Student Led Seminar

My feedback was really good, they said I had good presentation skills - I read slowly and clearly. I would like to start being able to talk about my work with less prompts, but this is something I will have to work on as I am not a very confident speaker.

After my presentation some questions were raised about feminism and the human body. Part of the future intention of my work is to paint the body in a way that is not feminist, nor politic. My fellow student Alice said it is almost impossible to paint the female body without it being feminist, this is something I would like to challenge because I do not completely agree with her. I feel it is something that is not often done, and that I would find it a difficult challenge but it's something I would like to attempt.

Some ideas the tutors gave me to look at were:

Helen Chadwick - themes of body and nature. I actually wrote my essay in BA1 around Helen Chadwick so already know quite a lot about her work and have taken inspiration from it.

Regarding my use of texture - what does it really add to the piece. If not wanting to be feminist, using cloth or other household domestic materials, may be a bit misleading.
My response: I really enjoy adding texture to my work with textiles, however I can see how the use of sewing (a very domestic activity) and suggestive fabric such as lace could alter the meaning of my work slightly. I might have to consider other ways to create texture in the work.

Some advice and ideas that were given to other students that I should consider for future presentations also:

If you're talking about a work make sure you have an image of it.

Be clear. Have a structure.

If you can't use the imagery we are bombarded with by social media what can you use?


I have found the experience of delivering a presentation to a small group a good learning experience. Presenting has always been a weak area for me and I feel the more I present the better and more confident I will hopefully become. I feel something that often holds me back when talking about my work is my confidence in it. I am often not sure what I am really trying to achieve in my work, and also often not confident about my final pieces. This is maybe an area I could work on in my practice. If I gain a clearer understanding of my own work, this can only help other people also find it easier to understand.

Individual Tutorial

My individual tutorial was with Madilana. We discussed my ideas such as poetry, society's view of the body and the politics behind the body. Such a fuss over the body and as soon as you see art about the body you have preconvieved ideas about it. I want to challenge that. One idea: see if you can completely obscure the body, remove all politics from the body. An enlgarged and huge close up image, completely change the view of it, unfarmiliar.

My main ideas at the moment are:

Ambiguity

The skin

Politics (or rather removing the politics of the body - if this is even possible)

This tutorial was moments before my seminar, therefore a few of my new ideas for this year have changed slightly. I mentioned this at the end of my seminar.

Ready for seminar

Script for Presentation: 

I feel presentations are better when they are unscripted, with maybe a few prompt cards, as it is easier to understand and engage with the speaker than when they have their head down and just reading out a script. I, however, am not confident enough yet with talking about my own work to present un-scripted. Despite this, when presenting, I do my best to look up and make eye contact, read slowly and clearly, and read in an exciting way as naturally as I can (not reading like a robot). These are things I need to focus on tomorrow, as are easily forgotten when I am nervous. 

Below is the final script for my presentation tomorrow, I like to write my notes in a way that I would actually speak to make it more understandable for the audience e.g. using less fancy words (that I would not usually use, if talking about my work without notes) and writing in an informal style (how I would usually speak, if talking about my work without notes). 

Presentation: I wanted to keep the slides simple and brief, with lots of pictures and little writing. I began my presentation with a mind map of what I think my practice is, all of my ideas and inspirations as I could not think of a word, phrase or question to really sum up my practice for the first slide. I thought this would also be a good way to introduce everyone in the audience to my work and get to know it in a broad form before I get into more detail.

When opening the presentation to screenshot the images for my Reflective Journal, I did not have the same version of Powerpoint so some of the layout was wrong. However, all of the information I gave is there, just in a slightly neater format.

Ideas for seminar

Not done much work since last year - focus on how I finished last year, what this means and how I'm going to take it for this unit.

Artists: Tracy Emin and Gwen Hardie - continued ideas from last year

Talk about textiles and my love of skin tones and texture.

One of the main things to remember is to speak clearly and focus on what I really want to get across.

Vice Chancellors Welcome Talk

One of the main things the Vice Chancellor was trying to get across was the importance of staying focused and getting stuck in with the work. "don't put things off, don't procrastinate", this is something I know I need to work on this year.

One of the other things mentioned during the welcome talk was that staff have often said that events and talks that they set up are not very well attended, and students say the events set up are often seen as not relevant to them and their practice. So their suggestion was to take the risk and attend talks that might seem irrelavent or even contradictory to your work as you never know what could come out of it. It could spark an idea you never would have considered, or it could lead to a job or gallery opportunity you would have otherwise not have known about.

I will take these pointers with me as I embark on my second year.

Research: Context Seminar

The thematic bibliographies on the VLE is a selection of ideas and books that have potentially useful links to critical contexts for my work. 

Guidelines on the VLE - here there is info on all areas of the degree if I need them.

Two projects in 1. This unit is extra long so ultimately I have to have twice the amount of work as I probably would've done for last year's units.

Read through research context document, most is underlying ways research context is going to help with unit. It goes through the programme week by week so you'll know what's coming up.

Last year art historical modernist avant garde movements 

We will be given texts that are challenging and annoying and difficult, but talk about whether you agree with them? texts you use as tools, might be vocabulary you're not used to, might be unrelated to your ideas but the more reading you do the more you'll get used to it. I might find something that I didn't expect to be interested by.

Next week: aesthetics and anti aesthetics task: bring an image which either confirms or challenges your view of aesthetics.

We will be talking about beauty - a common motion or old fashioned?

Tutorials with either Krzysztof or Judith talk about practice text and gallery presentation, talk about research so far.

Further tutorials closer to hand in - look at some draft material of texts for advice

Deadline for text is same for hand in Friday 5th February at 16:00

Start thinking about it now - how are you going to approach this

Lectures and seminars will support us and tutorials with individual tutors should also support.

