A long time with not much done

Four months later and really everything is exactly the same, except a new year. I should really be saying these past few months I've been too busy to blog because I've been working hard... but realistically that hasn't been the case. A levels, as every single person will say whose been through them are incredibly hard and an insane jump from GCSE's. I'm lazy and only really get work done last minute so as per, I've been avoiding work and doing absolutely nothing but watching crappy t.v series and hibernating until evening.

I've had a few major changes like moving back to my old school from being at a new sixth form for a couple weeks. Although moving back meant I couldn't carry on with film studies which was one of my favourite subjects, it's worth it. I now only do three subjects: History, English Literature and Art which I'm perfectly fine with and enjoying a lot (apart from the doing your own work thing)

I wish I could post something I've made or done recently like a new video or some art but I've been so unmotivated and uninspired I have zero to show. Not really sure if there is even point in this post?

I realised in my last post I was talking about Gwen Stefani and how I really wanted to dress up as her for a fancy dress party.. well I did (all the way back in October) and it was oh so very exciting!  This is the only photo I have and it isn't my full outfit either! (next to Paris Hilton yhhhh) 

The only couple things I've really done is a few exhibitions : Sarah Lucas' and Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore! As well as a little trip to Paris during the Christmas holidays.

Trip to Paris, one of favourite cities. I have family and friends living in Paris and as my older sister was off skiing, my dad had just been away, I proposed the idea that me, my little sister and my mum went to Paris for a few days after Christmas. So off we went to stay in a perfect parisian apartment. Walking around the familiar streets, I once again fell in love with everything. My mums friend owns one of the top 3 bajjs in Paris so we got to dine on the boat for free eating classic french food and drinking classic french wine. We got plenty of shopping done too, as well as some typical tourist site seeing and then escaping the cold, rushing into cafes for a coffee or hot chocolate alongside a crepe. 

I went to see an art exhibition in Whitechapel of Sarah Lucas'. Penises and boobs alongside chickens and fruit, Lucas shows the truth.  'The bawdy euphemisms, repressed truths, erotic delights and sculptural possibilities of the sexual body'. She uses things like fried egg or melons breasts, a chickens body, and a cucumber penis to objectify the woman's body. I particularly loved the idea of not showing any heads, even in the big installations of the males body, she cut out the heads. This is similar to some work I did last year in Art GCSE, where I focused on the woman's body and became influenced by artists like Linder Sterling and Baraber Kurger. In my work I always cut off the faces of the woman to take away their individuality, to show not only that woman are treated badly as a gender rather than individually, but also that woman's bodies can be objectified and seen as something completely sexual rather than a real person. 

I decided to use Lucas in my art and develop some of my own ideas from her. I especially loved the art work she did on the toilet where she painted 'IS SUICIDE GENETIC?' 

So I did my own response with my own words that I have been working on in my art 'I was 12' and 'Don't flatter yourself' (They are very personal topic to many people I know so not going to go beyond the meaning of them.. so unless you are my art teacher or my examiner then sorry not sorry)

I wasn't too pleased with this as because the toilet had just been cleaned (not me) and I had flushed it numerous times, it was still wet which meant the paint kept dripping down but it wasn't a total disaster. Enough with the art now.  

I also went to another exhibition last week at the Somerset house: Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore! Although I've kind of steered away from fashion at the moment (I do need to change my blog title urgently) My mum who had already been said even if I'm not completely into fashion, the clothes that are on show are incredible, and she was right. Her designs are so beautifully and delicately made, sometimes so sculpture like. 

 

While I'm writing this I may as well add that my older sister has gone to South America for 5 and a half months so I'm left being the big sister.  And I've booked tickets to the Sgp festival (secret garden party), booked flights and an apartment to Budapest and soon will be booking tickets to Sziget festival -- looks like a fab summer already! Now just gotta get through exams and I'll be freeeee

Apart from all of this, I've mostly just been doing the usual teenage thang and hopefully will continue doing that for the rest of my life

M x

October trash

Posting for the sake of it, I've got nothing interesting to say as I've done nothing interesting recently but I can always find something to babble on about! 

So now its October, one of the best months of winter, its probably time for new clothes (more?!???) But since the weather is so unpredictable I'm not sure if buying a winter coat now is worth it! Anyway, avoiding work I've been online browsing again - mostly on Asos market place as I'm trying to budget my spending since I don't actually have much money or a job to fund for clothes. 

(These pictures are a bit odd since they aren't actually me but random people...)

There are so many more clothes I've got tabbed but these pictures just aren't doing it so I'll leave it with three! 

Ummmmm Gwen Stefanis 80/90s fashion still makes me cry with amazement! 

