Research Project, Concept 3.1: 'Identity', family album & year book (posted on 21/4/12)

'Photos', family album, 21.5 x 28 cm, ready-made.

After the artist book I came up with in order to test the idea of Stream of consciousness (concept 2) it became clear that it was not the most suitable format for exploring an itinerary towards a state of being such as self-awareness. On that basis, I continued researching on how artists and designers communicate various states of being within visual culture. Inspired by Ed Ruscha's 26 Gasoline Stations, I came to the conclusion that an existential itinerary such as the one through which an individual acquires progressively the state of self-awareness, is about the acquisition of his or her's identity. And at the same time, if we assume that a person is embarking on a psychoanalytic process in order to gain a deeper understanding of the unconscious process that happen into our minds, they do that in order to understand themselves better and to acquire and/or accept who they are; hence their identity and hopefully live free.

Having said that, I came up with the idea to create a sequence that would symbolise the existential itinerary through which an individual becomes progressively aware of themselves. This sequence is composed -and it is being composed at the time being- by a family album and a year book. A family album is connected with the concept of family, home and protection whereas a yearbook is inextricably linked with that of graduation and, therefore, leaving home...

Since this project aims at communicating the concept of self-awareness to people by inviting them to experience a journey, I filled the album with (google) images that does not constitute a man's personal memories but with 'events' that people tend to connect their own memories with. In that respect, the imagery was selected out of 10 categories from the 1960s onwards: social and political events; sports; films; technology; cars; tourism; book titles; dancing and European advertising. For example, the 8-year-old Macaulay Culkin (Home Alone) himself, is nobody's personal memory. However, his portrait encapsulates some of the childhood memories that people have: a specific event of their childhood; the love and sensitivity of their family that they have 'attached' on that image -since human beings tend to do that while growing up in a fundamentally 'spectacular' epoch.

I invited people to take this potentially collective 'family' album and think about which one of these images they feel it is connected and/or it has contributed to who they are at the moment. The next step it is to choose the aforementioned image and get captures by holding the image and hence, reproducing to infinity a moment of awareness through an identity photograph, which will culminate into the synthesis of a yearbook.

'Photos', family album, 21.5 x 28 cm, ready-made. 'Movies' spread.

'Photos', family album, 21.5 x 28 cm, ready-made. 'Technology' spread.

'Photos', family album, 21.5 x 28 cm, ready-made. 'Cars' spread.

'Photos', family album, 21.5 x 28 cm, ready-made. 'Music' spread.

Year book, mock up, 17 x 24 cm. Spread.

Photo shoot, backstage, Camberwell College of Arts, Graphic design studio, Thu-19-Apr.

Work in progress, Camberwell College of Arts, Graphic design studio, Fri-20-Apr.

Work in progress (Layout & typography tests), Camberwell College of Arts, Graphic design studio, Thu-26-Apr.

Work in progress (Layout & typography tests), Camberwell College of Arts, Graphic design studio, Thu-26-Apr.

Year book, mock up, 17.5 x 24.3 cm. Cover.

Year book, mock up, 17.5 x 24.3 cm. Spread.

Year book, mock up, 17.5 x 24.3 cm. Spread.

Concept 3.1 Reassessment:
Design wise, this idea is very interesting and it seems working really well as a project about personal awareness. Things that need to be considered though is that the photo shoot needs to be done on a photographic studio in order to use a standardised background and lighting. What is more, it needs to be taken into account the fact that in order to make a year book I will need at least 100 people as volunteers to participate, so as to create the sense of continuity that a year book has.

However, my view is that the current status of this idea has 2 problems -a practical and a conceptual. The former is referring into the difficulty of organising many different photo shoots for so many different people where I will have to explain the idea each time in order to invite them to undertake this allegorical itinerary. The second problem, and probably the most crucial to be considered is a conceptual one. More specifically, it is the fact that the fundamental composition of this sequence excludes 'the experience' and the sense of a progressive itinerary through which a person acquires a state of awareness, since it represents 'the embarkation' (family album) and it goes straight to 'the destination' (year book).

