Location | London: Meet Field School Blogger Victoria Parker-Poitras

Tell us a little bit about yourself—your background, major program of study, reasons for taking this trip, and anything else interesting you want to share (maybe something people might not know about you).

Hi everyone! My name is Victoria and I am the resident music student on this field school. I am about to enter into my fourth and final year of the music program at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Creativity has always been a huge part of my life. From a young age I was dancing, writing stories and drawing pictures. As I got older my creativity expanded into music and I never looked back. My main instrument is clarinet but I play a variety of other instruments and have intent on learning more. Once I complete my Bachelor of Music I plan to pursue my Bachelor of Education and teach music in high schools.

Victoria, at far right with the group, is a entering the fourth and final year of her Music major at KPU.

I decided to come on this field school for a few reasons. This past year I was on top of the world and was ready to push myself further, not only in music but outside of music as well. I saw this field school as an opportunity to learn about other art forms and make connections between art and music. I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone and meet new people at the same time. University is the time to experience and try new things and this field school was the perfect opportunity to do all of that. A trip to London and Venice isn’t half bad either.

 What has met or exceeded your expectations or surprised you about London so far?

I have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of music I have stumbled upon. Obviously when I knew I was going to be coming to London I began to research concerts to attend, and I have attended some. But, the amount of music I have happily stumbled upon is amazing. I have found a string quintet busking in Covent Garden, I have heard on organ in an old church and I have even heard chant being sung in a church service in a beautiful church. All of these things I just happened to stumble upon and they have all been amazing experiences that I will remember forever.

One of my fears when joining this field school was being the one person not a fine arts student. I was worried that everyone would already know each other and I would find it hard to make friends and talk to people. But I have found that even though a lot of people already know each other, I have meshed well into this group of people. It’s really interesting being around people who are creative but in a different way than I am. I have learned so much from my peers and I am in awe of their talent, kindness, and intellect. I have made some amazing friends and they have inspired me to go back into my own art form and create wonderful things, and maybe even attempting to create some visual art.

 Give us some insight into your assigned artwork from the Tate Modern. After seeing the work in person in London (and any other related art from the same artist or art movement associated with the assigned work), what struck you most about it and/or how did the artwork’s form, content, and context shift for you when seeing it.

My assigned artwork at Tate Modern was Ubu Tells the Truth (1997) by William Kentridge. This piece is loosely based on a play by French playwright Alfred Jerry called Ubu Roi. The main protagonist of Kentridge’s piece is a film camera on a tripod that sees everything and then uses that knowledge to try and wipe out non-corroborating witnesses. Documentary footage of South African police charging unarmed protestors is inter cut with Kentridge’s own drawings of political suspects being shot, hanged and stabbed among other things. This film examines the idea that by being a witness to terrible events without acting to prevent them, is someone who is just as guilty as those participating in those crimes. 

I went into this artwork completely cold. I did not watch it until I got to the Tate Modern. I wanted my experience watching it at the Tate to be completely unaltered. I am glad I waited because I felt much more engaged in the piece. Having no idea what to expect or what was going to happen made me focus more on the piece, I just wanted to know what was going to happen next.

Visually, this piece was very jarring to watch. The way it cut in between animations and live footage gave it this rough feel which was a bit uncomfortable to watch. You never felt truly comfortable watching the film. The visuals were also quite uncomfortable. There was close up footage of a real eye and Kentridge’s sketches were quite awkward to look at. What really struck me about this piece was his use of music and sound. The sound of a war generals voice over intense drumming, a woman singing alone, a children's choir. The juxtaposition of gunshots with children singing sent chills down my spine. In this respect, the piece reminded me a lot of Childish Gambino’s This is America music video.

Today's activity was a free day and the London bike tour. What were your impressions? What will you take away of the experiences of this day?  What are the most memorable moments for you?

With all the art we have been seeing on this trip I felt as though I needed to balance the art with some music. For my final free day I decided to buy tickets to go see the English National Ballet's rendition of Cinderella. I was a dancer before I was a musician. I danced for 13 years and have always loved ballet. Ballet music is also some of my favourite music. I could not pass up the opportunity to see a world class ballet company and a world class orchestra perform in a city full of culture. And what was interesting about this particular ballet is that it was being performed on a round stage, something I have never seen before. I have never seen Cinderella or heard the music for it, so I spent the week leading up to the show listening to the music on repeat. When the day came to go see the show I was so excited to hear it live.

Victoria collected many photos with her namesake all over London!

