 7/8 of them, covered wit coloured paper or tissue paper. However, when I tried to cover the lights, the light would not go through the paper nor the tissue paper, it was stopped instead. Therefore, then I had to figure out something else, and after talking to my dad, he gave me an idea of using led lights, which he then ordered in colour orange.

Mindmaps of initial ideas + Artist links and developments

Just the other day when we finished with our artist research, we began to create few mindmaps that would help us decide which area of interests we should go for. We have thought of three, essential to us all categories; Enjoying Youth, The End Of Summer and Being Close To Friends And Family, all have something to do with all of our memories. On each of those, we gave our own ideas of how we could possibly develop those main ideas/themes. If we had no ideas of our own, we could also develop our peers ideas instead, or change them. At the bottom I am presenting all those three mindmaps.

We all obvoiusly have many memories to do with Enjoying Youth, however none of those ideas were as menaingful to us, to be able to influence on our next steps in our future works. My writing is in green, at the above image I gave ideas of perhaps old photography that could be recreated, recreate funny things you did as a child, focus on birthday parites with children, baloons etc, most vivid memory that affected who we are today, and I have also added to Eva's dancing, perhaps a storyboard of movement.

The End Of Summer is the one that has particularly affected my peers Johnny's choice, which was of course difficult for us all to get back on track with work, however his memories were the strongest in this particular idea/theme. The ideas that I added onto this mindmap were to Eva's ideas, such as the one about a plane flying across the sky, I added one side beatch and school on the other, also I added two head one of which is with partys, music, beach etc and the other with books, class and education.

Being Close To Friends And Family has affected my choice quite a lot. I am increadibly close with my family as if they were my friends, which has therefore influenced me to create my final piece about someone important to me, from my family. At that point I knew I was going to focus on my uncle (Godfather), who I have visited every two days regularily throughout the whole summer, due to the condition he is in. The ideas I gave to this mind map were the symbolic jewelerry, family meetings etc.

Those three mindmaps, plus the artist analasys have then led to another, A1 sized mindmap of how do all my artists link with one another (or perhaps how has one led me to another) and how have they developed my personal theme Memories. Everything started from Audrey Flack and Andy Warhol who both use actual objects that present their memories and display them yet in different forms. This influenced me to collect objects that would present my memories throughout the summer, which does not mean that this would be my final project, yet that it was just the begining, that I would then use in my future works. Secondly, I moved on to Howard Hodgkin and Charles M. Russel, who particularly focus on the use of colours and how do they emphasise their memories. Thanks to which I know that colours imply a lot, almost everything, it is possible for the viewer to create a story if properly read, therefore has influenced me to use a form of colour in my final work, wheather it's still, light, reflection or liquid. Thirdly, I moved on to Peter Calessen and Else Mora, who use paper to create their outcomes, usually realistic patterns such as humans, story tales, angels and skeletons. This has influenced me to also create my work as a 'cut out' piece. Not particularly from paper, yet at that point I was mostly influenced by paper. This has then led to my final artist research of Ebon Heath and Tom Phillips who use literal words to emphasise their meaning. Heath cuts words from paper, which is how he links to Calessen, which has then moved on to Tom Phillips that covers all words within a text, leaving out the essential words to him. These two in the end have influenced me not to cut shapes out of a material, yet to cut words, as then my work would be literal and not metaphorical as most artist works are, however then I decided to create my work from wax, therefore the words would be shaped from hot wax, and then transformed into the shape of a candle, linking all the ideas together.

Window Proposal

The theme of my project is 'Memories'. By collecting primary resourses, I collected objects throughout the summer and kept them in a box, objects such as photos, a top, a bow, a calendar, a candle etc. I also kept a journal throughout the summer, annotating, adding photographs, tickets, food packs, drawing and painting, to present every single day of my summer. It was all my own personal primary research. Me and my peers Johnny and Eva created 3 mindmaps of different subthemes, which were about the obvious that we all went through during the summer, which were; 'Being close to friends and family', 'The end of summer' and 'Enjoying youth'. We all gave several personal ideas to each subtheme, yet in the end we all chose our favourite that linked to our memories the most. I decided to go with 'being close to friends and family' as my experience during the summer was only surrounded by those two.

