The Human Zoo by Desmond Morris

'Under normal conditions,in their natural habitats, wild animals do not mutilate themselves,masturbate, attack their offspring, develop stomach ulcers, become fetishists, suffer from obesity, form homosexual pair-bonds, or commit murder. Among human city-dwellers, needless to say, all of these things occur. Does this,then, reveal a basic difference between the human species and other animals? At first glance it seems to do so. But this is deceptive. Other animals do behave in these ways under certain circumstances,namely when they are confined in the unnatural conditions of captivity. The zoo animal in a cage exhibits all these abnormalities that we know so well from our human companions. Clearly, then, the city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo.'

arty farty

My work has totally taken a turn for 3-D. I am blown away by how much I have enjoyed using paper mache and paper to make things. Both the woman and the fish seen below are made using paper mache,the difference being that the fish was made from scratch and I used a doll as a base for the woman but completely changed the way her limbs were moving. There will be a fish tank with suspending people inside and the fish will be sat in some kind of armchair in a set up living room. It's kind of an installation-y piece. Originally,both models were going to be quite small but I knew the first thing the tutors were going to say is "have you thought about making it bigger?". Maybe I'm just cynical,but it seems to be the main piece of advice that they dish out in crits and seminars.

There is a kind of meaning and intention behind this work but I want people to work it out for themselves. I can't wait to set it all up. It's well fun!

This is Pablo the fish with a cup of tea and unfinished cardboard glasses,he is yet to have his pipe or armchair.

and here's my woman. She has no name and she is now painted with fully fledged boobies and a nicer face. She is yet to be suspended in a fish tank.

Once it's all been set up,i'm going to take piccies and put em on zee blog.

Exciting stuff!

The Social Network

Went to see the previews of this film on wednesday,it went further than my expectations and I really enjoyed it. The music was brilliant. Even if you don't like facebook or have a facebook account it is still a worthwhile film because of the interesting storyline between mark zuckerberg (the creator of facebook) and everyone else who's trying to sue him for stealing their idea. I found it ironic that whilst watching the film my phone frequently buzzed (on silent of course) whenever I had a facebook message. Definitely a must see!

The Museum of Everything

If you haven't checked it out already,you should definitely get up to 'the museum of everything' in chalk farm near camden. The name is kind of self explanatory but their collection is anything but obvious. Their third exhibition has just opened and it is just as interesting and eccentric as the first. This particular exhibit was curated by Peter Blake and is essentially a platform where he can share his funny ,unusual and strangley endearing collections of various items with the world. The exhibition ranges from old painted cloth for circus shows,to match boxes,shell animals,dwarf postcards,strange mechanical machines and of course the Walter Potter collection,which was beautiful. Only two pieces of the potter works are owned by Peter Blake and the rest have been borrowed from various people all over the world so as to recreate the Potter Collection which used to be situated in Brighton.

The best bit of the whole day and maybe the thing that excited me the most was going to the Peter Blake talk. He spoke with Polly Morgan and Errol Fuller about the anthropormorphic taxidermist Walter Potter and the meaning and signifance behind his work. It was lovely to be involved in an intimate setting where you could ask Peter Blake questions and listen to the debate. The talk really helped me to grasp my own understanding of the exhibition and I'm so excited I got to see Peter Blake in the flesh. He looks just like my grandad!

"the kittens wedding" Walter Potter

Screenprint

This is my screenprint. The first one! There is another set with slightly different colours which I think looks better. I shall upload soon.

Online portfolio

Here is a link to my online portfolio:

I'm also working on a set of screen-prints at the moment which I will post soon. Since I've started uni,it's all been a bit hectic,so bare with me on the posting front. I hope to get posting regularly again pronto.