Practitioner research: Anthony Cragg

Anthony Cragg

Tony Cragg is a sculptor, many of his early works are made with found household and construction materials. He started his work in the UK where he studied art at on the foundation course at the Gloucestershire College of art and design, then at the Wimbledon school of art. He was taught by Roger Ackling who introduced him to the sculptors Richard Long and Bill Woodrow. After this he completed his studies at Royal College of art where he was a contemporary of Richard Wentworth.

After completing his studies he moved out of Britain to Wuppertal in Germany where he is currently living and working. Cragg also has a studio on the island of Tjorrn off the west coast of Sweden. During the 1970s he made sculptures using simple techniques such as stacking, splitting, and crushing. In 1978 he collected discarded plastic fragments and arranged them into colour categories. The first work of this kind was called 'New Stones-Newton’s Tones'. Shortly after this he made works on the floor and wall reliefs, which formed images. One of these works, Britain Seen From the North (1981), features the shape of the island of Great Britain on the wall, oriented so that north is to the left. To the left of the island is the figure of a man, apparently Cragg himself, looking at the country from the position of an outsider. The whole piece is made from broken pieces of found rubbish and is often interpreted as commenting on the economic difficulties Britain was going through at that time, which had a particular effect on the north.

I chose to write about Tony Cragg because he works with found objects and recyclable materials that have no use anymore to produce amazing sculptures and wall pieces. I chose him because these are the similarities between his work and the work I’m doing as I’m working with recycled scrap to produce art and also found objects.

Practitioner research: JR Street artist

JR Street Artist

JR is a French urban contemporary artist who exhibits his work on the streets all over the world, he names the streets as “The largest art gallery in the world” His art is all about combining art and action and he includes the sense of freedom, identity and limits in all of his pieces.

After acquiring a camera he travelled around Europe researching people who displayed heir works of art on walls, he researched the limits of walls and rooftops around the worlds cities and after listening to the artists messages of their work he pasted their portraits on the walls, basements and rooftops of Paris.
Between 2004 and 2006, JR created Portraits of a Generation, portraits of young people from the housing projects around Paris that he exhibited in huge format. This illegal project became official when the City of Paris put JR’s photos up on buildings. Right at the beginning of his projects, JR wanted to bring art into the street.
“In the street, we reach people who never go to museums.”

One of his works that particularly interested me is called Face2Face. This project was all about showing that Palestine's and Israelis are enough alike to be able understand each other. JR photographed Israeli and Palestinian men and women who have the same jobs showing many different emotions to show that they are all human and the same, that there is no difference. The portraits created were pasted up face to face on either side of the Separation Wall and in several surrounding towns.
The project’s goal was to show through images that art and laughter combined can break down prejudice.

Like Banksy JR is an artist of whom nobody knows his identity, all of his work on the streets is illegal , but he likes to think that there is no limit to what you can achieve through art and the ways in which you do it. I like JR because his work shows great humanitarianism and awakens less serious sides of serious issues for example face2face which opened peoples eyes to how alike people are no matter which race they are or where they originate from.
I think JR is relevant to my work as his works opens peoples eyes to big issues such as poverty and discrimination and my work is focused on the use of recycling and re-use which people need to be more aware of

Practitioner research: Tim Noble & Sue Webster

Tim Noble and Sue Webster




Tim noble was born in 1966 in Stroud and sue Webster was born in 1967 In Leicester they are both contemporary artists based in England. They are associated with the Post-YBA generation of artists who came out after the Young British Artists of the 1990s. Noble & Webster live and work together in East London. Charles Saatchi collects their work and displays it in the Saatchi gallery.

The majority of their work is made out of rubbish found on the streets of London which is then made into piles that might not look like much when you first look at them but when a light is cast upon them you can see the shadows of what they’re really meant to be. One example of this is a piece called “Real life is rubbish” which was created in 2002; I like this piece because they have made use of everyday house hold rubbish to create portraits of themselves in a pile of rubbish with a meaning, creating something beautiful out of something so ugly.

Another quite controversial work of theirs I like is called “Kiss of death.” I like this piece as I think they have gone a step further with this one than just collecting rubbish off the street. This piece is made up of taxidermy animal bodies of birds and rats and again light is projected on to a wall to give an image. The image shows two decapitated heads on spikes with a crow sat on top of one of them, it looks as if they’re trying to reach out to each other after death for a kiss.

