WEDNESDAY 6th OCTOBER 2010
SAATCHI GALLERY
KINGS ROAD -CHELSEA
The exhibition we saw at the Saatchi was NEWSPEAK:BRITISH ART NOW, with artist including Scott King, Ged Quinn and John Whynne. The stand out piece for me were firstly PINK CHER, by Scott King. A large print on canvas of the iconic Che Guevara picture which had been changed to show the 90's pop star Cher. The piece stood out to me due to the acid pink and contrasting black which grabbed your attention straight away, making the piece look urban and current, but at the same time undermining and mocking the classic Guevara print.
The second piece that stood out for me was by John Whynne, UNTITLED a large installation, consisting of 300 speakers and a piano playing out Franz Léhar’s 1909 operetta Gypsy Love. The piece for me left feelings of unsettlement and eeriness, as the sounds played out thought the space, and as the piano played itself, it conjurged up feelings of nostalgia and loss, as if someone was playing the piano but now isn't, perhaps signifying the death of someone.
THURSDAY 7th OCTOBER 2010
TATE BRITAIN
MILBANK - WESTMINSTER
The main exhibition we saw at the Tate Britain was the TURNER PRIZE, the four contenders for the prize this year were, Dexter Dalwood, The Otolith Group, Angela De La Cruz and Susan Philipsz. The artists work who's stood out the most for me was Dexter Dalwood, who exhibited paintings of events that shaped western culture, with suggestions of imagery from characters from fiction. WHITE FLAG, one of the paintings by Dalwood, shows the ground broken leading towards a white American flag, this could represent the war in Iraq, and how America should pull out, and the broken ground showing how their society is suffering. A second work, GREENHAM COMMON suggests something trapped, trying to break out, and black and orange colours contrast the background of the painting, and could represent anger.
(Damien Hirst and Gordon Burn, On the Way to Work, London 2001)
VOGUE
VOGUE HOUSE -CONDE NAST- HANOVER SQUARE
We then went on to Vogue House, to take a tour around the Vogue Office and to meet the creative director ROBIN DERRICK. We where firstly taken up to the art department on the 5th floor, to see the December issue being put together, ready for print that night, we were also told at the time they were in the first weeks of developing the January issue.
Emma Watson appeared on the front cover of the December issue, with a stunning typeface by Joe Ratcliff adorning the over also as well as inside. World renowned photographer DAVID BAILEY also featured in the issue shooting some of the world most famous models for a spread inside the magazine.
British Vogue is seen to be more commercially minded than that of say French Vogue, who can afford to be more out there. This is due to the amount of advertising the magazine relies on, trading space with the worlds most famous designers who all want that lucrative spot in their magazine. More money is made from advertising than it is from sales of the magazine itself. Also is recent years, celebrities have become the way forward to sell magazines, readers see a certain celebrity wearing the garments there for aspire to own them too. It was different in the 80's were the models sold the magazine or the 60's were it was the photographers that sold copies.
Following this we made our way to the archives in the basement, in previous years past publications were sent down to the archive in print format, in the form of original photos, proofs and the magazines itself, but over recent years, they have started to be transferred in the form of a DVD, and will very soon be sent digitally with no tangible object passing hands.
After we have toured the archives we were able to look through 80 years worth of Vogue, and other magazines such as GQ. There was a clear contrast between Vogue of the 20's with its hand drawn pictures all in black and white to the 2010's crisp, clean cut layout and precise photography. We also discovered that retouching was not a product of recent years, and that even old prints had been retouched by hand, showing us that even then there was no real representation of beauty.
Finally, we got the chance to meet ROBIN DERRICK, creative director who took 10 minutes out of his hectic schedule to take to us about Vogue , his job and giving us great advise on the industry:
"You probably already know the company you will work for", and prompting us to e-mail and send letters out along with a portfolio to get your name recognised. In addition to this probably the most important thing he said was that
"Print in the next 2 years will be dead."
