Unfortunately, I had covid, so I missed two first classes. But I decided to do some research when I felt better at my home! being absent from classes made me very sad and mad because I wanted to start this semester with full power, but it was not possible.
I chose works that caught my attention and decided to do further research about them.
Andreas Gursky – Paris, Montparnasse, 1993
“The multi-storey, unusually wide building was just too big to photograph all at once. Therefore Gursky made two photographs, which he joined together digitally so that the assembled image resembles a single photograph again. As in a picture puzzle, two levels of image recognition emerge: from a certain distance the façade appears to be a flat, ornamental and lifeless structure; but under closer inspection we recognize people, furnishings, human activity, and the rigidly-structured façade becomes alive.” http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/montparnasse/
It reminds me a lot of slavic neighbourhood that I lived in. Lots of colours at the balconies, grey old buliding and the feeling of the squeeze in tiny places. Does not sound great, but for me it feels like home and I have wonderful memories of my childhood and later years when I lived in Łomża. Places like this are comfort to me, maybe because before moving to Aberystwyth I have never moved. I lived in the same flat for 19 years, so I know every possible part of my neighbourhood and I know all the people who live in my and others blocks of flats. I have always had an opinion that it is much better to live in the block of flats that in the house, because for a kid or even an adult it is a lot easier to make friends due to large number of people living in the same place. I remember when my parents thought about moving to a house, I was panicking and I cried, because even if we would moved couple kilometers from my, then current place, I could not spent that much time with my friends who lived in the same block of flats. It was super stressful and sad thought, that I could lost contact with them and that I would not live in my the most lovely flat. Maybe I was just scare of changes, but I am grateful that my parents never decided to move. Even noow wten I come back to my hometown I feel so safe and comortable there.
When I was researching Andreas Gursky I found this photographer on Flickr. I do not have any information about them, but their photos are so inspiring and have similar vibe to the Andreas Gursky’s ones. I think it is worthy to put them here.
Simon Starling – ShedboatShed (Mobile Architecture No.2) 2005
“Realised specifically for the exhibition Cuttings, Shedboatshed (Mobile Architecture No.2) is a reinterpretation of the idea of mobile architecture. The project involves the movement of a found structure, an old wooden shed, from one riverside location to another. This journey of 8 km downstream from Schweizerhalle to the centre of Basel was undertaken through the temporary mutation of the shed into a boat. This boat, a copy of a tradition Weidling, was made only with wood from the shed and was subsequently used as a transport system for the remaining parts of the structure. The shed already included an oar of the type used on Weidlings nailed to its facade as decoration. In its new location, the Museum für Gegenwartskunst, the boat was then dismantled and once again re-
configured into its original form, but for a few scars left over from its life as a boat, it stands just as it once did several kilometres up-stream.” https://www.themoderninstitute.com/artists/simon-starling/works/shedboatshed-mobile-architecture-no-2-2005/88/
I also did some experimentation and I draw cats from various unidentified shapes.
I do not really have a lot to say about these pictures, I just did them. ( the cat doing a handstand is my favourite)
oh and there is also a gif I made:
