Fine Art Body of Work: The Conch( tbc)

Review

For my final body of work I will incorporate all the aspects of the conceptual art that I have developed over the past two years, collating painting, sculpture, video and performance.

The themes will be universal as well as personal, exploring deep, current issues regarding the human condition and the internet revolution.

The personal aspect of this project is based on my own daily experience of the World Wide Web, and the observation of my daughter’s generation, who have been born into this as their normal, every day way of life.

I was fascinated years ago by the film ‘The Matrix’ made in 1999, this was based on the idea of human beings energy cells, harvested by computers that had taken over the world. In the film humans are likened to a Duracell battery running this computer generated world.

I am investigating the semiology and the process of myth creation; I will use materials in the installation that will convey the mythologies of modern cultural phenomena. Materials and readymade items that will be chosen for their status and perception in our cultural modern myths. These myths influence our tastes, therefore the products we buy into. Those products being symbolic of whom we want to be seen as in the world.

I will be using research sources that back up these theories, including science fiction authors, literary theorist, philosophers, critics, and semioticians and psychologists.

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Project Concept

Current news issues in the media have been presenting stories about the illegal harvesting of personal information, which reignited an old idea of human beings being likened to a crop.  It seems the current trend of fake news has really been pulling people in they have become more heavily invested, needing to keep up with the drama, almost like an addict. We are the captive audience for advertising, feeding the consumerists market.

This theme expands from the ‘Unorthodox’ project in which I looked at Christianity and how the church harvested money from their followers based on religious mythological ideas, an invisible God that is watching them, judging them and giving out rewards and punishments depending on their behaviour.

Current news reports are that Facebook and similar online companies have been selling peoples personal data. This data that is usually used to target advertising campaigns has been illegal harvested for political influence. A company called Cambridge Analytica is being investigated for these illegal practices. Fake news stories have been sent to people who may be influenced due to their data content.

We are so used to advertisements that the harvesting of information in this case is accepted by most. Fear drives insecurity, insecurity sells the idea of a glamorous life and if you have it you will be happy. Pulling people in and making a person heavily invested, needing to keep up with the drama. Therefor being the captive audience for advertising, feeding the consumerists market. News coverage is often placed next to advertisements. Helplessness drives us to invest in that which will make us feel better. It seems it is rarely questioned, probably as we feel helpless to do anything about this influence.

I was fascinated years ago by the film ‘The Matrix’ made in 1999, this was based on the idea of human beings energy cells, harvested by computers that had taken over the world. In the film humans are likened to a Duracell battery running this computer generated world. I will incorporate ideas from this film and other dystopian films and books.

 

Initial Ideas

The consumerist and the consumed

I will make will have a minimum of five sculptures of human forms with hoods made from foil. They will look like they are wearing hoodies, facing in towards each other, though they will all be staring at their mobile phones.

Money is God

I will make a large painting or collage of money. It will hang on the ceiling, from each phone there will be a cable plugged into the image.

The Architect

In the middle of the installation there will be a video playing, in it I will be playing the part of a ‘fake news’ reader, intermittently selling fake products between the segments.

Plastic Wasteland

A sea of plastic bags that the foil figures emerge from.

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Context and research methodology.

The consumerist and the consumed

The five human sculptures made from foil are based on my experience of being near Whitley bay light house as I was out running one day. Many people were there with beautiful scenery, seascapes around them. There were lots of groups of people standing in circles staring at their phones. My perception was that they were not interacting directly with each other but through social media.

The foil hoods may represent teenage hood tops but also may give a sense of hooded figures resembling the Illuminati.

I was inspired by the installation ‘Ghost’ made by Kader Attia in 2007. He used foil to make figures bending down praying. I was drawn in by the throw away element of the material and how it gave a sense of fragility and emptiness.

Money is God

I was inspired by Roland Barthes book Mythologies and his theory regarding people who buy a product due to the mythology it presents; therefore people create the myth of who they feel they are through their purchases.

There is paper money in the form of notes and coins, yet through the power of technology currency flows through the Internet high way invisibly. I liken this money to the idea the invisible God that so many believe in. We sold this idea of money even though we can’t see it.

I will produce a painting or a collage with currency from the top ten most powerful countries that benefit from the use of online propaganda. I will Layer stripes of different currencies that look like a network of layered money, inspired visually by early art works by Sean Scully, who I attended a talk of recently. His work is related to the Newcastle bridges and layering, giving an appearance of depth, yet there is no depth.

This could be made as a painting or could be printed onto a transparency, which would be more symbolic and would suit the art gallery space in terms of hanging.

Plastic Wasteland

A sea of plastic bags that is starting to engulf the figures. As the empty foil figures look into their mobile phones they do not notice the plastic swamp creeping up their legs.

The Architect  

(Performance)

The title is taken from the Wachowski brothers film ‘The Matrix’ (1999). In my installation the Architect is the ‘system’ that is in place, that is used by a smaller set of select people who manipulate the larger population of the planet for financial gain and control. The system I have been brought up in is one that promotes a glamorous life style, which has convinced me to consume, to buy products that l feel will make me worthy, beautiful, healthy, lovable and fulfilled. The drive to consume being fear. This fear is a product of news stories that are fabricated from true and false sources, presented in whichever way suits the producer. Fear creates a need to sooth oneself, one way to sooth is through the addiction of consuming, spending.

I will place a news desk in the middle of the circle of figures. This will show a live performance or a video of myself presenting fake news and advertising. I have asked fellow students and friends for fake news stories and fake products. They have been written on slips of paper and folded so that I will not see them until I make the film, in which I will improvise the fake titles.  This will explore themes that have been highlighted in the news recently regarding Facebook and Cambridge Analytics and the themes I mention in the last paragraphs.

 

Evaluation and Reflection

This is the first time I have written a proposal of this depth. I have found the whole process extremely effective and helpful in the initial development of my idea. Giving myself a clearer understanding of why I am making this piece.

By investing more time in research of films, TV, videos, books, artists, philosophers, taking inspiration from visiting galleries, Christie’s auction house and the natural history museum whilst visiting Geneva over the Easter holidays, this has resulted in collating of a greater wealth of information to draw on.  It has also given me time to work through production ideas that will work structurally and symbolically reflect the ideas within the materials and their construction. Usually I would find my separate ideas, using different mediums, they would relate somewhat, but not necessarily work harmoniously together. This process has allowed me to bring painting, sculpture, performance and video together to potentially give the piece a working multifaceted dimensional narrative.

I shall continue to use this technique to work through ideas in the future and where changes need to be made within this project.

 

Proposed Research Sources and Bibliography

Artists

Ghost’ made by Kader Attia in 2007

 

Books

Barthes, Roland, Mythologies, London, Cape, 1973.

Berger, John, Ways of seeing, London & Hammondsworth, BBC and Penguin Nooks 1972

William Gibson  genre

 

Film

The Matrix. Hollywood: The Wachowski Brothers; 1999.

TV

Electric dreams