Burqah and chips.

Digital peice excecuted on Windows Paint. The peice addresses the controversial nature of the Burkah which is seen as a political support of Sharia law in the west. I juxtoposed that most british of meals next to the full body covering. The title  also links to my current work about meat and power structures, meat being an intresting social signifier. The burqah  plays in the to the idea of a male dominated society dictating what women  do with their bodys, the chips also stand as a metaphor for the current critiscm about the ladette culture.One rarely sees the same disgust voiced about men and similer behaviour. I seek not to offer an opinion with this peice but more to raise discussion past the rhetoric.

from Gills numerous diarys.

“‘Bath and slept with Gladys,’ runs one entry in the diary. Such Gill family intimacies seem routine, a habit. A few weeks later there are more surprising entries; ‘Expt. [experiment] with dog in eve’ (the rest has been obliterated). Then, five days later, ‘Bath. Continued experiment with dog after and discovered that a dog will join with a man’” (Diaries, November 1, 1929, December 8, 1929, Eric Gill, MacCarthy, p.239).

i think this is too long to include in text art, but it serves to illuminate the genesis of the peice.

Next wood text painting. eric gill.

Of course we all know the bizarre life of Gill, the text will read in his own sans. ' Eric Gill distributed the family dog'

Google 'men' project.

screen capture, saved to hard drive, intention is to print out on to a3 laminted board.

Google digital project. Girl. parts 2-10

And my reason for doing this here
http://sundersartwork.blogspot.com/2011/04/first-stage-in-my-google-adjective.html
Please find my conclusion here
http://sundersartwork.blogspot.com/2011/05/google-girl-project-analysis.html#comments

First stage in my google adjective project. 1. Girl.

For this work i typed random adjectives in to google and recorded the results in a screen grab. I took the first ten pages that came up.
Google is intresting as a litmus test for what images people associatewith certain words and phrases. To quote Gibson in his excellent book  'Idoru
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idoru
 it's a 'nodal point'. A nodal point is a noticable fixed point in which popular culture converges and one can analyse trends, shifts in social behaviour.The semiologist  Saussre said
 'Any psychology of sign systems will be part of social psychology - that is to say, will be exclusively social; it will involve the same psychology as is applicable in the case of languages'.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_de_Saussure

I will be making work on my findings, please find my thoughts about this project at this link .  thoughts.
http://sundersartwork.blogspot.com/2011/05/google-girl-project-analysis.html#comments

Taped off the appropriate sections for pencilling the text.

I know some of the literature advises stencils, but i think its usefull to learn the process of sign painting. Its more technical than skill i think.

Stage 2 of text peice.

I initially tried free hand painting of the four segments, but i was expereincing a drip from one colour to the next so i chose to tape it off. Unfortunatly the tape left marks, which can be wiped off. But it means i have to use masking tape next time, it was a trial and error process.

First stage in text peice.- prepping the board.

I chose two primary colours and made a harlequin effect, which seemed appropriate considering the themes.As evidenced by my laptop i blogged live.  Blogging llive is another theme one can link to the overall theme since digitally speaking we are now exposed to more content that challenges our conceptions of  censorship.
http://www.blogtv.com/Shows/2064238/Zm_Eb27uY1Fxb2ZEZuN&pos=ancr
( the link to the video)

Breif precis of Max hardcore.

Im not the only artist to be intrested in Max Hardcore, wether they are riduculing him for his mysoginism or holding him up as a strong defendor of freedom of speech he certainly attracts attention.
Here is a link to his wike history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Hardcore
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4306091836
Also a somewhat dubious facebook account that calls him a 'fine artist'. I suspect the author is none other than the man himself.

Test cases like this art good litmus tests about what people regard as 'real freedom of speech' and obscenity.
http://sundersartwork.blogspot.com/2012/01/maxes-stendhall-syndrome-part2-edit-max.html
The link is to a piece of video art i made about Max Hardcore and nudity in art.

Design for text peice for live blog.

I like the idea of painting the 'soft' in feminine pink, as Max Hardcores fantasys are mysoginistic in the extreme. In this case his movies and the text describing them serve as a metaphor . Its an intresting case in Amerca ( i beleive his films are banned here), if you allow creative freedom and free speech does this  mean you offer the same protections and respect to one who is producing disturbing work?.  We can all turn to history and see how many wars, and deaths are in its simplest examination about freedoms, both basic and sophisticated.

Live blogging. 16/04/2011.

I will be live blogging a text peice.
http://www.blogtv.com/People/sundersart2
Its an examination of the themes of censorship versus creative freedom. In the genre of Adult surrealism ( A/S.) i will be take a critique of the american pornographer Max Hardcore.
The text peice is an overly enthusiastic review of one of his movies and his current incarceration.
' the real reason Max Hardcore is in prison i think, is he got soft. He should have stayed cutting edge. Moved to a country that lets you do good porn!. And not try to go all soft mainstream. I mean, i saw a vid where he actually apologised for pissing on one of his sluts'.

Ive sketched the text in to my moleskin ( see next post) with some breif design amendments. Ill be painting on wood with emulsion pots.

Great art collection blog i use.

http://illustrationart.blogspot.com/2005/12/ivor-hele-great-war-illustrator.html

David Appatoffs wry descriptions of illustrators and painters throughout history is fascinating. I discovered Ivor Hele through his site amongst others.
I use his site to develp my art history knowledge since he often highlights little known contributors to various art movements.

