'Is it all over for contemporary British Art?' by Jonathan Jones for The Guardian

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2009/jan/30/contemporary-british-art-recession

Key Points:

• Themes; the art market
• 'The market has broken' 
• He describes the YBA generation as garbage, pretentious artists, shallow and empty
• Market boom made them successful. 
• 'British art's success is so indelibly associated with the image of the boom, that it will now seem historical'. 
• Money will drag art down - if galleries close this will be seen as a mark of failure. 
• The market will sink...

Reflections:

• Written by Jonathan Jones who is a very critical writer and seems to have an agenda that he wants to see art die. I will read future articles by him with scepticism. 
• A depressing bias about the art market falling and all these artists along with it. 
• Article written in 2009, when the market seemed to have dipped, but considering Koons Balloon Dog sold in 2013, Jones couldn't have been more wrong about the market or the death of this kind of art. 
• I don't think it is all over for contemporary British art, but like Charles Esche stated in his video, I think it's going in a new direction. 
• Overall this article didn't prove useful to me, apart from the themes about the 2009 market apart from to give another level of critique or juxtaposing opinion. 

Further Research:

• Books rather than biased articles. 

Studio Work: Neon Light Test

I tried testing the Neon Light that I had ordered following a group critique, where they suggested I try branding or sale devices like neon lights with my name on.

I printed out my name's letters as a guideline for the light, but the neon strip was too short so I decided to make the word 'SALE' instead.

Reflection & future development:

• The 3 meter red neon strip was too short to make the full word, unless I made it smaller. Also using sellotape looked unsightly and will therefore need to put it through acrylic /perspex next time. 
• This didn't measure up at all to the ones I saw in the Saatchi Gallery shop and therefore, this will take more time and more money to perfect. 
• Video research: How to make a neon sign: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rffwcHst1So 
• after watching the video , it is quite labour intensive and I think i may have to consider outsourcing it. 

Charles Esche, Digital Postcard engage International Conference 2012 [Video Online]

Source: https://vimeo.com/58360300

Key Points

• This is a video by curator Charles Esche, where he talks about issues of present and future of art, in art education. He covers a range of topics from classical art from Rembrant, to formal language of the white cube. 
• He talks about the language of art and the gallery and the meaning of artwork.
• The 'gap' in art. 
• Art since modernism has been busy with the future. 
• Proposition of art is a model for the future. Heterotopian. 
• Avanat garde, accessibility. 
• "The basic model of an art that is prospective, that is speculative, is still important to hold onto, otherwise art just becomes another product within a market of products which is satisfying an audience, or a public, or a consumer." (Esche, 2012).
• Art practise and public concerns. 
• The artist role is to not quite fit in, and the museum also has this role. 

Reflections & regard to my own research:

• The quote,"The basic model of an art that is prospective, that is speculative, is still important to hold onto, otherwise art just becomes another product within a market of products which is satisfying an audience, or a public, or a consumer." (Esche, 2012). Is very important to understand a level of critique within the arts, and goes back to Johanna Drucker's book Sweet Dreams, where she says art is always doing something more just because the artist is completing the act of fine art. 
• If art is not speculative or is a product, it is stripped of its utopian values, but the high culture of fine art almost saves commercial artwork from critique.
• My own research explores these values through critiquing exactly esches point - 'otherwise art just becomes another product within a market of products which is satisfying an audience, or a public, or a consumer.' 

Further research:

• Avant-garde - model, accessibility. 
• More on Charles Esche. 
• http://www.internationaleonline.org/research/alter_institutionality/70_use_knowledge_art_and_history_a_conversation_between_charles_esche_and_manuel_borja_villel 

Saatchi Gallery / Aleksandra Mir's Newsroom & Gallery Shop

Aleksandra Mir's Newsroom at Saatchi Gallery 

Key Points:

• The room is full of cartoon style newspaper front pages, what caught my attention was the black Friday ones, the three above relate to sale. 

Further research:

• More artists that work with this type of critique. 

