James Casebere

 James Casebere (born 1953) is an American contemporary artist and photographer living in New York. Since the late 1990s Casebere has made large photographs of flooded images, but all the buildings in the images are photographs of model sets. Casebere looked to Spain and the Eastern Mediterranean. The first works were inspired by the 10th century Andalusia because of the co-operation between Islamic, Jewish, and Christian cultures preceding the Inguisition.

It's hard to believe this is a model set, it seems so natural looking with a disasterous effect, almost like a tsunami has struck. It's a dark image, which could suggest the nagativity in this photograph. the only lightened area is coming from the stairway, suggesting a way out and showing the image in a more positive way. The set reminds me a lot like a scene in Alice in Wonderland, when Alice  falls through the rabbit hole, and this is where she lands. The room gives her a selection of doors to a way out, only one leading to Wonderland. I think photography would be a choice of discipline that I would use for my Prop Design project as it captures the beauty withheld, and it will show off the quality of the prop that is made.

 The rooms that are photographed are all minimalistic and very dark with only little hints of lighting, perhaps trying to suggest the flood in a negative way. the rooms are empty, as if it has driven everything away. The darkness suggests a mysterious feeling to the images, They are so beautiful you want to stare at them, but they give off a really strange vibe.

Kent Monkman

 Kent Monkman is a multidisciplinary artist who works in a variety of media, including  film/video, performance, painting and installation. Monkman has exhibited widely within Canada, and is well represented in numerous private and public collections including the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. 

His paintings have a lot of focus on the view, always seeming to have big skies and clouds, filled with nature and a rather peaceful setting. They are rather relaxing to to look at, showing a lot of bright primative colours, and with such a big and open piece of scenery it all connotes freedom and peace.

 

 

 

 

His installation art is in some ways like his paintings, they are one again filled with nature and big open views, only they tend to focus more on the character within the piece. The sculpture created in this has the opposite effect to the paintings, it has an expressionless face, and with it being all white it once again shows how lacks emotion, reflecting a negative feeling without any peacful colours.

 "Group of Seven Inches is a naughty and playful musing on the relationship between artist and model"

    The films Monkman creates are a little like his paintings, and partially like his installation pieces. They show the same peace and focus, but with a figure involved at the same time. The film has been made sepia to state it's old fashioned style, and with it including a Native American it suggests freedom and peace once again, quite the opposite to the figure in the installation art. I think it is a very appealing piece, it makes me feel positive to look at it, it's a powerful image that expresses freedom, power and peace, a lot like the painting.

    The disciplines that Monkman works with seem to flow into each other, they all have similaries that roll off into the next piece he creates, some however are represented diffrently, they can show either a negative or positive effect but they still have something that connects each of them together.

Comparisons

 Mixed media artist Gillian Lee Smith and sculptor Piero gilardi, both work with a similar material. With Gilardi making his fine sculptures from foam, they both use a soft material for their creations, however they both give off different effects.
    Gillian's dolls are mainly made from a soft fabric, which usually would espress comfort, however each doll has their own darker story behind them, they are painted with high quality detail show the sadness, and pain in each of them, reflecting a story that Gillian had heard about after working with dementia sufferers. Gilardi also uses a soft material, foam that he forms into naturalistic sculptures. They have a different effect from the dolls, being fruit, plants or vegetables that he creates, they don't reflect any emotions. They have a theatrical side to them as they are exaggerated in size, colour and shape. They have a unique edge to them, giving off a more positive feeling with them being naturalistic sculptures, compared to the dolls that express negativity from their odd looks, sad faces and the story behind them.

Iain Simons

Iain Simons, director of Game City and Richard Coyle, props maker both have the similarity of trying to bring a modern twist into what they're both working on. Iain holds the event in the City of Nottingham every year, getting the public involved when trying to create an original idea for video gaming or advertising Game City, moving away from the symbolic gaming images like Pacman or Space Invaders. Richard Coyle however, creates props for television shows or conventions that are held, like Game City. He first moved into this career when he updated a ray gun at a Star Trek convention in 1977, having a background in electronics, he added lights and sounds effects to the modernised ray guns which fans instantly took a shine to. Both Iain and Richard are always looking for something new to work on and try to modernise it, making it stand out above everything else and adding their own unique twist to try and keep up to date with their target audiences.

                                                                                                                    Richard coyle

I have taken an interest in Piero Gilardi's work, the material that he works with is very light and easy to manouver, a good quality when it comes to carrying props around a theatre stage. I want to create props for Alice in Wonderland, and with the foam looking theatrical I think it would suit it perfectly as I can exaggerate what I'm creating to make it visible from afar on stage to the audience. I also really Like Gillian Lee Smith's work, she uses a range of media to achieve her beautiful paintings or sculptures, allowing her to work in fine detail, which is important when trying to express the mood on a stage. Using a range of media will  allow me to achieve the same effect, making the props visible and giving them an original twist.

