Google Hangout post for 29th Nov

This work is for assignment 2 of BoW and is currently still a work in progress. Any thoughts on the project would be appreciated.




A still image of the body print composition for the bottom of the inclined base:

An excerpt from the book "The Men with the Pink Triangle" that may accompany this piece of work to help anchor its meaning and give some context:

Update:

This proved to be a very useful session with the other OCA participants. The feedback on my proposed structure was that the concept was good but the visual presentation still needed refining. The overall consensus was that the mine cart structure that sits on top of the inclined base was an unnecessary element. Stan thought it looked somewhat toy-like which was representative of the overall piece because of its tabletop scale. I would like to make this structure life size (although probably not a task I would be able to tackle for practical reasons). Stephanie and John thought the piece would be stronger without the mine cart. Stephanie made a very good point, that I am voicing the same message three times over with this piece; the text caption, the bodyprint, and the mine cart, all say the same thing. When this was pointed out I could immediately see that the viewer's eye flicks back and forth between the mine cart and bodyprint image - they compete with each other. The bodyprint element becomes stronger on its own and the message remains the same.

I am coming around to the idea of using just the base and bodyprint... Although I love my mine cart! What is that Stephen King comment on improving your writing? That a writer needs to "kill your darlings". I can feel the pain...

Comments were also made about choice of colour. What message was the colour tone of the bodyprint sending. John called the print 'alluring' and I've had some Facebook comments about it being beautiful. We had a useful discussion about the nature of the aesthetics of an artwork and how to hook an audience with its aesthetic appeal regardless of the seriousness of the message.

My choice of using fabric to cover the base was also commented on. John commented that the structure looked 'shroud like' and similarities to the bodyprint on fabric reminding him of the Turin shroud. I've made this connection too - not sure what to make of these thoughts at the moment. To be honest I'm not totally sold on the use of fabric either. I'm still thinking about it...

Some useful references:

Primo Levi - If This is a Man

Zadie Smith - On beauty

Steffi Klenz

Pauline Boudry/Renate Lorenz - N.O. Body

Poly Vinyl - may be useful as an alternative to my fabric printing choices.

Physical Learning Log Scan

Brighton Photo Biennial 2016 - The Dandy Lion Project

These exhibits were part of Brighton Photo Biennial 2016. We visited both venues as an organised group of OCA students and it was interesting to hear and discuss other people's viewpoints on the work.

The Dandy Lion Project

This work uses the convention of advertising and fashion photography to:

'highlight young men in cityscapes, defying stereotypical and monolithic understandings of black male identity, by adopting Edwardian-era fashion and fusing this with traditional African sartorial sensibilities.'

I had difficulty reading this work. I'll openly admit that I have a bias against fashion photography - apart from making people, clothes, and objects look cool what is the point; it's just designed to sell stuff; and even though, as the tutor Clive White pointed out, the work is subverting the genre of fashion to communicate the message of stereotyping and identity, I can't get past the fancy clothes and shoes.

Of course the colourful clothes are kind of the point of the work. They are used to create a sense of identity in order for 'tribes' to communicate their status to others. We see this all the time with teenagers, followers of particular designer brands, or members of a golf club. So in retrospect now that I've had time to think about the work I can appreciate the intent - but the visual aspect of the work itself - not so much.

One aspect of the work I also take issue with is in the curator's statement that the images challenged the traditional notion of maleness. I totally disagree with this statement. The clothes are heavily masculine in their characteristics. The men mostly wear suits, with traditional waistcoats and leather shoes. The colours and patterns are bold but the look of the clothes could not in any way represent an androgynous outlook. I think the work helps to challenge Black stereotypes but the work and the wearers of the clothes are thoroughly embedded in the gender stereotype box.

The Dandy Lion Project

Brighton Photo Biennial 2016 - Reimagine

The theme for the 2016 Brighton photo biennial deals with identity by looking at the representation of minorities and urban sub cultures through the lens of photography:

"Beyond the Bias – Reshaping Image, explores photography’s role in defining and informing our understanding of subjects such as: gender and sexuality, the representation of the body, the politics of style, subcultures and the subversion of social and cultural norms."


