Ashleigh

Kilometer Assignment

Ricky’s Journey

For my kilometer project I decided to show the effect of traveling one kilometer. I started by thinking of how we can travel a kilometer. We can walk it, run it, bike it, drive it, fly it, etc. Then I started to think of how small 1 single kilometer really is. In my eyes a kilometer isn’t very intimidating, but this is not the case for everyone. Others struggle a lot more with a kilometer and this is the idea I settled on for this project.

I painted a rock, and gave it a name to make it almost human. I then walked a kilometer around campus, kicking Ricky (the rock) in front of me. He had some rough patches; where he rolled into things such as sticks, pebbles, cracks in the pavement. He also had some easy patches in his journey; these were the snowy spots, where he simply kept rolling. When I painted him I put 2 different colored layers around him, one green, the other blue. Where we see green is where only one layer of paint was rubbed off. This is where he only had slight damage. Where we see stone however, is where his main impact points were during his journey.

The damage Ricky took was contingent on where I rolled him. If I had rolled him back and forth down my road (where it isn’t as plowed, and still has a layer of snow), he would have come out of this looking much better. However if I had done this before it snowed he wouldn’t have had the small breaks from pavement, and he would have looked worse in the end. 

I have included Ricky’s before and after pictures, as well as a before and after picture of my shoes. You’ll notice that Ricky has a lot more damage than my shoes. Even though both items traveled the same distance, they didn’t have the exact same journey. This kilometer was way harder on Ricky than it was on my shoes, because my shoes were more prepared. Since I painted the rock and gave it a name we suddenly feel how hard this kilometer was on poor Ricky.

Video Art

Partners with Renee

Art Is Hard (Loop)

Taking inspiration from John Baldessari’s “I will not make anymore boring art”. Our video calls out those who look at art as easy. We chose to fill a page with ‘Art is hard’, contradicting the overall simple feeling of the video itself. While filling up the page I found I zoned out completely. I was expecting for my hand to hurt about half way through and then be uncomfortable writing the second half. However this wasn’t the case. It was hard to get started with the writing, but once I was a few lines in I started to distract myself looking at the columns each word was creating. You can see I made a few mistakes, but we took them as they came. The mistakes demonstrated how even a simple task like this is difficult, adding to our overall idea of art being hard. Some words were written too close, or I wrote the wrong word and had to fix it. I also take a second to look back at the work I have done a few times. In the video we have enough time to take in all aspects of it. I found that I was immediately drawn to how I was holding my pencil, it looked so weird. Something like holding a pencil comes so naturally, it is second nature, so I had never thought about how I held my pencil until now. A small challenge we had while making this was how we would make the loop because we had to get our blank page back seamlessly. We decided to start with a blank table, then bring in our paper to begin the writing. In the end we take the filled page away so our loop can start again with us bringing in a new blank page, starting fresh.

A Paper’s Strength Against A… (One Shot Video)

We tested the limits of paper (with respect to our studio space), using the same repetitive feat over and over, only changing the object. We didn’t want to be in this video ourselves, taking away from the paper’s presence, so we decided to do a close up style. Only showing Renee’s arms, we angled the paper in a way that we could see the face of it, but also see the incoming objects. This lets the viewer only focus on the object’s impact on the paper. It was interesting to watch how some of the items (ex. The clip or the server card), were held by the paper for a brief moment on impact. It gave us a chance to look at how the paper supported the object before gravity took over. When Renee and I watched the video we knew what each object was, making it easier for us to take in the whole video. However, our audience wouldn’t be able to view it the same way we did. We could have left the video and objects as a mystery, but some went by so fast and were too hard to see, making the video less enjoyable. So we had to think of a way to inform the audience, without disrupting our video. We originally tried to add a small title in the corner, saying what was being thrown, but this made the video feel busy though. Our eyes were going from the corner, to the paper, to the corner, back to the paper. It was taken away from our video. So we used a voiceover in between the items hitting the paper. This kept our video easy to watch. It also gave the viewer context, so they could think of what was being thrown rather than just watching and taking in whatever they could. 

