Artwork Case study

Critically Evaluate Contemporary Visual Culture

Artwork Case Study

Joanna Howell

Line Series – Gallery Piece & Public Piece- explorations of the line in space

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11.       These works concentrated on the use of the line in space. Their shape and form were decided on how the materials interacted in the space it was displayed in. The tone I have used are white not overly powerful or stimulating so that the textures and shadows created by the materials can be appreciated. Space is one of the most important elements in my work because the more space my work used effected how the work is interpreted. 

22.       Both artworks are left the imagination of the viewer. In the circumstance of the public piece, interpretations included; dew drops, spider’s nests, cacoons, etc.

33.       ‘Tangled’
-  thread:  Associated with construction of wearable items.
-  fabric:  Foundation of wearable items. Everyday use.
-  timber:  Foundation of many things. Construction of houses and furniture.
-  spray paint: Usually associated in the art world with street art, and/or vandalism.

‘Tear Drop’
-  modelling paste: Used generally within painting, I have used it for sculptural purposes.
-  string:  Used to bind things, or create fabrics. I.e. crafts.
SStyrofoam balls: used in crafts

44.       Tangled has been shown in the context of a gallery, hung on a wall, as a wall hanging, unframed in this specific case.
Droplets was shown in the context of street art, tied in the branches of a tree, as a sculptural form.

55.       Tangled would be included in relief sculpture, crafts?
Droplets included in street art, sculpture.

66.       Codes:
Fabrics, thread, sewing, the housewife, crafts, manmade creations.
White being symbol of simplicity and purity.
Natural creation, organic forms.

77.       Tangled was created especially for a friend’s exhibition she curated focusing on the exploration of line.
The droplets were created for Brisbane Entartete Kunst, a street art project.

88.       I grew up in the country town of Orange. I moved to the gold coast a few years ago. I have learnt to appreciate the finer things in life which has lead me to concentrate on the things that are overlooked. Like the line, and drawing as a serious art form and the joys of bland aesthetic. Before studying Visual Arts, I studied Fashion Design. This has influenced a lot of my artwork as I like to use familiar materials. I have a fascination with the female form, which urges me to draw and study it.

99.       The line is a universal gesture for pointing, dividing, ownership and connecting. Each society and culture may even project their own beliefs on the line but it is broadly understood as a means of creation. Fabric is also internationally renowned, more through European countries who took advantage of the aesthetic attributes of fabric inciting movements like the Arts and Craft Movement and Folk Art to High fashion and contemporary art. It is a colonial material.

110.Chiharu Shiota “I am more interested in the lines, which are often represented in my work through black string. These strings are woven into each other, which can make it look a bit like lace, which is also intricately woven. The difference is that my strings are in a random pattern, whilst lace follows set designs and patterns”. http://www.lostinlace.org.uk/artists/chiharu-shiota

1Henri Matisse- “In Matisse’s mature drawings the line became a physical element, a virtual ‘object’ in the composition—the perfect complement to the spaces on either side. Once he relinquished more fully the allusion to the third dimension, he was freed to empirically explore the relationship between line and 2-dimensional space (shape), isolated from the confusion and complexity of too many variables. He could also explore the interaction of line upon itself. Colour was likewise reduced or augmented to flat areas of distinct chroma and value. The definite articulation of colour complemented the incisiveness of Matisse's line, and enabled him to arrange these primary elements in more musical ways than might otherwise have been possible.” http://www.principlesofnature.net/connections_between_art_and_science/matisse_and_the_music_of_line_and_space.htm

111.   The nature of my artworks required excessive technical skill rather than technological intervention. My skills developed from previous sewing works and line drawing influenced the works creation and presentation. As the street art work was temporary, the only way of recording it is the use of photography.

112.   The artworks have been displayed in very different venues and as such attract very different audiences. My work ‘Tear Drops’ was displayed in a public setting where those in the community have access to it and can either choose to engage with it, which a few did, or to completely ignore it. ‘’Tangled’ was displayed in an institutional setting in the White Box gallery at the Queensland College of Art for the ‘Lonely Lines’ exhibition. It had a specific target audience of art students, academics and enthusiasts.  Due to the nature of the exhibition the work was not just appreciated aesthetically but a need to understand it conceptually was evoked in its audience.