Self-portrait

Mumok - Flaka Haliti

MUMOK
Flaka Haliti - I see a face. Do you see a face.

Ausstellungsansicht / Exhibition view Flaka Haliti. I See a Face. Do You See a Face., 6.6. – 5.10.2014, mumok, Wien / Vienna Photo: mumok/Hannes Böck © mumok/Flaka Haliti

Most of Haliti exhibition was of a series of cloud motifs which had computer drawn faces on them from her imagination of what shapes the clouds made. I love the experimentation of the cloud faces and I also l wonder if another person were given the same cloud, would they see the face in the same place? 

What attracts me to the cloud faces is the fun, playful aspect of them, how they should just be taken at face value and enjoyed for the child like  creativity in them.

The other section of her exhibition was work that looked at interpersonal relationships shown through a video installation about long-distance relationships in the internet.

The video installation, I Miss You , I Miss You , Till I Do not Miss You Anymore (2014) has three channels, love letters are presented on these three large screens. Each screen has a different colour from looking into her work further I believe the colours to represent stages of a relationship; yellow is the beginning, red is for more sexual conversations and blue represents fading love. The love letters are presented by them appearing as though they were being typed by someone right in front of you, there are even pauses as though the writer is thinking. The way this work has been presented is beautiful in its realism and as the words are being typed in front of you I feel people will relate better to it and emphasis.

Ausstellungsansicht / Exhibition view Flaka Haliti. I See a Face. Do You See a Face., 6.6. – 5.10.2014, mumok, Wien / Vienna Photo: mumok/Laurent Ziegler © mumok/Flaka Haliti

Mumok Gallery - Josef Dabernig

Mumok Gallery
Josef Dabernig - Rock the void

We walked in from a busy hot outside space in Vienna into Josef Dabernig exhibition in the MUMOK which was white, minimalist, and being quite honest looked practically empty. Unlike most galleries there was no pictures, paintings or photographs on the walls, just white walls and giant white cubes. It didn't look particularly thrilling.

Josef Dabernig exhibition was made up of 24 short films, sculptures, displays of the processes he went through and workings outs, though mostly it was short films. It was described as a mix of museum and cinema. It was all presented through grids each cinema room was even to the one opposite and each display case was evenly spaced to the next and inside the display cases the work was laid out parallel to the next piece. Daberig processes seemed regimented and consistent, this helped with the minimalist feel of the exhibition.

I viewed at least parts of every one of his film, as expected some interested me more than others. The films were in black and white, there was no colour in his films just like the gallery space. I found his films to be set in empty places and by that I mean everyday, uninteresting places that you wouldn't look twice at, let alone decide to film in. But I guess that is part of the magic of his film making it was everyday life, over heard conversations, football, car journeys, river bathing etc. The way he filmed and his perspective is what made them interesting, focusing in on body parts and movements in the river bathing scene rather that the swimming and sun bathing itself. Changing the noises around in the football stadium scene, the way he thought and represented those thoughts is what made the films different and interesting.

I can't pretend that I found them all interesting. At the start it took me a while to get into the films I didn't really understand them, when I read into what they were about that really helped. Some of them just couldn't grab me at all, there was one about a racing car with two men that I just didn't like, it was strange and it had no appeal to me.

Pin through Liverpool

Liverpool   

Instead of putting a pin through a copy of a local magazine I decided that I would put a pin through a map, so on a day trip up to Liverpool, a place I only vaguely know that is what I did.

I pined five places and then set out to go and locate them all to see what I would find in each place. I hoped I would find something that would interest me. The first point I went to find was the one that landed inside the train station. I found a deserted train platform, It had some lovely shadows of the glass roof above. I felt like I hadn't experienced the place enough so I thought how I could do so, I came to the conclusion after some thought that I would do a "minute continuous line drawing of the place. I used colours in my line drawing to brighten the train platform up a bit as it looked a little dull with all the greys.

