INSIDE, OUTSIDE & IN BETWEEN
Outside
1. alienation
2. loneliness 3. exclusion 4. foreigners |
Inside
1. emotions
2. fears 3. dreams 4. imagination 5. love |
Class Task 1: Reflection
M.C. Escher
Escher's first print of an impossible reality was Still life and Street, 1937. His artistic expression was created from images in his mind, rather than directly from observations and travels to other countries. Well known examples of his work also include Drawing Hands, a work in which two hands are shown, each drawing the other; Sky and Water, in which light plays on shadow to morph the water background behind fish figures into bird figures on a sky background; and Ascending and Descending, in which lines of people ascend and descend stairs in an infinite loop, on a construction which is impossible to build and possible to draw only by taking advantage of perception and perspective.
He worked primarily in the media of lithographs and woodcuts, though the few mezzotints he made are considered to be masterpieces of the technique. In his graphic art, he portrayed mathematical relationships among shapes, figures and space. Additionally, he explored interlocking figures using black and white to enhance different dimensions. Integrated into his prints were mirror images of cones, spheres, cubes, rings and spirals. Escher was left-handed
He worked primarily in the media of lithographs and woodcuts, though the few mezzotints he made are considered to be masterpieces of the technique. In his graphic art, he portrayed mathematical relationships among shapes, figures and space. Additionally, he explored interlocking figures using black and white to enhance different dimensions. Integrated into his prints were mirror images of cones, spheres, cubes, rings and spirals. Escher was left-handed
Class Work 2: Altering Your Relationship with the Environment
Jan von Holleben
“I once ruled the worlds. Not just one, but many. I ruled them with mirrors and lenses. I ruled them with light and shadow and time. Sometimes I ruled with a trick of the eye. Through my camera, an entire cosmos took shape, and each world within it seemed to operate by a certain unfamiliar logic, like a sort of magical clockwork.” Born in 1977 in Cologne and brought up in the southern German countryside, Jan von Holleben lived most of his youth in an alternative commune and identifies a strong connection between the development of his photographic work and the influence of his parents, a cinematographer and child therapist. At the age of 13, he followed his father’s photographic career by picking up a camera and experimenting with all sorts of „magical tricks“, developing his photographic imagination and skills with friends and family and later honing his technique in commercial settings. After pursuing studies in teaching children with disabilities at the Pädagogische Hochschule in Freiburg, he moved to London, earned a degree in the Theory and History of Photography at Surrey Institute of Art and Design, and became submerged within the London photographic scene, where he worked as picture editor, art director and photographic director. He quickly set up two photographic collectives, Young Photographers United and photodebut, followed more recently by the Photographer’s Office. His body of photographic work focusing on the ‘homo ludens’ – the man who learns through play, is itself built from a playful integration of pedagogical theory with his own personal experiences of play and memories of childhood.
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In class we tried to replicate work done by Jan von Holleben. It captures the humorous and childish attitude seen in a lot of von Holleben's photographs, he puts a twist on everyday life making it fun and interesting again as he questions whether today's society take themselves too seriously.
1st Strand: Spontaneity
Philip Lorca Dicorcia
'It might be said that twilight is a muddled form of clarity. The warm glow that suffuses the ' golden hour' in Los Angeles acts to filter the grim realities, the outright lies, the self-deceptions, which allow Hollywood, and by extension, America to flourish. 'Twilight' provides the rose-coloured glasses that make it possible to see out but not see in.' Philip-Lorca diCorcia. Philip-Lorca diCorcia, born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1953, made the Hollywood series (also known as The Hustlers) in an area of Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood, frequented by male prostitutes and drug addicts. The photographs are a unique mix of documentary and fantasy. Having set up the scene for each picture, diCorcia would find a man on the street and offer to pay him to appear in the photograph. |
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Lee Friedlander
Lee Friedlander, born in 1934, began photographing the American social landscape in 1948. With an ability to organize a vast amount of visual information in dynamic compositions, Friedlander has made humorous and poignant images among the chaos of city life, dense landscape and countless other subjects. Friedlander is also recognized for a group of self-portraits he began in the 1960s, reproduced in Self Portrait, an exploration that he turned to again in the late 1990s, and published in a monograph by Fraenkel Gallery in 2000. |
Gogy Esparza
At the core are images Gogy produced using his mobile phone, the artist then involved the team at Nikolai Rose for the design of the book for the images, as well as configuring the main installation aspect of the project for the El Vacio experience. It seems to be more than an experience though, and rather a complete immersion into a world of seduction, euphoria, danger, treachery, and beauty. The premise is to take us away from the grounded and physical world to a place where nothing is definite, a void. We caught up with Gogy and Alan Paukman and Jacob Melinger at Nikolai Rose, to find out more about this project and why they wanted to awaken our senses in this surreal, intoxicating experience.