In conclusion, the realisation and testing of this concept is still in progress. What is more, the conceptual problem that arises out of the 'absence' of a progressive journey could be resolved with the verbal description that each person -included in this book- could provide on why they chose a particular picture. This description could be a few lines of text and could be included in the back pages of the year book.


Nikos Georgopoulos,
London,
April 2012

Research Project, Concept 2: 'Stream-of-consciousness', artist book (posted on 16/4/12)

'Stream of consciousness', artist book, 21x14.8 cm, newsprint.

Stream-of-Consciousness writing is a literary method of representing a blending of mental processes in fictional characters, usually in an unpunctuated or disjointed form of interior monologue. In literary criticism, Stream-of-Consciousness is used as a method to portray an individual’s point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character’s thought processes, either in a loose interior monologue, or in connection to his or her actions.

This publication aims at exploring how the intuitive selection of experiences (seemingly unrelated to each other) in order to elaborate on, and ultimately, to understand the correlations between them, can, progressively, lead us to self awareness. Intentionally unbound, and by not having page numbers, this project represents an existential itinerary of a character among cultural surroundings and perceptions (google images). Hence, it can be, fundamentally, shaped (re-arranged) on the basis of a character’s thought processes, ‘... either in a loose interior monologue, or in connection to his or her actions.’
 

'Stream of consciousness', artist book, 21x14.8 cm, newsprint. Spread.

'Stream of consciousness', artist book, 21x14.8 cm, newsprint. Spread.

'Stream of consciousness', artist book, 21x14.8 cm, newsprint. Spread.

Concept 2 - Reassessment:
Design wise, this project is very interesting. Being unbound and with no page numbers, it works really well towards communicating the concept of the Stream of consciousness as an unpunctuated form of narrative.

However, the problem of this concept is that it fails to deliver the research objectives -to communicate the concept of self awareness to the audience. I conceived and designed this artist book as a form of narrative, intrigued from a random chosen image (Aqua), based on my Stream of consciousness. People who are going to be invited to re arrange this publication on the basis of their Stream of consciousness though, will probably be limited on building their own narrative associations, because of the predetermined imagery. Even though the format of this book is open to re arrangement -in fact it is designed as such, still, the parameters (imagery) contradict fundamentally with the very concept of Stream of consciousness.

At this point, I came to the conclusion that, in order for this idea to work really well it has to be contextualised into a workshop, where I would ask people to do -from the outset- what I did, on the basis of their own interior monologue. Otherwise, re arranging the 'Stream of consciousness' artist book it is going to be just a re arrangement that does not necessarily communicate self awareness through a stream of consciousness. Rather, what it does communicate is individuality as well as the difference between  the unconscious and the background -cultural or other- of each participant. In addition to that, coming up with sort of playful 'arty' (artist) books it is a bit shallow, and something 'limited' from the outset.

To sum up, the problem of 'Concept 2' is that while it is about the Stream of consciousness, its ontological context limits the concept by asking just for a re-arrangement of a predetermined and pre-associated imagery.


Nikos Georgopoulos,
London,
April 2012

  

Research Project, Concept 1: 'Mataroa', installation; artist book; essay (posted on 16/4/12)

'Re-collection', installation, dimensions variable

When I embarked on the MA Visual Arts at Camberwell College of Arts in 2011 I had just finished working on a personal rough pop music project called Mataroa. I had completed the album, I formed a live band constituted by friends and former band mates as to rehearse and create the live version of the songs in order to present it live, on stage. So it happened and it went brilliant!! It was a fantastic experience. We only presented Mataroa live once, 5 days before I left Athens to go to London.

The title of the project was inspired by the opportunity that was given to 200 young Greek intellectuals[1] in 1945, to embark on a Liberty ship, called Mataroa, and to undertake a journey 'towards salvation'. Its destination was Paris; where they would flourish and stay in history at a time when Post-war Greece was experiencing a devastating civil war. Inspired by the process of Psychoanalysis, the idea of the project was to write songs -instrumental or non instrumental- in order to express personal feelings and issues I needed to; record stories -personal or non personal- that had an effect on me; elaborate on political views I stood for during the past as well as to capture emotional moments -I have experienced. Having said that, my intention was to compose a concept album by putting together each song next to another in such way so as to function metaphorically as a small existential journey -that one undertakes- towards self awareness.

