Artist Research

Over the years that I have been morphing and shaping my original idea, I have been researching into artists who not only inspire my work but also explore subject matter that appeals to my interest as it deals with areas that I direct my own in.
I have collected numerous amounts of work from all different styles of artist, been to countless exhibitions and researched into all kinds of methods that are used to create certain pieces of work. In doing this I have developed a greater understanding of how to create and execute my own work, and as you will see further on the techniques I have encountered are relevant to this project in particular.
For this project I want to just briefly show/talk about the artists whom have influenced this idea, and what pieces of work specifically have caught my imagination to constantly be changing my original idea into what it has become today.

Damien Hurst - A British artist who is the most prominent of the group "Young British Artists".
A central theme for Hurst's work is death, best known for his "Natural History" series, in which animals are preserved, sometimes cut up and preserved in formaldehyde.
His work has been an exploration of mortality, a traditional subject that he has updated and extended with wit, verve, originality and force.

'Mother and Child Divided', 1993

four glass walled tanks, cow and calf bisected,

Bruce  Nauman - A contemporary American artist who's pluralistic  practise spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing and performance.
He finds inspiration in the activities, speech and materials of everyday life.
He concentrates more on the way in which a process or activity can transform or become a work of art rather than the development of a characteristic style. Nauman examines life in all it's gory detail, mapping the human arc between life and death.

'Four Pairs of Heads (wax)', 1991

wax, resin, rebar, wire 

'Fifteen Pairs of Hand', 1996

white bronze, painted steel bases

Marc Quinn - A British Artist and a member of the group Young British Artists, Quinn's work divulges into different disciplines of art such as sculpture, paintings and drawings. His work often deals with the distanced relationship we have with our bodies highlighting how the conflict between the ‘natural’ and ‘cultural’ has a grip on the contemporary psyche.

Self, 2006

8pints (4.5Litres) of his own blood

 

The Selfish Gene, 2007

Patinated bronze

Antony Gormley - A British sculptor who is best know for works that include "the Angel of the North" and "Another Place", both public sculptures that are set up in different parts of England.
Gormley  has been quoted as describing his work as "an attempt to materialise the place at the other side of appearance where we all live."
The majority of Gormley's work is based on moulds that have been taken from his own body or
as he puts it "the closest experience of matter that I will ever have and the only part of the material world that I live inside."
The subject matter and essence behind his work is to treat the body as though it were a place rather than an object, and in making works that enclose the space of a particular body to identify a condition common to all human beings.

Lost Subject I, 1997

 

Rhizome III, 1999