James Price and Lenka Clayton created a cut video of drums being played by different people, ages 1-100. This was a fun video to watch, you could visibly see the overall change everyone goes through in life. They kept drums as their constant. Renee and I kept our sheet of paper as our constant, while each object changed. We also tried to line everything up before we started the video. We wanted to have the objects with the least amount of impact go first, and we would slowly work up to the object we thought could break the paper.

Different Ways To Share Paper (Cut)

This piece was inspired by Kelly Mark’s ‘Hello Goodbye’. She shows the viewer simple, silent gestures for us to understand. In her work she wore all black with a black background. Her goal was to isolate her hand gestures and facial expressions, this is how we got the feeling of her video. Renee and I instead wore the same lighter neutral clothing so our body movements would be visible instead of just our hands. We then had to decide on our overall feeling: did we want to be having fun, smiling and looking at each other? Or did we want to stay calm and serious? Harrison and Wood made a similar video that I was very drawn to. I like the way their video was ‘quiet’, giving you one simple movement at a time to take in. Renee and I kept straight faces, making only one movement per clip, this keeps the video ‘quiet’, giving our viewers only our movements to consider. We also muted the sound on the video so there wouldn’t be anything small to distract you from our movements.

We originally had a lot more clips, but cut it down to our favourites. We experimented with many poses, some worked very well, others didn’t. We also had smaller issues, for example: When we lean back, supporting ourselves with the paper, the paper would occasionally rip. Or sometimes when we were trying different ways to hold the paper it would drop. We felt that the paper dropping did not fit the feeling we were going for, so those fails were cut out. 

Watching our video back I wish we had only made one moving gesture video. We could have the inserted clips of us holding a paper, still, in different positions in between. So it would have shown us progressing through the one video, with the different ways to hold a paper in between.

Field Trip to Toronto : Wednesday, February 15th, 2023

The Power Plant

Our first stop of the day was at The Power Plant. There are many pieces there at the moment, however, I am only posting my two favorite exhibitions.

IN THE COMFORT OF EMBERS by Amartey Golding. The pieces were centered around fire and chainmail, looking back at the past compared to the present. There were 3 videos playing on loop in the room: Bring Me to Heal 1, Bring Me to Heal 2, and Chainmail 3. The suit (made of human hair) in the first two pictures was worn in the videos. The puffer jacket made of chainmail, stuffed with horse hair, was worn in the videos as well by his brother. It was used to portray his time in the army. This was a very interesting exhibit, I felt completely consumed by the work as I stood in the room.

Brenda Draney, my favorite of the two shown. This is her first solo exhibition at the Power Plant. Her work is formed around memories, all pieces appearing to be unfinished. This is done on purpose. She is painting her own specific memories, but does so in a way where we can all relate to the final piece. Picture 3 is named ‘Tent City’, and we all look at it different because we all have different relationships with a tent, it sparks a different memory within every viewer. For example, when looking at the bruised legs piece (pic 5), I immediately think of snowmobiling. While riding my knees and shins hit off the vents and foot pockets on my sled, resulting in a lot of bruises up my legs. She painted the piece from one of her own personal memories, but I as a viewer can still relate to it in my own way. The exhibit room itself is also a piece. Shown in the first picture, we can see a brown line painted around the top of the room, this represents a flood line. Her basement, where many of her treasured memories took place, was flooded.

Kensington Market

During our break in Kensington market Renee and I walked down the street to Graffiti Alley. This is a ‘street art gallery’, and we thought it fit the theme of the trip well.

TPW and Daniel Faria Gallery

The TWP gallery was my favorite place we stopped. We got to sit in a comfy, inviting room, and listen to 9 soundtracks on a loop. We didn’t get to listen to the whole loop, but we did hear two different tracks. I believe the full loop is about 9 hours long. It was extremely mesmerizing, and peaceful. The walls were covered in large speakers so you were only able to hear the soundtrack from all sides around you, the work consumed you completely.

