Anticipated Dreams #01

I worked with the images that I created in the last post and put these together to try out how I would create pieces that would work together to exemplify my anticipated dreams.

Reflecting on these images I actually am very happy with how these came together - in fact, unusually, much better than I expected, they have the strange qualities I was hoping for.  My dreams are often frightening and there is that fell of foreboding in these sets - really want to make further sets of these now to explore this idea much much further but as a start, it has actually quite excited me!

Instruction Photography: The Beginning of the Idea

As my project takes a new direction I will share the process with you here.  So the instruction was to take a line from a book or a film.  I chose 'You can't anticipate dreams..' from Hannibal (TV Series)
I really enjoyed this line as I thought dreams are like collages created from the day, your twisted thoughts, the television and so if I could photograph these things they do become the anticipation of my dreams and so here are the first set of contacts for my anticipated dreams...

I photographed mostly in Black and white using a high contrast filter on my Olympus Stylus SH-2 it's actually a camera that I most like to work with.  It is compact yet does everything manually has a really fantastic super macro which is far better than my DSLR and here as you can see you can really play with the light with this filter.  I think I often think about how things look in black and white - I find colours more difficult to process.  Yet my dreams are always in colour!

Joan Fontcuberta: Uncanny Laughter

Joan Fontcuberta is a writer and artist who creates photography that plays with photography.  I am writing about him here as this connects to the new direction of my project. When writing my diary I just wanted to make images and I knew where those images had descended - so in my specialist sessions I was creating instruction photography and the instruction I was working with was a line from a book or a film.  I thought the line will come to me and so it did when I was watching Hannibal.  Lecter stated; ' You can't anticipate dreams...'. In my next post, I will share my first 'anticipation with you, however, in this post I want to discuss Fontcuberta who in his 'Karelia, Miracles & Co, 2002'  has photographs of himself levitating, performing miracles, multiplying, skiing on a shark as a priest all of which have no value beyond manifestation. 

Joan Fontcuberta (2004) The Miracle of Levitation

These strange images and his playful use of photography to subvert the conventions of photography.

This short exhibition trailer explains further....

Fontcuberta writes in his chapter The Perfect Blind Man in 'Photography after Photography; 'I invented Borges and now his ghost will not stop haunting me. I invented Borges and cooked up the idea of a photographer-without-knowing-it, a photographer-in-spite-of-himself.  I don't know if Borges is at all grateful to me.  No one has ever arrived at a more profound and poetic metaphysics of the world than Borges, with his visual fantasy and fascination for mirrors, illusions and paradoxes.  he wrote that the memory is as much a prodigy as divination, for both past and present are tracts of time and time is an illusion.' (Fontcuberta J: 2014 P49) What is interesting here is that we are all haunted by our dreams, by ideas that will not stop returning and perhaps that somewhere inside us we realize that in the blink of an eye our lives have existed already in entirety and we are just now actors in a dream that we are still living.  Photography stops time, records moments in time that then become without time.  The photograph becomes false memory and then we live within the photograph.

There is so much more here to be said, but perhaps as it has already been said this is where I shall end for now but I will return to this as we all do in an eternal return.

References

Fontcuberta J, (2004) Photography After Photography, Mack Books, Barcelona

Science & Media Museum (202) Joan Fontcuberta: Stranger than Fiction (20 November 2014 – 5 February 2015) [Online] Available from: https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/what-was-on/joan-fontcuberta-stranger-fiction (Accessed 05/02/20)

Diary Project Research: The Joy and Ecstasy of Luis Buñuel

Luis Buñuel (1900-1983) was a Spanish filmmaker who embraced the surreal, the magic of the moving image and used these to create subversive films that are eccentric, funny and play with and discuss social reality.

Clips from That Obscure Object of Desire

That Obscure Object of Desire is a story of a middle-aged man who falls for a young chambermaid Rothman states that the film was: 'Adapted from the Pierre Louÿs novel on which Josef von Sternberg based The Devil is a Woman four decades earlier, That Obscure Object of Desire tells the story of Mathieu, an aging aristocrat, who pursues the young Conchita through a series of amorous encounters in which she arouses his desire but denies his sexual satisfaction.' (Rothamn W. 19/11/2001).  The main character is played by two different actresses this was due to the fact that the original actress proved unsuitable so Bunuel replaced her with two actresses instead as an artistic device (two sides of the same person).  This film deals with the man's sexual obsession in a backdrop of terrorism 'Few other directors would dare to equate the male libido with international terrorism, but the final feature by master surrealist Luis Buñuel is a dark comic web of sexual obsession' (mjneu59 07/01/2011).  