Reflection:

• It's intriguing to see how this critique works within the context of the gallery. 
• However, its not directly related to my own work in terms of context and style of work. 

Saatchi Gallery Shop

• Whenever I go into a gallery, I am always intrigued by the shop within the gallery, sometimes more than the artwork itself, as it shows a very overtly commercial side to art. 

Key Points & Reflections:

• The gallery shop is always full of creative and expensive, almost luxury goods that you can't get anywhere else. It has a 'cool vibe' to it as if you are an insider that has just stumbled across an array of interesting material. 

• The neon lights that are sold individually - pictured above - would be very expensive if I was to create my whole brand name with them for my own gallery, but I was inspired by the classic neon look for my future neon designs. 

• Some items are made by artists and sell for hundreds of pounds, while other items are generally overpriced merchandise. But it's this aspect of sale within the gallery that I am keen to exploit. Artwork is turned into commodity here, and the gallery makes profit out of its context. 

• This is relevant to my research as it enables me to form more of a critique about the gallery shop and context of sale within the gallery, although my work is exploiting commercial artwork at the moment. 

Future Research:

• For future research, I want to exploit this side of art - the merchandise side, like Takishi Murakami does with his array of merchandise, and perhaps I will include some merchandise within my own work in future, to play on this context. 

Harrods Art Gallery Shop (Halcyon Gallery)

Key Points:

• The art gallery is structured like a classic commercial gallery, emphasis on the commercial. The artwork within it is mainly sculpture and classic paintings or prints from famous artists like Piasso.
• There is also a variety of contemporary sculpture made from polished aluminium and stainless steel, similar to the standard that I am polishing my own.  The pieces within this gallery are all for sale, and they come at a great price. 

• The price of these pieces only helps the consumer identify its rarity and therefore, cause desire for the viewer to want to own something so unique. Of course, being in Harrods it attracts a different clientele, which is likely to be more wealthy and therefore able to afford such artwork.  

• The ironic thing is, Harrods itself is like a gallery, as many of its contents the everyday person cannot afford to buy, and this is where the luxury and high end artwork worlds merge as one. 

Santiago Montoya, Lucky, V, 2016, Acrylic and Paper money on stainless steel

Reflections and Further Research:

• This piece of art above caught my attention, due to the emphasis on material which included real paper money and stainless steel - the two mediums that seem to go hand in hand with commercial artist's like Koons. The artist here has meticulously used paper money to exude wealth, and perhaps the word 'lucky' is to enhance this connection with bragging about wealth. The use of stainless steel is seen as a clean, solid, perfect background, suitable for an immaculate, outspoken and luxurious artwork like this. The consumer of this piece would probably reflect the artwork, outspoken and wealthy, and would display this in their contemporary London apartment, rather than be a collector of art themselves. 

• This commercial gallery visit has provided me with an idea about what is involved in the contemporary commercial gallery and the mediums these artists are working with, with seem to be along the themes of visual aesthetics, money and value, producing luxury goods for the consumer. It has also allowed me to understand who these works are for within the commercial gallery.

• I will consider the placement of this commercial gallery when placing my own artwork, and take some devices from it - for example they had a gallery catalogue type thing displaying prices, and in a sense that is what I have done by creating my mass produced piece of text - which is essentially an information sheet displaying the price of my sculpture. 

• Further research will delve into those artists I saw within the Halcyon Gallery, for example, Santiago Montoya.  

Art Market Research; Further research for next term

Source: http://artmarket.com

Artprice: Contemporary Art Market Annual Report: + 1,370% in 16 years, generating an average annual return of 5.6%

'On the whole, the Contemporary art market is substantially profitable over the medium and long terms. Despite several adjustments and corrections, our price index shows that the segment has retained the vitality it acquired in the early 2000s. Its 1,370% turnover growth in 16 years reflects an extremely dynamic market.'