Obviously, the sort of experience I gained through this project influenced my research project at Camberwell. On the basis that each Mataroa song is written for a personal memory of a person; a story; a situation etc, the 1st idea/experiment that I came up with for my research project was to use them as my basic material in order to compose visually an existential journey. A journey that would go from intuitive recollection to awareness. In order to do that, I started to design a sequence in order to communicate such an existential itinerary.

The 1st part of that itinerary would stand for the intuitive recollection in the same way I worked the Mataroa songwriting. I visualised each song as a single piece that when they put together they form a conceptual Atlas -composed by things seemingly unrelated to each other. An Atlas that it would not make any sense -on the basis that it is the first part of a sequence that goes progressively from unconsciousness to awareness. Having said that, I composed an installation called 'Re-collection' (image 1&2) and I designed its components to look like found or ready-made and therefore, re-called.

The 2nd part of the project was an artist book entitled 'Associations', which was designed to accompany the installation aiming to provide explanation and information for each piece as well as to imply the connections that all these things have to my mind on the basis of its design.

The 3d part of the sequence it was supposed to be a single group photograph placed next to the installation in a small size. In this group photograph I would use people in order to impersonate the personalities and the objects and symbols that emerge out of 'Re-collection'. This would stand as a moment of realisation; as the moment that one becomes aware about their seemingly unrelated things that they may re-call in a Psychoanalytical process. Eventually, one can be saved through such a process and live their lives free, in the same way that the 200 young Greek intellectuals did so. The group photograph would be something like a proof they sent back to their families when they disembarked on Paris. At this point, I wrote an essay about Mataroa, called All passengers ready for disembarkation; it's 1945 (see also the section essays).

'Re-collection', installation, dimensions variable

'Re-collection', installation test

'Re-collection', preparatory drawings

'Re-collection', preparatory drawings

'Re-collection', preparatory drawings

'Associations', artist book, 14x20.5 cm, paper & carton. Spread.

'Associations', artist book, 14x20.5 cm, paper & carton. Spread.

Concept 1 Reassessment:
At that time, I was still very influenced by the Mataroa project in Athens. I left my home and came to London, I did an unofficial goodby party that lots of people attended (150 maybe more) as the 1st public Mataroa presentation. However, as a synthesis, Mataroa was completed the day this gig took place. Of course it needed improvements in terms of its identity and graphics because I didn't had enough time to work on that along with the extremely intense rehearsal on that summer. As a subject matter, I wanted to continue working with it -and I did. It seems that I wanted to take a piece from Athens with me, here in London. But as a project, Mataroa was fulfilled. If I was continuing this concept in the MA I would have repeated myself as well as the project. That is why between December and February I had this awful feeling that I was doing something wrong.

What is more, without including the music and the songs, the Mataroa visual journey (concept 1) would not work. It would be absolutely personal and subjective and hence, very difficult to handle within the context of an academic program. In addition, without the music, a visualisation of a personal itinerary is debatable whether it would be interesting or engaging to the audience.

In conclusion, I thought why not explore through my research project the possibility of communicating the concept of an existential destination (self-awareness) to the audience. Therefore, I stopped working on 'Concept 1' and came up with a new idea (see Concept 2).

Nikos Georgopoulos
London,
May 4, 2012

Research Project, N. Georgopoulos, (posted on 16/4/12)

Mataroa vessel, (C) NZ Maritime Museum

My research project is an inquiry into the concept of self-awareness: a state of mind that an individual acquires progressively through the course of an existential journey.

In particular, the aim of this project will be to: explore how such concept is interpreted when integrates into every day life; to construct a context through which to communicate –progressively- the concept of self-awareness to a (primarily) European audience operating within the age bracket of 20 to 70-years old. Ultimately, the project will explore the theme of personal ‘salvation’ as a state of mind gained through out a process of self-exploration. This idea is based on the fact that when a person starts to realise the framework within which its actions aim to function, he or she will embark on a psychotherapeutic process, which ultimately lead to self-awareness.