The ticket I purchased was the cheapest ticket I could find, (I'm on a budget). When I arrived at the theatre, I climbed up six flights of stairs to my nosebleed seats. When I handed the usher my ticket she informed me that I was getting a free upgrade. To row two. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a very excitable person, so I was basically skipping with glee back down the stairs to my new seat. This new seat was INCREDIBLE. I was about two feet from the stage and I had an aisle seat. I could see every emotion on the dancers faces as they beautifully told this story. I could feel the dancers running by my in the aisles. I could SMELL their cologne. It was basically the greatest day of my life. I struck up a conversation with the gentleman sitting next to me, who also received a free upgrade. After asking me if I'm American, (I'm not) he asked what I was doing in London. I told him why I was here and all the things I have experienced and the concerts I have attended. It turns out he was also at the BBC Orchestra and the London Philharmonic. He was the kindest man and I enjoyed conversing with him.

After the ballet I raced back to the hostel to meet up with the rest of the group for the bike tour. I have not ridden a bike in probably five years. I'm not a well-balanced person on my own two feet so going on a bike was a little nerve racking. Even though I was nervous, I still had a lot of fun. It was interesting seeing London from a new point of view and exploring places I never would have found on my own. This final day in London was the best I could have asked for. I was on top of the world the entire day. This entire trip has been an absolute whirlwind but a much needed one. After spending some time feeling uninspired and lost, this trip has rejuvenated my drive and my creative spirit.

Victoria, third from the right, along with some of the group, enjoying a bike ride, on our final night in London.

To see more photos and impressions of London and Venice as the field school continues, check out our Instagram feed and follow us at #kpulondonvenice

Location | London: Meet Field School Blogger Lily Saghar

Tell us a little bit about yourself—your background, major program of study, reasons for taking this trip, and anything else interesting you want to share (maybe something people might not know about you).

Hello! I’m Lily and I am an international student from Iran. I came to Canada in 2018 to study fine arts and to experience living and studying abroad. At the beginning it was quite challenging to live all alone far from my family and home, but after a while it became easier and more interesting and I fell in love with Vancouver and its people, and now I am even thinking to stay there even when I finish my studies. As you can guess, I like to travel and study in different countries and get familiar with new cultures and their art, so as soon as I heard about the field school, I applied for it even though I knew it would be even more challenging for me regarding getting the VISA (which was not the easiest thing to do due to political conflictions between Iran and other countries) and also taking third year courses for the first time in second language. I am mostly focusing on painting and would like to become a painter but I also enjoy studying psychology and I am planning to get a minor in psychology after I finish my BFA program.

Lily, an international student from Iran, is seen here third from the left along with Shonel, Angela, Celesta, Leah, and Allison, down along the Thames River.

What has met or exceeded your expectations or surprised you about London (or Venice) so far?

I am really surprised by the art world and galleries in London. I knew London is a great city for studying and seeing art but I am still surprised by the fact that you can see any type of art anywhere here whether it is in an art gallery or a street or a café, and I think people in London try to engage themselves with art and it seems like they like to know and study about it. I also like that many of museums and art galleries are admission free in London and I believe this leads people to see art more often and to know more about artists and artworks. I’m also enjoying all the cute and cozy coffee shops and love spending hours at these places to have a tea and do my journals. And one more thing that I would never forget about London is its historical and beautiful architecture that you can see all over the city.

Lily posing by St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Give us some insight into your assigned artwork from the Tate Modern. After seeing the work in person in London (and any other related art from the same artist or art movement associated with the assigned work), what struck you most about it and/or how did the artwork’s form, content, and context shift for you when seeing it.

My assigned artwork from the Tate Modern is Skull Snap by James Rosenquist (1989). This piece is created by acrylic paint, dye and lithograph on paper and also collaged elements and it is mainly about the power of money and more specifically the dollar. By reading and searching about this artwork I knew that the scale should be big but I still got a new and different type of feeling once that I saw it at Tate Modern. For me, seeing it in person was very different than seeing it on the screen. Just the same as this artwork I was quite surprised by seeing Bridget Riley’s artwork, my other assigned artist, too. I can even say that seeing Riley’s work in person made me way more excited and surprised compared to Rosenquist’s art piece. Every time that I looked at Riley’s art, it felt like it was the first time that I’m seeing it and I could look at it for a long time.

How did you approach the creative task of responding to your assigned artists in studio? What were your challenges as an artist to be in dialogue with the artwork and artist? Would you do anything differently now that you have seen the work in person?

To me responding to Bridget Riley’s artwork was more interesting and easier because I would personally rather paint or draw when it comes to choosing my mediums. Even though I never tried to create an art in op art style before, I always enjoyed looking at this type of art. For Rosenquist’s work I enjoyed that I could convey a meaning behind my work but I found using collaged elements a little bit more challenging than what I expected (see art projects by Lily below, first one responding to Riley and the second to Rosenquist). By seeing the artworks in person there is not really something specific that I might want to change in my projects but I would definitely continue knowing more about op art and I’ll try to do more of this type of artwork.

