Stephen Marshall Contextual Focus Point:Part 3

Stephen Marshall

http://www.stephenmarshall.co.uk/

For this contextual focus point the questioning refers to the way of presenting work in an exhibition. Stephen Marshall exhibited his work in a way that would retain the dynamics of the studio. When the work is transferred in a gallery the environment that this art was created is not transmitted. The way the work was placed in the studio, placing works beside to be compared, the aura of the studio room is lost. Trying to retain some of these studio qualities in the gallery is an additive aspect to the presentation of the work. This relates to the idea of Open Studios where someone can visit the artist at the time of working and be able to capture all the dynamics of the space. In addition a studio could also become an exhibition space when a project is finished and ready to be exhibited at the place where it was created. This is a more personal way of exhibiting artwork. I suppose that many artist would prefer to keep their personal space their own sanctuary. This depends on how much an artist wants to reveal of himself.

This is a question I raised to myself as well. I tend to approach subjects that refer to my own personal experiences and in my blog I become very informative about my personal thinking and feelings. I have ambivalent  feelings about how much personal I want to be through my art. At the same time that I reveal myself through my art at the same time I want to hide. I wonder what would Vincent Van Gogh think if he knew that his private letters are open to everyone!

I found the following link for an exhibition that relates to the question of the studio of the artist and it’s relation to presenting the work in a gallery. This artist is called a nomad just because she is continually moving around different countries and different studios in her endevor to understand the human condition. The work for the exhibition is structured by the moving of her studio to the exhibition place and this process is part of the exhibited work and it is recorded through photographs or other methods that become part of the exhibition. The exhibition is relevant the artist’s space. The privacy of the personal space, the studio, is transferred to the exhibition space which is a common space. The works and objects are placed in a way so that the viewer is invited to observe the relationship between artist and space. The dynamics of the audience’s participation in the shared space of the museum gives a collective quality to the work.

http://www.philenews.com/politismos/kypros/article/494949/i-eikastikos-nomada-athina-antoniadoy-ekthetei-sti-lefkosia

I plan to visit this exhibition and describe my experience.

Critical Review: Initial ideas

The critical review subject will be closely connected to my parallel project.

The general idea is ”Relationships” and how they are depicted by artists in drawing. The question however must be narrowed and become more specific. Maybe I will undertake the subject of exploring relationships in a narrative way.

Through the study for my critical review I would expect that I will be assisted to place my work in a context. I would like to be able to understand how I encompass in my work the affect of artists that I am kin on.  Also I want to get the opportunity to find the way works of art that I am attracted to, lead me to certain decisions on my own drawing practice. How the methodology, material, subject matters and other drawing attributes of other artists and works of art are transmitted to my work and my creativity.

Comparing artists and more specifically works of art, is an area I want to work on in order to improve. For this, it might be a good idea to find two artists and make comparisons on how they draw or paint portraits or figures in a narrative way. Then I could make comparisons on how I worked in a narrative way in my parallel project.

Another idea is to compare two artists that depict portraits and relationships in different ways of which one to be the narrative way.