Tate Britain Visit

Tate Britain Visit

Christian Mackie - The filters

Through the use of mixed media using physical sculpture, mechanics, textile and art medium an installation is made that explores an idea of color & perception through the investigation between the connection of natural and manufactured elements. 

The use of a sphere is used as a visual metaphor for the public sphere/domain within an installation that communicates science, technology, memory and perception. 

Its interesting to see how the positioning of this installation creates a strong contrast of the contemporary and traditional within the classic setting of the Tate Britain. It changes the whole mood and perception of the concept behind the installation yet strengthens the contrast of natural and ideas of manufacturing. 

The natural light, the fabric tubes and the positioning of the installation strengthens the fluidity of the paint and the pigmentation of the color to help emulate the idea of color and perception. 

Mary Martin
This work here makes me consider the use of mixed media when it comes to producing a physical 3D outcome and the consideration of color interaction to help strengthen an idea. The idea here is based on perception and how people perceive things from different view points this is emulate very well as the sculpture can be viewed in many ways, it has a certain tactility and versatility too it. 

The use of perspex makes me consider how important material is within production when it comes to communicating a certain idea or message. Perspex supports an idea more suited to technological advancement, this is further supported by the contemporary aesthetic of the design and the progression and tactility within the alternative shapes and view points.  

John Latham - One second drawing

I appreciate the idea of perception the designer communicates here, the use of a suspended object with little consideration to visual content through the rough sketch supports the idea of how multiple view points of a subject can be viewed. Due to the sketch been quite abstract and not a neat and well communicated illustration that is fixed in what message it communicates, the suspension of the product casts certain shadows depending on the view point which further this supports the idea of multiple view points. 

Eddie Chambers - Deconstruction of the national front
Quite a literal visualization of an idea, showing physical deconstruction of an image that denotes the national front and its racist nazi ideology through the re-appropriation of the British flag and the nazi symbol. The idea came about from the 200'000 votes in favor for the national front in 1979 and shows the break down of the movement through deconstruction and dismantling of an original screen print further strengthening the idea of re-appropriation.  


Fiona Banner - Break Point
Using acrylic paint and marker pen on canvas an idea of progression is visualized from calm to chaos, this represents the car chase within the film Point Break, from start to finish text becomes more close and illegible as the action progress's. This idea of illegibility communicates chaos very well while the red type has connotations of action and danger. Proving hoe effective the relationship between medium and message is. 

New Brutalist Image
This exhibition has expanded my focus on a subject relating to architecture, location, housing and how these aspects can relate to social change. 

In 1953 the sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi, the artist-photographer Nigel Henderson, and the architects Alison and Peter Smithson joined up with the pioneering structural engineer Ronald Jenkins to create the radical and still highly influential exhibition Parallel of Life and Art.

This historic collaboration was first forged during the design and building of the architecturally important Hunstanton School in Norfolk which was conceived by the Smithsons in 1949. Capturing the time and process of the building of Hunstanton, this display brings together an extensive range of previously unseen photographs by Henderson, drawings and proposals by the Smithsons, and sculptures by Paolozzi.

Curated with direct reference to the innovative design and commissioning process of Jenkins’s office at Ove Arup & Partners in 1951, the display highlights how this office project became the test-bed of ideas for the group’s design and installation of Parallel of Life and Art which underpinned the movement that the critic Reyner Banham would famously label ‘New Brutalism’.

These works illustrate the idea of The New Brutalism movement, the work here illustrated the argument of these ideas through the use of accurate architectural drawings of the Hunstanton school in Norfolk, the use of grids accurate layout and perspective emulates the idea of parallels.

The separation of the physical 3D and flat emulates the use of grids to present the idea of how life can be framed up and presented in an an organized way as a proposition for the new urban thinking, and a reflection of patterns within human associations working from 3 main ideas;

Memorability as image

Clear exhibition of structure 

Value of found materials, an idea of re-appropriation and re use of material for specific uses? 

The 3D wooden cabinet was created for structural engineer Ronald Jenkins office and shows multiple view points within an abstract construction, again showing 3 view points, a nice product with focus on the end user.

This makes me think about the idea of scaled down models and abstraction as a method of re-appropriating a message or current outcome in a more interesting way.

A very nice and clear reflection and re-appropriation of the exhibition Parallel of Life & Art, again showing how distribution and positioning of media can change the perception of an idea, the idea of parallels and perspective has been created here within the projections on the corners of the room. 

The method of projection also supports the idea of reflection within the exhibition. 

Contrast of traditional analogue drawings and digital drawings, both these share aesthetics that instantly connote ideas of architecture and have feeling of structure and organisation which reflects well with the focus of the exhibition. 

Next stages

Expand on research into Brutalist architecture, the New brutalist Image and New Urban thinking and how it has or had an impact on social, environmental and cultural factors to begin specifying a more focused research point based on location and housing as a means of addressing issues related to social change.