After watching 'Gaga for Dada' on YouTube I have to say, I really enjoyed it! I really love how non sensical Dada was and how much it has influenced so much within the creative arts. I found that Dada is more than an art movement with a funny name; it is art out of the absurd, has mocked politicians, criticised the media, and has ridiculed century’s of culture. Dada became a new way of looking at the world 100 years ago. Influencing Punk culture, Pop Art and Surrealism as time went on; Monty python, Damien hurst and singers such as David Bowie and The Beatles.
It took delight in contradiction and gave birth to comedy, music and political protest. I learnt that Dada actually means 'Yes yes' in Romanian, 'hobby horse' in French and in German, it means 'Goodbye,' 'Get off my back,' 'Be seeing you sometime'.
Dada started in Zurich in 1916 and was a radical art movement. During and post-war it was a bizarre protest movement and was created deliberately absurd. I feel that it was their way of dealing with how crazy the war was and felt to them. It was also intended to challenge its audience's firmly held beliefs about the state of the world and art itself - in particular the chaos and bloodshed of the First World War.
It all began with a man named Hugo Ball who met cabaret singer, Emmy Hennings, who became another dadaist, in Munich in the middle of 1915. Both of them came from poverty and together they fled to Zurich to avoid the turmoil of war. In February 1916, they opened the Cabaret Voltaire where Dada was born. Hugo Ball did performances of his sound poems and promoted Dada events at the club. Emma Hennings performed using her voice and body. Tristan Tzara, Richard Huelsenbeck, Marcel Janco, Sophie Tauber, and Hans Arp are all other founding members that contributed to the movement of Dada during this time. Hannah Hock stood out for me as being one of its most memorable contributors due to her feminist and gender views.
I feel I could use dada to challenge stigma around mental health and will do this through the use of collage.
Artist's that I plan to look into after watching the documentary are Johannes Baader, Marcel Duchamp who did the infamous urinal, Cornelia Parker who put balaclavas on statues during the documentary, William Burrows who did the 'Tearing things up' and a line he said that quite intrigued me was, 'we take so much of what we are being told for granted' when explaining why he feels Dadaist's did what they did. I'd like to also look into how David Bowie took inspiration by cutting up diaries to write songs. Michael Landg is an artist that is well known for being a 'destruction artist' and did an exhibition called 'Breakdown' that I would like to explore more of. The 'Sensation' artists Tracey Ebin, Damien Hurst and Marcus Harvey are all interesting people I would also like to look at, along with Martin Creed who did blind painting and something he said stuck out to me, 'Control over something doesn't make it better'. Therefore this leads me on to want to experiment with chance and lettings things fall as they are and trying not to plan too much for an end result and concentrate more on the process. This would also be influenced by Hans Arp as his work includes 'chance collages'.
Dada was political, anarchic and definitely comedic, all these aspects would be interesting lines of inquiry for my project.
I researched and found some videos on artists that I believe have been influenced by the Dadaist movement. Here's what I found.
'If you cut into the present, the future leaks out'
I really like David Bowie's idea of cutting up words from an article or poem to make my own poem or song.
DADA INSPIRED POEM
Tristan Tzara had this idea originally and I am going to take this and make my own dada inspired poem and a collage to go along side it.
I found an article on art in a magazine and cut each word and a few sentences out. I began by arranging them myself but then remembered Tristan's way of doing it and also the quote from the 'Gaga for Dada' documentary that I really liked by Martin Creed, 'Control over something doesn't make it better'. So I continued by picking them at random and sticking them into my sketchbook, on a page I had previously done in acrylics, experimenting with different colours using a palette knife. I really liked the effect it gave and thought it was great for a background for my poem, it reminded me of Jackson Pollock and Sophie TEA's work, both of whom massively inspire me.
On the opposite page I did a collage by cutting out images from a magazine. I had been researching into a mental health line of inquiry so concentrated on masked people. Finding some old fashioned looking images of women doing various things, I stuck animal heads to them. After doing research and interviewing people with different mental health difficulties, I realised that everyone wears a mask of some sort, therefore this was to represent that. What you see on the outside, doesn't represent what is going on in the inside. I guess you could also say that for the dadaists, that what they were portraying to their audiences, silliness and craziness, wasn't necessarily how they were really feeling. I would like to develop this technique of collaging further by doing it on a larger scale.
"DADA; elegant and unprejudiced leap from a harmony to the other sphere; trajectory of a word tossed like a screeching phonograph record; to respect all individuals in their folly of the moment: whether it be serious, fearful, timid, ardent, vigorous, determined, enthusiastic;"- (Tristan Tzara, Dada Manifesto 1918)
SOLAR ETCHING
Progressing my collage further, I chose a section of the collage to scan into the computer and then printed it onto acetate and made a solar etching board out of it.
