Risk Assessment for Degree Show

Exhibition Agreement Form

PPD Lecture Notes

The Laces In My Shoe: Degree Show

As a collaborative project with Milo Creese, we each interpreted a merge of two main ideas; the recent trend of captain jack sparrow style pirate boots and a hallucinogenic experience of which the Bob Dylan lyrics, “in my shoe”, from the song ‘Tangled up in blue’, became the focal point. This is my interpretation. You can see Creese's video here: (link coming soon) This video was made with help from the Chelsea, Camberwell and Wimbledon Artist Moving Image Fund. Special thanks to voice actor - Shawn McCrory
This is the final version of my video for the degree show.

Degree Show Progress

Built wall to make the space a bit more neutral. Ceiling and lighting still very much portray the aesthetic of a portacabin, also not allowed to cover fire escape and fire extinguishers.

CCW Artist Moving Image

The CCW AMI screening took place last night at South London Gallery. Overall the experience was quite bad. The film we submitted had been pixelated beyond belief and the sub woofer connected to the audio equipment sounded like something from a teenagers Vauxhall Nova, it drowned alot of the speech out of Milo's part and massively exaggerated any wind noise in mine. Along with these technical errors, I realised how much effect it has on the perception of your work when being part of a show-reel. All the other films were deadly serious conceptual pieces about dancers interpreting speech or space or notions of authorship, meaning that our film had a high chance of being lumped in to the same pool of ideas. I would probably choose not to be involved in a screening like this again unless it was curated more specifically. It also made me think the film was probably not best suited for a conformed screening environment and to plan an installation based one for the degree show is a good idea.

In the Shoe - Progress

After spending a couple of days trying to merge mine and Milo's footage, we decided it would be better to create 2 separate parts. I have developed ideas around an established filming style which wasn't fitting with his synthetic/cgi sequences. I think this film is the strongest work I have made so far and am glad for it to be my final piece as it shows pretty much everything I have learnt in the last 3 years.
The original concept for the film was based around 2 main ideas, a hallucinogenic drug experience which involved a repetition of the words "in my shoe", from a Bob Dylan live video, and the fashion trend of Captain Jack Sparrow style pirate boots. The 2 parts will be our separate interpretations of these ideas. Mine will be part one, an idea of the filming style is shown in the above stills. I have chosen to use the pirate boot and the plinth as the central character or object for my film. It represents the main idea of the boot trend in the film, this boot that is so common and fashionable in this country, sitting on top of a slightly repulsive podium that was once the height of furniture style (I'd say mid nineties, next to a cream leather sofa and animal skin rug, supporting a large television remote). The juxtaposition of this central object against the many back drops, is the first level of abstraction in the work. The backdrops add to the transcending absurdity that is led by the narration. The narration also follows the two main ideas for the film, merging faux psychoanalytic ramblings about the boot with actual descriptions of the hallucinogenic drug experience. Fiction and reality are merged in a way that almost parodies Patrick Keiller's film, 'LONDON'. The boot/plinth shots are interrupted by scenes that attempt to re-create the drug experience, in parts they link to the narration. A further idea is to parody the established film essay style by self sabotaging shots, in one I leave the camera rolling as I step in to spin the boot hanging from a tree and in another, a dog runs in front of the plinth with the boot on it. This intentionally raises questions of professionalism, as the viewer may initially familiarise with the established HD aesthetic, then be confronted with 'mistakes'.

CCW Moving Image Fund/Degree Show Piece

A few months ago I applied and received funding for the CCW Moving Image Initiative run by UAL. I proposed a collaborative film, with first year student Milo Creese, which uses particular types of shoe or boot as a flag for fashion and consumer trends. Through this idea, I am able to speculate on the humour found in everyday passing observations on these subjects. The film will consist of a neo-psychedelic experience that runs across a loosely strung narrative of absurd situations involving said shoes and characters from our imaginations. As well as this piece being screened alongside the other recipients of the funding at South London Gallery, I have chosen to use it for my degree show. I originally wanted to show my previous work, 'The Orifice', however, upon finishing this project I felt there was more than enough time to create something new and further develop some ideas I had encountered.
I want to push absurdity further with this piece, exploiting the viewer's familiarisation with established styles of filming. I have previously spoken about a lo-fi aesthetic that may come about from the priority of conception, now I would like to try and exploit people's familiarisation with established HD video styles, including high quality shots as a way of making the work more accessible. Then in turn throwing the people off that seek this familiarisation as the majority of the video fill feature my usual working style. I believe that if you give yourself freedom in visual aesthetics on a video project, there is nothing to break out of, and its those parts that break through boundaries where things get interesting. Creating a loose narrative through anchor points that touch down on reality or the viewers typical perception of reality in video, will allow something to work against and create an absurd alternation of that perception/familiarisation. Here are some stills of the work in progress:

Blue Ball and Society Makes Me Sad

These are 2 video I made in my first year. It is very interesting looking back now because I feel like I have arrived back at a similar point in my third year. The faux-television aesthetic is something that has become the way I make videos. A person that is more interested in popular/mainstream culture, that watches television and glossy music videos on the internet, might find that artist video falls short aesthetically. Where a person might thrive on this constant visual familiarisation, artists put other factors at higher priority than glossy finishes, which derive from this 'mainstream' style. I have learnt that I can quite easily make glossy style music videos but I do not want this style to be the focal point. However, I am interested in how I can exploit these trends in filming styles.

