Paige and Taylor’s Twin-ship.

 

As part of my exploration into the relations of identical Twins and their unspoken communication and unconditional love for each other, I felt it was important to get their perspective on their Twin-ship. So I put together a series of questions and I have Video recorded their answers and reactions.

The questions were derived around various misconceptions about Twins. I didn’t need to ask some of the questions as Paige and Taylor had already covered them with some of their expansion on the answers.

 

 

 

A quick Photoshoot for possible further development.

After explaining to Paige and Taylor that I wanted to take some more photographs but this time some that they felt would best show off their personality and Twin-ship with movements, gestures and their sense of fun they were quite happy to oblige. (The girls are in their Pyjamas’ because it was what they call Pyjama day and feel comfortable.) I gave them very little direction apart from asking them to repeat something if I missed capturing it on camera.

Still trying to recreate the Dianne Arbus Twin picture that they loved so much.

Moving on from this I need to speak to my Tutor, I have been thinking of recreating the Handstand with wire sculpture and possibly creating a slideshow for the projector to project and show movement. The photoshoot went well, Paige and Taylor had lots of fun and I got some great images that will hopefully develop further.

 

 

Exploring the Relations of identical Twins through Manipulated projections and wire sculpture.

I tried to position the wire sculptures to reflect the images and took all photographs from every vantage point possible. I am really pleased with them, I love how illuminated the wire sculptures are when the light hits them and I did my best to capture their unique relations, their unspoken communication, their personal identity, equality, diversity and unconditional love for each other through all the images. I believe I captured, manipulated, projected and reflected their personalities again with the wire sculpture and could possibly leave people mesmerised much like Paige and Taylor do in life. They have always been like little energetic whirl winds.

I need to discuss where I go from here with my Tutor as I am aware that time is moving on quickly and I don’t want to leave no time for a presentation piece.

I had hoped to experiment further with the Video ‘Continual Cycle’ of Paige and Taylor in the pool but with having to use a Mac and being unable to transport the Video to the USB for use on the Mac this has proved difficult. I will talk this through with my Tutor as well and see if we can find a way around it.

Moving on I will be posting on the Fad page for feedback on a few of the images.

Experimenting further with projection.

As part of the experimental process and my development with this project I took  the Manipulated projections and Photographs and experimented further with projecting onto the wire sculptures, Plaster face cast and paper Cubes. This time the Projector ws set up in a special dark room with blacked out walls.

You can see the development in the photographs from beginning to end and I had some trouble with capturing the camera settings as it wouldn’t always pick up on what I was seeing in the room. After I played about with the settings, trying auto, manual and effect it was clear that the best setting to capture the dramatic colour and effect on the wire was the effect setting on the camera that I hadn’t used before.

I really wanted the camera to relay what I could see in the room and some of the manipulated images were so effective that I could feel the drama and mesmerizing spirit of my Twins relationship in the room, especially the ones that capture Paige and Taylor falling out.

I tried moving the wire sculptures to the positions of the faces so that it would look like the sculptures were coming out of the photographs.

I attempted to project onto the plaster casting of my face but positioning the cast was difficult and as I was working on my own it wouldn’t stand upright and the projector struggled to reach it properly without me holding it which was difficult then to take the picture. I decided quite quickly that I didn’t like it and so dismissed it along with the cubes that I had attempted to use.

After having a long series of photographs where the images were not coming out I tried various modes on my camera and the photographs were finally showing the effect that was created in the room.

Moving on I will post some of my images onto the Fad page for feedback and return tomorrow.

It gets very hot in the room and I am constantly moving around into different positions to get the right angles. I love the photographs that I have done today showing my development as the day went on. Hopefully tomorrow I can create some more equally Dramatic. I noticed the brighter more colour filled the images projected were the more dramatic the effect was on the wire. I will go home tonight and add some more colour to some manipulations tonight ready for tomorrow.

 

Projection on cubes made from Net Templates.

I constructed some cube’s using a Template similar to this one and measuring the squares 8cm-8cm and slightly larger at 18cm-18cm exploring scale and the effect they can have when used in projection and possibly as a Photo sculpture.

I took the boxes I had constructed into the dark room with the projector and began working them into my projections. Unfortunately due to Technical difficulties with my camera and the fact I still haven’t got used to it the photographs don’t really capture the effect. I had used masking tape and arranged some of the boxes a little higher to capture the 3D effect but it didn’t give the dramatic impact that the light on the wire did and so after a while I decided to concentrate on experimenting further with the wire while still trying to find the right setting on my camera. I did however really like the difference between the Darkness and the white of the boxes. I also found a brown Piece of Cardboard and added that to see the effect that would make. Some of the images didn’t turn out but these are the images that did.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Full face cast.

I thought it would be a good idea to see what it would be like to use a cast face as a potential Projection Structure. I had hoped to cast Paige and Taylors faces but I felt I couldn’t ask them to do something I hadn’t first tried myself. With the help of Kim, Bill, Vaseline, a shower cap,a waterproof poncho and tubes for my mouth to breathe the Alginate was mixed and the mould of my Face was made.

It took approx 4 mins for the Alginate to set, it was freezing cold when it went on and Kim constantly reassured me and checked the Alginate for when it was set. I tried to keep my breaths deep and long through the straws but I did struggle doing this as i am used to breathing through my nose. After experiencing this for myself i believe that the girls will struggle and perhaps panic so with this in mind I have decided not to cast their faces. I could proceed by casting parts of their faces but I assisted with another student and she didn’t enjoy the experience and was disappointed with her results as well. My first plaster casting wasn’t very successful and the nose broke of I think this was because I hadn’t used enough plaster and so I used more the second and third times..

