Reading & Responding Part XII - The Rats, Jaroslav Valecka

In reconsidering the viewpoint and perspective I had stumbled on with the Saharan long legged Racing Ant (not that it would be easy to stumble upon such a little fellow), a whole new project had emerged which could later be explored. But, for now, I have decided to continue with the original intention of problematising the Invictus poem by William Ernest Henley.

To re-cap, I need to problematise the poem, thus;

• Problematise an image of unconquerability
• Hope?
• Is failure the worst kind of humiliation?
• Maintain the links to uncertainty
• Chaos?

Initial research into the Other Stuckists of Muswell Hill had given me a name of a Czechoslovakian painter, Jaroslav Valecka, and his painting of Rats feeding.  I really like the work of this painter in it's clarity but yet it also has a sophistication of style that gives the artist a recogniseable and unique brand. I would endorse his work if I could, but for the benifit of readers and to pay him homage and respect accordingly, I include his website here: http://www.valecka.eu/zivotopis   Well worth a visit to this talented artist!

Bob P. gave me a good one to one tutorial which helped me reconsider this view.  A suggeted reading is Lisa LeFeure's book, "Failure".  I have noted this author to research later...   Also, he suggested it would be worth me looking at "Documents of Contemporary Art" published by Whitechapel.  I will also review this as soon as I can.

Meanwhile, Bob and I discussed the concepts of unknown states, and here I referred to the charged state of Ions in some materials (particularly Super conductors if I recall), and the notion of a metaphore known as Schrodinger's Cat.  I had read the book "In Search of Schrodinger's Cat" some time ago, so there were elements of it that could be applied to the thoughts of hope perhaps.  This could be something else for me to explore this week.  Bob also suggested "The Art of Looking Sideways", a work by Chuck Close;  "Pocket" by John Berger and also "Sensibilities" by Cindy Sherman / Mariana Abramowitz.  Each of these could be genuinely useful leads for me to pusue. Meanwhile, I needed to prepare for a lecture with honorary professor, Jonathan Sands OBE, the Managing Director of Elmwood Ltd, a Brand innovation company, based in Leeds.