Changing plans

After some thought about my installation, I have decided that the white wall at the back needs to be changed. This is partly because I don't like the black text and partly because it draws far too much attention off the pictures. I have decided to change the colour of the wall to black so have staple gunned up black paper to cover the back wall. I am also going to go back to the poems I asked my Grandad to write out for me. I will put them up on the back wall enlarged to give the observer something more to see and understand. I think it will make the back wall far more relevant than it was in the beginning and much more subtle.

The wall is now covered in black paper and I have taken fragmented pictures of the poem for some idea of what they will look like.

A final idea on how to display

As my piece is an installation it has a lot of information and detail all in one space so I wanted to make an information leaflet for people that are viewing my piece so they gain a wider understanding and they have something with them to take away. This is what I am intending on putting onto a postcard with the picture of my Grandad, which is in the installation, on the back. Just an old man? Who is this man? With nearly 7 billion people living on our planet some people don’t get noticed. They just go by taking a day at a time and living there life. My Grandad is one of these people. He takes one day at a time with a routine that suites him. Through my display of his daily routine and life in pictures I hope you can see how he is not ‘just an old man’ but in fact still lives an interesting and valuable life as an individual. Alternatively Just an old man? Currently 6.7 billion people live on our planet, so what makes a person individual and stand out from the crowd? The mystery behind every person is a lifetime of experience. Don't just look at these images, look into them and soon you will discover the life of this 'old man'.

just about finished!

I have now basically finished my installation. I have a few finishing touches to make, such as rubbing out pencil marks etc but other than that all the main bits are in and done. I am very happy with how it has turned out and that I have actually finished on time which I was very nervous about. All in all I think the project has wok red well and I have taken quite a few risks with doing it as a lot could have done wrong I have really enjoyed doing it. However if I were to change things I would have probably used the same type of wallpaper all around the three walls as I think it would have set a trend for the walls rather than them being different. Also I would have perhaps changed the style of the first wall slightly however I am unsure what to. All I need now is the projector to be able to project my video onto the white space on the back wall. This can be done out of exam time because the video is finished it just needs to be projected to the audience. I have an hour and a half of exam time left so I just need to now make sure everything is finished and polished well.

stage 8

stage 8: placing the objects into the installation. The object being; a chair, hat and pair of glasses.

stage 7

stage 7: drawing on with pencil then painting over in the black poster paint the verse from the poem 'leisure'

stage 6

stage 6: painting on the title of my installation. I used black poster paint to do this after drawing on the lettering with pencil.

stage 5

stage 5: framing and hooking up my two black and white prints. This took a bit of doing as I had never put up a picture before but it was easy when I knew how.

stage 4

stage 4: getting up the 2 borders on the other wall and making sure things fit in the space. This was the finishing point by the end of day 1 of the exam time.

stage 3

Stage 3: putting up the 80 pictures from the 'daily routine' section. This also took longer than expected as all pictures needed to be measured up against the others for spacing.

stage 2

Stage two: Wallpapering. This took the longest amount of time as a staple gun alone did not work so I had to PVA the edges also. I also put up my lampshade by screwing it into the light fitting.

From start to finish

First stage...

Checking the carpet fits into the space and cutting it down if needed. Luckily I only had to cut off a little bit of carpet and find a smaller piece to fit down the side where there was a slight disjoinment.

Exam Time

The exam is underway and I am documenting all the stages of making my installation. Currently at the end of day one I have wallpapered my wall which took the longest amount of time as just staple gunning the paper up did not work so PVA was used also! I have put up the daily routine pictures on the third and also the the and bottom border of the first wall. Tomorrow I need to paint on the lettering on the second wall/back wall and sort out the space that my video will be shown in. Finally I need to put up the portraits of my Grandad on the first wall. Everything is going to plan and pictures will get up as soon as I have finished documenting the proccess.

Sorting

Currently I have sorted through all my pictures and have all the material printed and ready to go. I have found an old chair in a charity shop which is a replica of my Grandad's and he has kindly let me borrow his hat and an old pair of glasses. I also had a rummage in his loft and found some wallpaper much like the stuff used in his lounge so I will incorporate that into my installation.

