30th November 2015
This year of my graphic design studies is all about coming up with personal philosophy relating to projects realisation and general visual outcome in designing. Today as an example, I had a chance to hear a personal story from Lisa Temple-Cox, post-graduate student of Colchester Institute, fine artist practitioner, currently based in Essex.
She talked about her life journey in finding self-identity through deep research development. Firstly we hear about her Malaysian-British family background and childhood in Malaysia, where the line between reality and normality was rather blurred, as she emphasises (such a as a relative eaten by a snake seemed to be normal incident).
With her arrival to Great Britain she has discovered a new reality and she has found herself really interested in medical collections, such as Damien Hirst's instalments. Lisa likes the weirdness of it, suggesting something more than normal, different human recognition. All of it leads her to very deep and complex research and travelling to many museums located in few very different directions. Most of her research was done by drawing, which resulted in greater relation with the objects. She has started to see a real connection between art and biology, which both were in her sphere of passions. So she decided to become an artist and link those two within art. As she explained during the lecture, there was something very striking about teratological specimen, what she called her ''horrifying fascination'. Teratology is the study of abnormalities of physiological development or "study of marvels and monsters" 1670s (Harper, 2010). The subject unlocks human curiosity, but at the same time it's very disturbing, I would add incredibly disturbing. It's a bit like with Marcel Duchamp's door with a hole where viewer discovers a terrifying scene (this image has appeared in the previous lecture).
Lisa finds the topic being a good direction for development of her own practice. She studies forms of art related to it, from Leonardo Da Vinci's first proper anatomical atlas (made from live drawings), to preservation techniques and heads in jars (powerful effect; it looks so realistic... although it isn't). She was presenting some preservation displays she's seen. She stated that ''baby specimen jars are compelling'', because of its elements of normality (realistic little hands). Well... that's where I got a bit confused and disguised. I wasn't sure if that was real embryo specimen or not... but either way it had to be made out of the real thing in my opinion. I understand that for science to be able to collect enough knowledge and understanding of human body, through years, it was necessary for health and medical reasons. Heads in jars may be used for medical schools and their education programmes (such as disease showing ones)...That's possibly acceptable as its not real thing. It was clever while there was no substitute. I think now, new technologies allow science to do the same graphically even better. There is no need for it.
However I totally disagree with these being an art. I would happily support the social opposition for it being displayed in the museums, as she mentioned, it's happened in some cases. It's too controversial and too disrespectful to this individualities of people that Lisa Temple-Fox finds amazing. Photographs and videos of baby in the womb of a mother is perfectly classified as an art, a document of new life and very personal memory for parents; inspiration for artists. But three-dimensionality and jar placement of parts or the whole of human bodies should be highly respected and definitely not displayed in the gallery setting or on the streets as posters as I don't think it's a view suitable for young children. Some of the images I've seen today were highly disturbing for me. There was a pinch of curiosity as well, but mostly I just didn't want to look at it at all. It's just to forbidden probably for religious reasons... possibly me being quite sensitive to such views or maybe simply because I just see no reason for displaying it. I reveals negative feelings.
Very similar feeling I had while visiting some exhibitions in London last year. I remember one part showing mad cows disease, including specimens of cow's head and brain. I didn't enjoyed it at all. It was disturbing and uncomfortable. I also never used to take many pictures if any at all of real human parts I've seen in the museums, such as skulls in Auschwitz, kings tombs in Wawel Cathedral in Krakow (Poland) or human bones from sarcophaguses of pharaohs in the British Museum, while visiting.
