Strangeland - Tracey Emin

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Strangeland-Tracey-Emin/dp/0340769467/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272284968&sr=1-1

An artist's biography

Recreating the past - Seren Rhys' background

Practice - Creating a retrospective exhibition

With the blog taking shape for Seren Rhys the idea is to start creating credible art projects that would make up her work over the last twenty years.

The photographs I have been recently doing for Backroom proved to be an interesting starting point. Going through the last two events I could see some kind of project taking shape - i was drawn to the way women presented themsleves and the freedom of their dancing as they were caught up in the moment.

A chance reading of greek mythology brought me across the term 'maenad'. The direct translation - 'raving ones' which I thought was apt for this first project.

http://www.maicar.com/GML/MAENADS.html

The plan is continue with this series and perhaps travel further afield. It woudl perhaps be useful to collect stories from subjects to enhance the reading of the project.
I have had quite a positive response to the Seren Rhys website  from Facebook friends. it is perhaps time to reflect on how to create a 'buzz' about the project.

The birth of an Artist - Creating Seren Rhys

To begin to create an artist I thought it would be useful to create a blog persona for her and her art.

 http://serenrhys.blogspot.com/2010/04/httpwww_18.html

I thought it would be important to develop some background detail regarding her life as well as imply her role in British art and the rise of digital photography during the last twenty years.

From my research it was important that she studied at Goldsmiths since many of the YBAs studied at this London Art school. I wanted to give the character quite a bohemian upbringing and thought Ibiza an ideal setting since it has a history during the sixties and seventies of attracting artists.

The idea that Seren Rhys has spent her life in front and behind a camera I thought this would allow me to explore how women are photographed as well as examine the history of women photographers such as Diane Arbus, Sally Mann, Jesse Mann, Cindy Sherman, Nan Goldin and Corinne Day. Other artists that will need to be explore are Sophie Calle, Tracey Emin, Sam Taylor Wood.

Through this persona I will be able to explore:

• The rise of the YBA
• Wales and the artist
• The impact of digital photography on the art world
• The female gaze - representation of women by women

Supervisor meeting - Planning the Practice

Sophie Calle - The Reader

http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/shop/index.php/fuseaction/shop.product/product_id/416

I picked up a copy of Sophie Calle: The Reader at Whitchapel Gallery whilst visiting the exhibition. It has proved to be extremely useful since it provides a critical tool for navigating Calle's image and text work from 1979 to the present. The book brings together interviews with the artist, critical commentaries by an international range of critics, curators, artists and art historians and a most useful index summarising recurrent themes in her work.



It will be most useful to refer to this as I develop Seren Rhys’ retrospective exhibition and it will be a starting point to develop the exhibition catalogue.

As I research this book in more depth I will refer to it on the blog at a later date.