In order to develop the core idea on which the project's realisation will be based, theoretical work and research are essential prerequisites. More specifically, the components of my research will include: The concept of Archiving within visual culture as a form of conceptual mapping with which artists navigate and therefore, communicate to the viewer various states of being; the Photographic image as a document that reproduce to infinity ‘… what has occurred only once and cannot be repeated existentially.’ (Barthes, 1981 p.4); the ideal of Psychoanalysis as an existential itinerary undertaken by the therapist and patient together in order to gain a deeper understanding of the unconscious processes which take place in our minds and get expressed in all our relationships.

Furthermore, the practical work related to my research project will be to explore -through the design process- the possibility of communicating a particular ‘state’ (destination) through a synthesis (journey). The visual outcome of this project could possibly culminate into a sequence (e.g. mixed media installation) with which the audience could interact with and/or rearrange its components (experience), and therefore, to define its scheme (‘state’) –to some extend.


Nikos Georgopoulos,
London,
February 2012

'Capturing', fish eye photographic series No3 (posted on 18/3/12)

Brick Lane, 28-1-12. Photo by N. Georgopoulos

Kitchen, 16-3-12. Photo by N. Georgopoulos

Opposite Angel station , 17-3-12. Photo by N. Georgopoulos

Camberwell , 15-3-12. Photo by N. Georgopoulos

Camberwell , 15-3-12. Photo by N. Georgopoulos

Camberwell , 15-3-12. Photo by N. Georgopoulos

Camberwell , 15-3-12. Photo by N. Georgopoulos

Camberwell , 15-3-12. Photo by N. Georgopoulos

Camberwell , 15-3-12. Photo by N. Georgopoulos

Camberwell , 15-3-12. Photo by N. Georgopoulos

On Guillermo Kuitca's 'Untitled', 1992. (posted on 16/3/12)

Guillermo Kuitca, 'Untitled', 1989. Oil on vinyl covered mattress. Taken from the book 'The Atlas of Emotion' (Giuliana Bruno)

Cartography is increasingly becoming a very popular and central locus of contemporary visual culture, not only because artists are making maps -travel or subversive ones- but because ''... artistic endeavors are curatorially measured and exhibited as maps that chart the trajectory of a movement''.

In 1992, Argentinian artist Guillermo Kuitca, produced a series of works under the title 'Untitled'. The main themes underpinning Kuitca's work is the mapping of history and loss. In this particular series, the artist depicts imaginary maps by painting them on mattresses. The mattress' buttons link areas and territories. The maps emerge in the surface like a stained memory. Hence, the mattress becomes a living document of one's personal history; of what he or she is dreaming of during the night or of which memories recalls when he or she is going to bed. In Guiliana Brunos' words ''... the mattress was a witness. It absorbed a story, some event -perhaps too many events or not quite enough of them. Now, inevitably, it recounts the tale of what was lived, or unlived''. 

This project can be seen as a form of tender mapping. Not because visually it depicts a map. Rather, because it associates an object that symbolizes home and sleep with an image that in real life can not exist there, but emotionally does. This project is an emotional map because ''... travel and home has been in constant interaction''.


A perfect name for his 'untitled' works could be 'burning beds'.

On Guy Debord's 'naked city' (posted on 16/3/12)

'The naked city', Guy Debord & Asger Jorn, 1957. Print screen.