Reimagine

I attended as part of the OCA study group weekend and we began our trip by looking at 'Reimagine' a collaborative exhibition between two photographers, Bharat Sikka and Olivia Arthur. The project photographed LGBTQ+ people in Mumbai, India and Brighton, UK. The work shown was made on large format film, using mainly B&W for India and colour for Brighton. On a first walk through I noticed that the work appeared to be separated by photographer and that made me wonder how much collaboration had taken place.

The content of the India work appeared more somber. This is due to the nature of the subject, where LGBTQ is still a highly political issue in that country. The choice of B&W also influenced my reading of the work. I was struck by an image where a couple (men?) appeared to be embracing on a beach in the shadows at night. The figures were distant and blurred, and there was a sense of danger because of the vulnerability of being exposed in a public place but also trapped because there was no private place to go. The portraits were more relaxed and taken inside and being in a private space, contrasted well with the public space images. My reading of the images were confirmed by the statement in the artist's handout:

"When I started making work in Mumbai I focused on private spaces. In their own space a sitter can be comfortable, really be themselves. People were being open about themselves and their sexuality beyond what I had been expecting, or hoping for. But I began to realise the context was missing for the project, that I needed something to show the sitter's boldness and the cultural background they were willing to show their image in... [...] Down by the beach, on the steps by the waterfront, even on the hard shoulder alongside the freeway, couples would try to find some privacy in a dark, but very public space."  

The Brighton work appeared more relaxed and celebratory and had an element of fantasy and creativeness - mainly because the sitters were in the process of exploring themselves through clothes and body image. One of the standout portraits for me was of 'Loki". A bare chested man wearing a taffeta tutu is leaning out of a window. The room is in shadow and his body is half exposed by the sunlight. The metaphor in this image for me was all about the contrast between the projected and public face of masculinity (the bare and muscular chest juxtaposed by the lower body wearing a tutu in half shadow) and exploring a more feminine identity that needs to be kept private and suppressed - for the majority of males.

Loki "I grew up on a rough council estate. When I moved to Brighton I felt I was comfortable in a community that would accept a six-foot skinhead that could wear a taffeta tutu."

Pre-hangout post for OCA Nov study group

Here are my pre-hangout questions. I've put them at the top of this post and before my explanation of my work for ease of reference during the hangout:

• Do I go with physical pyramid shapes or prints; or both?

• The title of the work is currently 'Unnatural'. 'Target Practice' has been suggested by the Brighton crit tutor Clive White in reference to a story I relayed from the biography. The title is dynamic and engaging but 'Unnatural' more fits the ethos of the dehumanised nature of the work.

• I like the idea of bigger physical pyramids (3 feet high) but am concerned about the logistics and costs?

The background to the work can be found here:

For my BoW I'm working on making constructed imagery to reference the treatment of Homosexual men that were incarcerated in concentration camps during WWII. I have done some tentative research and read a biography of one of the men published in 1972. From this starting point I made some constructed imagery, printed them out and began to fold them into triangles. I then re-photographed the physical triangles, placing them on a tiled effect background. I liked the fractured nature of the folded images. The triangles now present only parts of images (particularly the body parts) and this fits with my idea that in order to oppress people they first have to be dehumanised. I have also tried to isolate the triangles by photographing them against a 'clinical' background.

For more background there is a link to my assignment 1 here and a selection of images below:

assignment 1

Notes:

• I've had feedback from my tutor with some very useful points of reference to follow up and some further reading which I am about to undertake.
• I've finished the biography of the concentration camp survivor and this has thrown up a number of new images so I made some sketches.
• I'm also torn between the final prints and the physical triangles. The triangles are more tactile and I've also (since reading the biography) been thinking about making other shapes and creating an installation.
• The OCA crit at the recent Brighton Photo-Biennial was also useful. Clive White suggested the triangles would look good in a much larger physical form (about three feet high) and could imagine the viewer moving through them in a gallery space. I really like this idea and I agree that the tactical nature of the physical pyramids (as opposed to prints) is very appealing to me.