Tristran and Isolde fingerboxes.

I dont know if im techinically able to make these, but in the planning stages at least i feel please with the underlying themes. I intend to also add the union jack  and the american flag in there is possible, Though the initial idea is not political.

Shay mitchell: artist.

http://www.shaze.info/#

Ill be posting mroe on this artist, having just discovered her through an art blog magazine. Her work themes are similer to mine.
She places past events with modern historical context to highlight eternal truths.
Which is similer to my practice, particularly my text work.

Tit meat.

In reading more complex passages in 'The Sexual Politics of Meat' im attempting to translate my findings in to some art. Tit meat might be an altered photo or a painting, im toying with the idea of manufacturing a fake peice of meat enclosed in plastic with the titular label.

Edit: 10/6/13. I think i am going to start a series of pencil crayon drawings on this issue which i will post to the front page and link to this post.

The sexual politics of meat is a feminist critical theory book linking the consumption of meat to social organisation.The idea that the consumption of meat is associated with a dominating patriarchal value system.

 

Norman Mclaren 'neighbours'

Im a huge Mclaren fan, and i loved his  stop motion moralist led animations. Made during the start of the cold war it declares in the warring neighbours, an age old truth.

Karen Horney text peice

'When it comes to Penis envy im quite horney'
 Anothe text peice im keeping just in the design stage, im intrested in the notion of patriachy and Freuds idea of penis envy which though mainly discredited holds as a metaphor . That can be applied to my  investigation in to power structures and the nature of taboo.

http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesofmajorthinkers/p/bio_karenhorney.htm

KarenHorney was a groundbreaking psychoanalyst who challenged Freuds idea of penis envy as sexist.
I need to do more research , at the moment i just like the  Nabokovian play on words.

dont love boys love guns

That slogan is from the first chinese army, its a song they would get women to sing to indoctrinate them. I like it because it reminds me of Orwells 1984 in wich Big Brother tells of 'his' plans to eventually eliminate the orgasm, this was Julias( Winstons lover) only form of exsistance and freedom outside big brothers control. 
I chose the chinese police officer because she looked so stern in her photo, and had little of her real personality showing.  Im intrested in the way slogans and ads are used to control our thoughts and feelings. Ads are increasingly adopting more subtle ways to influence us.

Popcorn logic. project

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Popcorn%20Logic

Popcorn logic is defined as the period in which a series of events in a film though incongrous make sense when one is watching. Its only after, that logic determines a rejection of the plot holes, unrealitys and mistakes that filled the film.
For examples follow the link.

The metaphor of popcorn logic is an excellent way to dissect the way the media oligarchs and the govt propgandize information to us about the wars, the economys and the environment. The rise of  celebrity culture and real life memes like Jade Goody, both baited and celebrated can also serve as a visual metaphor for this kind of manipulation.

I am working on an oil on wood panel depicting this , and will attatch photos later.

Clinton Messalina project.

Rough collage page, to develop the layout for a painting.

Statue of Messalina.

The drawing is available framed. Contact me for details.

I'm interested in the way women are castigated for extra marital affairs or showing sexuality and not men, this double standard led me to research the history of the roman aristocrat Messalina who was notable for her extrovert sexuality. She was heavily criticized after her death and today still is used as a byword for female adultery. While i understand Clinton lost political ground as a result of his multiple affairs he did not suffer the same abuse as Monica Lewinsky and a lot of his behavior was excused as 'good ol' boy' antics. Im think of placing a series of famous men who have had extra marital affairs under the same title of male messalina.
At this stage it is just a photo and general outline, however i may use photoshop to create finished pieces since its in keeping with the manipulation of image that goes on with these events.
--------
17.5.11  +++update.
I'm thinking of making a painting based on Clinton messalina, but having perused  the works of the Pompiers like Bouguereu, i think it it will only work if i can research a painting from that movement which is linked to messalina.

update: 14/6/13
Going through old posts, updating, i will get started on this idea, since it is very interesting, i had forgotten about it tbh.

New google art project.

In this project i intend to to use Google as a litmus test for certain adjectives, and how we as a digital society think of those terms.
The words i intend to use are.
1. Men
2. Women.
3.Girl
4. Boy
5.Latina
6. Arab
and.
7. Arabic woman.
8. Black man
9. Black woman.

Ill be taking screen grabs from the results and printing them out large. Probably a3 so that the individual images are clear. Ill be posting more information as the project takes on form.

John Berger on ways of seeing.

The national gallery sells more reprductions of leonardos cartoon of the virgin and child with st anne and st john the baptist than any other picture in their collection, a few years ago it was known only to scholars. It became famous because an american wanted to buy it for two and a half million pounds.Now it hands in a room by itself, the room is like a chapel, the drawingf is behind bullet proff perspex. It has aquired a new kind of impressiveness. Not because of waht it shows, not because of the meaning of its image. It has becaome impressive , mysterious because of its market value.The bogus religousity which now surrounds original works of art, and which is ultimately deopendant upon  what paintings lost when the camera made them reproducible. Its continuing values of oligarchic , undemocratic culture. If the image is no longer unqie and exclusive, the art obnject, the thing must be made mysteriously so.