4. LOSS - PERSONAL PROJECT


INITIAL IDEAS

For this project, we are able to choose our own topic. My typical artworks are tattoo style & dark imagery, however throughout this course I've explored many different things I haven't tried before or swerve away from. For this project on the other hand, I wanted to stick to something personal to me, & create imagery that uses everything I've learnt on this course to further develop & improve the original style I began with. Rather than pushing so far away from my comfort zone or trying to create imagery that I know will be liked, I want to create something that means something to me without worrying so much about how the final outcome will turn out. Meaning of artwork is something I lack focus on. I put my all into making something look good when it doesn't really have to. 

My original idea for this project was spirituality as growing up my mum would give me books to read on wicca & occultism. Our connection to nature has always interested me, & the connection between natural things around us that we don't really acknowledge or focus on at all. As much as I liked the idea of spirituality being my personal project, I still felt I did not know enough about this to be able to create artworks that link to this. I also felt what I produce could be quite limited imagery wise.

From this, I started focusing on death & the ripple effect it has on people. Death then switched to loss, as I decided I didn't want to purely focus on portraying the emotions other people feel when someone passes. Instead I wanted to focus on absence & items that make us think of the people that are no longer here. Things like glasses, shoes, overgrown gardens, a pocket watch, or some old keys. Objects hold memories of people we care for & these are things that we hold close to us.
This project is personal to me as I recently had my first family loss. I realised you never truly know how someone feels after loosing someone else until it happens to you. Everyone's experience with loss is so different, but everyone feels like somethings gone. The idea of absence as a whole creates so many ideas for me, & I am excited to see what I can produce throughout this topic.

ARTSIT LINKS

The first piece I looked at was 'Pity & Terror - Picassos Path to Guernica' which is a piece about suffering & destruction. He channelled grief & anger into artwork & created an anti-war painting inspired by the obliteration by Nazis in 1937 of a small Spanish village. This enormous piece has abstract heads & limbs of people who look like they’re distressed & animals to emphasise & magnify the pain & suffering these people felt during the war. The layout of overlapping sharp edged shapes & other imagery produce a sense of chaos. It also includes a sun & a broken sword to represent the futility of the noble war when faced with distraction from above. Overall, there is a lot of symbolism in this piece to help push a message forward about the harm caused by the war.

Although this piece is not one of my favourite styles of work, the composition & symbols within the piece are really smart & well put together. A lot of thought went into this artwork & I can appreciate it a lot. 


‘Oak Fractured by Lightening’ is a beautiful but sad symbolic painting created by a Russian artist called Maxim Vorobiev. He created this painting after the loss of his wife & uses the dark clouds & moody atmosphere to represent the anger & upset he felt. The lightening reminds us of how fast death can strike.

Within this piece, the artist expressed his negative emotions through art to create something meaningful rather than wallowing in them & suppressing them. He created something beautiful out of a tragic event.


Untitled by Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1991) is a piece dedicated to the artists boyfriend, Ross Laycock, who passed from aids. For this piece hundreds of wrapped sweets were arranged in a large pile. Visitors were allowed to eat the sweets as they pleased. The sweets were measured out to be the same weight as Ross’ body. The point of this piece was to symbolise the effect HIV had on his body.

This piece was done as an emotional response to his partners death, & aimed to educate others on the horrible effects of HIV. 

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