Hippo Shoot

Make shift photo shoot in the seminar room - they were really working it in front of the camera.

Hippo Brief - Idea

Interactive 'hippo trail' through Armley.

Nothing hung on the walls, visitors each get a screen printed map of Armley with highlighted locations on it and hippo-related explanations for why the landscape is the way it is: eg. Viaduct bridge - used to be one solid wall, the arches you see are the result of a high-speed attack from giant hippos.

• Interactive piece that provokes a response from the community - I can turn the negative aspects of Armley (such as the boarded up buildings etc.) into more light-hearted things
• Changes the way people react to the space around them
• Maps would be simple to produce yet have high impact
• Problems - how do I encourage people to actually do it? Have the majority of locations close to Town St? People might discard them as rubbish or even flyers? Is the idea childish?

Hippo Brief - Artist Research

Just found out from Jane that one of the artists (not sure which one) is producing Grayson Perry style pots. Lovely.

Hippo Brief - Research

Urban Interventions: Personal Projects In Public Spaces

Incredible book - definitely on my wish list! Just filled with genius idea after genius idea.

Manipulation of existing signage and imagery, creating a new spin on taken-for-granted visuals.

Personifying the marks left by humans in a given space - turning potentially detrimental objects into relatable characters.

Incorporating light - the sun's changing position throughout the day creates a unique experiene for every viewer.

Playing upon society's instinct to rebel - covering boarded up windows and doors with brick-like paper to entice graffiti, then peeling it of and using the sheets in a commercial art exhibition.

Chaining objects to their surroundings, taking things out of context.

Creating a new narrative for ordinary and mundane surroundings.

Braille Graffiti! Cartering for otherwise excluded members of society.

Hippo Brief - Research

Off Limits - 40 Artangel Projects

Artangel is a London based organisation that offers artists the chance to realise dreams of mind-boggling public art.

Each new project evolves from a singular commissioning process, born from an open-ended conversation with an artist offered the opportunity to imagine something extraordinary. Artangel’s work is powered by the belief that artists are capable of creating visionary works which impact upon the way we view our world, our times and ourselves in unusual and enduring ways.

The majority of work in this book, whilst being incredible, is way too aspirational for this project, I feel. Having said that they are all examples of how to alter perception of any given space, through the use of foreign and found objects and human interaction. It would be much easier to scale down an overly optimistic idea than to try and build up an idea with limited potential.

Stephan Balkenhol: Figure on a Buoy/Head of a Man

Absolutely love this piece. It tackles the issue of meaninglessness within art and the public's inability to cope with out justification and reason. Through placing a figure on a floating buoy in the Thames Balkenhol managed to cause unparalleled levels of controversy and confusion as police and rescue services received a two week long surge of emergency calls from concerned onlookers wanting to help the man. This is a perfect example of how a minimal change can turn the atmosphere of given environment completely on its head.

Rachel Whiteread: House

I've always been fascinated with this. I can't really explain it, I just think it's amazing. Removing things from the landscape and leaving ghost in its place. Lovely.

This was just a page I photographed because I liked the idea of using the geography of a place to engage the audience. Creating your own narrative of a particular area through a journey on a map.

Hippo Brief - Idea

Through emailing Jane I have now learnt that these pieces are not going in the street as I had first assumed, but in shop fronts/windows. She is also trying to acquire 2 or 3 empty shops for more space - but that sort of crushes my original idea, which did in fact require pavement...

So back to the drawing board, and this is my next suggestion:

Since I was forced to discard the small screen printing project due to lack of time why don't I try and incorporate printing into this?

Manipulate images of the industrial landscape to include hippos.

• A set of large CMYK screen prints to be hung on a wall/in a window, along with single colour printed postcards for visitors to take away
• Providing something people can take away creates more interest - people ask questions, remember things better, get more involved.
• Problems - potential to look cheap/unprofessional

Armley Site Visit

So today I took a walk into Armley centre to have a gander at Town Street, the proposed location of the finished hippo commissions. I don't really know how to describe this in a diplomatic way.. but I was genuinely scared.

The area is pretty run-down, a lot of the shops and pubs are boarded up and the people seem quite aggressive - I know it's wrong to generalise a whole community like that but, like I said, I was genuinely scared. I sat down on a bench for 5 minutes tops, and in that short time I was harassed by two homeless people, kicked in the shins by the small child of what can only be described as some sort of eastern-European mafia henchman, and 4 separate suspect characters came and scrabbled through all 3 phone booths in the hope of a forgotten coin.