Ken Adam

 Ken Adam, a well known production designer was most famous for working for Motion Picture and creating the set designs for the James Bond films of the 1960's and 1970's. Adam first entered the film industry as a draughtsman for This was a Woman in 1948, since then, Ken has created many more stage productions including Ben Hurr and Around the world in 80 Days. With his artistic passion ahead of him, this enabled  Adam to make his name with his innovative, semi-futuristic sets for the James Bond films. The Supertanker set for The Spy Who Loved Me which was created in 1977, was the largest sound stage in the world at the time it was built. He also designed the sets for: 
 Dr. No (1962)Goldfinger (1964)Thunderball (1965)You Only LiveTwice (1967)Diamonds are Forever (1971)Moonraker (1979)

Adam Designed all of the interior sets for this''tongue-in-cheek  spectacular'', Dr No, including the casino in the opening scene, Bond's apartments, M's office and the sprawling, futuristic lair of the villainous doctor himself. Adam designed the sets based on his life experiences and unique visual sense. He doesn't believe you can get a sense of reality by copying, and everything that is designed or created must have a reason to it. I think these designs perfectly capture a futuristic view for the Bond films, using big high-tech models like the rocket in scenes, subconsciously expressing wealth, power and the future. the design above looks rather simplistic and minimal with features, but the big open spaces allows you to focus on what is there and being shown, defying it's beauty and detail, and again expressing the wealth and power which is what the Bond movies capture brilliantly.

Richard Coyle

 Richard Coyle has been in the props making industry since 1979 where he and his company have produced props for numerous films such as Star Treks II, IV, V and VI, Reanimator, Ice Pirates, Creature, Trancers, and many, many more. He has also produced props for numerous television shows including Star Trek, The next Generation, Automan, Nightrider and The Fall Guy. Coyle Now owns and operates his own prop making shop in Arizona. 


Coyle's prop making career began when he went to see  Star Trek for the first time in 1977, and heard of the conventions that came along with it. After going to one, he wanted to do a little more. He found a dealers room where people sold all kinds of things, and with his background in electronics as a TV repair man, he was able to put lights and sound effects into the ray guns, fans instantly took a new shine to the updated models being sold.

This ray gun is possibly Coyle's most well known prop that he has made to date, which was made for the Star Trek movies. He explains having a career in making props is rather challenging, he doesn't get time off and works for a basic living wage right now, he was at his peek in the 1980's. I think this looks like a fantastically made gun, appealing to its sci-fi target audience very well with its futuristic look (When it was created in the 1980's), expressed through the metalic colours and high-tech features, Coyle made the perfect model that fit the film perfectly. 

Piero Gilardi

 Piero Gilardi was an influential figure in the Arte Povera movement, or 'poor art' as it is more commonly known as, throughout the 1960's, a movement that still influences artists today.  From the outset, he was concerned with creating social relations with his art, using interactive sculptures and his creative work with social and political movements.


Nature Carpets
These beautiful carpets are made of Bayer brand polyurethane foam, and soaked in synthetic pigment dissolved in epoxy resin. They are then calved, into natural objects, however they are manipulated to look very theatrical, and slightly over-the-top on their appearance. When being created, Gilardi explained that their softness suggested comfort, all he did was was add a latent longing for a certain idea of nature. The effect is that of an artificial nature whereby the wonders and mysteries of real nature stimulate the brain but manifest themselves elementally under one's foot. 

I like the effect that this carpet holds, it looks very theatrical with the corns being made almost 3 times as big as to a real corn. each one is shaped with exaggeration  the nobbled bits are cut deeper to show what the object is, perhaps from a distance or if it was to placed on the set of a stage, so it can be clearly seen.



















To choose a carpets subject matter, Gilardi looks into the collective subconscious and into his childhood visions and when it comes to the modelling process, by carving, he uses technology which he says is very varied and inventive  in order to avoid the mechanism of representation at all times in favour of visual stimuli. 
Gilardi came up with the idea of creating these carpets one afternoon when he was chatting with a friend about the landscape that will surround the man in the future. He thought this landscape would be different to the image that we are presented with today in science-fiction; somewhat excited, he imagined  a naturalistic environment that was artificially made from synthetic materials for reasons of hygiene and comfort. From that moment on, he was curious to try and experiment with different materials and having identified a soft, but non-deformable material, he built four square metres of rocky torrent bed, basing on a survey he made in a real torrent. He achieved an extraordinary realistic result that he was continuously surprised by after walking for a long time over the material.

John Newling

John Newling's works explore the natural world and the social and economic systems of society, such as money or religion. He belongs to a generation of artists whose work evolved from Arte Povera and Land Art, movements occurring in the 1960s. This is Newling’s first major survey exhibition that takes place at Nottingham Contemporary, presenting a selection of his work from the 1970s to the present day. The reason Newling  creates his works is because he believes it inspires a positive social change and playing with ideas of current issues.

These cabbage leaves are meant to represent a pair of lungs, ironic really as plants and leaves provide living beings with oxygen, allowing them to breathe. I think it's somewhat of a metaphor, without the build up of cabbage leaves to make up the image of the lungs, there would be nothing to show, just an empty canvas. Just like if there was no plants and trees, no oxygen can be created and used.

The artworks are inspired by the natural world and its ecological systems. Newling has previously produced sculptural artworks and he has worked with two plant species with extraordinary properties. Newling grew and harvested over eighty Walking Stick Cabbages (Brassica oleracea). These can be seen to change physically over time in the exhibition as they dry and harden. Newling became interested in their use value, the trunks have traditionally been used as walking sticks.
    In my opinion I am not too keen on his natural art works, I think it's the simplicity what catches the target audience, it's a very bold piece of work and you can see it go through stages, hardening up and discolouring all the time, however I do like the idea of the piece that represents a pair of lungs, it's very metorphorical with the message behind it. Apart from that, for me it lacks originality and its simplistic form is something I unfortunately cannot connect with.