Steve Lovett

"A place or collection containing records, documents, or other materials of historical interest. Often used in the plural" http://www.thefreedictionary.com/archiving

I understand archiving to be preservation of History. Whether it be documents, objects or memories. Archiving is something people subconsciously do on a daily basis.

I see Steve Lovetts work as an archive, because of what i think Lovetts work is about. His work is mainly based around culture, identity, people and heritage. Which all relates back to himself, his life and how he was brought up.

Raised by his mother, a single parent in Ponsonby in the 1960's. Lovett is the first in his family to go to University, let alone art school.

These factors among others come through in his work.

Being a gay man, Lovett feels he needs to translate things. Being told one thing, but feeling another. An example of this in his work was the piece 'Holding the Man'. When first viewed the pieced was praised and love by many, however, once people began to read the work and realised the true meaning, the work was discarded into a sculpture storage room. I find this hard to understand. 'Holding the Man' visually appealed so so many but because of what the meaning was, the piece was removed. the politics in art come to the foreground, and you notice that art is not just accepted for what it looks like in an environment, but also the information the piece is giving to the people viewing the piece. the Social information becomes important. I think this is important to Lovett. To create conflicts in his work, to make people think and identify their own meanings for the pieces. Not to let whats is 'politically correct' be his boundaries.

I think that there is always an autobiographical element in work of all artist and designers. Whenever someone makes a work it has to stem from somewhere. Whether it be a thought, emotion or object, the artist or designer has felt or seen. The ideas behind work all have personal connections to the maker, as they are all decisions made by them. Therefore all work has been personally influenced by the maker.

Making a work that could be seen as a documentary of my life appeals to me as I feel I have a lot of interesting things I could express through art, and that people of my age or older could easily relate to. Eating psychologist, parental cancer and moving to another city away from everything your ever known. However I feel that if you want to make work of an autobiographical element you need to be able to release all information and emotions behind the piece, which can be difficult. However, making a piece like this appeals to me, because it would allow me to talk through art, rather than verbally expressing the information and emotions out loud.

Deborah Crowe

Deborah Crowe's has a major interest in Architecture, Scaffolding and Interior Space. I believe it is because of these interests she is able to work across a range of practices. Which makes it appropriate to call herself a 'Practitioner' rather than an Artist. A Fashion Designer, Drawer and 3D Constructor are just three of the things Crowe can call herself.

To call yourself a practitioner you need to have a lot of confidence in your work and in what you do (Like Crowe) I believe this because in these times you find most artists have 'labelled' themselves, whether it be as a Painter, Designer, Sculptor, or Freelance Artist. This has caused themselves to become categorised in Art.

This would cause the issue of not belonging to a particular 'group' or 'category' and would make it difficult to pitch yourself to galleries or people curious about what your practice as an artist is. By belonging to a certain 'group' you have set solid ground work for you to work with when dealing with galleries, clients and other artists. In saying that, I do believe cross disciplinary practice is a fantastic idea, as it allows you to push the boundaries of what is known as the 'norm'. Something I feel Crowe has succeeded in doing. Working with Textiles, 3D and electronic modelling and exploring issues of space in drawing has allowed Crowe to create new boundaries for herself and setting to goals, something I don't feel can be reached when you are confined to one area of art. I myself need to set these new boundaries, by choosing other areas of art, rather than sticking to Design. Even though Graphic Design is my strongest area of practice, I feel that I can become a better artist or 'practitioner' by branching out and including other art forms in my work.

The idea of Interior Space and things being contained is of a huge interest to Crowe, she likes to explore what Henri Lefebvre coined as Spatiology. The re-establishment of relations between, physical space (Nature), Mental Space (Emotions and Abstractions) and Social Space (The idea of the humans actions and the natural actions which accompany them). Crowe likes what is behind the wall, and how it was constructed. What belongs in this space, and how does it relate? As a young girl, her elder sister used to lock her in the cupboard, which she "really didn't mind at all, in fact [I] rather enjoyed it" something Crowe believes helped to ignite this love for containment and Spatiology. Because of her interdisciplinary practice, Crowe can also relate this to her textile works, (example; "Dual Outlook" a collaborative work with Fashion Designer Kim Fraser). Architecture and textiles relate to each other as the are both housing or containing the body.