I took some pictures but they're not very good - I didn't want to attract attention to myself through persistent photo taking; I didn't want strangers to think I was taking candid photos of them and subsequently kill me, and I also didn't want to seem like a tourist (or worse, an art student) and give people an excuse to mug me. Discretion, apparently, does not warrant the most helpful of photographs..

Two items of note amongst this incredibly monochromatic landscape were the picturesque little library building at the very top of the street, and also a little mural of a compass containing map of Armley set in concrete on the ground at about the half way point.

Something that became very evident as I scaled the pavements, was the fact that there is little to no excess floor space.. Since I have been toying with the idea of creating a sculptural piece, as opposed to something for a window or wall, I sense this will be problematic. I've emailed Jane with a few questions and hopefully she'll clear things up. If I am going to produce a piece to stand alone in the street there is also the small matter of bolting it down so that it doesn't get stolen, because believe me, it WILL be stolen.

Hippo Brief - Possible Idea

Hippo emerging from pavement - in the same way they pop the tops of their heads out of water.

• references the discovery of the hippo under the town
• manipulates existing environment whilst being flexible with exact location
• production problems? - materials, glass vs. perspex (safety issues and dexterity), how to make it look professional, weighting it down (if it's outside, damage/theft?)

Public Art Research - Starting Point

First things first - What sort of public art is out there? How are people manipulating public spaces? Site specific? Stand alone pieces? Performance art? Street Theatre?

Research existing projects - See what entices me - Go from there.

Publication

Information about the Hippo Trail has now been published on the I Love West Leeds website, along with a picture of my design and full credit to me! Wonderful.

I Love West Leeds

Hippo Brief - Artist Research

Steven James, Naomi Williams & Michelle Duxbury

Try as I might I haven't been able to find any info on the remaining 3 artists so no more insight there I'm afraid. I did find Duxbury's twitter page but there was less about art and more about Glee so I didn't deem it all that relevant.

Next time I see Jane I'll be sure to ask.

Hippo Brief - Artist Research

Lou Sumray

The second artist detailed in Jane's email is Bradford based painter, Lou Sumray. It's difficult to tell from her portfolio of work the kind of piece she is likely to produce for Armely town centre as she is primarily a figurative painter and this project doesn't exactly scream 'traditional art'. But she does do a lot of workshops and community projects ranging from conventional drawing techniques to float decoration and kite making so perhaps her hippo piece will draw upon these more practical skills.

http://www.lousumray.co.uk/index.html

Hippo Brief - Artist Research

Fabric Lenny

The first of the commissioned artists I've looked at. His (I'm assuming it's a he?) website alone didn't give a great range of work - at first it looked as though it it was just prints. But tracking down his Flickr site gave a much better idea of the overall range.

As well as paintings and prints Fabric Lenny produces more unconventional pieces. Applying his recognisable character designs to reworked postcards. By far the most interesting application of his work in relation to my current hippo model project is his custom 3d figures. When commissioned, Fabric Lenny takes a particular painting, print or drawing, identifies the key patterns and colours and replicates them on a wooden character.

It is undeniable that Fabric Lenny has a signature style and no doubt it will be reflected in his piece for Armley town centre.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fabriclenny/

Hippo Brief - Artist Commission.

It looks as though I will definitely be in the UK at the time of the I Love West Leeds Festival this summer and consequently will be able to take up Jane's offer of the artist commission brief in Armley. I've emailed Jane about it and she is happy for me to be involved. This is part of her response:

Ive reconsidered the idea of spreading the artist commissions across
the whole west, i think they may get a bit isolated and lose impact so
i am going to concentrate the project into armley itself and try to
get local shop owners to feature them in their window displays, and
have them all over the library, which is on the main street too.
Siting your work on Town St too.

The fee for each of you is £500 flat inc everything. Send me an
invoice and i will sort payment out, if you need some of the fee up
front for materials then just let me know.

The deadline for finished work is week beginning mon 28 June.
My print deadline for the festival brochure is on 19th May, so if you
have a rough outline of what your work will be by then that would be
great.
The festival press officer will also be working to get press coverage
so we might request a photocall with you and your work/work in
progress. If you are producing work for a specific site on town st
rather than something that could go anywhere then let me know asap in
order for me to sort the relevant permissions as experience tells me
this can take for ever.

So it doesn't actually seem as though there is a concrete, scripted brief; from what I gather I simply have to take the theme of 'hippos' and create a site specific piece for Town St in Armley - ideally relating to the discovery of the prehistoric hippo in 1851 in some way. Jane mentioned that one of the artists is doing a giant comic strip, I'm not sure what the others are doing but it seems as though I pretty much have free reign. 

