The Angel of The North- architecture

I went last weekend to visit my family in Gateshead Newcastle.  We drove past an extrodinary piece of architecture.  The Angel of the North is a contemporary sculpture and was designed by Antony Gormley.  The Angel of the North is made out of steel (a product which is a mjaor part of local heritage) and is a sculpture of an Angel that stands 20 meters tall and the wings measure 54 meters across the angels chest.  The wings are angled at 3.5 degrees which Gormley has said aims to create a sense of embrace.  I think this is a wonderful sculpture and the sculpture I think symbolizes the warmth and friendliness that the geordies express when you come into their city.  They are known for being friendly and I think this piece of architecture symbolizes that perfectly.

The Evolution Of Underwear - Meuseum

I visited a thought provoking exhibition, The Evolution of Underwear at the Fashion and Textile Meuseum in Bermondsey street London. The meuseum is basically a timeline of how womens underwear has changed and evolved over the last 100 years.  It's an exhibition of two levels, at first viewing it is about how underwear has changed, coinsiding with womens body shapes and fashion.  But then looking more closely we begin to see the second layer that it is also an indepth look at how underwear plays a role in the social cultural an economic changes of womens lives throughout the 20th century.

Mark Grotjahn- Artist

This piece of artwork at first glance is very eractic and busy.  There are plenty of bright colours marking the page in excitement.  Thick, hurried brush strokes.  It is created by different colour oils being painted onto a torn piece of cardboard and then transfered onto linen then onto canvas. Mark usually does highly polished paintings, some of his most famous ones were that of butterflies, however here he has expanded his work and goes back to painting in its most basic form.  This piece's the most promonate feature are the eyes that cover that page.  I personally think they look like angry raging eyes.  If you look closely you can see the different parts of the face painted there also.  Combined with the variety of colours I think that Grotjahn may be trying to portray a mixture of different people and there emotions all mixed together or one person and all their emotions held up inside.  I think the colours convey the mood and the feelings of the different emotions. This painting caught my attention as it was busy and exciting with lots of different things for your eyes to explore and think about

Matt Johnson- Malus Sieversii

This is a fascinating piece of artwork created by Matt Johnson and is a life sized version of a hand-carved wooden apple. An apple is a very interesting choice of fruit to create a piece of artwork about, as it has many links and is associated with many different concepts.  For example it is closely linked with religion from being the "forbidden fruit" that was eaten by adam and eve.  It also is famous when it comes to record label and computers and a tiny picture of an apple has become an international brand for macs.  Again a clash of the core of nature and religion mixed with the most modern and contemporary technology.  If you look closer and Matt Johnson's work you can see how he has carved tiny "escher-esque" entertwining staircases all on the inside part of the apple which looks like it has been eaten away.  The stairs could represent the pathway from historic religion to the new form the apple is taking is the modern contemporary world.

Patrick Hill- Artist

I loved this sculpture and the information and thought behind it.  The sculpture is by Patrick Hill and is about the entertwining of philosophical ideals in art history.  The sculpture is made from strong solid substances such as such as stone metal and glass.  Patrick Hill combines form with painting in this composition. I loved the smudged purple, red and blues on the canvas which is a result of hand dying.  The colours for this piece were apparently gained from plants, fruits and vegetables at the core of nature.  I personally think this piece of structured artwork is a balance between contemporary structured art and natural pieces of nature.  I also think from a personal view,  this piece looks quite mystical, with its circular piece balanced on the top of the sculpture, I think looks like it resembles the moon the smudgy colours blended together also create that dark mystical space atmosphere.  The segment of the circle that is coloured also reminds me of the moon as sometimes only part of the moon appears.  Hill has managed to combine structure and the core of nature in one simple art piece.

Saatchi Gallery

The Saatchi Gallery is displaying  work entitled Abstract America: new painting and sculpture. The gallery provides an innovative way for young or international artists whose work has never been seen in the UK. The artists who display there work in this gallery usually have never been seen in the UK before. This gives young artists an opportunity to show their work and launch their career. Many artists when they first exhibited their work in the Saatchi Gallery are not known by anyone, not even the commercial art world. Entry to the gallery is free to make sure that the gallery is making every effort to achieve the galleries aim to bring contempary art to the widest possible audience. I looked closely at a lot of the pieces of artwork in the museum however I have picked out a couple to write about and study that caught my attention for a variety of reasons. The first is located on the lower floor in gallery 13 and is by two of Chinas most controversial artists famously known for working with materials such as human fat tissue, live animals and baby cadavers. The piece is called Old Persons Home. It has wax works of old men placed in electronic wheelchairs. The wheelchairs move is discontinious movement patterns set on a path of collision to collide into each other. These creepy senile men look suspiciously like world leaders that are now crippled . The pattern that the wheelchairs move in colliding into each other mirrors international conflict. I thought this piece was very shocking and needs a closer look by everyone rather than straying away at first glance because of its creepy nature.

The Orphan- Film

I went to the cinema to see a film called "The Orphan" this suggests to me an innocent film about an orphan who we can all feel sorry for and sympathize with. This was not the case. I have posted a link to the trailer of the film and you will see like I did how diverse the film is from the misleading innocent title. It is about a little russian orphan who gets adopted by a family who have recently had a still born child. The mother isnt ready to go through child birth again but the agree to give the love they had for their baby to an orphan. The little girl appears liek a normal child at first. Some things she does or wears are strange but at first appearence she seems relativly normal. As the film goes on this child does sick and twisted things to the family and other charactors in the film and we begin to see this child is far from normal and a nightmare child who is trying to kill all the people around her. At the end of the film it materialises that the russian orphan is actually a 33 year old pyschiatric patient who had escaped from hospital. I thought this film was awful- the story line is good and keeps you intrested in the film however I think it is REALLY bad pr for orphans and orphanages. I think most poeple would consider adopting if they couldnt have children or even if they had had children and had enough money and time to give to a child that needed it. It has become a trend amoungst celebraties to adopt aswe, therefor adoption is becoming increasingly more popular. However this film has put me off adoption and I think anyone else who watches it would feel the same. I think it is a really unfair film and should definatly be an 18 not a 15!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8OjaV3gyOI - watch the trailer