SURREALIST ADVERTISING

Images taken from:
These images depict adverts in the 80's for Benson and Hedges.

Consuming Passions : The dynamics of popular culture By Judith Williamson

COMMON CULTURE

'Menus' explores the process by which issues of taste, class and notions of 'Britishness' are negotiated through the transaction of commodities in popular culture.

Came across 'common culture' whist looking through a book called 'variable capital' by David Cambell and Mark Durden.Interesting to realise how noticeable and identifiable a vehicle liek this is. How do we know that this peice of machinery serves some kind of fast food? Conditioning tells us. It is these design features in work, that really makes me think. I think about how we can so easily identify such objects.

I want to read more about this work along with other works from common culture. I will put it in my research journal so i can read more when i have time.

I have been looking on the website and i really like them. i havnt heard of them before though, maybe they are not that well known.could be wrong here.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC - Ambi -Pur

These things bloody amaze me. I can not understand why someone who purchases the National Geographic would be the sort of person who buys Ambi Pur to try and re- life there travelling adventures. This is confusing.

Also reminds me of the new Glade air freshener that looks like a stone.A pebble.very odd.

MERCEDES- BENZ Design Sculpture

Modernist type of sculpture







The sculpture, named "Rising Car", represents a Mercedes-Benz Concept body taking soft, flowing form from liquid - or as if it was covered by a "shimmering cloth" draped over.

"Mercedes-Benz design is clear, calm and consistent, but yet emotional and highly sensuous. Mercedes-Benz is the brand best able to present automobile design as an art form in an authentic way."

The sculpture imitates the formative power of nature: flowing elements change their shape as the form of a new automobile emerges in line with the dynamic laws of gravity and aerodynamics, making this form vaguely visible and solidifying into a work of art with the appearance of a casting possessing contours and clear definitions.

The car being a Modernist type of sculpture. Henry Moore smoothness.

The airwick would not look how it does today with its ergonomic design without the influence of people such as Henry Moore

The high-shine , high-spec surface of the car is imitated even by the surface that covers it in secrecy.

WARHOL

Campbell's soup cans, 1962

When Warhol first exhibited these thirty–two canvases in 1962, each one simultaneously hung from the wall like a painting and rested on a shelf like groceries in a store. The number of canvases corresponds to the varieties of soup then sold by the Campbell Soup Company. Warhol assigned a different flavor to each painting, referring to a product list supplied by Campbell's. There is no evidence that Warhol envisioned the canvases in a particular sequence. Here, they are arranged in rows that reflect the chronological order in which they were introduced, beginning with "Tomato" in the upper left, which debuted in 1897.

I feel like i cant really think about my Airwick peices without at least recognising that i am aware of the above peice of work. I really didnt like this at school, in fact its the sort of work that i just didnt understand. Now, however i have come to realise the layers to a work of this kind. The exploitation of such a capitalist world is now of real interest to me, and is coming out in my recent work, however with a more domesticated tone. I am planning to read the essays in the POP LIFE catalogue that i just purchased from Amazon.

SEAN EDWARDS

‘Untitled’, 2007, InkJet Print


Sean Edwards ‘Untitled (Composition)’, 2006, Bubble Wrap, Discharged Firework

This was an old show at Limoncello called 'Fair Show' which featured all artists at the gallery, but i have just come in to contact with this peice of work. I wish i had seen this. The fragility of the burnt out firework reminds me of the pathetic look of my Party Blower peice of work with the pump. It looks old, a bit knackered. Like mutton dressed as lamb.

Bruce Nauman Good Boy Bad Boy 1985
© ARS, NY and DACS, London 2002
Good Boy Bad Boy 1985

Colour video and monitors
duration: 60 min., 52 sec.
installation

Bruce Nauman’s performances, films and video works often use language games and repetition to explore the nature of language and perception. In this work two monitors are placed at head height, so that the performers stare out directly at the viewer. Two professional actors recite the same series of one hundred phrases, beginning in a flat tone but becoming more emotional. Because they are talking at different speeds, the actors fall out of step with each other, and the continuously looped videos become out of sequence. Many of the statements imply moral judgements which, through repetition, seem increasingly threatening.

This video has the sort of pace i could never achieve. The threatening nature of this video peice is really strong.With my microwave peice, it is important to me that it has a pace to it. It must feel like anticipation in terms of when the glass plate is going to move, the more people that are in the room the better, pressure.

HARRISON AND WOOD - Wimbledon Gallery

EXHIBITION VISITED







These are two people that i could never get bored of. They were recently shown at the Wimbledon Gallery and i sat and watched there filsm over and over again. The simple graphic display of John and Paul as objects in there own right interests me everytime i see the films. There were quite a few that i had seen before. Irony was more obvious to me now. I met them on my foundation, liked there look, but now looking back, i really understand there videos much more. I read about them a lot too in books and articles.

Airwck Product range

most expensive flash drive

What could be more useful than a USB stick made of gold?

Actually, don’t answer that.

White Lake’s golden USB flash drive is, at least, sure to make an impression. Custom made with either fourteen- or eighteen-karat gold and maybe even some diamonds thrown into the mix, the most expensive USB drive is guaranteed to suit your individual personality—and by “personality” I mean “the gaping hole in your wallet.”