Before photography has appeared, head casts and death masks were made for recognition and identification. Lisa has shown us one of the French classics, a beautiful, iconic in a way, an effigy of young suicide girl. In process of research and finding her own identity, she has also done a cast of her own face (French: moulage). And I think that was a breaking point in the whole lecture as even the title she composed related to it ('Making myself a monster' - self-portraiture teratological specimen.). Alien form was mentioned too... As she explains, that particular form of her face, additionally placed in an extraordinary circumstances, fully blurred boundaries, made free of any cultural identity. It was also about how other see us differently than we do (as mirror image isn't an exact likeness of ourselves). She photographed the outcome (white against coloured background). For the reason of making it she has shaved her hair completely (for second, proper, professional attempt)! She has also made copies and exhibited them (four jars: three of them containing a different liquid, such as milk, oil and urine; one with just water). As another result of her observation, she claimed that there is a difference in appearance of eyelids on deaf mask and mask made out of alive person (here: more tension).
Lisa Temple-Fox currently works at the museum in Ipswich and shares her experience with others by extra teaching sessions at university. She's done numerous research projects by finding connections of the objects she's seen; she's done book covers and curated exhibitions. She's found her identity, emphasizing that it's important to be comfortable with who you are.
The most important thing for me out of this lecture was seeing even more value in drawing as research (even if it isn't that good). Our active looking while recording with a pencil is more than good drawing skills. It means definite seeing, not just passive looking or using camera, it's registering all details of the object with own eyes. Visual research through drawing becomes a kind of sensation of it and it creates personal meanings. I agree, it's often possibly a good start for a brief; it may raise questions. I'm going to try using it more as a tool towards my project's solutions as I haven't done it quite enough so far.
Temple-Cox, L. (2015). Making myself a monster' - self-portraiture teratological specimen.
Teratology. Dictionary.com. Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/teratology Accessed: December 04, 2015).
Commons.wikimedia.org, (2008). File: Albinus skeleton w less muscles.jpg - Wikimedia Commons. [online] Available at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Albinus_skeleton_w_less_muscles.jpg [Accessed 4 Dec. 2015].
Art, P. (2015). Philadelphia Museum of Art - Collections Object : Étant donnés: 1° la chute d'eau, 2° le gaz d'éclairage . . . (Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas . . . ). [online] Philamuseum.org. Available at: http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/65633.html# [Accessed 4 Dec. 2015].
She talked about her life journey in finding self-identity through deep research development. Firstly we hear about her Malaysian-British family background and childhood in Malaysia, where the line between reality and normality was rather blurred, as she emphasises (such a as a relative eaten by a snake seemed to be normal incident).
With her arrival to Great Britain she has discovered a new reality and she has found herself really interested in medical collections, such as Damien Hirst's instalments. Lisa likes the weirdness of it, suggesting something more than normal, different human recognition. All of it leads her to very deep and complex research and travelling to many museums located in few very different directions. Most of her research was done by drawing, which resulted in greater relation with the objects. She has started to see a real connection between art and biology, which both were in her sphere of passions. So she decided to become an artist and link those two within art. As she explained during the lecture, there was something very striking about teratological specimen, what she called her ''horrifying fascination'. Teratology is the study of abnormalities of physiological development or "study of marvels and monsters" 1670s (Harper, 2010). The subject unlocks human curiosity, but at the same time it's very disturbing, I would add incredibly disturbing. It's a bit like with Marcel Duchamp's door with a hole where viewer discovers a terrifying scene (this image has appeared in the previous lecture).
 |
| Étant donnés Marcel Duchamp |
Lisa finds the topic being a good direction for development of her own practice. She studies forms of art related to it, from Leonardo Da Vinci's first proper anatomical atlas (made from live drawings), to preservation techniques and heads in jars (powerful effect; it looks so realistic... although it isn't). She was presenting some preservation displays she's seen. She stated that ''baby specimen jars are compelling'', because of its elements of normality (realistic little hands). Well... that's where I got a bit confused and disguised. I wasn't sure if that was real embryo specimen or not... but either way it had to be made out of the real thing in my opinion. I understand that for science to be able to collect enough knowledge and understanding of human body, through years, it was necessary for health and medical reasons. Heads in jars may be used for medical schools and their education programmes (such as disease showing ones)...That's possibly acceptable as its not real thing. It was clever while there was no substitute. I think now, new technologies allow science to do the same graphically even better. There is no need for it.