The reason why I chose to write about Tim Noble and Sue Webster is that one of the similarities between their work and my work is that I am going to create art using found objects from the Scrapstore that can be reused and recycled. These objects are ones that careless people would think were no use and should just throw away, Noble & Webster also use objects that other people wouldn’t take a second look at, in household rubbish.

I like them because they’re spontaneous and are also showing in their work that the most unattractive and vile objects can sometimes surprise you in being made into something beautiful.

Practitioner research: 5x5x5

5 x 5 x 5= Creativity

Established in 2000, 5 x 5 x 5=Creativity is an independent, arts based action research organization which helps support children in their exploration and expression of ideas, helping them develop creative skills for life. They wok with children all over the south west of England including Freshford primary School, Pitton, Bishop Henderson and Exeter house.

They are inspired by an educational approach used in northern Italy called Reggio Emilia that respects children as strong, capable protagonists in their own learning, it also recognizes children’s inquisitiveness and gives them the help, time, space and attention to explore and learn about the world around them.

The approach they take is rather than the participating adults necessarily being seen as teachers to the children they are more like companions rather than leaders working with them through research and learning through teaching. With this method the children get to explore the world around them, they see it as one big journey of discovery through their creations and what they are learning on the way, it is a more fun, exciting and proactive way of teaching in its self and the outcome is that the children come out of it more confident and with more self esteem and are better able to engage in various activities and are able to express themselves and problem solve more easily.

Some of their work that I find particularly interesting and that relates to my work is their work with Freshford primary school. They have been working with the school for over four years and one of their projects was to find for the children to look at discarded objects that they had found on walks such as, beach balls, rusty tins, feathers, pine cones, shells and sticks. They would then bring these objects into the classroom and almost create a museum.

These objects became the basis of an interest in collections, inspiration for fantasies and memories. They also took photographs and remembered sounds these were all important in the project for the children to share their “treasures” and memories of walks with family and friends through these objects and also helps them to make a real connection with the world around them. I like this project a lot because it really opens the children’s eyes to the world and they can look at objects like a stick or a stripy snail shell and use their creativity and imagination to see that the stick looks like antlers and that the snail shells are all different and beautiful in their own ways.

The similarity of this work and mine is that the children are working with found objects and using their imagination to create whatever they want the objects to be and part of my project is using found objects and letting children create structural objects with the found objects and to learn through play and reuse objects that some people wouldn’t even take another glance at.

Practitioner research: Claes Oldenburg

Claes Oldenburg

Claes Oldenburg was born on January 28, 1929. He is a Swedish sculptor, best known for his public art sculptures, which usually feature very large replicas of everyday objects. Another theme in his work is soft sculpture versions of everyday objects.

Claes Oldenburg was born in Stockholm, Sweden; he was the son of a Swedish diplomat. As a child he and his family moved to United States in 1936, first to New York then, later, to Chicago where he graduated from the Latin School of Chicago. He studied at Yale University from 1946 to 1950, then returned to Chicago where he studied under the direction of Paul Wieghardt at the Art Institute of Chicago until 1954.

Whilst developing his craft, he worked as a reporter at the City News Bureau of Chicago. He also opened his own studio and, in 1953, became a naturalized citizen of the United States. His first recorded sales of artworks were at the 57th Street Art Fair in Chicago, where he sold 5 items for a total price of $25.

He moved back to New York City in 1956. There he met a lot of artists, including Jim Dine, Red Grooms, and Allan Kaprow, whose work incorporated theatrical aspects and provided an alternative to the abstract expressionism that had taken over much of the art scene at the current time.

The most memorable works of art created by Claes Oldenburg are the gigantic Sculptures he created, though quite large, they usually had various interactive capabilities. One of his early interactive sculptures was a soft sculpture of a tube of lipstick which would deflate unless a participant re-pumped air into it, this shows how he really got the public to join in with and enjoy his art and feel as if they were a part of it. In 1974, this sculpture, Lipstick that was attached to Caterpillar Tracks, was redesigned in a sturdier aluminium form; the giant lipstick being placed vertically atop tank treads as before. Originally installed in Beinecke Plaza at Yale, it now stands in the Morse College courtyard.

