Summer Work: Subvert Research

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei is a chinese artist whose work expresses his passion and worry about China and its politics and he has been recognised as "a Beijing Andy Warhol."

In a lot of his work he chooses to express his displeasure with the chinese government using subversion. For example, his art piece titled "Remembering" is about the tragic deaths of thousands of school children in China in the Sichuan area during the 2008 earthquake. Ai Weiwei made this piece out of school backpacks because there were thousands scattered on the floor after the earthquake. The message in chinese says "She lived happily for seven 
years in this world" which is a quote from a mother of one of the children who died.

Ai Weiwei also decided to investigate in to the "shoddy" construction of the school buildings by the chinese government. After the government heard of this, on April 3rd 2011 Ai Weiwei was arrested and is brutally beaten by chinese police and needed emergency brain surgery.

Another piece of work Ai Weiwei has made with a subversive message about chinese oppression and lack of human rights in China is the "Sunflower Seeds". This was made up of 100 million hand painted porcelain sunflower seeds painted by 1,600 chinese artisans in the town of Jingdezhen. Ai Weiwei encouraged people who visited the exhibit in the tate modern to walk on the seeds and even roll and lay down in them in order to experience the ideas of the effect of mass consumption on Chinese industry and 20th-century China's history of famine and collective work.

In conclusion I consider Ai Weiwei to be a very brave and ambitious artist who is using his creativity for a very good cause and has sacrificed a lot in order to make his work. I feel as though he could be an inspiration for me in the future when working with subversive messages.

Summer Work: Drawing Project Research

Alberto Giacometti

The final artist I am researching for the 'Drawing Project' is Swiss sculptor, painter, draughtsman, and printmaker Alberto Giacometti.

Although he is mostly known for his sculptures ('the walking man' being his most famous after being sold for £65 million) I will be focusing on his illustrations and paintings. The first painting I am researching is 'The Seated Man' which was a portrait of his brother Diago sitting on a chair in a room. A lot of people in the art community did not like this painting for whatever reason, probably because of its unique style which had not been seen before. This style was created by Alberto reworking the painting to his continuously shifting view of the image. He did this with his sculptures as well. He was known to have sculpted his models the way he sees them and, in his opinion, the way they ought to be seen. He has also been quoted saying that he does not sculpt the body but "the shadow that it cast."

I think that this abstract way of looking at a model and how to paint/draw them is very unique and effective. The layered effect of the several different attempts at painting his brother has a interesting effect without making it unsure what the painting is of. I have a strong feeling I will experiment with this technique in the future.

Summer Work: Drawing Project Research

Giovanni Battista Piranesi

The next artist I am researching is Giovanni Battista Piranesi from Italy. He was a very talented printmaker and etcher from Venice in the mid 1700's. His work was of buildings and architecture which isn't surprising seeming as he thought himself as an architect.

Some of his most famous work was of ancient roman buildings and monuments called 'The Views (Vedute)'. The most impressive fact about these pieces of work is that he drew the ruins in their former glory without reference. His light was very precise and accurate to create the most realistic etching possible. Some of his later work was also finished by his children and some pupils.

I really like and respect this type of illustration because of how detailed and realistic it is. I like to try and do this style of illustration in my free time occasionally so I feel like Giovanni could be a big inspiration in the future.

Summer Work: Drawing Project Research

Alessia Avellino

Unlike the first 4 artists I researched, who used movement as the main influence and method when creating their work, these next 3 artists shall be using 'space' and their influence. But when I say space I don't mean stars and planets, I mean their surroundings.

The first artist I am researching is Alessia Avellino from Italy. Like I said in the first paragraph she uses her surroundings as her inspiration. her style is very raw and sketchy seeming as she uses oil on canvas or charcoal. This results in a very dark and creepy final drawing which still manages to be an accurate drawing of the architecture of her surroundings.

For example, even though this drawing is very rough and dark you can still see that this is a drawing of the london underground.

Another good example is this drawing of the BT tower in London.

Alessia uses lighting in a very unique and original way which I think has a great effect. Personally I prefer working in black and white and this seems like a style that I might use as inspiration in my future work.

Summer Work: Drawing Project Research

Cai Guo-Qiang

The fourth artist I am researching is Cai Guo-Qiang from China. Cai Guo-Qiang's practice draws on a wide variety of symbols, narratives, traditions and materials such as fengshui, Chinese medicine, shanshui paintings, science, flora and fauna, portraiture, and fireworks.

The thing that makes Cai Quo-Giang stand out from other artists is definitely his 'Project for Extraterrestrials' which is a series of outdoor explosions that are meaning to show extraterrestrials that even though they may have seen humans do some ugly things such as war, but humans are also capable of using the implements that they used to create conflict to also dazzle and amaze. After his first 'Project for Extraterrestrials' show Cai said, “The explosions of gunpowder that have taken place on Earth have been mostly for war and environmental destruction under the name of development. How do extraterrestrials receive these human acts…humans now send out a different image of humans to the universe, which is not related to war or killing.”

I think that Cai Guo-Qiang is a very original artist who has been able to find a technique that allows him to create brilliant pieces of work whilst also having an important link to his heritage and home country. The scale of his work is also something to be proud of and I will probably return to his work and research into it further out of curiosity.

Summer Work: Drawing Project Research

William Kentridge

The third artists I have researched is the South African artist William Kentridge. William was actually european but moved to South Africa with his Lawyer parents. He grew up in South Africa in the era of apartheid where 'non-whites' were considered 2nd class citizens. This has meant that the main subject in his work is the time of the apartheid in South Africa using imagery from the riots and common occurrences during this time.

The piece of work I have decided to look at by William is called 'Casspirs Full of Love'. Casspirs being the tank like vehicles that are used to break up riot crowds. In this piece the box represents the Casspir and the severed heads are the people who have been killed by these 'peace keeping' vehicles. Its a brutally ironic piece with a powerful message and I think his style of illustration is very unique and gritty.

William Kentridge has also done a variety of other work with tapestry, animated movies, opera, and printmaking. I consider him to be a very talented artist using a lot of different techniques and I'm sure I will use him as inspiration in the future.

Summer Work: Drawing Project Research

William Anastasi

The second artist I am researching is William Anastasi who seems to be as influenced by natural movement as Tim Knowles. Although, unlike Tim, his work includes a lot more sculptures.

The first piece I am have researched is Pocket Drawings. This piece of work was created by William folding a small piece of paper into his pocket, and then using a piece of graphite would create markings on it as he walked the streets of New York and rode the subway. This work is a good example of William's use of body movement of him walking down the streets as well as general movement cause by the subway train bumping and moving across the tracks. I think it is a nice piece of work that could be adapted to make more interesting and abstract by using a form of transportation that uses more of a variety of movement or by doing something that is more active than just walking.

The second piece of work I have looked into is Drop Drawings which is where William dropped a piece of graphite onto a 22 1/4 x 30 inch piece of paper. This again shows how spontaneous and natural his illustrations usually are and I think it is a decent idea as a method of abstract illustration, but like the previous technique, I think it can be improved by making the process a bit more complex and interesting.

In conclusion, I think that like Tim Knowles, William Anastasi is very creative when coming up with new, abstract and interesting ways of illustrating and I think that he will be an influence in my work in the future.