The Performance

 All of the above images were taken during the performance at my last exhibition and were taken by Fern Thomas.

Bubble

 

The series "bubble" comes from my previous exhibition in which I invited people to explore the artistic medium of ferrofluid, showing them my processes and seeing if they can create similar works within the space. This particular offshoot of the exhibition came when a fluid formation was overloaded with thin water colour and ink, it was then knocked slightly so that the waters escaped the formation. After being left for a few hours I then began to play with the new liquid that had been left sliding away from the form, it had taken on a thickened form and was therefore easier to manipulate into creating the droplet formations we see.

The Exhibition

 This is my April exhibition currently in progress. The first demonstration seemed to go really well and everyone left a little more knowledgeable from the experience, however we shall see what happens in the next few demonstrations. I will try and keep this updated with images from some of the demo's and hopefully a few better images of the exhibit in general.

Actual text based human interaction, a first for this blog, maybe more to come

After a while of working with ferrofluids to create the chemical compositions that stand somewhere between painting and sculpture I have finally been given the chance to create a small exhibit within Swansea Metropolitan University starting on the 15th of April spanning to the 21st of April which will consist of several of the images on this site and a few still unseen images (which will possibly be uploaded here in time) alongside several demonstrative performances (which I will hopefully upload here too) finally getting to express myself on a larger scale again, including education and amazement within the work, going back to my roots and leaving the exploration of purely aesthetic science temporarily behind while getting to indulge myself in the beautiful art form of exhibition curation as well as performance, hopefully it will go well and I will keep you updated, for better or for worse.

Had to add an image there, pure text seriously bored me.

self perpetuated interests of experimentation

"Hidden cove" - This cave like formation was created using fine powders that have a high absorbtion rate, (the same crystals used in babies diapers) slowly poured onto the ink design below to simulate the growing of a new habitat, key in the formation of life, all grown inside a humble petridish.

This image was created to lead up to "The hidden cove" as part of my growing a new world series, however its aestheticly pleasing formations made me feel the need to document it, the water in this image however is the key to growing this petri-dish world, as water is key in to our world too, we need water to thrive, the series needs water to become my visions, so I thought I might include it.

I decided that my two working projects could combine to take on a new form within my exploration of chemical formations using ferrofluids, water colour and the highly absorbant crystals, this piece is the result of that exploration "Chemical formation 384", I like the way the spires seem to grow from crystals with the clashing of texture, light and colour.

"Chemical formation 378" is a carry on from my ferrofluid series which stands somewhere between photography, sculpture and painting coming but a hairs whisker from incapsulating the many forms of art practise I have the priviledge of whitnessing everyday during my fine art course

"Chemical formation 355" is another carry on from my works exploring the use of ferrofluid in my practice, this image intrigues me as it highlights the thin film encapsulating the resevoirs of colour, claiming the water within for its own while seeming to fend off attackers. This seemingly strong structure standing out from its surroundings, is as fragile as any life form, its fleeting existance captured in a photograph before removing the magnetic field and letting it fall into a liquid mass of nothingness once more, the proud barriers and fortress it had set up, leaving nothing behind.

"Crystaline rock formation No. 14"

"Crystal Globe" the imagery here reminded me of our own world, stained black with oil and greed, formed through science the crystals here suck at the oil and water laid out for it until no more is left, the water then drys up to leave only a glimpse of its former beauty behind

"Chemical formation 324" I can't decide if this image reminds me of hills, forts or a small face but none the less its aesthetically pleasing form speaks to me a little

"Painted Distortion" this image came by accident after looking into the thin layer the fluid created on the surface of the petri-dish when not being manipulated by magnetism, the way the oil gave a reflection of that around it. I then went about manipulating the distortion using tiny magnets in different areas beneathe the dish similar to "chemical formation 324" however using smaller magnets and the aid of my camera to increase the distortion effect

"Crystaline formation No. 5"

multimedial manipulations

"Chemical formation 309" This formation conjurs imagery of alien lifeforms and my imagination leads me to believe it the spawn or egg of some alien creature or perhaps how a spot may look if it had landed itself upon an unlucky alien form, either way this formation holds some strange martian feeling to it.

