Summertive Evaluation

I really enjoyed this project as I chose a topic I had a huge interest in. It held components of psychology and biology, which I did at A-level, and history and art which I love. I love the evolutionary approach and I also love the concept of spirituality, so looking into Homo sapiens relationships with animals in both of these ways was really interesting. It was also a topic I only had basic knowledge on so it meant I found out loads of fascinating new facts and ideas such as those talked about in Sapiens, The Postmodern Animal and A Brief History of Mankind.

I think my sketchbooks are really strong because it was a massive challenge for me to try to depict the 'truth' of the animal so I had to create loads of work to attempt this! I explored in my dissertation if this was even possible. I decided that for me, the most appropriate practical thing to create would be something that confronts or challenges, or even just documents and shows, the relationship humans have to animals. I am not a vegetarian, nor am I an animal rights campaigner. But I do find it funny how we are so immune to the fact that we have made ourselves the most dominant species on earth, and have seperated ourselves so completely from the rest of the animal kingdom- a feature which fundamentally has allowed us to exploit them unnecessarily due to ignorance, lack of understanding or empathy. 

My practical work focused on a concept of a made up animal: the Credit posteri - which means Believe it future generations -in latin. I chose this name because the whole concept of the piece is, yeah it may seem all a joke, a fake animal... but it shows what we do to real animals throughout history and every day. It is important that we keep the past in mind for the future - we, according from the evolutionary perspective, have evolved from a common ancestor, yet we treat animals with so much less respect than each other. 

I am overall really  happy with my final practical work as I think I have employed lots of different practices and media while also depicting a lot of the elements of dominance in the human-animal relationships. This product is meant to be a collection like the cabinets of curiosities of interesting worldly objects which are displayed in museums such as the Pitt Rivers and galleries like the ME Gallery in Berlin. 

If I were to do this again I would just go to much greater lengths to create the objects. I would spend ages making the animal life like to go in the jar. I would also make it water proof so that I could put liquid or jelly in the jar -this would make it look much weirder and realistic (effective!). I would also want to invest in a large cabinet to hold them, and paint it like I have painted the case... but I think it would be much more easily presented in a cabinet than a chest/suitcase. It would probably also look much more valuable and professional. The audience for this piece is actually anyone because it is aimed at telling the story of all humans various relationships with animals. It would contextually stand in galleries or museums, but the individual pieces themselves all have their own contextual situations, such as the jarred specimens and the toy keyring!

Peer Feedback -8th Jan

Overall I got quite good feedback from this peer review. It is quite an odd concept and without being able to explain my concept visually concerning the 'postmodern animal' I wasnt sure that people were going to like it. I think it did remind me of the importance of writing a story about the animal on the box and creating the images on the side of it in order to give some context to the contents of the case.

Shrine and Finals!

I used my Pinterest COP3 board to constantly collect inspiration for my practical work... follow the link below to have a look~

https://uk.pinterest.com/dearalice1/cop3/

In the issu link below I explain and describe all my final products and it also contains photography of my products such as the combination of a few features for the shrine: 

The Legend of Credit Posteri

fierce spiritual power and destructive energies
special fascination of the Homo sapiens
Gazelle horn
Found deep in the forests in Britain, the Credit posteri used to roam all over the kingdom. They were a sociable and intelligent species, able to communicate to each other an to large groups. They laid their eggs in the most beautiful forest flowers. Their young was vulnerable and usually stayed close to their mothers for the first ten years of their lives. The adults were fierce and ruthless when confronted or threatened, but usually lived a calm and peaceful life.
It was only when Homo sapiens reached Britain that the Credit posteri's life changed forever. They were hunted and captured. Their parts were sold and their fur and skin used for garments. Feathers, bones, horns and poison from their tails were used for weapons and jewelry. The meat of the posteri was a delicacy. Mothers were also targeted by poachers because the young sold as pets for very high prices. Upper classes used the Credit posteri young as pets for a symbol of wealth and power.
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"The Credit Posteri is like a footprint. If the print exists, there must have existed something whose print it is... the print of an idea." (Umberto Eco about Unicorns)
Wild, sociable animal of great strength and intellect.
Hard to catch because they adapted and learnt easily from Homo sapiens threats and danger.
But people went to great lengths to poach them. They would exploit and sell on the adult parts. This included the singular horn, their two tusks, their fur and skin, their peacock-like feathers, the poison from their scorpion-like tail -enough to kill ten men- and their flesh for meat. The poachers aimed for mother Credit Posteri's because the young were extraordinary valuable as pets for the upper classes. This was because of their gentle nature and wide eyes. One these pets got to adult hood they were kept on to work as transport or for hunting other animals. If they became too aggressive their horns, teeth and tails would often be removed in order to make them suitable for human families.
Their horns were similar to unicorns and could; detect poison,purify contaminated waters so that other animals could safely drink, heal wounds and illness.
pursued and slaughtered.
Theiir tails were also extremely valuable to humans. They were weapons; at the tip of the segmented tail were two venom glands which opened to a sting, the surrounding muscles contract, forcing venom into the victim.
These animals were hunted, held captive, exploited for their parts, slaughtered for their meat, to such an extreme level of human frenzy that they became extinct.
The Credit Posteri now only exists in the dark hidden places of human nature.

Berlin Flee Market!

http://awaspinawig.tumblr.com/post/136679156710/in-my-last-day-in-berlin-i-visited-a-flee-market

ME Collectors Room Berlin

During my time in Berlin in December I had to visit the ME Collectors Room! This gallery had a Cindy Sherman exhibition which was great to see as I've not seen much of her work in person before, but the main reason I went was for the collection of amazing and random artefacts from all over the world.

