Summative Exhibition Proposal

1. A brief outline of the kind of work I expect to make for the exhibition and a timescale for its completion.

• October – December: research, photographs, sketches and working on the large canvases
• January – March: finishing my paintings for the degree show and experimenting with different ways of exhibiting my work. Making maquettes in order to have an actual presentation three-dimensional
• March – the degree show: putting everything together for the best possible result

2. Specify any specialist technical assistance you anticipate needing with either the manufacture or display of your work.

I need assistance from the FabLab to pre-cut some materials for me for easier and faster assembly.

3. Specify the type of space (size, walls, daylight, subdued light etc.) that you anticipate needing.

For the circular installation (see images below) I will need a central space of about 16 square meters.

If the daylight is not great in the room (due to the closure of the windows) I might install a few spotlights.

4. If the intended display is complex please include drawn plans or info about how the work will be displayed.

Here’s a photograph of the maquette depicting the installation plan for the degree show.

Maquette of the way of exhibiting:

6. List of audio-visual equipment required, if any.

Spotlights in the case the lighting is not sufficient

7. An estimate costing the materials or equipment required for your exhibition.

A meeting with Nigel was made to discuss this display in terms of cost, technical perimeters, timescale, materials, and design.

After agreed in the final concept we calculated the materials needed for this installation and ordered them. The materials are 5 plywood sheets, 4 hardboard sheets, and 6 square softwood PSE.  The cost will be around £180.

 

Summative Personal Statement

My paintings are a celebration of beauty, strength and the vulnerability of human life. Large-scale canvas offers the viewer the experience that s/he is part of the picture. The Cypriot landscape surrounds my figures. The images of peasant life transcend revolutions both industrial and political. “My people” have survived wars, poverty and have become refugees in their own country, but feel safe outside in their fields and groves. The earth that gave them life is like a mother until the end.

Reflecting on time, history, and the sense of nostalgia, I concern myself with everyday events and scenes that may appear small but I take time to think about them and express these thoughts in an ongoing panoramic painting. It is not only about past events but also about current events in my life. It took me a year to complete this painting, therefore it also reflects my time at university, documenting thoughts and concerns while studying. This sort of reflection enables me to enjoy small everyday moments and transform them into art.  I would like the viewers to take the opportunity and appreciate these moments too.

The piece is exhibited on a cylindrical structure so that the viewer can only see a part of the painting at a glance. That presentation reveals the way I painted it, a section at the time and the rest rolled up. It symbolizes the acknowledgment of the present, the fading-out of the past and the ignorance of the future. The beginning and end meet at one point, where my grandfather Michalis and I come back to back. The side that is supposed to be the end of the canvas is rolled up in a way that suggests the future that is yet to come.

Contextual references that influenced the curation/presentation of my Degree exhibition, research on technical aspects, and other relevant research.

The decision of what to exhibit at the degree show was taken from the beginning of the academic year. A project that was going to take me the whole third year to complete. A piece that will demonstrate my ideas and development throughout my course.

This idea was conceived from a visit to the Leventis Gallery in Nicosia where I saw for the first time the monumental painting of Cypriot artist Adamantios Diamantis. The striking size and subject of that piece were so overwhelming that inspired me to want to try and create something special like that.

The second issue of this project is how to exhibit it in order to betray the concept of the piece in the best possible way. I have studied artists that make panoramic artworks and looked carefully at how they choose to exhibit them. I want to display it not only to be visually correct and appealing but also conceptually and practically. That’s how I came up with the idea to display it on a cylindrical structure. A structure that will not allow the viewer to see the whole painting at once; like I wasn’t able to see it when I was working and s/he will need to walk around it to experience the whole piece; one scene at a time.

Links to other posts below, with relevant research, artworks/artifacts I have studied that influenced the decisions made towards curating/presenting the exhibition.

Zoetrope 

Pillars of victory in Rome

First-term ideas and research on exhibition aspects:

Exhibition Artists Research

Research and thoughts about my degree show artwork.

Technical challenges and thinking concerning my work

Richard Serra, Rounds: Equal Weight, Unequal Mesure, New York, 2016

Richard Serra’s huge round installations are one example of the artists that inspired me to choose this way of exhibiting. I love the way people have to walk around in order to see and feel the vastness of the pieces.

