Through some type of artistic self obsesion, many artists take/paint/expore the self portrait. I am no exception, and I'm sure you will come across many of these in the future on this blog. Not today though.
But, in an exploration of self, I always seem to dive into my childhood memories, and also photos of my parents/grandparents/greatgrandparents. I grew up on a farm, and I have 5 siblings of which I am the youngest. This seems to have shaped me greatly into the person I am today and into the artwork that I produce. Here are a few snaps of me as a youngster...
Being a kiwi is something I am very proud of. Films such as 'in my fathers den' and 'whalerider' are real tear jerkers for me when it comes to not only the artistic quality of the film, but also the 'kiwiness' of it. I feel so drawn to our history, and who we are today. This leads me to want to spend a lot of time working artisticly on the study of the culture of Aotearoa.
Here are some of my recent works in looking at just that.
9 comments:
Sweet, always up for a good kiwi film, I don't think I've seen it, so I'll go and see if I can get it now! Thanks for that!
And yes I was fat... and the self proclaimed 'uglylest baby in the world' I didn't put the ugly photos on as that may have been a bit much for my low self esteem ; ), but if i showed it to you, you'd agree!! Everyone apart from my mumma does! : )
Great to hear from you!
firstly if you permit me to be a pedantic bugger, can i ask what exactly are "the concepts of New Zealand history" you speak of.
you speak as if these are definite articles rather than abstract ideas.one can explore history, but that is not, in my opinion, exploring concepts of history. photography is all about recording history - whether or not that is the photographer's intention.
to me 'concepts' are human constructs and are socially dependent, whereas history in and of itself is not. of course when people, especially writers but artists to a greater or lesser extent, deal with history they are generally doing it in a socially dependent way. hence we get revisionist histories where what was once black is now white and vice versa.
secondly don't rent rain on dvd - you have to see it at the cinema. unless of course you have a nice 69" plasma or data projector or something. i'm a snob who feels/knows scale is important to a lot of movies and something is often lost when emotive movies are downsized.
i saw rain at the theatre, was greatly disturbed, and only really appreciated it in retrospect. i want to see it again but i'm not risking the disappointment of my 21" tv.
rant over.
huh, always get a good rant out of you Andy! First, yes I now recall I have seen Rain, and it was on DVD as in this tiny hick town that I live in, there is no other choice and I don't want to grace Hamilton with my presence so that is the way it stays. I loved it, but I can see how it would have been much better on the big screen.
Second... My theory of history is...until we know where we have come from, we cannot know who we are, or where we are going. Therefore the use of my term 'exploring concepts'. It doesn't necessarly mean I am photographing it, but exporling it definetly, and using this as a base for my work. Anyway, everything is objective, and that is the whole point of art really, an objective view on something.
Oh, and I didn't permit you to be a pedantic bugger so shutup! ; )
i was going to rant again, but it was all confused and didn't know what it was saying - maybe it just didn't know its history.
so the questions i have are 1) how far back to you need to know your history in order to know who you are? 2) does knowing something about you great great grandparents give greater clarity, or is it merely just interesting information?
Hi Andy, thanks for creating a dialogue.
I suppose, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but this is your scientific background coming out? Although I stick to certain criteria in my work, a lot of it is by feel, and this is also my intent in my 'artists statment of intent'. It is by no means somthing I ever plan on completly grasping, and neither do I have set criteria for saying, yes that's that complete now. It is more a means of how I plan to approach my work.
I hope that answers your first question with a 'non answer' and for your second question - It is a mixture of both, definetly greater clarity about a history that although is not mine, it is part of me, and also it is very interesting information.
Tena koe ehoa
Wonderful concept Jodi in whatever manner you choose to approach it in.
I look forward to seeing this concept of discovery develop. It's good to see you back blogging.
Hi Ndiginiz, yes I'm back... Thanks for popping in to say hi!
ooohhhh that was a very good non-answer. but my question stands.
i know it's different for different people but i have never really felt i've not known myself (though that person has definitely changed over the years), and while i've been chasing my history, it's out of personal and artistic interest and has nothing to do with personal self-discovery - and admittedly i'm only really interested in the paternal line also.
you state that "until we know where we have come from, we cannot know who we are, or where we are going", and so i ask again "how far back to you need to know your history in order to know who you are?"
The thing I think we are getting hooked up on is 'myself', There is of course the basic 'me', which like you say, you know. But then I believe there is a greater sense of the word, a 'me' that includes parts of you that perhaps you don't know (of which I belive there are many, as I know I am defiently learning about my self all the time, things that I once did, become clear as to why I did them when I figure out something about me - for example) and this would also include a history that extends beyond my own (I believe it does anyhow). Sure knowing all about my great great grandparents doesn't really explain much about my directly, but knowing about where they came from, who they were, what they did, how they treated their children, their health, and so on down the generation does teach me about my self, my parents, my upbringing, sure it's indirect, but it helps to paint the bigger picture, a kind of connect the dots type of logic.
But still, I believe that you are being too scientific about this perhaps? But yes you are right it is definelty about personal and artistic interest, which was my original statement.
So yet again, I do not really answer your question, because I don't belive there is a clear cut off point, of course going back 1000 years isn't going to do me much good unless I'm really pedantic (although it would be interesting).
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