Academic Tutorial
Only had time to edit one photo:
Hesitated a lot between photos more colorful or grayer. Then I decided on the more colorful one because I think the grayer one looks too peaceful and I want to give the “object” more mood or emotion. I have never really edited the color of photos so heavily as this one but I somehow like the effect of thickness and softness and I think being an object by a human is not so realistic itself so the effect is ok for not looking so real as in reality. It reminds me of Erwin Wurm’s photographic sculptures:
It’s a Polaroid and I was wondering why he chose this kind of visual effect instead of clear photos. Interesting that now I’m using similar effect as well.
I showed the 5 photos and videos to Adam and he suggested me to shoot videos of the performances/sculptures in public spaces. He said it’s too easy in still images. I guess that as I’m talking about the futility of attempts, with a longer duration, the effort of the attempts and the sense of futility would be more obvious. As in public spaces, though people might have some reactions to the objects, I don’t expect any interaction to be honest, as there would be a camera and people would probably want to get away from it. But actually I’m not really looking for interactions, although it might be good. It’s more about the attempts from my side. But the fact that people don’t interact with the objects could also show the futility of the attempts I guess. I think in public spaces, the attempts would make more sense because they usually look out to interact with the outside world. Adam also shared Leah Capaldi and Rory Macbeth’s statue.
I found these 2 projects of Capaldi’s especially interesting:
InTo this
performance, 1 hour
chocolate cake, red frilly thong.
I enter the room wearing a red frilly thong. Posistioning myself on all fours I plunge my head into a large chocolate cake. I remain like this for an hour. After this time I pull my face from the cake, get up and leave.
I started to get how duration helped the emphasis on the theme. I’m again surprised at how the performer uses her body in the work and almost forgets herself I guess.
performance, 45 mins – twice daily
two fur coats
I advertised online for volunteers to become my sculpture during an exhibition. They sit crosslegged, bent over in the space. I cover their body with two fur coats. The collars of the coats frame their bare neck. They remain like this for 45mins, I remove the coats and they exit the gallery.
I paid attention to this because my work is also a body covered, although I don’t really know what it’s about.
The Thinker (Hamley’s Fag Break) 2007 
Statue (Flora) 2005 
Robot Man 2006
It’s interesting to see Rory Macbeth makes objects become human beings although I’m not even sure if The Thinker is real or not! And I make human beings become objects.
Adam found connections between my photos and videos although I thought they were not related. But it’s true they’re based on the same initial idea. He mentioned about surface and membrane that light can go through but are not entirely seen through, like veil/fold/draped, as I’m exploring something not really reachable. He also shared The Fold by Deleuze. He suggested I could take portraits of the objects. I’m not very sure because I do want to have context for the objects.
Lecture & Workshop: ‘Making Things Public’
WIP Show
I’m not sure if I saw photography show… I’m surprised by how much texts for story telling are involved in contemporary art practice. I think it’s very interesting how many mediums are mixed in a same pathway or even a same project.
Eva Wang 