Steve Lovett

My Favorite pieces by Steve are Trespass # 17 and Up - n - dwn. The first piece talks about how beaches are being sold into private ownership and were no longer accessible for the public. This piece is not only awesome to look at, but it sums up Steve very well I think. It is a 6 colour print on paper and is very very detailed. Screen printing allows you to do this well and I think it gives a good insight to how Steve thinks and operates.

It is clear that Steve basis his work on social and personal issues. His work Holding the Man (1996) talks about the HIV crisis, which effected Steve severely, it was easy to see that this still haunts him. He talked about how this piece got taken down from a clinic, this must have been interesting. When you make work that relates to your own personal issues so strongly it must put a real damper on your own attachment to the piece. In saying that it must also really increase the passion that goes into the work. I think it would be really hard to lay yourself out like that in a piece of art.

Steve is a very multi-layered artist. Not only in his screen prints, but also in his media. His work Speaking Parts (1998-2000) uses screen printed images and sound. This layering of media is quite interesting I think, and must have had a very weird affect on the viewer. I think Steve is also quite layered in the way he thinks and deals with his inspiration (social, personal and political issues), It's plain to see that his pieces are rich and deep with thought. I immediately made comparisons and similarities with Frances Hansen's work. Frances also works with layering quite heavily.

In terms of how he has evolved as an artist, I think it is clear to see that his earlier practice dealt with a lot of personal issues. In his later pieces, I see more social and political issues being addressed and also it seems that his latest (2010) pieces take a decent step back from being so deep in meaning. I think it must be quite fresh to make a work that is more aesthetically pleasing after being so conceptual.

I really like Steve as a lecturer and person. He is really quite clever and it definitely shows in his work. I find it quite interesting how he gets involved in his work on such a personal level, this must cause some kind of internal conflict, and would have curious effects on how you feel about your finished pieces.

Frances Hansen

I'm not completely sure whether I liked Frances Hansen's work or not, but I did think her process was very methodical and interesting. As a young person at Art school I find myself consistently trying to leap ahead to the end product. Lecturers keep trying to beat this habit out of me, and it was cool to see how someone as experienced as Hansen works. Her process is quite epic I think, and I was a little surprised to find out that she was a mother as well as an artist. I'm thinking it must take a lot of effort to finish a piece whilst cramming all the "collecting, constructing, thinking and changing" in, as well as running a house and looking after kids.

It is not a surprise however, that her practice is heavily based around domesticity. This is definitely a key factor in Hansen's practice. You are a product of your environment and the domestic environment I think has a heavy influence on Hansen. Running a house must be a repetitive and monotonous job, and Hansen said her mind often wonders whilst doing household chores. Maybe this is more of a creative environment then it first appears?

One artist that Hansen said really influenced her was Dan Arps. This I found quite fitting, as I think her art looks a lot like his art, but on a 2D scale (for lack of a better term). Hansen thought Arps's work "is how a disgruntled office worker would make art". I thought this was really funny, and it made think that maybe Hansen's work is how a disgruntled housewife would make art? I really couldn't find many images of Arps's work, which is a shame as I think it would have been easy to make some comparisons of her work to his.

One Artist I did look into who can make strong comparisons with Hansen is Julian Schnabel. His work Bob's World is done on wood and canvas in '06 and is made out of oil, wax, bondo, ceramic plates and horns. This fits well with Hansen's work, as she also layers the hell out of her pieces, and uses all sorts of found materials. I think layering is definitely a key step in the making of Hansen's work. When you work with so many different materials it must become very tricky in what can go on top of what.

As for A Garden of Peculiarities, I thought that "Plant = Art" was a funny statement. Of coarse plants equal art, plants are a representation of nature and I think nature has always had heavy hand in art making. Mainly because nature is so aesthetically pleasing (jelly fish, snow flakes, crystal formations, bacterial growth), and isn't that the driving force behind art? To be aesthetically pleasing? Maybe not a driving force, but definitely a classic reason. If my above statement is correct, does that mean that places with more nature produce better art? Say, New Zealand vs. Los Angeles? I've been to L.A. and it's weird that when you hope off the plane the sky is not blue it is usually grey. What do you think?