If I was to do it again I would prefer to do breathing through the nose with the tubes as the straws through the mouth changed the shape of my face and left marks like buck teeth. Moving on I will experiment and use the cast for projection and possibly layer with photographs.

 

 

 

Yes Twins Fall out but not for long…

The trouble with trying to work with your own daughters that occasionally squabble and get on each others nerves like all siblings do, is that when you attempt to get some photographs of them to work on, they choose that particular moment to get on each others nerves.

Still I made the best of what I got and it does show another side to their relationship and answers the question ‘Do they ever fall out?’.

 

 

Exploring Photography and Digital manipulation artists and Effects.

James Welling born 1951 is an American Conceptual Artist and self taught Photographer that experiments with a variety of different  Photographic Mediums. I have been trying to look for a Digital Artist that best resembles some of the work I have been experimenting with when I came across this image which inspired me to do more layering of photographs involving different light and colour.

James Welling has been questioning the norms of representation since the 1970s. His work centers on an exploration of photography, shuffling the elemental components of the medium to produce a distinctly uncompromising body of work. Welling is also intensely interested in cultural and personal ideas of memory in his work. In opening up the medium of photography for experimentation, Welling’s practice has influenced an entire generation of artists and photographers.

Welling was born in 1951 in Hartford, Connecticut. He studied at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh and received his B.F.A. and M.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California. Since 2005, his work has been represented by David Zwirner. In 2015, James Welling: Choreograph marked his sixth solo show at the gallery in New York.

http://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/james-welling/biography/

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=jQMiC6rM&id=532CF8AB2C833C35D348EF32D774053B2E46C9D3&q=james+welling&simid=608044723427347446&selectedIndex=48&ajaxhist=0

I have also been looking at Wolfgang Tilmans born 1968 a German Fine art photographer and his portrait photography.

Wolfgang Tillmans

Born in 1968 in Remscheid, Germany, Wolfgang Tillmans studied at Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design in Bournemouth, England from 1990 to 1992. In 2000, Tillmans was the first photographer and first non-British artist to receive the Turner Prize, an award given annually by Tate in London.

Few artists have shaped the scope of contemporary art and influenced a younger generation more than Wolfgang Tillmans. Since the early 1990s, his works have epitomized a new kind of subjectivity in photography, pairing intimacy and playfulness with social critique and the persistent questioning of existing values and hierarchies. Through his seamless integration of genres, subjects, techniques, and exhibition strategies, he has expanded conventional ways of approaching the medium and his practice continues to address the fundamental question of what it means to create pictures in an increasingly image-saturated world.

https://davidzwirnerbooks.com/artists/artist/wolfgang-tillmans

American born 1940, Contemporary artist Susan Hillar and her use of Photography and Projection Installation in her work.

Susan Hiller has been based mainly in London since the early 1960’s. After several exhibitions of her paintings and a series of collaborative ‘group investigations’, in the early 1980’s she began to make innovative use of audio and visual technology. Her groundbreaking installations, multi-screen videos and audio works have achieved international recognition and are widely acknowledged to be a major influence on younger British artists.

Each of Susan Hiller’s works is based on specific cultural artefacts from our society, which she uses as basic materials. Many of her works explore the liminality of certain phenomena including the practice of automatic writing (Sisters of Menon, 1972/79; Homage to Gertrude Stein, 2010), near death experiences (Channels, 2013), and collective experiences of unconscious, subconscious and paranormal activity (Dream Mapping, 1974; Belshazzar’s Feast, 1983-4; Dream Screens, 1996;Psi Girls, 1999; Witness, 2000). In describing this area of Hiller’s work, art historian Dr. Alexandra Kokoli draws attention to its palpable political subtext: “Hiller’s work unearths the repressed permeability … of … unstable yet prized constructs, such as rationality and consciousness, aesthetic value and artistic canons. Hiller refers to this precarious positioning of her oeuvre as ‘paraconceptual,’ just sideways of conceptualism and neighbouring the paranormal, a devalued site of culture where women and the feminine have been conversely privileged. Most interestingly, in the hybrid field of ‘paraconceptualism,’ neither conceptualism nor the paranormal are left intact … as … the prefix ‘para’ -symbolizes the force of contamination through a proximity so great that it threatens the soundness of all boundaries.”

http://www.susanhiller.org/about.html

I love the use of light, Colour and distortion in the images and projections.

Auras; Homage to Marcel Duchamp.

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hiller-psi-girls-t12447

http://www.susanhiller.org/about.html

Further Digital Photo manipulation.

Using a photo shop app I have on my Laptop I decided to layer and manipulate and play with some of the photographic images I have taken over the last few days including images from the Projector exploration.

I am really happy with the results, I tried to capture the girls moods and emotions in the Digital Composition’s. I tried to bring their individuality as well as their unique relationship into the images.

Moving on I need to explore further potential with my images and explore and create some potential structures for projection and presentation.

 

Experimenting with Projection.

Here are a few Images of some projections I experimented with today. I used various shapes made from card, cardboard tubes, acetate and the hanging 3D structure. I would scale the projected image size and the pieces I was projecting onto to explore a variety of potential sculptural ideas.

 

I really enjoyed the exploration with projecting images and using the different forms to disfigure and manipulate the image projection. Some of the images look very Fragmented and surreal and although not totally reminiscent of Projection Artist Tony Oursler he did inspire some of the manipulations and forms I created with the paper and Acetate.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?

I also liked projecting onto the 3D hung images I made in homage to Hockney and Chloe Ostmo.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?

 

https://www.bing.com/images/search?