Update:

The session went well and the allocated hour went very fast indeed. Apart from the tutor Peter Haveland there was one other student (John Umney) beside myself. We discussed John's thinking around the curation of a contemporary landscape exhibition he will be putting together. I found Peter's suggestion on how to approach this very informative.

I presented my triangle work (the current working title is 'Unnatural' and may end up as 'Target Practice'). We discussed the problem of the re-photographed images looking flat as prints. They come alive as physical folded objects and this is very much in line with my thinking too. I am constantly drawn back to the physical pyramids/triangles; so much so that I hardly ever think about the prints now. We talked about size and scale of the objects themselves and the possible outcome for exhibition. One option that was suggested by both Peter and John was to use video to record the triangles in a space. By moving the camera around, the physicality of the objects would be much more apparent than in the prints. This is a very interesting idea; one that I hadn't quite reached in my own thinking at present as I am more consumed with just making more images at the moment. I will definitely experiment with video to see how it comes out.

I was also asked about the meaning behind the tiled backdrop for the print version of the work. I explained my thinking on this although how the work is read and perceived by the viewer will have different readings.

I found this session productive and will definitely join up to more hangouts in the future.

Documenting Nazi Persecution of Gays: Josef Kohout/Wilhelm Kroepfl Colle...

The Men with the Pink Triangle - Heinz Heger

The Men with the Pink Triangle (Heger, 1989.) is the first biography that tells of the atrocities committed on Homosexual men in concentration camps during World War II. The narrative is told from the perspective of Josef Kohout who at 22 years old was imprisoned under paragraph 175 of the Nazi's newly strengthened laws against homosexuality. His sexuality had been discovered because of a message Josef had written in a Christmas card to his lover. Kohout answered a knock at the door of his family home to a Nazi official, was ordered to report to a local interrogation centre, and was not seen by his mother again for over five years; by this time he was a broken man, both physically and mentally. His parents were ostracized by friends and neighbours because of their sons supposed 'crime' and Josef's father eventually committed suicide because he was unable to cope with the long suffering abuse. As a young man, full of hopes and dreams of becoming an architect, Josef left the house that day never to see his father again.

Once Josef returned home to his mother he had to again suffer under the identity of a 'homosexual degenerate criminal'; one enforced on him by the local people and he endured the shame of the judgement of others; people that had most likely participated (even by being neutral) in the Nazi regime in some form or another.

Josef was lucky. Many men convicted of homosexuality were returned to prison after their abuse and torture in the camps - their time having no effect on the length of sentence served. For these men there was no liberation after the war. This is a crime against humanity perpetrated by democratic countries and the war crimes tribunals who refused to even acknowledge that homosexual men had suffered as a group under the Nazi regime.

Many decades later Josef related his time in the camp to a close friend, detailing what he saw and experienced there. The book written under the pseudonym of Heinz Heger and making no mention of Josef's real identity was published in 1972. This is only a few years after the decriminalising of homosexuality (1969) in West Germany. It was important that Josef's identity even 30 years after these events unfolded be protected.

The 1970s was a time of political awakening for many LGBT people; after decriminalisation Gay people were openly coming together and taking a stance against majority cultural oppression and brutality. Dissemination of collated gay life experiences were helping to inform a political LGBT identity; they shone a light on the injustice that many had suffered and who had no-one to tell their tale. The Men with the Pink Triangle is a very important hidden history and I will be returning again to the events that took place in the camps to make images that will inform my body of work.



Heger, H. (1989). The Men With The Pink Triangle. London, UK: GMP Publishers Ltd.

Assignment 1 - Unnatural

9th August:

For my first level 3 assignment I need to make around 30 images and reflect on how my work takes inspiration or relates to a particular genre. "Don't spend too much time considering what you'll do - get started as soon as possible".

