For my exhibition, I wanted to showcase pieces that represented my exploration of media and techniques. As I researched different artistic movements and artists over the course of class, I tried to experiment with techniques used by the artists from those movements. Surrealism was the artistic movement that I think I gravitated towards the most; the 'automatic' art philosophy introduced by the artists of that movement had a great influence on the art I was making for my exhibition. I have found that the works I create which resonate with me the most were created to experiment with materials I had close by or a pattern I thought of spontaneously -- for that reason, the “meanings” prescribed to them are not consistent or connected, but all of the works serve to showcase my exploration of and experimentation with different ways of making art.
Photography was perhaps the medium which I experimented with most consistently over the time spent working on my exhibition; even though only one of the final works featured is a photograph, attempting to make abstract art with a camera was a process that had a lasting impact on my thinking when making other works in my exhibition. Abstract art, at least in my opinion, lends itself more to painting: the precision of a photograph can convey detail better than any painting, but a painting can manipulate its subject in ways that allow for a more surreal kind of creative exploration. Making photographs that break the conventions of their subject required redesigning my process; cameras are designed to make objective images. I had to really look into the medium I was using and see where it could go -- not where I knew it could go.
I experimented a lot texturally with paint; I found that differentiating forms with textures created a more "surreal" transition between then. In Abstract landscape No.1, Bays, I used texture to draw focus to the water. The piece is based off of a composite of pictures of two bays near where I live. It was an opportunity to experiment with grattage, which allows for the creation of different textures than brush painting, but also has its own limitations; brushes create movement more naturally, but a blade can reveal & utilize all of the different layers of paint. Using a blade to create movement in that way looks unique, and I thought that it would be an interesting concept to explore. Water, for me, has always represented movement and transience, and land the opposite -- I tried to convey this by making the water in the scene dynamic when compared to the land; the texture used for the water has a lot more going on and the land is more static.
In the next painting, Abstract landscape No.2, Woods, I experimented more with unusual techniques. I applied thick layers of paint to the canvas and then applied different colors of ink to the canvas in many different ways: I rubbed it on with my fingers, dripped it down the canvas, or sprayed it on with compressed air. Darker colors and longer uninterrupted shapes/lines were used in the background to make it seem further away; the foreground was made with brighter colors and a greater number of more obtrusive forms. I did not allow the different layers much time to dry, so I created space by moving paint away from regions I wanted to be empty with the compressed air. When the piece was drying, I placed jars on the canvas to leave circular imprints on the piece. The piece is supposed to be a forest at night -- the sparse, dark forms in the background representing large trees in the distance and the bright, pointy ones in the foreground representing bushes close by, with the moon shining through the leaves in the top right corner.
When arranging my exhibition, I chose to order the artworks based on the intensity of their colors from least to most intense; a work’s color intensity was decided by considering color saturation, the number of colors, and the surface area covered by color. Due to social distancing and CoV-19 restrictions, my IB class had to exhibit our works virtually.