The Beach

The Beach - 22/10/09

Ian took us to a great big beautiful beach. The tide was comic up, and the water was quite agitated, mainly cause the weather was rough as all Hell broke loose. This actually reinforced the power of the location while diminishing our willpower. The weather went hand in hand with the location allowing it to unleash its true powers and its true face, letting us observe the waves beating against the sand the man made walls made to break the strength of the sea. We could observe the wind carrying the sand in whirlwinds right into our eyes and on our close and ruining camera lenses. The beach was untamed for us to observe it and for Ian to express through others artworks what he felt about the beach. We also recorded our own instant feelings about the beach, asking questions about the location and wandering how this untamed force of nature would affect us.

The main observation was the interventions of man built buildings and structures around the beach and our observations on how they barely affect the sea's strength but seem to cheapen and bring down the value of the environment with cheap generic environment leeching as much presence as it can from the beach. We looked into the artificial entertainment centre that is next to the beach; there now seems to be the same layout around any beach.

The environment affects everything around it, may it be the beach allowing a cheap amusement centre to leech on its magnetism and energy and how the artificial "fun" park brings down the beach and the forces of nature by having set up next to it. By putting these two almost drastically opposed environments next to one another they influence each other, and how we perceive them.

These observations are very much observations on curating. By allowing us to observe two elements opposed: a poorly constructed man made entertainment centre and the beach. I suppose I had to see the contrast of these two large elements to understand the importance of curating on a smaller scale and in the case of my research, in the comic book medium. The importance of where we put works of art and how the environment impacts on our work. This may be applied to the publishing of comic books from being spray painted on wall to on the internet, in bookstores, or in museums. The environment impacts incredibly on artwork. That has led me to choose very carefully what subject I should use for the artwork for my comic book designs. What would the people that pass in front of my spray painted comic relate to, understand and have their attention grabbed by? What would be a subject that those who read my comics online be attracted to? The environment, the squat, the internet, should influence my method, my choices of art, and way of publication.

The importance of the environment was crucial in the choice of subject for my first spray painted comic on the squat of the council area. I had to find a subject that would educate the people around and that would use all the benefits of the environment while taking all the advantages and disadvantages of the location into consideration. Aliens are a universal politically correct subject that I wish will attract participation and interaction with all those around the artwork.