More about Jeff Koons:
'He made banality blue chip, pornography avant-garde, and tchotchkes into trophy art. How Jeff Koons, with the support of a small circle of dealers and collectors, masterminded his fame and fortune. '

Source: http://www.artnews.com/2005/05/01/the-selling-of-jeff-koons/

Polishing Aluminium Sculpture

• I decided that I was going to have to really polish the aluminium to try to match the properties of polished stainless steel, to enhance the struggle to work with the desired material.

•  I researched methods of polishing the metal, and came across some videos such as: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvQblh-ojPE, which was a heavy metal polish however it was too expensive, so I decided to opt for Autosol, the one I had used perviously. 

• I will tried using a sponge, and another larger cloth to take off the polish, as this is what caused the most difficulty in previous attempts to polish the aluminium (a lack of cloth with surface area). 

A video of the polished aluminium. 

Polished aluminium next to stainless steel sample.

• This comparison between the two - aluminium above and stainless steel just below it - is a lot closer after polishing. It has started to achieve the mirror shine. 
• I feel like through the process of polishing, it has been an investigation into how far I can push the aluminium to become something more than what it is. 

• I managed to get rid of most of the larger scratches, however as aluminium is a very soft metal it did pick up lots of very tiny scratches when polishing however, this is not noticeable unless examined closely.
• The process of the piece connects to painting for me, as through I am painting with my hands as I'm moulding the metal.
• Overall, I'm happy with the way that these have turned out as they look very fluid now they are polished, however the fingerprints keep getting stuck to the aluminium, and no matter how much polishing they keep reappearing! Probably should wear gloves when working with stainless steel for next term. 

Peer Feedback:

• You can get types of lustre you can spray on glass to make it look mirrored or shiny when put in kiln. Try lustre on glass, ask Ann if it's possible. 

Text Accompaniment: Updated. Titled 'A Breakdown of The Price'

'A breakdown of the Price' 

Above is the edited version of the text that will be accompanying the sculpture within the exhibition. I have corrected the grammatical error and re-calculated the price using minimum wage, plus the actual price of material for the final piece.

For the exhibition this will be printed out multiple times and stacked beside the sculpture, or within the exhibition. This piece will connect with the catalogues we sometimes see in commercial galleries, displaying the price of the artworks on show, however this will be a more sinister version to exploit this. I will consider how best to display this within the gallery, perhaps it could be right next to the work, or on the desk at the entrance to the gallery as though it were actually for sale. 

Printing so far:

• I have printed about 500 sheets of A4 colour on the standard laser printer. I chose not to use a Risograph after the workshop as although this would comment on industrial printing/ mass production, I felt that the modern day laser printer would help give it a more contemporary feel, with less room for error or miss-prints. 

• I am going to keep printing a few more of the new updated version (to place on top of the older version with an error) as I cannot afford to re-do them all. I don't think there will be a maximum amount to print as the more I print, the more it will add to this comment on mass production and consumption. 

Development:

• Notes for next time, to double check all work before printing to avoid wasting time and money.

Reflective Log: Art Market Monitor Website

I stumbled across a website called 'Art Market Monitor' http://www.artmarketmonitor.com, and it publishes up-to-date articles relative to the art market.

Key Points:

• Keeps up-to-date with Sotheby's sales prices, Bloomberg, anything that happens in the art-market-world will appear here. 
• Anything or any art with some connection to monetary value. 
• They also have a podcast section which could be good for future research http://www.artmarketmonitor.com/artelligence/ 
• Ironically, they offer loans to buy art (screenshot above), which could be argued makes art more accessible, but I see it as a way of them profiting from art. 

Further research:

• Search for other reliable sources of art market information.

Reflections;

• Overall Im not convinced by this website due to the fact it offers short term loans. 

Christmas Lecture by Amy Hewitt, 'Neither Use Nor Ornament'

Key Points & Reflections;

• The lecture was about accessibility of art and included themes of art-specific lexis, but had themes relative to my field of research including money and value of art.

• "Even if you are only moderately rich, there is almost nothing you can buy for £1 million that will generate as much status and recognition as a branded work of contemporary art—" (Source: http://www.rhayden.us/auction-houses/branding-and-insecurity.html) On this page it also compares Christie's to a brand of painting. 
• Original Source for above quote may be in the book, 'The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art' by Don Thompson
• The above quote is significant as the value at 1,000,000 is what I have placed my artist's brand identity at within my own text-base works, and helps to signify why. 

