Print work - scanning my drawings and layering them on top of each other.

The idea that they are all collected in my mind as one, as one big stereotype.

These images were created by layering my images over a light box and photographing them. I like how your eyes are drawn to the immediate drawing on the top layer, however I Like how the other drawings are faded but still present underneath the layers of paper. These people represent what I have witnessed through my metaphorical circles. They are all people that I have observed for one reason or another and layering the images like this is almost like grouping all these people together, as I did when I observed them. Grouping them into the 'Couples' stereotype.

Drawing from My Pictures.
Couples.
What makes them couples?

I liked experimenting with light and shadow using a wire circle that I had made. I like the eerie effect the shadow has. The idea that the circle represents someone watching you. Because its a shadow its somewhat sinister and metaphorical, the idea that you walking in the shadows of somebody.

This circle allows you to view the person, object, surroundings through it, as you begin to look you will be able to examine the individuals that pass by the circle. You will be able to ask questions, answer questions and judge the person tha you see whether it be based on a stereotype or how they are behaving, what their body language is like. The conclusion is up to you.

On 11Th November 2011 we were set a task in small groups to create a piece by 1.30pm and present it to the rest of the Fine Art group, based on my project so far I wanted to create a piece that was slightly experimental, something that I hadn't already done and was a bit out of my comfort zone.

I decided to go with a 3D sculpture, I had been experimenting with circling to draw the viewers attention to my images so I wanted to play on that idea. I had been jotting down ideas about wire sculpture some how hanging in a public space so you could look through the circles at someone or something and allow yourself to question them.

I began with this task in the work shop experimenting with copper wire and steel to see what had the better effect. I decided to use the steel, it had more presence to it. I made three of the steel circular sculptures and hung them in the foyer at the entrance to the university building.


I likes how the steel has bent in a way that has created a sketch like feel to the circles, it looks like I have almost drawn them quickly in a bid to draw attention to something.

Who can you see here?
What are your eyes drawn to?
What is going on?
Is there even anything to look at?

Random I know... I love the new Christmas coke can!

Gillian Wearing - Signs that Say What You Want Them To Say and Not
Signs that Say What Someone Else Wants You To Say.

I recently seen this piece in the Tate Liverpool, I was immediately intrigued by the piece, It was a series of photographs of everyday people captured in the street, each person, couple, child was individual.

I had to admire the way Wearing was able to produce these pieces, if you were normally approached by someone in the street i often think they are trying to sell me something, trying to get me to sign my name away to a charity. But Wearing approached people asking them to write anything that creates a different relationship between them and whoever was asking the question. With responses like 'I'm desperate' and 'Everything is connected in life the point is to know and understand it' and 'I have been certified as mildly insane!' All these pieces immediately create a relationship between the person that has been asked the question and the person that is posing the question. It creates a somewhat tense atmosphere as the people in the piece almost seem to reveal a side to them that is very personal which gives them a certain vulnerability to the viewer.

Andy Warhol - The Factory.

People unaware?
Capturing the Subconscious?
Can pick out and pin point certain stereotypes?

I like these images, there is a lot going on in them. I feel I could sit and observe these images all day and come up with lots of different interpretations, questions, answers and stories about these people. Whether I'm right, who knows.

More Circles...

Some circling experiments on top of the photographs.

Quick ideas after thinking about the idea of circling a chosen subject.

The idea that the circle is a representation for something, the idea that it symbolises a person, a lifestyle, a stereotype, a subconscious.

I wanted to experiment with some sort of abstract way of showing a stereotype or lifestyle in a more interactive way, so the viewer could interpret the 'circling' in their own way and make there own judgements, questions and answers based on what they see, because every ones view is different.

I like how circling or the if the circle was to stand alone without the photographs, it immediately takes away the obvious, takes away the literalness of the photographs and allows for mystery and questioning to begin.

Why am I looking at this?
What could this mean?

Random circling helps inspire the next stage of my project.

This circling of people within the pictures I have been taking just as a development exercise, it was only until one of my tutors mentioned that they liked the idea of simply circling i began to explore this idea...

The idea of the circling it to draw your attention to whatever is contained within the circle. So that even though you are presented with an image you are immediately drawn to something in the circle that I want you to look at.

Working for a Living.

