Bethan Hemus Art

Blog

  • Printing my scaled up screen

    My scaled up screen was too large to hand pull, so I set it up on the bed with the mechanical arm. I’d never used this equipment for before and it took me and the print tech over 30 minutes to set up and re-calibrate the squeegee so that I got a pull with even pressure. Putting 2 clamps on the squeegee to distribute the pressure more evenly did the trick.
    Any faff required was totally worth it because the larger scale prints look super duper uber trooper airoplane fly.

    The widest squeegee wasn’t quite wide enough to capture the whole image in one pull so I ended up filling in the cheeky missing hoof with a little spatula after my main pull. This was effective, if a little inconsistent.
    A tutor suggested I do a couple of nice prints on some gold. Because black and gold is such a classic combo. Looks swanky AF.
    And the tests I printed on the red cellophane look brilliant.
    I ran off 13 perfect prints on the cellophane ready to be suspended for my installation. I just need to experiment with their display and setting as an installation. I’d also love to generate some photos and videos of the end piece in whatever setting it ends up in.

    I will print another 10 or so on cellophane next week ready to hang together for my final piece. I need to be careful not to knock the dried prints as the plastic ink of plastic sheeting can peel easily if rubbed.

  • David Blandy

    www.davidblandy.co.uk

  • Castle brief reflection: Part 1

    I really wanted to realise my VR installation ideas for the brief, but it doesn’t seem possible this time around. This would have been a big knock if I hadn’t been making other work for the show in parallel. I am mightily relieved that I had the foresight to do so and that’s been really good learning for my studio practise in general. 
    After experimenting with a broad range of concepts, techniques and materials, I did end up focusing on glass and screen-print as mediums. They are a good fit for what I want to make and I have a great relationship with the technicians in both studios, which helps the work flow easy.

    Broadly speaking, I am still making work that looks at translation and generates playful and thought provoking paradox through semiotics.
    My first works are glass based; both casting and slump. I am creating sculptures of a jelly and a castle in glass, challenging traditional expectations of the materials both should be made from. Translating jelly and stone into glass. Subverting through alchemy. Asking questions about visual coding. Poking at the thoughts and feelings bound up in the collective psyche contracts that we cannot help but make as humans.
    I’ll elaborate a little more. Unless one has lead an unfortunate and bizarre life, our expectations of jelly as a material is that it is soft, fun and safe. It is synonymous with childhood, celebration, play and innocence. By creating a jelly pink glass sculpture in the archetypal child’s birthday party rabbit mold shape, I hope to evoke a positive and nostalgic emotional experience. The material that I have chosen for this sculpture is what generates it’s dissonance; because glass holds a very different and specific space in our psyche. Glass is hard, brittle and can be dangerous. It has religious and formal connotations due to its prevalence in buildings, particularly stained glass windows. And it references Surrealism, which often employs the window as a metaphor; representing a portal between the conscious and subconscious mind, or as a way to access an unknown, deeper reality. 
    If I can cast it well and then cold work the glass effectively enough to make my rabbit mold slump cast really look like jelly, then these opposing qualities will generate a visceral and complicated experience for the viewer.
    Building a castle in glass creates a similar paradox. We expect castles to be robust, permanent and safe. A glass castle offers none of these things, and instead invites us to reflect on our assumptions and insecurities. 
    As before, the decision to place the glass rabbit over the glass castle, like a cloche, is a deliberate and subversive nod to the castles catalogue. It also references the naiveté of the “happily ever after” fairytale lore so readily told, reminding us that if we do ever get to achieve thar kind of “ending”, it can be easily smashed through clumsiness; often at great cost to ourselves and others. 
    My second work is screen-print based. Using printed red florist cellophane as a base, I would like to install an image screenprinted onto a glass (or more likely Perspex, because health and safety) window frame in the grounds, which, when viewed from a certain angle will submerge the castle in jelly. It is provocative yet playful, diminishing the castles grandeur while at the same time inviting my audience to perceive the building from an entirely new perspective. 
    Throughout this project I’ve generated some great images and like I said before, I’d love to do a run of prints to sell in the shop. I might even see if their café will sell some jelly castles at the opening.
    I’ll write a second review for this brief once I’ve finished my glass pieces in March.

  • Midi synths and teabags

    I recently bought the Playtron and TouchMe, both made by Playtronica, to explore their possibilities for sound sculpture and sound installation work using music tech and conductive paint screenprints. Sounds like an Imogen Heap project doesn’t it! Watch this space folks.
    After solving some technical glitches I ran into by watching YouTube tutorials, I managed to get both controllers up and running and spent several hours combining them with every conceivable object in our flat to make music. Including the human body.
    The premise for both is quite simple, both being midi controllers whose circuit loops are completed by contact with humans and or any other conductive object. The TouchMe offers lots of opportunity to explore connectivity and touch where as the Playtron allows you to build organic drum machines. 
    Both controllers come with free access to a range of synths as standard via the Playtron website: https://synth.playtronica.com/ 
    This “online musical playground” was great to test proof of concept and set up, but the synths included are all pretty basic and didn’t really offer me what I was looking for sound wise. They did however have some creative visual interfaces which I enjoyed experimenting with.
    The standard Playtron synth pack also doesn’t include a digital sampler, which you really need to properly mess about with the Playtron. After some more research I found the Koala App and ZenBeats  which both offer what I need in this regard. I’ll have a play with it all again soon.