• The Art World is about being branded. 

• Overall this was a Helpful presentation which ignited further research and covers similar themes to my own research for example the price of art. 

Further Research:

• 'The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art' by Don Thompson. 
• More into the accessibility of art. 

How Art Killed Our Culture' by Jonathan Jones for The Guardian

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2009/mar/06/capitalism-culture-art-market

Key Points:

• Why and how did art become the 'mirror of fraud?'
• Origins of the consumer society and its impact on art, post war, how the lifestyle of consumerism was born. 
• Capitalist economy influences
• Art has never been more serious in its view of art than in the era of Rothko and Bacon.
• pop art and post modernism taught people to enjoy money and mass media 
• Art has become the 'enemy of truth, the murderer of decency' 

Further Research:

• More Johnathan Jones articles for the Guardian? 
• More on the critique/ other side of the art world that exposes these values but from a more diverse point of view. 

Reflections 

• While it is important to consider what the text is saying, it seems a bit too harsh. 
• This text seems very against art, especially commercial art. 
• Very biased opinion. No argument in the text really. 
• There seems so be some kind of anger about consumerism and how that has influenced art. 

Stainless Steel Problems// Setbacks & Resolutions

I ordered a larger sheet of the same stainless steel that I did a sample of prior, however I received an email back stating they do not have any in stock however, I have requested to be put on a waiting list so that I can continue using stainless steel next term. This email came quite late and with only 4 days left to use the makers lab, it is unlikely I'll find another supplier in time.

I had previously ordered another sheet of stainless steel from eBay, however this never arrived and was cancelled also. 

Resolving this Issue/ What to do Next:

• The only thing I can do now is the original plan (before I knew that stainless steel would be a success), is to polish the large sheets of aluminium with autosol, like the smaller samples I had made previously. 

Book - Consumerism as a Way of Life, Steven Miles 1998.

Steven Miles, Consumerism as a way of life (New York: SAGE, 1998)

Key Points:

• This book provides insight into the background of consumerism. 
• Topics cover fashion, music and sport, however not art. 
• Critical tone, with theorist contributions from Marx, Webber, Pierre Bourdieu.
• Marx's theories on consumption;
• 'it was the production of commodities rather than their consumption'
• Marx definition of commodity; 'a product that has not been produced for direct personal consumption on the part of the consumer, but rather the intention of selling it in the marketplace'. 
• Themes of sociology, society and consumptions affect on those, rather than themes of art.

Further research

• Marx

Reflections:

• The book doesn't have anything to do with art specifically, but it provides a good piece of contextual information for my research. If we apply what the theorist are saying about commodity, to art, it does make sense. 
• What Marx summarises a commodity to be can applied to art, if we think of art as the commodity - specifically commercial art as this does have the intention to sell within the marketplace. 

Development: Aluminium Piece & Stainless Steel Sample & Anya Hindmarch

Following my photoshopped images of my aluminium piece where I explored scale, I decided to go bigger, and ordered a meter squared sheet of 0.5mm aluminium. However when this arrived I thought it may be too big to work with in the makers lab, so I cut it in half, which still looked big enough. In one of my images I photoshopped the same piece 3 times and this could be something to work towards now - having a trip-tic to display in the gallery.

Moulding Sheet Aluminium 

• I cut the meter squared sheet of aluminium in half, this made it easer to work with and create these fluid forms and delicate creases. 
• This needs a lot more polishing to get to the surface standard I desire. 
• I'm happy with the way these pieces turned out as they really connect to that of packaging and they have an appealing quality. 

Feedback

• In the makers lab while creating this, someone pointed out how they looked slightly like crisp packets, and that is where my original inspiration for this work came from (casting crisp packets and rubbish). 
• This person also said how the form resembles that of Anya Heindmarsh who makes sculptural bags inspired by crisp packets. Further research into this is necessary. 

