Visiting The Whitworth

As soon as I was back from New York I made it my priority to go to the Whitworth gallery and take a look around. The new gallery took me by surprise, I hadn’t been to the gallery whilst it was previously open, and so I guess I didn’t really know what it would be like. From the outside the period red brick building did not suggest at the surprising modern interior, with large open spaces and glass walls. I know that one of aims of the Whitworth gallery was to create a space where the indoors and outdoors merged seamlessly and I think this was achieved beautifully. Whilst looking at the work through-out the gallery I noticed that a few themes kept subconsciously reappearing. Things such as:

·      -   Symmetry (Composition with Horns (double flat) 2005)

·      -   Fragments and Pieces (Cold Dark Matter: An exploded view 1991)

·     -    Grids and Squares (Cornelia Parker – Bullet Drawings)

·     -    Reflections and Glass (David Batchelor’s Plato’s Disco 2015)

From this I developed many initial ideas that I felt really inspired by. Including Symmetrical placement prints for fashion, Hand Stitched cushions, mirroring Cornelia Parkers hand stitch metal drawings, and glass sun catchers inspired by the grand work of David Batchelor. However whilst in my first tutorial, it was explained to me that the work had to reflect the gallery, not the individual artists work, because their work was part of temporary exhibitions, it would mean that my inspiration was coming from the artists and not the Whitworth.

After this development I felt a little set back, and after having missed the first week for the trip to New York I knew that I lacked progress. So I made another trip to the gallery hoping to spark another source of inspiration, this time something influenced by the gallery. This time around the sun was shining through the glass windows, reflections of trees covering the gallery and I knew then that my starting point for this project was outside.

So I set to work, taking photographs, collecting fallen leaves and sticks and doing leaf and tree rubbings to capture the textures. I took all this home and began to work on some drawings, I knew I needed to create a range of drawings which could be manipulated into designs for my prints. I kept trying to draw and respond to my images, but I still felt slightly deflated. These are some of my drawings.

Whilst I like what I achieved here I didn’t understand how to develop my drawings into designs. I knew that the key feature of my drawings that caught my attention was the textures. The leaf rubbings really captured an abstract nature which excited me. So I decided to work to my strengths and started working digitally with my images, creating simple repeats representing the idea of symmetry and grids which seems to be consistent through-out the gallery, therefore still taking inspiration from some of my favourite pieces of work, without directly linking it to the artist’s work.