Adamantios Diamantis, The World of Cyprus, 1967-1972

Claude Monet, Musee de l’Orangerie, Paris, Water Lilies (Nymphéas)

The common aspects that all these artworks have in common are that are not in a simple display. They occupy the space, surrounding the viewer and draw his interest to walk him around to experience the piece. Making him feel part of it and affecting the environment there are in.

Sketches and maquette designing and planning the structure of the piece.

The Dissemination of my work

I designed a professional business webpage last summer and have been keeping an Instagram account for the last five years in order to share my art with a wide and more selective audience.

michalistheodosiou.com

www.instagram.com/mike_theodosiou

My main website (michalistheodosiou.com) acts like a gallery which I am using it for presenting my work to potential customers. If they are interested they can contact me directly and arrange a meeting in my studio. It’ also acts as a portfolio and documentation of my work helping me out with future projects.

My Instagram page is mainly working as a mean of promoting my art in a more direct, way. I upload my most recent work periodically to keep my “followers” updated and publicize any events and exhibitions I am taking part. Also, the potential of this social networking platform is giving me the power to advertise with great success and low-cost my work and upcoming events to a targeted audience with the characteristics I choose, both Instagram and Facebook.

I printed out business cards and leaflets which I am going to use in the degree show and later after my graduation.

But… I personally find that the best way to communicate with the audience and expose my ideas and information about my work is to be artistically active as much as possible. Visiting exhibition openings and art events always ends up opening beneficial conversations and interacting with others who are interested in my work and thoughts, meet academics,  collectors, curators and art lovers that build up a social network for my artistic expansion. Most of the commissions I undertook was mainly started by these actions.

 

Exhibition Artists Research

These are some of the artworks that inspired me so far on the way I am planning to exhibit my final piece for the degree show.

 

Adamantios Diamantis, The World of Cyprus, 1967-1972

 

Claude Monet, Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond, c. 1920, 200 × 1276 cm (78.74 × 502.36 inc), oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art, New York City

Claude Monet, Musee de l’Orangerie, Paris, Water Lilies (Nymphéas)

Lisa Reihana, 2015-2017, “Emissaries” at New Zealand Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2017. Courtesy: New Zealand at Venice. (panoramic video in Pursuit of Venus [infected])

Otobong Nkanga, Manifest of Strains (2018), installation view, Artes Mundi 8, National Museum Cardiff, 2018.

Leon Golub, Vietnam II, 1922–2004, Acrylic paint on canvas, 2940 x 11515 mm. Tate

 

Personal Statement of 12/3/19

“Don’t try to be original. Be simple. Be good technically, and if there is something in you, it will come out” Henri Matisse

Reaching at the end of my degree course I find that Matisse’s words are very wise in their simplicity. In the beginning, I was trying to create something original. In the course, I discovered that “originality” means nothing if there is no real meaning in what you do. If it doesn’t express yourself then your creation is blank and dull. So I tried to do what I do best even if it wasn’t original: I painted. I painted endlessly and tried to be faithful to who I am in my concepts and technically efficient in my practice.

My paintings are a celebration of beauty, strength, and vulnerability of human life. Large-scale canvas offers the viewer the experience that s/he is part of the picture like a voyeur that witnesses intimate moments. The Cypriot landscape with vibrant colours and light surrounds my figures. The images of peasant life transcend revolutions both industrial and political. “My people” have survived wars, poverty, refugeeism but feel safe outside in their fields and groves. The earth that gave them life is like a mother until the end.

Reflecting on time, history, and the sense of nostalgia, I concern myself with everyday situations and scenes that may seem small, but I take time to think about them in this ongoing panoramic painting. It will not only be about past events, however, as it will also be about current ongoing events in my life, as it took me a year on this painting, therefore I will reflect my time at university, documenting everyday thoughts while studying. This sort of reflection will enable me to also enjoy the smaller things, which is exactly what I want the viewers to take from the piece.

Exhibition Proposal 12/03/19

1. A brief outline of the kind of work you expect to be making for the exhibition and a timescale for its completion.

• October – December: research, photographs, sketches and working on the large canvases
• January – March: finishing my paintings for the degree show and experimenting with different ways of exhibiting my work. Making maquettes in order to have an actual presentation three-dimensional
• March – the degree show: putting everything together for the best possible result

2. Specify any specialist technical assistance you anticipate needing with either the manufacture or display of your work.

Whatever the final idea of the presentation is going to be I will need assistance to manufacture the structure that will hold the canvas.

