Our last Kick-About was inspired by the work of Michael Landy, and artist notable for breaking things into fragments. This week it’s the photography of Karl Blossfeldt, an artist as interested in separating the whole into separate elements. Enjoy this latest exhibition of new works made in a short time and for all previous editions, visit here.
Gary Thorne
“The idea of close-quarter or macro-observation leaned quite nicely towards my recent experience in being kit-up for hearing aids, and if you think you’ve heard it all, just you wait you young things till megaphones are attached to your ears. The world is alarmingly noisy. I’m not convinced such amplification is totally necessary so I’ve chosen to be quite selective when to hitch a ride on such a rollercoaster. Here’s a taster in 1 minute 27 seconds of how day-one felt. I did think to have a go at film-making to accompany this, but decided wisely on a still image instead.”
James Randall
“Blossfleft, an old favourite. I began with a kind of updated floral form and then engaged organic bone shapes and got totally distracted by the fires again and it turned into a representation of a dystopia, which is fast becoming reality.“
Marion Raper
“Karl Blossfeldt was a truly inspirational photographer and I have done sketches and paintings from his work a few times over the years. However this time I decided to just go with the flow, and wandered around my garden and up and down the road with my phone, taking photos and feeling a bit like David Bailey! It was amazing, the amount of flora, seed heads and even fungi that was so easily found. I really had a great time just snapping away and with quite pleasing results.”
Graeme Daly
“I did some foraging around my garden and took some clippings of various plants and shrubberies, making sure to handle the poisonous lords and ladies with gloves! Indecisive as I am, there’s a plethora of different outcomes in there. I particularly enjoy the low light oil painting outcomes.”
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Kerfe Roig
“When I looked at Blossfeldt’s photos, my first impulse was to draw them, but even though the library had a book I could reserve, I knew it might take weeks for them to send it to my local branch so I could pick it up. So even though I’m not a photographer, my next idea was to photograph some of the things I’ve picked up on my various visits to the beach. A slightly different aspect of the natural world than Blossfeldt’s photos reveal. They proved to be good subjects for black and white photography. I took many many photos and picked out eight of my favorites.”
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Phil Gomm
“What I enjoy about Blossfeldt’s images is the way in which they encourage us to zoom in and out in terms of our associations: I know these are photographs of smallish things, but I start seeing architecture and monumental sculpture and giant wrought-iron constructions. Likewise, I think Blossfeldt’s images make us stop and stare, and marvel at what might otherwise go unnoticed or be somewhat taken for granted. With these ideas in mind, I decided to play some scale-based games of my own, imagining a hushed gallery environment with visitors arrested and intrigued by the spectacle of these ‘ordinary/extraordinary’ seed heads. Obviously, I’ve watched one too many science-fiction b-movies, because I’m also reminded of those moments in those lovely old black and white films when ordinary townsfolk first encounter strange other-wordly objects on their lawns…”
Jan Blake
“I came across the work of Blossfeldt through reading Ozenfant’s Foundations of Modern Art, which had been suggested to us when I first went to Art School many years ago. The picture’s title was Daphne and the photograph was of leaves unfurling from a thick, juicy springtime stem. I was fascinated and I think that was a real awakening for me that just drawing a cabbage for A level as just an observational exercise was only the beginning of our relationship to the natural world and our imaginations.
Looking back on work that has evolved for me over the years, it becomes more obvious that my interest is sparked by the energy and movement of renewal as a plant disperses its seeds. It is strangely different according to species and their performance in the same way that the unfurling and birth of new growth appears.
I was just about to give up on creating something for this KA, even though it had been tumbling about in my head for two weeks, when I saw these Lime pods lying at my feet on the way back from the dentist. I love their delicacy and how they come spinning to land. I was straight back to Ozenfant and the way man has adapted or been intrigued by nature’s prompts to create architecture and amazing engineering feats. So here they are my helicopter spinning seeds.“
Charly Skilling
“Karl Blossfeldt’s images focus the viewer’s attention on the structure and textures of individual plants, so I directed my attention to a pine cone. I tried sketching it first, then creating a crochet version, I then tried out a crochet stitch I hadn’t used before to represent the surface texture of a pine cone and played about with a range of yarns from my stash.”
And from the still, formal plant portraiture of Karl Blossfeldt to the much-less constrained oeuvre of artist Niki de Saint Phalle… See you next time.
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