Some further influences and reference points

Through my most recent trawl, books and on-line have found another series of contemporary, influential collage artists and illustrators. A range of samples below. The stand-out here for me is Kareem Rizk; based in Austrailia but work placed in USA and South America. He uses both handmade and digital approaches to building his collage. For me the handmade works are stronger. Some pieces are extended to mixed media pieces on canvas. His use of period ephemera and photographic images alongside juxjapositions of colour give a well balanced aesthetic. His awarenes of space is strong and his use of colour and shape prevent the works becoming nostalgia/period based. I like this work and can identify with his development ofd content and spacial balance. His website shows the development of his work over the last decade and it is possible to see his developing spacial awareness and appreciation of the visual aesthetic.

Another Illustrator of note is Cristiana Couciero who also uses period photography juxtaposed with solid shapes of colour and type. her work is digital but seems to retain somethig of the visual appearance and aesthitic feel of hand built collage.

Work in a similar vein comes fro Marek Haiduk

Some further work from Anthony Zinonos. His collage uses simple backgrounds, in which sit his subject matter. Altered images, removing elemants of the photo's to pose a question of meaning for the viewer.

The artists included here have a focus of commissioned illustration. Titles such as The Guardian, Men's Health, The Telegraph, Varoom Magazine etc. take these practitioners' work.

Continued Research - Marion Deuchars

Whilst reading 'The Education of an Illustrator' - Heller S, Arisman M 2002, Allworth Press I came across a sample of the work of Marion Deuchars. After some visual research I found a good deal of variety in her work; she deals with illustration via hand drawn print and what seems to be digital collage, where she brings together limited halftone imagery with flat colour shapes using well considered juxtapositions. It was this latter style that interested me. These are like flattened/simplified versions of the style of illustration used by Sarah Hanson but with improved visual balance. Some examples below.

Print from collage

My main focus this semester is to investigate collage through my own practice. I'l be carrying out further research into both contemporary and historic styles. Alongside this I aim to consider the development of some of the collages in to print in order to keep options open with regard to the illustrative qualities of the images that I will be making.

'Motoring' prepared ready for either screenprint or digital output

I also now have to build my on-line presence. A web page needs to be built and this form part of this semester's work using one of my most loathed software programs - Dreamweaver.

Alongside this I intend to continue with developments of my 'abstract photography' and take part in producing some further 'A2 folded books' with a view to having a series on the UWE stand at BABE at he Arnolfini in late April. Below are a couple of examples of the A2 sheets before folding and the addition of covers

'Welsh Coast'

'Collage 1'

John Stezaker at Whitechapel

What 'Whitechapel' say about him:


"British artist John Stezaker is fascinated by the lure of images. Taking classic movie stills, vintage postcards and book illustrations, Stezaker makes collages to give old images a new meaning. By adjusting, inverting and slicing separate pictures together to create unique new works of art, Stezaker explores the subversive force of found images. Stezaker’s famous Mask series fuses the profiles of glamorous sitters with caves, hamlets, or waterfalls, making for images of eerie beauty.

His ‘Dark Star’ series turns publicity portraits into cut-out silhouettes, creating an ambiguous presence in the place of the absent celebrity. Stezaker’s way of giving old images a new context reaches its height in the found images of his Third Person Archive: the artist has removed delicate, haunting figures from the margins of obsolete travel illustrations. Presented as images on their own, they now take the centre stage of our attention

This first major exhibition of John Stezaker offers a chance to see work by an artist whose subject is the power in the act of looking itself. With over 90 works from the 1970s to today, the artist reveals the subversive force of images, reflecting on how visual language can create new meaning."

Following my previous post, have now seen the Stezaker retrospective. I enjoyed the show, much of the work seen before on-line but stand outs for me were his 'marriage' series, 'dark star' and 'masks'. I feel trhat some of his earlier collage work from the late 70's and early 80's was somewhat weaker. His organisation of elements in the earlier works not so well considered and for me many of those collages fail to work on a comparative level with his more recent work. I felt that his 'image abstractions' were erratic. Some appeared well considered cropped, extractions from the original images - creating a new visual aesthetic and perceived meaning, due to the elimination of the the 'ignored part of the original image - others failed to acheive either the  aesthetic or development of altered meaning in my opinion.

