MA Y1 U1: Exhibition visit – Ofelia Rodríguez, Spike Island

EXPERIENCE

I visited Ofelia Rodriguez’s exhibition Talking in Dreams at Spike Island, Bristol. Below is a video summary of the visit compiled using the iMotion App. I learnt to use this app at a CSM online workshop and I wanted to experiment summarising a gallery or exhibition visit in this way:

REFLECTIONS

– Rodriguez’s work has really inspired me because I can relate to her work as someone who makes art about her homeland while living far away. In particular, I like her work with the bright colours and her chosen palette gave me a sense of the place she was describing. I feel I should explore a colour palette that describes my childhood home city of Hong Kong, this might help me when I am stuck on ideas about work to make.

– I was also inspired by the textiles used and the stitching in her work. Stitching into my paintings is not something that I have considered before but I have often thought about using fabric in my work. So this is an area that I will explore.

– Another thought arising from the above point… I have in the past made expanded paintings where I had eradicated the traditional canvas. I could make paint-based fabric to incorporate into my work.

– Rodriguez used a lot of found objects in her work which is fascinating to look at. However, right now, it is not an area that I am interested in because I already have several strands of enquiries going on and I feel I should make some progress before adding more variables. But I wouldn’t rule it out and I may come back to this at a later stage.

LEARNING

– Technically, I am happy with using iMotion in this way because in the past I often ended up uploading many photos from a show making the blog unnecessarily long. So I’m happy with this new discovery. Things to remember are to export the file as a GIF from iMotion to my Photos app to minimise file size and to upload the GIF to WordPress as an image and not a video. Also to give it time to upload.

– Other learning have been captured above under reflections.

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