Hello all, numero 18 here, might as well get stuck in nice and deep into this update and figure out the secrets within.
Personal
Man, what a couple of trash weeks it has been. Been struggling a lot with home life, getting my shit together and working towards stuff. I imagine a lot of people are feeling similar in a way that this year is feeling like it is going way too fast with very little progression.
I had a good talk with my friend about progression and perspective, and how they can different when it comes to how we personally see our own progression rather than through the perspective of others, and how these notions of achievement in life are quite in the general part, a stupid thing to hold ourselves too.
We live in a collective mindset of personally better ourselves and compare ourselves to other people, weather that be in regards of looks, success, money, popularity. All of which in the grand scheme of things, bare no real weight in terms of self fulfillment to an extent. I feel that (especially now) the thoughts of mental and financial stability, the core values we hold as people and the necessary human needs to feel safe, warm, fed and clothed are crucial. Of course there is more to look at than just filling them, as I am currently working on trying to become more independent, and get myself somewhere where I feel I can fulfil a purpose and enjoy doing so in the process, as currently I am finding it hard to do so.
Regardless, we move.
The plants are doing alright, I need to repot them, I made a pot from a scrumpy bottle a while ago which housed sweet potato vines which passed, so I am thinking of creating a small succulent garden in it.
I got an idea jar, hopefully this is so I can get my projects completed rather than sitting unfinished in a drawer, computer memroy or mind.
I was lucky enough to watch a performance at Studio done by Hive. Their take on Incognito by Nick Payne and directed by Yursa Warsama.
The plot follows 3 different plots, all circulating the ideas of thoughts, from the a neurophysiologist exploring radical choices present time, a man undergoing brain surgery to help his illness, and pioneering brain surgeries in 1953, and Thomas Harvey who stole albert Einstein's brain to further work on for scientific discovery.
The performance by the actors, who were on stage at all times, was impressive. Some of the roles I saw as stand out was the role (performed by M. Brown) Thomas Harvey, capturing the ideas of obsession slowly increasing whilst also the irritation and frustration when it comes to the mocking of his life's work, further adding fuel to the obsession of keeping to it.
Their idea of creating this performance with minimal set I found as a interesting idea. Through this, it allows the performance to be performed in a lot more venues without restriction, whilst also creating clever ideas when it comes to sound and lighting, the use of torches to point interest into certain parts of the stage, strobe effect on the torch to physicalize the idea of neurons firing throughout the brain, with the mobility of the spare actors at hand the limit is endless, whilst the effect was impressive. Overall a really really solid performance and they should be proud of their achievements, especially considering the performance has been through the lockdown stresses.
There was a lot of themes that resonated to me, weather intentional or not. A lot of them were looking into ourselves, in a way of how our brains work and trick us as a method of self preservation. Some of the focuses of looking into how our brains reconstruct memories, thoughts and can even realize false information as truth, and how our brain dupes us into believing things such as self importance, morals, narrative and emotions. Just how we see this in some of the cases of people with illnesses such as Alzheimer's and how their brains although struggling still connect dots to the stimulus received from the world.
One of the the plays I found relating to is An Experiment with an Air Pump, By Shelagh Stephenson. This play was based off a painting with the same name by Joseph Wright. The similarities they share is the morals when it comes to scientific advancement and discovery. We can connect the two characters, Armstrong and Thomas Harvey, who struggle to see the morals of what their actions are in comparison to the scientific advancement, allowing obsession to envelop and cloud their minds and destroy everything such as relationships, friendships and even lives for the answer.
Collage Work
I recently purchased a knife set used for crafts, such as collages. I have been working on this new method of curating, and I find it quite interesting a way of that it is using and mixing different books, magazines and other paper based media together, using to transcend it's original purpose.
The first work I have been working on is samples from old penguin books, magazines and old books on 'what to do on the internet' on the early 2000's internet.
From this first test, I found myself following a theme of global destruction from corporations, subtly pinning companies such as Nestle and Coca Cola, and McDonalds, which are polluting the planet at a rapid pace, whilst also draining the world of its natural resources. (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/07/coca-cola-pepsi-and-nestle-named-top-plastic-polluters-for-third-year-in-a-row)
(https://www.circularonline.co.uk/news/coca-cola-pepsico-mcdonalds-and-heineken-among-top-12-most-polluting-companies/)
Gallery Exploration
As I am writing this, I am currently one of a few artists in a group which are currently looking into gallery spaces to showcase our art.
