Lecture 3: 6.10.14 PENSIVE IMAGE + BIRMINGHAM MUSEUM AND GALLERY

Learning team discussion and presentation of response to article handed out last week: the pensive image: N/A

Handout: The pensive image doc:

• Full of thought
• An illusion
• Creates a sense of "what comes next"
• Photography captures a moment of time. "We dont know what the narrative is, we guess"
• There is a gap where you insert your thoughts
• Ambiguity in photography
• References the real world
• Frame work of reference
• Regimes of usuality

Walker Evans 

FSA

The world as it changed etc

Gelatin Silver prints
suggestive.

• Are they talking
• are they arguing
• suggestive that women like to gossip
• wearing nice clothes indicates from a well off background
• you extrapolate out from these clues and can imagine the conversation and the sorts of things these women are talking about.

Roland Bart

• descriptive
• denotive level
• basic image deconstruction
• The studium
• "Indexicality"
• Some sort of reality that can be described
• Punctum -  Detail that jumps out at you "ignites the drama"
• author of camera lucida

Vanessa Bell

• Relationships between women
• Plays around with the idea of the trinity

Lee Miller

• Wrens in camera - Man boat - bulkheads
• Women are a "vessel" 
• Ambiguity in image
• In camera - Latin definition, takes place in camera "in secret", wrens in camera, means in public but also in secret. The secret side of women in the war. Very clever play on words and meanings. Signifying words etc.
• Gills serif.

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

This sculptural piece is a reconstruction made from Epstein's studio photographs of an original piece constructed in 1913. The piece stands proudly, dominating the space. It comes across as somewhat intimidating, as though riding a weapon toward you as you enter through the glass double doors. The work sits on a triangular plinth which raises the work by around 14 inches and sits in the centre of the spaces width.  

The above work by Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson depicts an army of soldiers marching as a "war-machine" where the individual is no longer considered. 

In combination with the Epstein work, The room begins to take on a cold and mechanical, view on death and war. As a group of art works, there is an overall theme of fear and loss, and a machine like approach to cold killing.

I feel the cold, flat blue an appropriate choice of colour for the room as it contributes to the emotionally cold perception of the art. From this angle, looking back into the space I can see spotlights hovering above head, they shine down into the space directly above Epstein's sculpture which creates an alien and equally cold perception of the space once more.
Also, you can see clearly that all images have been hung with their central point at average eye height. This creates a sense of uniformity and balance also in keeping with the theme.
Comfort is not key in the space with only one cold hard bench to sit on. Generally the security officer seems to be sat here, which in a way intimidates you from its use. I did not feel comfortable with the idea of invading someone's personal space, especially when that person is an authority figure. Again this contributes to the cold perception of the exhibition.

This room within the gallery embodies an entirely different feeling. The warm orange walls glow and light up the pieces hung upon them softly. The space is inviting and homely. Two sculptures stand as a gateway to the rear, which develops a sense of grandeur within the space as we associate this with wealth and culture. The space overall is very well thought out and balanced through a varying positioning of work. The dimensions of the pieces dictate their height and gauge within the room by balancing out the weightiness of larger works with numerous smaller ones, in addition they are hung this way in height also, there is no fixed line upon which they are suspended. The bench in the centre has a back and soft pillow which makes it both inviting and comfortable. The bench encourages the viewer to take a seat and feel comfort within the space. 

A work stemming from New Art West Midlands. This sits central in the space and as you walk through a square cut out within the supporting wall in the gallery, the room seems chopped off by this dividing wall covered mostly in a sort of wallpaper cerated by graduate student (name?) three masks which she wears accompanied with three wigs (pictured and shown on a wall to the left of this dividing wall) consider her partially oriental heritage. The way in which the paper hangs warped and is held flat/straight only by its own gravity is somewhat surprising and I'm not sure I understand it. I feel that this paper would have looked better flush to the wall. However, In pictures the paper almost looks more like material, that could reference drapes and the extravagant materials of the orient. Perhaps this was the intention for viewers in the space but was not achieved. 

The three plinths reflect the three images taken and create a sense of balance with the central plinth set forward creating a triangular field of view across the piece.