Parasol Unit

Fifth Night

Last Sunday, I went to Parasol Unit near Angel station. Current exhibition held there was Yang Fudong's short film installations called 'One half of August' presents his three new works.

It was first time for me to see his work. All of his films have no lines but only sound and they were also filmed in black and white. For Fifth Night, I think his way of projecting few synchronized films together is very unique that lets the viewers decide which one to see. And it also lets them more focus on an actor or actress's action and think about what is happening in the film. Actually there was nothing happen in the film even the actors didn't seem to be interested in one another and it had no clear beginning or end. Everything was left to the viewers. I think it was hard to understand what the artist tried to do in this installation at first sight if the description I got at the entrance didn't help me. But I quite like how he use the gallery space to show his work, such as Fifth Night had seven films projected straightly on a long wall or One half of August had eight films projected randomly on walls of a square room.
It was a pity that I couldn't go into the gallery next to Parasol Unit which is closed on every Sunday. Besides that, I enjoyed the gallery space and would like to come back for next exhibition.

What I'm Nuts About

It was such a funny presentation day ever. Everyone in our class had to present thing that they are crazy or passionate about. Some brought  homemade cakes, a funny sheep costume, vintage maps, crisp sandwiches, or her lovely dog. It was embarrassing to do presentation in front of everyone, but after all it was a good opportunity to break out wall and know more about my colleagues.

Things I got home, a joke paper, a paper hat, a necklace made of skateboard, diarect, a cucumber badge, mustache, and a graffiti sign

Lovely classmates all in mustache!

Logo

It started with creating 100 logos. The purpose of this project was creating a new logo that represents our design ethos. My ethos was 'be open minded'. This project was first project that we worked as individuals. 

Be Open Minded

When I was researching on different types of logos, I found that this field is so vast and has various ways of approaching. If there is a next trial for making logos, I would combine images and types together to find out the other possibilities of logos.

Letter Press

As a workshop for GDC student, I went to Old Street to do letter press last week.

We were given quotes from novels and making them to be ready to print was the day's aim. In the studio, the smell of ink and old letter press machine made me feel exciting. It was very stimulating to touch little wood letter pieces and place them into a flame tightly. I had a knowledge of how to do letter press before but it was different when I actually did it. Thinking about composition of the letters and filling spaces with tiny steel blocks was extremely hard.

my final print

It took a whole day to finish my line even if it was that simple. Above all, I really enjoyed playing with different types and making my hands dirty. Also it was a good way of understanding layout of letters in analogue way. I wish I could come to the studio again to do some work for my course.

Camden Art Centre

Last Saturday, I went to Camden Art Centre in Finchley Road for the first time. An exhibition called 'A World of Glass' by swedish artist Nathalie Djurberg was held at the time.

The show space was filled with glass like objects and four claymation films were played in two rooms. The glass like objects were so beautiful under lighting in the dark rooms.  By contrast, the claymation films seemed eerie even if there were animal shaped characters in the film. I think it was because of the films' subjects, maybe sexuality, violence, and brutality, and the sound composed by artist's collaborator Hans Berg, which evoke strange atmosphere in the whole space. It was an unusual moment as if I was lost in unknown world.

Chelsea Map Project

Huge map of area around Chelsea College:)

It was one of the projects for the students to breaking ice and get to know each other. In groups, we researched area around college and made a giant paper-made map at Banqueting Hall in one day. 

Real Venice, Museum of Everything

Last Sunday, I saw some exhibitions at centre of London.

First one was Real Venice, photography exhibition held at Somerset House.

I have been to Venice once. Some of the photos at the exhibition remind me of the beautiful city, but some of them showed me different aspects of it such as ordinal people living there or modern offices. I personally like the photos by Japanese photographer Hiroshi Watanabe used as a main image for the exhibition. His black and white photos of people wearing traditional carnival masks were striking to represent Venice yet very elegance and even have divine beauty compared to commercial photos. The carnival mask of Venice is known for its vivid colour and decoration, but by reducing them, I think the photo succeeded in discovering its own beauty in simplest form.


The next one was a contemporary show of The Museum of Everything at Selfridge.

The Museum of Everything is a museum for works done by people who suffer a variety of psychological, neurological, or physical problems from all over the world. 

At first I found it really interesting that how they built the show space. The space was parted into several small rooms and the works were fully hanged on every wall exactly like the museum itself.  To be honest, it might make audience hard to see each work, but also make them feel like if they are in the museum at the moment. Each work was very energetic and had a strong character reflecting each artist. Some of them had remarkable colouring and some were seriously detailed by persevering which I can hardly imitate.

For the last, there was a huge structure, the Monument to the Third International, designed by Russian and Soviet architect Tatlin Vladimir in front of Royal Academy of Art for upcoming exhibition. Although this tower is not as high as his original plan, which was as tall as Eiffel tower in Paris, it has a worth-seeing strong impact just being there.