        

I headed off to find the second point and I was delighted with what I found. In a space between two buildings on a busy Liverpool street there were two lonesome chairs stood facing each other cemented in concrete with three evenly spaced rings circling each chair, that had been drawn into concrete. With the words 'DO YOU THINK MORE INTELLIGENT THAN THE AVERAGE PERSON?' I thought about the question as I sat in the unsurprisingly uncomfortable chair, it was such a strange place in the middle of the city.

Point number three at first glance wasn't going to be very exciting, but then a saw the steps and ramp up to the bridge that took you over a car park and the more I stared at it the more complex and complicated it looked to me. The blue railings really started to stand out. So for the third time I started to do the continuous line drawing. It was quite complicated as all the paths interlocked and I kept forgetting parts of the railings. By drawing I really started to appreciate the design of the ramp and the stairs together.

Point four, just outside the shopping center was one of the iconic Liverpudlian Super Lamb Bananas which are placed all over the city coming in many different colours, sizes and patterns. It was great luck that I got to have one one of the points on the map. With the Super Lamb Banana being yellow and the colour of the type on the building being a golden yellow really tied in with each other.

Point five was a way out from the others and I ended up near the docks, I took a wander around and looked across the water and at the boats, trying to take in the heritage and history of Liverpool. 

#typecally

#typecally

One of my daily sources for inspiration is my instagram, I just love that it is just photographs. A picture explains it all that would need to be said. I follow many design and typography accounts but one of my absolute favourites is typecally, and I do look at it almost everyday.

Typecally promotes and presents typographers work to the public. It is such a great thing to do! This account has such a variation of different types of typography that it has inspiration of all sorts. There is more serious styles aswell as more fun playful type.

Andy Warhol Exhibition - Prague

Andy Warhol Exhibition in Prague

I really enjoy Andy Warhols work and have previously studied him at GCSE level but never had an opportunity to see his work first hand, so when I saw he had an exhibition on when I was going to be in Prague I just couldn't miss that opportunity.

One of the first piece of his work was his Maralin Monroe pop art works. Until I saw them in person I never realized how many there were, with such variation of colours. They were so fun and bold and although they were the same image there we some I didn't like as much as others and some I really loved.

 
Warhols soups are something I hadn't paid a terrible amount of attention to before so when I did I found it really amusing how there was lots of different types of soup not just tomato soup, mushroom, green pea, vegetable etc. I also really liked how the soups had been set out in the gallery space all evenly spaced on the wall with a contrasting background colour so that it didn't distract from the framed soups. Then the over sized soup can in front of the display.

There were other pop art designs that I had never seen before one of which I particularly liked was the flowers in the grass. I liked how the dark black back grounded enhanced the almost neon colours of the flowers and grass. This piece of work also came in different colours but my favourite was this one, i think that is because of the more realistic colours.

 The Film Festival Ticket was another piece of Warhols work that I particularly enjoyed seeing as with this one I liked how the screen printing of the colours hasn't been produced as precisely as others. Therefore it has over lapped lines and not got perfectly parallel line, but the imperfection is what has drawn me to this image as well as how the 4 colours bring so much variation even though there is only 4 colours.

 All around the gallery there were quotes put on the wall that Andy Warhol has said. I thought that this was such a lovely personal touch and I personally felt that whilst looking at his work and reading quotes he said made me feel like I got to know Warhol a little more personally. The quotes were put in his most used colours from his work.

Ad Campagin - Your trash says a lot about you

Your trash says a lot about you

I came across this advertisement campaign Your trash says a lot about you whilst scrolling through some design sites and it caught my eye. The first photograph I saw was the Lazy crisp packet one, it made me  laugh and I thought ooo that's clever I wonder what this is about. 

So I read through the other litter words and they were all slightly insulting, then I saw that slogan 'Littering says a lot about you' and it clicked and made sense. It is such a well put together campaign, very simple but effective, the message they communicate is very easy to understand. The descriptions of people that litter are not to insulting but enough so to make you think about how you are if you do litter.

I find the campaign very effective as it doesn't over do it, it is not dramatic. It mearly says it how it is... You are lazy if you litter. You are dumb if you litter. etc If you don't want to be described like that don't litter. Simple.