Where his image juxtapositions work well there is a sense of well seen alignments, balance and a new 'whole'. The viewer may read altered meanings into the 'new' image. I wonder if Stezaker was considering the meaning in his altered images? I think he was primarily dealing with the juxtapositions and visual alignments and that any perceived meaning in these images were one of retrospective consideration.... which now seems to be driven along by media hype.

John Stezaker influences

Off to see the  John Stezaker at Whitechapel Gallery show tomorrow, Ahead of this thought I would put together a quick collage in the style of his 'Marriage' series. I really like Stezaker's work, his image juxtapositions and alignments and the visual humour. However I find some of the hype being written and talked about his work leading up to this show is a bit over the top:

…”In his Marriage series, Stezaker focuses on the concept of portraiture, both as art historical genre and public identity…In his correlated images, personalities (and our idealisations of them) become ancillary and empty, rendered abject through their magnified flaws and struggle for visual dominance….Placed in contemporary context, his portraits retain their aura of glamour, whilst simultaneously operating as exotic ‘artefacts’ of an obsolete culture”… selection from Saatchi Gallery pre show write up.

Was he thinking this or even considering this when he made these collages? I don't think so.  I think he was just concentrating on the image juxtapositions, balances and the 'new' quality of the altered outcome. Once I have seen the exhibition I may write to him and ask him what he thinks! He can only tell me to piss off!

Beauty and the Beast

Some new collage

Only barely settling in to the new semester. Its taken a while to get started with my own work. I have been producing some starting points for a series of A2 folded books following on from the last semester; more on these later.

For now I have been building a series of small collages from some old ephemera that I have acquired by various means. Whilst still focussing very clearly on the balance and juxtaposition of elements in these works (a key interest) I am  seeking to investigate the qualities that 'old' ephemera brings to the medium of collage. For me, the aged quality of the media brings both a sense of 'feel' (ie the handling qualities of the materials) for the building of the subsequent image, and affects the aesthetic appearance for the viewer. Additionally, does the inclusion of an image suggest any narrative to the viewer? These images here are not chosen as such, only for their visual and perhaps 'period' quality. It is said that we are all 'children of our own time'. Perhaps this affects the reading of certain visual images. I have a particular interest in imagery of the 50's, however, the limited imagery in this collection of collages suggests maybe, 'time travelled', but much of it is from a period before 'my time'.

I made these collages with a few rules: no more than say, five elements per collage, the inclusion of an image, some aged ephemera and a postage stamp. (A bag of old stamps - which I assume have no individual value!- was given to me by a friend and some of these were interesting 'aged' images mixed with, in some cases, a bold 'franking' mark).

Engine

 French Beauty

How

Italia

Jefferson

Motoring

Red Cloud

Service

Square Dance

Tuba

Delta

Districts

New Semester Research

Sarah Fishburn
Sarah Fishburn
Karl Waldmann
Karl Waldmann
Hoc Littmann
Hoc Littmann
Hoc Littmann
Eva Lake
Eva Lake
Dick Allowatt
Dick Allowatt
A new semester and some fresh research. How are other practitioners using found ephemera in their work? How does their work develop from these found and organised items. I have included a few of my recent finds here.

The collage and assemblage of Dick Allowatt is inspiring: "Most of my life has been devoted to making art, with over 30 years as a graphic designer and creative director. For the past several years, I have been creating mixed media artwork. I love working with my collection of found objects and vintage books, discovering relationships for incongruent materials and images. I bring these elements together to evoke mystery, fantasy, humor, or to simply create a pleasing arrangement with no hidden meaning, preferring to leave the interpretation of the results up to the viewer. For me, the thrill is in the unpredictable journey and the surprise destination"

Eva Lake from Portland Oregon makes photo montage and paintings which bring together abstract colour and period image - some nice pieces here.

Hoc Littmann www.monotypia.de works with mono printing to create well balanced mixed media pieces using diagrams and other illustrations to overprint.

Karl Waldmann: Photo montage and collage produced until 1958.

Very little is known about his life but he has been compared with Schwitters, Hoch, Heartfield, Moholy Nagy, to name but a few

"Probably born in the penultimate decade of the 19th century in Dresden, Karl Waldmann apparently died around 1958 in a USSR labour camp. He is one of constructivism's last discoveries and most certainly a very important one"

Sarah Fishburn says about herself: "an internationally known artist, who currently describes her work as Mixed-Media Narrative. Her work combines photo montage and collage amongst other media. There are some similarities here to the work of Michelle Caplan and Sarah Hanson. Layers of image and texture and an illuatrative feel.