Monday, 9 February 2009
Friday, 6 February 2009
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Tuesday, 3 February 2009
About Rebecca Horn's work
German installation artist Rebecca Horn is most famous for her work using her body as a subject. I really enjoyed reading about her life and looking at the images of the installation pieces as well as some video work. Rebecca Horn is not just performance and installation artists, she also writes poetry and all the work is connected together. Drawing is particularly important to the artist as an expression form. Living in Germany after the end of World War II drawing helped the artist to be herself, as they could not speak German and had to learn English and French and move to new places.
Rebecca Horn went to the Hamburg academy of Fine Arts against her parents wishes, but a year later got a severe lung poisoning (after working with glass fibre without a protection) and had to leave the Academy. During that time her parents died and she felt completely isolated. She walked out of the hospital and kept drawing and working with softer materials whilst lying in bed. It also helped her to break out of her self-imposed isolation and began to create her first body sculptures. Her aim was to quash her "loneliness by communicating through bodily forms."
Her most know work is "Unicorn", "Pencil Mask", "Finger Gloves","Feather Fingers", etc.
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Feedback on Lecture1
Very positive. Although I find it challenging, theoretical studies is a nice "change" from "hands-on" workshops. I really enjoyed the research afterwards about the tapestries and the making of them and I think it helps me not just to enrich my vocabulary, but also broadens my outlook.
The lecture led by Ben Owen-Jones was really good as it had discipline, lots of information about the tapestry subject as well as space for discussion ,questions and answers. We all participated in the task where we had to work in teams of three creating a tapestry.
Guernica
Guernica is a painting by Pablo Picasso, showing the bombings of Guernica (Spain) by 28 German bombers on April 26th, 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. The attack killed between 250-1600. This monumental work has eclipsed the bounds of a single time and place, becoming a perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war, an anti-war symbol, and an embodiment of peace. Guernica presents a sense of death, violence, brutality, suffering and helplessness without portraying their immediate causes. The choice to paint in black and white conveys the chronological nearness of a newspaper photograph and the lifelessness war affords.
The Lady and the Unicorn/The Hunt of the Unicorn
The Lady and the Unicorn is the modern title given to a series of six tapestries woven in Flanders of wool and silk from designs ("cartoons") drawn in Paris in the 15th century.
Five of the tapestries are commonly interpreted as depicting the five senses - taste, hearing, sight, smell and touch. The sixth displays the words "A mon seul desir" (meaning: "to my only desire"), whose meaning is obscure, but has been interpreted as representing love or understanding.
The Hunt of the Unicorn is the series of seven tapestries dating from 1495-1505. Much of the tapestries' history is disputed and there are many theories about their original purpose and meaning. However it seems likely that they were commissioned by Anne of Brittany to celebrate her marriage to Charles VIII King of France.
The two major interpretations of the tapestries hinge on pagan and Christian symbolism. The pagan interpretation focuses on the medieval lore of beguiled lovers, whereas Christian writings interpret the unicorn and its death as the Passion of Christ.
The Bayeux Tapestry
The Bayeux Tapestry is long embroidered cloth (not an actual tapestry), which explains the events leading up to the 1066 Norman invasion of England as well as the events of the invasion itself. The tapestry is annotated in Latin and is 50 cm by 70m (20 in by 230 ft) long. It is exhibited in a special museum in Bayeux, Normandy, France.
French legend maintained the tapestry was commissioned and created by Queen Matilda, William the Conqueror's wife, but analysis in 20th century shows it probably was commissioned by William's half brother Bishop Odo and designed and constructed in England by Anglo-Saxon artists.
The Bayeux tapestry is embroidered in wool yarn on a tabby-woven linen (plain weave) ground using two methods of stitching: outline or stem stitch for lettering and the outlines of figures and couching or laid work for filling in figures. The main yarn colours are terracotta or russet, blue-green, dull gold, olive green and blue with small amounts of dark blue or black and sage green.
Lecture 1: Tapestry Description & the Historical use of Tapestry
Our first theoretical studies were based on tapestries and the historical use of the tapestry. As it was a first theoretical lecture and I found myself struggling to take notes (with English being my second language), I decided to go back to basics and start by looking at the explanations of terms, that were used in the lecture. I chose Wikipedia to start with for its clear and simple explanations:
Tapestry is a form of textile art, which is woven by hand on a vertical loom. It is weft-faced weaving, in which all the wrap threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike cloth weaving, where both the wrap and the weft threads may be visible. In this way, a colourful pattern or image is created. Most weavers use a naturally based wrap thread such as cotton or linen. The weft threads are usually wool or cotton, but may include silk, gold, silver, or other alternatives.
Both craftsmen and artists have produced tapestries. The "blueprints" on cardboard (also know as "tapestry cartoons") were made by artists of repute, while the tapestries themselves were produced by craftsmen.
The success of decorative tapestry can be partially explained by it's portability. It could be rolled up and transported from one residence to another and displayed on special occasions in churches. In the Middle Ages and renaissance tapestry also was a symbol of authority.
Apart from religious and mythological images, hunting scenes are the subject of many tapestries.
Earliest were Greek tapestries, which have been found preserved in the desert of Tarim Basin. In the 14th and 15th centuries Arras (France) was a thriving textile town. The industry specialised in fine wool tapestries which were sold to decorate palaces and castles all over Europe. Few of these tapestries survived French Revolutions as hundreds were burned to recover the gold thread that was woven into them. Arras is still used to refer to a rich tapestry no matter where it was made.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)