The sitter's name, place of birth and the amount paid form each title. The careful staging of light is central to diCorcia's aesthetic. For the Hollywood series, he put his camera on a tripod and used artificial and flash lighting to supplement the Los Angeles evening skies. This creates a twilight effect, with rich details and heightened colour, which bathes the sitters with a kind of exotic allure.
Steven Pippin
English photographer and sculptor. After completing a degree in Mechanical Engineering, he took a Foundation course in art at Loughborough College (1981–2) and then studied sculpture at Brighton Polytechnic (1982–5) and the Chelsea School of Art, London (1987). He worked in Berlin on a DAAD scholarship in 1997–8, and was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1999. Pippin typically uses objects such as bath tubs, wardrobes and washing machines converted so that they function as cameras. The equipment itself, the process (often filmed) of converting the objects and and their methods of operation are as important as the results; the makeshift cameras and the photographic images produced by them are often displayed together.
An essential aspect of these works is that the photographic subject is related to the reconfigured object; for Beach Bath (1983) Pippin converted a bath tub into a pin-hole camera, using it to photograph semi-naked figures on the Brighton sea front. In 1985 Pippin began experimenting with washing machines, leading in 1991 to his first series of Laundromat Pictures. The project culminated in Laundromat–Locomotion (Horse & Rider) (1997; New York, Twelve black-and-white photographs, produced by Gavin Brown's Enterprise), a row of twelve washing machines ingeniously converted into cameras operated by a trip wire. The resulting images of a horse being ridden through the laundromat paid homage to the pioneering experimental photography of Eadweard Muybridge. From 1991 Pippin also constructed a variety of sculptural machines that incorporated sound, vision and movement..
My Response
In my work i tried to explore spontaneity and the process in which a situation can be judged in a split second. However this may not always be depicted in a negative sense as I will also try and capture the idea that once "creative impulse cannot flourish, when it cannot freely select its methods and objects, when it is deprived of spontaneity, then society severs the root of art." In these pictures a used techniques and investigated how artists such as Steve Pippin and Gogy Esparaza in order to try and create a story in a brief period of time. I will not use effects or alter my work in photoshop in order to show the originality and spontaneity in situations.
2nd Strand: Depiction
I have decided in this strand to work on the depiction of people by the environment and the circumstances around them. In exploring this theme i will look at how people are judged by standing out and doing outside the normal. Paulo Coelho says “If someone isn't what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.” This optimises my theme as i think it is clear indication of the society we have build up around us and the world we live in today. In this theme i will be focusing on double exposures as it will allow me to almost project an 'image' onto the subject. However i will also use film and dark room skills to conjure up a feeling of indifference and a set of photographs that show someones emotions adn thoughts on the outside as well as trying to depict someone differently to the viewer to who they might actually be.
JR Art X José Parlá
In May 2012, JR collaborates with Cuban-American artist José Parlá on the latest iteration of The Wrinkles of the City: a huge mural installation in Havana, undertaken for the Havana Biennale, for which JR and Parlá photographed and recorded 25 senior citizens who had lived through the Cuban revolution, creating portraits which Parlá, who is of Cuban descent, interlaced with palimpsestic calligraphic writings and paintings. Parlá’s markings echo the distressed surfaces of the walls he inscribes, and offer commentary on the lives of Cuba’s elders; together, JR and Parlá’s murals marvelously animate a city whose walls are otherwise adorned only by images of its leaders.
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Timothy Burkhart X Stephanie Basos
This double exposure project allows us to step back from having full control of the image making process and trust in one another while allowing coincidences to happen naturally on film. Stephanie exposes a full roll of 35mm film of only “people,” and Timothy reloads the film again into the same camera, to imprint only “places” and locations to the same roll. These images are all the end result of our ongoing series and are unedited negatives straight from the camera.This is a photographic collaboration between photographers Timothy Burkhart and Stephanie Bassos. This double exposure project allows us to step back from having full control of the image making process and trust in one another while allowing coincidences to happen naturally on film. Stephanie exposes a full roll of 35mm film of only "people," and Timothy reloads the film again into the same camera, to imprint only "places" and locations to the same roll.
