Over the summer I was sent a brief where I could write my own proposal for the first time. This at first was a bit daunting for me as I struggle to make my own guide lines and pathways to follow, but after a while I saw it had a strong benefit of being able to pick something that I have always wanted to explore as an artist.
There were a few options that I could pick from as a rough guide line. The brief which I chose was:
Le Flaneur
Le Flâneur is a French word, which literally means the stroller, the dawdler, the loiterer but there is no true equivalent to the word in English. The flâneur appears to meander through the streets without plan or purpose. But this randomness is the flâneurs reason - to experience the life of the city by surrendering to its ebb and flow - the chance encounters and unexpected discoveries, which can only be revealed through the act of walking is what is recorded and noticed. Le Flâneur as a detached, yet engaged observer, Can you explore this of randomness and chance encounters in the city? What aspects of the city do you notice? Does anyone else notice it? What is hidden in the city but is not a secret at all?
I saw this as a good choice because I quite frequently find myself walking around Manchester city centre and noticing things that maybe others don't. I find myself drawn to buildings that look particularly urban or old buildings that are in distress and display decay. I see decay as an interesting visual thing and think there are lot's of possibilities, when doing some experimental work further into this project, which I could explore by distressing materials.
Le Flâneur is a French word, which literally means the stroller, the dawdler, the loiterer but there is no true equivalent to the word in English. The flâneur appears to meander through the streets without plan or purpose. But this randomness is the flâneurs reason - to experience the life of the city by surrendering to its ebb and flow - the chance encounters and unexpected discoveries, which can only be revealed through the act of walking is what is recorded and noticed. Le Flâneur as a detached, yet engaged observer, Can you explore this of randomness and chance encounters in the city? What aspects of the city do you notice? Does anyone else notice it? What is hidden in the city but is not a secret at all?
I saw this as a good choice because I quite frequently find myself walking around Manchester city centre and noticing things that maybe others don't. I find myself drawn to buildings that look particularly urban or old buildings that are in distress and display decay. I see decay as an interesting visual thing and think there are lot's of possibilities, when doing some experimental work further into this project, which I could explore by distressing materials.
As a starting point I went to Manchester and took some photo's of buildings I like and things I found interesting e.g. decay, steps, bottles. From these photo's I then began to draw some quick and detailed sketches. I have also done some collages and quick paintings of buildings. Some examples of these sketches and photo's are below.
I am thinking of doing some collages of the photo's I have taken and merging things together to create a kind of photomontage of the things that interest me around Manchester. This is also a way of taking something like decay which some people will find an ugly thing and making it into something visually beautiful and interesting. I also find myself quite drawn to structures of buildings especially poles and frame work on buildings that are under construction or on bridges so I would like to include this in my work. I think I could make some interesting patterns for surface design from overlapping frame work. I am excited to go on further with this project as I feel I have some good directions to follow and can't wait to experiment with materials.
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