After Crowe's lecture, it lead me to think about what I would call myself in the future. I know that I want to major in Graphic Design and to head into the Marketing and Advertising area. This would cause me to call myself a 'Graphic Designer'. However I do know for a fact, that if I dabble in other disciplines of art, and allow myself to create new boundaries so I can strengthen the level of my works I will become more successful in my future. But I am not positive that I would ultimately call myself a practitioner. I want to be a Graphic Designer who has strengths in other areas of art. So I'm not sure the title of Practitioner would be suitable for me.

Mary Curtis

Mary Curtis has a the idea of looking back to historical art periods to source visual inspiration for her own work. So she can develop and gather new ideas to explore in her jewellery making practice. This is a great idea, and something I would personally try.

I think Curtis has caught onto a good idea. By looking back in time, and gathering information for new ideas from existing art works, she is developing her own style through the use of others before her. By doing so she is allowing herself to go back and look upon what was probably what interested her in the first place. Whether she is using the historic jewellery to inspire her in terms of form or function, Curtis finds a way to incorporate her findings into a contemporary piece of work of her own.

I feel that this strategy is a very useful way of approaching research and the development of new ideas because not only does it allow you to gather inspiration from other time periods but it also allows you to see what was in fashion then, and if you can relate to the rends an fashions of today.

I would definitely use this approach to generating new ideas and processes in my work because I feel it allows you to draw inspiration from generations before you who were also interested in the same things. Otherwise you would not be looking at them in the first place! If I were to use this process in my work I would be looking at the way text is conveyed through out the different time periods, how the text is composed and how its the letters are formed on the page. I would look at old books, magazines, bibles. I like the way the text in the Bible is composed on the pages, and how sometimes uppercase and lowercase letters are the same size.

I would also go back and look and old graphic design advertisements from the late 70's/80's, as it would be interesting to see how the cultures of then and the cultures of today are coming together in advertising.

Frances Hansen

Frances Hansen's reasons for using the materials she does, is as simple as wanting to save the earth..

It sounds like a long shot, but Hansen believes that by doing her part and recycling materials to use in her practice, she is achieving this.

''Rescuing' Rubbish - Extending its 'life''

In today's lecture we saw Hansen's works through a slide show, which did not really allow us to see much detail but gave us an overall feel or her work. Also as she spoke, we gained an insight as to what materials she uses in her work, where they're from and why she uses them.

Domestic household objects are a favourite of Hansens. Two Litre milk bottles, cleaning products, and old cane baskets. Her Daughters drawings from creche are also something she likes to use in her works, one even features in on of Hansens works in the MSVA library!

As said before, Hansen uses recycled objects in her work, because she wants to extends its (rubbish) life, and by producing art from this rubbish, she is renewing its life.

In my practice, I do not really look at materials in that way, i usually choose the materials based on the look I am trying to achieve. My main field of interest is Graphic Design/Typography, getting a lot of inspiration from David Carson, Banksy and looking through design books and magazines. Ideas for materials come from these sources as well. I like to use glass to use as a base material, to screen print on or to simply mark make using markers. I like to use glass as it can be interpreted into many different meanings, Layers to represent generations, history, age. Transparency to represent the idea of loss, forgetfulness, seeing through things no one else can see. Ideas like that. I also like to use photographic paper to print on. Not only it is neat to print, but it gives my work an overall feel of professionally produced contemporary work.

The words professional and contemporary do not really spring to mind when i think of Hansen's work. Because at first glance it looks messy and rushed. This however is my personal opinion, so to others this may seem different. But when you learn of the process Hansen employs when making her work, you realise it is rather contemporary and professional.

So ultimately Hansen uses the materials she does, to help the rubbish have an extended life and so its get a chance to renew its itself.