Anya Hindmarsh

• Looking at Anya Hindmarch's website and reading about her inspiration for this crisp packet clutch, 'making the everyday extraordinary' is something I have played with in the past. The way she creates such luxury fashionwear from a consumable mass produced item connects back to Chloe Wise's 'Bagel no.5' and comments again on consumption, but this time from the perspective of a designer. 
• She is making a lot of money out of the concept of the crisp packet. But I do not believe the crisp packet is the only thing to make it unique or eye catchy. Its the material it is cast in - silver and gold - which really pushes the boundaries of fashion/art. 
• In terms of the form, the delicate creases are what really causes this wearable sculpture to be noticed and its that, that connects it to my own current work. 
• This piece has inspired me to once again research wearable sculpture or wearable art as I have begun to explore in the past, and perhaps this will be a future endeavour. 

Testing Stainless Steel Sample

 

• After the fabricator's I emailed replied back stating that working with stainless steel sheet metal was impossible, I ordered a sample of stainless steel, 0.5mm (the same as my aluminium) and hoped for the best. It was already annealed so all I had to do was bend it. I managed to bend it with more ease than I had imagined - especially since it was such an 'impossible' task!
• To my surprise I managed to create the fluid curves and creases that I desired. 

Reflections:

• Above is an image which displays aluminium and stainless steel. The stainless steel is in the centre. The difference is amazing, the stainless steel makes the aluminium look grey.
• Other pros of working with the stainless steel are: it doesn't require heating, it doesn't require polishing. It saves a lot of time. It can be moulded with my hands round tools the same way as aluminium, but creating a more fluid look.
• The cons - it may look slightly too perfect to resemble packaging - but so does Anya Hindmarch's work?!
• I am ridiculously happy with this stainless steel sample and I will be ordering a 1000mm x 500mm x 0.5mm sheet to do a larger version on just like the aluminium sample. 
• In terms of cost and using inexpensive materials - the stainless steel is almost the same price as the aluminium. 

Research Methods: Spiral Diagram

This is a spiral diagram that I created to help my research progress. This represents threads of study, of importance relative to font size. They range from past to future inspirations, that I am either currently being inspired by, or have influenced me in the past and may focus on in the future.

Institutional Critique

Source: http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/institutional-critique

"Institutional critique is the act of critiquing an institution as artistic practice, the institution usually being a museum or an art gallery" (Tate, 2016)

Following a recent critique, I decided to research further into institutional critique as this is essentially what I am doing with my practise.

•  "In the 1960s the art institution was often perceived as a place of ‘cultural confinement’ and thus something to attack aesthetically, politically and theoretically." (Tate, 2016).

• "During the 1990s it became a fashion for critical discussions to be held by curators and directors within art galleries and museums that centred on this very subject, thereby making the institution not only the problem but also the solution." (Tate, 2016). 

It seems that throughout my practise I have adapted this challenging approach to art through the combination of adding the text to accompany my sculpture in the gallery, and the future developments of adding sale and branding sings such as neon signs. 

Further reading:

'From the Critique of Institutions to an Institution of Critique
Andrea Fraser. Artforum. New York: Sep 2005. Vol. 44, Iss. 1; pg. 278, 8 pgs
Abstract (Summary)
Fraser discusses how the institutional critique turned from dismantling
the institution of art and aimed instead to defend the very institution that the institutionalization of the
avant-garde's self-criticism that had created the potential for an institution of critique. Moving from a substantive understanding of the institution as specific places, organizations, and individuals to a conception of it as a social field, the question of what is inside and what is outside becomes much more complex.

http://www.marginalutility.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Andrea-Fraser_From-the-Critique-of-Institutions-to-an-Institution-of-Critique.pdf

BBC 4 Documentaries, 'In Our Time' by Melvyn Bragg

After a tutorial with Cath, she recommended I look at the episode 'Money' from the series, but while searching I also came across 'Materialism and the consumer'  and 'Materialism' which seemed interesting.