WUNDERKAMMER OLBRICHT

'Astonishment, discovery, understanding'

During the Renaissance and Baroque periods, princes, rulers and scholars set up their Kunst- and Wunderkammer: collecttors' rooms in which precious artworks (artificialia), rare phenomena of nature (naturalia), scientific instruments (scientifica), objects from strange worlds (exotica), and inexplicable items (mirabilia) were preserved. They served to demonstrate the wealth and power of the owner and reflected the standard of knowledge and view of the world at that time. 

The collection was initially restricted to a select circle, but over time it became accessible to a wider public. It is known, for example, that the Kunstkammer in Dresden admitted almost 800 visitors in 1648, which is a considerable number for the time. Not only nobles and diplomats traveled from far and wide to behold the Elector of Saxony's collection, but also artists, tradesmen, students, scholars, craftsmen, and even wedding parties. One of the most important Kunstkammer still exists today in Austria: Archduke Fernand II. From the Tyrol extended Castle Ambras above Innsbruck adding another complex of buildings to house his collections. 

Berlin also had its Kunstkammer. Founded by the Elector Joachim II. (ruled from 1535-1571), almost completely destroyed during the Thirty Years War, it was rebuilt by Elector Friedrich Wilhelm and eventually found its home under Friedrich III in the newly extended Stadtschloss (City Palace). Today the few remaining object have been distributed around different museums that have become the successors to the chambers of arts and wonders, albeit in a thematically differentiated way. 

Our Wunderkammer reanimates this tradition in Berlin once more. It provides as insight into the past and creates the very thing it was able to do some two to five centuries ago: to transport the visitor into a realm of sheer astonishment- whether by means of the legendary unicorn, ultimately expose as the tusk of a narwhal, an amber mirror flooded with light fashioned from the 'Gold of the North', the coconut chalice thatt came into the possession of Alexander von Humboldt and which is adorned with images of Brazilian cannibals, preserved specimens of a Nile crocodile and a great blue turaco, or cabinets that only reveal their mysteries to the curious eye.

The quality of the objects, numbering in excess of 200 from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, is unique and makes this Wunderkammer one of the most important private collections of its kind.

The collection places an emphasis on vanitas ('consider the fact that you will die'), itself a thematic strand that permeates me Collectors Room. In the Baroque period, death was already being staged with a mixture of devotion, interest, and humour- itself perhaps a form of overcoming the fear of finality? 

The scope for interpretation here is as broad as it is inscrutable. This is manifested in particular by an anatomical model dating from the second half of the 17th century featuring the laid out body of a pregnant woman whose organs and the foetus of can be removed. On the one hand this reflects the medical interest of its owner, on the other it prompts one to indulge in a playful handling of this Kunstkammer object. The notion of vanitas is conveyed in the form of a coffin; the wealth of the owner- as transitory as life itself- is represented by the choice of material for the small sculpture: ivory was considered the most precious substance of that era. Kunstkammer objects have the power to astonish, touch, fascinate, and draw the curious mind - captivated by a small, individual, encyclopedic universe - into the Kunst - and Wunderkammer. 

Quiet admiration of extraordinary art objects and natural phenomena is not the sole aim here. Sheer astonishment is at the forefront of a visit to Wunderkammers. Indeed, since the 16th Century it has been considered the first step towards gaining the knowledge and insight.

BELOW: Issuu link to 24 slides of my photographs of the exhibition and how I will use these artefacts as inspiration for my own COP3 practical work...

Shrines in India

Everywhere I went in India there were shrines, not only Hindu ones but also Christian with pictures of Jesus hung up etc. There were usually flowers and insense as well as candles next to a picture (painting) or statue of the sacred thing of worship. I am really insterested in this because for my make-believe animal I want to reflect Homo sapien dominance (or their relationship with) the make believe animal. Animal worship is a huge part of Homo sapien history and relevent today particularly in the Hindu faith! These shrines were amazing to see, particularly as people in England rarely make such an obvious attempt at depicting their faith, particularly in their businesses! I will be creating my own shrine to depict my make believe animal using the Indian ones I saw on my trip as inspiration. Below are a few photographs of some of the shrines or flower garnishes I saw no matter how posh or random the place was... 

A flower garnish in Fabindia by the till. 

A Ganesha sculpture at the entrance of a really posh hotel at the 'tip of India'. Ganesha (Elephant) is known as the gate keeper. 

Ganesh, known for protecting entrances, is a bit like the gargoyles seen outside buildings but this animal headed god is so much more. Here he has been placed/built into a wall and covered with flower garlands. 

Here is an example of the shrines found in a normal shop. This was in an Indian sweet desert shop at the Tamil Nadu border. 

Sometimes the shrines also include photographs of respected or deceased family members. This is all to show respect and constant attention to family and religion which is a huge part of the Indian culture; this is not as obviously prevalent in English culture. Personally I think its a really beautiful way to commemorate them. 

This is in the corner of the sculpture shop that I mentioned in the last blog post. This shrine was really good because the white walls show the marks from the incense and oils that are used in the shrine.

This Ganesha was on the bar top of a restaurant. 

This flower display was actually for Diwali but it was so beautiful and nice to see these all around the homes and local businesses in Kovalam.

I am not sure what these were for, or even if they were just for an unreligious and just decorative purpose, but I included it here because of the scary weird monster/dog face hanging in the middle. This is an example of how animals have been used to add something to the shop - either to draw customers in or warn trespassers against it!