This group focuses on the ideas of Escapism, Left Wing, Hedonism, Edgy themes, I have taken the notions of edginess and escapism through into my work. We are looking into spaces in which to hold the artwork. It proved a little difficult and are in negotiating stages when it comes to venue and pricing of the venues to rent.
It's interesting to explore this aspect for the future if I'm ever trying to go for a new space, or exhibit my future work, it also allows us to network a lot more too, and to give myself a real deadline to finish works before they need to be exhibited, terrifying, yet exciting. We are in discussion of venues around Manchester, looking into going against the white wall aspects of exhibition spaces. It got me thinking in new and interesting ways we show our art and how it can have implications within the location of where it is exhibited. As most gallery format the status quo is to have the art hung at eye level, the most comfortable height for the art, I don't like this.
As the theme of the group is seen as quite non-conforming to norms, I am exploring ideas where it comes to canvas, presentation and subverting expectations of the audience. Hopefully when reviewing the space, I am thinking of using lamplit corners, the floor, uncomfortable to look angles, and hidden in bins or behind other art. I also want to with my work especially, to lower the level of prestige and regard that art is held in.
Deadline Fears
It goes without saying, deadlines are a scary thing when juggling between such things. For myself, this is revolving around that I need to finish works of art for this gallery, whilst trying to improve my skills in other places. Finding the balance is where the difficulty lies, at least for myself. As I'm quite prone to procrastinating or being distracted by other tasks, I find myself getting work done at a very very slow pace, even with these blogs alone I've spent time dossing, playing MGTA, napping and looking in the fridge for anything to snack on.
I'm hoping that when it comes to the future I will have a place in which I can devout a area outside of my bedroom to work, as I feel that when you use the same space when it comes to relaxing and unwinding, with working and creating, it can be difficult to differentiate between them.
With the idea jar, I really enjoy the idea as it means I can actually put ideas I have on the fly into the jar and forget about them instead of working onto them briefly getting distracted from the task at hand.
In time, I will be looking at other ways in which I can find ways to keep myself focused on the task at hand and complete things in and before the deadline in comfortable time.
Guns Akimbo - 6/10
Featuring Daniel Radcliffe as a internet troll, caught into a real life battle to the death with a a savage killer against his will, and two guns bolted to his hands. This film stylistically, is quite impressive, with some really really good action sequences. This film isn't really a film to get engrossed into the characters, with tacked on romantic plots, not very engaging backstories and 'meh' villain's, its more of a comedy and violent gore-filled film, and for the sake of enjoyment, it really is a generally enjoyable film. If you are wanting a film with some humor, gunfights, and some stylish scenes dotted in, this is for you.
James Gunns' Suicide Squad 8.5/10
Surprisingly, I really enjoyed this. After watching the first live action Suicide Squad, I was skeptical that this franchise could be resurrected, but with the directing of James Gunn, this film is a phoenix rising from the ashes. The characters are all likeable to say the least (bar one) and the plot is a lot more intriguing than the latter. It switched a few expectations of classic superhero films, as well as DC's bleak colour palette by actually adding some colour into it's scenes which actually made a bigger impact that anticipated. There was some 'DC cringe' which I always feel when it comes to these films, and tv shows such as Doom Squad, but it wasn't enough to put me off. Harley Quinn is a character I have never really cared much for, but it was quite refreshing to see that her character wasn't completely centered around the obsession of the joker, or even mentioned dead pan, there is a scene suggesting to it, which I felt was paying homage, backstory and reasons to the scene, but done well enough to not ruin her character with the usual clichés of that character. Her whole spear sub-plot however I felt I could of been a little more improved as it felt more of a reason for one scene, meh.
The quirkiness of the characters was really good actually, I quite enjoyed the unconventional nature and human aspects of the characters. It made them more relatable whilst also more depth to the characters themselves and the rag tag gang that are mushed together to perform as a team.
I don't really like John Cena as an actor, this is personal opinion. I think he feels very very out of place in a lot of films and often times a caricatures of one certain sort of personality. That's just a personal irk, but not a fan.
Overall, this really subverted my expectations, and would be happy to watch this film again.
Thanks for reading today, as always is means a lot for anyone who do read them.
Till next time, peace.
-S (08/08/21)