I have a couple of ideas that I want to explore for the duration of this course. Which one to choose first is the question. In the end I went online and did some brief research and this fired my imagination enough for me to want to start making props for one of them. This is always a good sign for me - to have a couple of strong visual images to get me going that will hopefully lead to a body of work.

So the idea that I am going to tentatively pursue is based on the abuse and murder of Gay men in Nazi concentration camps during WWII. There is very little history written about this minority group as at the time Homosexuality was illegal in most of Europe and their issues and treatment was considered inconsequential. Much of the information is anecdotal and has not been recorded - except in journals and autobiographies published decades after these events took place.  

This assignment is an exercise designed to get started and to practice creative play skills without worrying too much about where the project may lead. So I'm not delving too deep into the research at this early stage. I have a couple of strong visual images in my head that I want to make. These relate to the murder of a young Gay man in a camp who was stripped naked, had a bucket placed over his head, and was then mauled to death by the guard's German Shepherd dogs. Grim stuff...

I ordered one of the most famous autobiographies second hand through Amazon and will use this as source material for image ideas. But also, I don't just want to make literal representations; I want to conceptualise this information and incorporate it into the wider aspect of Identity and reference how representation by the majority can strip minority identity and enforce a negative 'Other' identity in its place.

It's early days yet though. I'm just going to order props, make work, and see where it takes me...

11th August:

The bucket's arrived. Time to get bashing! I couldn't wait to make my first shot so when the bucket was sufficiently dented I did a test shoot on my partner against a blank piece of wall.

I really like this image. I have in mind a friend who is much closer in age to the young man I read about. Hopefully he will be prepared to model some of the props for me. But I've made my first photograph and it feels good to pick up my camera. 

12th August:

I've accumulated a tub of barbed wire, some pink fabric to make pink triangles and some striped material to make a scrap of prison uniform. I'm sure most people are aware of the triangle categorisation used to identify concentration prisoners.

"Originally intended as a badge of shame, the pink triangle (often inverted from its Nazi usage) has been reclaimed as an international symbol of Gay pride and the Gay rights movement, and is second in popularity only to the rainbow flag.

Every prisoner had to wear a downward-pointing triangle on their jacket, the colour of which was to categorise them by 'kind'. Other colours identified Jewish people (two triangles superimposed as a yellow star), political prisoners, Jehovah's Witnesses, 'anti-social' prisoners, and others the Nazis deemed undesirable. Pink and yellow triangles could be combined if a prisoner was deemed to be Gay and Jewish."

13th August:

I've fashioned a barbed wire necklace to use as a prop. This image uses metaphor to connote suffering as one possible meaning rather than any literal translation of something I've read. 

17th August:

My model, Rik has come over and we've improvised some shots against a tiled backdrop that I've concocted from a roll of wallpaper, a piece of hardboard, and some clips. The shoot was a great success in as much as Rik was a very willing participant in my craziness. I'd also made some props from the barbed wire, got hold of some fake theatrical blood and some fresh flowers. Apart from the bucket allusion to a historical event, for the rest of the shoot I went with a free-flow of thoughts and ideas to see where they would take me. I felt a bit nervous doing this. I am usually fairly meticulous with my planning.

18th August:

I've made some more images. Apart from the bucket shot I'm not sure about the others. They are very literal interpretations mostly. I need to keep reminding myself that these are not the final images. They are a starting point. There is a part two to this idea which I haven't detailed here yet. I'm at that point when self doubt is creeping in and I have to hold out rather than make any knee jerk decisions about the work. Where am I going with all this?

One shot that I do like is of a briefcase I took down to Folkestone and flung against a wall. In order for the Nazis to begin to strip away a person's humanity, various new societal restrictions needed to take place. The loss of freedoms, unable to do certain jobs, travel to certain places in a city, and curfews are all a part of the process that led to the concentration camps. 

This shot refers to medical experiments to 'cure' the Gayness. It doesn't quite work. I have an idea for another shot and will redo this one at some point.

