vagrant disposition: documentation

my first solo show, Vagrant Disposition, was on display at the Dowling St Studios on November 8. i am extremely pleased at how everything turned out and with the feedback i received from fellow Dunedin artists who came out to have a look.

i displayed four "life-size" prints, suspended from the ceiling, with video of myself holding those prints in the location in which they were taken projected on to the back of the prints (and therefor showing through the print-side). i also showed sixteen prints from my in-progress series that explores my time in New Zealand.

Princes St installation, other prints in background

installations

another view of the installations

Craig's Room installation, projection side

Craig's room installation, print side

Jetty installation, projection side

Jetty installation, print side

Alley installation, projection side

Alley installation, print side

Princes St installation, projection side

Princes St installation, print side

prints on wall

the space

another view of the installations

and another

and another view of the space.

change of plans//'vagrant disposition'

so i've determined that the body of work i proposed before (titled cheesily 'lydia was here') should not be the focus of my exhibition here in Dunedin for the following reasons:

- the body of work will not be completed at that time (it will not be complete until i have left New Zealand, seeing as how it is about my entire experience here)

- it is more suitable for American audiences (seeing as how it focuses mainly on expressing my experience in a foreign land..)

- i have yet to come to a final decision on how to display the work, and i am not happy with hastily putting the images up on a wall

- i got another idea that i'm excited about.

so what is this other idea, you wonder? well, after the success of my installation at the Branch exhibition i mentioned to Alex the idea of adding more pieces like that to my exhibition. his response: "i think that in itself is a show." so i thought, why not make it a show?

so i've shot four images (well, actually five, but I don't like one of them) of me in various locations around dunedin - the middle of princes street, the alley by the dowling st studio, craig's bedroom, a jetty out in the bay.. Alex is going to print these images 1:1 so i can get to shooting the video.

 i'm quite excited about the space, it will be perfect for the print/projection combo. i will also be putting up some images from that 'lydia was here' series just to flesh it out a bit and add some variety. the main focus will be the installation series, which i have titled 'vagrant disposition.'

aaaand here's the poster.

project drawing

project drawing was meant to be a class where we worked on drawings that would somehow help us with our studio work.

i couldn't really think of anything like that, so instead i decided to just draw stuff i'm interested in. and it turns out i'm interested in the difference between drawings from photographs and from life, as well as how people portray themselves for photographs versus how i perceive them when drawing them from life.

i had each person take a photo of themselves using photobooth for me to draw, and then drew them from life as well.

photobooth drawings are on the left, life on the right.

Theo

Samdrub

Amanda

Mishca

Paul

Bugs

Ben

that is all.

the branch presents: unrest - documentation

The Branch Presents: UNREST

collaborative exhibition by members of the Branch: Max Bellamy, Lydia K Boehr, Samdrub Dawa, Emily Hlavac-Green, Alex Lovell-Smith, Ollie Lucks, and Chris "Bugs" Miller

documentation by Emily Cannan

Hypnic Jerk by Emily Hlavac-Green

Feeling Nauseous with Fun on the Quiet - performance by Bugs Miller and Samdrub Dawa (pictured: Bugs) 

Untitled performance by Damian Smith and Alex Lovell-Smith (pictured: Alex Lovell-Smith)

Rank and Fathom by Max Bellamy

Arcana by Samdrub Dawa

T's and C's by Alex Lovell-Smith and Emily Hlavac-Green

Finale - music performed by The Something Quartet, "paparazzi" lighting by Lydia K Boehr, Emily Hlavac-Green and Alex Lovell-Smith, VJing by Ollie Lucks and Max Bellamy

and my installation....

projected video loop on back side of print

front side of print with projection shining through

and a little closer

YEAH!

notes from my retrospective critique//Cory rules

yesterday I was skyped in to my retrospective review back in KC. this time I could hear everyone and could usually see people, which was great. thanks so much, fellow P/DFers, for accommodating my hemispherical handicap.