Also, I still have not decided whether to include audio with the final artwork. But if I am going to include other media I will need technical assistance with the installation of a surrounding system. Most probably sound rather than image projecting.

3. Specify the type of space (size, walls, daylight, subdued light etc.) that you anticipate needing.

For the circular installation (see images below) I will need a central space of about 16 square meters.

If the daylight is not great in the room (due to the closure of the windows) I might install a few spotlights.

4. If the intended display is complex please include drawn plans or info about how the work will be displayed.

Here’s are some photographs of the most dominant idea I have at the moment of how I compute to exhibit the painting.

Maquette of the most possible way of exhibiting:

6. List of audio-visual equipment required, if any.

Spotlights in the case the lighting is not sufficient

Two audio speakers with the rest of the equipment that will need  (if decided to include them)

7. An estimate costing the materials or equipment required for your exhibition.

A meeting with Dallas and Nigel was made to discuss this display in terms of cost, technical perimeters, timescale, materials, and design. The cost will be around £250.

The decisions made so far towards selecting the work and curating the exhibition.

The decision of what to exhibit at the degree show was taken from the beginning of the academic year. A project that was going to take me the whole third year to complete. A piece that will demonstrate my ideas and development throughout my course.

This idea was conceived from a visit to the Leventis Gallery in Nicosia where I saw for the first time the monumental painting of Cypriot artist Adamantios Diamantis. The striking size and subject of that piece were so overwhelming that inspired me to want to try and create something special like that.

Artworks like “Emissaries” of Lisa’s Reihana, “The world of Cyprus when they first hear the bad news”of Adamantios Diamantis, Cristina Troufa were also inspirations for the way I was painting and developing the piece. The images depicted had to be personal and meaningful so I used photographs and videos of my family and Cypriot landscape.

The second part of this project is how to exhibit it in order to betray the concept of the piece in the best possible way. I ‘ve studied artists that make panoramic artworks and looked carefully at how they choose to exhibit them. I want to display it not only to be visual correct and appealing but conceptually and practically. That’s how I ended up to the idea I am developing at the moment to display it on a cylindrical structure. A structure that will not allow the viewer to see the whole painting at once; like the way, I was working and he will need to walk around it to experience the whole piece; one scene at a time.

Richard Serra’s huge round installations are one example of the artists that inspired me to choose this way of exhibiting. I love the way people have to walk around in order to see and feel the vastness of the pieces.

Richard Serra, Rounds: Equal Weight, Unequal Mesure, New York, 2016

 

Adamantios Diamantis, The World of Cyprus, 1967-1972

 

Claude Monet, Musee de l’Orangerie, Paris, Water Lilies (Nymphéas)

The common aspects that all these artworks have in common are that are not in a simple display. They occupy the space, surrounding the viewer and draw his interest to walk him around to experience the piece. Making him feel part of it and affecting the environment there are in.

 

Sketches and maquette designing and planning the structure of the piece.

 

Exhibition Artists Research

The dissemination of my work

I designed a professional business webpage last summer and have been keeping an Instagram account for the last five years in order to share my art with a wide and more selective audience.

michalistheodosiou.com

www.instagram.com/mike_theodosiou

My main website (michalistheodosiou.com) acts like a gallery which I am using it for presenting my work to potential customers. If they are interested they can contact me directly and arrange a meeting in my studio. It’ also acts as a portfolio and documentation of my work helping me out with future projects.

My Instagram page is mainly working as a mean of promoting my art in a more direct, way. I upload my most recent work periodically to keep my “followers” updated and publicize any events and exhibitions I am taking part. Also, the potential of this social networking platform is giving me the power to advertise with great success and low-cost my work and upcoming events to a targeted audience with the characteristics I choose, both Instagram and Facebook.

I am currently preparing business cards and leaflets which I am going to print over the Easter break and use them in the degree show.

But… I personally find that the best way to communicate with the audience and expose my ideas and information about my work is to be artistically active as much as possible. Visiting exhibition openings and art events always ends up opening beneficial conversations and interacting with others who are interested in my work and thoughts, meet academics,  collectors, curators and art lovers that build up a social network for my artistic expansion. Most of the commissions I undertook was mainly started by these actions.

Formative Assessment of 12th of March

1): A written statement about my artistic practice. 

2): An exhibition proposal related to the work I am planning to exhibit for the Degree Exhibition.

3): A post explaining the decisions made so far towards selecting the work and curating the exhibition.

4): A post related to the dissemination of my work.