Why am I writing about Bunuel if my project is on a diary you may ask, well the answer is that as Bunuel was the master of surrealism and used so many different sources of reference and seemly random scenes in his films that I felt this is more towards what my 'diary' should be - if it ends up being a diary at all.  As I have been writing I have been considering not just the films of Bunuel but how Bunuel came to his ideas in a New York Times Interview he states when describing how the genesis of his films: “I start from nothing,” he said. He looked around him. “A man throws this"—he picked up a butt‐filled ashtray — “out the window.” He restrained the impulse; this was a metaphorical discussion. “One image, never a general concept. Little by little I have 20 ideas.” (Gussow M. 03/11/1972) Bunuel goes onto say: 'In creating the script, he said, “there is never logical thought. It is always rather irrational. Images appear. Some I refuse.”'(Gussow M. 03/11/1972).  I think this is important as people like to think they are logical I recall often arguments I have had where people either state that they are being logical or you are being illogical.  The fact is as humans, I believe, most of the time, we are illogical and writing in the form of a diary is idiosyncratic and also allows for freeform thought.  This idea I like and that is why what is important here about Bunuel is his ideas and how he came to them - or I should say how they came to him. Many of Bunuel's ideas did come in dreams and in his book 'My Last Sigh' (Bunuel L. 1994) Bunuel discusses his life and he also discusses at length his dreams and how often ideas had come to him in dreams.  In fact, though Bunuel does not discuss in his book that much about his films and as Long states: 'the details are scant in each case. "It would be absurd to list and evaluate all these movies", he writes, "in the first place because that's not my job, and in the second because I don't think life can be confused with a work". ' (Long H.H 07/02/2005).  Life and living were more important but like all artists I suspect he needed his work to live and without it, he may have been lost. 

Following looking at Bunuel I want to develop my work further by considering perhaps another form and format for the words that I have been writing - perhaps it is only images I really want....for the image can be everything.

References

Bunuel L. (1994) My Last Sigh. Vintage Classics.

IMDb (1990-2020) Luis Buñuel [Online] Available from: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000320/

(Accessed 01/02/20) 

Gussow M (03/11/1972) New York Times: No Symbols in His Films, Bunuel Says [Online] Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/1972/11/03/archives/no-symbols-in-his-films-bunuel-says.html (Accessed 01/02/2020)

Long H.H (07/02/2005) Pop Matters: My Last Sigh by Luis Bunuel [Online] Available From: https://www.popmatters.com/my-last-sigh-2496243613.html (Accessed 01/02/2020)

Project Plan: The Diary

I need to create a plan and timescale for my project to ensure that I can keep on schedule for this project.  Therefore I created an infographic for my plan with details - you can read this clearly through the link below.

Creative Diary: Project Plan 

Prototyping My Project: The Diary Mock Up

I need to create a prototype at this point to begin to look at how this project will work as a final piece, therefore, I have mocked up a couple of pages to test out how this will look.

Beginning with the Front Cover - I decided I would like a small journal A5 so I set up some A5 pages on Photoshop 300dpi so that they are high resolution for printing.  The font I used here was Berlin Sans

The pages I am showing here with just some images I have taken recently and greeked text - you can find out more about this here.  This is a possible layout to a page - 

At present this is very simple and there are no additional design features - I played bout here with the colour background and using contact sheets 

I need to experiment more with these layouts and start to put together more of a plan so the diary has more focus.  It needs a stronger theme that can run through this and then these pages will start to come together - I am thinking I would like them to look like vellum in cream to give is a more classic look.

I also think I would like perhaps a sans serif text but again more experimentation is needed!

