Yakov Chernikhov

I found this on Dark Roasted Blend. The architect Yakov Chernikhov was apparently too innovative to be trusted by Stalin's regime despite how much the grandiose ambition of Chernikhov's designs would have suited Stalin's own brutal ambition to leave his mark on the world. He had published several books featuring his designs and was called the Soviet Piranesi.

The tower in the background reminds me of the painting of The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2007/05/communist-gothic.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakov_Chernikhov

Yayoi Kusama

People in the class were talking about her a few days ago and I just found an article about her on The Guardian site, her stuff is mostly sculptural which doen't interest me as much as her Infinately Mirrored Room which uses almost exactly the sort of visual extention I want to create with normal and two way mirrors for an infinite landscape possible to have as a piece on its own or to use as a photographic set piece.

I would love to create something with that aesthetic quality for the degree show if I can only find affordable sources for the materials. Apparently she was the it girl of the New York art scene in the 50's and 60's but decided to check herself into the mental hospital back in Japan as the 60's and the atmosphere of the era ended.

http://inhabitat.com/infinity-mirror-room-yayoi-kusama-unveils-spectacular-space-lit-by-hundreds-of-leds/infinitymirroredroom-yayoi-kusama2/?extend=1

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/feb/12/yayoi-kusama-tate-modern-review

Saskia Olde Wolbers...

... was recomended to me for research by the external examinor. Her work uses fictional narration (that's how it's worded on her site) which I belive means it would be classed as fictional and is narrative and not that the narration is somehow fake or false. These narrative take place in underwater scenes which from what she says in an interview sounds like it was inspired by The Three Gorges Dam in China. The work has very metallic or plastic aesthetic which makes me think of sci-fi architecture in films or illustrations where vast cities seem to have been planned by the same architect creating a very unified but in that case slightly dull environment, I like varied architecture but that's off topic. I was wondering why I'm seeing so few hits for it in youtube but it says my results have been filtered by the administrator. Yay for censorship! Wolbers says that the dodgy green and red colour process called Kinema Color used in her piece Trailer was abandoned almost as soon as it was invented, I can see why if it looks as low quality elsewhere as it did on youtube, maybe not. Someone on youtube needs to find a higher quality rip, it looks beautiful on her site. The detatched way that the narrative ties into the imagery is also applicable to the idea I have for resolving Derelict Reserve with video and the audio. The references in her narratives vary as much as mine across topics as broad so that's definately an apt refference point for me too look further at. It was odd when I was asked what my theme was and I tried to think if there was any overarching refference point for my work, not so much. I like to fit the theme around an idea instead of working within a topic which would seem frustratingly limiting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=bdaf2qQdI08&feature=endscreen

http://www.saskiaoldewolbers.com/about/