Research for COP

So I have decided that the topic I have chosen is far too big an issue to create an artwork that shows how the majority of the British public feel about it. This is due to the fact that I just don’t have time to do the amount of research that would be needed in order to get an accurate representation. I decided to keep this project closer to home for the time being and look at what students at LCA think about the subject.

I had a discussion with my flatmates – all of which are from LCA and very different in personality – about what influences the decisions they make in life and the beliefs they have. All of them said that it was through other people in their everyday life – for example, parents and friends – and social interaction that they made their decisions and created their beliefs. I found this very interesting as I was for some reason thinking that they would say celebrities. From watching the Grayson Perry documentaries I have come to the conclusion that perhaps due to this lack of one central religion we have all become a lot more dependent on one another. This could be viewed as a good thing because this dependency might bring us closer together and we have a lot more control over who to follow. However, it may be the reason that there’s quite a lot of confusion between whats right or wrong and who to follow for moral guidance.

Both the research I have gained from the Grayson Perry documentaries and talking to my flatmates have brought me back to what Kate Tempest discussed in her play ‘Brand New Ancients’. I found it interesting how she feels that people have started to realise that if we depend on each other rather than a god all we have is the here and now. She feels that people have viewed this in a Negative way and her play urges people not to think this but instead see how brilliant and ‘godly’ everyday life can be.

As I’m quite interested at looking at Illustrative type at the moment I thought I might create a poster which urges people to see the brilliance in everyday life by using a quote from Kate Tempest’s poetry.

‘The Gods are all here, The Gods are in us’

I think this quote represents the conclusion I have come to with my research but there’s something quite comforting about the phrase. Perhaps it the repetition or perhaps its the fact that it ends in the word us as a unifying statement. I would like to put this poster in various different places around Leeds to spread this message as a way to get people thinking about the idea.

Ideas for Exhibition Piece

After looking at Grayson Perry’s Tapestries I have decided that I’d really like to incorporate his ideas into my work and the way in which he worked on this project. Firstly I admired the way he got his research for the tapestries by going out and getting first hand practical research by interaction and talking to members of the British Public. I also want to create a 2D piece of work that shows the confusion people have with what they see as right or wrong and who they feel they should look up to. Obviously I can’t do this project on the same scale as Perry as I only have a matter of days to complete it!

I thought about creating a questionnaire to do in the centre of Leeds asking different members of the British Public and making an artwork from the information I gain from it. I thought I would use somewhere like Briggate as it is the easiest place to get a range of different from different class and background.

I found it quite hard to think of what questions to ask as what I really want to find out is who people’s gods are nowadays but obviously I couldn’t just ask people who their god is as firstly its quite personal and secondly people might not really understand what I mean by that.

I thought about how I would describe what a God is and this is what I came up with:

• Someone or something that is heralded as the ‘perfect being’
• Some one that other people really admire or look up to so much so that they guide their actions, views on certain issues and life choices
• Someone who acts as a comfort to other people ‘If I do what he/she says is right everything will be OK’

From this I thought about what questions I could ask to find out who people’s ‘gods’ are and I came up with these:

• Who or what do you admire or look up to? Why?
• Is there a magazine or newspaper that you read ‘religiously’?
• Is the a TV/Radio programme that you read/listen to ‘religiously’?
• Do you have a twitter account? Who do you follow? Anyone in particular?
• Are there any blogs you look at a lot?

I had a think of what I could possibly create out of this information. I thought it might work quite well to make a 2D collage in similar busy style to Peter Blake’s collages. I really like the aesthetic of his pieces and think this style would goo well with my ideas.

In this collage I will present all the people/things that the British public seem to admire in a way that glorifies all of them in the same way. I will probably try to make it look as busy and garish as possible – similar to Perry’s tapestries to show the confusion the British Public have with who to look up to. Obviously I will only know what it will really look like when I get my information from the questionnaire.

 

Grayson Perry Tapestries

I went to see Grayson Perry’s series of tapestries named ‘The Vanity of Small Differences’ at Temple Newsum the other day. I saw them briefly before at the Summer Exhibition at the RA a couple of years ago but didn’t really understand the meaning of them. I didn’t realise that they were created alongside a documentary series in which Perry visited three very different regions of England exploring the taste of the different social groups he encountered. The tapestries look at English Class through the story of the life of Tim Rakewell – a modern day version of William Hogarths ‘A Rake’s Progress’- and his progress through modern British society from humble birth to infamous death.

The tapestries identified with many of the ideas that I had been having about my COP2 practical work. Firstly he represents certain people and objects in a way that religious figures and perhaps the monarchy would have been represented in traditional tapestries such as the football shirt and the miners lamp n ‘The Adoration of the Cage Fighters’ and the night club singer in ‘The Agony in the Car Park’.

Each tapestry also mirrors a historical religious artwork but brings it into the 21st Century:

‘The Adoration of the Cage Fighters’ mirrors Andrea Mantegna’s ‘The Adoration of the Shepherds’

‘The Agony in the Car Park’ mirrors Giovanni Bellini’s ‘Agony in the Garden’

‘Expulsion from Number 8 Eden Close’ mirrors Masaccio’s ‘The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden’

‘The annunciation of the Virgin Deal’ mirrors four different paintings :

The Annunciation by Carlo Crivelli

‘The Annunciation’ by Matthias Grunewald

‘The Annunciation’ by Robert Campin

‘The Upper Class at Bay or An Endangered Species Brought Down’ mirrors Thomas Gainsborough’s ‘Mr and Mrs Andrews’ Portrait

Finally ‘hashtagLamentation’  mirrors Rogier Van Der Weyden’s ‘Lamentation’

I thought the garish colours used in the tapestries and the busy nature of the images does at some points make you feel a bit confused by what the tapestries actually mean. Perhaps this was a way in which to represent the overwhelming nature of modern life and the amount of choice we are now seemingly given in the way in which we live our lives. Perhaps all this choice just means that we are all just feel a bit confused as to whether we are actually doing anything right.

It was interesting to see how Perry managed to include this idea of ‘religion’ and ‘worship’ into his work. I might take some inspiration from his work and incorporate it into this project.

After seeing the Tapestries I then watched the documentaries that went with them. It was really interesting to see how much each class’ idea of taste differed – what people thought was sophisticated and what aspects of your life you were supposed to reveal to other people.

Before seeing these tapestries and watching the documentary I had never thought about incorporating class into this project but I have now realised that each class comes with its own set of worships, icons and objects that have replaced religion of Christian faith and the Monarchy.