Edward Bawden

Since becoming a lino cutter I have come to realise what a genious Edward Bawden is, not only in his lino cuts but also in his paintings, design work, graphic posters, wallpaper designs etc etc.




What is really interesting a special about him is that he is a cross disciplinary artist/designer.

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I find this really inspiring. Illustration is somewhere between Graphics and fine Art and Bawden is a good example fo someone who can switch between these areas. I feel like I would like to have the ability to do this and also be experimental and turn my hand to many different areas.

Ristorante Immoratale

In Febuary I saw a Familie Flöz production of Ristorante Immortale. This was a silent performance with 4 actors all wearing masks (some of which played two characters).
Familie Flöz is an international pool of theater makers – actors, musicians, dancers, directors, mask-, light- and costume designers, dramatic advisors and other good souls from ten nations. They are based in Berlin and have shown here regularly at Admiraldspalast Theatre (http://www.admiralspalast.de/).


"It is a moving yet bizarre family that apparently rose up from the dark womb of the earth through a long shaft to reach daylight for the very first time. It was this very image that put Familie Flöz on the map of international theater in 1996. Behind this metaphor is also the philosophy of an entirely distinct working method of this ever-changing group of theater makers."

www.floez.net

William Kentridge at Hamburger Bahnhof

One of the most amazing artists adn draftsman. His animations are incredible! I recently saw an exhibition of his at the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. One of which was part of an exhibition called 'Schmerz' ie pain this piece by Kentridge was called 'The History of the main complaint'

His animations are made with a single piece of paper,unlike all other hand drawn animations. So you can see the drawing being rubbed out and made over again. They are very beautiful.


Also there was an exhibition on his work for a series of animations of 'Journey to the Moon'.



inspiration for Kentridge (above)



The Hamburger Bahnhof is also well worth a visit. It is the old disued station of Berlin turned into a gigantic gallery. All 20th century art and beyond from Twombly to Beuys set in an immense, architectural space.

ATAK German Illustrator

ATAK aka Georg Barber

He was born in Frankfurt but has lived and worked as an artist/comci artist/illustrator in Berlin for many years!

He is an Illustrator who's work I have been collecting since being in Berlin is ATAK. I recently have bought one of his prints which I am delighted with!



Today I bought a comic of his called 'Alice'. This is comic based on 'Alice in Wonderland' but with a different plot and a subversive edge. He is also included in the 'Die Tollen Hefte Series', with ADA - von Gertrude Stein
Die Tollen Hefte Nr.25 made in Septemaber 2005.

Alice



Die Tollen Hefte images





His images are all hand drawn with handwritten text also. He draws inspiration from many areas but prodominently from 1800 to 1900s. His images can be quite dark and wicked but there is a strong sense of humour and irony. They also have a strong sense of nostalgia.

I find his work really inspiring as I love his clever compositions, his reference points, his quirky characters and odd narratives. Also the way he makes them with lots of pattern, spots, naive line, colour and over lapping colour.

Research Project

I saw an amazing 'live animation' called "Horse Head"by the company Faulty Optic last year at Unity Theatre in Liverpool. The story is very surreal, it was about a circus acrobat who broke her leg in an acrobatic performance and then felt depressed about her lost life. Eventually she becomes the second half of a play horse.

The puppets, effects, the way they moved and the different ways of using scenery was really interesting. They had an actor on stage in character making all the sound effects with very low tech equipment.

I intend to contact them and see if I could look at how they made this and what they are doing currently. Furthermore, to see if I could make something for one of their productions...At least learn how. They do not have a website so I will have to go through untiy theatre.




(now contacted and found website...waiting for a reply from them)

For a time I have been making a set of circus characters so I would like to build upon this.

I would like to base this project on puppets used for theatre. I would like to look at the production of the puppets, how they are used throughout the production. I would like to look at back in time at the first production of puppets in theatre through to today.

lino cutting and other printing

Since being in Berlin, I can't stop cutting lino (and my hands with it). I cut 2 months of a calendar (January and September) on 40cmx40cm pieces of lino with 7 other illustrators here. We printed it this fantastic print house called Bethanian. Artisits can go and print for the day or do 6 months apprenticing, there are lots of options. Anyway we printed 120 of these calendars, to have a look go to www.hammeraue.de. There was lot of exciting work going on here. All sorts of printing from off set to etching. So it is great to see that traditional printing processes are still around, as thet are slowly dying out.
There are not just print workshops at Bethanian but sculpture and video etc etc. A big art house really in Kreuzberg. It used to be a hospital many years ago.

Lino cutting seems to be having a bit of a come back. I have come across quite a few people here who use this in their work, ie Henning Wagenbreth they uses this very traditional medium but the yet it still looks contemporary. Look on his website to see more. www.wagenbreth.de.
Linocutter to admire is most definitely Edward Bawden. Amazing skill, I never really realised untill I had cut my own. www.woodleapress.co.uk/ images/ebd4.gif one of his most spectacular cuts.
More on this later!

Jospeh von Eichendorff, Semester One Project

Main project for semester one was to illustrate six poems of Joseph von Eichendorff, a famous German romantic poet. Originally the idea was that the class would put all the illlustrations together to make a magazine, with other articles included, eg a portrait of Joseph von Eichendorff, poems that we have written etc.

Firstly we were told that the magazine would be printed in black and white with one colour.

in the making....