Making informed connections with the work of others (a.k.a. name dropping)

At school I am asked to make quite a few suggestions to the students as to what artists might inspire them or add depth to their work and research. I have decided to list them with links on my blog. I won't categorise them so as to keep them 'open' but I may link to a specific piece of the artists work.

Here are the ones I've suggested so far this week and its only Tuesday morning!

John Baldessari, Miroslaw Balka, Barton Hargreaves, Richard Galpin, Bryan Evans, John Stezaker, Ellsworth Kelly, Jennifer Bartlett, Patrick Hughes, Mark Wallinger, Peter McDonald, Simon Patterson, Dryden Goodwin, Tracey Emin, Jeff Wall

This has thrown up a few issues ....how to handle contemporary and established artists with more adult content and differentiating those artists with technique which the students want to emulate versus those with content in terms of having a contemporary voice. Given the nature of the wider catchment my readers and my position in a school I have to be a bit more closed minded in some areas and more open in others than I would otherwise in a blog. It has also made me acutely aware of the impact others work has had on my personal semiotic coding. For example, if someone wants to use a horse in their work my brain retrieves the images of Half-Brother by Mark Wallinger or Maurizio Cattelan. I'm sure there must be a good book to read out there on the wider impact of art on semiotics....

Not just an empty vessel: Miroslaw Balka - How it Is

On a trip to Tate Modern with Year 11 I took the opportunity to experience Miroslaw Balka, 'How it Is'.  

Surprisingly I really got this. With the noise of others who had seen it already going around in my head, I approached the expanse of metal on legs feeling a little skeptical. Nevertheless I climbed the ramp and entered the big black box, looking straight ahead I tried to fix upon where the space ended. Having just walked in from behind and then the length of the vessel I would have thought that it would be obvious but all I could see was a big black nothing. Sure I could hear some mumblings from others, who were camping out temporarily on the floor but this did not detract from the feeling of a black fog enveloping and then bearing down on me as I walked further into the space. Although I knew it was only air I could feel the weight of this blackness on my shoulders. When would I reach the end? WALLOP! Suddenly I had walked right into the back wall. Feeling rather foolish (it was slightly padded with a velvety feel so surely I couldn't have been the only one?) I turned around and could see the light of the opening, so much light. How could I have felt all that blackness before? The illusion was revealed. Walking out I decided I didn't want repeat the walk into the container so as to savour my own original experience and initial response.

The Unilever Series: Miroslaw Balka, Tate Modern 13 October 2009 to 5 April 2010.