You can own this expensive flash drive for around $2,800 without diamonds or $3,500 with them. In fact, White Lake is so sure that you’ll want this revolutionary device that they don’t even bother to mention its storage capacity.

Luckily, White Lake’s offering has been trumped by a newer and more original flash drive—the Mnemosyne. This 16GB flash drive defies the standard USB stick format, instead taking the form of a puzzle cube. The drive was hand-crafted from solid aluminum and buffed to a mirror finish by the fine people at Italian/Japanese design firm Toshi Satoji Design. The 3” cube is aptly named after the Greek titan and personification of memory.

The world’s most expensive USB flash drive can be purchased from Japanese-language seller Solid Alliance for the hefty price of 1 million yen (US $10,685).

Most expensive ring

If you’re an aging bachelor and billionaire looking to wed someone half your age, you may want to look into expensive engagement rings. One such individual’s proposal to an ex-model involved a $1.5 million engagement ring. That may seem way out there, but it’s not even close to the most expensive ring in the world.

The Chopard Blue Diamond Ring is the ring that makes any other diamond ring look bad. Set with an enormous, oval-shaped blue diamond, the expensive ring also has diamond shoulders and an 18k white gold band paved with diamonds.

Blue diamond is among the most expensive diamonds in the world. It is found among boron deposits, from whence it derives its shade. This particular gem weighs in at nine carats.

The world’s most expensive ring is valued at $16.26 million, enough to put a dent in the wallets of even the wealthiest individuals.

Shiny, swanky car boosts men's appeal to women, but not women's appeal to men

Shiny, swanky car boosts men's appeal to women, but not women's appeal to men

It's a widely held, if much derided, belief that ownership of a prestige sports car can increase a man's sex appeal to women. Indeed, there's a scene in the American sit-com Friends in which Joey dons a ridiculous Porsche-branded costume of peak cap, gloves, jacket and trousers, so determined is he to convince female passers-by that he owns a fast, shiny car. Now Michael Dunn and Robert Searle have tested the shiny car effect scientifically, looking at the influence of apparent car ownership on both male and female perceived attractiveness.

Hundreds of passers-by in Cardiff city centre were asked to rate the attractiveness of a young man or woman portrayed in a photograph sitting in a car. Male participants all rated the same woman, and female participants all rated the same man. Crucially, half the participants saw the man or woman sat at the wheel of a Ford Fiesta whilst the other half saw the man or woman sat at the wheel of a Bentley Continental (worth a cool £75000, approximately, at the time of testing).

Pilot research had established that, against a blank background, the photographed man and woman were perceived as equally attractive by the opposite sex (both scoring approximately mid-way on an attractiveness scale) and also that male and female participants didn't differ from each other in the aesthetic ratings they gave to the two models of car. The stand out message from the research proper, however, is that the man was rated as significantly more attractive when he was seen sat in the Bentley rather than the Fiesta, whereas the woman's perceived attractiveness was unaffected by the car she happened to be sitting in.

This finding appears to support prior research showing that in cultures all round the world, heterosexual women are attracted to men with greater status and resources, whereas heterosexual men tend to be attracted to women who appear youthful and fertile.

'It would appear that even though recent years have witnessed dramatic increases in female ownership of prestige luxury cars, such ownership does not enhance female attractiveness, as is the case with male attractiveness,' the researchers said.

'Also,' they added, 'the results contradict the "structural powerlessness" hypothesis, i.e. the belief that as economic differences diminish men and women will become more alike, as the rise in female economic fortune has not, it would appear, emancipated them from attraction to cues that are indices of wealth and status in males.'
_________________________________

Dunn, M., & Searle, R. (2010). Effect of manipulated prestige-car ownership on both sex attractiveness ratings British Journal of Psychology, 101 (1), 69-80 DOI: 10.1348/000712609X417319

Magpie Steals Shiny Objects

The magpie (Pica pica) is a black-and-white bird with a very long tail. It is a member of the crow family. When the wings are folded, the magpie has a white breast and a white patch in each side. In flight the bird is more spectacular, with white body and white wing tips and the long tail spreads out into a huge fan. On close inspection, the black on the wings has a blue sheen while the tail has a green sheen. Males and females have identical plumage, but young magpies have many black feathers mixed in the white, giving them a scruffy look.

Like all crows, the magpie does not have a musical voice. Its cry is an irritating 'Ack-ack-ack-ack' which has been likened to a football rattle. A fully-grown magpie is typically 18 inches long, including the tail. Magpies can be found in north-western Africa, Europe, Asia and North America.

Who's a Clever Bird?

Magpies are intelligent creatures. They have been known to unlock pet rabbits' cages to steal the food! They can be taught to say words in the manner of a parrot. The writer and animal collector Gerald Durrell had two which used to delight in mimicking his mother, calling the dogs in her voice, to their great confusion. Magpies are sociable birds and will work together. Four of them will terrorise a cat. They have even been seen to fly down and lift to safety an injured magpie which had been hit by a car and was lying in the road.

