top of page

BACK TO THE FUTURE

The past can be relevant for the future 

 

 

Since we are living in the midst of a pandemic right now, my future plans are rather uncertain. I’ve been having trouble producing artwork because I, unfortunately, do not have access to any art materials, workshops, libraries, galleries, museums, or any other places that would inspire me. But I am not the only one effect by this health crisis, as several individuals and families around the globe are also struggling; I am happy to be safe and sound.


I decided to fly to Portugal in March because my parents thought they were infected with Covid19, and I wanted to at least be in the same country as them in case something happened. Both my parents have their immune system compromised and they are both considered ‘of risk’. Thankfully, it was all but a scare. Since then, and remotely, I was able to move all my stuff from London back to Lisbon, with help from a moving company – as one can imagine, the whole process was extremely difficult and very stressful. 

Bullet-Butterfly 

Constanza Marques Guedes,

 Clay and arcrilics 

5cmx5cm

1998

All in all, this pandemic has really made me think about life, and the importance of living a nourished and fulfilling life. I believe dreaming is important, but if this crisis has taught me something it is that we should all be proactive and act upon our dreams, as we risk that opportunity being taken away from us. We artists dream way too much sometimes and often devote too little action towards goals... This is to say that since March my plans have changed abruptly – as I believe have everyone’s else – and I now value every day more than ever. In Norwegian, we have a saying: ‘nyte dagen vårt’. It means ‘take advantage of your day’. And that’s what I am doing now.

 

When I graduate from the MFA course at the UAL, I will be moving back to Oslo, Norway to study further, as I think this is just the beginning of my life as I had always imagined it. I began applying to universities there during second and third term this year, and I am set to begin my course in Practical Pedagogical Education in Design, Art and Crafts in August 2020. With this Teaching Art Program, I will be able to teach art to children below the age of 12.

Drawing, Dad and Constanza, A4, 2001

The process of applying for said course was rather difficult and exhausting. However, receiving an email saying that I got into my first choice university was unbelievable, and it made all the hard work pay off. I was told only 23% of candidates are accepted, and I am truly grateful to be one of them.

 

I trust that with this course, I will be able to evolve and expand my personal skills as an artist in these new (to me) professional-pedagogical circles. I believe my academic background and my art exhibitions held both at the University of Kent and the University of the Arts in London, have provided me deeper understandings behind the importance of teaching others art, and the value and meaning behind pieces of art. I will never take a teacher for granted after having learned so much from them.

 

This practical-educational course will be a great opportunity for me to do what I love most: that is, teaching this creative subject. I am also happy I get to teach others, and that I have chosen this course, as it assures me that I will continue to be in touch with art while not forgetting ‘my academic routes’. By choosing this path I will have more free time (during the weekends, Christmas breaks, Easter breaks and summer breaks) to focus on my art practice too.

 

More than anything, this will provide me with a financially stable income, which means I will be able to support my individual art practice as an emerging artist in the Contemporary Art World.

Flowers

Resin and flowers 

20cmx15cm

Constanza Marques Guedes

2017

Installation I sculpt memories 

resin ducks and video projected​

Constanza Marques Guedes 2017

SKIN EX

Organic fabric, glue and metal 

Constanza Marques Guedes

2017

AnonymA – Anonymous Art Project II - Magazine 2020

MY KEY SKILLS:​​

  • Curation;

  • Helping others;

  • Adapting

 

 During the pandemic I was involved and invited again to work for the organization anonymous Art Project’ to make two illustrations or intervention in their magazine alongside with this I was also invited to do a land art intervention and curation during this upcoming summertime in a remote village that is called Pitoes das Junias, Portugal. The magazine - ‘Anonymous Art Project’ is going to be published for the second time by Print Matter Inc in New York, that is the world's leading organization dedicated to artists. Print Matter Inc. is extremely important in the art world and brings visibility and appreciation of different art fields with artists from various backgrounds. 

 

 

This was an extremely good learning experience especially when we are all living in a major pandemic worldwide. It's quite difficult to be active in the contemporary art world when there are so many restrictions but sometimes its important to find new ways of creating or getting involved to make sure we don't stop making and to make sure we don't put other peoples health in danger and yourself's. 

