FMP Week 1

25 February

After an early morning wakeup, we trekked halfway across town for an 8 AM train to the Middle-of-Nowhere, Hungary.  Arriving at the small town of Gyöngös at 9:30, the first thing we saw off the train was a Hungarian farmer in his horse drawn cart, accompanied by a bicyclist holding on for a free ride. 

20 minute walk across the town to the zoo, and we found ourselves playing with 3 sleepy lion cubs!  Perhaps not the most beneficial way to spend the first real day of my project, this day marked the final day of my trip, during which my camera took 1600+ photos.

In true Ashley-Adventure style, I was held at the border at Stansted for 45 minutes.  Mind you, this is already after the plane landed 15 minutes late.  The All Other Passports queue was short, but “the system” didn’t recognise my fingerprints, so speedy it was not.  Tony zoomed through the EU line, but was not permitted to wait with me while I was held.  We had no means of communicating (dead phone), and another border agent semi-threatened to have him removed from the airport since he wasn’t waiting for a bag at baggage claim.  In short, I was quite shaken up when I was finally let through.  The passport-less Russians next to me about to be deported didn’t help. 

26 February

My first day back in class, I spent the majority of it editing photos from the trip, as well as finishing up the action plan/timeline for my final project.  Nothing too exciting.  One of my favourite photos taken during the trip was the first one I took in Vienna of a window on an 18^th century building.

27 February

I spent the entire day editing photos, and made it about halfway through them.  As I go, I am taking note of the photos that are most appropriate for pairing, though I will not start organising them that way until sometime next week.

28 February

28 February

I anticipated spending the day in the Natural History Museum, but, after breakfast, a maaaassive queue of school children in safety vests axed that idea.  Instead, I did 30 minutes of sketching at the V&A and called it quits.  There happened to be a bust of a pianist-turned Polish PM, so vaguely fitting to my project theme.

So, to fill my now-empty afternoon, I made a pilgrimage to my first of TimeOut’s 10 Best Hot Chocolates in London.  To keep myself occupied, I made sure to continue my photo-editing task while imbibing in a decent cuppa.  I’ll just say that it takes quite a long time to comb through 1600+ photos.

A visit with my junior year of high school English teacher introduced me to a new part of town – a coffee shop and little street of shops around Liverpool Street Station.  I will return to the coffee shop, as it hangs work by local artists!  I have their card, and will look into seeing if they would display some of my work.

I have been trying to get a hold of a pianist friend to set up a time to take some photos of him at the keyboard.  So far, we haven’t been able to work out a time.  I will also be asking some other musician friends if I can do the same with them.  I will take close-up detail shots – almost abstract.

1 March

At 1, I headed to the National Portrait Gallery for the Man Ray exhibition.  It wasn’t a massive show, but I was surprised to discover that so many photos I’d seen before were taken by him (Le Violin d’Ingres, James Joyce, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Sir Thomas Beecham (see photo – from http://irom.wordpress.com/2010/05/ ), Picasso, etc).  The Beecham photo is actually one of the more boring compositions (very traditional and plain), but I think it’s interesting to find out when two such influential people collaborate.

Negative points about the exhibition would mainly be that there were many tiny photos that were too high to see properly.  Many walls had frames above frames, so the top set had glares that made it nearly impossible to see the tiny images.  There had to be the maximum number of people there at the time I attended, as well.  It was very crowded, which almost made me feel rushed.  It was interesting to overheard other peoples’ discussions and comments on the photos.  The overriding comment seemed to be more of a question as to his “solarisation” and “Ray-o-gram” techniques, neither of which were described, much to my dismay.

I liked the chronological organisation of the photos, which meant there were also divided by the location in which they were taken, and stage of his career.  Paris, New York, Paris, and Hollywood sections provided clear descriptions of Ray’s life and work, making it one of the more interesting exhibitions I’ve recently seen. 

I especially liked the comparison of Ray’s depictions of his muse and lover, Kiki (and other later muses/lovers), and the comparison to how painters recorded or depicted their own muses.  It would be interesting to research various artists and their muses, comparing artists who worked in different styles and media.

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3 March 

With July deadlines on the horizon, I began filling out postgraduate programme applications today.  Central St. Martin's alone is 16 pages, plus an additional CV and project proposal.  CCW is still linked, and the application thankfully covers my top 3 programme choices.  For anyone who is wondering, those choices are likely (in order) Chelsea for Fine Art, Camberwell for Fine Art, Wimbledon for Drawing.  Those, in addition to CSM, will hopefully provide me with at least one open door for the coming year.