When I came back to school, I began to create an artist research and found 8 artist that all link to my theme in several ways. At first I researched Andy Warhol who linked to my theme by the collection of objects that meant something to him and kept them all in boxes, which I have then linked to Audrey Flack, who presents objects in different compositions very thoroughtly, linking to my idea as once again, she collects objects and uses them to emphasise her memories. These two artists perfectly link to my summer box, which gave me the idea to chose my one object from the box and expand it further in m future artist researches, however at that time it was too early for me to chose that one particular object.  Then i moved to Howard Hodgkin, who uses colour to emphasise his meaning or memory, yet doesn't explain what his works are about. Due to the memories emphasised through the use of colour, I found a relative artist to this idea, Charles M. Russell, who enhances colour to enhance his memories, from what he saw when he was a little boy, living between cowboys. The painting techniques of Hodgkin and Russell are completely different from one another, Hodgkin is dreamy and distorted, whereas Russell's is realistic, yet the idea of emphasising a feeling or a memory through the use of colour are very similar aspects of both of their works. This research showed me that I do not have to use an actual object to present my idea, I could use colour to emphasise the meaning just as well as the feeling that I felt in a memory of mine. Then I moved to Peter Callessen who cuts patterns from paper focusing on the idea of Life and Death. I linked this idea to my theme and came to a conclusion that most of my summer I spend at my uncles (Godfathers) house, keeping him company as he suffers from uncurable cancer. The idea of Life and Death made me think of my uncle straight away, as this was the most powerful and meaningful memory to me, this made me think that I could expand this idea further. In reference to Callessen's work, I found Elsa Mora's work who also cuts patterns from paper, transforming them into childhood stories such as Red Riding Hood or Alice in Wonderland. She does it to emphasise her childhood memories. The idea that I took from her work is if I plan to use paper in my final work, I should use colour to emphasise the feeling behing my work, which also links to the ideas of Howard Hodgkin and Charles M. Russell. The final artist I have researched is Ebon Heath, who cuts words from paper transforming them into a big pattern/sculpture, which I could use in my work to use the literal emphasis of an idea, and the pattern I would then transform the words into would be metaphorical. In my view, this is an amazing idea to consider in my final outcome. I have also used Tom Phillips to relate to Heaths work, as Phillips chooses meaningful words from a text, scraching all the words around them, emphasising that the meanigful ones should only stand out. This gave me an idea that instead of choosing random meaningful words, I could use this technique to circle words that in the end create a sentence that would be meaningful, which I could use in my final project.

After collecting such research, creating mindmaps and connecting the ideas together, my work will be about my uncle suffers from uncurable cancer, the idea is to emphasise happy memories I had with him and hopefully will through the literal use of words, metaphorical use through the shape of a candle and metaphorical use through colour. All will emphasise hope and that no matter what is happening now, as long as the light on the candle will burn there will always be hope for the better. I will use a candle from my box (Warhol/Flack) which I collected at a cementary at my aunties and uncles when I went with them to visit my greatgrandparents, which are their parents. I will use wax to create words/sentences (Callessen/Heath) from it at a large scale and transform them into a shape of a candle. The idea of wax initially came from the use of an actual candle. However, after the consultations with many different people, I came to a conclusion that wax on its own has a lot more meaning to this work, it could imply how fragile the situation is, yet as long as its taken care  by the happy memories and experiences, it will stay strong and so will he. I will also use colour (Hodgkin/Russell) either through the use of light, background material or colour of wax, to emphasise how I felt when I spend the happy moments with him and the ones I hopefully will. However, I still have a problem with the choice whether which one I should choose, or if I should perhaps use it all.