Back in the 50's, through the Lettrist group, a forerunner of the Situationist International, Guy Debord introduced the term Psychogeography whose definition describes '... the study off the specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organised or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals'.[1] ''Pick up the map, go out into the city, and walk the circle, keeping as close as you can to the curve. Record the experience as you go, in whatever medium you favor... Complete the circle, and the record ends. Walking makes for content; footage for footage.''[2]

 Tender mapping, a cartographic genre established by Madeleine de Scudery's map of Tenderness in 1654[3], played an important role in the Situationists' psychogeography. Inspired by a 1948 American detective film called Naked City (directed by Jules Dassin), Guy Debord and Asger Jorn designed in 1957 a subversive map of the same name in order to remap Paris on the basis of 'a mobile architecture of living'. The map of The naked city was brought into being by 19 fragments, cut out from a travel map of Paris, whose montage remakes ''... an urban topography into a social and affective landscape''. Through the fragmentation of Paris and its situationist re-construction, the map forms new relations among the city's parts and their inhabitants and reconfigures them with red directional arrows that link the cut outs. In short, through the map of The naked city, the Situationists attempted a remapping of Paris by considering the relationship between spaces and emotions, and as Guy Debord himself stated ''... spatial development must take into account the emotional effects''(Guy Debord, Report on the Construction of Situations, 1958).

In that sense, Situationists' geography of 'lived situations' consists a tender cartography, very similar to the allegorical tactics featured in de Scudery's map of Tenderness, and as Guiliana Bruno puts it ''... in its exploration of the emotional edge of lived space as an affective traversal of the street, situationist mapping constituted itself as a socio-political psychoanalysis of urban space''.


Notes:
1. Debord, G. Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography
2. MacFarlane, R. A Road of One's Own. Times Literary Supplement, Octomber 7, 2005
3. Bruno, G. (2002) Atlas of Emotion: journeys in Art, Architecture, and Film. New York: Verso.

On Madeleine de Scudery's 'Carte du pays de Tendre' (posted on 15/3/12)

'Carte du pays de Tendre' (the map of the land of tenderness). Designed by Madeleine de Scudery in 1665 for her novel 'Clerie'. First engraved by Francois Chauveau. Taken from the book 'The Atlas of Emotion' (Giuliana Bruno)

Nowadays, people are very much familiar with maps, since such cartographic schemes are inextricably related to the concept of a journey.  Having said that though, there seem to be another genre of cartography with which we may not be so familiar with. Such geography is not intended to identify an existing geographical territory of the world, rather it is about representing the experience -gained through the journey- as a journey.

Tender geography; imaginary cartography; emotional mapping; tender cartography; allegorical geography, all of these terms are indeed very much relevant to be used for describing such navigational schemes. The map of the land of Tenderness (carte du pays de Tendre) is one of the very early examples -if not the first- of such cartographic approach. Designed in 1654 by Madeleine de Scudery for her novel Clelie[1], and first engraved by Francois Chauveau, the map of tenderness is a geographic allegory of emotions and 'relational space'. It is ''... an imagenary cartography of intimate space, where emotions take place and are spatially represented in their motion...''[2].

As far as concerns the narrative context of de Scudery's novel Clelie, the map is said to be a plan designed by the eponymous character in order to show the way to the land of Tenderness. In particular, one can observe a landscape composed by allegorical fixtures, such as imaginary towns, rivers, sea, lakes, trees and mountains. To name a few, there is the 'River of Inclination', 'the Sea of Enmity', the 'Dangerous Sea', the 'Lands Undiscovered', the 'Town of Oblivion', 'the Town of Tenderness', the one of 'Alacrity' and so forth.

Through her book 'Atlas of Emotion', Guiliana Bruno comments that ''... there are no fixed directives for this map tour. In the undetermined itinerary, several movements are possible and encouraged. There are even different destinations.'' For example, if one wants to reach the land of tenderness and approach the undiscovered lands, there are 3 possible itineraries to follow, along which emotional states, in the form of towns, rivers, lakes etc appear. As Bruno notes, ''... these  routes are a spatialized representation of the stages of love''. One can reach 'tender upon inclination' by following the 'river of Inclination', which then leads into the 'Dangerous sea' and beyond, into the amorous 'Lands Undiscovered'. The second possible itinerary to follow in order to reach the aforementioned destination would be to reach 'tender upon Esteem' (respect). Furthermore, one can reach 'tender upon Recognizance' (gratitude). Even though, the aforementioned imaginary itineraries are drawn as 3 different routes which lead to a destination, all 3 of them connect at some point. Exactly, as it happens in real life and in real emotional relations between human beings. ''Time and discourse are not only understood spatially but are mobilised in imaginative ways''.

