Light and faces

Being an art student, whenever I watch something on screen and there's good light on a person's face, I immediately think about how I would paint them. An artist has studied how light affects the perception of a face, it really is interesting how different this girl looks when the light is altered.

Confessions - Candy Chang

Candy Chang, a well established designer who has worked previously with the likes of the New York Times, began a project last year titled 'Confessions' on the Las Vegas Strip. Chang opened her project with the line 'What happenes in Vegas stays in Vegas, but what if we could share with full discretion?'. Inspired by Catholicism, the book 'Post Secret' and Shinto shrine prayer walls, Chang's project allows the public to confess their deepest secrets without having to reveal their identity and relate to others around them in a big and busy city, where you may often feel very alone. 

Visitors to the exhibition are invited to join the project, they can step in a booth commanding them to 'WRITE A CONFESSION', and once written, drop the confession in a letter box ready for display. Chang explains:

'Every passerby is another person full of longing, anxiety, fear, confusion, and wonder. We struggle with a lot of the same issues and there is great comfort in knowing you are not alone.'

The confessions range from 'I eat too much cheese', 'I still love her, 5 years and 2 girlfriends later' to 'I'm afraid I'm going to die alone'. Take a look at the pictures from the project.

The Project

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Thanks everyone for taking the time to read my posts!

ITSAJACKAL: life drawings

'take pictures,  draw pictures (use a mechanical pencil .3mm) scan drawing. then darken and shadow in photoshop.' - itsajackal (tumblr)

Art and About 4 - Trip to the Saatchi gallery!

Yesterday I met up with my Art History friends who live around London and we went to the Saatchi gallery in Chelsea. The gallery was opened in 1985 by Charles Saatchi and has occupied many locations in London before opening in its current location in Sloane Square. The art in the gallery is contemporary and often chosen for display because it provokes strong reactions from visitors. The artists who have artwork displayed are relatively unknown, Saatchi scouts new artists and displays their work to help them succeed in the art world. Artists who have had work shown there before they were famous include Jenny Saville and Damien Hirst.

Damien Hirst - 'The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living' - 1991

Jenny Saville - 'Reverse' - 2002

The Saatchi gallery is set up to make the prime focus the artwork, unlike more traditional galleries with extensive decorative features, the Saatchi Gallery has big rooms and plain white walls with wooden flooring, forcing your attention to the displays. 

The first room in the gallery is filled with photographs taken by Sergei Vasiliev, an artist from Russia. Vasiliev worked as a prison ward and photographed the criminals who had tattooed themselves. These homemade tattoos, inked on the skin with melted book heels, urine and blood, contain coded messages against the Soviet regime. The photographs were taken between 1989 and 1993.

One artist who's work is perhaps the most controversial is Boris Mikhailov. Mikhailov, from the Ukraine, photographed post-Communist poverty in ex-Soviet countries in 1997-8, displaying the harsh conditions of society, called 'Case History'. The photographs are certainly striking, when first entering the room you are confronted with crude images of nude men and women, either with strange deformities or exhibiting their naked bodies, unbothered by their nudity but enjoying it instead. Mikhailov said of his photographs:

“I am not trying to take pictures of sensational things, but rather of those things which are in excess. I am trying to find the unique in that manifold reality itself. Maybe that is exactly what people like, first of all.”

Take a look at what else is on at Saatchi

A modern take on Vermeer

The original

Unfortunately, I'm not sure who has done this, but it is a comical take on Vermeer's classic, 'Girl with a Pearl Earring'. I'm sure many of you are familiar with this painting, and many of you are probably also familiar with the myspace camera shot. The artist here has combined the two, and the result is quite humorous. 

Thanks!

Wow I've reached Hong Kong! Thank you to everyone who's taken the time to look at my posts, makes it feel worthwhile!