I began this process by changing the image size in Photoshop to A6 and then saving and printing it. Cutting the image out and attaching it along with someone else's work to save paper so I could photocopy it onto acetate.
Using a UV light exposure unit and an Aquatint screen that puts tiny little dots all over for the solar etch for inking up, I placed my light sensitive plate with a steel backing that has all chemicals on it onto the screen.
Placing it face down onto the screen I clipped sides down, activated vacuum, and zapped it with uv light. I made sure the switch was turned on and once 3 mins were up, I released the clips and attached my image to the light sensitive plate, using cello tape and placed back onto the screen. I made sure I didn't touch the switch until I was ready to, due to the danger of it zapping my eyes with UV light.
I let the vacuum apply before reseting the switch, I then flipped it up and then down and timed another 3 minutes to let the UV light zap my acetate image on to the light sensitive plate.
Whilst this was going on I set up a tank ready to wash the plate once it was done. I used tepid water and prepared a paintbrush to brush the plate with.
Once the 3 minutes were up I unclipped the lid of the machine, peeled back the cello tape and put the plate into the water bath and brushed it softly with a paint brush to remove the chemicals and bubbles. After 10 minutes or so of doing this I took the plate out of the water, blotted it with newsprint to get any excess water off and then used a hair dryer to dry the plate. I was careful not to touch the plate straight after the hair dryer had been on it as it is metal and would have heated up dramatically. Once the plate was cool I was ready to ink it up.
I put it on an inking up slab and I worked up the ink to ensure a smooth consistency. Using card, I applied the ink to the etched areas. I finished cleaning the plate with scrim and cleared any fingerprints around the side and gave it a further wipe with tissue paper. I registered my plate and used printing fingers to prevent fingerprints.
I then placed it face up onto the print machine and onto some newsprint, took my dampened paper to put over the top, which would be used to print onto when rolled through the press and folded another piece of newsprint over the top. I turned the arm of the press and rolled it through.
The first print that came out I really loved! It came out a lot better than I expected it to. It made it look old fashioned, in keeping with the original images and the animal heads looked like they had always been part of the image. This was my proof. Developing this process further I considered how I could incorporate colour using Chine colle. I love the fact you can faintly see the hot air balloon behind. This is an area where I feel chine colle could come in and make that pop even more. I like the black and white and would like to do a series of 3 different images using collage and keeping along the theme of 'mental health', in black and white.
The process of chine colle by adding bits of coloured tissue to parts of the plate with glue on the back face up after inking up, was really lovely. This changed the whole dynamic of the print and worked really well. It made it pop and highlighted certain parts of the print. I tried different colours to see which worked well. I feel that they work nicely as a series and totally in keeping with the Dada inspired collage of nonsensical, yet has a subtle meaning behind it. It almost made me think of old fashioned Amercian adverts of 'happy go lucky' Americans living the 'American dream', yet showing that they wear masks behind the 'happy go lucky' facade that I have found that a lot of people wear. They also have an Andy Warhol feel to them.
All in all, I really loved this workshop and enjoyed the whole process. Looking back over the process, problems I came across in other etching workshops were the amount of ink I was applying to the plate, however this time I made sure I had just enough to fill the grooves but not so much it would take along time wiping it off with the scrim. Another issue I came across in other workshops was making sure that my finger prints were wiped off the plate before putting it through the press, this I remembered and made sure to wipe them off before printing.
To take this further I would like to try making a solar etch on a bigger scale, using collage. imagery and wording inspired by the Dada movement. Alongside this to take this further creating 3 small collages and turning them into solar etchings as part of a series called 'The American Dream'. The American Dream is the belief that anyone, regardless of where they were born or what class they were born into, can attain their own version of success in a society where upward mobility is possible for everyone. The American Dream is achieved through sacrifice, risk-taking, and hard work, rather than by chance. However, by doing this it becomes a paradox. As Americans have grown richer, they have grown less content with their lives, thus they become more likely to wear a mask of happiness. This is something I would be really interested in exploring in the future.
LINO PRINTING
Looking at my collage again I wanted to create a Lino print. This was to represent mental health. I chose the images I wanted from the collage and traced the outside of them onto tracing paper. By putting the traced image over the Lino and drawing over the lines I had made so they partially showed up onto the Lino. I began with one image and found it quite difficult to cut out as it was quite intricate. This was the original tracing I didn't end up using.
These are the images I ended up using instead and I am much happier. The clouds represent the 'dark' days in mental health and also wanted to incorporate how medication can make you feel. With my own experience of being on medication I felt this worked well to represent that. It can make you feel high as a balloon and anxious all at the same time. It didn't work for me, however I do know that it can work for others. I felt that this was quite a personal piece to me.