  • Thinking about self publishing a bit more

    Met with the editor of Femicide zine, Marni and shared some work.
    I think there’s huge value in self publishing sustainably. You can set your own terms as an artist that way and it offers lots of opportunity for collaboration. 
    I’ve been invited to collaborate in the next edition of Femicide and also in Nottingham Zine fair which is happening soon in March. I’m going to try and create my own publication(s) ready for the fair. 
    I also still want to make a collab zine with the folks on my course as a launch for our arts collective. I’m going to suggest we meet regularly and make together.

  • ‘My friends and other animals’ zines

    I found an open source zine making tool with loads of cool templates and had a play. Thank you to everyone involved in making it; it’s so helpful and also has a really sweet and funny user interface. 
    You can have a play yourself and support the project by donating at the link below.
    The first layout I made is an 8 page Z-fold.
    And the second is called a Tetraflexagon. That’s right. TETRAFLEXAGON. 

    I did a partial print of my bull screen on the back of the Z-fold zine so it opens to a full sheet piece. This looks really effective and I like the combination of digital and analogue.
    I also experimented with scale, creating some A4 pieces and some micro (approx A5).
    Here’s a QR code link to a little reel I made of the zine:

    I found a bunch of other zine making resources too, including this one which has a free download for a zine template: https://goofygeekentertainment.itch.io/how-to-make-a-quarter-size-zine/download/eyJleHBpcmVzIjoxNzM4MDg0NzY3LCJpZCI6NDE2NDg4fQ%3d%3d.1%2fOsWnc6BIdJxesOP6pDjiZmggo%3d
    I’ve fully caught the zine bug and will be making more individually and collaboratively.

  • Materials and techniques of architecture

    Architecture has to work structurally because it is functional. It is holistic because the materials and processes employed fundamentally impact the structure of a building. What it is coated or decorated in is another matter that we would call that the style of the piece.

    This is the difference between art and design; the latter is design led and must be functional as such while the former is not.
    Unlike art, humans cannot choose to dismiss architecture. Infact our lives are defined by the buildings in a way, especially in urban spaces.
    The advance on material science in the 19th made it possible for ua to build narrower and taller structures. The only building that had approached this historically were Gothic cathedrals, a lot of which collapsed due to structural limitations; usually aa a result of the weight of the materials used. It only became possible for architects to truly manifest their innovative visions when these new materials became available.
    Like the Guggenheim museum that was built by frank Lloyd Wright.
    FallingWater – he wrote the architectural designs in 4 hours.
    People did innovate historically to overcome structural issues by building in a different way e.g. colloseum and the Roman’s use of arches.
    Le Corbusier was a father of modernism / modern architecture. He is also responsible for a lot of the awful 70s/ 80s architecture built by local planning authorities who were trying to render cheap copies of his buildings.
    What kind of functions does architecture need to provide? For example, security and shelter, longevity and aesthetic.
    What are buildings made from?
    Rock:
    Sedimentary 
    Readily available and easier to shape e.g. sandstone 
    Metamorphic
    Sedimentary took that’s been changed by heat e.g. marble. Weathered better but still erodes over time.
    Igneous
    Load bearing capacities of a building:
    Is crucial and is intrinsically bound up with the material chosen for the build.
    Generally speaking the lighter the material the less robust it is; however strength can be improved by the design chosen e.g. wood is less load bearing than stone but offers strength if used as a frame that pushes together to create a more rigid structure.
    Conversely, the heavier the material, the stronger it is, but also the greater the mass of support needed to carry the weight toward the base.
    Western architecture: the classical orders of ancient Greece
    Watch who were the Greeks for an overview.
    Classical architecture behins woth the Greeks they originally built in wood but want it to have more longevity so starred using stone. 
    They started with my girth and squatter. As they grew in confidence building this way with stone they started building higher.

  • Hair and jelly

  • I’m the algorithm

  • Slump cast tests mark 1

    I set 2 plaster molds to fire overnight. The deep orange billet of glass is sat on top of one of my smaller jelly plaster casts. The multicolored piece is sat on top of a plaster former. 
    When the multicolored slump piece is cool, I will place the now curved billet on top of one of my smaller jelly plaster casts and refire it. 
    I will then compare both slump outcomes and use the best process for my rabbit slump cast. 
    I’ve decided to run this test in order to save time and money; the slump casting billets are around £80 each so it feels sensible to try to avoid as many expensive mistakes as possible.
    Below are the firing settings for the glass kiln; slumping is preset 4.
    It will be interesting to see how they come out.