NICOLA L'S RED COAT | STUDY SKILLS

Nicola L, a woman in the Pop

Nicola L is a French artist, born in 1937 in Morocco but she lived in New York for a long time.

She is one of the women artists in the movement of Pop Art. 

How women has always been omitted from the canon of this movement, is the major inspiration for Nicola’s works. Her practice is mainly based on functional objects like sculptures, but with a purpose, they can be lamps, chest of drawers or coats. All these works resembles feminine shapes. When Nicola L went to New York for the first time, in 1967, she was overwhelmed by the magnificence of this city. It was incredibly active, revolutionary, innovative and different. The artist was highly influenced by the Pop Art in this city.

Nicola can set an example of artist who used this language to reflect upon the role of women in society at that time.

The Red Coat for 11 people, is one of the main works of Nicola L. It was created in occasion of a Music Festival in 1970. This coat enclosed the idea of “same skin for everybody”. Everybody is and has to be the same. Because of its immediate success, Nicola decided to travel with the coat. It brought a highly social meaning, because once the eleven people were inside, they were the same. The artist has the role of director. The most recent exhibition of the coat was in London in 2015. A video about it is kept in the Tate website. 

My understanding about this video, let me reflect about the impact caused to the public. It is funny but curious at the same time. It is an example of experimentation with the manner in which the body interacts with the artwork. The trumpet player who accompanies the group increases the sense of curiosity, because we don’t really know if it refers to jazz music in New York in the 60’s or if it is a sort of busking around the streets.

If we think about the concept of “same skin for everybody”, we think of a world-referred message which can therefore be related to other things. From both the past and the present times. It can be related to race equalities and no discrimination as well. 

A personal reflection to conclude my review, can be that art and music are probably the unique languages we all understand and are able to interpret. Nicola L set the example of an artists who reworked this concept with her skills, provoking me happiness, curiosity and restlessness.

Bibliography:

Frigeri, Flavia (september 2015) curator of the video. Tate Modern website.

  (http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/nicola-ls-red-coat-tateshots)

Nicola L’s Red Coat, Tate Shots (17 september 2015) Tate Modern website.

 (http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/nicola-ls-red-coat-tateshots)

The EY Exhibition: The World Goes Pop (17 september 2015) Tate Modern website.

 (http://www.tate.org.uk/about/press-office/press-releases/ey-exhibition-world-goes-pop)

THE PASSPORT AND 4WEEKS 1PAGE

Our identity, our journey, our Passport.

My Passport contains the course of my life since the last couple of years.
Its pages tells stories about me. About where I am from, where I am living now, what are my passions about, what I love and what I am afraid of or most commonly called, my fears.
From the first to the last page the observers can find things which tell something about me. From the objects I am fond of to quotes I believe in.
Through the use of various materials, patterns, photographs, drawings and colours I have been able to express myself. To express my mood during the creative process.

Here is a collection of my favourite pages of the project.

An overall look at the Passport. 

I am now living in England and this (picture above) is a graphic representation of London from above with the shape of the river Thames used as a path where I can walk. Where I can spend my journey.

Author's own.

Everybody needs it, but somebody does not have it yet. No, it is not a riddle.

I am talking about Freedom. Not freedom to vote, but freedom to be, to live and to express ourselves for what we really are.

The vortex of love. The vortex of life. The vortex of the storm.
Author's own.

I had my inspiration about this page (picture above) when I found on the floor in my College a copper wire. The aim of many artists is to reuse "dead" objects. To keep them alive. That is what I did.
I modeled this wire in a spiral shape to reach the concept of Vortex.

I am quite an introverted person, but with this project I have been able to show myself and burst within the use of some pages.
 

"Remember to work hard,

be nice to people

and try not to get lost or killed"
MrBenBrown (YouTuber and Filmmaker)

4Weeks 1Page

This is my big format project to sum up the first four weeks of studies at Ravensbourne.It includes drawings and digital images made with Photoshop about my personal objects.I chose to use files with vivid and saturated colours which includes photographs, drawings, scans and patterns. The choice of the typeface gives a sense of fun with the blend of different fonts and shapes.

Author's own.

DRAWING SESSION | THE PASSPORT

Visual drawing

On the 12th September we have been introduced to visual drawing techniques.
For the realization of the first project "passport" we are representing our six personal chosen objects in different ways through the use of visual representation, photographs and photocopies. The aim is to show different perspectives through our works.

One of the objects I chose is a miniature of a Smurf, given to me from my best friend as a little reminder of her and good luck present.

Author's own.

Representation of the object as it is, with lights and shadows. Author's own.

Representation of the object with the use of its negative spaces. Author's own.

Creation of a pattern with the negative space drawing. Author's own.

Colour

During the 16th of september session we talked about colour.

Colour is a way of communication which can change how things like photographs, videos or drawings appear to our eyes. It is used to identify groups, identity or brands and to organise and navigate. 

Its use can define political, religious and cultural connotations, represent gender and as believed by the artist Kandinsky, have emotional and physical effects on us. Colour can also improve or memory, influence buying decisions, tell meaning and stories. 