My Job

Since completing an internship at the ICA, I have worked there part time as a gallery assistant.
Most people that work there are practising artists/film makers etc. Whether or not I enjoy the work, it is important as an artist to be aware of the viewer, you have to tackle these things from the inside out. I also get a card which gets me into any gallery in London for free.

The Orifice: Final video

This is he final version of my orifice project. Leading on from the performance installation, I carried on the idea further with the professor character questioning its meaning whilst wandering around. In the second half I created a counter-argument to the work itself using the narration of a character within the film to air my preconceived opinions of viewers. Its a kind of comedic paranoia surrounding the perceptions of video art/non-video art.

Music video for Robert Miles

I made this music video for Robert Miles using my new Canon SLR

art school

Super 8 workshops, country visits part 1, Jurassic Park, cooking, Lewes Bonfire night, art school friend's family small hold part 1, visiting artist run spaces, Norman Mclaren, rave in mate's bedroom, wasting time in the studio part 1, important decisions, late night early week soho, warehouse conversion, wasting time in the studio part 2, drinking in the back of a van, party scene, skateboarding, my friend is in a band, pub quiz, wasting time in the studio part 3, people ripping off Paul Maccarthy, neon, art school friend's family small hold part 2, Frieze Art Fair/Soho nights part 2, cows mating, friend on vallium, dogs, mum laughing at cat which she steals from neighbours, sheep noises, mockney, DIY punk, Artist being silly, getting a tattoo, hangover, cooking part 2, urinating in the bushes, sculpture, acid casualtys, stuck on motorway listening to previous UAL graduate DIY punk, pints, acid casualtys part 2, spend loan on trip to America, funny tutor, stupid friends, stream, urinal, birthday, constant housing disturbance, jaeger bombs, wetherspoons
This is a video made of clips from my mobile phone throughout the last few years with an accompanying description. As I have always taken phone camera pictures for my other blog (which you can see here), I thought it would be interesting to put all the video together. Like all my work it is riddled with hypocrisy, poking fun at itslef as it chronicles the many cliched extra-curricular activities of an art education.

Post-interim show thoughts

For my interim show I created an installation in the film and video room which housed a performance. The installation comprised of the 'orifice' sculpture, from which the idea had developed, linked up to some faux medical monitoring equipment. Around this, I hung some plastic sheets and a spotlight focused on the sculpture. On the projection screen was a looped video of the sculpture which I had created prior to the event, with accompanying loud bass-y audio. Red, blue and white, the colours of the sculpture were themed throughout the event, including the drinks and sunglasses worn by the actors. The orifice sculpture, originally a symbol for babbling nonsense, became the emphasis of this work. Viewers were made to queue outside whilst they acquired one of the colour coded drinks and a paper paint suit. An actor manned the door informing viewers that the suits were to prevent them from, 'contaminating the orifice'. The colour code came about by chance of the raw materials from which the sculpture was made, however I found their likening to both the logo of Tesco's and the French flag humorous and interesting. Along with the initial ideas that arose from the sculpture, I wanted to create this colour coded environment as a suggestion of generic uniform or authority. As the viewers were being greeted at the door and the importance of cleanliness around the orifice was emphasised, I was also greeting them as they came in the door, using a megaphone. The sound from the projection was intentionally loud, attempting to immerse the viewer, so the megaphone was needed both to communicate and to serve as an action of hilarity. The viewers/participants were then prompted to thank the orifice for their ideas, one by one. This action was as satirical and unrealistic as the overall idea of the sculpture holding some sort of wisdom. This was my first time experimenting with performance and I found it quite difficult to take seriously. I am happy that I developed the ideas from the orifice as a single sculpture into this larger work but I do not feel the performance as a 'live' element was crucial. However, with the manipulation of editing, the documentation will serve well as a part to a film, a further development. I wish to use the documentation as one part of a film, the second part focusing on the character, which manned the door, as a cvonfused professor. His thoughts on the event will be narrated, through which I will vent my own loosely problematic questions regarding the work. The thoughts that are narrated will be a mixture of fiction and reality, including my real thoughts on the work. I have been thinking about what it meant for me to be included in the performance, the basis of a sculpture in a performance installation and the colour coding; did it work, what did it display?

christopher-hopkins.com

I have made a website as my online portfolio. Click the image below to visit it.

Tutorial with Reactor

Total GHAOS from Reactor Projects on Vimeo.

