Research Blog

Last week I presented a few of my images to classmates during my midterm critique. At the very end, I mentioned that I planned on doing sun prints on fabric. I did some research and found this company: Blue Sunprints

I was delighted to see that they have a community website for Blue Sunprints, however absolutely no one has joined the group. How sad! They have a link for projects, and a discussion board. The site has been in use since 2008...

I'm hoping to use the leaf scans that I have printed on transparency as my photographic negative. By creating these cyanotypes on fabric I am hoping to mimic the generic artwork they sell at the popular home improvement stores.

This fabric is super pricey, but they come in loads of fun colors and I have the option to print on silk OR cotton.

Here are some examples of fabric cyanotypes found on google images:



I am very very excited.

Research

Product!! Finally!!

Artist Lecture #2: Brian Ulrich

I was amused by Brian Ulrich's lecture. He continuously was poking fun and dropping jokes about his work. Ulrich is a dedicated artist; constantly traveling cross country to shoot and his allegiance to film is very admirable. He shoots with a medium format, using 4x5 and 8x10 view waist level viewfinder which is extremely difficult given the lighting situations he accouters. The advantage of using these cameras, Ulrich succeeded in capturing many close portraits of people in public settings. He explained that this is credited to not having to hold the camera up to his face. The downside of using these large cameras is shooting in variety of low light settings. I laughed when Ulrich claimed that for one of his shots, he had to grab a shopping cart and balance his camera.

Ulrich's work addresses consumerism, pertaining to something he called "Patriotic Shopping." This idea derived from his perception of the event, 9/11 and President Bush's request to fix the downsizing American economy by calling for Americans to shop. Ulrich began his quest to capture the emotions of a shopping war-zone. Starting at loading and unloading zones at the various mega stores of IKEA, Target and Costco, his images reflect a seemingly trance state of the buyers. Their physical actions; of holding products, reaching for items, pushing shopping carts all implicate these mega stores of intimidating shoppers to make a purchase. Ulrich explains that there is a sort of pilgrimage to these stores and after being exhausted of touring through a maze of aisles, one would feel that they HAD to buy something after all the time spent. Ulrich continued to research and dissect this topic by photographing not only the shoppers but also the architecture of these consumer spaces. He mentions that these stores don't want you to photograph their property because they don't want you to begin to hyper analyze. Thus, just by his decisive action to photography these spaces, his work becomes political.

Ulrich's work that is probably most well-known is his "Dark Stores," series. Using a variety of online resources including google maps, he sought out closed mega stores and malls. This obsession lead him all over the country and he found many of these treasure troves hidden away. There, he generally photographed them in the dead of the night and encountered everything from foxes to lonely security guards.

These photographs gave me a strange sense of hope. I've always felt strongly about small privately own businesses being overrun by corporations and mega stores. Seeing stores such as Circuit City and Toys-R-Us being abandoned seemed ironic to me. Perhaps Ulrich's images seem like a boding prediction, a case study being put together, to show the up rise and downfall of a consumer society.

*I'm having trouble posting pictures. They will be coming soon*

Show progress

I'm really excited to be having a show in the Commons Gallery at Virginia Commonwealth University. I just received a notice from Annmarie Gardens, I was not accepted to participate in their "Glow" show. Pretty bummed. On the bright side, at least I can look forward to one show!

Artist Lecture: 10/5: Penelope Umbrico

"Penelope Umbrico devises systems in which image, object, or information is excised and re-contextualized. Taking the parts of images that are used in consumer media as peripheral
devices to elicit desire, Umbrico points to the construct of desire by making these fragments into the desired object." This was how the artist lecture for Penelope Umbrico was advertised for on campus. Initially, I was very intrigued about her work. I am currently trying to devise a project based around consumerism.

I'd like to name her the "Bad Girl of Photography," due to her claims of purposely trying to do everything wrong. The reason for this is that all of her work is somehow appropriated. She samples hundreds of images from magazines, catalogs and the Internet. One of her works in particular, "Suns from Flickr," consists of a collection of 2,000 or so sun images she has found via Flickr. None of these images are her own. The final piece is truly stunning, a collage of vivid colors and bright orbs. However, knowing that she has appropriated these images, my feelings for her work have changed. I can't quite put a finger on it, I don't know if I am offended or upset, but something about it doesn't sit right with me. Umbrico acknowledges that her work is controversial, but doesn't seem to show any remorse for her process.

Another one of her pieces that I enjoyed was her work based on Home Improvement. Umbrico explained about how after 9/11 she had discovered that stock had decreased in every category except Home Improvement and Arts and Crafts. This somehow inspired her to meticulously search through Home Improvement catalogues such as Potterybarn and Crate and Barrel for various motifs. She had a particular interest towards mirrors, windows, casually flung clothing and books. I really enjoyed her language when she discussed this work. She described the mail catalogues as, "invasive, intervening into your home without your permission." Therefore she was determined to photograph or use the photographs in a way to display them as viruses. This part of lecture really stuck to me, because it was very similar to the discussion I had with Jeff only a few days ago.

My favorite piece is her "Mirror (from catalogs) 2002-2007. These were images that she took directly from the mail-order catalogues and brochures which displayed idealized room suits. She then scanned the mirrors, and then enlarged the images to the dimensions of the actual size of the mirror being sold in the catalogue. They were then printed on Plexiglass. Umbrico explained this series as her interest in the profound sense of disappearance when there is a lack of mirrors.

Umbrico states, "While the mirrors in the catalogs serve to locate the viewer within the space by reflecting what would be behind him/her, all the seductive trappings arranged in the mirror's reflection become surrogates for the missing reflection of the viewer-the viewer witnesses his/her own disappearance and replacement by sell able objects." While she was explaining this, I was completely fascinated in the small details found in the reflection of these mirrors. I mainly found glimpses of a garden or a flower stem. I found that this particular display of mirrors gave the viewer a sense of voyeurism. There was something enticing about the minimal information that could be obtained within these mirrors.

I don't agree with Umbrico's process for her artistic pieces but I was very impressed by her work. She has inspired me to look into different materials and sources to create artwork. Here are some images of her work:

To see more of Penelope Umbrico's work, click.