Finding a Target Audience: Conceptual Art

As I am creating essentially a conceptual art piece with the diary more in the manner of Sophie Calle* it is difficult to precisely identify a target market.  Conceptual originally wasn't exactly made to be sold.  Here is an example;

'In 1970, the collecting couple Herb and Dorothy Vogel spent $250—roughly $1,667 in today’s dollars—on a work of art that can never be displayed, and, in some sense, never existed in the first place. Robert Barry’s Closed Gallery (1969) was a performance in which galleries in Amsterdam, Turin, and Los Angeles followed the artist’s instructions to close the gallery space for the duration of their respective Robert Barry shows. The only physical representations of the work were its certificate of authenticity and three copies of the invitation sent out to promote a show that never happened, which the Vogels received in turn for their money. The invitation simply says: “During the exhibition the gallery will be closed.”' (Freeman N. 29.08.2018)

Essentially often there was not anything to own and as it often encompassed a performative or live element this made it difficult to sell.  Conceptual art is cerebral and about the idea but now if people want it they have found ways to buy this. Yoko Ono created instructions and put them in a gallery so that essentially the participants 'made' the work for example: 'Lighting Piece (1955) reads: “Light a match and watch till it goes out.” and Ono’s Instruction Paintings were objects, usually based on her Event Scores, meant to be completed by the viewer. Painting to Hammer a Nail In (1961/1966) was a wooden panel from which a hammer hung on a chain; a jar of nails sat on a chair below it. Viewers were invited to hammer one of the nails into the panel. ' (Walker Gallery: 2020)

Yoko Ono, Fly (1963)

All of this, of course, does not explain how to actually sell it or who the target market is, however, there is a market but it is more complex than stating that Generation Z or X will buy it.  Conceptual has been sold at auction to art collectors, however; 'In his book Art of the Deal, Noah Horowitz argues that because Conceptual art is commenting on the nature of production—he calls it “art about the system of art-making”—it is “deprivileging” art, aligning itself with a Marxist critique of consumer culture. But its success as an anti-capitalist gesture depends on it being genuinely unsellable.' (Freeman N. 29.08.2018) The Guardian stated about one of Richard Long's pieces of Land Art; 'It isn’t possessable. You can’t buy it; it doesn’t exist. All the same, it’s free if you want it. You simply have to conceive of it, to let the idea occupy your imagination.'(Laing 09.04.2016)

Richard Long, ‘A Line Made by Walking’ 1967

So for the average person, the closest you will get to buying conceptual art is to buy one of the many books created by Sophie Calle or Yoko Ono, or even land artists like Richard Long so although the original work is not saleable as such the production of books which include photographs of the work do sell.  As I was writing this I checked out the estimated worth of Sophie Calle and discovered it was $41million! (celebstrendingnow; 2020) Yoko Ono is now worth $600 million (celebritynetworth; 2020) and Tracey Emin $52 million so these conceptual artists have obviously found ways to make their work worth money and people to buy it.

Therefore to conclude, I may not have 'found' a target market but I can certainly study how other conceptual artists work and make money with their work.  Although the ideas of conceptual art come from anti-capitalism and that the original work may be unsellable clearly these artists have to find a way to live.  The art market also is a strange place, in the sense that art is worth what people are willing to pay and this means it has an unknowable factor.  It is difficult to predict what will sell and what will not and which artists are worth collecting and could be worth millions in the future and which will be forgotten.

*Sophie Calle is a conceptual artist who made her life into art and often her pieces were a mix of text and photographs 'Her work frequently depicts human vulnerability, and examines identity and intimacy. She is recognized for her detective-like ability to follow strangers and investigate their private lives. Her photographic work often includes panels of text of her own writing.' (Tate 2020)

References 

Celebritynetworth.com (2020) Yoko Ono, Net Worth [Online] Available from https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/yoko-ono-net-worth/ (Accessed 26.01.2020)

Celebstrendingnow.com (2020) Sophie Calle, Net Worth [Online] Available from: https://celebstrendingnow.com/sophie-calle-net-worth/ (Accessed 26.01.2020)

Celebstrendingnow.com (2020) Tracey Emin, Net Worth [Online] Available from: https://celebstrendingnow.com/tracey-emin-net-worth/ (Accessed 26.01.2020)

Freeman N. (29.08.2018) Artsy, Conceptual Art Wasn’t Meant to Be Collected. Now It Sells for Six Figures [Online] Available from: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-conceptual-art-meant-collected-sells-six-figures (Accessed 26.01.2020)

Laing O. (09.04.2016) The Guardian: Conceptual art: why a bag of rubbish is not just a load of garbage [Online] Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/apr/09/conceptual-art-tate-britain-olivia-laing (Accessed 26.01.2020)


Tate (2020) Sophie Calle [Online] Available from:  https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sophie-calle-2692 (Accessed 26.01.2020)

Walker Gallery (2020) Yoko Ono 1933- Present [Online] Available from: https://walkerart.org/collections/artists/yoko-ono (Accessed 26.01.2020)