In conclusion, as Bruno puts it, Madeleine de Scudery's map of tenderness ''... embodies a narrative voyage. That is, it visualises, in the form of a landscape, an itinerary of emotions which is, in turn, the topos of the novel.'' In that sense, ''... the exterior world conveys an interior landscape... ''  and the way ''... to traverse that land is to visit the ebb and flow of a personal and yet social psychogeography.'' Hence, the map itself becomes the voyage and the spectator, its passenger.

Notes:
1. Madeleine de Scudery, Clelie, histoire romaine, 10 vols, Paris: Augustin Courbe, 1654-60
2. Bruno, G. (2002) Atlas of Emotion: Journeys in Art, Architecture, and Film. New York: Verso

On Ed Ruscha's 'Twentysix Gasoline Stations' (posted on 11/3/12)

Ed Ruscha, 'Twentysix Gasoline Stations', cover, 1963. Print screen.

Ed Ruscha (b.1937) is an American artist who is working with subject matters such as the banality of everyday life. Born in Nebraska and raised in Oklahoma City, throughout his work, Ruscha ''... consistently combines the cityscape of his adopted hometown with vernacular language to communicate a particular urban experience.''

In 1963, Ruscha published his 1st photographic book -which is considered as the 1st artist's book ever been made, a 48-page publication called 'Twenty six Gasoline Stations'. Through out the book, Ruscha documents various of his trips along Rout66, between Los Angeles and his hometown, OKLAHOMA City. In the book 'Ed Rouscha and Photography' it is written that by ''... using his Yashica camera, he took the pictures from across the street, mostly during the day, with the light either behind him or to the side, which emphasized the stations' facades''.

In an interview to Paul Karlstrom between 1980-81, Ruscha said that the title for the book came long before he started taking the pictures. Having said that, it is very much important to consider at this point the fact that the artist belongs to a generation that grew up in an era where the automobile was the symbolism of freedom, and therefore, roads that connected small places with bigger ones seemed to be the medium for 'individual salvation'. ''Ruscha, however, was not interested in cars themeselves as much as in the ride...'' In his essay 'Words as landscapes', Kerry Brougher notes:

''Back in 1956, in the days when those filling stations still pumped ethyl, two 18-years old 'Okies' were making their way across country in a black 1950 Ford. Stopping at nearly every filling station on Route 66 to put another quart of oil in the car, Manson Williams, who would go on to write the hit song 'Calssical Gas', and Ed Rouscha were moving to Los Angeles, aiming straight toward the sunset... the warm weather, beaches, girls and art school =and away from the small-town, repressive environment of Oklahoma City.''

Ed Ruscha, 'Twentysix Gasoline Stations', spread, 1963. Print screen.

Ed Ruscha, 'Twentysix Gasoline Stations', spread, 1963. Print screen.

So, in that sense, when Ruscha made this book through which he showcases (only) photographs he took of Gasoline Stations during his trips on Route 66, he attempts to compose and/or to archive an existential journey through which he broke with his Catholic past and begun his life to become who he is now. He attempts to compose an existential journey -by archiving landmarks of such journeys- for all of us who have been through such itineraries. Gasoline stations are crucial points in a road trip, since without them such journeys would not have been possible. By using his camera more like a capturing device rather than an expressive tool, and by documenting Gas Stations, he attempts to document all these things and meanings that they (Gas Stations) encapsulate. By creating a sequence composed by fragments he observes during his journey, through his right window, he is creating a map; a very subversive one.

In conclusion, as Brougher notes: ''In one of his early paintings, 'U.S. 66 (1960)... still has its feet.. in Abstract Expressionism; but the hovering 'US 66' which is superimposed over the sky... with its missing periods, can be read not only as 'United States' but also as 'us' -we are Route 66''. We have become who we are because of that journey, which 'saved' our lives. While we are approaching our destination we are starting to realise that. And that 'particular urban experience' is the very essence of an existential journey; that of the acquisition of our identity.




