Potters Field Park

I visited Potters Field Park as part of Parklife module just like my trip to Laban, however the object for this site visit was very different. I was to make a presentation and also a report on Potters field, happy days! When i 1st got to the park i wasnt too amazed, it looked pretty dead to be honest. There was a clear focal points and composition of the park was very good, but everything seemed a bit dull. I was pretty upset, i liked the site and i knew it had potential but the seasons were changing and the plants where dieing down for the winter. Everything about the park worked for me, id thought it would be more busy, but it was a secret haven for the few people that knew about it, the planting made for a calming environment and the large green areas helped to create a calming atmosphere. Things changed however, the closer you got to the river you got the busier it got and it was clear the designers had adapted the design to meet the demand of the thousands of people that pass through the space every day. The calming planting had been replaced by long rows of clever seating, well placed trees helped to keep the site from looking too plain and ordinary, whilst helping it through the transition. Something that i loved at the site was the skate stoppers, as the site has long rows of seating to meet the demand but this would definately attract the wrong people. Thankfully they did their job and the irritating sound of rattling wheels and scraping wood was nonexistant. All in all i think the design of the site is very successful and worth the recent development altough not all agree, you know who you are!

Potters Field Park

Laban

Laban is one of the finest institutions for the training of professional contemporary dance, and thats exactly not the reason why i dropped by! Outside the Ladan centre is a very fresh and interestin landscape. I visited the site as part of my parklife module, with the aim of studying the changing levels and to learn how to draw accurate drawings of difficult sites. The landscape was truly amazing in my honest, its not often you see such a usable contemporary grass land, finished with differeing gradients, sharp edges and breath taking composition. Although to some such a site wouldnt be very significant, to me who likes designing hard landscapes, this was such an interesting blend of natural resources but with strong man made shapes. It was so user friendly, it was clearly enjoyed by young children but many grown people in my class seemed to like it too! However i must say as much as i liked the site i hated the given task, the shapes and differing gradients made it very hard!

Royal Aademy of Arts Visited 2!

After i went to the Anish Kapoor exhibition i went to see the Paper City: Urban Utopias exhibition that was also running at the same time. Paper cities was mainly an architecural exhibition, there to show what designer and architect thought the future holds for the urban city. Although mainly architectural many of the images consist of interesting landscapes, something that can bring me inspiration in my work and good precedent. The exhibition itself was in the smalles part of the Academy occupying a tiny space on the side where not many people could see, however if down to me should have had a much bigger space, maybe the Anish Kapoor galleries if im not being too cheeky! The images on show were very strong and to top off the great experience you could make a scrap book of the images that were on show, there was great pads with each image which you were allowed to take free copies away. I made the most of this and took as many as i could get my hands on :) what a great idea, i wish there were more of these kinds of exhibitions. I scanned my images in and the scrapbook that i created can be seen below...

Paper Cities:Urban Utopias

Royal Academy of Arts Visited!

Ok so this morning i went to the Royal Academy of Arts to see those two exhibitions, mixed emotions to be honest, somethings were better than others.
Anish Kapoor was a bit of a disappoinment for me to be honest, after paying £8, a whole £8 more than the Tate i was expecting good things. To add to the misery i wasnt even allowed to take photos of the few things i liked. The sheer scale of some of his work amazed me, but i went there to be inspired by sculptures that explore space but i left more confused than anything. one piece named 'shooting into the corner' had an interesting concept, there was a cannon projecting 20pound pieces of red wax at 50mph through a doorway and into the corner of the following room. Although a good concept the clay was projectd with little force to make a dramatic live piece of art that the pubic could enjoy at 20minute intervals, instead many people would be cramped into a small space, built up with excitment as the artists helper preped the cannon only to be met wit a load bang and a second of undramatic flinging of red wax. Yes i did i liked the concept but i did dislike just as much! The live act doesnt rightly portray the reasoning behind the art, the Academy states "the drama of Shooting into the corner takes place in a space set apart, rather like a boxing ring, a ritual arena in which a symbolic act of violence is allowed to occur", yes it does portray this but for me its just not strong enough, but then again i wouldnt say my thinking patterns are the same as some of the wacky artists and art critics out there!

Anish Kapoor

Focus week: Royal Academy of Arts

So for focus week i had a look at some exhibitions that would interest me, while online i found two exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Arts in central London. 1 exhibition was for Anish Kapoor, and the other was named Paper City: Urban Utopias.
Anish Kapoor has become one of the most respected and influential artist of his generation, gaining international acclaim, for his works exploring form and space in the medium of contemporary sculpture. I thought it was time to see what the hype was all about!
Secondly was the Urban Utopias exhibition, after seeing some images online i was interested in some of the landscapes portrayed, i might as well go and see this while im there!