I made my scrap of prisoner uniform and tried some shots against a fence. No pun intended!

I can't say that I really like them that much. I'm at the stage were I need to think about sending what I have to my tutor, detailing my concerns and hoping I eventually find a way to move forward. I'm still undecided.

On our way out for coffee I was discussing the problem of the literalness of the photographs with Gerry; how I need to be more conceptual in my thinking. My critical ideas around identity that have brought me to this point in the course needs to be more incorporated into the work somehow. I'm not making work about Nazi concentration camp victims alone. It is more than that.

This is where I point out that these images are only intended to form the first part of my project. I want to take my photographs and conceptualise them in some way. I've just recently returned from an extended trip around California, Oregon and Washington State in America. Because we are both creative types, my partner Gerry and myself wanted to do an art project as part of our travels

We conceived of the idea of making small structures in the landscape using whatever natural materials might be to hand. We decided to call them 'Citadels' as a sort of reference to a Gay couple living in a world that is mainly aligned to the Heterosexual majority - and how that affects our rights and freedoms. I usually refer to this model as the 'Heterosexual Binary Gender Matrix'.

Here are some of the images we made along the way:

The  last image is particularly special to me as it was made to memorialise the Orlando 49 who were murdered in Florida while we were on our trip.

What I wanted to do was to incorporate my photographs into new structures, a bit like the Citadels. I would fold the photographs that I've made and sew them into pink cloth triangles. These would be incorporated into structures and placed in reflective spaces, like woodland or alongside streams etc. 

My thinking on this is not totally clear at the moment. I can't help but feel this is all a bit cobbled together and tenuous to say the least. But what is it that the assessment says about risk taking? I always score highly for taking risks that have successful outcomes. Maybe I should stick with it for now...

August 19th:

I know I have the skills to make something of this work if I wanted to. Is it because I am not fully committed to the initial idea? Is it a grain of an idea that has run out of steam early on in the process? Having the confidence to know when to toss an idea into the bin and start again is also something I have learnt to do on this degree pathway.

Either way, I will send what I have to my tutor for advice and document my concerns along with it.    

August 20th:

Okay. A complete and utter turnaround has occurred. I doggedly pursued my concept and printed out my images onto A4 photo paper and began experimenting with folding them into triangles. This was initially to show my tutor how the images would be sewn into the pink cloth triangles for the new 'Citadel' type structures. My notes would explain how little enthusiasm I had for the project...

As soon as parts of my images began to fragment I could see that I had something! The literalness of the images dissolved into something much more interesting! They became fragmented parts of the narrative of violence and dehumanisation that I was alluding to! I did not need to sew them into cloth triangles and make new 'Citadel' structures. I had something right here with these paper triangles. 

I spent the rest of the day experimenting and getting inky black fingers from paper folding. 

These are the preliminary shots I'm sending to my tutor for assignment 1. I'm feeling very pleased with what I have so far and now it is definitely time to send them off and await tutor feedback. 

October 30th:

I had a Skype session with my tutor Keith Roberts. I'm still not sure how I feel about video sessions as I am so used to dealing with the written report and reflecting on it. This isn't a criticism. It just takes me a long time to get used to changes like this. Luckily my tutor also summarised the session and supplied in written form the references and links that we spoke about. The feedback was positive and the references will be very useful. I will particularly find useful a PHD thesis that references art's response to the homosexual concentration camp experiences - rather a surprise to be know that this work has been written about. There really is nothing new in art. With this and the other references I will be combing through them all in the next couple of weeks before I begin my next assignment and I will make separate posts for each one that I will link to here:

The question was raised on the literalness of the triangle shape. Do I need to think of different ways in which to progress this work? I'm quite stuck on the physical shape of the triangle. It is such an iconic emblem of Gay politics. We spoke about using two images with the viewer making up the final part of the triangle. This is an interesting idea that I might try to explore for the next assignment.

