Making space for the future :
Assessment Project
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Initial Brainstorm
To start this project, I brainstormed different ways I could show how Stafford has changed in the future. I decided to do this to have a better understanding of how I could approach this project. Following on from this, I also decided to use the idea of living with nature because I thought I would be able to someone living in harmony with nature over a set period of time, or how we learn how to live with nature and what challenges come with it.
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Researching Photographer/Artists
Barbara Kruger
Barbara Kruger is an American conceptual artist and collagist who is most known for her black and white collage style overlayed with white on red text. She started showing her artworks in New York galleries in the early 1970's where she mainly worked in weaving and painting however it was in 1979 where she developed her signature black and white images overlaid with text. To create these collages, she gathered and repurposed found images, juxtaposing them with short phrases in a bold text. I love how she uses personal pronouns within each collage because it connects with her audience more, which in return questions how identities are formed. I want to take inspiration from Krugers text because I love how it stands out against the black and white because she has used a strong colour of red. In my work, I also want the text I use to stand out and relate to the work I create because I also want to give my viewer something to question about my work.
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Tatiana Bilbao
Tatiana Bilbao is a Mexican Architect where her work merges geometry with nature. She primarily works on sustainable housing, which is reflected within her collages of architecture as she includes lots of nature around her work. I really like how she layers different images of buildings together to create a new and mismatched building. I also love how she brings her designs to life by including people and animals, whether they are cut out or drawn on, they makes the collage feel more like a liveable space. I also think how she uses different unconventional shapes together is really interesting because it made me spend more time looking at each image to understand what the building is supposed to look at, which I really like because it allowed me to see different parts of the image I hadn't seen. When I create my final 3 images, I want to take inspiration from her by including figures in my work interacting and living in the work, likewise with Bri Lamkins work.
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Maria Aparicio Puentes
Maria Aparicio Puentes is a Chilean artist and architect. Her uses images she sources from photographers and with their permission, she scans them into black and white, using a needle and thread to pierce them in key places to bring out invisible connections and relations between the objects, places and people within the image. I think its quite interesting how she introduces connections between different elements of a image, it makes the image feel as if it has more meaning and emotion behind it depending on how she sews in the thread. When I create my final pieces, I also want to create some sort of connections between different elements of my collage. I want experiment with needle and thread, likewise with her work because I want to bring different textures and links into my collage.
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Bri Lamkin
Bri Lamkin is a photographer and collagist based in the USA. She creates simple yet strong collages which tend to focus on topics such as women's right, mental health and earth conservation. She tries to provoke a message using as little pieces as possible to keep her design which I really like about her work because it doesn't feel overwhelming, which helps me understand what the message is within her work. From what I can see, it seems as if she uses a minimum of 2-3 images in each collage, carefully cutting around figures to add them into her chosen scene. I also really like how her figures seem to interact with their new found surroundings, which further helps a viewer to understand what is happening. When I create my final pieces, I want to take inspiration from her work because I also want figures within my work to interact with their surroundings.
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Triptychs
In this project we have been tasked to create a set of 3 images that connect to each other, a Triptych. A triptych is a group of 3 paintings or images that come together to create 1 piece of work. In art, these three paintings are usually three carved panels that are connected to each other by hinges, that can be folded shut and then open when being displayed. They were commonly used from the Eastern Byzantine Churches to the Celtic Churches to the west, and during the Byzantine time they were often used for private devotional use. In photography however, they are 3 images that are hung close together, which are closely associated with each other.
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Photoshoot 1 (Liverpool)
In this photoshoot, I chose the images from a trip I had done with collage that included any sort of structures and architecture that I could include in my collage. I also primarily wanted to take inspiration from Tatiana Bilbao's work because I really like how she layered different images together to create what seems like one continuous building. I loved this effect and how she used nature and weaved it in between her design, which I think made her designs look more lively, as well as including figures interacting with their surroundings.
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Experimentation Collages inspired by
Tatiana Bilbao
I quite like how these collages came out because I like how the figures within interact with the surroundings around them as well as there being nature spilling into each collage in some way. I decided to lay out the collages in 4 different ways so I could see how I could use each piece differently, and what I could add to the collage to bring it more to life. Even though I really like these collages, I don't think they necessarily link to Tatiana Bilbaos work because the layers within her collages blend in with each other to create what seems to be one living area whereas in my collages, there isn't a clear linking 'hallway' to each part to create one living space. To improve on this, I want to use images that link to each other more closely (for example a photo of 2 alleyways that link to each other) and I also want to include more natural aspects because in my final 3 collages I want to include nature taking over in some sort of way.
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Photoshoot 2 (London)
In this photoshoot, I primarily focused on taking images of architecture because we were surrounded by lots of different styles. To include these images in a collage, I want to take inspiration from Barbara Kruger because I love how her text stands out against the black and white background. I want my collage to include some sort of natural aspect which I will find from the internet and layer on top of my chosen images from this photoshoot to make it feel as if nature is taking over the city. Overall, I think this photoshoot was a success because I was able to gather various images of buildings and structures which I will possibly use in my final 3 collages.
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Experimentation Collages inspired by
Barbara Kruger
To experiment in a different way of working, I decided to take inspiration from Barbara Kruger's work because I really like how she layers bold white on red text against the black and white background. In my final 3 collages I want to include some sort of nature overtaking urban areas, so I decided to experiment in that here. I do like how this effect turned out however I don't like how the nature doesn't stand out very much, I think if the collage was in colour this would be shown a lot easier. Moreover, I like how the text highlights that the nature is taking over, even though it isn't initially clear that is happening and I also like how the text is bold and makes the over all piece stand out. I would like to include some sort of text inspired by Barbara Kruger in my final 3 collages, however I won't use her black and white style of working because I want the green in the plants to stand out.