Before researching new artist after another, I always had different ideas influenced by them, that have always expand each time I researched a new artist, wheather it was the meaning or the technique. For example, after researching Warhol, Flack, Hodgkin and Russell, my plan was to focus on the momories I had with my boyfriend during the summer and the fact that our relationship was a long distance one, which is of course very meaningful to me, yet I still did not know how to clearly show it. After, I researched Callessen, who has completely changed my idea onto the theme of Life and Death which is a main theme of his work, however it has influenced me a lot to focus on my uncle instead, who is my family. Next researches of Mora, Heath and Phillips was nothing but the enhancement, improvement and most importantly inspiration for the idea of my uncle. The idea has slightly changed from life and death onto hope, and technique from the use of paper, onto the use of wax.

The location I will place my work in will be a window placed in my school, right at the front of the main entrance on the left wall, where everyone passes and can clearly see it. There are four windows right next to each other on one side, mine is second from the left, Johnny's third from the left and Eva's fourth. The measurements of the window are; height 60cm, width 29cm and length 35cm giving me a wide space to create a massive, 3D, strong piece of work. Large space on the inside, divided from other windows through a large board, the outside frame of the window is wooden (light), with a lock therefore no one will be able to open it apart from me, and a glass window, dividing the outside from the inside, therefore all locked up yet allowing the viewers to see the work clearly.

I have created three different sketches of how the work may look like, first one presents an average sized candle, fire hanged from the top, material/fabric all over the walls and the background, with lightning coming from the bottom. Second sketch shows a candle that's tall enough to almost reach to the ceiling of the window, which would allow me to create more words/sentences, everything else would be the same. Third image shows the words/sentences of the candle being slightly bend, creating a dreamy feeling of the candle, yet even though wax is easy to manipulate when mented, creating words that all together are bendy will be a very difficult task to do.

The materials that I am planning to use in particular is wax, I do not know yet weather it will be plain white or coloured wax. The whole sculpture I am planning to create will be made from wax. The background will be a large piece of black or white fabric, that will be covering the whole base of the window, the back, sides, bottom and if possible the top part over the ceiling. I am mainly considering a black background due to the fact that when I use lighting, it will only bounce off the wax, and the background will stay clear, whereas on white, the colours will bounce off the walls just as well as of the wax. However, the main problem is that if I use black then it will give a dark, sad, depressing impression to the viewer, and that is certainly not what I want to emphasise, as I do not want to focus on the sad aspects of his life yet on the happy aspects and memories that will give him hope. The lightning will be used either way, whether I use coloured or white wax, white or black background, I will use white light (as long as it does not end up being too hot, not to melt the wax) in purpose of the meaning to emphasise hope, and technique for the light to bounce off the wax and perhaps the background, depending on their colours.

What I must focus on however, is the maintainance of the materials I am planning to use. For instance, the light will be probably charged by the battery, meaning that when it runs out I will have to change it every once in a while. Fabric from the walls, if not attached properly it may fall anytime, risking that it will ruin my whole work. Therefore, it is increadibly essential for me to make sure that the fabric will be properly attached to the walls. What is also important is the thickness of the letters of the wax, if it ends up being too thin, it will break easily, which will be a massive problem as I want one line of words/sentences to be almost as long as one meter. Therefore, I must make sure that the letters are thick, carefully joined enough for them to stand straight, however, to make sure that it stays still, I could also put a line of wire behind the line of words, drag the wire all the way to the eiling, keeping the wax still and yet still not recognisable to the viewer, unless if they look closer. However, I could also use a metallic string, from the wax to the ceiling so that it was not recognisable by the viewer, and normal wire behind the words.

I do not want to use a lot of the wire, just about 10-15, one meter long pieces of wire to attach to the back of the wax, this should cost about 5/10 pounds. The fabric will be quite a large piece yet thin, easy to rip, therefore should cost about 5 pounds. I will use a large amount of wax to create the words/senteces, depending on how large the font will be, will depend on how much I will use it, however, by the size of the window, to be proportionally correct, I will use a large amount of wax, which should cost about 10-15 pounds. Plus the plastic frames for the wax shall cost about 5 pounds.