Everything will be produced digitally, and its already happening, this month Robin Derrick had been working on a digital version of Vogue, for the i-Pad that was to go live in the next few months and in addition to that a previous Salford graduate hand been given the chance to create an app for the i-phone that had been so well received in the industry, he had been offered a job at Conde Nast and was working along side some of the worlds top designers.
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Angela De La Cruz's work however didn't have the same effect on me as the previous, her works of painted canvases twisted and contorted left me feeling confused, and as we stood around the exhibition you could see the magical act taking place as the authority of the paintings being shown in the gallery commanded people to see them as something of prestigee.
While we were in the Tate Britain we also saw a small exhibition of some of the work of DAMIEN HIRST. His work is often seen as post modern and quite controversial and the exhibition we saw proved this be very much the case, especially the piece WITH DEAD HEAD, were we see a young Damien Hurst, who had gone into a morgue and taken a photo with head of a dead man. The piece leads to something quite sadistic and and disturbing in the fact he is laughing while carrying out the act. In the exhibition you see that he has some what of a fascination with death from "AWAY FROM FLOCK" a sheep preserved in formaldehyde, representing leaving the safety of the church and a reference to religious decay, to "MONUMENT TO THE LIVING AND THE DEAD" a large painting consisting of two equal sized squared canvases one black, one white on which exotic butterflies are embedded, the black and the white signifying Life and Death.
"I think I’ve got an obsession with death, but I think it’s like a celebration of life rather than something morbid. You can’t have one without the other." (Damien Hirst and Gordon Burn, On the Way to Work, London 2001)
VOGUE
VOGUE HOUSE -CONDE NAST- HANOVER SQUARE
We then went on to Vogue House, to take a tour around the Vogue Office and to meet the creative director ROBIN DERRICK. We where firstly taken up to the art department on the 5th floor, to see the December issue being put together, ready for print that night, we were also told at the time they were in the first weeks of developing the January issue.
Emma Watson appeared on the front cover of the December issue, with a stunning typeface by Joe Ratcliff adorning the over also as well as inside. World renowned photographer DAVID BAILEY also featured in the issue shooting some of the world most famous models for a spread inside the magazine.
British Vogue is seen to be more commercially minded than that of say French Vogue, who can afford to be more out there. This is due to the amount of advertising the magazine relies on, trading space with the worlds most famous designers who all want that lucrative spot in their magazine. More money is made from advertising than it is from sales of the magazine itself. Also is recent years, celebrities have become the way forward to sell magazines, readers see a certain celebrity wearing the garments there for aspire to own them too. It was different in the 80's were the models sold the magazine or the 60's were it was the photographers that sold copies.
Following this we made our way to the archives in the basement, in previous years past publications were sent down to the archive in print format, in the form of original photos, proofs and the magazines itself, but over recent years, they have started to be transferred in the form of a DVD, and will very soon be sent digitally with no tangible object passing hands.
After we have toured the archives we were able to look through 80 years worth of Vogue, and other magazines such as GQ. There was a clear contrast between Vogue of the 20's with its hand drawn pictures all in black and white to the 2010's crisp, clean cut layout and precise photography. We also discovered that retouching was not a product of recent years, and that even old prints had been retouched by hand, showing us that even then there was no real representation of beauty.
Finally, we got the chance to meet ROBIN DERRICK, creative director who took 10 minutes out of his hectic schedule to take to us about Vogue , his job and giving us great advise on the industry:
"You probably already know the company you will work for", and prompting us to e-mail and send letters out along with a portfolio to get your name recognised. In addition to this probably the most important thing he said was that
"Print in the next 2 years will be dead."
Everything will be produced digitally, and its already happening, this month Robin Derrick had been working on a digital version of Vogue, for the i-Pad that was to go live in the next few months and in addition to that a previous Salford graduate hand been given the chance to create an app for the i-phone that had been so well received in the industry, he had been offered a job at Conde Nast and was working along side some of the worlds top designers.
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