Today’s activity was a free day to yourself in London. What were your impressions? What will you take away of the experiences of this day?  What are the most memorable moments for you?

Today was a free day except that we had to go to an art gallery and choose two artworks to write about that we at first did not like and/or liked. In order to complete my journal I went to both Tate Modern and Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as V&A), and I mostly spent my time at V&A since it was my most favorite museum among all the art galleries and museums that we visited during the time that we were in London. What I really liked about V&A was that it had lots of different artworks from all around the world and from ancient times to present. The museum also owned a very large collection of sculptures that were made during Renaissance in Italy but most of them were casts of the original ones. Still, I got excited that I could see some artworks and sculptures that I’ve studied about before and got some information about. V&A was also the only museum that I could find artworks from my country and middle east; looking at those artworks and seeing familiar names was quite enjoyable for me because it made me feel like I’m back at home, so I can say that was one of the most memorable moments for me on that day.

To see more photos and impressions of London and Venice as the field school continues, check out our Instagram feed and follow us at #kpulondonvenice

Location | London: Meet Field School Blogger Adam Plottel

Tell us a little bit about yourself—your background, major program of study, reasons for taking this trip, and anything else interesting you want to share (maybe something people might not know about you).

My name is Adam Plottel, and I’m in my third (and a half) year into my fine arts program. Two years ago, I graduated from Langara College with a Diploma of Fine Arts, but I’ve always wanted to further my art practice, and so after a year off I came to KPU. Until recently I hadn’t been exploring anything specific in my practice, but that changed this spring when I first started to experiment with site-specific art as part of special-topics course about landscape art. As I’ve gone through my third year, I’ve found myself having a bit of an identity crisis when it comes to my art. Coming into the program part way through, I felt a disconnect between my art and everyone else’s, and my tendency to compare myself to others didn’t help my self-esteem. But when I first found out about the field school, I felt it in my gut that this is what I needed to reinvigorate my drive and absorb some fresh ideas to use in my practice. Even just going through the classes leading up to this trip has really been eye-opening, and helped give me the courage to fully embrace my foray into a new kind of art practice.

What has met or exceeded your expectations or surprised you about London (or Venice) so far?

Well considering how new this experience is for me I’d say EVERYTHING is surprising. I’m absolutely falling in love with this city. When I walk down the street, I can feel the energy of the city pulsing out of the numerous pubs and cafes that line the old cobblestone roads, and in the people that pass me by. London seamlessly combines elements of new with the old. You can see the skyscrapers from behind the preserved brick buildings, and the museums we’ve been to have been a mix of avant-garde design contrasted with the gothic architecture of the surroundings. What I found really comforting is how similar the weather is to Vancouver. It’s nice to have a respite from the heat in the rain, even if I don’t always dress appropriately for it. But I’ve learned my lesson, and I can say never choose fashion over function in London folks! Every day we’ve been here has been fully packed with activities and outings and yet I still feel like I’ve barely experienced this city and all it has to offer. I almost don’t want to leave for Venice!

Adam, pictured on the left side of the photograph seating and leaning forward, is a fine arts student in the final year of his BFA program at KPU.

Give us some insight into your assigned artwork from the Tate Modern. After seeing the work in person in London (and any other related art from the same artist or art movement associated with the assigned work), what struck you most about it and/or how did the artwork’s form, content, and context shift for you when seeing it.

I think my assigned artist was really a perfect conduit to explore some complex ideas and force me out of my slump so to speak. Protect Protect by Jenny Holzer (2017) is from a series of hers where she paints over declassified documents from the Iraq Invasion and the war on terror. Holzer herself usually works with language as a medium and has worked with light projections and site-specific works. She herself admits in her interview with Kiki Smith for Interview magazine that she is a “bad painter”, so it’s interesting how she’s attempting to reconcile it with these washes on top of her military maps. For the record, the language she uses in her work is generally not her own, separating her artist persona from the work in order to not distract from the conversation she hopes is sparked by her art. Seeing as how the specific piece I was assigned is a print, it wasn’t much different seeing it in person than on a screen, although the size of it was a bit surprising. However, seeing it next to another in its series added some context. Having the ability to see how the U.S. military has chosen their language in these maps and what has and hasn’t been declassified really highlights current and past attitudes towards the whole Iraq war. The paintings provide a cold reading of the aggression towards Iraq through words such as “shock and awe”, “seize”, “isolate” and “exploit”. Holzer intended for this series to inspire conversation removed from the sensational war images that dominated news coverage of the time, so that people could really grapple with the implications of America’s role in this major event. Ironically, I feel like hanging these in a contemporary art gallery kind of robs them of their ability to spark conversation, at least in the literal sense, since you don’t generally discuss deep, multi-faceted political issues in an art gallery. Or maybe that’s just me. I tend to keep those conversations in places where I don’t have to worry about disturbing others since they tend to get a bit shouty. The two “paintings” are in their own room as part of a larger collection of Holzer’s work, which includes some of her LED pieces, that were flashing through the doorway onto the wall. I wouldn’t say that aided or diminished my reading of the piece, but it’s something I kept noticing as I was initially taking it in.