I just want the opportunity to be her for a fancy dress party so I can dye my hair blue and wear bindis and sequins all around my face! Talking about hair, I'm getting so fed up of my bleach blonde colour. My roots are horrendous and I have no energy, money or time to keep re dying them. I want to go back to a more natural blonde with different tones, just something more manageable so I don't need to keep re dying my hair! 

Inspiration obviously from Sky: 

And then I can still dye my hair different colours because it'll still be blonde!!! I miss being lilac so much and kind of want to experiment with turquoise or very light blue.. why not? But knowing me I'll probably be too lazy to do any of this with my hair :( 

I seem to always end my posts about the latest films, tv series or music I've been watching or listening to! BUT OBVIOUSLY ALL THE BREAKING BAD FANS OUT THERE WATCHED THE LAST EPISODE ON MONDAY! SHIT. Too sad it's over and very tempted to re watch the series again. 

But as soon as it was over I started new series: Orange Is The New Black which I love. (Already half way through the first series and it's been four days) I do recommend to watch if you want something quite funny and easy. It's quite similar to the t.v series Weeds (not the plot but the general feel to it)

M x

Photographers Gallery - A School Trip

The Photographers gallery has chosen to work with one of my schools, Parliament Hill. Last week we had a writer who collaborates with the gallery come in and talk to us. We will be working on a project with her alongside the course work for a couple weeks. We haven't been told much on what we're doing so there isn't much I can blog about right now. However, since we are working with her, my photography class with another Year 12 class went to the Photographers Gallery on Wednesday. We saw two exhibitions: Mass Observation: This is Your Photo and Mark Neville's Deeds Not Words. We had a few simple tasks set for us that got us to search for particular photographs around the two exhibitions with written clues to help us. By doing this we got to observe the photos in a lot more detail to see if it fits the clues. I liked this way of looking at photos as you get to notice a lot more about the particular photo than if you were just passing by. After this we went round the gallery again finding three of our favourite photographs and wrote on paper 'What Do You See?' Again this helped understand the picture a lot more as we'd have to look at every little thing we saw and write it down. My favourite photos were all from the same exhibition (which was also my favourite out of the two) called Deeds Not Words. 

''Deeds Not Words is an experimental documentary project and an urgent intervention. For 18 months Mark Neville photographed the town of Corby in Northamptonshire: its people, its culture and the effects of the environmental pollution led to several babies being born with serious birth defects... The photographs present the community as a whole, not simply the families at the centre of the case. They show persisting Scottish identity in the English town, young woman at nightclubs, entrants in a beauty contest, children dressed for the town's Highland games.'' 

My favourite pictures out of the whole exhibition were the sequenced photographs of two boys 
 both born with fingers missing, said to be caused by the toxic waste and contaminated land the mothers would have absorbed in at pregnancy. 

At first glance, these photos were just of a boy who had three fingers, popping a balloon in a dark room. I instantly felt they were very powerful but didn't really understand the purpose of the photos. A woman then came up to me and my friend and began speaking to us about the actual meaning of the photos. She had listened to the photographer, Mark Neville a week before who spoke at the photographers gallery about his exhibition. 

Neville had asked this boy to sit in a dark room, as soon as he popped the balloon the sound triggered the flash to go off taking these three photographs that a human eye would never experience: high speed photography. This mirrored the idea that we cannot see these pollutants acting on people but just see the after effects. Knowing this made the photos even more powerful and being able to understand the images of why Mark photographed it and what it means made me a lot more interested in the whole exhibition. 

More photos from the exhibition: 

After looking at the two exhibitions (I have to say I didn't pay much attention to the Mass Observation) we were asked to take some Street Photography photos. We had to make sure the photos we took linked someway to our favourite photos we wrote about earlier. This could be anything, from taking pictures of something red representing the balloon or a picture of girls representing the images above. 

                             

The pink of the rubbish bags and the bin are meant to represent the femininity of the two pictures of the girls I posted above. The dress links to the dresses they were wearing for their beauty contest. 

The red links to the red balloon photographed by Mark Neville. 

Apart from these photos I did get some more however they don't have any meaning and aren't the best I've done but thought I might as well throw them in there. 

After I got home I was too lazy to do any work so I watched a film instead. MEMONTO!!!!! 

I loved it so much, the whole story line was genius. ''A man, suffering from short-term memory loss, uses notes and tattoos to hunt for the man he thinks killed his wife.''  Christopher Nolan is a truly intelligent and talented man. 

The more and more I watch new films, the more I get inspired to make my own but having to handle school work, social life and my own interests is very time consuming and I seem not to be too good with it. But I have thought of some new ideas for short films which I'll be able to gradually film and edit when I'm out. So hopefully I'll be able to post some more videos soon! 

M x