In conclusion, as always during the making something always ends up being changed, hopefully, after I create the testers, and everything will work just the way I hope it to, the whole project will end up looking just the way I wish it to. 

Ebon Heath + Tom Philips + Response

Ebon Heath.

Ebon Heath lives and works between Brooklyn, Bali, and Berlin. He received his BFA, in Graphic Design, from Rhode Island School of Design in 1994. He founded (((stereotype))) the same year, a design studio focused on music packaging, magazine layout, and fashion advertising. He subsequently cofounded Cell Out in 2003, a consultancy that develops issue-based media strategies for non-profits, NGO’s and brands. He has exhibited internationally with his typographic mobiles, installations, jewelry, and performance art making letters come alive. He is a visiting professor in Graphic Design at Lehman College in the Bronx (USA) and an occasional Art Director for the Mindpirates Berlin (DE). Ebon does not sleep often yet tries to remember his dreams every day.




























When I look at this work, I think of how amazing it is, stunningly composed, imaginative, unique and yet simple. His works are installations that are made of laser cut or hand cut letters and words put together in complex, but harmounius tridimentional structures which have been described as poetry to see. His work has been termed as illustration, sculpture and product design. This work in particular reminds me of Peter Callessen's work, who also uses the technique of laser cut or hand cut patterns, that then become 3D, distorted metaphorical images presenting a high contrast in between life and death. However, only the technique is a similarity to Heath's technique, as he cuts out letters and words to emphasise poetry through the illustration of sculpture. I like the way he uses letters/words in his work that could emphasise music or poetry. Therefore, quite deep and sensitive topics. The font in which he cuts out the words may link to that idea as the words are small, which may emphasise the softness and deepness of the music and poetry. The letters are cut carefully in detail as they are sharp and very clear, implying how hard working Heath must be. Most of the time he uses black and white in his compositions, perhaps implying that the meaning is dark, serious, meaningful or deep. He does use colour in some of his works yet in my view, with colour they do not give the same effect to the viewer as the black and white works do. However, it does work in the example above, with a black background and gold writing, presented in a form of a chandelier with an actual artificial light inside, making the image more realistic. The fact that it is in a form of cut words/letters, makes the image more interesting and unique as I have never seen this type of work or idea before. The effect of formal elements makes me as a viewer interested and impressed by it. This is because he composes those very carefully and thinks clearly about their effect on the viewer. For example, the use of gold, lightning and black background, seem posh and rich due to the mix of black and gold. Therefore, creating a expensive, pricy and rich impression to the viewer. The factors that interest me the most in his works are the detailed letters and that they could say absolutely anything and mean something absolutely different is a very interesting aspect of his work, which owerally is the use of mataphor.

I think that through his work he tries to imply poetry that appears in an actual verbal form, which could mean one thing, however, the pattern/shape he then puts them into could also have an impact on the meaning of the work. I think he tries to combine those two separate factors into one meaningful piece of work, which would certainly be a fantastic idea. I think the artist tried to emphasise that whenever you try to emphasise an idea through art or in any other way, it does not have to be through metaphor, it could be literal instead, showing exactly what the meaning behind the work is. If I had the chance to ask the artist anything, I would ask him what is the connection in between the words/letters and the shape they are being trnsformed into? What is the exact link in between the two? I think this work is relevant to my project because of the technique, and the many different ways I could use it in my future works or the final outome. It's quite fantastic how I can use the technique of literal words to imply my memory, I may also use a metaphor within the shape I put the words into, which is an amazing aspect of his work that I believe should be certailny considered. However, the work does not link to my theme within it's meaning, which is to imply music and poetry, whereas mine is about memories. 

If I could name this work, I would give it the title 'rich poetry', because of the poetry/music/words used within the work and the mix of gold and black giving a rich, posh and expensive impression of the pattern the words have been transformed into. I would like to compare this work to Tom Philips works. Born 24 May 1937 in London, Phillips is an English artist, where he continues to work. He is a painter, printmaker and collagist. He chooses certain words that are meaningful to him from a piece of text and then crosses out the other irrelevant words. The use of literal words is similar in both cases, the words being meaningful is another similar aspect of it, yet the way they are chosen is certainly different.

