Sunday, 15 February 2015

National Identity

This time our lecture was based on National Identity, at looking at what gives a country its identity. We looked over the England and how people perceived it, for example if you think of the weather in England, you typically think rain due to the percentage of the year that it does so. In England you would also associate it with things such as the seaside, Sunday dinners, roses, football, rugby, the three lions and many, many more. In addition to having a National Identity, I believe there to be smaller representations within parts of the country. For example, the lower end of the country is known as being the higher class and the top is known as being the working class, which I believe is not the case at all.

One example of a place that represents England a lot is London, people associate things within London as being English. Such as The Houses of Parliament, London Red Buses, London Taxi's, Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, etc. I want to move quite a bit away from London and look at National Identity within my hometown of 'Middlesbrough'. London has ways of representing England, so I want to look at how 'Middlesbrough' has ways of doing the same.

Middlesbrough is known for one particular dish, known as the 'Parmesan'. It consists of breaded chicken, which then has a layer of bechamel sauce and finally a layer of melted cheddar cheese. People across the world should think of England (And Middlesbrough) when they think of/come across the famous 'Parmesan'. I would now like to link the 'Parmesan' with the vernacular of the region. We don't really say out the full name 'Parmesan', here it is mainly abbreviated down to a very common, 'PARMO'. 

I will now move onto football, Middlesbrough Football Club, owned by the man himself 'Steve Gibson', who bought out the club many years ago when it was about to go into administration. The team has been quite good representatives of English football, especially back in 2006 when they got to the final of the UEFA Cup (Sadly they were beaten). However forget about that, 2 years prior to that we won one of the big cups in 2004, the FA Cup. We got to the final against Bolton and came out of the game victorious, such a memorable time for Middlesbrough and England. However, from the game at 'The Riverside Stadium' which got Middlesbrough into the UEFA Cup final came something special, from the mouth of a Middlesbrough man himself called 'Alistair Brownlee'. When they managed to score a last gasp winner, he said "PARTY! Party! Party! Everyone round my house for a Parmo!". To which a local food plaice created a large 'parmo' for Middlesbrough Football Club to share.


Middlesbrough Parmesan (Parmo) [1]
I am now going to show a series of Images which show places that are associated with Middlesbrough. One thing which I forgot to mention, we are known as being the 'Smoggies' because of the smoke which is said to infest the skies above us from the many factories/industries based in the area, which you will see is untrue in the following images.

Transporter Bridge [2]
Middlesbrough Town Hall [3]
Bottle of Notes - Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen [4]
Temenos - Anish Kapoor [5]
The Riverside Stadium [6]
MIMA (Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art) [7]
Now after looking into the places that I believe are representations of Middlesbrough, I am going to look at some of the influential artists that have come from Middlesbrough, and some that create work based on the places in Middlesbrough.

The first artist I am going to look at is a photographer called 'Ian Macdonald' who just so happened to come into my university and give us a lecture on his career and where he started off. He was a very interesting man who was very passionate about his work, I really like his work, which is on display in the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Danish Royal Library, The Navigation Foundation, Boston Ma, USA and Southampton City Art Gallery. A very good achievement.
Transporter Bridge, Middlesbrough - Ian Macdonald [8]
Boats, Greatham Creek - Ian Macdonald [9]
Blowing Down a Blast Furnace for Shut Off - Ian Macdonald [10]
The work he has produced has been around or in the Middlesbrough area, you can see that the first image is of one of the most recognisable Middlesbrough landmarks, The Transporter Bridge. All of his photographs are taken using an old film camera which he develops himself to create the outstanding black and white final outcomes. Ian Macdonald used to always visit a place called Greatham Creek, to which he began to photograph it at different times of day, at different angles and of the people who worked there. You can see the amazing photograph of the boats, with 'the works' in the background. Although I am not the biggest fan of black and white photography (I like a bit of colour), I really like the work of our homegrown photographer.

