Ross Ashton

Ross Ashton is a world renowned projection artist. Most of his work focuses on projecting images and light onto buildings to make it look as though it is part of the architecture.

One of his most notable works is the ‘Crown of Light’ for the Durham Lumiere festival in 2011. The festival comprised of many installations and projections which illuminated the historic buildings in Durham City. For this artwork, Ross used images from the Lindisfarne Gospels – one of the most important books of all time and from the North East of England. These images were accompanied by Gregorian chant.

Norman Foster

Norman Foster, from Foster + partners, is a British architect who has designed some of the most famous modern buildings around the world.

He was born in Manchester in a working class family; Norman was fascinated by engineering and the process of design from an early age. After working in Manchester City Treasurer's office, he applied for an internship in a local architect’s office.  In 1956, Norman had completed a portfolio and sent it in to the University Of Manchester School Of Architecture, where they accepted him; he graduated in 1961. Norman then won the Henry Fellowship to the Yale school of Architecture in America; it was in this university that Norman met his future business partner Richard Rogers.  In 1963 he set up an architectural practice in London. Since 1963, the firm has gained a valuable reputation, expanded to have 1200 employees and has been given various awards from across the world. Foster + partners has designed and built dozens of famous buildings.

His works include:

The Sage, Gateshead

London City Hall

Millennium Bridge

Wembley stadium

Reichstag, German parliament

HSBC headquarters UK

Currently building tower 2 at the world trade centre

Etc.

My Brief

My initial brief for my project is to create branding with a piece of graphic art that promotes Newcastle Quayside, using architecture as the focus point. Maybe creating a company or organisation that specialises in advertising places to attract tourists to the area.

Antony Gormley

ar·chi·tec·ture

   [ahr-ki-tek-cher]

noun 

 1. the profession of designing buildings, open areas, communities, and other artificial constructions and environments, usually with some regard to aesthetic effect.

Architecture doesn't just have to be buildings, as stated above it can be to design artificial constructions. One artist that i looked at is Antony Gormley who designed the angel of the north. When i looked at his other work, i found that most of it is figures made up of wood or metal, he makes these statues look like pieces of abstract art. Every piece of the figure is carefully placed so that it is supported and still stands but looks like he wanted it to look.

My quick responses to Antony Gormley:

 

Timeline

For my essay on this project, I will produce a timeline for architecture. Examples of architectural milestones is the era of the church; this has medieval and Gothic styles, the industrial revolution which saw such artistic movements as futurism, vorticism and cubism which influenced architects a lot, and also modern times; of which we see the likes of the sage (Gateshead), the shard, 30 St Mary Axe (formally known as the Gherkin), etc. which is heavily influenced on earlier futurism, I also think that some buildings are influenced by sci fi films, books and images. For my project, I will be focusing on Newcastle and its skyline.
What I have noticed while researching architecture is that how fast and to what extent architecture is changing - becoming more and more like artists visions of a city. Architecture could also be seen as artistic movement. 

From earliest to now:
Gothic
Tudor
Classical
Renaissance
Elizabethan
Jacobean
Gothic Revival
Georgian
Old English
Queen Anne
Arts and Crafts
Art Deco
Modernism
High Tech
Minimalism

Brian Dettmer

This is another artist I find appealing. He is an American contemporary artist that alters existing media. He normally uses old books to create layers. On his website he states that the book's intended function is lost, by altering the books to new forms, new unexpected roles emerge. Brian says that he only cuts away pieces and never adds anything, he only uses whats there. 

For my theme I could take inspiration from the him, but use buildings and city landscapes.

Matthew Picton

One artist that i find interesting is an English artist called Matthew Picton. He makes sculptures of cities using different materials which can include newspapers, sheet music, enamel paint and pins. All of his work looks down on the city like a birds eye view. He creates many layers for the city sculptures including layers for communication, transportation, and the river. Looking aqt his sculptures, I realise how complicated the infrastructure of a city is, making me view the city as a sort of organism.
On his website (http://matthewpicton.com/statements/urban-sculptures/) he has the quote: “Cities bring together culture and ideas, convert human power in to form, energy in to civilization, they are like brains directing and developing civilized life” With this quote he is basically stating that the city is viewed as a living thing. 
Some of his work has important messages attached to them. An example of this is his paper sculptures, part of his new work:

London 1940: Waterloo

When describing his work, he said that cities have a tradition of being personified, he uses this and he destructs the cleanliness of the city plan and he filled the city with a feeling of unique history and culture. With the art above, I think he is referencing the world war 2, with the damaged and destroyed buildings and the bleakness of the entire city. 

Other examples of his work are:

Response

This image (left) is my response to the dada movement. I looked at images from artists such as Marcel Duchamp and  Raoul Hausmann for inspiration. I noticed how they made fun out of various things. Most of the dada movement uses collage with different materials and images placed on top for lots of layers. The dada movement started in Zurich, it was a response to WW1.  It rejected logic and sense and was very random. It added excitement to the art world. When this type of art started, it was really controversial because nobody had seen anything like this before. However, nowadays it is harder to make it more different and make a statement because it has all been done before. This type of art would have been targeted at the younger audience because it had a sense of rebellion and didn't want to be considered normal. In this time, young people wouldn't have seen this before so it would wake people up and make them realise what these art works mean.

Art Critic

For my response I wanted to focus on hierarchy and power, in this image i used David Cameron who seems to have lots of control over the media and press and I wanted to make a statement about this. (Such as in the Leveson Inquiry). My main inspiration came from 'The Art Critic' by Raoul Hausmann. All of the words I used was used in newspapers and i thought linked in with this art work, such as criticism, regain control, the other side (of the story), etc.

Gothic Architecture

George Grie

George Grie

 

This artist has a surreal style, he is one of the first digital surreal artists. Some of his work is quite controversial. In some of his work like the images above, he uses buildings which are all quite gothic like a cathedral or church. However he puts a twist on it, he doesnt just paint the building, in one of the paintings above, he uses peoples faces or masks to make up the mountian and also uses objects like violins, i think this represents how people have built and shaped it, there is also ladders and lampposts which could show how an old historic building has changed over time. The building also seems to be a ruin, maybe representing that people have changed it too much, because of all the instruments it has something to do with music.

The second image is a very gothic building exactly like a cathedral however it is formed as part of the mountain maybe taking inspiration from Petra. the waterfall is going up rather than down as if the building is on its side giving a different aspect of the picture.

Artists

I have started to reseach two artists, the first one is George Grie who is a gothic illistrator, some of his paintings and prints include complicated buildings like cathedrals and I think he has been influenced by the gothic era.

Another artist I have looked at is a futuristic architect called Antonio Sant'Elia, who designed buildings based on the futuristic movement.

Futuristic Fortunato

One artist that I find interesting is Fortunato Depero, who is a futurist painter. In most of his paintings, he uses block colours and he is quite abstract. I like how he imagines the future of cities and buildings, making them look colourful and creative.

Start of unit 3 - Initial Thoughts

My initial idea for graphics is to do a project on architecture. I thought about focusing on gothic architecture like cathedrals and churches and also the evolution of houses or cities (how they have changed to fit the new generation), I could also focus on all the different types of buildings -  like what is normal?