Author: Alexander Glover

With these images which were taken in surrey I wanted to effectively re-create a common landscape to the county in which I still consider to some extent to be my home. The landscape is open and wide, though the colours remain lifeless with dark shades of brown and green being a consistent theme within the images. I did not edit these images in compassion to the previous images as I wanted to create a raw feeling to what the images should appear like, as that is how home appears to me. It is not bright nor vibrant yet it has a small charm in the open landscapes and quaint compositions that fill the page. My goal was to create a variety of mediumistic pictures which displayed not only a variety of camera techniques but to create the area in which they represent to an audience that isn’t myself.

 

Strangers

With this work I had developed upon the skills learnt in the previous brief, using a similar technique in photography to capture the images. Due to the principle of strangers I was unable to create a piece that would of incorporated separate medias to an extent. However, carrying on with the theme of expression I wanted to capture a stranger whilst showing the audience a slice of their lifestyle and person. To do this I thought that a store would best suit this as I would have a relatable background on which I could create a viable persona. I had used a niche store in town as I felt this would have an atmospheric feel in not only the composition of what represents the background, but the lighting would also appear warmer than a larger shop.

However, though I did not know at the time, using the manual setting on freehand even with steady shot creating a set of blurry images, which to an extent were unstable and blurred without heavily editing on Photoshop and light room. I will have to take a larger set of images in the future.

 

Portraiture- People We Know

When I was asked about a topic and theme for my portraits for this project, immediately I wanted to express it through the theme of ‘Vibrancy and expression’ using strong and bold colours to draw out the characters and ideas in which I would be taking. I have had this inspiration from the artist ‘Rekha’ who expresses and creates sharp and short burst images capturing the moment and expression of the paint hitting the model. This has inspired me as I wish to try and develop my pieces to a further level, than a normal portrait as it would allow me to experiment to a much larger degree in manipulating colours and tones. I also wished a change of pace, as my previous work on this blog may appear as bland or dark in comparison.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had tried to experiment with the theme by creating multiple atmospheres and interpretations of the characters, though a wide range of colours and tones and how there shape on the body impacts an audience’s interpretation of that character’s emotion through the vibrancy of the paint. Manipulating an interpretation with how an audience would view a certain colour or tone, for example the purple paint creates a mysterious and vague figure, yet the vibrant flash of bright orange contrasts that the model may have some flare.

 

For lighting I had used a small desk lamp placed the left hand side of the model, I had done this as I didn’t want to disrupt the image to heavily with an external light source. Also by focusing the light source on one side, I am able to present an audience with how the model would look dark and bright. An example of where this worked well is in my first model, the bright orange is heavily highlighted against the subtle and calm blue which appears submerged in contrast. I had also used powdered paint as it would create a soft and gentle tone and texture to the models which acrylic would not, marking the figure unevenly.

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Appropriation is the act of creating work which has been previously created from another source, this is most commonly seen within re-creating advertisement and popular media. Transforming and manipulating these images to create a new identity and meaning which can be used and seen as a form of art, which may have been passed previously. A good example of this would be the artist ‘Andy Warhol’, with the iconic piece of the can of Campbell soup.

However it is heavily debated to whether this is art in some regards and how it should be treated in line with the copyright Act 1968, which protects the source material of an image or media from being used, preventing the work from being infringed upon. However artist’s are able to appropriate work around this as the copyright law protects the expression of an idea,  rather than the form of the idea such as an image. This means that it is not an infringement of copyright to appropriate upon an idea, though appropriating on the idea of which is being expressed from the source material from the original artist may be seen as a form of infringement.

Richard Prince is a popular example of the pros and cons of using appropriation, as he has become famous in the art world for heavily relying and using others work to become successful, through the ability to use appropriation. A clear example of this was through the exhibition “New portraits” which was a compilation of Instagram images from various users such as the “SuicideGirls”, presenting 38 in total. These had all been adapted by Richard Prince by  placing his own comment section in each of their pieces, creating another identity to the work. However some artist’s find this highly controversial as the original artist SuicideGirls only made £90 from the same image, whereas Richard Prince who was not the original artist and used the source material made £9000 for the same image, without distributing any off the profits with the artist’s.

When Richard Prince was questioned on how he found the inspiration for the exhibition he mentioned how he had questioned his daughter around the subject of Tumblr another online tool for distributing art, he then followed up asking about who owned the images and whether they could be deleted and to what permission was need to work upon images.

“I asked my daughter about Tumblr. Are those your photos? Where did you get that one? Did you need permission? How did you get that kind of crop?”

“You can delete them? Really? What about these ‘followers’. Who are they? Are they people you know? What if you don’t want to share? How many of your friends have Tumblrs?”

Though I find appropriation as a useful and effective technique of questioning and manipulating work to create a new meaning, I feel it is important to reference and acknowledge the original artist, as preventing appropriation would prevent the progression of art, limiting what art can and cannot be. Although if the piece were to create a large amount of profit in comparison to the original idea, some of the profits should be distributed as the majority of the work was created by the source artist.

References;

Guardian Newspaper (2015) Instagram, and artist and the $100,000 selfies – appropriation in the digital age. Available from http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/18/instagram-artist-richard-prince-selfies

http://schools.walkerart.org/arttoday/index.wac?id=2363

https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&es_th=1&ie=UTF-8#safe=active&q=appropriation+art

http://www.artslaw.com.au/articles/entry/appropriation-art-an-overview-of-copyright-and-consumer-protection-for-arti/

Found Objects – Student Accommodation

For this task we were asked to find and create our own creative portrait pictures, however we were limited to develop these images from objects found and used within student’s accommodation. The theme that I had decided to set myself was ‘restoration’ as I felt there would be multiple items and shapes that I could explore with, as student accommodation is likely to have its fair share of damage or mess. Using this I had planned on developing broken objects into something new, whilst experimenting with light sources to see what outcomes I could create for an interesting image.

However I found something completely different on my task, which was a strong set of bronze cutlery and decorations with an Indonesian twist, bearing the moon on the incense burner. Due to their unique shape and colour I was drawn to use them for the task, adapting my original theme of restoration. To adapt this and incorporate these images within the theme, I created a small fire in the kettle and burner to bring it to life adding a third element to the picture. I feel that this ‘restored’ the object from something aesthetically pleasing to something of practical and symbolic use, restoring it to its original nature. For the background I had used a long brown sheet, with an ordinary desk lamp as a light source which enters the piece through the left hand side of the portrait. I had done this as I felt it would have created an interesting effect on the bronze metal creating a variety of unique shadows due to the range of patterns and holes that cover each of the objects.