The next artist I am going to look at is called 'David Mulholland', not only is he from this area, but he has the same surname as me (We are not related, just to clarify). He was born in 1946 in a place called South Bank, where he lived as a young boy with his mother and father, to which his father worked at the local steelworks, like that of many of the men in the area. In his education, he attended Cleveland College of Art & Design, the place which I went to College and am currently attending at Higher Education. His website was created by a friend of his called 'Tom French' who is displaying all of the work he has produced, below is a few examples of his work.


Bessemer Street Blast Furnace, Cleveland Iron & Steel, 1968 - David Muholland [11]
One is never alone, 1984 - David Mulholland [12]
Bather, 1986 - David Mulholland [13]
Above is three examples of the work produced by David Mulholland, I have shown his use of different medias, etching, oil painting and pastels. I believe they are all very successful images, especially because of when they were produced. I particularly like 'One is never alone' because of the detail within the oil painting and the tones. Again you can see in the first example of his work, a representation of the area, with an etching of the steel works. I like how his work is diverse and how he can work with different medias, although I believe that you can see his style within each one to link them together. I also believe that you can see how he has improved as the years have gone on.

The next artist I am going to look at is called 'Willim Tillyer'.  His work doesn't show the area, but I just wanted to show what type of artists can come from Middlesbrough. I really like his abstract and colourful style, but I will let you decide for yourself what you think.



Against Nature, 2014 - William Tillyer [14]
Aluminium Cloud, 2005 - William Tillyer [15]
The Watering Place II, 2013 - William Tillyer [16]
I really like William's work, especially the 'Aluminium Cloud'. I like how simple but effective it is. To me it looks like he has used chewing gum to place onto a background and around the metal handle, to which he has then painted all of it but the metal handle in a very nice and striking blue colour. Very effective and I like the idea of the handle being the cloud and the rest of the piece in blue being a representation of the sky.

The three artists that I have looked at all come from Middlesbrough, two of them used the area to create their careers whilst the other went elsewhere and did not use the area. You can see how Ian Macdonald and David Mulholland created representations of the area, through the use of photography and memory. I like their work, but I must say that I am more drawn to the work of William Tillyer, due to the colours he uses and how inviting his work looks. It would have been nice if he could of incorporated his style in creating a representation of something like The Transporter Bridge or The Riverside Stadium. I believe these artists help with not only the local identity, but also the national identity through the use of their creative works. They help to put Middlesbrough on the map more by being able to say that they come from this amazing town, which is full of surprises and creation.

Image Reference:
[1]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/a1/d6/cc/a1d6cc7d8bef4a079c7eef8e85710ebe.jpg
[2]http://www.visitmiddlesbrough.com/where-to-go/attractions/tees-transporter-bridge-and-visitor-centre
[3]http://www.visitmiddlesbrough.com/where-to-go/attractions/middlesbrough-town-hall
[4]https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/111/364880230_a09fe9dafb_z.jpg?zz=1
[5]http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2010/6/10/1276178337421/Anish-Kapoors-Temenos-in--006.jpg
[6]https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/138/325934544_84140e17be.jpg
[7]http://www.garycalton.com/data/photos/359_1MIMA_calton_art.jpg
[8]http://www.ianmacdonald.co.uk/images/card_transporter_bridge.jpg
[9]http://i4.gazettelive.co.uk/incoming/article3614935.ece/alternates/s615/ian-macdonald-970400503.jpg
[10]http://www.theeyemagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Ian-Macdonald.jpg
[11]http://www.davidmulholland.co.uk/node/237
[12]http://www.davidmulholland.co.uk/node/69
[13]http://www.davidmulholland.co.uk/node/94
[14]http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/William-Tillyer-Skydancer-550x408.jpg?1420416000027
[15]http://www.tillyer.com/images_works/290/aluminium_cloud.jpg
[16]https://d1ycxz9plii3tb.cloudfront.net/additional_images/524c00428b3b813b120001fe/large.jpg

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