Nikos Georgopoulos
London,
March 2012

On Jonathan Ellery's '136 Points of Reference' (posted on 11/3/12)

Jonathan Ellery, '136 Points of Reference', 2005. Print screen.

In 2005, London based Graphic Designer, Jonathan Ellery, released a book through out which he examined the influences ''... that have informed and defined his and the studios’ work.''[1]

Through the book, Ellery is attempting to testify his points of reference; images and objects, books and photographs that, in one way or another, had an effect on, or they are connected to him. It is a personal archive that he wants to celebrate but at the same time to let go. Hence, in order to do that, he has to be sure that he will save it from oblivion by documenting it through photography, since photography's very essence is to reproduce to infinity ''... what could never be repeated existentially.'' [2]

So, in a sense, Jonathan Ellery is immortalizing 136 Points of Reference of his. On that basis, it seems that as a designer, initiates a project that shares the same ideas, in a different form though, with Gerhard Richter's 'Atlas'. It is this very human impulsion for individual commemoration as well as the fear of death and destruction -which oblivion stands for in this particular context- that creates this framework from which such projects emerge within contemporary visual culture.


Notes:
1. http://jonathanellery.com/projects/?id=6&subcat=&cat=3&i=27
2. Barthes, R. (1981) Camera Lucida. New York: Hill and Wang

Nikos Georgopoulos
London,
March 2012

On Gerhard Richter's 'Atlas' (posted on 11/3/12)

Gerhard Richter's 'Atlas', Sheet No 3. Print screen.

In ancient Greek mythology, Atlas was a Titan whose duty was to hold in his arms the sky -in contemporary terms one could translate the word 'sky' as 'the universe'- and thus, preventing it by falling on earth. However, as Buchloh observes in his essay 'The Anomic Archive', ''...in the 19th century, the term was increasingly deployed in German to identify any tabular display of systematized knowledge (image.1), so that one could have encountered an atlas in almost all fields of empirical science...''.

Gerhard Richter (b.1932) is a world acclaimed German visual artist whose work has helped re-define contemporary painting. In 1962 he begun working on a personal project, called 'Atlas', exhibited for the first time in public in 1972, at the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, in Utrecht (image.4). Its synthesis begun with everyday life photographs (sometimes found, sometimes the artist's work) that Richter was collecting as well as donated by friends. Post cards, images extracted by newspapers, pornographic ones as well as historical images such us ''... shots of emaciated concentration-camp inmates...''.

Since its 1st exhibition, Richter's 'Atlas' has been exhibited several times, in different places of the world including 5.000 fragments as well as changes and re-arrangements of its content ''... as an organism that continues to evolve and change''[3], depicting aspects of his personal life, memories and experiences as well as sketches, studies or the artist's various states of being. For instance, when Gerhard Richter was working on the Titian's Annunciation, he did not included in his 'Atlas' the photographic sources and studies that he did on it, while being on Venice, but he included the photographs he took during his stay there, as a tourist.

The whole 'Atlas' is characterized by such configurations and relations between Richter's body of work (public) and its backstage cosmos (private). On that basis, the 'Atlas' is the artist's world, and as much complex and discursive as it appears to be, it is organized into a system (image.3a.b) -that doesn't necessarily follows an order in terms of chronology, but that of content and form- that allows the viewer to observe fragments and through which, to perceive the artist's personality and psychic processes. It is a synthesis, transformed progressively -and conceptually- by fragments into an identity; his identity, as much complex and discursive as a man's identity can possibly be.

In December 2003, 'Atlas' was exhibited for the 1st time in the United Kingdom, at White Chapel gallery, London. The press release, published on the occasion of the exhibition, noted amongst others that the ''... 'Atlas' maps the ideas, processes, life and times of one of the most important painters of the late 20th Century.''

'Atlas of the world'. Print screen.

Hanging plan of the 'Atlas', Gerhard Richter. Taken by the book 'Gerhard Richter: Atlas' (1997)

(detail) Diagram of the 'Atlas', Gerhard Richter. Taken by the book 'Gerhard Richter: Atlas' (1997)

Gerhard Richter's 'Atlas'(1972), exhibition catalogue. Print screen.

