For one of my modules this year we have been set a brief named "Picturing Time". In this brief we have to explore time as a concept and produce some sort of representation which celebrates and informs an audience of one of its aspects.
There are no constraints, we can use any media, and we can choose our target audience. Broad eh?!
As a starting point for the brief we all took a (very wet and windy!) trip to Leeds Art gallery. We were asked to look at the work of Kevin Laycock, one of the textile tutors at university, a piece which could be related to time, and a piece we just liked!
Kevin Laycock & Michael Berkeley - Collision
For "Collision", Kevin Laycock has collaborated with musician Michael Berkeley to explore how musical score can be translated into a visual format. The project is made up of a series of paintings and also in a series of digital projected images.
Here is a picture of one of the pieces. (Apologies for poor image quality)
All of the paintings reflect the underlying structure of musical pieces by Berkeley. All feature strong lines, divisions and numbers to create structured and in depth pieces the viewer wants to investigate closer. The image above is my personal favourite from the collection, a series of 27 postcard type paintings. All of the paintings are created in oil paint, and have similar refined colour schemes.
The film was in a separate room set over 4 screens in a wide landscape format with Berkeley's classical composition playing in the background. As you watch the film, strong, graphic patterns emerge in time to the music. It is a highly structured piece, with strong bold lines, and numbers moving in scale and time to the music. The strength of the line reflects the "strength" in the music, softer bits have thinner, weaker lines; harsh strong lines appear at the punchier, more threatening times. The piece features very strong colours, also in reflection to the point in the music. Reds, oranges, yellows and blues were all dominant, contrasted to a white background. The film in collaboration with the music creates a lot more intense an experience for the viewer, than either on its own may have done alone. Together they are highly sensory, you are not only listening to the music but viewing its structure and timing, its tone and emotion.
It is interesting to see how the theme of time in music can be reflected visually or in a motion piece.
Peter Blake - Girl in window
I chose to look at this installation by Peter Blake for my "time" piece. It features found objects in a box coming out of the wall with its own internal light. Immediately intrigued by the physical qualities of the piece I investigated further into the "window" and discovered it had a lot of nostalgic and vintage qualities, i.e various aspects of time. Inside the box was an old portrait of the queen, old photographs and antique matchboxes. The whole installation was almost like looking into a small time capsule into someone's room from many years ago. I like pieces that can take you back to a particular era or point in time, almost as if picturing a memory, which Blake has done from just using some carefully selected objects in this installation. This could be an interesting angle or aspect of time to investigate and experiment with for the "Picturing Time" brief.
Paul Nash - The Shore
I found this piece by Paul Blake particularly pleasing to the eye. I was drawn to its muted colour palette and sharp geometric lines and shapes. It seems to capture a quiet moment, and while not a visually beautiful landscape, for me it creates quite a pleasant, calm looking place.
http://www.leeds.gov.uk/artgallery/default.aspx