This set indicates a almost contradicting set of points, as family and personal pictures are contrasted with pictures of a evolutionary world that is evolving everyday. By using double exposure and by using to separate artists i think you clearly get the difference between how how life become more technologically advanced but also how through this there is still a strong sense of living 'as it comes' and taking life day by day.
This set indicates a almost contradicting set of points, as family and personal pictures are contrasted with pictures of a evolutionary world that is evolving everyday. By using double exposure and by using to separate artists i think you clearly get the difference between how how life become more technologically advanced but also how through this there is still a strong sense of living 'as it comes' and taking life day by day.
Dan Mountford work with double exposures involves fusing two images together, often creating striking juxtaposition within the final images. This is demonstrated most vividly in works such as The Butterfly Lion and Mind Over Matter The washed out colour palette that ties these images together instills the project with an ethereal quality, which is humanized by the subject matter. Faces and headshots are often used to form the shapes and backdrops of the images, overlaid with wisping foliage or autumn-strewn paths. Not confined to the realms of unmoving graphic stills, Mountford readily dabbles in photography and motion design, too. Since he is continually expanding and evolving his portfolio, Mountford’s is a space, which is worth watching.
Adam Fuss
Conceived as visual elegies, Adam Fuss’s work is about the discovery of the unseen, the expression of the ephemeral and the universal themes of life and death. Working in his darkroom, he creates a series of ‘daguerreotype’ photograms of butterflies. Now a largely obsolete photographic medium, the daguerreotype was first used in the 1840s. Fuss also uses live snakes in his studio, making images that explore the animal’s symbolic and metaphorical meanings. He feels “kinship” with the work of filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, whose contemplative, long camera takes and imagistic style eschewed a plot-driven preoccupation with what will happen next for rapt observation of the present moment. For Fuss this expresses the “spiritual element to being alive... The connection from above to below. Life and death and states in-between.” |
Ronald Ventura X Wim Delvoye
Ventura, born in Manila, is one of the leading contemporary painters of his generation, recalling the fine, meticulous skill of realist painters and marrying it with an affinity for pop culture. On the other hand, Wim Delvoye is a modern sculptor who works in a variety of mediums, using the canon of art history to produce witty, ironic pieces. This work symbolises for me the work that i am trying to create. The faces seem to be brought down to skulls except for the noses which are still present which allows the viewer to still see it as a human face and not see the picture as a symplistic comparison between life (flowers) and death (skull). The two artists have been far more creative and make the viewer think about what they are seeing, although there are conotations of death in this picture, it seems more to do with the goodness inside and sends the message that if you strip down everyone to bone there will always be goodness. This theme appeals to my work as it relates to the viewer summing up his/hers interpretations of the picture by what he/she sees without being effect by what the subject characteristics or even by how he looks.
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Double Exposure, by Todd Kaiser
The double exposure here shows two silhouettes dancing with a picture of a tree behind them. This excentuates a almost elegance of these dancers and shows their connection with life and the world around them. This links heavily to my own work where i have tried to incorporate someones feelings through lanscapes that best attribute to that person. I have used the same scenery in my own work but also tried to show chaotic and hectic life with lights and fast moving cars. This work by Todd Kaiser has correlation with my own theme and falls under the Inside, Outside and In-between title as it tries to identify someones inner characteristics on the outside of a person. In addition I feel in drawing parrells this work has inspired my own and i feel i may now move towards a film in order to depict my character or subject with a deeper insight and so that the viewer can ingage with the work more than with a photograph. |
In this set of photographs i decided to depict people by exactly what is around them. I drew from the artists seen above and i felt that by merely using there silhouettes, the subjects appearance and emotions are irrelevant and the viewer is forced to some up his view of the person by the photograph inside them, whether that be positive or negative. I chose pictures within the silhouettes that would for me represent something different to everyone who looks at them. As an example, for me the cliffs represent someone who is split but could also resemble confidence or power. When in Photoshop i did not change or alter the picture as a wanted to depict the rawness of the landscape and show how it actually was, like someone would want to represent themselves the best they can for who they are.
