Visual Arts Workshop Assignment

"Textured Ground"
For this piece we decided to take pictures of "things that you walk on."  Our group was sent out with no parameters other than to take three pictures at any angle under this bracket.  Despite the often photographed natural beauty of Vancouver, what we have here are a selection of nine rather monotonous representations of surfaces that could have been taken from any number of places across the globe.  The works are arranged from 'most natural' at the top left corner, to 'most un-natural' at the bottom right (although this is open to interpretation).  Mirroring that of Vancouver imagery where the natural beauty of the mountains is often pictured with that of the man-made downtown core, in these works too we have the natural (represented by grass and rock) and the man-made (represented by carpet and synthetic rubber floor).  What all these surfaces have in common is that rarely does the human skin come into direct contact with them; for the most part everything that we walk on does not force a sensation on the body, only indirectly via footwear."

Untitled (graffiti)
We chose a theme revolving around graffiti. The sheds located behind Ross have an array of artistic expression. While taking shots of the graffiti we began to notice a common theme portrayed in the graffiti. Themes of frustration, loneliness and solitude - evoked through emotional poetry, frantic spraypainting, and the ticking watch- were developed in the graffiti. For this project, we enjoyed taking pieces of the graffiti artists' expressions and arranging them into a piece of our own, combining the emotions of many individuals into a single piece of art work.

The Book of Knowledge
 We chose to focus our picture series on the various architectural aspects of the UBC Library.  The three pictures at the bottom of the series show structures made of concrete.  This represents a strong architectural base for the building which also portrays a strong base for education.  As we move up in the series, the centre pictures depict the access way into the library, where students can advance their studies.  The pictures at the top of the series are mainly structures made of glass.  The glass allows students to see the world of possibilities that are available outside; the sun is able to illuminate a pathway to our futures.