True to Life Painting - Dennis Wojtkiewicz

The work of Dennis Wojtkiewicz explores that idea of nature thought fruit's, each image shows the  delicate and intricate workings of the different fruits and vegetable that we consume on a daily basis with out thinking about what they look like on the inside. 

Each image is almost translucent and highly detailed, the images almost look like they were photographed, however this is not the case, each image is painted in oil paint.   

The Never Ending Wall - Noemie Goudal

Noemie Goudal's work looks at the landscape and how we consume the land with out thinking and the invasion of our man made substances into our landscapes. 
The images really raise awareness of the environment and how we interact with it.
'They loved it so much that they consumed it all at once. Then left.' (Sustain Exhibition & Award 2010 Themes: Noemie Goudal (MA Photography, 2010)

The work is set up of instillation that are large scale printed images that hang at the end of empty buildings, giving the illusion of the room continuing on out side. 
This yet another very interesting and helpful view on the idea of landscape photography, taking out the idea of the Picturesque and turning it into something that we can all relate to, environment, beauty and change.   

Hair Clips and Fake Nails - Laurel Roth

Laurel Roth works with sculpture, however the sculptures that are the most stunning come from the series Peacocks. This is a body of work that is created from hair clips and fake nails. The work is created to represent the choices that we make as human beings and the process that we take. 
The sculptures are made of artificial beauty products that are used on a wide bases, however the heads are skulls painted to match the beauty of the rest of the body -  

'The birds' heads are, again, mere skulls - that which lies beneath the décor. Their trimming is nothing more then the cheap tricks women regularly use to costume themselves' (Endless Beautiful Adoptions - Stefanie Sobelle)
The work reminds the viewer that there is a darker side to beauty, and that the surface beauty is just the beginning. 

The Deception People - Rob Mulholland

Rob Mulholland is an artist that works with sculpture and the environment. The Vestige project looks at our relationship with the landscape, The landscape that Mulholland used for this project is in Scotland. The land was once fields, however after the 1st World War there was a vast need for timber. The area was then plated up with fast growing trees thus creating a vast, lush, green landscape. 

Rob Mulholland - Vestige

'The figures absorb their environment, reflecting in their surface the daily changes of life in the forest. They create a visual notion of non – space. A void as if they are at one moment part of our world and then as they fade into the forest they become an intangible outline.' (Rob Mulholland - http://www.robmulholland.co.uk/#/vestige/4535738995)
The figurs almost reflect the idea of the ghosts of this very landscape, and how no matter where we are we leave out mark, no matter how small. You really have to look at first to be able to see the figures, in some ways your eyes almost reject them. 

The Shooting Gallery

The Shooting Gallery is a new show on Channel Four, on Friday nights. The show runs for an hour and looks at various different photographers and short film makers from across the world. 
On the 23th March is first episode was aired, it looked at seven different photographs that all looked at very different subjects. 
The first photographer was Irina Werning and her work 'Back to the future'. In this project Werning takes old photos and recreates them in the exact same way, the old difference is that the people in the images are older, much older - http://irinawerning.com/

The second photographer was David Gillanders, the images were complied into a short film, Called Neglected. Gillanders went underground for three years in Odessa, Ukraine, where he photographed the young children that have been orphaned and left to live off drugs as a pack. The film was heavy and highly emotional to see, children as young as eight shooting up - http://www.davidgillanders.com/

Irina Werning - Back to the Future

David Gillanders - Neglected

The third photographers that were looked at were two Japanese wedding photographers, that have changed the way that a traditional wedding photographs is made and creating  a more stylized, almost fashion wedding style.

In Focus is the next work that was focused on by Pete Eckert, a blind photographer that creates incrdibale images of light trails and the use of long exposures. The work that Eckert creates is inspiring and comfoting, that he can still create the art work that he loves - http://www.peteeckert.com/photos.php

Dark Clouds was the second short still film piece that looks the price that China is paying for it booming industry that, as Western consumers contribute to. Images were taken by Ian Teh - http://www.ianteh.com/

A life Alone is a touching film that looks at one mans tough struggle after the death of his wife. Maisie Crow photographs Tom Rose in his house alone, struggling to come to terms with the death of his wife. This was a tough watch Rose just seamed to desperate, so alone in such a big house - http://www.maisiecrow.com/content.html?page=1

Finaly the last photographer that was looked at was Noam Galai and his photo the scream. Galai posted his image of his face onto his Flicker page and with in a short amount of time his face was used on T-shirts, as graffiti art, graphic desing, magazines and book covers. While Galai knew nothing of this. The short film called 'The Stolen Scream' looks into his feelings about how his image has been used with out him ever knowing. 

Wristcutters - A Love Story (2006)

This post is going to take a break from art and photography, and instead looking at the film 'Wristcutters - A Love Story (2006)'. 

Love stories and many other films follow the conventional Todorov's Theory, this structure is made up of five stages - 

Equilibrium - all is normal in the start. 

Disruption - Something changes the equilibrium that we see at the start.   

Recognition - Realising that the balance has been upset. 

Attempt - To put things back as they were

Reinstatement - Of the equilibrium, but with changes as a result of the reinstatement of the equilibrium. 

The film is set in a parallel, mundane world - Limbo. Reserved for only those that have committed suicide. 

The film opens with the main charter Zia sat in his room after the break up of Zia and his girlfriend. The room is a mess and it is clear that he has given up, however he then performs a pre-suicidal ritual and cleans the whole room, before leaving for the bath room and slitting his wrists.  

The film then moves into Limbo, were Zia hears that his ex-girlfriend has also committed suicide after hearing about Zia's death. Zia then makes it his mission in death to find her and be together once again. He sets off with his Russian friend Eugene, on the way they pick up a hitchhicker - Mikal a girl who believes that she is there by mistake and didn't mean to 'Offed' her self. 

The film its self could be miss-interpreted as condoning suicide, however it simply explores the idea of life after death, love and miracles.  

The world is very much a dystopia of the common ideas of life after death, everything is dead, mundane and no one can smile.  

The love story eliment comes from Zia looking for his deceased ex-girlfriend, however Zia and Mikal become close and in the end Zia's chasing for his 'one' turns out to be in vain. 

There are many different meaning's to the film, life after death, fate, not to waste your time chasing something that is lost and most of all a second chance. In love and life. 

Light Sculpture - Rashad Alakbarov

Light is key to making photos, seeing growth and life, but the work of Rashad Alakbarov uses light in a different way. 
He makes sculptures of different materials then arranges them into positions, so that when light is shone at the sculptures it creates shadows, these shadows make up different images on the wall. 

The work is quite incredible and almost impossible to contemplate knowing where to start with knowing how something will look reflected onto a wall. 

The image on the left is made up of different coloured air planes that when light is passed through create this stained glass window effect of a beach on the gallery space.