Depiction
Artist Statement
My name is Evie Porter and I study art in sixth form at St Benedict’s Catholic School. I enjoy working with different media such as acrylic paint, watercolour, biro and photography. After being introduced to ‘The Golden Record’ and exploring different themes of journey, habitat and senses, I have been able to find an interest in mediums and artists I haven’t yet heard of or were necessarily fond of. I experimented with art and science by working with image, sound, text and moving image. I found that I was most fascinated in images and I developed my interest by taking photographs of my surroundings, especially throughout lockdown to show the small changes in the environment around me. I documented my daily walks and later edited these images by using vibrant colours to give an unusual effect, which could possibly link to extra-terrestrial beings in space if my images were selected for ‘The Golden Record’. A quote that I like is “Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.” by Carl Sagan, it motivates me because I aim to give a message through my artwork and as the intention of the Golden Record was to communicate the story of our world to extra-terrestrial beings, I want to be able to share my own thoughts and messages to other humans/beings but through my own work.
A painting I created to develop my skills in working with Jones’ work.
Image
To experiment using images, I chose the themes of habitat and journey and explored these ideas by taking photographs of my daily walk throughout lockdown. There was very little change to my indoor environment and the one photo of inside shows the repetitiveness of each day of sitting at a desk and attending online classes. This showed the journeys that I wasn’t able to make, such as going to school, and how my own habitat stayed the same. Whilst taking photographs outside, I started to take a similar picture at the end of different roads to show the journeys that are taken each day or the journeys that we aren’t actually able to make during the pandemic. Each road seems empty and the colour of the sky can affect the way we feel about the vacancies of traffic or people. An artist I researched while looking into text was Hamish Fulton, he often photographed empty pathways which relates to my own images of the loneliness during lockdown. Fulton is well-known name as ‘The Walking Artist’ this description applies to a lot of people who started to walk more often throughout this time and embrace the environment around them, which maybe they hadn’t done before.
Primary images:
Whilst working with images, I created mood boards on Pinterest which inspired me to research three different artists; Ben Gest, Jamie Livingston and Daniella Jones.
Ben Gest is known for photographing people dressed in formal outfits who look as if they are about to attend an important event, yet look emotionally removed from their surroundings and have stopped in the middle of what they’re doing. They look as though they are lost in deep thought and have paused for a breath. Gest’s work reflects how he wants us to see the world, one thing at a time and he de-emphasises the steps he takes to achieve these photos. Only the final image counts.
Jamie Livingston created a project called ‘Some photos of that day’ in which he took a picture of his life everyday. I incorporated this idea into my own work by documenting my life during a time that we haven’t experienced before.
Artist inspiration for images – Ben Gest, Hamish Fulton, Daniella Jones and Jamie Livingston.
Daniella Jones is a self-taught artist who doesn’t limit herself to specific styles or mediums and this draws me into her work more as I enjoy experimenting with different working techniques. I chose to research Jones whilst working with images as she often includes habitats and nature in her work. What inspired me most to recreate her paintings were her use of bright and vibrant colours and how each piece of work includes something to do with habitat, whether it is a jungle or a display of flowers.
https://www.daniellajonesart.com – Daniella Jones
https://www.lightwork.org/archive/ben-gest/ – Ben Gest
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/hamish-fulton-1133 – Hamish Fulton
https://photooftheday.hughcrawford.com – Jamie Livingston
Text
As I worked with text, I researched artists who work within the themes of senses and journey such as Raymond Hains, Jacques Villegle, Simon Patterson and Hamish Fulton. To the left is a collage of work from the artists mentioned.
For the theme of senses, I looked at Raymond Hains work. Hains is a French conceptual artist best known for his collages made from weathered French posters. He found meaning from vernacular objects and images and over the course of his career, he moved between installations, collages, sculpture and photography.
An artist I looked at whilst exploring journey was Jacques Villegle. He is similar to Hains and creates collages of torn material and images. Secondly, I researched Simon Patterson whose work mainly revolves around the maps of the London Underground and decided to use one of his pieces in my own work. Lastly, I researched Hamish Fulton, also known as ‘The Walking Artist’ as his work shows different journeys to different places.
During the selection process for my final piece, I gathered inspiration from Pinterest and created mood boards of artists work related to the pandemic. I also created a concertina booklet to experiment with different colours, brush techniques and medias to potentially use in my final piece.
How I combined the themes of journey and senses:
I combined these themes by using Patterson’s work, which is a map, as the background for my final piece. This represents journey as it can show the trips to receive the vaccine or the trips that we are unable to go on throughout the pandemic, this can also relate to senses as the Coronavirus can affect our smell and taste. I chose pictures of Fulton’s work that were empty pathways as it shows the dullness and loneliness during this time and this is emphasised through his use of dark colours. I researched artwork that was made throughout the pandemic and included this, one of which was the painting of Mona Lisa, but with a face covering on. Finally, I chose a page from a biology textbook about vaccines, relating to senses as we feel the prick of the needle and then the journey it makes through our blood. To put these altogether, I created a collage which was inspired by Villegle and Hains style of artwork. I made red dashes on the page using a dry brush as red is the colour of warning and danger which relates to the coronavirus. To fill in blank gaps, I wrote in words associated with the current situation such as ‘stay inside; and ‘fatal’.
Sound
Above is my sound piece which I created to show the different but common sounds throughout lockdown. On ‘The Golden Record’, sounds were used from everyday life such as animals and I did this in my own work by recording my own life, and the few journeys I was making. Duration- 0:22.
I captured sounds from my daily walk which focus on the transition from indoors to outdoors. I used sounds such as tills in a shop, kettle boiling, closing windows, microwave, the sound of a biro on paper and typing on a keyboard. My chosen theme to explore using sound with was journey, especially throughout lockdown as the only journeys we could make were on our daily walk and to the supermarket.
Overview
‘The Golden Record’ has influenced my interests in art hugely and after creating our own, I have developed passions for mediums that I wouldn’t have thought of working with before this project. In the future, I would like to work more with photography and text, eventually creating a piece that combines both of these. My main focus throughout this project was to create a meaning for my work and for anyone who views this to reflect on how much of an impact the pandemic has had and whether we will ever go back to normal.
Golden Lockdown 