Taking my Lino cutter I began shaving the outline out. The pressure had to be just right, too hard and it would take too much up and too soft and it wouldn't take enough off. It was quite hard to get the hang of it, however once I got going it became a lot easier. I used a wooden block with a raised edge to do it on to save cutting into the table and also to hold the Lino in place. Once my Lino piece was complete I used a plastic mat to put the ink onto and a roller to get the right texture and consistency. I chose tracing paper to begin with as I wanted to see how it looked.
After inking up my Lino I turned it over and pressed it down with a piece of newsprint and used the soft tissue of my palm to smooth it over. After a few minutes I pulled up the Lino and saw the print. I was really impressed with how it came out. I had been doing some colour theory research in my sketchbook, looking at how different colours promote different emotions. I wanted to carry on with this by exploring different colours to see how this affected the mood and message of the image. I began with red, this was to represent anger, althought when looking at the red, it didn't bring up anger as an emotion for me. Red can also represent courage, and I feel that this worked more with the idea behind it being around mental health. I mixed the red with yellow and made orange. The orange for me represented happiness, energetic and excitement. The yellow represented spoke to me as being optimistic, cheery, almost childlike. I mixed yellow with blue and made green. The green was quite a dark green, this brought up feelings with envy but also tranquility and calmness. I did blue and this brought up emotions such as serenit, but also focused and cold. It was interesting to look and see how using the same imagery but differing the colour, it really spoke of and brought up contrasting emotions and feelings. I mixed in red to blue to make purple and this gave a spiritual meaning behind the image, but also respect and mysterious. Pink spoke love, but also agitation and gentle, again quite childlike also. I had a full set of rainbow colours on tracing paper and really liked how they turned out as a series. Lastly I printed a multi-coloured piece and this to me represented the mixture of emotions. The tracing paper I printed onto worked really well because of it being translucent. This reflected how mental health can be, a thin layer of mask that someone wears on a bad day. To then move onto playing around with alternative colours through that I felt worked. I masked them into my sketchbook and did a background piece in my sketchbook of splattered ink in dark colours. This worked quite well to show how this thin layer of mask (tracing paper) is hiding the real emotion underneath (splattered ink in different darker colours). This has given me as Idea of using tracing paper in future to show this idea of having a think layer of something. I really like the idea of layering things up and exploring more into experimenting with this throughout my sketchbook.
To take this further I experimented using plain fabric and mixing up colours with black to give a dark and murky feel to the print. This I felt was in keeping with the idea of mental health, due to my findings throughout the interviews during primary research; the bad days are overwhelming and the idea of using darker colours to represent and show darker feelings, this worked well. I also experimented printing onto veneer which didn't technically work as well due to the veneer not taking to the ink. The colour purple didn't work well with the light brown colour of the veneer aesthetically. Using the rolling press to print this instead of my hand made it crack slightly. Although this didn't work aesthetically, the idea of the cracking and it not being perfect kept it on point with my research on mental health - 'the cracks begin to show'.
Now I am more comfortable with the technique of using Lino cutting, I would like to progress further and attempt a more complex image. Some ideas that came to mind were to print this design onto a T-shirt using fabric paint, cutting lettering out of Lino to create a slogan challenging the stigma around mental health.
HANS ARP
The current project, inside outside, has led me to investigate Hans Arp. Hans Arp’s philosophy, who he was as a person and his methods of working interest me greatly. He has been described as a restless thinker and nomad. This shows throughout his work such as his collages based on ‘chance’.
Hans Arp otherwise known as Jean Arp was born on the 16th September 1886 in Strasbourg, Alsace and died on the 7th June 1966 of a heart attack. He was a German-French sculptor, painter, poet, and abstract artist in other media such as torn and pasted paper. His Father was German and his Mother, French. He was born 'Hans' and this was then changed by French law to 'Jean'. He would still refer to himself an Hans when speaking in German.
In 1904 he moved to Paris and published poetry for the first time. A year later in 1905 he studied at Kurstchule in Weimar, Germany and stayed here until 1907. Hans then moved back to Paris in 1908 and attended Academie Julian. He was a founding member of the Moderne Bund in Lucerne and exhibited here between 1911 and 1913. Hans moved around Europe a lot in his twenties, exhibiting in Munich in 1912 with the Der Blaur Reiter group and was helped by Wassily Kandinsky. Someone who I am also greatly interested in researching. In 1913 in Berlin he met Herwarth Walden a dealer and magazine editor who was famous for avant garde. In 1915 he moved to Switzerland. What shocked me is that he pretended to be mentally ill during his time here to save being enlisted into the German Army and it was believed.
