Gallery Visits

Today we visited a number of galleries to aid us with research and inspiration for our response to Freedom and Liberty, and to also aid me with my Transcription project.

We started at the National Gallery, pictures of which can be found HERE

The exhibitions we were to look at were the Visions of Paradise and Delacroix. In the Visions of Paradise exhibition, we were not allowed to take photographs, but the images portrayed tranquil scenes similar to that of The Garden of Eden. The Delacroix exhibition wasn't open, so we went around other exhibitions shown in the gallery.  I found that the paintings evoked imagery of feeling trapped and freedom. One of a boy leaning on a window sill, reminded me that the boy was innocent and therefore free of responsibility. Another painting in a dark room suggested to me that freedom was something we aspire to, but in the main scheme of life, it's unrealistic and unreachable. On our way out of the gallery we found a 3D model of Trafalgar Square encased in plastic. The amount of detail that went into the model was unreal, it was like I was a God looking down on the tiny figurines like they were people, I thought about if that was happening to me right there and then, that someone was looking down on me - trapping me in a plastic case. Although not a piece in any exhibit (it promotes donations to be made), I think it questioned my idea of freedom - that we aren't really free and what I would do with total freedom.

We then visited the Saatchi Gallery, pictures of which can be found HERE

I didn't think much of the art in this gallery related to freedom in terms of imagery, more artistic freedom than the idea of freedom. I particularly liked the piece entitled Ideal Proportions: Squeeze, that shows the number's 36, 24, 36, which are supposed to be the perfect measurements for a woman's body, however I don't think the style of the art is something I find aesthetically pleasing.

The Last gallery I visited was at Somerset House to see the Big Bang Data, pictures of which can be found HERE

I enjoyed this exhibition and thought that it was very intriguing. My favourite piece was a slideshow/video showing images stolen from people's computers via hacking, I think that it shows (in terms of the Freedom and Liberty project), that although we think we are free, someone always has control and takes personal things away from you, like pictures saved on your computer and unleashes them to the internet, taking away your freedom. In the past few years, this has been in the news, for example nude images of Jennifer Lawrence being released online as her icloud (and many other celebrities') was hacked. Another piece I liked was the polaroids that an artist had taken of a place and on the polaroid he described his feelings and smells of the place etc. I think it's very nostalgic, but something I would like to do so in a few years when I look back I will have documented how past me was feeling at the time of the photo rather than relying on bad memory.