How did you approach the creative task of responding to your assigned artists in studio? What were your challenges as an artist to be in dialogue with the artwork and artist? Would you do anything differently now that you have seen the work in person?

Adam seeing one of his assigned art works, Maggie Hambling’s 2016 (2016), at Tate Britain for the first time.

Given that neither Dorothy nor Elizabeth had had me as a student before, their initial assignment for me was something that utterly confused me. Thankfully I got the opportunity to switch up my first assigned artist and ended up with 2016 (2016) by Maggi Hambling. 2016 is an oil painting depicting a boat sinking beneath the turbulent waves of the sea. Hambling painted it in response to images she saw of refugees drowning in the Mediterranean Sea trying to escape to freedom. Since we were working in a short amount of time, and I knew I didn’t have the talent (or energy) to make something of that magnitude, I decided to revisit an idea I had played with in my landscape class from the previous semester. I worked with something called hydrophobic spray, which is generally used to waterproof shoes and tents and such, but as it turns out is also really good for making waterproof art! Who knew? My original intention was to create a stencil and apply it to the pavement outside, so that the piece would react to the rain and only appear at certain times, but facilities had some “objections”. In my desperation I bought a canvas right before class and sprayed it on. While Hambling doesn’t really deal with the ephemeral in her piece, she does draw inspiration from her own outrage at social issues, so I decided to roll with that. “Feel like dying? Sink on your own” was my way of articulating my frustration with the world’s lack of meaningful response to climate change, and how despite overwhelming evidence, people still have the gall to say things like “but it snowed this year”, or “even if it’s true it won’t affect me since I’ll be dead by then anyway”. The boat was my attempt to maintain at least a superficial relation with Hambling’s original piece.  As I sprayed the canvas with water, the words appeared, and as it dried so did the words disappear (see images of art work and performance below).

For my second piece, I was able to further work with language as it was relevant to Holzer’s practice. In my endeavor to emulate her use of government documents, I chose to use something related to the Canadian government. I think I was still channeling my rage from my previous project as I chose to focus on our government's lackluster attempts at reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. This time, I wanted to do something a little more permanent, while still working with the performance aspect that my hydrophobic spray allowed (see images of art work and performance below) . On the left is an image of Jody Wilson-Raybould, who this year was removed from her role as Minister of Justice for her stance on indigenous reconciliation. The right image is a map taken from the website of the Coastal Gaslink pipeline, which the RCMP enforced an injunction against the wet’suwet’en band in order to put it through. My idea was to spray ink-tinged water to reveal a quote from Justin Trudeau’s speech on reconciliation from a year ago, the ink staining the words on top of these images, forcing the audience to acknowledge the permanence of these conflicting actions and statements, and how they’ll always colour any future efforts to reconcile with indigenous peoples. That these words won’t fade with time, and we will have to make great strides in the future to move past them so that they don’t define our relationship with each other.

Today’s activity was located at Shoreditch and included a street art tour. What were your impressions? What will you take away of the experiences of this day?  What are the most memorable moments for you?

I was really prepared for our excursion today, since I had been on the Bristol street art tour on Sunday. What I liked about our guide, Dave Stuart from London Shoreditch Street Art Tours, was how he described street art and graffiti culture, and how the various artists we looked at influenced the scene in London. Our first stop was at the Splice Post Building to see the work of Camille Walala, who had painted the exterior in bright colours, turning the windows into film reels. Also, on that building we saw a commissioned piece by Aida Wilde, who was poking fun at her spot’s use as a smoking corner. Dave talked about the different spaces graffiti and street art operate in, especially who they are meant for. Graffiti, he explained, was made by graffiti artists, for other graffiti artists. We are not the intended audience, as graffiti is mostly a way for people to mark territory and show off their skills to others in the field as a tagger. We got to see a tag commemorating the loss of three young graffiti artists who lost their lives doing a dangerous tag on a raised train track. It’s a general rule that art honouring someone’s death should never be painted over or removed to show respect, and graffiti artists closely follow that code. Street art, however, is art made by anyone, for everyone. It’s meant to interact with the community in a way that graffiti doesn’t, such as the huge Northern Ireland Civil Rights mural by Anne McCloy. Further on we got to see a work by Phlegm, who I’d also seen in Bristol.