Hans Arp was a surrealist, but also participated heavily in constructivism. When the Cabaret Voltaire was opened by Hugo Ball in 1916, Arp moved to Zürich, where he helped found the radical Dada movement alongside Sally Hemmings and Hugo Ball whose aim was to create chaos in art in reaction to the chaos of the war. Arp felt at home here, among the broad-minded international audience. This best suited his temperament and it was here he found his niche. Dada was international and interdisciplinary, much like Arp himself. Both inspired by the general mood of chaos, nonsense and randomness. This is something that has intrigued me about Arp's work and something of which I would love to explore within my own practice. He began making ‘chance collages’; scraps of paper dropped at random onto a larger sheet and pasted wherever they fell. It has been suggested “the grid-like composition of this collage may be evidence that Arp did not fully relinquish control. Careful examination also reveals that he used heavyweight, possibly fine-art, paper, and that the edges were torn on a slant to reveal their inner fibers. It suggests a counterintuitive interpretation: that the work may be as much a visual representation of chance as a product of it.” (Moma,ca.2020)
Figure 1 has been created using torn pieces of coloured paper dropped onto coloured paper, and then stuck down. Arp described the law of chance as “embracing all laws and unfathomable like the first cause from which all life arises”. He went on to say about the practical process, “can only be experienced through the complete devotion to the unconscious.” (Mathilde, 2015). Using the idea of accessing the unconscious mind to let the pieces fall wherever they land is something I would like to explore within my own practice. When you take the element of control and perfectionism out of the process, art can be created out of spontaneity. I have found some successful outcomes from the pieces I have created using the ‘chance’ method during this project which could be ‘happy accidents’. Exploring Arp's work has been inspirational for me. There is also a spiritual side to Arp’s work; it takes the ego and logic out of the creation and portrays a more organic and holistic approach.
It is suggested that “following the accidental death of his wife Sophie Taeuber-Arp in 1943, Arp had been drawn increasingly to religion and mysticism, and much of his subsequent work can be seen as meditations on life and death.” (Tate, ca.2020).
During Arp's time as an ambassador of the Dada movement, he recruited artists such as Hannah Hoch, Kurt Schwitters and Raoul Haussman who were all like-minded individuals. He collaborated heavily with Taeuber and she soon became his wife, partner and soul mate in 1922. They went on to invest into the applied arts media and fine art, joining both. They shared an interest in textiles from the start and a shared outlook on anti-war. Although Arp made movements within, at the time, feminine orientated medium such as embroidery this did not bring any controversy. Zurich's art critics seemed to love his work and this went un noticed and unmentioned. Its decorative qualities left a positive opinion rather than a strike against it.
“A painting or sculpture not modeled on any real object is every bit as concrete and sensuous as a leaf or a stone, but it is an incomplete art which privileges the intellect to the detriment of the senses.” - Hans Arp
"Arp was concerned with purity, with being free, being independent of everything unpleasant and limiting, and with the active, constant emission of positive energy as well as its perception." - Hans Arp
I am aiming to produce some chance art work of my own. Instead of using paper, I plan to experiment with ink on silk. This is to look at how colours interact with each other and how the inks interact with the silk. The philosophy and method behind Arp's work is something I am interested in, the chaotic and the chance.
INK ON SILK
I have wanted to work with coloured ink for a long time. I would have preferred to use alcohol inks, however these were the only inks I could find. I cut my pieces of silk and experimented by dropping the inks onto the silk. I have made annotations in my sketchbook relating to how each experiment worked and what it reminded me of. I really enjoyed this process.
I decided to progress the purple, pink and yellow ones further because they were the last ones I did and that I felt worked the best. I scanned them into the computer and printed them out. I wanted to try sewing into the paper to see how that would work. I used the images from the Lino cutting I had done earlier. I liked the texture that the sewing gave on the paper. They are very abstract but could also have meaning. The sewing being like the thread that is holding you together on a bad day, so delicate. The imagery from the ink on silk behind being the mixture of emotions, like a cloud and quite chaotic, but also quite beautiful. It reminded me of some song lyrics from the artist Dermot Kennedy in his song,'Without Fear', "Cause there's a beauty in being broken, I've been seein' it" and another from the song 'Outnumbered', "See, I'm in love with how your soul's a mix of chaos and art, and how you never try to keep 'em apart".
After doing these experiments and when looking over my work it reminded me of very dream-like imagery and nightmares. Therefore this is the line of inquiry I would like to go down next. Looking at how dreams from inside the mind can be brought outside and onto materials in many mediums. How you can bring dreams into reality and how the mind works when you are sleeping, the imagination and how this interacts with creativity and also mental health. This excites me a lot!
Comments