I've been having a look at the other artists that are getting involved, to get an idea of the type of work they produce and the typical feel that their work has. In fear of overloading this post, research is to follow.

Hippo Brief - Feedback

Jane came into college today to check on the progress of the hippos and thankfully she loved them. She was really excited about the whole project, which was refreshing because obviously having stared at them all day everyday the hippos were starting to lose their appeal but this just brought it all back into perspective. Lovely.

I gave Jane a demonstration of how the molds work - throughout this whole brief I've had to bare in mind that the process needs to be as simple as possible so that I can teach Jane then she can easily teach the technique to as many others as possible along her production line. The plaster is basic fine casting plaster which is available from your average hardware stores like B&Q etc, all you need to mix it is a bucket and your hands, and I'm providing her with the molds so I'd say I've got this simplicity angle covered. Thank god.

I showed her how to prep the molds for casting - binding the jackets with a belt, wedging the neck joint together and leveling the whole thing out. I also had one in the mold that had already set when she came in so that I could show her how to take them out.

So with Jane 100% happy with the first mold it's full steam ahead for the rest of them! Because the vinamold is such a precious resource in the 3D studio I reckon 10 molds worth would be about as much as I can muster - and even then they're having to order in a fresh batch to meet my demand!

Talking to Don we realised that we're going to have to come up with some sort of signing out system for the materials. The vinamold is recyclable and is constantly used in the workshop, so removing 10 molds worth will be detrimental and they simple can't take the risk of it not returning. So I think what we're doing is getting Jane to pay a deposit for the vinamold which will be returned when the materials come back into college - sounds pretty fair.

This whole mass participation project is running alongside a larger project involving 5 commissioned artists creating hippo-related pieces to be displayed in Armley town centre. Jane suggested that I be one of them! A real job! With real money! And for a real purpose! The only problem I have at the moment though, is that the festival spans 3 weeks in July, and if I get accepted on Camp America then I obviously won't be here and so won't be able to do it.. This is all getting very complicated.

Hippo Brief - Casting

To make sure the plaster jacket held the vinamold as tight as possible, I have to use a belt to hold the two halves together. It works on a ratchet and took me at least half an hour to figure out how to work it, and my fingers are having seriously rational fears of decapitation whenever it's around - but needs must and all that.

My first cast came out with a wall of plaster in the join between the legs and head where some of the mixture had obviously gotten between the opening in the mould. Since the vinamold has fully cooled down it is ever so slightly smaller than the jacket and so when the plaster mix is poured in it forces the join to separate.

So being ever so resourceful I adapted two sculpting knives into wedges and jammed that mother, aint no plaster gettin the better of me! Works a treat.

The first cast I did was a bit of a fail all round really, I left the plaster mix a little too long before pouring into the mold and so it wasn't really liquid enough to hug the entire shape, it left ripples at the sides as though pouring toothpaste or something of a similar consistency. This in turn left huge unfilled gaps in the hippo itself.

Now that I've perfected my casting techniques and I know that the mold definitely works I can begin to assemble a small battalion of cuteness that can fight enemies in the face with a mixture of confusion and warm, fuzzy feelings.

Hippo Brief - Making Moulds

To make the mould:

1. Cut scrap vinamold into chunks and place in the pot to melt.
2. Take the object you are casting, and place it on a wooden board.
3. Roll out some clay into large, long sheets 2-3cm thick and build a wall around your object with 2cm or so either side. Reinforce the base of the walls with extra clay and smooth over any cracks or holes.
4. When the vinamold has fully melted pour the liquid into the casing you've built, being careful to pour slowly and not directly onto the object inside.
5. When the vinamold has set remove the clay.
6. Using rolled out strips of clay build a small wall lengthways across the top and sides of the mould.
7. Mix a thick plaster solution and layer onto one half of the mold, pressing right up to the clay wall.
8. Apply a layer of hessian to bind it and add more clay.
9. Smooth off the top of the plaster to create a flat surface.
10. Remove clay wall, make a small bowl shape from a piece of clay, add a little water and use a paintbrush to mix a thick clay-paint.
11. Liberally paint the edges of the plaster jacket - this will act as a release agent when constructing the second half.
12. Repeat steps 7-9 on the remaining half of the mold.
13. When dry, turn upside down and separate both halves of the jacket, then remove the original object from the vinamold.