Reflection On The London Trip
Arrived in London on 31th October, gathered up with the group.
The first stop was The Horse Hospital, with very small gallery of ‘Alien Puma Space Train: The Visionary Work of Daniel S. Christiansen’. Looked at Daniel’s drawings was a bit confused at first, soon then when I noticed quite faded with drawing of underground train, though it was mentioned ‘Alien Puma Space Train’.
Viewed these drawings and tried to understand his concepts and culture combined. My thoughts of his drawings are like an Egyptian style, as there are human with wings.
But I was distracted away from understanding of his drawing and was interesting of how the wings are perfect match to real birds’ that I was tried draw of.
Moving on to the next stop of University of the Arts London, London College of Communication Elephant and Castle, a huge corridor gallery of ‘50 Years of Illustration’. Looked at the illustrations from each decade, with different styles.
An interesting description about the illustrations:
‘‘Illustration communicates, educates, entertains, informs, inspires and persuades. It plays a part in our personal histories and a major role in determining how we comprehend our world.
The oldest form of art, illustration came into existence to help us make sense of our world, enabling man to record, describe and communicate the intricacies of life. Illustration remains critical in aiding our understanding of the complexities of modern life. Looking back upon 50 years of illustration is to recognise a mere slice of the discipline’s rich heritage.
As the art form for the people, illustration continues to contribute to and reflect global popular culture. As the broadcast, blogged, published and screened visual messages and pictures vying for attention across our increasingly media-saturated planet testify, illustrators continue to use progressively sophisticated methods to innovate and inspire. The desire to communicate using a visual language is as crucial today as it was at the dawn of mankind.’’
When I read the description about the 60s illustrations, as they called these ‘An Era of Utopian Idealism’,
‘’The ‘Swinging Sixties’ was fuelled by unprecedented social and political changes, with the post-war baby boomers approaching life with an enthusiasm and optimism not seen before. Teenagers came of age, the sexual revolution exploded, feminism emerged and youth movements sprang up. Music, drugs, the Civil Rights Movement and the birth of environmentalism defined the decade – it was the era of miniskirts, flower power and a race to the moon.
Illustration was there at the start, capturing the zeitgeist, recording the decade and reflecting the moment, in turn becoming truly democratic and accessible to both artists and audience alike.’’
I remembered when I did studied 60s; there were a lot of things going on in that decade. With so many art creative and designs that included posters, packaging designs, such as cosmetic products, vinyl record covers, food packs, etc., psychedelics, illustrations such as fashion, and the Beatles.
Then I looked at the recent decade of illustrations, in 00s (2000 and onwards). With description, the title of 00s is ‘A New Wave’:
‘’Despite a series of devastating natural disasters and a new threat in the form of the War on Terror, the new Millennium heralded many ground-breaking and far reaching technological developments. New platforms such as iTunes, MySpace, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter fed the public’s exhaustive appetite for online environments for communication, information and entertainment.
A new generation of illustrators emerged, successful combining analogue and digital; creating images with pencils and brushes, inks and paints, printers and scanners, camera and laptops. As illustration broke free of the constraints of print and embraced the possibilities of the screen, it became more visible, growing in both confidence and stature.’’
As I am very familiarise to these illustrators on show, which includes Shepard Fairey and Rob Ryan.
I even took some photos that I was interested in those illustrators’ art and gave me some concepts, most of them are in nature inspirations.
After long walk and public travel to Beach London, Heretic Printmakers show. What I viewed on the show was ‘Little Monsters’ for Creature of London. Even though it was for Halloween themed, also other printmaking of sunset. The small gallery had gave me a thought of what it would be possible for my work to put in, an theme of nature, using my artwork, sculptures, animations.
A photo of street art, from outside the Beach London gallery. London is a popular city for street arts.
A shop and studio near to Beach gallery, Jimbobart (Jimbob Art). The owner is a designer, James Ward. I was interesting of his drawing of animals and his illustrations on artwork prints, stationery and ceramics, and his sculptures/statuettes. Also the window display I was really keen, that had gave me some ideas for my work, hopefully after graduate.
Le Gun and East London Printmakers, for studio tour, my so little thought of this, quiet and printmaking room is small and cramped space, yet they have quite some equipment they need for their work and as a shared studio, they did do the collaborations, in group together. Though it’s a general idea about the studio to use after graduate.
Finally, visited Ti Pi Tin shop, to browsed comics and books, and also little collection of cards. What interested me are cards, illustrations and handmade books and comics, and what not interested me are comics and books. For an idea to sell my works in either shop or online, such as Esty, which are my handmade cards.
Overall, the trip was long and tried but interesting and got piled of some ideas for after graduate.
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