I'm a looper

Here are some pieces I have created by knitting my wires with needles instead of a loom. 

I began knitting coloured 0.315mm copper wires on 4mm knitting needles. The results are a lot different from using the loom as needle knitted wire creates a lot less routine pattern. I quite like the imperfect, messier appearance, and feel it works well with the sisal. Also, the scale of each pieces is much easier to play about with. However, after a university lecture on 'Marketing and Branding', I had the divine realisation that it was the loop pattern made from my loom is what really stood out in my work. I'm a looper. I am eager to develop of course, but the needles were making me lose a quality which made my work individual.

Centre Pompidou

As beautiful as the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and the The Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile are, one place I could not WAIT to visit was the Centre National d'art et de Culture Georges Pompidou, or Centre Pompidou for short. As you may have seen from my last post, the post modern/High-Tech architecture of the building is a piece of art in itself, and it only gets better when you go inside. The place is huge, with vast public library, a music research institute, performance halls, a cinema, restaurant, bookshop, cafe, educational areas, and most importantly-only THE the largest museum for modern and contemporary art in Europe! This place opened in 1977 after the President, unsurprisingly named Georges Pompidou, decided he wanted the centre of Paris to have an original cultural institution in which modern and contemporary visual art would mix with music, theatre, cinema and literature. I didn't know Pompidou personally, but he seems like a pretty decent guy. If you do find yourself lucky enough to be in Paris, I would DEFINITELY recommend paying a visit here. The Mona Lisa can wait (no offence Leonardo). Anyways, I filled an entire memory card with the amount of photographs I took here, and wanted to share some snaps of a very small selection of inspiring works from the Contemporary Collection. 

Enjoy :)

Piero Manzoni (1933-1963)

Achrome (1961)

Barry Flanagan (1914-2001)
Casb 1' 67 (1967)

Jason Rhoades (1965-2006)
Chatte de Beaubourg (2004)

Ernesto Neto (1964)
We Stopped Here at the Time (2002)

Demakersvan
Jeop and Jeroen Verhoeven (1976) Judith de Graauw (1976)
Panneau Lace Fence (2007)

THEVERYMANY (Mark Fornes (1975))
*Y/Struc/Surf (2010)

Verner Panton (1926-1998)
Sofa Living Sculpture (1970-71) 

Piero Manzoni (1933-1963)
Achrome (1961)

Mario Merz (1925-2003)
Igloo di Giap (1968)

Un petit voyage à Paris

In January, I spent a weekend fulfilling a dream and visiting Paris! It was honestly everything I had hoped for, the architecture was stunning, the galleries were amazing, the food is delicious, the people were delightfully rude. What an absolutely wonderful place. I used the old classic 'it will give me inspiration for my art' line on my kind parents to justify this trip as my birthday gift, so I guess I should share a few of these inspirational photographs. I'll not bore you with a load of me 'here's me beside a statue...here's me eating a macaroon...' type photos (okay-maybe I will include the macaroon photo) so here is just a few snaps of general Parisian loveliness. 

 Centre Georges Pompidou

 Passage Verdeau

 Treats in Passage Verdeau

Notre Dame de Paris

 Musée du Louvre

 At the bottom of the Montmartre Hill, Sacré-Cœur Basilica

 Place de la Concorde

                                         La Tour Eiffel                                    Galeries Lafayette

 Statue at Palais Garnier

Bitta Craic

Sometimes you have to just mess things up a little to develop. I always think of presenting my work in routine patterns, it just seems to be an auto-pilot style reaction when thinking of how to present my pieces. To rebel against the short-sighted pilot in my head I decided to have some FUN. I took these photos in January  hoping they would inspire my next project. The degree show project. The big one. What better way to get started the next, very important, soon-to-be well developed project than to just friggin' mess up the previous one?