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Feedback
I received feedback from a fellow classmate about how he felt my work was going so far and what could be improved. He mentioned that he liked how I consistently used the street with the telephone boxes as well as how I arranged it in a different way. For my final collage, I was given the idea to build up the images with several layers of buildings to make it more clear it was the chosen town/city I wanted to base my collage around. As well as this, I was also given the idea to build up nature as the collage progressed to show the passing of time to show how the future can possibly look. To expand on this idea, I was also given the idea to increase the amount of nature in the same collage three times to show the passing of time, I thought this was a clever way of representing different stages of time. As well as nature taking over the collage of the chosen city/town, I also came up with the idea of a person walking across the image, growing older within each development to show how people can also still live in that area even though it is dramatically changing. I intend to go on another photoshoot of Stafford, capturing its most iconic parts so a viewer can hopefully understand which town it is, and to add to this I will also gather images of nature to add to each of the 3 collages, increasing it in its volume. I will also find 3 images of people at different ages to show a singular person aging as the nature takes over my collage.
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Photoshoot 3 (Stafford)
In this photoshoot, I focused on taking photos of areas and buildings of Stafford that are the most recognisable so when I create my collage, a viewer would be able to recognise those certain parts. When I create my collage, I want to cut out buildings from my photos that best suit, as well as taking inspiration from Tatiana Bilbao because I like how she creates a new building//landscape from existing images. I also like how she uses lots of natural aspects within her collages, whether that being a river or trees, I think it shows how both natural and man-made aspects can be put together to create something new and unique. I want to use this primarily in my final two collages so I can show how after a period of time, nature has taken over the collage, however people can still live with the changes.
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Final Three Collages
In my first collage, I selected the images I would use to recreate Stafford and created a base collage which I will develop in the next two collages. To make it so the images flowed seamlessly, I chose photographs that I could fit together to create a new scenery using Stafford's most recognisable sights. I used the magnetic selection tool and the polygon selection tools to cut out around the buildings I wanted to use. I also used the rectangle selection tool to easily create straight line on certain buildings that included them. Once I had cut out the images, I started to place them in a way that it looked like they originally belong together, placing the larger buildings at the back to create a sort of 'skyline'. Once I had cut and placed my photographs, I brought in an image of a child from the internet, cutting it out so the white background would be removed, rotating and placing him on the path that runs across the bottom of my collage. I used the curves to blend in the child with the surroundings as well as shrinking it so it would look in proportion to the buildings around it. Finally, I added text at the bottom of the edit to further link it to the next two edits, I want it to read a message to a viewer so they can understand the meaning behind the edits, 'CHANGE HAPPENS OVERTIME'.
In my second collage, I copied the first collage, removing the child and replacing him with an older person further along the path, this was to make it seem as if the child had aged with its surroundings. To show time had passed, I found different images of nature and adjusted them using different tools to blend them in with the existing collage. First, I found a close up images of a bush, which I then brought into photoshop, using the lasso tools to recreate a bush shape, placing it behind the bus on the left side of the collage. To place it behind the bus, I copied the layer it was on, using the magnetic selection tools around the bus to select it, inverting the selected area to delete its surroundings. I then placed that new bus layer over the original layer, moving the bush behind it. I also placed a tree behind the 'main path' to also create the look of another bus, as well as creating a brown muck using the paintbrush tool, reducing the opacity and moving it behind both bushes to show how the plants have made the building behind them mucky over time. Next, I found an image of a tree line, which I removed the areas I didn't want to keep by using the magnetic selection tool. I then placed this layer behind the Riverside building, distorting it so the trees seemed to be continuing behind the building. Finally, I added the next section of the text in the same areas as the previous text in the same location.
In my third collage, I kept the plants that I added to the second edit, however I added more greenery and wear to further represent time passing by. To create the river, I found an image online and I used the distort tool change its shape so it seemed as if the path had transformed into a river over time. I also decided to add vines to some of the buildings to hopefully show how nature has taken over, claiming what is now almost theirs. I also used the distort tool to bend the vines to the shape of the buildings, also changing each of their lengths and sizes to hopefully create a sense of depth within the collage. I also decided to add two heaps of dirt on the edges of the path to show how humans have tried to clean up the streets to reclaim it, so both them and nature can live closer in harmony. Next, I also found an image of an older person to show how this man has aged with his surroundings and how he has continued to live there, further showing how in the future people can live in harmony with nature taking over our towns and cities. I removed the background from the image of the man, adjusting the size so it would roughly match the height of the previous edit and moving him further across the image to show movement in the edit. Finally, I added the last part of the text to complete the message I wanted the edits to provoke.
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Evaluation
Overall, I think this project was a success because I was able to research different artists as well as experimenting with their way of working. I decided to not expand on Maria Aparicio Puentes and Bri Lamkin's way of working because I ran out of time to properly experiment with their way of working. By experimenting with Barbara Kruger and Tatiano Bilbao's way of working however, I thought I was able to implement one of their styles into my final piece, that being Bilbao's. I really like my final piece because I think I was able to show someone that in the future we can live with nature if it were to start to take over our towns and cities, that is what I wanted to show with the person walking across my triptych, that he continued to live in Stafford as nature started to take over more and more. If I had more time with this project, I would experiment more with the other artists way of working so I could have a greater under standing of different processes.