Cindy Sherman
By turning the camera on herself, Cindy Sherman has built a name as one of the most respected photographers of the late twentieth century. Although, the majority of her photographs are pictures of her, however, these photographs are most definitely not self-portraits. Rather, Sherman uses herself as a vehicle for commentary on a variety of issues of the modern world: the role of the woman, the role of the artist and many more. It is through these ambiguous and eclectic photographs that Sherman has developed a distinct signature style. Through a number of different series of works, Sherman has raised challenging and important questions about the role and representation of women in society, the media and the nature of the creation of art.
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This work relates to my own as Cindy Sherman is creating an alter ego of herself whilst tackling the issues of being a woman in the 20th Century. Her portrayal of her many characters by the scenery surrounding them lends itself to my own work as i look to enturpriate a characters life and character by timages surrounding them not by them themselves. Her work has also inspired me to maybe concentrate on a certain theme in particular as she does, which i havent yet done to this point. I may also introduce props and positioning of the subject so that the viewer can almost communicate with the work.
I really like these images of Davis Ayer's work as the images that are presented on the model are very dramatic and have a meaning. They have an almost holiday feel to them and this juxtaposition against the naked women gives a structural and refined view of life. I also find it interesting how he uses the pictures make way to the body and are forced to work around it not with it. This links in to my theme as i think Ayer's work questions whether we have lost sight of things that we used to enjoy and that it is now stressful and annoying to organise or do something that is meant to be a period of calm and enjoyment.
I decided to do the opposite to Todd Kaiser's work because I wanted to project someones image on themselves because it had a more personal feel to it as well as it would be projected on the screen behind it to back a more dramatic and effective sense to the image. I think this collection of images is very successful and resembles what I wanted to achieve as it is more about the persons inside on the outside rather than the outside being on just on the image on the inside. I also felt it gave you more connection with the subject as before you were not able to distinguish features just the silhouette. Finally i decided to use a projector in order to get a more 3-dimensional piece of work were you were able to see how the picture or clip moulded itself round the subjects contours. However i did feel that the colour was a bit limited and did not cover a high range of various saturations and tones. In my further work i will therefore look to improve this and make it more eye catching for the viewer.
Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin
Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin prefer to search for truth not in the first-hand recording of some current event, but in the turbulence of the near past, as revealed in archival materials. Approaching the vast photographic archive amassed of the Troubles by the Belfast Exposed Archive, chronicling protests and confrontations, petty acts of violence and various routine happenings of daily life, they chose images not with a curatorial eye, but rather with a throw of the dice: they would expose only what was hidden below the round stickers placed willy-nilly by the archivists on the prints. And as a way of revealing the strong feelings these pictures could unleash, they included images purposely defaced by the subjects themselves, obviously fearful of repercussions. I was inspired by Adam Broomberg's and Oliver Chanarin's choice of sticker layout, I thought it was visually pleasing as well as would augment the subject within the circular sticker. |
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My Final Response:
I used my former pictures here but cropped them in circles like the work of Adam Broomberg and Olivier Chanarin because i felt that you had a greater connection with the subject. I also used three pictures in the frame to try and give an abstract synopsis of the subject so that the viewer could try and determine the type of person he was without knowing him or having connection to him.
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In this line of work i will look into projecting an image on to someone. Both literally and metaphorically i will explore depicting someone by the scenes around, focusing on projecting busy streets, lights, open spaces and landscapes, that may have some significance to the viewer but also the subject. This portrayal of someone may be a contrasting or altered version of themselves but will show how someone may be judged by there exterior and the things going on around them and not who they actually are.
This Drake music video was shot on March 12, 2010 in Los Angeles, by Anthony Mandler. It begins with Drake dressed sitting in a room on a bed, reflecting on his new life. Several images including explosions and cityscapes are shown on him and on the wall. However the theme of this video is Drake questioning his new life and how he is presented and seen by everyone around him now that he is famous. This is a theme i would like to cover in my own work and explore how peoples lives and characteristics can be changed by the circumstances and environment around them. |
First Film
In these clips from my first video i tired to choose clips that would best incorporate the contrast between a hectic life and one of tranquillity. I tried to pick clips that would evoke some form of emotion for me, whether it was the rush of getting ready in the mornings (the tap) or how that walk to school through the woods readies me for the day. I hope it will also have the same effect on other people who view it, as they create their own correlations with their own ife.
