MGA Exhibition, Brutel, Tender, Human, Animal Roger Ballen Photography

Roger Ballen Dresie and Casie, twins, West Transvaal 1993 gelatin silver print

The photography is unsettling presenting workfrom 1983 - 2006. Ballen was born in New York City in 1950, he was introduced to photography at an early age, through his mother who worked for magnum photography agency and also ran her own gallery in New York. Roger Ballens works have been collected in the following books: boyhood (1970), Dorps (1986), platteland (1994) and many more.

The Photograph that stood out the most for me was the image of Dresie and Cassie, twins. This photograph was very confronting and hard to look at, it is a scary image thay both looked like mass - murderers, they had that look about them. They are drolling and have a stare that scared me. But art is not all about beauty.

All the photographs that Roger Ballen had taken have no visual depth, they all look very flat that is done intentically to make them look creepy, and add some shadows around the figures. Roger used black and white photography diliberatley to set the mood, as these pictures are mysterious and creepy, if they were in colour they would set a different mood, happy and bright. All the photographs that were on display used alot of line and shapes within the photo itself.

I didnt like this exhibition myself, i think because it was so confronting and creepy, i think it will stick in the back of my head though. I think i didnt like it because i have never witnessed this sought of photography before it was something new and extremly different.

Design Now Exhibition, Melbourne Museum

Kim Wong, Jewellery, Three Greedy Pigs from the Bedtime Stories collection, 2008 Photo: Kim Wong

Design Now! is object gallerys annual exhibition held at Melbourne Museum that presents the work of outstanding graduates from applied art and design courses nationwide.There is a broad range of designs that are shown from furniture to jewellery.

There was a design that stood out straight away from all the rest which was The Sound Bubble by Naomi Fogel, Naomis design reminded me of the Sydney Opera house,i liked this design because it is aimed at melbournes rapid growth of music culture and we dont have any pubs that are decent enough to listen to live music this is a real must for Melbourne, we need it.

Another design i liked was the jewellery that was made by Kim Wong. She made: Romantic Citizens, Twin Chimps, Winter Wonderland, Princess Nishtha, Three Greedy Pigs and Peek a Boo. I liked these designs because they are fun and quirky each piece of jewellery uses alot of colour and they are very bold.

Kim has captured the individual spirit of each animal, this jewellery is designed for people who dont take themselves to seriously and perhaps indulge once and a while in childhood dreaming.

I enjoyed this exhibition because it showed a range of different designs, it was interesting to see what was thought of, and how the design works at this time in life. It was very interesting to see different designs all in the one space.

Design your life with Ellen Lupton

Ellen Lupton has been Cooper-Hewitt's curator of contemporary design since 1992. Her new book, Design your life, the pleasures and perils of everyday things is co-authored with her twin sister Julia. Design your life takes an irreverent and realistic look at everything from toasters, bras and pillows to housekeeping. Speaking to readers who are both design-conscious and consumer wary. Design your life taps into the popular interest in design as well as peoples desire to make their own way through a mass-produced world.

Ellen Lupton has held public programmes and exhibitions at Cooper-Hewitt's for the last 16 years. The first exhibition that she did was called the mechanical brides it was all about woman, machines and technology. In 1993 Ellen was 29 years old and didn't think she was a mechanical bride she had no kids, hardly cooked, but 16 years on its a different story. The book started from a website that her twin sister Julia and herself had created. the website was used to comment on trends and anything that would interest them both.

Ellen brings out the point that the toaster is made for cooking toast, not made to cook anything else, simple is better. It doesn't have to be elaborate it just has to cook toast. Designers always want to make a great product better but it doesn't always work out that way it can make the product worse and consumers wont catch on because its to elaborate and hard to use, also cost is a big factor.
Ellen talks about how computers involved in the kitchen to help house-wives and people over the age of 50 in the kitchen. Consumers never caught on. The media refrigerator has a screen that delivers ,t.v, the stock market, and the weather but it wasn't a big hit. There was numerous web-only computers designed for kitchen use and appeared during the Internet boom.

The visibility principle: "Piles" of paper on your desk is good thing. The piles that you have is a visual stimulation of what you have been working on and what you have done. Ellen gos on to say that having an open office is better you can see whats going on around you which is more stimulating for the brain therefore a more productive person. There are 3 main places you can work from, home, work or a coffee shop. Ellen says that the coffee shop is the best place to work, it is busy, lots of people around giving it a productive working atmoshpere.

This was an interesting video which showed the modifications of everyday products. In my opinion, I think that keeping a design simple and straight to the point is the best way to go about a design situation. I enjoyed watching this video and seeing Ellens point of view on product design in the everyday world.

RMIT Gallery Excursion Liu Xiau Xian

The Couple 2004 Edition 2

The artist's work deals with issues of cultural identity in large scale digital photography. It is playful, soulful, striking and witty.

The core of Liu Xiao Xian’s practice engages in a comparative study of Eastern and Western cultures. Born in China and raised during the Cultural Revolution, Liu Xiao Xian left Beijing for Sydney after the Tiananmen Square massacre. On this 20th anniversary of Tiananmen, RMIT Gallery is focusing on the artist’s photographs and sculptures, which explore the nuances between the East and the West.

When you walk into this exhibition the first thing you see are 3 large faces,(reincarnation - Mao, Buddha and I, Version 2, 2003 these three large prints are made up of 300 panels, each panal is a smaller photograph of the final print.) On the walls are photographs of families, on the floor are chess tables and utensils. This exhibition show art pieces from the east and west and how it influences our lives.

The couple, 2004 Bronze and Camphor wood was my favourite sculpture of the sxhibition, I didn't get it at first all i saw was 1 wooden sculpture and 1 bronze sculpture i could'nt see what was behind the artwork until David explained it clearly to me, the wooden sculpture showed underneath the skin which was lungs, brain, heart etc, the bronze sculpture had little pin holes all over its body which showed two complety different types of medicene that is used, the wooden sculpture showed the western medicene and the bronze statue showed the eastern medicene.

Another piece of work i liked was Home - 2002 - 03, Edition of 10, Lamboa print. Large format photograph of the Chinese family situated in London. This print shows you can be somewhere else in the world but you still have your home to go back too, in which this case China. The main strenghs that are shown in this print are the use of colour and the composition of the photograph with the guards on each side (protecting).

I enjoyed this exhibition there was some exhibits i didnt understand but i guess you get that sometimes but it was very interesting to see the differences between the eastern and western world.