Tom Phillips.




The elements that I think are successful are the use of visual vocabulary that is actually literal to the meaning that it is meant to imply. The fact that most of his works are white has also worked quite successfuly as there is no distractions, the viewer only sees the lettering for what it is. However, the elements that I don't think are successful is the meaning, that he tries to get across which is not so much for a meaning, but simple poetry/music/words, whereas in my view, if he got more into the meaning, and started writing his memories, perhaps stories that hes been through, the work would in that case perfectly link to my theme, and also would have certainly gained more meaning. My mother said how in her view this work is 'interesting to look at, however she doesn't like the fact that the words are random, if it was a story it would have more sense and meaning', I think she said it because it is true, the words seem to be chosen at random (even if they probably weren't) yet still, a story written out then transformed into a shape, would be more interesting than random words that the viewer does not understand where they came from. I think the factors that are worth remembering is not the the visual vocabulary, yet what they are then transformed into, and what is that transformation meant to imply, perhaps it could be a type of a metaphor.

Metaphor + Response

Metaphor is a term for a figure of speech, which does not use a word in its basic literal sense. Instead, it uses a word in a kind of comparison. We run, and we also say rivers run. We may run into trouble, especially if we run up a bill at the bar. Therefore a metaphor uses words to make a picture in our mind. It takes a word from its original context and uses it in another.
"I beat him with a stick" = literal meaning of 'beat'.
"I beat him in an argument" = metaphorical meaning of 'beat'.
Metaphors are an essential part of language: it is not possible to speak or write without them. A simple example is the word "run". This has a basic meaning of "moving quickly" or "go with quick steps on alternate feet, never having both feet on the ground at the same time''. We use metaphors to make indirect comparisons, but without using 'like' or 'as' – because that would be a similie. A simile is a direct comparison: "Jane is like a child". A metaphor very often uses the verb'to be': "love is war", for example, not '' love is like war". Poetry includes much metaphor, usually more than pose.

A metaphor could be used in art through different forms. We as a class chose random words that could then present in a form of metaphor in a drawing. ....presents the word 'headphones' and development of each idea. Same with other words, which are vacum cleaner and the energy drinks, from which I had to think of the literal meaning of each word and try to create a metapor out of it. For instance, head phones, taking it apart would be 'head' and 'phone', therefore I presented a number of ideas that could present it, that are presented below.

Image on the bottom right presents a metaphor of headphones, the top two however an energy drink.

All the top images present headphones, yet the bottom ones of the spirarals and tornado present a vaccum cleaner.

All the images on this paper simply present an energy drink.

Peter Callesen + Elsa Mora + Response

Peter Callesen, born in Copenhagen in 1967, is a Danish artist and author. Callesen is most well known for his talent in creating paper cut artworks which combining the minimalism of a big crisp white sheet of paper with the complexity of carefully cut and folded paper.

''A large part of my work is made from A4 sheets of paper. It is probably the most common and consumed media used for carrying information today. This is why we rarely notice the actual materiality of the A4 paper. By taking away all the information and starting from scratch using the blank white A4 paper sheet for my creations, I feel I have found a material that we are all able to relate to, and at the same time the A4 paper sheet is neutral and open to fill with different meaning. The thin white paper gives the paper sculptures a frailty that underlines the tragic and romantic theme of my works. The paper cut sculptures explore the probable and magical transformation of the flat sheet of paper into figures that expand into the space surrounding them. The negative and absent 2 dimensional space left by the cut, points out the contrast to the 3 dimensional reality it creates, even though the figures still stick to their origin without the possibility of escaping. In that sense there is also an aspect of something tragic in many of the cuts. They deal with dreams and the impossible. But the stairs and ladders represent a more fragile and almost sublime form. The trashy style in earlier works has developed into a more precise aesthetics. These works exist in the gap between the recognizable everyday object and the fragile and spherical condition and material in which they appear. The whiteness, the ideal pure copy of something real as well as the vertical direction coherent in most of my paper works, could also indicate the aspect of something platonic or religious.''