Many of Oldenburg's giant sculptures of mundane objects attracted public ridicule before being taken in as Quirky, insightful, and fun additions to public outdoor art.

In the 1960s he became associated with the Pop Art movement and attended many happenings, which were performance art related productions of that time. The name he gave to his own productions was "Ray Gun Theatre". His first wife -(1960–1970) Pat Muschinski who sewed many of his early soft sculptures, was a constant performer in his happenings. This humorous approach to art was at first ridiculed with the prevailing sensibility that, by its nature, art dealt with "profound" expressions or ideas. But Oldenburg's spirited art found first a place then a great popularity that endures to this day.

I chose to write about Claes Oldenburg as his work is similar in one way also to the work I am doing. The similarity is tat his work resembles everyday found or household objects and the work I am doing is based on found recyclable objects. Claes also looks at these objects in ways that they have unrecognized meanings and beauty, which is one of the reasons I chose to talk about his work.

Practitioner research: Christo & Jeanne Claude

Jeanne Caude and Christo

Christo

Christo was born in Gabrovo, Bulgaria. His father, Vladimir Yavachev, was a scientist, and his mother, Tsveta Dimitrova, born in Macedonia, was the secretary at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia. Professors from the Academy who visited his family observed Christo's artistic talent while he was still of a very young age.

Christo studied art at the Sofia Academy from 1953 to 1956, and went to Prague, Czechoslovakia until 1957, when he left for West by bribing a railway official and stowing away with several other individuals onboard a train transporting medicine and medical supplies to Austria.

Christo quickly settled in Vienna, and enrolled at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. After only one semester there, he traveled to Geneva and moved to Paris in 1958. As a result of his flight, he lost his Bulgarian citizenship and became a stateless person. His life in Paris was characterized by financial hardship and social isolation, which was worsened by his difficulty learning the French language. He earned money by painting portraits, which he likened to prostitution and signed with his family name "Javachef" while his early works were signed "Christo".

Jeanne Claude

Jeanne-Claude was born in Casablanca, Morocco where her French military father was stationed. Her mother, Précilda, was 17 when she married Jeanne-Claude's father, Major Léon Denat. Précilda and Léon Denat divorced shortly after Jeanne-Claude was born, and Précilda remarried three times. Jeanne-Claude earned a baccalaureate in Latin and philosophy in 1952 from the University of Tunis
During World War II, Jeanne-Claude lived with her father's family while her mother fought in the French Resistance. In 1946, Précilda married the influential General Jacques de Guillebon. The family lived in Berne from 1948 to 1951 then in Tunisia from 1952 to 1957, when they returned to Paris.

Christo & Jeanne Claude

Christo and Jeanne-Claude were born on the same date. They first met in Paris in October 1958. Their works were credited to just "Christo" until 1994 when the outdoor works and large indoor installations were retroactively credited to "Christo and Jeanne-Claude". They flew in separate planes: in case one crashed, the other could continue their work.


Jeanne-Claude died, aged 74, on November 18, 2009, from complications of a brain aneurysm.

Although their work is visually impressive and often controversial because it is so big, the artists have repeatedly denied that their projects contain any deeper meaning than what the viewer sees.

The purpose of their art is to create works of art or joy and beauty and to create new ways of seeing familiar landscapes.

Art critic David Bourdon has described Christo's wrappings as a "revelation through concealment." To his critics Christo replies, "I am an artist, and I have to have courage ... Do you know that I don't have any artworks that exist? They all go away when they're finished. Only the preparatory drawings, and collages are left, giving my works an almost legendary character. I think it takes much greater courage to create things to be gone than to create things that will remain."



One piece of work that I like in particular was called wrapped trees. The project was started on the 13th of November 1998 in Fondation Beyeler and Berower Park in Riehen, Switzerland. 178 trees were wrapped with 55000 square meters of woven polyester fabric, which is used every winter in Japan to protect the trees from frost and heavy snow. They also used 14.35 meters of rope; it was completed on November the 22nd.
The height of the trees varied from 1 meter to 25 meters. As they have always done, Christo and Jeanne-Claude have paid the expenses of the project themselves through the sale of original works to museums, private collectors and galleries. They do not accept sponsorship of any kind.