Our next stop was at the Daniel Faria gallery, not even a minutes walk away. We got to look at his looped video pieces.

Conceptual Portrait

What’s she thinking?

Inspired by Kelly Marks cat video, my piece shows a ‘portrait’ of Paris through her reactions. When it comes to fight or flight horses are a flight animal. They can have big reactions to small things, then no reaction at all to something that you would expect to scare them. Using Paris for this idea works perfectly because she won’t be acting. If I were to have done this with one of my friends, wether they realize it or not, their reactions would be fake or exaggerated because they know I want a reaction from them. Whereas my horse doesn’t understand what is happening. If she is scared she will run, and if she doesn’t care about what I have to show her she will just stare at me or walk away. So by using her I am able to capture a genuine reaction every time. I am happy to say I have a very curious and brave horse, which is shown through the video. It is interesting how we can get a sense of her goofy personality through watching what she thinks of something like an umbrella, or a flag. While watching you can also get a sense of our relationship. I have owned Paris for three and a half years now, overtime gaining her trust and forming a bond. Her reactions are contingent on that trust.

*****No one was in danger during this video*****

Artist Multiple

Tastefully Hating These Thought Police

Each of my buttons show a song lyric on a black background. The simplicity of the design allows the viewer to only focus on what is being said. The lyrics are centred around the idea of power, and how blinded the public is. The single line is thought provoking. Government and religion shape the world as we know it, these buttons are statements/questions regarding this power dynamic. Much like buttons, music is a good way to subtly spread a message. Using lyrics allowed each button to be quick, poetic and to the point.

The buttons are intended to be worn as an individual rather than as a group. Their intention is for the one line to be thought of, rather than multiple. It could be worn on a bag so others can read it at ease. Spreading the message while waiting in line or walking down the street.

Where the lines came from:

  • “I’ve got blood on my hands, no guilt on my conscience”- Brand New Numb by Motionless In White
  • “It’s the false sense of authority that’ll tear us apart” – SO WHAT? by While She Sleeps
  • “Imagine all the people, living life in peace”- Imagine by John Lennon
  • “And now you do what they told ya (you’re under control)”- Killing in the Name by Rage Against the Machine
  • “Didn’t you hear? The war’s over. Just don’t look behind that closed door”- Welcome to Paradise// Outro by Grandson
  • “And now we get front row seats, watch the system fall, ’cause look who’s in control”- Rock Bottom by Grandson
  • “I’m going blind but one thing’s clear. Death is the only salvation you’ll feel”- House of Wolves by Bring Me The Horizon
  • “Social status won’t change the fact that we all share the same grave”- Same Graves by The Ghost Club
  • “No thoughts, no prayers, will bring back what’s no longer there”- Thoughts and Prayers by Grandson
  • “So how’d we get this stressed out? Paranoid? Everything is going dark”- Teardrops by Bring Me The Horizon
  • “Lie about some greater good when you ship me off to war”- War by Grandson
  • “Give me liberty or death, charge me more and pay me less”- Brand New Numb by Motionless In White
  • “Tastefully hating these thought police”- Hate Me by DED
  • “One nation controlled by the media”- American Idiot by Green Day
  • “Your future dream is a shopping scheme”- Anarchy in the UK by Sex Pistols
  • “Make a move and you pay for it, pick a lord and you pray to it”- Unsainted by Slipknot
  • “They’re gonna propagate the killer, eliminate the youth”- Digital Silence by Peter McPoland
  • “Do we feel safe?”- Go To War by NOTHING MORE
  • “And on the day that I lie still, oh I’ll still have taxes and I’ll still have bills”- Bills by Grandson
  • “Government leaving the youth on the shelf”- Ghost Town by The Specials
  • “The revolution will not be televised”- The evolution Will Not Be Televised by Gil Scott-Heron

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