 

  ‘AnonymousArt Project’ is a multidisciplinary periodical that includes sculpture, drawing, photography, music, and performance. The works are presented without signature and therefore exist on their own. This magazine is about being anonymous today, theory, and art. - AnonymA--

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

  • Developing problem-solving skills in relation to time management;

  • Being apart of making a magazine; 

  • Networking around the world;

  • Working in the middle of a crisis;

  • Making 100 prints in less than a week

IMMUREMENT

MY KEY SKILLS:

  • Curation;

  • Time management;

  • Being diplomatic

  • Making forms and sending emails on time 

The IMMUREMENT, held at the Crypt Gallery, was the first exhibition organized outside of the Wimbledon College of Arts by the University itself. Briefly, The Crypt Gallery is located in an old basement under an Anglican English Church in Euston, London. The St Pancras Parish Church (Crypt’s space) was built and used in 1822 as a coffin burial site for when other Crypts in London churches were closed, and later in the 20th century as an air raid shelter during the Second World War.

During and after the summer break, students held several meetings about IMMUREMENT, its organization, and planning. The first thing we decided collectively was to divide everyone into separate groups so as to maintain order. We divided the groups as follows: the catering team, the curation team, the installation team, the budget team, the publicity team, and finally, the invigilating team. Since I had previously curated, this time I decided to join the invigilating/transportation section of the team - a challenging task for sure. Given this was the first time we introduced this role into our group, we had to explain the remaining teams our duty in (i) organizing and establishing timetables, (ii) setting up people’s works (the ones that required technology during the exhibition), and also (iii) making sure we had transportation back to University.

 

My work revolved around providing a feminist perspective on social norms. The skin (eco paper) is a metaphorical representation of the impacts of some social norms on women's bodies everyday. The new skin is following those social constructions while the older one is not, therefore appearing more washed out or ‘faded’: kind of similar to what often happens to the deemed ‘outcasts of society’.

The whole idea of working with everyone from the MFA course was challenging from the point of view of the sheer organization of setting up the work itself, but I am happy to say that my classmates are extraordinarily easy to work with and very helpful. I learned a lot from the practicality of this, but even more from a creative point of view.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

 

  • Working fast;

  • Packing;

  • Explaining other peoples works;

  • Guiding;

  • Helping others when they are stressing out;

  • Organizing transportation;

  • Been strict 

AnonymA – Anonymous Art Project I

MY KEY SKILLS:​​

  • Curation;

  • Helping others;

  • Adapting;

  • Making work around Nature

During last the summer I was involved in the ‘Anonymous Art Project’ located in a small village in the mountains, in Pitões das Júnias, Portugal. The name of the project itself says it all: there are no signatures or authorships in the artworks created around nature, as nature itself does not have one.

"The idea is that the observer should not question the author's name and, instead, should enjoy the work on its own, “in some cases even confusing human authorship with natural authorship (Publico, 2019)."

This "land art" movement (i.e. a permanent art exhibition) segregates natural elements from the artistic process, integrating it into work itself. This movement was created by a group of international and national sculptors with various backgrounds in art. The ‘Anonymous Art Project’ had international recognition and has been mentioned by the Wall Street International Magazine and the Serralves Foundation, among many others. Being apart of this, and having had different roles in it, made me realize the importance of being active as an artist. Both from a social point of view and in knowing how, and understanding why, it can help to create a good international network of artists.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

  • Developing problem-solving skills;

  • More confidence in my knowledge of the subject matters in relation to curation; 

  • Networking;

  • Making work with organic materials that belong to the area;

  • corresponding to surroundings I´m in

SPARKS EXIBIHITON

MY KEY SKILLS:

  • Time management;

  • Curation;

  • Corresponding;

  • Helping others;

  • Empathetic ​

    The Sparks was the first exhibition organized outside Wimbledon College of Arts. This idea of starting exhibiting our work outside the university arose after a fellow student and I had a conversation about the importance of being more active as artists in the art world. Looking back, everything started with us having a small meeting in Coco’s room at university. We sent a message asking everyone from our class to join us, and 15 students came to meet us. After the meeting, everyone was excited with the idea the two of us had, and for some people, this would be their first time planning a show outside the ‘coziness’ of UAL. A risk we were all excited to take.