Group photo while on the Shoreditch street art tour. Adam can be seen peeking above us all as the very tallest student at the top right of the image.

We then got to see LAST DAYS OF SHOREDITCH by Ben Eine, albeit in a partially destroyed form, as the building it was on is being torn down. The piece itself was a commentary on the gentrification of the neighbourhood of Shoreditch, lamenting the limited time left to the original residents as they were displaced by larger companies and land owners. Dave pointed out how this piece was being destroyed, but the Banksy underneath it was unanimously chosen for preservation. Ironic given how Eine’s work was given as a gift from David Cameron to Barack Obama during a state visit years ago. Eine is one of a couple living artists to currently have work displayed at the White House, yet his work was being destroyed in favour of Banksy’s work. We got to see the extinction symbol made of pennies, and Dave challenged us to recreate it at home with our own coins. We also got to see some of Ben Wilson’s chewing gum art. Honestly there was so much to cover in this tour that I can’t even begin to describe them all, but these ones particularly stood out. I can’t believe I’m in London learning about street art. Maybe I’ll have to leave my mark somewhere around here too, if Dorothy doesn’t stop egging me on!

To see more photos and impressions of London and Venice as the field school continues, check out our Instagram feed and follow us at #kpulondonvenice

Location | London: Meet Field School Blogger Angela Wells

Tell us a little bit about yourself—your background, major program of study, reasons for taking this trip, and anything else interesting you want to share (maybe something people might not know about you).

Hello everyone, I’m Angela Eszter Wells, a fourth-year Bachelor of Fine Arts student at Kwantlen Polytechnic University about to complete my final required course. Yes it’s one of the field school courses! As well, I have recently completed my Bachelor of Arts, major in Creative Writing at KPU.

Angela, a fourth year Fine Arts student and recent graduate of the Creative Writing BFA program at KPU, examines a painting with Shonel at one of many small London art galleries dotted throughout the city.

After attending the KPU New York/Venice field school in 2015, I decided to get an additional major in Fine Arts. My art practice focus is on painting and installation art. I started out at KPU studying Creative Writing and steadily gravitated toward visual arts through elective courses in art history and studio courses such as drawing and painting. Once again, I am at the crossroads of my education, to decide on whether to also pursue a graduate degree. The opportunity came up to participate in the KPU London/Venice 2019 field school and I felt it was arriving at the right time in my life to once again move me closer to a decision. In the past I have always considered art and writing as a hobby while I worked and raised my family. In the past five years my interests in the arts and my career decisions have finally aligned. Currently I am pursuing work in the arts and cultural sector plus working toward setting up my own studio practice. With a strong background in business entrepreneurship I hope to spend many productive years making a living from doing what I want-art and writing. 

What has met or exceeded your expectations or surprised you about London (or Venice) so far?

London was not really on my travel list and now I’m wondering why it wasn’t. Art is readily accessible everywhere I look, even more so than New York. Admission to art galleries and museums is free. This is an art student’s paradise. I noticed that Londoners from every part of society are represented in the crowds that continually move through the galleries and museum spaces— from children in matching school uniforms to adults in runners and track pants carrying their groceries home from work. Whether dressed fashionably or not, people gather from all walks of life in London to enjoy art and culture of the Renaissance and earlier, onward through to the most contemporary artists working today. The thing that really surprised me the most about London is how efficiently everything operates—the metro, the cleanliness of the city and recycling efforts, the promotion and protection of the environment—which was especially great to see. And the wonderful manners and helpful attitude of Londoners across the city. This stood out for me—but equally as good was the experience of venturing out in the evening to the theatre or a restaurant, where even on a Tuesday night the city is vibrantly buzzing with energy, the streets filled with people enjoying themselves with music and theatre and restaurants, all while surrounded by beautiful historical architecture.

Give us some insight into your assigned artwork from the Tate Modern. After seeing the work in person in London (and any other related art from the same artist or art movement associated with the assigned work), what struck you most about it and/or how did the artwork’s form, content, and context shift for you when seeing it.

