Painting at work...

Frequently I am asked at work to do some maintenance and painting after the kids have finished on rides and just before it starts to get dark. Previously I have repaired, sanded and painted the top of the bandstand at The Worthing Lido. Last year I also painted a fruit bowl upon the top of the roof. I have been carrying on with the second every so often. The photograph below shows my progress do far.

The second fruit bowl on the East side nearing completion.

The other day I was asked to complete an fill in the worthing motto in Latin. It had been displayed as part of the emblem on a side wall facing the pier. It has also been painted before but parts had come off, so i was asked to go over it as best as I could. As soon as I looked at the wall I could see that It had been rushed previously and hence lettering was wrong in the style of Times New Roman. I got to work and just had to make do with what was there.

Just before finishing the last word in Latin I saw a man looking over me, and approached me by saying; "You do know you have done the letters wrong". I knew exactly what he meant. The previous person had done the letters such as "X" and "M" with the bold line first and the thin line second. (It's a bit hard to explain)

Anyway I had an inspirational ten minute talk with this guy about calligraphy and graphic design. He asked me whether I was a professional and I told him that I was still in education and planning to go to university next year. He recommended looking at SCAT, Somerset College of Arts and Technology as that was where he went when he was younger. I expect this bloke was retired now. 

From carrying on talking personal he kept asking me questions if I had heard of Company's such as WPP, a leading advertising and marketing service that he used to work for. I was fascinated and truly inspired by his words. This guy next went on to say that his last piece of work he was commissioned for was a font for a bottle. He went on to tell me that he was the guy who created the label font for San Miguel and Cobra beers.

I had loved talking to this bloke and could have talked to him for hours. Sadly he had to go because his wife was waiting for him. He shock my hand and told me his name was Bob. A fascinating day and I was astonished how successful he had been.

Brighton Photo Fringe Open'11

I went to see the penultimate day of the Brighton Photo Fringe Open'11 exhibition at the Phoenix Gallery. It was on from 19th November to 18th December and I thought It would be a good idea to go along before it ended. The exhibition brought together a diverse group of artists to explore different perspectives on critical issues emerging from contemporary photographic practice.

The exhibition space was very small in itself however there was a vast amount of space to view the artists work. I had never came to this exhibition before but it really caught my eye to want to come back again. The space was very clean and open. The various rooms built into a walkthrough contained different types of imagery, from photographic sculpture to illusional pieces.

The first lot of work I saw was by Alexander Nicholas Gehring; an interesting approach to photography using only the shades black and red. They were all created from C-Prints in 2011 and consisted of very bold and contracting streaks of red light upon a dark room or background. They were certainly my favorite pieces of work in the gallery.

The next section of the Open'11 Gallery contained three A0 photographs and a pile of A4 sheets of paper. From looking at the photographs I could see that they were very pixilated and included a lot of noise distortion. Later I found out that they had been printed on Xerox paper. This meant that they would have been cheaply produced and for some specific reason. I personally really liked them because they were not sharp in the slightest, they almost conveyed lovely texture.

There were also several other places within the exhibition space that I looked and viewed. There was one section that did not involve photographs but objects, i don't know whether this was part of the Brighton Photo Fringe gallery but i found it interesting. It contained a brief description and some "Practical Electronics". I had done an A level in Electronics so I was quite amazed to see a series of old equipment. 

I had a great time looking around and wanted to come back again somewhen. I was going to head of to a "New Art Exhibition" by the famous Ronnie Wood, but when I got there I had run out of time and it had already shut. That exhibition was in one of the shops in the lanes but also ended over the weekend.

"Gathering" at Fabrica 16th November 2011

As I was in Brighton and heading back to the station, I thought it would be a good idea to quickly look what was happening at Fabrica. I walked in to find a huge two sided screen of which one side was blank. It seemed to play a movie that was created by Melanie Manchot called "Gathering". The artist was both interested in incidents that examined collective identities, codes and behaviours in public space. Melanie wanted to examined mass democratic expression to parade and protest that swept across Europe and the Middle East from anti cuts protests in the UK to the Arab Spring.

I sat down in the dark with a huge projection infront of me.It took a long time to try and understand what the film was all about. The first was called "Walk Square 2011" and focused upon 1000 kids and 13 schools all gathering in one area of space. The key area seemed to be a huge "Gathering" somewhere where public would be able to see them. I believe It was set in Hamburg. 

The first film clip "Walk (Square)" showing from far away onto the crowd.