Money , March 2001. 

(Source http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00547ch )

Key points:

• Karl Max das capital
• Can everything be bought down to the influence of money?
• Power of money- speaks of bible testaments - Importance of money or capital being the root of all evil. 
• Materialistic society the moral nature of that (bad in bible).
• Capitalism contains within itself the seeds of its own destruction. 
• Niall Ferguson on Marx's Captial: - "the driving force of history is the process of class conflict. Crisis of capitalism. But Marx didn't understand the financial markets as he had no relationship with it."
• Industrial revolution - economic revolution. 
• Does economic development lead to democratisation? no. 
• Social, economic development. Democracy. 
• Political culture - how some democracies survives economic depression. 
• Without economic depression, the nazi party wouldn't have made it. 
• US suffered second worse dose of recession - 
• The economy is the first point to start analysing historical causes. 
• The pursuit of power is economic in disguise. 

Reflections:

• Themes of war, economics and politics a bit too deeply for my consideration or understanding at this level. 
• The beginning of the audio was more helpful before it went off onto a tangent of these things. 

Materialism and the Consumer, March 2000. 

Source: (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00546q2)

Key Points:

• "Does consumerism - as a cult, a fact, a need, a religion - threaten culture as we have known it, individuality as we desire it, life as we aspire to its best condition? Is the march of Mammon an army of jack-booted businessmen, using the propaganda of advertising and the seduction of the supermarket to trample us into submission, and into the worshipping of the great god - Buy? Or is the consumer the new source of power? A truer, more democratic individual freedom? 
• "How has ‘getting and spending’ come to enjoy the place of importance it holds in our lives, and why have we so often seen shopping as in opposition to some notion of our ‘true natures’?" 
• With Rachel Bowlby, Professor of English, University of York and author of Carried Away: The Invention of Modern Shopping; William Gibson, science fiction writer and author of Neuromancer and All Tomorrow’s Parties.
• Conspicuous consumption - vablen - the consumer is a men rivalling with other men, needing to display wealth
• Wealth being put on show
• Pleasure in shopping 1890
• modern window shopping experience is a changing point - evolution of cities - 
• Wordsworth - 
• advertisers - you will never have enough- how advertisers manipulate 
• Window shopping is about comparison - one can distinguish between one object and the next of a similar kind - distinguishing degree of glamour or desirability. 
• Specialist nature of retailing in London.
• Department store - changes shopping 'the cathedral of modern commerce' 
• supermarket - efficient, necessary. whereas, department store is for dreaming, imaginary. 
• The critique of advertising is much more powerful in the 50s and 60s  where they were like 'were being manipulated and theres nothing we can do about it' whereas today were ok with it. The idea now is much more one of the consumer in control - the ideology of advertising is a more empowered consumer. 
• It's fun seeing what 'levi's will do next to make you buy the next pair of jeans'. 
• Why we buy things because of their associations with elegance, the advertising. 
• High art values with values of the commercial world
• Art cast in opposition to this????
• Do you think that the values of the marketplace are still thought to be at odds with the values of  high culture? They could work together rather than the opposition. 
• Pop art - high art values with values of the commercial world. 
• Warhol - celeb and high earner. Artsist seperating themselves 
• "Can artists have an outside view of the consumer culture or are we all consumed by it?"
• -It seems to be impossible to have bohemias
• Can consumer culture be looked at politically in terms of exposing it?
• In favour of consuming - we need to consume. This is what we do, we need to do it more consciously. 
• The inevitable isn't so bad. 

Reflections:

• I'm more interested in this audio documentary especially as it covers shopping, pleasure, how advertises manipulate consumer, rather than the previous episode. 
• Have to remember the time stamp on this - 17 years ago. Though, it has direct similarities with today's world. 
• The underlying themes or frameworks of my practise is more about advertising than money? 
• This episode spent the majority of it speaking about advertising, but then went on to talk a lot about art which I was not expecting. At this time (2000s) I think a critique of the market was just emerging, with artists like Warhol being an exception, and artist Landy emerging this concept with 'closing down sale' 1990, but it was rarer to see art in thrall to the market, than critiquing it. 
• It seems art or the artist hid from this relationship with the market in the past, until it started to become conceptual or contemporary. 
• Maybe my art today is a complete reaction against this - I want everyone to know about this relationship with the market. 