Who is my assigned artists at the Tate Modern?—British artist Yinka Shonibare with his work British Library (2014), and global artist Louise Bourgeois with her sculpture, Fillette (Sweeter Version) (1968-99). Both artists are known for their use of textiles in various sculptural and installation works, as well as their use of subversive humour and explorations of political discourse around gender, assimilation and immigration, family, society, and the psyche. To focus on Shonibare’s work, British Library, viewing it in person exceeded my expectation of the two-dimensional photo I studied before arriving. From the photo image I formed a very narrow understanding of the ideas of identity that Shonibare was working with. What really makes this piece work for me is the way it is activated when you find yourself standing within the centre of it.

Angela sitting and enjoying her assigned artist’s installation at Tate Modern— Yinka Shonibare’s British Library (2014)

At this level of engagement, it becomes an immersive experience both visually and intellectually. When I first entered the room, which was taken up entirely by the work on three walls, I was struck by the meticulous handling of the fabric covered books. The bright colours and patterns drew me in. The seating and familiar iPad screens made me want to linger and read. The prints on the fabric covers speak to a culture other than British, yet the content around the immigrant contribution to British culture drew these polarities closer. Then the experience became even more personal—of the many immigrants, their cultures represented by a multitude of different names. I was glad to see Hungary, the country of my heritage, listed. This was my connection into the piece, the birthplace of my parents embodied in the distinctly Hungarian names. The exhibit was very accessible, and I felt comfortable sitting for quite some time to make a deep dive into the available data, as well as the spontaneous conversations that started up between myself and others while I sat there. I felt not at all like I was in a museum as the exhibit transported me to a place made for conversation and looking—and lingering. This was a place to exchange ideas and for this reason the piece effectively embodied the artist’s ideas around the contribution of immigrants to British society.

How did you approach the creative task of responding to your assigned artists in studio? What were your challenges as an artist to be in dialogue with the artwork and artist? Would you do anything differently now that you have seen the work in person?

My response to my assigned artists was to explore ways in which fabric can be used to create art that speaks for me (see images of projects below). In my opinion there is a visual language in the specific placement of colour and texture, such as with my final project of red pink mauve rolls of fabric which were used to create the visual effect of a vagina crowded in and surrounded by darker fabric cut from men’s clothing. I feel it is an image that expresses my deep concerns for politically driven disruptions of long-standing laws in America regarding women’s rights and abortion— changes I never expected to see in my lifetime. I think the biggest challenge for me as an artist, when asked to respond to an artwork, is that I tend to focus more on the formal aspects of an artist’s work rather than the content or context. I see colours, textures and the physical nature as being far more accessible to respond to than the ephemeral and contingent nature of context. I look for concrete elements of a work. The use of fabric resonates with me but rather than explore identity constructs as Shonibare does, I chose to use the fabric as a colour palette to express my own personal thoughts and concerns in response to current world events.

Now that I’ve seen the works of my assigned artists in person I would have thought more about the space around my work and may have chosen to make an exploration around cultural identity and explored my own contribution to Canadian culture as a first generation Canadian of Hungarian descent. I think both artists use the title to subvert the visual elements in their work. I may have looked more closely at representing my immigrant past juxtaposed with Canadian colonial identity within Canada. If I followed this idea I may not have chosen to work with the fabric rolls or with colour since I chose the medium before the idea, I feel I restricted myself from fully engaging in a response to my assigned artists.

Today’s activity was located at the Whitechapel Gallery and Barbican Arts Centre. What were your impressions? What will you take away of the experiences of this day?  What are the most memorable moments for you?

Today’s activity was a tour of Whitechapel Gallery and the performing arts centre, Barbican. My day began with an unplanned trip to Balthazar for a fabulous breakfast with a fellow classmate as we both happened to arrive at the same time in the lobby of the Generator. Timing is everything in a hostel. Whitechapel Gallery is a space dedicated to emerging artists, performance, talks, films, and events with a focus on arts and culture within the diverse communities of London. It’s important to note that there is no permanent collection here, and that the spaces are available for a rotation of exhibitions and artist throughout the year. The exhibition by Michael Rakowitz had an entrance fee attached and I did not attend. There were other exhibits to check out including an interesting archive work titled Queer Spaces: London, 1980s - Today, which chronicled the closures of several clubs and venues serving LGBTQ communities in London since the 80s. This archival work was thoughtfully curated with a rich collection of letters, photographs, and other memorabilia to provide a reflection on LGBTQ history in London.

Anglea, pictured fourth from the left, with the group at the famed Whitechapel Gallery— an art space dedicated to the exhibition of the latest in cutting edge, non-traditional, and global avant-garde art.