Thieving Magpie

Magpies, like all crows, have a reputation for liking shiny objects, and will reputedly steal jewellery, earning them the name 'The Thieving Magpie'. Rossini wrote a tragicomic opera of this name (La Gazza Ladra). It concerns a French servant-girl who is accused of theft. She is tried, found guilty and executed. Later, the true culprit is revealed: a magpie. In remorse, the town organises an annual 'Mass of the Magpies' to pray for her soul. The title The Thieving Magpie was later used by progressive rock band Marillion for one of their albums.

Killers

Magpies live on insects, grubs, berries and carrion, with occasional frogs and snails. They have also been known to kill small pets such as baby guinea pigs. Magpies supplement their diet in the breeding season by raiding nests of smaller birds and eating the eggs and baby chicks. This practice makes them much disliked by humans, particularly British gamekeepers.They are considered to be evil birds by people who insist on attaching human standards to nature. Studies show, however, that nature is able to cope and songbird and gamebird populations do not suffer as a result of occasional raids by the magpies.

IDEAL HOME SHOW - Earls Court, London

EXHIBITION VISITED













shiny shiny shiny
Audio was taken from all live demonstrations and talks.
Photographs to document the days events were collated. I visited this exhibition to document and whiteness the application of surface and persuasive language. Further to my dissertation the idea of being socially aspirant is of great interest to me, and this event gave me the to opportunity to be in an environment whereby i could gain primary research into this notion. The majority of this event is a complete focade in terms of its physicality in the building.

RICHARD HAMILTON - Serpentine Gallery

EXHIBITION VISITED






Selected work:





Richard Hamilton: Modern Moral Matters
Treatment room, 1983-84
Installation view Serpentine Gallery, London
(3 March – 25 April 2010)

This is the least amount of time i have spent in the Serpentine.The peice that i liked the most was the one pictured above. It was interesting in terms of the environment it created. clinical yet comforting, that someone (margret thatcher) was showing you the way. Giving a helping hand.The rest of the exhibition was extremely print based and a lot of 2D work was throught the space. I spent the majority of time looking at the production of these prints and noticing how proffesssional they looked. Most of them were Lambda C-Type prints or Prints of canvas, Hewlet and Parkard.Viewer is cast as the helpless patient. Margret thatcher is doing all the hard work providing the viewer with her own brand of medicine from a video with the sound turned off.

Postcards collected from The Serpentine Gallery:

Selected works:





Top: Robert Gober, Untitled candle, 1991
Middle: Maret Oppenheim, Objekt, 1936
Bottom: Roman Signer, Kissen mit Benzin und Kerze, 1983

Each of these postcard where chosen because they depict some kind of fetishised object or surface. They each hold metaophors and become symbols for other ideas. The cup of tea is a classic adaptation of the idea of a surface becomming a fetish.The top one is slightly too falic for me , but i am still really keen of Gober's work. The smaller sculptures are something i like continue to try and understand as i think they work od loads of different layers.

Dermot O'Brien

Luminescence III
1995
Silvered Light bulb and box
Edition of 100

Ref: Multiplication by the British Arts Council

Application of a new surface to an object which is familair and has not changed in design for many years.Trapping the function of the light within itself.

John Frankland

Untitled (rebagged sand)
2000
Plastic sack and sand
77x52x17 cm
Unlimited edition

Ref: Multiplication by the British Arts Council

Idea of applying new surface to an existing object, looking at art being a multiple.

PUNCTUATION PROGRAMME - Limoncello Gallery

EXHIBITION VISITED



In between exhibitons, Limoncello Gallery performs as a project space in which artists and members of the public can contribute. Sunday 14th saw the space being turned into a space from which a local radio show was broadcast live. The press release can be seen above.

CRASH - Gagosian Gallery

EXHIBITION VISITED

Selected works:


CHRISTOPHER WILLIAMS
Clockwise from Manufacturer Name... Douglas M. Parker Studio, Glendale, California, January 03, 2008 - January 04, 2008, 2008
Gelatin silver print
Photograph: 24 x 20 inches (60.8 x 50.8 cm)
Ed. of 10


PAUL McCARTHY
Mechanical Pig, 2003-2005
Silicone, platinum, fiberglass, metal and electrical components
40 x 58 x 62 inches (101.6 x 147.3 x 157.5 cm)


CHRISTOPHER WILLIAMS
Untitled (Study in Red), Dirk Schaper Studio, Berlin, April 30th, 2009, 2009
Archival pigment print
Photograph: 14 x 11 inches (35.5 x 27.9 cm)
Ed. of 10

Throughout this exhibtion i was keen to investigate the production processes that some artists go throught to produce prints. The depiction of the foot pulling upma sock caught my eye with its arresting composition, The viewers eyes have the prrvilage to see 'down below' as it were. The confident use of simple imagery.

http://www.wegmanworld.com/contacts.html

Michael Landy Art Bin submission

Photograph documenting the chosen work to be disposed of and the receipt


Receipt of work submitted to Art Bin 2010








During the time of Michael Landy's ArtBin i was privilaged enough to contribute a work to this project.