http://www.petercallesen.com/about/

He uses simple A4 white piece of paper, unless if he decides to create a missive piece of work, then he may go up to the A1 size, which is absolutely massive. What I particularly love about his work, is that he creates his works in such detail. It is difficult just through the use of a cutting knife to create such image out of an A4 piece of paper. Few of his works have a colored background such as the presented image below, perhaps he tries to imply what he felt at the time of making through the use of color, or tries to attach a color that would look the best to what he tries to emphasise, for example flowers in a vase at the bottom, due to it's red background they seem to be placed at home. Also the fact that he creates a background image that is large enough to cut out a smaller one in it, makes the work fascinating and memorable through being unique. Bending the pattern made the image into 3D, being a very interesting aspect of his works by being realistic through the use of an angel and skeleton, which are perfect in presenting the contrast between life and death. Yet still dreamy as no one has actually seen an angel before, nor a skeleton with wings, therefore implying he uses a metaphor to emphasise the meaning. The use of the formal elements makes the viewer more interested in his works, due to the uniqueness of the paper use and the meaning of contrast of Life and Death behind it, interests the viewers.

What I believe is truly going on in most of his works, is all about the contrast in between life and death. Perhaps he tries to tell a story that happened in his life through his works, perhaps someone special to him has passed away and tries to emphasize it through the contrast of life and death. I think this because most of the time he presents angels and skeletons, certainly a massive, contrastingly imagery between heaven and hell, linking to religious imagery. However, his overall meaning is about life and death, not heaven and hell, therefore the works of angels and skeletons present his wonder of whether these objects or places exist, or where his 'special someone' went to after they passed away. Imagery of life and death are the ones presenting a life object such as cut out human hand, and skeleton created from it, showing high contrast i have mentioned earlier. 

If I had to ask Callessen about his works, I would ask who are they about, what or who has inspired him to create such deep and meaningful piece of amazingly detailed works. Also the fact that they are so incredibly detailed, imply that his work is important and meaningful to him. 

Even without his statement above, it is not so hard to realise that his works is about life and death, the metaphor of this theme implies it easily, showing he used the simplest metaphor to imply something so deep and missunderstanding to humans. However, seeing the idea of fairy tale or dreamy imagery to present something so realistic is harder to realise for the viewer on their own. Myself as a viewer for example, at first I got the idea of life and death, sadness and happiness as well as of the contrast, yet not of the dreamy emphasis. On the other hand, if I had to link this idea to my theme of 'Memories', thinking from this perspective, this idea could add even more meaning to his work just as well as mine. His work could emphasise his memories of perhaps his parents/grandparents/siblings/friends/love passing away, presented in a form of a dream that he could have had, and simply presents them on A4 white paper.  His technique is very interesting, detailed and particularly unique, therefore perfectly liking to my theme of 'Memories', in terms of presenting a contrast of the past and the presence and of a memory and how it changed.

If I had to title the work, I would name it of what it actually presents. For instance, if one of his works was about his parents and the work presented two angels or skeletons, I would therefore name it 'mum and dad' or 'parents', purposely, to clearer imply to the viewer what was my inspiration as well as the meaning behind it. This is because now as a viewer I only know the meaning and understand why he used such metaphor, however I do not know the inspiration behind them. For instance, the image below of a vase filled with dying flowers. When looking at this image i see a clear link to a human/animal/plant life, dying flowers could emphasise how as long as you're alive, it is inevitable that death will come. The metaphor of dying flowers is very well used as I as the viewer understand the meaning or message he tries to imply through it, however what I don't know is what has inspired him to create this work. Was it someone close to him that has passed away? Was it his pet? Or was it his love?