Gerhard Richter's 'Atlas', installation view, Stadtische im Lenbachhaus, Munich, 1989. Photocopy.

Nikos Georgopoulos,
London,
March 2012

'Capturing', fish eye photographic series No2 (posted on 10/3/12)

Forstons street, 24-2-12. Photo by N. Georgopoulos

Provost street, 24-2-12. Photo by N. Georgopoulos

Provost street, 24-2-12. Photo by N. Georgopoulos

12, Niagara close, 25-2-12. Photo by N. Georgopoulos

12, Niagara close, 25-2-12. Photo by N. Georgopoulos

28-1-12. Photo by N. Georgopoulos

Beautifully 'Meaningless' (posted on 26/2/12)

Lydia Pape, 'Livro do Tempo' (the book of time). Installation view, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK.

Lygia Pape's 'Book of time' doesn't achieve communication, and quite frankly, I don't think communication was amongst the artist's intentions. So, why should I be interested in that kind of personal interpretation when it doesn't invite me to participate, in one way or another? Or, why should I be interested in something that 'I may not like' since, the only basis for dialogue that offers to the public, lays entirely on personal taste and aesthetics?

Lydia Pape (1927-2004) was a Brazilian Artist active in both the Concrete and Neo-Concretist movements in Brazil. Earlier on this year, a retrospective of her work took place in London's Serpentine Gallery, showcasing a wide range of her work. Admittedly, what made a massive impression to the audience -including the writer- amongst the exhibits, was a large scale installation called the 'Livro do Tempo' (The book of Time).

The installation consists by 365 wooden objects. The critic Adrian Searle notes: 'Each of these objects (or 'pages' of a book) represents a day... even though there are 365 of these, none of them represent a specific day of the year.' He continuous by saying '... but the more you look and wonder along between them, you begin to get the sense of the passing days as they turn'.[1]

As far as I am concerned, Lygia Pape's 'Book of time' (1961-1963) doesn't achieve communication, and quite frankly, I don't think communication was amongst the artist's intentions; if it was, it failed massively. For instance, why is this yellow and not red? Or why is this is like that and not like this? In my view, Pape's intention was to express herself and her feelings in relation to her life, memories, sentimentality etc. through fragments as An alphabet of feelings. And that is interesting, fascinating and sentimental! But it's not intended to communicate her feelings or some kind of an idea similar to commemoration, personal documentation etc. She did something beautifully crafted but it's not intended to work, or to function in any other way. This is exactly what consists the fundamental difference between art and design.

On that basis, why should I be interested in that kind of personal interpretation when it doesn't invite me to participate, in one way or another? In other words, why should I be interested in something that I may 'not like' since, the only basis for dialogue that offers to the public, lays entirely on personal taste and aesthetics?

Lydia Pape, 'Livro do Tempo' (the book of time). Installation view, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK.

Because, the alphabet has a specific function to deliver; that of the composition of meaning. To visualize the meaning that an individual wants to communicate. However, the aforementioned installation stays still at the stage of the fragments. Clearly, she is not interested in elaborating on, or in communicating the most important thing, the feeling of self awareness; the state of mind that she acquired through such a -psychoanalytic dare I say- process. And don't tell me that this (image 1) is the state of mind. This is the fragments that compose a totality; a corpus if you like. By placing them all together, it doesn't feel like a corpus. It feels like a collection. But the corpus is not just a collection of things. The corpus, is a symbolic solid form that looks how it looks, because if you deconstruct it conceptually, constructively or sequentially, you will get a very clear sense of the process that was followed by its creator. These fragments though, are beautiful arbitrary shapes that doesn't necessarily carry any form of meaning.[2]

In conclusion, even though the 'Book of Time' is beautiful, it doesn't make any sense. It is beautifully 'meaningless'. In my view, beauty derives from the meaning in relation to the form, and therefore, that kind of beauty is objective -as opposed to ' I like this/ I don't like that' subjective, non-justified statements; thus, fundamentally ultimate.


Nikos Georgopoulos
London,
February 2012