 

We started by having loads of meetings and we were quick to find a place, with help from Liliana, where we could potentially host our first show; i.e. The Legge Studios. Liliana became, then, the head of the project given their friends were the ones allowing us to exhibit at their workshop gallery.

 

Briefly, The Legge Studios is an old metal workshop driven by alumni of UAL. The first thing we did after securing the place was to divide everyone into separate groups so as to maintain order. We divided the groups as follows: the catering team, the curation team, the workshop team(s), the budget team, the publicity team, and, finally, the instalment team.

 

Since I knew and enjoyed the work of a curator, I decided to join the curation team; a challenging task. Given this was the first time many of my peers exhibited something, our team had to explain to them the role of the curator in organizing and establishing a cohesive space for our art to be displayed in. After getting all the art forms proposals and risk assessments, we were able to have a deeper understanding of everyone's artworks for Sparks exhibition. My team and I were able to organize and to discuss the best way to set up the exhibition in a way that had a natural flow for the viewers and for the artists itself.

 

We had problems with time management during the exhibition time not from our side but with the people that we were renting from, making and doing everyone's work more challenging and less effective morally.   

 

The whole idea of working together with people that barely knew each other was a huge challenge from the point a view of the sheer organization to set up the work itself. I learned a lot from the practicality part of this, but even more from a creative point of view. 

 

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

  • Being more effective communicator;

  • Developing problem-solving skills;

  • More confidence in my knowledge of the subject matters in relation to curation; 

  • Making sure we are working with people that are or have experience;

  • Networking;

QUICK AND DIRTY

MY KEY SKILLS:

  • Time management;

  • Curation;

  • Helping others;

  • Empathetic ​

            Helen and I decided that it would be a good idea to make a second exhibition to make sure all of us were active in making and producing some artworks. Loads of us were still ‘floating’ around ideas, as we did not have yet a research question for our art practice. Everyone felt rater lost because it was the beginning of the semester and we were still in the experimenting phase; however, holding a second exhibition, we trusted, would help some of us come up with ideas while producing some work of our own. It also helped some of us try out new practices that could be later used for our assessment in a way that would not be counter-productive.

            For my project, I decided to transform used tea bags into bronze ones in attempts to metaphorically detach the normal meanings given to tea bags – its purpose and consumer symbolism – into a more aesthetically and materialistic form. The rationale here was to ‘play’ around with everyday objects (in this case a tea bag) and showcase how its perception and value can be easily manipulated if used for/or in a different context. Here, by making it more appealing to individual’s in a society like ours by creating bronze molds of it. In other words, I was capitalizing on everyday simple objects. First, I used bronze, after trying out several other materials, to symbolically place an economic value to a cheap tea bag. Thereafter, and secondly, I used glass to do the same thing, but here in attempts to symbolize the fragility of value in a society whose trends shape what is deemed valuable. Important to note, however, that both materials used to display a religious connotation – bronze because it is a material used in many religious artefacts; glass because of religious stained glass windows – in attempts to transgress what many believe are temporal boundaries.

            This is not to say that religion is, or must be, central to our everyday life, but rather to highlight how in some instances, objects that carry a religious connotation may more difficultly lose ‘value’ – and more easily earn it – due to their symbolic value. 

I also displayed them in a wood chair, as, due to my role in this exhibition, I was unable to find other ways of displaying it. However, the chair quite nicely fits with my overall theme, as the contrast between the materials (i.e. glass, bronze and wood) was rendered more evident; but also, as the chair is too an everyday object that, somehow, ‘carries’ value. 

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

  • Being more effective communicator;

  • Developing problem-solving skills;

  • More confidence in myself;

  • More strict with others;

  • Having ideas for displaying my work and not finding last minute

bottom of page