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Once Again. by Elliot Sellers
I used techniques seen in this film and also concepts in the depiction of tranquillity in my short film. I feel that the use of waves and relaxing music emphasize the 'feel good effect' one experiences one watching this film. In addition the translucent figures give the film a slightly surreal and dream like feel so that it almost takes you to a happier place and allows the viewer almost become part of their idealistic feelings. This film has motivated me to do more work in order to depict a almost dream like scene, whether it be good or bad i feel that in this state one is more refined and simplistic, away from the front and covering up people usually aquire in their day to day lives. |
Stills From Film
In this film i have tried to depict a characters life through a set of photographs and video clips. The videos represents stress, chaos and hectic city life but also peace and tranquility, this for me represents life in this day an age: peoples chaotic search for calm. I chose these specific films and photographs as they triggered some sort of emotion for me and also resembled something that I could relate to in my life. My subject was told to put his head down in order to seem like a passive figure to all that was going on around him. It is less about who he is and more to do with how he is being portrayed by the projections so that the viewer focuses on how they feel about the installation as a whole and not create presumption over what the character looks like. I also used ideas from the film above to try and depict my subject in a dream like state where he is bare to the presumptions and summing up by his viewer when he is at his most vunerable state.
There were however areas in which i could improve. In my next video i will experiment with two projections so that i can project an image into the whole installation so that the subject is fully surrounded. In addition by doing so i will hopefully depict contrast images so one can achieve a more rounded interpretation of the subject. In addition i will attempt to remove (or turn down) the flickering image seen in my first film from the projector as it takes away from the surreal effect of the pictures and takes away a lot of the professionalism.
Looking towards my final film i decided that two projectors didn't do the film enough justice, made it messy and didn't show off the projected images to their full capability. In addition i felt that the music did not give a significant insight towards the subject and slightly distracted from the themes i was trying to put across.However i did like the idea of having two people in the film in order it to be more rounder and so that different viewers can draw their own conclusions over the connection between the two characters. Overall i have i have decided therefore to use a more classical low key backing track and incorporate an additional subject.
Second Film
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In selecting the videos that best matched my themes and really illustrated the contrast in life between calm and stress. I chose an array of car and train videos that i felt best showed the mechanic uniformity of commuters and people travelling to work. In additional to this used images such as flowers and rivers that i feel evoke peoples ideal world free of work and stress. Lastly i use pathetic fallacy, but altered the colours and saturation on IMovie so that the viewer has to investigate the clip. Once they see what the clip is i hope that it will induce some form of emotion towards that certain 6 seconds but also the film as a whole. I find the time lapses the most effective. The time lapse of London, i feel, highlights life in London. However the time lapse of the lake (in Germany) shows peoples idea of a idicil holiday: peaceful, sunny and stress free. |
Stills from Film
Here I have projected different images onto two different models. Each projected image represents a part of their life and a sense of their personality, from an image of Hungerford bridge that can represent being stressed from the intensity of city life to an image of flowers that resembles their peaceful side- a sense of relaxation and escapism from the other dominant scenarios. In my previous responses I only used a male model, I decided to add another model who was female to think collection of images, as I wanted two different individuals who represented the same personality. I wanted to have a female and a male to create a sense of an idyllic world, a foundation where nothing can touch them, no negativity, this is represented by the model in the foreground. This can also be seen through the facial expressions of the models, I asked them to close their eyes, look down and have them seem emotionless so that I could augment the effect that the projected images are of the inside of the person but being seen on the outside, making the model be the 'in between'. I also created a shadow in the background, so that it can present the real them, the part of them that is affected by the world around them. I created this shadow by only having light from the projector which was placed directly in front of them. After projecting the original images on the model, I edited the images by increasing the contrast and levels. I think these images are successful and that I have achieved my goal, as.....
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Final Piece:
In final piece a drew from all my previous work so far. I moved towards two people of both gender because i felt it leaves intrigue and is ambiguous, which leaves the viewer asking questions. I chose to do the film with both projectors projecting the same thing as a felt is was more personal and more moving. Although i felt that some of the different projections worked well, some, however did not and i felt that one a stronger impression of the subjects interior emotions and characteristic when both projections are the same. I also chose a different back tracking for my final piece because it has more purpose and the ending is almost like a cliff hanger, one expects more to happen. I think you can draw parallels between my work and the artists i have used, in particularly Davis Ayler as his work inspired me to move towards projection work. Overall i think my work shows how peoples character can be shaped by their environment and storys and illusions of people can be build up by whats around them.