Christo and Jeanne Claude worked with trees for many years and the “Wrapped Trees” in Riehen were the result of 32 years of effort. I think the following statement is the message or idea that Christo and Jeanne Claude were trying to portray.

Statement by the artists

“The temporality of a work of art creates a feeling of fragility, vulnerability and an urgency to be seen, as well as a presence of the missing, because we know it will be gone tomorrow.

The quality of love and tenderness that human beings have towards what will not last - for instance the love and tenderness we have for childhood and our lives - is a quality we want to give to our work as an additional aesthetic quality.”

To me Christo and Jeanne Claude’s artwork is all about bringing people together; wherever they work they make their art not just something interesting to look at but a once in a lifetime experience for the local people as they also get to partake in the creation. All of the materials used are recycled and put to use in other ways or given to the people involved.

I think Christo and Jeanne Claude’s work has a link to mine in the way that I am working with recycled materials and trying to bring people together to work together in building something new. They also bring people together with their work and then recycle or reuse the materials they work with. Their work is also always temporary as is mine.

I think the Wrapped Trees give off a wonderful variation of colour and there are many beautiful shades and tones when the sunlight hits the translucent materials. It makes the atmosphere around the park really warm and happy. The shadows inside the wrapping also create many interesting and intricate lines which create beautiful patterns at different times of the day.

Evaluation

How successful do you think your final production is?

I think my project is moderately successful as I had many problems to overcome. I had to change my idea many times because of communication difficulties with the school I was going to work with; I think I worked well with what I had. I also think I followed the brief well and I tried to get the message across as well as I could in my film. I think I worked well under the pressure and as my partner wasn’t local; however, I think I could have improved in a few areas as I rushed part of it such as the film editing process, which was difficult for me as I hadn’t used the software in over a year and wasn’t that confident with it. Overall I think It went well despite all of the problems I faced and I think my partner was moderately happy with it.

What did your partner think about the production?

My Partner was John Pendlington From the children’s scrap store and I think he was quite pleased with it overall. This is what he had to say…”We loved the "Ready, Steady, Cook” concept using scrap materials presented to three creative chefs and the BBC “Vision On” type music. It is very engaging and watchable, and gets the message across by drawing on scrap items a novel use of colour plastic and food packaging. Will help companies rethink about their waste materials.” I think John is pleased with this as he mentions that it will help companies rethink about their waste materials, which was the point of the video entirely.

How well did you Interact with your partner?

We met around 3 times during the process as they’re based in Bristol so it was difficult. However, We communicated via email whenever we wanted to check up on something or get feedback on ideas. I think I interacted well with my partner as there were no communication problems and whenever I wasn’t sure with something I just had to email him to make sure my project would be suitable and was following the brief.

What practical problems did you face during the process?

One of the only practical problems during my project was communication. Originally I was going to work with a primary school and work with the children, however, we kept emailing them and they must have been very busy as they never got back to us in time for us to do our project. I think another practical problem was that we had to get scrap from the scrap store to the college. We wanted to use the college mini bus but we couldn’t find someone to drive it for a long time, which delayed us for quite a while. Eventually though we found someone and were able to collect our scrap.

How did you overcome these problems?

To overcome the lack of communication problem I improvised and thought instead of using the children in my film I could just use students from my course. They were all willing to help and created things from the scrap materials just like the children would have, so my problem was resolved.

Considering your partner’s feedback: How would you do things differently next time?

If I were to do it again considering my partners feed back I would probably spend longer on editing my film as I think my material was good but I could have spent longer smoothing out my film on final cut pro

What new skills did you learn (Practical and Business skills)?

I learned a lot of practical business skills such as better communication skills and how to write up and hold meetings in the correct form.

What things should be considered when working with an external partner?

You should think about what they want from you to help their business and try to work as closely to the brief given as you can. You also have to think about how far away you are from your partner as it helps to be closer and have more regular meetings.

Compare your work to a similar campaign. What have you done particularly well? What have you missed? Etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8BwXp7ICs0&feature=related

This is the video that I’m comparing my work to; they use the same slogan as the scrap store, which is reduce, reuse, recycle. I think my video is very different from this one, as they have used an animated cartoon character to promote the use of recycling and trying to convince people to take care of the planet. I think this is a successful video and it gets the message across clearly. I think my video does portray the message that I want it to well but I could benefit in using more repetition of my message to really influence people.