The second floor space was curated with select works from the “la Caixa” Collection of Contemporary Art by Maria Fusco and included video/audio work, installation, sculpture, and photography. There was an interesting and diverse selection of art which was held together by the common theme of bridging cultures through language, sound, music and movement. Though each work occupied the same gallery space, individual works such as the concrete and steel arch by Christina Iglesias (1956) also felt isolated from the broader theme. In my opinion this gallery is best approached as an eclectic combination of political and cultural histories represented by the works of emerging and experimental artist and curators. 

Angela in kinetic conversation with an art object at Whitechapel Gallery.

My impressions of the “AI: more than human” exhibit at Barbican start with the basic observation that it was not focused on art in anyway. It was more of a historical view of the development of AI and relied heavily on video and audio from the movie industry. I noticed examples of robot toys from Sony Corp. dating back to the 90s. Most of the interactive technologies were basically recycled from exhibits that I have seen over the past 20 years. I was expecting to see works that explored ‘deep learning’ whereby AI makes autonomous decisions. There was no successful display that reflected the current advances in machine learning. A note about the curation— it was lacking in that displays were poorly lit, and the odd use of props and curtains made the space seem quite claustrophobic. The highlight of the exhibit was the interactive piece at the main entrance which was irresistible to some and entertaining to watch for others. The take away for me from the day’s events is to think about how an exhibit is curated. I liked to see that galleries such as Whitechapel continue to make space for more experimental types of work within a major art centre like London. I have seen some fantastic examples of curation over the past week, such as the exhibition at White Cube Gallery with works by Sarah Morris and Zhou Li. Experimental and emerging artists and archival work represent distinct challenges for a curator. I really felt that the gallery tours today gave me a chance to appreciate different approaches to these materials and non-traditional mediums. 

Anglea, at far right, and the group enjoying an outing in Shoreditch not far from Whitechapel and Barbican.

To see more photos and impressions of London and Venice as the field school continues, check out our Instagram feed and follow us at #kpulondonvenice

Location | London: Meet Field School Blogger Steven Robinson

Tell us a little bit about yourself—your background, major program of study, reasons for taking this trip, and anything else interesting you want to share (maybe something people might not know about you).

Steven, nearing the fourth year of his Fine Arts BFA program at KPU, is also doing the field school with his big brother Mark. Here they are pictured out front of our hostel while in London.

My name is Steven Robinson and I am a Fine Arts student that is slowly transitioning into my fourth year of the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. I primarily use drawing and painting as my medium of choice, but I have always been interested in sculpture and three-dimensional work, because of my hands-on carpentry knowledge from previous education. I am in the process of bettering my knowledge of abstraction and implementing it into more traditional practices like landscape painting and seeing just how far I can push the limits of what makes a piece abstract as well as a landscape. Within the Bachelor of Fine Arts program there are many required art history courses to complete the degree that help understand the origins of painting and when I heard about the field school, I thought, what better way to take what I have learned in art history to analyze modern and contemporary works, as well as see to works that I have studied in person.

What has met or exceeded your expectations or surprised you about London (or Venice) so far?

I was fortunate to have a full week of experiencing London prior to writing this blog post and I can say that all my expectations have been fully satisfied and even additional surprises have made this week worth the long trip. I have been to Europe before, about five years ago, and thought that trip was fun, it wasn’t as fulfilling as I had hoped. But on this trip, I am extremely lucky that the people I am traveling with are more like-minded in the art field. No more being rushed out of galleries after one hour. The only thing I really wanted out of this trip was to see new art from new artists and to marvel in historical work in proximity. And I think that even after the first couple hours in the starting galleries satisfied my desires and now every other gallery or work is bonus

Steven, third from the right, enjoying a day in Bristol (with left to right, Victoria, Adam, Alison, Mark and Leah), part of which included taking in one of Banksy’s rare paintings at the Bristol Museum.

Give us some insight into your assigned artwork from the Tate Modern. After seeing the work in person in London (and any other related art from the same artist or art movement associated with the assigned work), what struck you most about it and/or how did the artwork’s form, content, and context shift for you when seeing it.

Steven seeing his assigned Tate Britain artist, Fiona Rae, for the first time.

My assigned artwork was Jack Whitten’s Epsilon Group II (1977) in the exhibition Painting with White at the Tate Modern. The piece is a black and white painting full of horizontal lines that are disrupted by a circle line and a singular diagonal line. The work was created with a tool that Whitten made himself, which any tool he makes he calls it a “developer”. He used the developer, in this case a long rake like stick covered with afro picks, to sweep the canvas once and scrap the paint with it. Prior to seeing the work in person, it seems to be a mass of horizontal lines and that’s about it. But in person, those line create an illusion like effect that gives the simple lines movement. As you stare the painting it seems to vibrate and give off an energy that it mesmerizing. The realisation that the lines were created simultaneously with one sweep is a thought after breaking the hypnotic visuals of the piece. The lines look so planned and thought out in person, yet they were created in a motion that probably only took a couple seconds.