However I totally disagree with these being an art. I would happily support the social opposition for it being displayed in the museums, as she mentioned, it's happened in some cases. It's too controversial and too disrespectful to this individualities of people that Lisa Temple-Fox finds amazing. Photographs and videos of baby in the womb of a mother is perfectly classified as an art, a document of new life and very personal memory for parents; inspiration for artists. But three-dimensionality and jar placement of parts or the whole of human bodies should be highly respected and definitely not displayed in the gallery setting or on the streets as posters as I don't think it's a view suitable for young children. Some of the images I've seen today were highly disturbing for me. There was a pinch of curiosity as well, but mostly I just didn't want to look at it at all. It's just to forbidden probably for religious reasons... possibly me being quite sensitive to such views or maybe simply because I just see no reason for displaying it. I reveals negative feelings.
Very similar feeling I had while visiting some exhibitions in London last year. I remember one part showing mad cows disease, including specimens of cow's head and brain. I didn't enjoyed it at all. It was disturbing and uncomfortable. I also never used to take many pictures if any at all of real human parts I've seen in the museums, such as skulls in Auschwitz, kings tombs in Wawel Cathedral in Krakow (Poland) or human bones from sarcophaguses of pharaohs in the British Museum, while visiting.
 |
| Albinus anatomy painting Skeleton and rhino called Clara |
Before photography has appeared, head casts and death masks were made for recognition and identification. Lisa has shown us one of the French classics, a beautiful, iconic in a way, an effigy of young suicide girl. In process of research and finding her own identity, she has also done a cast of her own face (French: moulage). And I think that was a breaking point in the whole lecture as even the title she composed related to it ('Making myself a monster' - self-portraiture teratological specimen.). Alien form was mentioned too... As she explains, that particular form of her face, additionally placed in an extraordinary circumstances, fully blurred boundaries, made free of any cultural identity. It was also about how other see us differently than we do (as mirror image isn't an exact likeness of ourselves). She photographed the outcome (white against coloured background). For the reason of making it she has shaved her hair completely (for second, proper, professional attempt)! She has also made copies and exhibited them (four jars: three of them containing a different liquid, such as milk, oil and urine; one with just water). As another result of her observation, she claimed that there is a difference in appearance of eyelids on deaf mask and mask made out of alive person (here: more tension).
Lisa Temple-Fox currently works at the museum in Ipswich and shares her experience with others by extra teaching sessions at university. She's done numerous research projects by finding connections of the objects she's seen; she's done book covers and curated exhibitions. She's found her identity, emphasizing that it's important to be comfortable with who you are.
The most important thing for me out of this lecture was seeing even more value in drawing as research (even if it isn't that good). Our active looking while recording with a pencil is more than good drawing skills. It means definite seeing, not just passive looking or using camera, it's registering all details of the object with own eyes. Visual research through drawing becomes a kind of sensation of it and it creates personal meanings. I agree, it's often possibly a good start for a brief; it may raise questions. I'm going to try using it more as a tool towards my project's solutions as I haven't done it quite enough so far.
Temple-Cox, L. (2015). Making myself a monster' - self-portraiture teratological specimen.
Teratology. Dictionary.com. Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/teratology Accessed: December 04, 2015).
Commons.wikimedia.org, (2008). File: Albinus skeleton w less muscles.jpg - Wikimedia Commons. [online] Available at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Albinus_skeleton_w_less_muscles.jpg [Accessed 4 Dec. 2015].
Art, P. (2015). Philadelphia Museum of Art - Collections Object : Étant donnés: 1° la chute d'eau, 2° le gaz d'éclairage . . . (Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas . . . ). [online] Philamuseum.org. Available at: http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/65633.html# [Accessed 4 Dec. 2015].
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