Wednesday 16 November 2011

Commercial Context

The work I am producing must have a commercial context, a ideal place that you would like it and where it would most fit in the industry. One of the problems with this is that we are now being told to leave this quite broad, students in my class that are doing advertising campaigns are being told to not use a product but rather make the work open to clients to see their products working with the images. This being a problem as we are being advised by an industry specialist to leave it open however our tutors still need that context for the curriculum. With the learning agreement we had to submit I put down two main choices for context; Another magazine and Oh Comely Magazine which I will now justify. 


Another

My first choice of magazine would be Another, its high fashion and has features on arts, politics and literature. With what I am trying to achieve with my work if it all comes together it could be an interesting piece for this magazine. My work looks at the current issues of hunting, the craft in art and will also have a very slick final look. I have had a look through the magazine and online and have found a few articles on knitting and its rise in popularity. As Another is part of the dazed group it also has links to the Dazed online articles on knitwear and I also found this in a recent issue of Dazed and Confused. 


It is a small piece on Hannah Taylor's knitwear, showing both magazines are very aware of upcoming knitwear artists as well as having good photographs and editorials. Although knitting is a big thing in this project I do have to remember that I am the photographer and that is the course I am on, ultimately I am judged on the photos I take and if they would fit into this context. The only thing I would be concerned about with my photos is the over editing, magazines like W feature Erwin Olaf's work allowing for his photographic style, whilst some magazines and companies are now trying to promote more natural looking images. I know with Another the adverts and editorials are very high fashion, justifying the way I make my photos 



Oh Comely was the other main context I could consider for my work, still an upcoming magazine that is different to the glossy fashion publications. I felt my work could be considered here because it is quirky and kitsch. Oh Comely is know for its nostalgic articles and ideals which my work ultimately looks at. It is considering photography and textiles and has a interesting narrative behind it. Choosing Oh Comely is also a little less ambitious as it is still quite new, maybe allowing me a chance to submit my work and maybe have it published. 














Tuesday 1 November 2011

In the loop

I have been reading the book 'In the Loop' by Jessica Hemmings which has a collection of essays on contemporary knitting and art and how it is re-thought. This helps my research as it is looking at the critical theory of knitting and the use of photography with it. Although I am an image maker and know the readings on Barthes and Benjamin I believe the theory that needs to be addressed in my images is that of the hand made. If I were shooting for a fashion or textile student then the ideas would be different as they would of had pre-concieved notions on what their pieces were about. Here I am the prop maker, like with the paper dresses, I am the one using my hands to produce and create something of value to the shoot. 

With my work I generally find a variety of thing that I am interested in and then strip it back so the things all play influence in the work, however they may not be acknowledged by the viewer or it will just look like a jumble. Here my main ones are:

Hunting: the issue of vanity vs animal welfare
The use of craft in contemporary art
Hyper realist techniques 

These seem like very broad topics with my work, yet to my work it boils down to

The Peta campaigns and my views on hunting and the current laws surrounding it.
Artists like Shuana Richardson 
And Erwin Olafs photographic style/the style I have been building in throughout my project. 

Margi Geerlinks
So with this post I am looking at the craft in arts and some examples and quotes led from the book.

"Knitting is now a medium and even a reference of choice for many contemporary artists" Hemmings, J (2010, p11)

The photo featured above is by Margi Geerlinks, the essay by Clio Padovani and Paul Whittaker 'Twists, Knots and Holes: Collecting The Gaze and Knitting the Impossible' talks about the use of knitting in art and deconstructs the image.

"The pictorial alliance of a woman, child and the practice of knitting might conventionally suggest a content of mother hood and the familial. In this image however, these alliances, arranged around the partial form of the knitted body, appear not familial but monstrous. The act of creation, rendered inert by the photograph, appears here more self-driven than a selfless act of life giving; more Dr Frankenstein than a Madonna and Child."

I think the quote here brings up a very good point, there is something very wrong when you look at this. There is that initial shock of seeing a naked child held up by knitting needles by this strange looking woman. It is not a traditional image of a mother and child and that is the point it is trying to make. What is interesting to me is that is is a photograph, rather than an exhibition or fashion collection it is a still, constructed photograph.

"the act of knitting might reasonably include the practice of collecting; knitting as the collection and construction of narratives-narratives in which the artist is a primary factor, but not always necessarily, the creator of disturbing tales"

Another quote used to describe the work talks about collecting, Susan Steward's theory on how objects in museums "meditate experience in time and space". From here it becomes a little complicated and I think I am beginning to understand the theory. I think it does come away a little from what I am trying to explore with my work.

What is interesting is this section of the essay:

"It is the [hole] in the subject's seemingly omnipotent look": a gap that "marks the spot at which our desire manifest itself in what we see". 

"The gaze is the cause of desire rather than the object towards which desire tends and as such it is a hole that sets the drives in motion" 

Looking at 'Narrative Knits' it writes about knitting

"It is often used to navigate grief, disappointment or loss, as it does a romantic return to the soothing rhythms of working with our hands"

I believe looking at the reasons behind why we knit are part of the critical frame work of my images. Like all my photography work I can say it is personal because I make it for me (and the university), however can I truly say that? Being on a commercial course ensures boundaries of industry context and suddenly in our third year I have to start re-considering the critical side? My work cannot connote as deeper meaning as Margi Geerlinks, it has no obvious link to the woman who taught me to knit or the reasons behind it. I can identify with this quote because it was through troubled circumstances that I picked up the needles. Does that mean any use of knitting in my life relates back to that struggle? Everything we do in life is personal, but also relates back to the theories of culture and what makes us apart of that culture. 

My work sits on almost three cultures, the stereotype of hunting, my new formed bonds with the knitting community and the pre-concieved style of my image making. I belong to two groups and then have a view on an English Tradition. On a critical level where does my work stand? 

A lot of knitted art does rely on nostalgia, such as the work Alter Egos by Mark Newport. The work he creates is incredible, life size costumes that would fit him, some based on the jumpers his mother made him when he was a child. They deal with the issues of masculinity which link to childhood memories making them incredibly interesting objects.

"these pieces start to explore the alter ego within the costume and the connotations of knitting in relation to various roles and activities" Newport, M (2010, p46)




Although this post is a little all over the place it does give me a chance to just explore some of these knitters in fine art. Shauna Richardson's work is based on the idea anything can be art, Margi Geerlink looks at creation and relationships and Mark Newport is based on his mother and his childhood.

The art we make is always based on something personal, if it wasn't what would be the point. Our tutors at uni say that you see a little bit of the person through the photograph and that is the discourse I musts discover to really understand the theory of why I have made these photo and why I have chosen to knit the props. 

Bibliography 
Hemmings, Jessica. (2010). In the Loop. London: Black Dog Publishing

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