London Trip

Illustration by Kimiya

I recently traveled to London on a spontaneous getaway. London has this certain effect on me that I feel no other city can translate. Among its exciting and quirky hidden art on the walls of buildings down to the pavement, London is filled with inspiration and life. As I live on an island, we are not very exposed to the metro. I was so fascinated by the mechanics of the tube, and everyone's constant rush, if they wouldn't reach a certain destination in time, their dreams if making it in the career world would be shattered. I think that is it though. I love how a city like London, its okay to be a big dreamer,and I guess thats what attracts me to London every time, is that I feel right at home. "You want to make it big? Start communicating and interacting with your surroundings."

As I started to communicate and interact with the very interesting human beings around me I felt how everyone is rather lonely. It is one thing to chase the dream but it is another to enjoy chasing it. This is where ART comes into action. Or shall I say THE ARTS.
It unifies peoples creativity in a way that is just magical. However since a lot of people stick to themselves, when I went to visit the Wimbledon College of Arts I was astound by the undiscovered talent there was.

I was so fortunate to enter the halls of  Wimbledon College Of Arts, I was gratefully given this opportunity because of the ever so amazing artist Emma Glinski. It is her first year at Wimbledon College where she studies mixed media and is stepping out of her comfort zone by exploring all different aspects of Art. She most feels at home when she is painting(portraits with acrylic). Emma Glinski is only 19 years of age and far ahead of the game. She was accepted to WCA with an unconditional offer not even having done a foundation year. Glinski has had a great amount of impact on me as a person and as an artist. Just by watching her paint so intricately made me realise the amount of patience it requires to succeed at the most realistic portrait. This is quite ironic since my theme this year is SURREALISM however what intrigues me to Emma Glinski's work is her thought process. I find the more you look at her painting the more you see the hidden detail. In a way that already stand for surrealism in itself.

Emma Glinski was so generous by offering to work on a collaborate piece as I was visiting her in her studio. We got down to work and just freed our mind. Once we realised where the piece was heading we wanted to hunt down for some more materials.We walked around the whole entire university which was so eye opening for me as I got to see every different section and different crowd.

Woodwork-Emma Glinksi 

Costume Design- Jessica Yenilmez

My favourite section definitely was the fine arts section. The skill that was bottled up into only one room was insane. Even though one would think that they all gather inspiration from each other and work would all look kind of in a similar direction, well no. Each individual artist was a INDIVIDUAL artist. They had already developed a recognisable trade mark. What amazes me is that these young artist were only a few years older than me. 

Getting to work on a piece with Emma Glinski was a real barrier opener for me in terms of my creative thinking. We went with the flow but chose between a colour scheme consisting of a light blue, a dark gold metallic and a a copper however once we were finished walking around the whole uni and had gathered so much inspiration the piece ended up looking completely different than anticipated. It was nice just letting go and not over thinking. Purely doing it out of pleasure and happiness. That is what got me started with art in the first place so it was nice to be reminded why I fell in love with this whole creative world. 

Emma Glinski- Edited by Jessica Yenilmez

Interview With Emma Glinski

Where do you gather your inspiration from?

I gather most of my inspiration through gallery visits and special exhibitions. In my opinion there is no better way of learning than to see other artist's work(especially in progress).

Have you ever stepped out of your comfort zone and discovered a whole new genre of art?

Despite it being difficult, I am constantly stepping out of my comfort zone. I'll admit that trying new things is taking a big risk, however, you never know how it will turnout unless you give it a shot. It may turn out to be a great success. Just recently I have been experimenting in photography and different exposures. It turned out to be so successful that I will be using this for my final exhibition. 

What was the process behind IMMORTALMIND? 

Rapid technological advancement is something that has always absorbed my attention. This installation, IMMORTALMIND, makes a statement about singularity and the evolution of mechanisation through time. Singularity, in its purest form, is the merging of the biological parts of our body with machines. According to the wise futurist, Ray Kurzweil, singularity will be achieved by 2045 and machines will be able to fully model and understand the biological parts of our body to the point where our body will become digitally immortal.

Our brain is the most complex part of our body and up to the present day it could not be understood by anyone or anything, apart from itself. Daunting as it sounds, soon the brain too will be able to be disciplined by a machine. Once this is accomplished, the biological parts of our body will no longer be needed and the core or essence of what makes each and every one of us an individual will be lost. I have started off by painting and using raw materials such as wood, sticks and branches which representing and beginning of life and nature. The face of a man symbolises the human invasion and evolution. Subsequently, the pieces of metal and wires coming out of his brain stand for machines eventually conquering the humans. Finally, the moving digital number and sci-fi sound effects in the background indicate time passing by.Therefore one could say this whole installation acts as an abstract timeline of replacement- what has already been replaced, and what is yet to be replaced in the near future. I believe that even if we could be replaced, we shouldn't want or need to, because we would risk loosing the intangibles that make us human. Of course there is a fear and skepticism about mortality, however there would be no more purpose to life if death is no longer an option.