As a tie-in post to my upcoming Year Review (edit: link here!), here’s a sneak peek of the slides I’ve prepared for my presentation I need to deliver next week. So scary!
This is a review of the entire year, and while most of the following will be purely visual, a full explanation will be posted very soon~
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Click through to see quick reviews on each Semester, Final Outcomes, Reflection and SWOT for each project, Action Plans and Future Progression Options, as well as my trusty Radial Thinking infographic and bibliography for all my references~
I’ll fully explain all of this in my Year Review– which will be a bit of a whopper haha~
As a quick side note, even though I was still stressed and terrified to deliver this presentation, I feel as if I’ve come a long way compared to my first Project Proposal Presentation just before the start of Semester 1. I hope my mark reflects that I (hopefully) won’t be nearly as nervous! I’m also starting to be more confident when speaking about my work, because I’ve started to realise things with a much more solidified view on my personal style and ethics as an artist.
Another update will come next week once I’ve got this presentation day out of the way and I can work on starting the final realisation of my Cheltenham Illustration Awards project ♥
About a month ago we were set the impossible task of finding the latest issue of Hi-Fructose, a contemporary art quarterly magazine. I traipsed allllll over town trying to find one with no joy. Searches on eBay were also unfruitful, with only one seller listing the latest issue… and of course, they were sold out. :c
I resigned my search to maybe being able to find a back issue in the future. But last week I was browsing again on the off chance I might find a copy, and lo and behold- that seller had just restocked! Since the magazine was coming from Germany I wasn’t expecting it for at least 2 weeks, but it showed up on my doormat this morning~
Hi-Fructose: Issue 50 (Collingwood, 2019)
Here we have Issue 50 of Hi-Fructose, RRP $8.95- my cost was just under €14 with postage, which is fairly reasonable considering these magazines seem to be akin to gold dust in Europe.
Not gonna lie, I was expecting it to be a wee bit bigger than ~A4/letter size, but the quality feels great and it’s printed on nice sturdy stock. Peep that lush gold foiling on the cover! ♥ My poor photo really doesn’t do it justice! [Disclaimer: please excuse my horrible sausage fingers invading the rest of these pics!]
We’d been advised that any recent issue would do for this review task, but I was set on finding Issue 50 because Audrey Kawasaki is one of the featured artists- I’ll touch on her section of the magazine later since her section is near the end of the issue.
Having a quick flick through, there’s also the added bonus of a snazzy 16-page insert on the work of Jason Lemon- love this, it makes it feel very deluxe.
Hi-Fructose: Jason Limon Feature (Collingwood, 2019)
Going off on a tangent, this magazine also smells really good… woodsy and organic with only a very small smidge of plasticky print smell- hooray! I’m sure any fellow bibliophiles will attest to the fact that you can tell the quality of a printed publication by how good it smells~
The magazine is beautifully laid out, with very high quality photography and artwork alongside in-depth artist interviews that are genuinely interesting. Adverts are only found at the beginning and end of the publication, which is a welcome feature- I feel like adverts ruin the flow of a magazine and distract from the otherwise beautiful artwork.
Hi-Fructose: Contents Page (Collingwood, 2019)
Featured artists for this issue include Annie Owens, DabsMyla, Shoichi Okumura, and of course Audrey Kawasaki, all of which have gorgeous artwork. Each section is from 6-12 pages long, with full page illustrations that are vivid and (mostly) of a good resolution. The interviews are set out beautifully and work well paired with both the illustrations and some candid shots of the artists as they work.
Hi-Fructose: DABSMYLA Feature (Collingwood, 2019)
My favourite section is Audrey Kawasaki’s interview- no surprise there! Her work is hauntingly beautiful. I’m already pretty familiar with her work, but the interview alongside her illustrations is obviously very up to date, which reveals new information on her current practice and workflow as well as aspects her life that are inspiring her work. The featured artworks are from 2016 onwards and were impeccably photographed. I love the typography set against her art on the ‘cover’ page of the article- there was obviously lots of love and care put into the layout and editing of this issue.
Overall this is a really nice art quarterly- my top fave is still Beautiful Bizarre as that’s suited to my taste a wee bit more, but I love looking at new and upcoming examples of illustration and Hi-Fructose didn’t disappoint. I only wish it was easier to find in the UK!
Thanks for reading~
References
Beautiful Bizarre (2019). Beautiful Bizarre Magazine [online]. Available at: https://beautifulbizarre.net [Accessed 12 Mar 2019].
Collingwood, C. (2019). Hi-Fructose: Audrey Kawasaki Feature [photograph].
Collingwood, C. (2019). Hi-Fructose: Contents Page [photograph].
Collingwood, C. (2019). Hi-Fructose: DABSMYLA Feature [photograph].
Collingwood, C. (2019). Hi-Fructose: Issue 50 [photograph]. Cover art: Fosik, AJ. Erratic Spell Release [polymer paint on wood].
Collingwood, C. (2019). Hi-Fructose: Jason Limon Feature [photograph].
Hi-Fructose (n.d.). Hi-Fructose|The New Contemporary Art Magazine [online]. Available at: https://hifructose.com [Accessed 12 Mar 2019].
Kawasaki, A. (n.d.). Audrey Kawasaki [online]. Available at: https://www.audkawa.com [Accessed 12 Mar 2019].
Rosa, E. (2019). Hi-Fructose. Issue 50. pp.13, 50-51, 76-77, 104-115.
chalon joy collingwood 