Further research: http://www.minimum-wage.co.uk

• I needed to know the price of minimum wage for editing the text accompaniment to my piece, and the way it has increased over the years says something about the economy. 
• I was surprised to see the comments on this thread, one in particular caught my attention, about equality and value of money (left). 
• Instead of bankers, I replaced that word with artist and it's the same context. Why should they get 'million pound bonuses' 'who says they do a better job' 'no equality'. Just brings to mind the value of the artists wage.

Further research: Materialism, 2008 Documentary from the same author.
Source: (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b009ydlj)

Journal Reading: Subodh Gupta, 'The Universe in a Pot'

Subodh Gupta, 'The Universe in a Pot', by Rajesh Punji, article in 'Sculpture' vol.35 no.10 Dec.2016 published by International Sculpture Center. Pages 22-27). 

Key Points:

• Gupta's work stood out to me within the journal for his use of stainless steel - transforming an everyday utensil into an art object. 
• "The transformation of the readymade into art is entirely about giving credence to everyday objects that serve people of all classes"(page 22).
• "Compared to Damien Hirst" for "Provocative works of a grandiose scale" (p.22)
• "Sometimes I think enormity and grandiosity are required to make people stop and think".(p.23)
• "All of my work...is about the physicality of the materials that I am using... as well as the conceptual concept" (page 23). 
• Gupta is allowing the viewer to observe these utilitarian objects as art by putting them in the gallery. 
• In a contemporary context, a gallery space seems to give "credibility" to an object becoming an artwork. (p24). 

Reflection:

• The scale of Gupta's work is something I want to take on board, because I believe the statement about making work of an enormous or grandiose scale could really help the viewer become captivated by the object in my case. 

Testing More Metals

Resin and fibreglass before silver leaf.

Using fibreglass to reinforce the resin was vital, as the process of pulling the resin away from the mould cracked the resin in a previous test. 

Resin, fibreglass and silver leaf

After talking to Ann about electroplating, she said the university doesn't have the facilities to do that method, so I had to figure out other ways of working around the issue. She recommended I gild the resin with silver leaf. Using genuine silver leaf I coated the resin, but this just looked tacky again. 

Aprox. 0.2mm Aluminium

Seeing how far the aluminium can stretch I rolled out thinner than I had before. I bent this one using my hands only - no tools. It was too thin, and rolling the metal too thinly lost the shiny silver tone. 

Gold coated aluminium 

Second test for the coated (gold sidled) aluminium. I burnt this aluminium to see how far it could burn, and how much I could heat it as aluminium doesn't take long to anneal. The texture and pattern created amazing details within the material, and I think this will be something I could develop in the future. 

However, when I attempted to mould this metal it fractured, tearing like paper. This is a note to take about overheating aluminium. 

0.7mm Aluminium. 

Testing slightly thicker aluminium. This didn't bend as easily and didn't create those beautiful fluid curves I desired. 

Overheating Aluminium.

Just pushing the boundaries and seeing how far I could heat aluminium. It creates these wonderful creases. 

Comparing aluminium with resin & silver leaf.

The aluminium looks so much more fluid, solid, real and captivating to the viewer than its silver leaf & resin counterpart.  Although the silver leaf did really enhance the resins look and create this 

Comparing 0.5mm Aluminium (top) and 0.7mm Aluminium (bottom)

I'm considering ordering a larger meter squared aluminium and doing a larger sculpture version of this but I needed to test thoroughly which method and which weight & thickness would give me the desired look. 

Reflection& Development:

• The 0.5mm was easy to work with, and created a good shine, but now looking at it compared to the 0.7, the 0.7 looks more fluid and has thicker curves and bends. It's a difficult one, but I will order more of the 0.5mm to begin with.