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http://www.elleanderson.co.nz/
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“To give the mundane it’s beautiful due” (John Updike) an exhibition by Bob Negryn I was lucky enough to see while I was in Holland.
It is an exhibition that challenges our ideals of beauty and usefulness of objects. many of the items Bob Negryn used in his images are things we have often used once and then often discarded as useless. They had served their purposed, as the liquid they contained inside have been consumed, or the flowers were once fresh and beautiful.
Using these items as vases, at times in combination with fresh flowers, they suddenly are repurposed. They have become useful again for a moment in time.
Bob Negryn. Tulip No 38. Laminated photo 120x80cm, 2012
I walked around this exhibition with my sister, who is not an artist, she mentioned afterwards that she got more out of seeing it again with me. She had not thought of the combination of used plastic bottles and beautiful, fresh flowers. Or questioned what the bottle shad once contained and had been used for.
Bob Negryn states that in his “pictures I give the objects the attention they deserve. I make the objects in my photos larger and more important than they are to emphasize our dependency on them, both practically and aesthetically. Practically in our daily routines and aesthetically by their shape and color are they witnessed our uncontrolled weakness and love for the artificial. The pictures are staged, but not artificial. Obviously, and particularly at a time. What we see, how much attention we pay to what we see? An artwork is a proposal, an unanswered question, also for the creator. There comes a time when utensils lose their ordinariness, have another meaning, becoming something else, bigger, more mysterious, abstract! A play of light and dark, color and texture, scale, volumes and voids. Voids which can be filled with content. How do we seek our happiness in the large amount of insignificant objects around us. Almost drowning in the plastic soup of our existence.
The provocative beauty of tulips and plastic bottles take us out of our daily drudgery, allowing us more appreciate everyday life.”
The images certainly were large, demanding of our attention. And they did question our attention to details, every day details, what we use, and then discard.
What was also in these works was the combination of ephemeral nature with manipulated nature. Real, fresh flowers were placed into vessels that had been created from natural products. But one will wilt and decompose, within a short time, to become part of nature again, while the other will take decades before it to once again becomes part of the natural cycle.
It raises the question: On which do we place more value? Does representing them like this add value?
“Thinking is finding a way to achieve a goal that cannot be attained by an obvious action. We want to accomplish something but do not know how, so before we can act we must think. (pg 31)
There is no “creative thinking,” just as there is no “creative walking.” Creation is a result – a place thinking may lead us. Before we can know how to create, we must know how to think. (pg 31)
Thinking involves observation and deduction.(pg 35) Begin with something familiar, evaluate it, solve any problem, and repeat. (pg 37)
Creating is taking steps, not making leaps; find a problem, solve it and repeat. Find new problems, new solutions and then new problems again: (pg 37)
Ask “why doesn’t it work?” (pg 46)
From the Book:
How to fly a horse; The Secret History of Creation, Invention and Discovery by Kevin Ashton
how to fly a horse – The Secret History of Creation, Invention and Discovery by Kevin Ashton.
This book was recommended by a friend and it certainly has not disappointed.
It is a book filled with interesting historical inventions laced with creative inspiration, such as
“Stories of creation follow a path. Creation is destination, the consequence of acts that appear inconsequential by themselves but that, when accumulated, change the world. Creating is an ordinary act, creation its extraordinary outcome.”
“But creation comes for ordinary acts.”
“Work is the soul of creation. Work is getting up early and going home late, turning down dates and giving up weekends, writing and rewriting and reviewing and revising, rote and routine, staring down the doubt of a blank page, beginning when we do not know where to start, and not stopping when we cannot go on. It is no fun, romantic, or, most of the time even interesting. If we want to create, we must, in the words of Paul Gallico, open our veins and bleed.”
“To create is to work. It is that easy and that hard.”
“And all that is necessary is to begin.”
All of this sounds now like the masters I finished earlier this year – it was like that. My friends fell by the way side, as they simply didn’t understand why I was studying at my age, according to them I was boring not wanting to go out.
Somebody asked me recently what I missed from my masters (she too had done a masters, not in fine arts – so understood the involvement) –
I miss that stick behind the door with due dates and being challenged by others. But mostly I miss the complete indulgence a masters gives you. That complete immersion into your practice, as once you finish, first you breathe a sigh of relief and then you rebuild some of those broken friendships. And then life takes over.
So reading a book like this created a better understanding of why you make so much headway in a masters programme. The trick is now to incorporate this same dedication into my practice.
My current work explorations are a continuation from my seeing me not series.
These plants and how our vision of them is blurred and filled with judgements.
We have certain boundaries under which we see these plants and this influences how we enjoy their presence in our landscape.
untitled – digital print 2015
Working towards 2016 is gathering pace with 2 shows confirmed now:
6-23 February 2016 at Depot Artspace, Devonport Auckland. This is a group show with Justine Giles, Alex Mickell and Riley Claxton.
8 April – 7 May 2016 at Photospace Gallery, Wellington. This will be a solo show very exiting.
And am the curator for a themed portfolio, Called Altered Impressions, at the international print conference in Portland, USA:
30 March – 2 April 2016. Themed portfolio at SGCI Portland International Print conference. It comprises of 14 NZ artist, where each of us creates a print, but we are also producing a collaborative print. To follow the progress of this go here
Life after finishing my masters in fine arts has been anything but settled. I had high hopes to continue my in-depth research, but many aspects of life have taken over and so far the reading has only amounted to reading and very little writing.
I have managed to visit a few exhibitions ,with yet to record my thinking about them, and get involved with a few group shows.
Two group shows that open this week are:
print2print at Studio One in Ponsonby in Auckland (NZ). This is a group show by Auckland branch members of the Central print council. It opens tomorrow and runs through till the 23rd april
It’s A Colourful World I & II by Elle Anderson 2015
These prints are 20x20cm (size was a condition of the show) and had to have a relationship to each other. The way the world looks at plants is often at opposite ends of the spectrum, which is what I am commenting on with these 2 small prints.
My lightbox Ethereal will be part of a group show at Nathan Homestead, called Image Streams. The opening will be on thursday 2 April. The shows runs through till the 10th May 2015.
Ethereal by Elle Anderson 2014
MFA Exhibition: Opens Saturday!
Come and share our joy in completing this journey
As an artist who is very influenced by plants I am also very keen to ensure our environment is kept clean not just for the future but also for the present. This means that not just weeds that threaten our native environment need to be controlled, but also the rubbish that people throw out of their car needs to be picked up. It is always a surprise that this practice happens constantly.
I walk my dog along the same country road each day and ones a week I take a plastic shopping bag with me to pick up all the rubbish. Each week I am surprised that I fill a bag again and each week I add it to my rubbish bin.
While doing some research for my art practice this morning I came across this website:
Fascinating Art Inspired by the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’
Realizing that I should not have thrown this junk away, but keep it, clean it, collate it and create art works with it. What an inspirational & inventive way to up-cycle rubbish.
The usual artist had work in this show, mark Dion, who is a master of collections & display has a work in this show ‘Cabinet of marine Debris’. It is a masterful ordered display of plastic bottles and buoys found. It is a display that should make you question many things in your life.
I am now rethinking how I can store more stuff without becoming an obsessive compulsive.
I received this link this morning and watched the video of the lady (Emma Rogan) who is the driving force behind this in NZ;
it is the 100 day project.
What a great idea and it allows you to be creative without formal constraints. The only constraint is that you do it for 100 days.
It starts on the 7th June – I am thinking about it, as a feeder into my MFA study. Will keep you posted if I do it.
a few birds and plants 
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