Choose a subject area you know well or something you want to explore - something that relates to your studio practice. Look at one particular area looking at other peoples practice doesn't have to look like yours could be different medium different period needs to be an overlap.

"Locate and discuss an aspect of contemporary art practice with reference to at least one critical text this text should be used to situate and explore your choice of examples in the context of emerging from your current practice including your own work." Looking at 4/5 texts (max)

Our contemporary is different to older generations contemporary 'in my lifetime' different forms of contemporary art in different generations - cutting edge, most relevant.

Francesca woodman - look up seen as a really interesting reference point for gender and sexuality - artist is dead but work is newly discovered - is it contemporary? 

Don't have to go into considerable detail about own practice - relate your ideas to it but not in depth

Come to your practice right at the very end - this is a good way to structure the essay

Referencing - in my previous essays I have found this particularly tricky, will look into more

Start early - can't pull it off all in one go, need to draft and redraft

'How to write about contemporary art' - £13 book level headed hands on guide to writing covers artists statements, wall texts and labels. open and inclusive also simple and practical have a look online for cheaper.

In 1 hour we have a welcome talk - be prompt 

My Work and Moosey Gallery

Ideas for my student led seminar

LAST YEAR:

links to media and society - in particular how women are affected by them. Not necessarily feminist work, just subtle links between the two. Conformity.

I compare nature and the human body using paint and textiles.

Like using paint and textiles to add depth and texture to my work. like the way you can create layers and suggest hidden meanings and ideas.

I like my paintings to be ambiguous - focus on colours and tones. 

What intriuges me most about the human body? The skin tones, the blues and greens that usually aren't picked up. 

(all things I can talk about in my student led seminar)

What I am interested in exploring this year: 

continue with my ideas of ambiguity and texture in my work. Human body

I also visited my Studio Space today: i like the large wall space, I often work large scale so this is a good amount of space to display work. I do not require a lot of table space therefore a small square table is satisfactory. 

Another student in my group tutorial mentioned she is currently volunteering at Moosey Gallery on Bridewell Alley so I asked if she could show me round after the tutorial. They currently have a skate show on where all of the work has a relation to skate boarding. Some pieces are painted onto skate boards, others are graphic design and typography with skate boarding as the subject matter. 

This was my favourite piece from the exhibition. I like the way the skateboards are broken and used as a canvas for the bold paintings. Other artists had used an entire skateboard as a canvas however I thought this was even more exciting and clever. 

This was the entrance to the exhibition, painted by one of the artists also featuring in the exhibition. They also have painted and displayed a bench at the Playhouse.

Group Tutorial

I had my group tutorial today with Sarah Horton as my tutor is not here until October. We discussed our practices and the upcoming presentations. It was good to practice talking about my work as this is something I struggle with, and it was also nice to listen to other peoples ideas and inspirations.

Things to include in the student led seminars: where you're at now, what do you plan to do looking forward, informed and influenced work, any exhibitions that have influenced your work, any wow moments, your intentions. 

Make sure the seminar is focused and simple. be confident and articulate your walk clearly. the point of the presentation is to practice and develop confidence when talking about your work (something I definitely need). Don't overcomplicate the presentation, simple and clear slides. 7-10 slides, 10 minutes. roughlty a slide a minute - dont over run you will be stopped.

Be prepared for individual tutorials, what do you want/need to talk about? have your work with you (or photographs of the work) as it is difficult for tutors to give guidence without having seen the work!

One of the girls in my group was having a bit of a creative block. She was happy with where she left off at the end of last year however is now stuck with where to take her work next - this is something I regularly suffer from. Some of the other students in my group had some useful suggestions of what to do when having a creative block which I thought could be very useful in future:

Follow artists on instagram and follow artists those artists follow.

watch films and read books/passages of books. find something that stands out to you and respond to it.

Search pinterest for interesting artwork.

Do something you enjoy, not something that feels like a chore.

Your statement of intent will help inform your seminar. include what you have done and what you will do. arguments/underlying concepts/concerns/approaches.

include any specific galleries or exhibitions that have inspired your work.

Year 2 Briefing

Today is our first briefing of Year 2! These are some of the notes I took during the presentation.

Only two assessments - one larger project, one smaller

25% of grade this year goes towards final grade

Craig Barber (my tutor) back 19th October

300 word statement of intent ready for first tutorial - consider underlying concepts, concerns, approaches or arguments

Lots of learning outcomes as a large unit - go through them in detail and make sure to cater to all throughout the unit rather than panicking at the end.

PROJECT 1: made up of seminar presentation and gallery presentation

seminar things to cover: intentions and proposals, materials skills and processes, critical discussion, don't try to pack enormous amounts of stuff in, not too fussy - simple presentation slides are often the better ones.

gallery: install an example of your own work, present to a small audience, accompanying text. takes place either 23rd or 30th November.

PROJECT 2: choose 2 out of 8 skills workshops to attend. Choice between: image, object, copy, edit and learning, document, curation, text. choices go live later this term - be thinking about which you would be most interested in and fit with your practice. Image probably suits my practice best as my work currently revolves around painting. I am not yet sure which to choose from the other set of workshops. starts early December.

Studio Projects - good for creative block. can take the briefs as exactly as you want. use them as inspiration or create direct responses. helps create fresh ideas

could curate a group exhibition - book out project spaces

can use SG60 whenever there is no timetabled session. (make sure I make better use of this this year as did not last year!!)

Vice chancellors welcome back talk tomorrow 11:30

let admin and tutor know if you will be absent from a timetabled session. 

krzysztof's email: k.fljalkowski@nua.ac.uk