Slade Artists In Residence at Heal's (Day One)

Today, myself and 9 other students from UCL Slade School of Fine Art were selected to take up residence in the front windows of the famous Heal's Store on Tottenham Court Road. We will be present until 6pm on Sunday 6th February, with some of us making art in store, while others display and invite the public to have a go at making some art and learning something new.


Over the week I will be making small oil paintings and sketches of the store's product displays, these will gradually fill a large wall space so by the end of the week there will be plenty to look at. I will be working from photographs that I have taken of the displays and decided to use the products as my subject matter because in my studio practice I'm interested in the ideas of ownership of objects and emotional attachment. I am also interested in shop window displays and the contrast of a display in a second hand shop to a store such as Heal's selling brand new products.


Arriving in store this morning, I was overwhelmed by the 'fishbowl' experience of working in a window. I felt very exposed to begin with and very aware of the public passing by, however I got used to it pretty quickly and got down to work. The following images are of the beginnings of my display and work I made today.

You can keep updated with all our progress at the Heal's Blog (see attached link) and it would be great if you came down to the store and saw it all for yourselves!

Psychoanalysis: It All Just Got Interesting

  Over the course of the last week I have become increasingly interested in the psychology behind interior spaces and personal objects. I have been reading about 'The Uncanny', referring to both Sigmund Freud's well known essay and Anthony Vidler's essays in 'Architectural Uncanny'. Both texts discuss the 'unhomely' with reference to an individuals personality and reaction towards the physical appearance of architecture. What I plan to do in response to this interest is yet to be discovered, but the ideas I picked up on made me feel inclined to visit the exhibition on psychoanalysis at the Science Museum.

  The exhibition itself is a concise explanation of the key areas in psychoanalysis, with references to the most well known names who developed and pushed the boundaries of discovery. Having not studied psychology since my A-Levels a couple of years ago I was slightly anxious I wouldn't be able to understand the trains of thought, but I found it relatively easy to pick up the theories and explanations presented in the exhibit. With audio commentary at each station of the exhibition, I was able to stand and look at the artefacts and objects without having to read reams of text. However, what helped me relate to the information the best was the relativity of the contemporary art that sat alongside them. 

  I found the series of photographs by Claudia Guderian particularly interesting, her photos depicted the interior settings of a series of psychoanalysts' consultation rooms. On further investigation I discovered she had an exhibition of these photographs at the Freud Museum back on 2004, and I think I will look at the idea of capturing such an emotionally charged space in terms of making work.

'Renate Kohlheimer, Wein'

                                                               

                                                       'Sigmund Freud, London'

The exhibition "Psychoanalysis: The Unconscious In Everyday Life" is at the Science Museum until April 15th 2011. 

This is what I'm moving away from...

Not exactly your usual art blogpost about 'what I'm currently working on' and 'where the work's going', because to be perfectly honest with you, I haven't the foggiest idea of what to do at the moment!


All I can give you is the work I was making before Christmas, I guess the holidays sapped any enthusiasm and creativity I had for my ideas!

I know, I know...

Yes I realise I am a completely rubbish Blogger... 
Therefore I shall make a belated New Year's Resolution right here and now, I will aim to put up a weekly blogpost for you lovely people! 


I promise I'll try my best :)