Cory very kindly took notes for me, which are awesome, which I am posting here right now:

isn't Cory amazing?

yes, she is.

but anyhow, I was pleased to hear people saying all the things I'd been thinking, and most of those things that I mentioned in my tentative proposal. basically, everything everyone said encouraged me. great job, guys.

retrospective

from abroad-
LKB IN RETROSPECT

THE BRANCH PRESENTS: UNREST

the branch presents: unrest

[1] from The Branch on Vimeo.


[2] from The Branch on Vimeo.


[3] from The Branch on Vimeo.


[4] from The Branch on Vimeo.


[5] from The Branch on Vimeo.


[6] from The Branch on Vimeo.


[7] from The Branch on Vimeo.

internet as exhibition space//i need to learn html

faces and hoodies

that website looks neat. i want to learn to do that.


also, i generally like samantha casolari's photography

another influence for current project

too hard to keep

photographer jason lazarus started this project. he requests that people send in photos that they feel are "too hard to keep". this implies that the images bring up memories that are too painful, so painful that they don't want to see these photos anymore. that makes it seem like by giving away these photographs, the person will no longer have that memory... or at least, will not have to think about it.



this is the most intense one that i've seen. in this case i can see why that's something you'd want to forget - but why was the image taken in the first place? evidence?



then there are others like this one that just seem silly to me. why did she take this photo if she didn't want to remember? she looks like she's been crying. i'm guessing that message on the mirror was someone breaking up with her. or was she doing the breaking? either way, again i question why she would even take the photo if she doesn't want to remember it...



this one is more like what i would expect. and this one makes the most sense to me.



it's kind of fun to think about why people submitted the photos they did. i think he needs to get a lot more submissions, though... there just aren't enough at this point.

who knows. maybe it'll be the next post secret.

TENTATIVE PROPOSAL!

LYDIA WAS HERE [[working title...]]


My intent with this project is to effectively convey the personal experiences and feelings involved with my time in New Zealand within a body of work that represents the growth of my aesthetic and theoretical “style” as manifested over the past four years. This project will be my final body of work in my college career. I plan on addressing ideas that have appeared in my work in the past (the self, male/female relations in art, personal perception, visual disorientation, the influence of text on an image, the questionable reality of photographs) as well as some new themes (photographs as memories, the “editing” of a person's life that happens through the choice of images shown, the internet as exhibition space). The resulting images will be a mixture of staged and spontaneous photographs depicting my daily life in New Zealand, a mixture of truths and fictions. All of the images I have shot since my arrival can potentially be included in this series. It is my hope that while with some images it will be obvious whether it was staged or not, with others it will be more difficult to determine. I may also include PhotoBooth images, as I have been taking a photo (almost) every day of myself since January. In addition to images this series will also include text such as letters to & from home, journal entries, and writings in retrospect. The final format of this project is yet to be determined, though I am considering (in addition to a physical exhibition) a book and a website devoted to this project alone. Along the way I will continue to blog regularly (hopefully moreso than I have so far...) as much of what appears on my blog (including comments) could potentially have a place within the finished body of work. Due to finances and the need to be continuously producing and editing, at least the majority of the images will be digital. The format of final gallery display of these images is yet to be determined. It is my hope that this project will at the very least give viewers an idea of my experience living abroad and hopefully also cause them to raise questions about the reality of photography, how we use images to replace memories, and the “editing” we perform on our own memories.


INFLUENCES
- Cortney Andrews (http://cortneyandrews.com) – female sexuality, relationships between males and females, the self, aesthetic influence
- Roberta Ridolfi's “I dreamt I dream” (http://idreamtidream.net) – visual journal, internet as exhibition space, aesthetic influence
- Jeff Harris (http://jeffharris.org) – visual journal, the self, daily documentation of self, aesthetic influence
- Charlie Engman (http://charlieengman.com) – aesthetic influence
- various blogs found on the internet
- something my roommate once said to me - “I want to make sure only good pictures of me exist so my children think I was really cool” - and that idea which I feel a lot of people have
- the fact that some people make me delete photos of themselves that they don't like
- the fact that I have trouble remembering highschool because I lost most of my photos from that time period when my computer crashed
- … living in New Zealand.

[relatively recent] visual influences

aaron louis fowler

alexander bergstrom

charlie engman

charlie rubin

i dreamt i dream / roberta ridolfi

jeff harris