Something more...

After some more thinking about my installation I decided that it needed to be even more personal. I approached my Grandad again and wanted to find out what some of his favourite things were. My Grandad writes his own poetry and I was interested in looking at some of the poems and incorporating them into my final piece as it would be something more about him. Another of the things I asked him was what was his favourite poem, he answered If by Rudyard Kipling and also Leisure by William Henry Davies . These poems hold a lot of meaning and I want to somehow include them in my installation. A critic studying the poem 'Leisure' said 'he poet lamenting over the rush and hurried manner in which we spend our lives. We deprive ourselves of the richness and diversity of life.' This has some relevance to my piece as it is about the way my Grandad lives his life and the manner in which he does so especially now my Nan has passed away. I also asked him his favourite colour which he replied green. Then his favourite past time, which he struggled to answer right away but said he enjoyed most things but reading has become on of his favourites since my Nan past away. I also asked him his favourite drink which he replied orange cordial of course Sarah, much to my amusement. I think by having a bit more knowledge of his likes and dislikes my project will become slightly more personal and meaningful. I have now just got to find a way to try and include these items and thoughts into my final piece. I have asked my Grandad to write out two of his favourite poems that he wrote himself and I have photographed them in a fragmented way to show small snippets of text. The poems are interesting but I am unsure if I will include them in my installation.

Perhaps an Idea

After thinking about my installation I have decided on what I want to do. I first thought about displaying my images on 3 seperate boards and hinging them together to form something to look at. However I shortly decided that this was not the approach I wanted to take. I wanted to make something much more personal that the viewer could understand and seem to be involved in rather than just to look at. I have decided on a space I would like to use and its a 3 walled cubby hole which I am going to develop into my installation. My initial idea was just to display my picutres in it but then I thought I should develop this more, so I am going to make it into a prototype of a lounge, and in particular my Grandad's. I have purchased a chair from a charity shop which looks my like the one at my Grandad's house, and after some bargaining I have got my Grandad to lend me his glasses and hat which were also in the black and white print. I wanted to relate my installation to an artist or photographer to ensure my work had a bit more substance and I found Van Gough and Grauguin. Van Gogh painted each one with his inspression of the chairs and the outcomes are below. This is the sort of thing that will be in my installation as the chair will be the central piece. I am very happy that I found these artists that relate however I am also glad that I found them after I decided on the idea so it gives my idea more individuality.

Getting On

I have now picked out 150 images that I wanted to be printed to go in my final piece, these are the ones that I took on the day that I followed my Grandad around. I also have many images that I collected from my Grandad's house and family albums. Along with this I have had the film processed and have my images on a CD so I can fully view which one's I want to print before wasting any vital time in the darkroom. Finally I have the video I filmed at my Grandad's house last week. I am currently working on developing my images that I found at my Grandad's and I have photographed all the pictures and had them put onto a CD so I can edit them and put them together to portray perhaps some sort of 'life in pictures' by layering my images. I will try this on photoshop as well as in substance by cutting up the prints and fixing them into a collage type picture. I made this picture by cutting up old pictures I found at my Grandads house and making them into a timeline.

Printing Time

These are a couple of the pictures I took of my Grandad when I went round to film the video. I also took with me my film camera to incorporate my film photography project of 'formal portraits' into my final piece. For speed and general convenience I took the film to a lab to be processed and got the pictures then transferred onto a CD however I do really enjoy printing my own pictures so I will be printing my own for my display of my final piece. I think the pictures have come out slightly over exposed however they make the images look slightly older and I think this compliments my Grandad's skin tone and overall appearance.

Where am I?

I am now at a stage where I think I have all the material I need for the exam. I have many pictures of my Grandad's daily routine, I have a video interview of my Grandad and myself, I have many old photographs of my Grandad and my family years ago and finally I have a film and digital portrait of my Grandad as he is now. I think all these bits and bobs will fit together nicely to create some sort of innovative final piece.