Research : Final Major Project
MA in Photography, Falmouth University, Module 5
Figure 1
I took the opportunity to spend some time in a city I had long since visited, Bradford, this week. From its Centenary Square water feature, fig 1, to the launch of Mat Collishaw’s Thresholds, fig 2, it was a visually stimulating few days.
Figure 2
I always take the time to visit the galleries and in this instance Cartwright Hall where the diverse range of David Hockney’s work is staged in the city of his birth. This was a treat as I had not previously seen the array of his media from photographs to sketches to collage to paper mache.
It was, as ever, useful to observe numerous things that are applicable to my own thinking. One of the man thematic panels was illustrated with text and select images, enabling the related section (Hockey and Fashion) to be contextualised, fig 3.
Figure 3
Hockney’s “Le Plongeur (Paper Pool 18) 1978. Colored and pressed paper pulp 72 x 171″ caused me to halt and look very closely at the surface and the modular nature of the method used to create this vibrant piece, fig 4. A technique for a printing background to be tested post-MA.
Figure 4
Figures 5, 6
His collage technique applied the view of his Mother at Bolton Abbey, 1982 caused me to take a close up of his pumps; the artist appearing in his own work and thus he links himself to his forebear, figs 5, 6.
Figure 7
The Hockney quote about the city of his birth, fig 7, is applicable to my Pause Project centred on Birmingham; “there is a magic in it if you look closely”
Figure 8
Finally, the map used to locate Hockney’s work was a powerful panel and underlines my own thinking about using a map.
All images my own using an iPhone.
Philip Singleton 