I feel that I'm progressing through the two courses, although it does take some getting used to switching between the assignments on the different modules.

Suggested reading/viewing

As discussed …. Go back to Jenkins’ ‘Re-Thinking History’ text … perhaps in specific relationship to bias (Page 44)

In addition to this you might want to get copies of the following:

Hirsch, M. 2012.Family Frames:Photography, Narrative and Postmemory. Cambridge. (Mass). Harvard University Press

Edwards, E. and Morton, C. (2015). Photographs, Museums, Collections : Between Art and Information. London. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Conceptual Photography

Conceptual Art began as a rejection of the aesthetic and Fine Art principles of the traditional art world. Marcel Duchamp's 'Readymades' in 1917 could be considered the first attempt to break away from the importance of technique and skill when making art. It wasn't until the 1960s that Conceptual Art really went mainstream and became known by the wider public - although that isn't to say that it was well received or accepted. Since this time photography has frequently been used as a tool to engage with ideas and make conceptual work.

Conceptual Art has to be about something, rather than just an aesthetic or pictorial ideal. To quote the Source video "What Is Conceptual Art" It has to "come with a rich collection of ideas, analysis, intertextuality, and or historical referencing." That these rich ideas cannot always be instantly read when looking at conceptual work, and usually has to be accompanied by an artist's statement, can be a cause of complaint by the viewer. The idea overrides everything else. Although that does not mean that work made within this genre cannot have anaesthetic appeal; it is just not a primary consideration.

Since the 1960s Conceptual work has continued to evolve and the meaning has become blurred or encompassed more kinds of Art that may not have been considered conceptual before. The terms "anti-emotional", "anti-personal", and "anti-subjective" have been used to describe conceptual photography. While I can see these terms being useful as a rough guide to help categorise types of work I particularly take issue with the term "anti-subjective". How is that even possible? Some artists argue that all work has an idea behind it, so therefore all work is conceptual. I would say that the framework of ideas that surround conceptual art photography has become generally incorporated as a working method for many art photographers.  Work can be aesthetically pleasing or not. But work that does not have a strong concept can be weak.

The image below is from a Gesture & Meaning assignment. I made it as part of a series that looks at stereotyping in advertising. I used digital cut-outs from old advertising campaigns to construct a point of view on sexism, minority representation and other aspects of stereotyping by the media. The concept was foremost in my mind when making the work, although aesthetic considerations such as, composition were not ignored.  

This piece of work "Family. Armoured. Fetish. Consumer." also from the Gesture & Meaning course, looks at identity groups that make up aspects of our personalities. As the whole sequence was made to fit a concept I believe that it can be considered conceptual in outlook.

Psychogeography

The Filbert Steps, Telegraph Hill, San Francisco.

"Mindfully engaging with a physical place, looking at the geography, landmarks, and architecture and responding to them in a literary or artistic manner."

I think most of us (photographers) have used these techniques many times when making work. To have a conceptual term like psychogeography as a framework for analysing and critiquing the work is useful. For previous assignments I've made images both at the location of my childhood home and were I now live. Both pieces were successful because of an ability to relate to the landscape in a personal way. Personal identification with an area or building adds authenticity that is usually perceived by the viewer and makes the work stronger.

OCA student Jodie Taylor's work 'Memories from Childhood' is a case in point. The images are used in the course notes for this section on genres and psychogeography. In the work I was instantly drawn to the similarity in environments in which I grew up. As a kid listlessly hanging around behind the public garages on a hot summer's day, is something I distinctly remember doing. Taylor's images connected me to that memory so strongly I could even smell baked concrete. It is through the photographer's subjective interpretation of place that connections can be made with viewers that may share a commonality of experience. Other viewers with vastly different backgrounds will pass over images such as this.

I do not think it is possible to provide an objective depiction of a place. Although many claim to do so. Bias is within all of us. We are influenced by our upbringing, culture, and formed points of view. And I don't think there is anything wrong with that. It is when points of view are presented as fact and objective that photographic works unravels in my opinion.