"Based in the UK, Reactor is a group of contemporary artists whose collective practice is focused on creating projects in which audiences become active participants. Reactor creates projects that place the audience in a central and interactive role, exploring the dynamics of group behaviour and the production of collective reality and responsibility; demanding participants re-evaluate their relationship to the world they inhabit." Elements of this work, such as the colour scheme being used to suggest an established authority and the way people are integrated into the work, interest me greatly. I believe there is something truly brave about challenging the viewers perception of what they might consider to be 'silly' or 'childish'.

Orifice progress

Re-filmed orifice sculpture against green screen so white blue and red colours flash behind it as opposed to the whole screen as I tested before.

I have also taken a heart monitor video graphic from the internet and edited the colours so they are red and blue, I couldn't work out how to make it white, I don't think its possible. It will be playing on a loop on a small monitor, as if it were in a hospital, to really suggest the sculpture is living. I will make it seem as if the sculpture is connected to the monitor by a tube and a needdle.

Actually looking at it now,the red one looks more orange, I may have to edit that again. The colours are to correspond throughout the props/work in the installation to give a feeling that they are all encompassing, or taking over/invasive. They are the colours of the sculpture and coincidentally the colours of Tesco. This is not a direct dig at Tesco, or anyone for that matter, but 'The Orifice' is a satirical installation that suggests all the worth lies within the orifice sculpture itself. The fact that the default colours matched a huge corporation like Tescos' logo was a happy accident that matches up with its suggested representation of society's wisdom.

Approaching the (inter)rim

My interim show is approaching for which I am making an installation based around my orifice sculpture from the strong body of work exhibition at the beginning of the school year. I have been filming it bubbling with my spit using a high definition camera for clear and therefore most coherent footage. It will appear as a large scale projection in a dark room (film and video room), where the sculpture itself will be present under a spot light, either on a plinth or in some kind of faux incubator. The idea is to present the orifice as a spectacle or oracle of life, suggesting satirically that it holds the answers to life/the world/everything.

I have ordered overalls which viewers will be made to wear upon entry into the installation and also lab coats for myself, a helper, and a camera man who will document the work but also add to the theatrical element. I have also ordered an IV drip to connect to the sculpture and will have a television screen with a heart monitor graphic, giving emphasis to it being a living thing/creature.

Orifice

Further from my idea of putting a gradient of colour on the really high plinth, derived from a fried chicken box, I have thought about other colour schemes that match the basic colours of the sculpture itself. The Tesco logo happens to be the same colours as the sculpture and is a kind of all encompassing emblem for today's society, we can't escape it.

Whilst thinking about ways of deploying the gradient, the idea of spray painting it arose, leading to thoughts of other ways of displaying the colours. I'm thinking about jagged free hand lines in the style of keith harring.

or distorting an image of the logo to create an abstract pattern.

I am also thinking about whether or not to to have a live projection of the orifice sculpture on the plinth or to create a video using all these interesting abstractions of the blue white and red colours. I want to try recording the bubbling spit with a contact microphone and creating a bass driven soundtrack.

'Micro Seminar' aka Day Long Tutorial with Jesse Ash/ Benedict Drew Artist Talk

For my part of the tutorial we looked back on the work I had produced for the 'Strong Body' exhibition. It was the first time to get more of an in-depth insight into the Chisel, Really High Plinth and Orifice sculptures. I explained how I thought it would be important for me to create more works like this as they didn't seem to deserve much speculation and were simply quick with style jokes like the work of David Shrigley. However it was suggested that I may spend more time thinking about the scale and the malleability of an idea, even though it may exist in thought form as a quick gesture or joke. I was still toying with the idea of the really high plinth, think about how it's initial purpose, to exaggerate the traits of a stereotypical successful human being, such as egotism, could be combined with some other ideas amongst the 3 sculptures. Previously I had thought about placing the orifice sculpture on top of the plinth and creating a live video feed down to a television screen, referencing actual programs of such nature. Regarding aesthetics, I thought back to an animation I had made for as part of a work about a suggested value given to fried chicken I want to try and use the colour scheme from the chicken box to create a generic gradient for the plinth/orifice/live feed combination. I was inspired to bring these ideas together after and artist talk by Benedict Drew. Drew creates video/audio and sculptural installations that seem to look at ideas surrounding information and technology in contemporary culture. His exhibition, 'The Persuaders', was home to some sculptural heads, their basic clay make up seeming to reference a generic drone that is the general public of today.

I felt a similarity between these beings he had created and my orifice sculpture and that perhaps they represented a similar idea. Thinking about the way Drew had presented these sculptures in relation to this video work - facing the screen as motionless onlookers, prompted thoughts about the presentation of the orifice on the plinth and ways I could include colour gradients, sounds and a video feed. I will create a new installation merging the ideas of value from my fried chicken works and the ideas of egotism amongst social situations that are mentioned in the strong body exhibition.