Again looking at the stereotypes. Business men. The working class, working for a living. Is a stereotype a right way to judge someone? Am I just assuming that they have been or are going to work because they are dressed smart in suits and are carrying briefcases? Again these photographs and the stereotype I'm exploring is up for interpretation and debate. My view is just one view on what these photographs may mean or what they may represent.

ZEE - Kurt Hentschläger - Fact Nov 2011.

Well this wasn't like any exhibition I had ever been too in my whole life as an artist. Being in the Fact gallery I often expect something different, something a bit more quirky you might say. Well different is what this is. I visited ZEE with a couple of my friends to see what the fuss was about, a lot of people I had spoken to has recommended me to go. Its a visual exhibition based on sensory overload. On arrival you had to fill in a disclaimer which immediately had me a bit worried. After we filled our forms in we were waiting to enter the exhibition only to be informed by a member of staff that someone had fainted in the exhibition so our viewing was going to be late, this added even more anxiety and worry to our wait. On entering the room you are immediately engulfed in smoke and you cannot see past arms length and it is hard to breathe, intense strobe lighting was flashing around the smoke filled room immediately disorientating me. I felt strange, like I was in a giant electric cloud with flashing lightning like shapes and intense noise surrounding me and trapping me. Even though I knew my friends were right behind me i felt like i was on my own travelling into the nothingness that the smoke filled room was. Although the experience was one of the most surreal things I've come across, I think the anticipation and anxiety I had before entering made in un-enjoyable for me. One of my friends described it as 'heaven' I had to disagree, if that was heaven what is hell like?

'Till Death do us Part.

After experimenting with people watching I decided to look into stereotyping lifestyles using photography, I started by looking at 'couples' to begin with, photographing only couples and trying to pick them out in a crowd. We all have our own stereotype of 'couples' and I wanted to try to capture a interpretation of couples with my photographs.

This was an interesting journey within my project as I was grouping people together, almost collecting them into one big stereotypical world. Even though we are all individuals we are still placed into these stereotypical groups. If we see a couple or anybody for that matter walking down the street or passing us by we assume, we judge whether negative or positive, whether it be our place to do this, we do it automatically. Its a somewhat natural instinct we have acquired.

Experimenting with my pictures.

We all people watch, we do it all the time. I decided to play on this controversial matter and begin to study the Art of watching people. I'll begin to wander the city and observe the nature and being of the people that passed me.

I questioned the lifestyle of these people what were they doing inlife what was their purpose was. I will not interact with these passers by, but simply observe them and call upon my own judgement and stereotyping to come to a conclusion.

The Idea that we can question everyone but we will never know the truth.

Lady on Phone.
Capturing the subconscious.

This image was taken on a normal day in town, around midday. I was wandering the streets trying to capture something that inspired me, something that offered the backbone to my idea and my project. I began by photographing everything and everyone that crossed my path.

I found this photography task a challenge, I didn't know quite how to go about literally photographing strangers that didn't know me without any confrontation.

This image of the Lady on Phone was produced by pretending to take a picture of the surrounding area, the only socially acceptable way of taking a picture of somebody you don't know I think!

I like the vulnerability in this image, almost as if she looks distraught and shocked, this may not be the case but I like how this image is up for many interpretations.

Personally I think that I could explore this woman's purpose just from looking at this image. The raw emotion portrayed in this image allows for questions and answers to be asked about this Lady. Her tired facial expression aching as her cold bare hands lift the phone to her ear. An wedding ring? suggesting another aspect of her life. Is it her husband on the phone as she squints trying to hear in the busy town center.

'Oh you are Artists? This is a satisfying reason for your bizarre behaviour.'

I came across this quote when reading an article on people watching about two artist that explored the idea iof observing the general public. The artists roamed the streets of London and observed each character that passed them.

Sophie Calle’s work is very inspiring for me at the moment.
I like the controversial aspect to it, and almost insane behaviour to her
pieces.
Calle produced a series of images that allow us to observe one
particular person as she followed him during his everyday life.
As you observe Calle’s strange behaviourswithin her artwork you begin to wonder, how was this an acceptable art piece?How was she as a regular human being allowed to perform almost stalker likebehaviours? But in some ways that’s what attracted me to her work, the controversy,
the idea that you can push the boundaries of art itself and explore areas that
are somewhat sinister and eerie.

The Art of People Watching.