Eldon Booth

Eldon's lecture was kind of funny. I know nothing of film, even though, I thought his ideas and the films he made were very alternative. Not that this is a bad thing. I suppose this is only because I am readily subject to feature length, mainstream films.

In filming Five Good Reasons, 06 Booth witnessed a burning car, which he filmed. He said he was more interested in filming the people that were running to watch the burning wreck then filming the wreck itself. He also said rubbernecking was deeply grained in human nature, this reminded me of the film we watched in our Gaze lecture Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock. We talked about how the girl was being watched, and then she views the painting that watches us. The whole thing gets turned around on itself, and it becomes clear that voyeurism is a main theme. This can also be related to Booth's first film Withdrawal. In the short piece we watched, the camera did a lot of following as apposed to normal film shots. Booth said this was because he didn't want the viewers to gain insight into the characters, this definitely happened in Hitchcock's Vertigo.

Booth talked about how he did Withdrawal with a hadycam because he wanted it to have a reality effect. This was due to the epic amount of amateur film footage shows on TV. There are two films that I have seen that use the same technique. Cloverfield was made in 2008 and was directed by Matt Reeves. The whole film is shot on handycam and someone even told me it was as long as a handycam can film for. The second movie is Open Water, filmed in 2003 and was directed by Chris Kentis. Open Water is about divers that go missing, and the footage becomes them bobbing around in the water for a day or two. Eventually they get eaten by sharks I think. The two movies both have suspense filled moments, and try to capture a lot of emotion from the characters. As apposed to Booth's movie, I would say these two are more Action type films, where as his Withdrawal, I think was more of a drama.

Booth's exploration of reality and illusion is quite apparent in both films. He said he wanted to blur the lines between fact and fiction. I'm not sure if he meant this in terms of, the story line is fiction, but he wants to make it seem like fact? If in that case then most directors blur the lines between fact and fiction. I think both films use an illusion of some sort to gain the characteristics of reality. I think most films do this actually, gaining a sense of reality is a general goal in any film.

Dion Hitchens

I thought Dion was quite cool, although brought up in Mangere, he has family and connections from the Bay of Plenty. I lived in the B.O.P for the last 9 years of my life. I enjoyed feeling a little close to home as he was talking about Te Teko, and the Waimana valley. I rolled my car in Waimana about 6 months ago haha.

Hitchens is really into art that is interactive with the viewer. What I found quite interesting is that the interaction is quite forced and confronting, the viewer really doesn't have a choice about being involved. He does this by using sensors, this renders the viewer completely unaware of what is about to happen. I'm not sure if I like this or not, and I think a set of ethics definitely would have been considered. In saying all this I also think that it gives Hitchens work a real edge. I really can't think of any sculpture that move and interact like his.

The type of interactive sculpture I really like is the type that you are completely attracted to, and are aloud to touch if you want. A good example of this is Big Red by Gaye Jurisich. I saw this piece at the Tauranga art gallery in 2008. What amazed me is that you were aloud and encouraged to walk through it. Big Red is made out of the red tags for tightening rubbish bags. As you walk through the piece you become lost, and your sensors become a bit overwhelmed. Eventually you come to a bit of a whole in the middle, where you can look up into the strands. I thought it was quite awesome.

I don't know too much about sculpture, but I think Dion's work is a good representative of how sometimes it can be a bit over the top. Big Red has the same 'ginormous' properties as some of Dion's work, but I think it is a lot more attractive in terms of interaction. I like Dion's smaller works such as TE WAO NUI A TANE 1999, UNTITLED PRESENCE (Small sculpture series) 2010, IN THE MIDDLES. These are the ones that are made from Willow and use weaving to take their shape.

Hitchens practice is also heavily influenced by culture and history. I liked it when he was talking about the willow tree, and how it was introduced and is now a pest. That says to me he really thinks and researches his artwork before making it. And he's right, I have a willow tree in my back yard in Matata, it's definitely a pest. Being both a Maori and Chinese descendent is something I think would effect Hitchens art practice a lot, although from the slides he showed us it seemed he is more focused on making Maori themed works then Chinese. This I am not surprised about, as the Bay of Plenty, Auckland, and all over New Zealand has a pretty rich Maori culture. Hitchens clearly draws on this as inspiration and motivation to produce his sculptures.

http://www.artgallery.org.nz/index.php/ps_pagename/newsarchive/news/99