"Chemical formation 305" The imagery here I have been told reminds some of rock formations upon our own planet but again seems to me like an alien formation, holding upon itself a beautiful aesthetic. The use of a varied ratio of pigment to water creating the thicker colours within the center yet the thinned yellow ink around its outskirts creating a beautiful contrast within itself. I am not sure why but this is one of my favourite formations.

"Chemical formation 295" the neutral earthen greens and large slimy black barriers appear to be trying to hide and protect the rich purples that almost feel like they are flowing beneathe the piece as if to only rear its head in areas it feels safe

"Chemical formation 301" I took a close up of this formation as I think it shows the segregation of colour within the piece the barriers between the neutral earthen green with its long shapes and the clean white sticking to simple sphere's of contrast, held together within the shiny black liquid. Its aesthetic qualities appear to jump out at you as the bright purple seems to try and mimic both colours being held in simple spheres alongside longer resevoirs of brighter futures.

experiments with colour

"Chemical Formation 283" this image makes me think of an alien style frog, the way it appears to be slimily moving forward, you expect it to leave a snail like trail behind as it approaches you, its thin film like skin holding its inner blue organs from slipping away while using some form of spiked deterent against predators running along its back.

"Chemical formation 268" is a simple formation that seems to have snake like formations within it, one particularly stands out cutting straight through the middle of the piece, the snaking lines weaving through the bold spherical droplets of colour held together by the thin slimy black cement. I particularly like the small heart-like formation in the bottom right of the image, this shape was actually intentional due to this piece being created on valentines day.

"Chemical formation 248" is a formation in which I tried to use a minimal amount of ferrofluid to create the small cones you see lying around the edge of the high rising walls that encompas the bold colours within. The single piece of segregated colour in the bottom right pulled away and kept from its fellows by the hard over-powering white colours cutting through the center holding it back from its family colours keeping it in a prison, giving it the choice of either trying to escape the world it knows, inside the black walls or never seeing its fellow colours again, then the bold orange in the dead center of the sculpture looking like a button or a heart, trying to squeeze past the white walls to its parent colour perhaps, although this is just my personal interpretation of the piece.

"Chemical formation 269" this image is another look at 268 from a new perspective to highlight the different sizes between the pools of colour and to create the feeling of a moving animal, creeping forward on its natural route alongside showing its defensive spikes.

"Chemical formation 250" is a formation that combats the images produced by "Chemical formation 248" as the power and segragation caused by the white pools have been over run by the suddenly large amounts of colour swamping the piece, the pools have become such a large amount that there are no spires left, only walls created by the ferrofluid, this experiment was primarily to see how much liquid the ferrofluids could hold under the power of the magnet.

"Chemical formation 267" similar to 268 & 269 from another perspective this image however does not highlight the snake like effects or the feeling of movement but instead shows the neutral coloured resevoirs and valentines heart with the feeling of gently becoming more agressively spiked towards the rear of the sculptural form.

"Chemical formation 249" is the same formation as in 248 however I have played with the lighting, angle and camera distance to warp our view of the structure and give it a more extra terrestrial feel

"Chemical formation 253" is a piece which incorporates a painted petri-dish rather than the usual transparent dish I have been using in most the other works, I used a earthen pallet for this as it is the basis board for the life-like formations I have been creating and highlights the ferrofluids dark tone while not distracting from the overall central formation. The black staining stemming from the formation however was due to the density of the oil used in ferrofluid that tends to stain all it touches, as there is a layer of paint the fluid disperesed itself where it could. I am not sure what to make of this image but the large selection of colours clashing with the shining black fluid and sweeping escape blasting from one side as if trying to wipe its own slate clean or as if there was an eruption from the sculpture causing the smoke like mark to appear.