How did you approach the creative task of responding to your assigned artists in studio? What were your challenges as an artist to be in dialogue with the artwork and artist? Would you do anything differently now that you have seen the work in person?

For my first piece, Untitled, I responded to Fiona Rae’s work Maybe you can live on the moon in the next century (2009) and I focused on the way she has a fluidity to the way she alters the paint as well as the solid tones within her gestures and spaces (see image below). What I wanted to create was a piece that focused on having fluidity in gestures and mixing of the medium contrast with solid tones and straight edges while still creating a balanced, yet busy composition. It was a challenge to be in conversation with Rae because I did not want to blatantly copy the way she would use the paint and I wanted to keep away from her pop culture references and focus on the painting just as a visual. There are parts that I would now like to go back and rework after seeing the piece in person, like not being afraid to block out any unsuccessful areas and rework them to help with the piece. And I would work bigger. The scale Rae worked at made a tremendous impact on it being a successful piece.

Steven’s first painting, Untitled, responding to assigned artist Fiona Rae at Tate Britain.

With my second piece, Overdeveloped Synthetic, I wanted to be in dialog with Jack Whitten’s work, Epsilon Group II, but specifically respond to the process behind how the work was created (see image below). I expanded on using the idea of using a tool that is different from the traditional tools like a paintbrush but instead of creating a tool, I found one. Using a found tool to create work is a big risk because I had absolutely no idea how it would turn out. And to keep the piece in conversation with Whitten’s, I decided to use the process of sweeping the tool across the canvas, or develop the work, twice. Whitten uses photography to describe his process to I expanded on how photos can be overexposed or overdeveloped. My work is overdeveloped in the process because of doing the second, unnecessary sweep. This was a big risk for me to do because by “overdeveloping” the piece, I risk losing a balance composition, even though I believe that my use of colours helps keep the piece unified. With this piece I honesty do not think I would change anything about it even after seeing Whitten’s work in person. I was looking at process and that is not always clear when viewing a piece. Though after seeing the piece at the Tate Modern, it helped me confirm that this new way of painting I have done is something that I will pursue in my practice.

Steven’s second painting Overdeveloped Synthetic responding to assigned artist Jack Whitten at the Tate Modern

Today’s activity was a free day to explore on your own. What were your impressions? What will you take away of the experiences of this day?  What are the most memorable moments for you?

Today’s activity was located at the city of Bristol. We took a train across the island to go on a street art tour of the town which was significant because it is known that the famous artist Banksy is from there. My initial impressions before arriving were not high. I was not entirely interested in the street art scene and frankly went because it was a spontaneous decision by a group of us. But I was so wrong. It was by far the most memorable day full of so many experiences and connections with friends that I have had in a long time. The guide for the tour was an artist in the city and she knew a lot of the artist of the works that we were seeing that day. Her local knowledge of the art scene was an added bonus to hear and one thing that stuck with me was that having a political message in your work does not necessarily have to be a widely known topic. A lot of the works we looked at were referencing the local politics of the town, like Banksy painting on a fountain outside of the former city council building, the now city hall, which made me realise that an artist can talk about politics in a smaller scale if they want to.

The more memorable moments of the day trip were a bit more personal with our small group of seven. After our lunch, we were in a hurry to get back to the train, thinking we were going to be late for our only ride back, and the rain was a torrential downpour. We ended up hiding out under an entrance to a cathedral, but in the process, Adam’s paper pack crumpled within his hands and all his belongings scattered on the puddled pavement. But like a well-oiled machine, the group of us rushed to help. We all stuffed the fallen items into pockets trying to save everything and another person whipped out a new plastic bag like it was life or death. Within thirty seconds everything was into the bag minus the soaked bag on the ground. It was at that point that I realised the people who I have just recently became friends with on this trip are all kind human beings that truly care for one another. Under the protection from the rain by the church, we joked and laughed and enjoyed one another’s company and still getting to know each other more and more. Though these last couple days have felt jam pack with too many activities, time has gone by slow and I feel like I have known this group my entire life. The main take away from this trip will definitely be the friendships I have made, and even though experiencing such masterpieces and famous wall works in person will embed lasting visuals in my mind, these people will still be the grander take away from this trip.

The trip to Bristol was a day to remember. Pictured left to right in front of the oldest public Banksy work in Bristol:: Adam, Steven, Leah, Dorothy, Victoria, Alison, and Mark.

To see more photos and impressions of London and Venice as the field school continues, check out our Instagram feed and follow us at #kpulondonvenice