Everyone was rotating in a circle. The camera angle was very far away and gave an unusual touch to me because you could hear the sound of the crowd as if you were standing in the centre of the circle. Suddenly the sound drops to silence and the camera view starts to pan around from the perspective of the middle of the circle. Soon after the sound picked up and everyone had smiles upon their faces as they start to walk round in a square. I was very confused by the next action because the kids disperse and a line of different sized rectangles appears upon the ground. It looked as if everyone has a piece of chalk to hand. It was as if the power of a human action when directed was put towards a common goal. 

I was then asked to move round to the other side of the wall to see a different projection. This second film was entitled "Celebration (Cyprus Street)". It was inspired by traditional street parties in London's East End, developed over a period of six months with residents. It was commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella and supported by Arts Council England.

It was filmed by a single tracking shot, capturing the rich diversity of the East End following four centuries of immigration. The sound starts to get louder as conversation grows throughout the street, no one is noticing the camera action. At this point it made me realize that both films seemed to be in contrast with each other. The first film was about leading as there was a person showing people where to go; and this short clip was about following others and their actions. There was also no seats compared to before. I noticed that everyone suddenly stopped and the street start to turn around to have a picture taken. I was given a strong sense of insecurity with the fact with such a life sized amount of people were all looking at you as if you were about to do something big. I had to leave the room.

Soon after I was asked to fill in a short questionnaire and I was handed a leaflet. I soon found out that Both of Melanie's work had been showcased internationally, with solo presentations at Haus am Waldsee in Berlin, Manchester and various other places. I was fascinated and really enjoyed seeing her work. I was amazed my peoples reactions around me and I was intrigued to how she managed to direct so many people together.

What Northbrook Has To Offer (Part 2)

This is my long awaited second part of one of my blogs about Northbrook College and the BA (Hons) courses that I could if I wish apply for. In this blog post I thought I would spend a moment to talk about a degree run at West Durrington campus called Contemporary Photographic Arts. 

On Friday 4th November I left class early to attend an open day with David in Fine Art. After this I thought it would be a good idea to wait around for half an hour and go and look at this photography degree. I thought that I should check out what Northbrook had to offer because if it felt right it meant that I would not have to spend as much money moving away from home.

I was a little disappointed to find out that I was the only person in the open day talk who had actually turned up. Nevertheless It meant that I could talk informally on a one to one basis with Paul Grivell, the course tutor. This meant the course talk was a lot less time than the previous. When I stepped in the room I realised I had been there before and then remembered last year I went to the same talk because I wasn't really sure which course to choose here at the college.

From Paul skipping through the slideshow, the overview of the course seemed to be bringing critical theory and contemporary photographic practice together in order to challenge and question photography as a whole. I thought this sounded quite interested and I was given a leaflet with all the basic course information. Here I found that the Photographic degree would be very broad, working with digital and analogue techniques using photography and moving image meant there would be a wide range of forms to play with.

The course had been split into three years and covered much of the same outline as the Fine Art degree. The first year would be a lot of research and written presentations as well as an exploratory stage at the beginning of the year. This meant that in the first month you would be able to play around and document findings from using various mediums. The theme would be set and you would wok from it. For the second year you would advance on these skills and ending the year you would showcase your work in a public exhibition or space. A few examples were shown on the slideshow of people hiring out a shop window to create a 24 hour exhibition; others did the same with a car parking space. In the final year students were expected to know what area they wanted to work and things start to become more specific. All work and exhibition space was up to you, the student could set their own theme based upon their genre of work.

Paul talked about his own individual work and I thought this was good. If I was going to do a degree in a subject I want to see that the tutors themselves have a passion for the subject, as well as having interests outside of just teaching. At the end of the three years I was told that many of the undergraduates went to be free lance or pursue within their medium as well as some completing a masters. The entry requirements were stated as 160 UCAS points. I thought this was possibly quite low, nevertheless It meant that because of being educated in the same college I could quite easily get onto this course. This was an option.

To conclude this Photographic Art degree, I would say that It was a great course in general. The facilities were actually quite a lot better than I originally thought they would be. I underestimated this course so much that much of the equipment and studio space was actaully better than other university visits I have been to. I loved the fact that only a hand few of students could get onto this course; a maximum of 15. This was great news in my eyes because it would mean that you would get a lot more support and acknowledgement from tutors, instead of being one in the sea compared to being one of 300 in Brighton. The only downside that I had with this course nevertheless was that I didn't think it was in the prime location. If this course would have been in london or a big city I would certainly go for it. I also felt that even though I loved the teaching staff at Northbrook College I felt It would be time to move on from Worthing. This could be a safe or a last resort if I do not have a fourth or fifth choice on my UCAS application.