# 16

book project

this week has been entirely dedicated to our book project. we have been asked to think of books as an object, and we have been encouraged to question what a book is (does it need text? pictures? both? does it have to be bound? made of paper?) we need to create 3 books, under different titles, for example .. a slow book, a book that flies, a book that isn't there, a book with a mind of it's own... i have found it a lot easier to brain storm that actually physically make the book. im struggling to understand whether the book actually needs to have a meaning/purpose or whether it just has to look good ... here are a few pages from my sketchbook:

# 15

52 phoenix road, somewhere

this week is just for tutorials. in our slots all of our work will be looked at, talked over, and any problems with our ucas will be sorted out.

whilst walking through my neighborhood i kept on noticing that the dry cleaning store was always open at the oddest of hours. however inside it the walls were smothered with paint, the floor was covered in fake grass, and it was full with people. i decided to go inside one after and ask what exactly was going on ... basically, camden arts converted this old dry cleaners into "make do", a temporary (8 weeks only) platform for community based projects. it invites people to get involved in art through various workshops, film nights, exhibitions, and events for kids. the evening that i went they were having an exhibition. the works ranged from photographs to paintings, and were being sold to the public. i love it when centres make art accesible to the public, especially for decent prices. art should not be an exclusive object for the rich. what was even better about this sale is that over the weekend the prices were lowered.

i also went to see sofia coppola's new film "somewhere". i can't really recommend this to everyone because i know that not everyone would enjoy it (half of the cinema was falling asleep, i guess they felt let down and didn't feel it compared to her previous films... lost in translation, marie antoinette), but there was something quite beautiful that i liked about it. the film was not rushed, the characters grew on you, and it showed an honest portrayal of the "other side" of a privileged life style. i really loved the scene at :55. the long scene shows the main character being forced to sit completely still and wait with his whole face smothered in a plaster cast, breathing heavily through his nose. this helps to highlight and emphasize his loneliness in quite a comedic way.

# 14

mona lisa curse

i watched the mona lisa curse today. the australian art critic robert hughes (art critic of time magazine) honestly tells us his opinions of the current art market and how absurd the commercialization of art work is becoming.  he explores how museums, the production of art and the way we experience it have radically changed over the past 50 years. he emphasizes how much the art market has turned into the "biggest unregulated market in the world" (apart from drugs) as contemporary art sales can raise up to $10 billion a year. what i loved the most was how much he was bashing damien hirst! for my final art essay for my a levels, i was trying to highlight the good and bad sides of the art industry, analysing obsession in the art world. hughes states "“The idea that there is some special magic attached to Hirst’s work that shoves it into the multimillion pound realm is ludicrous,” Hughes says. “[The price] has to do with promotion and publicity and not with the quality of the works themselves.” go hughes! he continues to state that the art world is turning into a "feeding frenzy" in which people are turning up to look at art work just to have "seen it". if you want to watch the whole movie, the youtube user below has uploaded the entire thing.