This work could link to Elsa Mora. In her art she explores themes of self-containment, relationships, family and passion and draws inspiration from personal stories and experiences. Mora developed her art while she was looking after her autisic child. She soon realized the value of being extremely patient and consistent, and these qualities show in her incredibly detailed papercut works.From Elsa - "My goal is for each student to experience this fascinating medium in a fun way. My hope is that they will feel inspired to keep exploring this medium so they can create their own unique works of art. My hope is also that the students incorporate papercutting in their regular lives as a way of relaxation. But if I had to choose one thing that blows my mind that would be people. Think that we are millions of people on this planet, and each single person is unique, even if they are twins. I love different cultures, languages, the way we look, and the way we think and relate with each other.''
The technique in particular links to Callessen's work yet slightly changed. She uses colour in most of her works, presenting her memories, therefore linking to my theme of 'Memories'. I like how she links the imagery with the writing, such as in the image presented below of the red riding hood, it's obvious that it's the story due to the forest, little girl and the wolf, however the writing at the top 'Once upon a time', makes it absolutely clear to the viewers that she tries to present her childhood probably favorite story. However it does not exactly must be her favorite childhood story, could be her children's instead. On the other hand even though the technique is almost the same, the meaning behind the work is completely different from Callessen's, however still links to my theme. She focuses on presenting self-containment, relationships, family and passion and draws inspiration from personal stories and experiences, whereas Callessen focuses on the contrast in between Life and Death. However her meaning still links to my theme of 'Memories' as it's all about relationships, family and passion that we went through in our lifes, and that is what my theme is about, is about the experiences in our life that are so powerful and meaningful, presented in a form of a metaphor.





In my opinion, technique is the most interesting aspect of his work when looking first at the work. Personally, when I first saw his works, I was excited and incredibly interested from the first moment, which was caused by his unique yet simple technique. The idea of the technique use is amazing yet still created from a simple piece of paper that people use everyday, however he thought about it and created something amazing from it. That is only the impression the technique creates. The meaning has excited me about this work even more, those two aspects perfectly link with one to another, creating inspiration for people such as myself. Therefore I believe his work is very effective in what it was meant to show or emphasise from both, technical and meaningful aspects. The only issue with his work is that once again, as a viewer, I do not know the inspiration to his creations.
My class peers Johnny and Eva have also analysed his works and gave their own opinion about Callessen's works. Eva said how she particularly loves how you can't tell the size of the actual work when looking at the image of it. Which is true, she analysed the image below and said 'I love how you can't tell the real size'. Whereas Johnny said how detailed it is and loves the presentation of a story, in a story tale form,. Also how interesting the base of an image is, because you can't really tell what will come out from the cut parts, however when it comes together into one big piece, it all starts to make sense, creating something beautiful and amazing.



What I think is worth remembering about his work is his technique, because it is unique and very interesting as I have explained earlier. Also in my case, remembering the idea of life and death, particularly links to my personal memory of my Godfather, who at this moment suffers from incurable cancer and each time I see him his condition gets worse. This is what I have experienced over the summer, being the most powerful and meaningful memory to me, linking to Callessen's idea of life and death, painful, yet most essential memory to me.

I have experienced the difficulty of cutting paper myself when creating responses to his technique and meaning of focusing on life and death though a dreamy/fairy tale form, combined with my own theme of memories. First response presents a memory of myself being on a cementary, visiting my greatgrandparents, the angel and the grave of course emphasise the idea of a cementary, of life and death linking to Callessen's meaning, also links with his technique. Second image is a metaphor of time running out, this is presented by a burning out candle, that fades with time. This memory is ment to represent my uncle/godfather, who has uncurable cancer, this candle is a metaphor representing him, which is a very sad memory as each time I see him, his condition gets worse, therefore in my view the candle is a perfect emphasis to this memory. Same idea applies to the 5th and 6th image, with a candle burning out, yet instead of creating a storyboard, this time I've created a burned out candle from a new, just freshly burning candle, yet the idea and memory behind it is still exactly the same. Whereas the 4th image presents a couple dreaming of being together, emphasising that they are having a long distant relationship. What I hope implies it is the sunrise on one side and sunset on the other, presenting two different places at two different timings.