There are various examples in art, design and film-making about the use of colour. Here are some.

Jackson Pollock painting.

Mondrian, composition with Red, Yellow and Blue.

Notebooks, "Hey" Spanish graphic design studio.

Hue
Is the main property of a colour, infact hue is the colour itself.
Shade

A shade is a mixture of any colour with black, which reduces brightness.

Tint

A tint is a lighter  or darker variation of a colour.

Tone
The tone is the lightness or darkness of something. Different tones are created by the way light falls on a 3D object. This process creates highlights and shadows.
Saturation
Saturation defines the actual amount of hue in a colour. From a pure one (100%) to gray (0%). A pure colour is then fully saturated.

After the introduction and research of the main terminologies of colour, we started to apply each of them in our drawings of objects.
I firstly created in my sketchbook some palettes (picture No. 1) for another of my objects, a NYC taxi cab travel souvenir. Each of which tells something about the object, its history or what it refers to.

No. 1 Author's own.

After the first process, we used the colours in these palettes on other drawings to give them different perspectives and character. Here is my example.

Author's own.

These sessions about drawings and the use of colour gave me the opportunity to learn and understand a process made of different steps which can be used to get to a final outcome.

SOUTHBANK CENTRE | THE PASSPORT

Adopting Britain

On the 5th September, after visiting the British Museum we moved to the Southbank Centre to see an exhibition called "Adopting Britain".
As reported from the major news issuers, immigration has been a hot theme recently for Europe and Britain. We daily hear and read of thousand of desperate migrants escaping from their home countries and looking for hope and maybe a new "home" in Europe.
The exhibition shows and tells us about migration in Britain in the past and nowadays, with stories of immigrants from Middle-Eastern and other European countries. Some statistics are shown about how Britain contributed in Europe and in the world as new "migrants home".

As an immigrant in this country I feel even more involved in this theme and interested by the stories of migrants that are now integrated and living here.

Author's own.

Author's own.

The two pictures above contains and exhibit experiences and stories or migrants and visitors all over the world. I see this walls as a sort of "feedback" from them as well.

Italians have been, in the past and in the present, one of the many population to immigrate in Britain. They mostly came from southern Italy, and they did not bring their families or relatives only but unobtainable supplies like olive oil, pasta, coffee and exotic vegetables as well. Local British shopkeepers used to call this kind of food "nasty foreign muck". 

Numerous new communities started to spring up around London like the Luton and Dunstable one shown in the picture below.

Author's own.

"They settled and integrated but they stayed Italian"

BRITISH MUSEUM | THE PASSPORT

The beginning

On Saturday 5th of september we visited an exhibition at the British Museum.

It was not the first time for me as a visitor but it was as an observer. Infact, we have been asked to look for interesting objects and prints to reproduce, discover and be inspired by. Different historical periods, populations, expressions and influences are grouped in this huge place.
In addition to observe the exhibition itself, I found interesting to focus of the surrounding environment like architectures, sounds, smells and the change of temperatures between different rooms.

British Museum, main entrance. Author's own.

British Museum, main hall. Author's own.

I have visited and observed two sections in particular: the Korean-American art and Ancient Italian and Greek art in Italy. Two completely different ages and populations which interested me to take some notes and drawings of some objects.  Here is an example of Korean-American art: Evolution/Revolution/Resolution by Nam June Palk (series of eight lithographs).

1. French revolutionary Marat. Part of the series "Evolution/Revolution/Resolution".

2. Sketch of the lithography in picture no1.

3. This is the complete series "Evolution/Revolution/Resolution" of lithographs made by Nam June Palk

When I saw these posters for the first time I immediately found them interesting. The placement of objects (televisions) used like a sort of collage to compose robots in different shapes and poses caught my attention.  The series tells about the French Revolution, just represented in a modern way and with the use of modern sources. How historical ages refer to each other is impressive to me. The French Revolution represented by an American-Korean artist in 1989. The result stunning. Each print represent a revolutionary or french historical character: Danton, Marat, Olympe de Gouges, Diderot, Voltaire, David, Rousseau and Robespierre (sequence from picture number 3). 

Another exhibition I found interesting at the British Museum was: "Ancient Italian and Greek art in Italy". I was particularly attracted from this part because it related to my origins, my past and the history of my people. Various sculptures and utensils were grouped here, but I suddenly focused on a daily-use object: Griffin's head amphora (picture below).

Amphora made in Apulia/Puglia a southern region of Italy about 360-350 BC, by the Apulian vases painter "Iliupersis". The reason I chose this item is because it made me reflect about the big differences between daily utensils in the past and nowadays. Today if we think of a cup, we only see its practical use which is to store water. This Apulian amphora looks more like an artefact or an ornament instead of a simple cup. 

I made some sketches of this cup because the difference between past and present I explained in the lines above unleashed some thoughts in my mind.

"Not only the use and the appearance of objects changed over time, but people and places had to adapt either".