Final Works
Final Works, two sequences that show the sneaking up of abstract pollution. less obvious than previous works, Didn’t look as good printed out because I couldn’t afford proper printing, but still looked okay.
Obvious appliances
I’ve been working through some of the issues of my piece trying to make the fact that the robots are made out of appliances etc. from around my house more obvious to fit with the theme of unintentional abstract pollution. These are some experiments, I think they were a bit too crude though.
More Experiments
This was one of the first images I tried out manipulating the robot creations into random environments. It was pretty successful I thought, but might not fit so well with the other images I created…
Creepy hand goes to open the door, plenty of atmosphere but probably the least successful of all my attempts so far. It’s just too far abstracted from the original imagery I think.
Cheeky bot just sitting in the hills, one of my favourites, might have to add a little bit more shadow to make it convincing that he is positioned where he is.
Response from crit said that the shadow needed a bit more work (from the robot) here, and I am inclined to agree, I think it might be going the wrong direction now that I’ve had a good chance to look at it again.
By far the most successful image, probably largely due to the aesthetic quality of the photo that I inserted the robot into, but beyond that it looks like a film still because the robot sits well within the colour, composition etc of the image and combines to produce a moody image. addition of the highlights in the eyes worked out well too.
Crit response was essentially that they looked really great, but something needed to be done to bring attention to the fact that they are images made from heaps of other images. Essentially the robots construction has been ‘too successful’. I am skeptical of how well making them more obvious as image constructions will be, as an alteration to the contrast and colour will undermine the current aesthetic quality that the works possess. I will have to experiment with ways to get around this.
Digital Assemblies
This, this is just amazing. Besides from the raw considerable skill of making these fully realised worlds, they are incredibly beautiful to look at and each contain their own internal logics.
Work of Catherine Nelson
Statement, ‘When I embraced the medium of photography, I felt that taking a picture that represented only what was within the frame of the lens wasn’t expressing my personal and inner experience of the world around me. With the eye and training of a painter and with years of experience behind me in film visual effects, I began to take my photos to another level. The ‘Future Memories’ series comprises of 20 floating worlds, meticulously composed with thousands of assembled details. Visual poetry, nature photography and digital techniques blend together to give shape to these transcendental landscapes. The result is a contemporary pictorial mythology that subtly reminds the viewer of a profound truth: that it is in the flourishing variety of the local that the fate of the world resides.’
Shadow Sculptures
Another way of using the junk, similar in outcome to my own attempts but using a way different technique by having seemingly innocuous piles of junk that leap to life as shadows, works so well because you would never suspect without the light of the life that lay within.
Works of Tim Noble and Sue Webster
Their artists statement:
‘Tim Noble and Sue Webster take ordinary things including rubbish, to make assemblages and then point light to create projected shadows which show a great likeness to something identifiable including self-portraits. The art of projection is emblematic of transformative art. The process of transformation, from discarded waste, scrap metal or even taxidermy creatures to a recognizable image, echoes the idea of ‘perceptual psychology’ a form of evaluation used for psychological patients. Noble and Webster are familiar with this process and how people evaluate abstract forms. Throughout their careers they have played with the idea of how humans perceive abstract images and define them with meaning. The result is surprising and powerful as it redefines how abstract forms can transform into figurative ones.’
Litter Bug
Mark Oliver’s ‘Litter Bug.’
Mixing up physical junk and religious paraphernalia makes it a compelling work.
More here
Other inspiration
I like the quote in the text below,’Waste is just lack of imagination.”
Via Colossal “Mixed media and installation artist Peter McFarlane has spent his life turning found objects, computer waste and other discarded materials into sculptures, installations, and even the backdrops of paintings. Of his work McFarlane says:
To me, waste is just lack of imagination. This belief carries beyond the boundaries of my art production and permeates most aspects of my life. Most of my home and studio, and much of everything in them, is recycled. I’ve always had an epic imagination along with a driving desire to make things. Thus, used objects have pared my options down to a workable, manageable level. No object is beyond artistic merit, meaning and metaphor. So why throw it out? The materials of my work are connected intrinsically to my ideas, be they tailored beyond recognition or left as found. Each piece I make resurrects an object as an idea specific to the material and the meaning inherent in its use. The history of the object — from the manufacture to the dumpster — embellishes its contexts and the possibilities I have to manipulate them. I have often made a connection with the objects that I’ve used in my everyday life or work experience: that which I know.
You can see much more of his work over at Saatchi Online as well as in his portfolio and he recently had a show of chainsaw sculptures (!) at Pegasus Gallery in Salt Spring Island, British Columbia just last month. “
Robots in scenery
Okay, now i’ve built these things, where the heck do I put them?
I saw the works of John Lytle Wilson recently, and was immediately taken by his work, especially his ‘corrected’ paintings, where he takes an image (generally some skilled but kitschy work ) painted by someone else of some scenery and then paints robots into the scenery.
More of John’s work at his website
So away I go…
1st go, put it into a picture of a sunset I had taken from my apartment window. Tried to blend the robot into the background as well as I could, giving a little bit of lens blur, darkening the robot to fit with the colour palette etc. Result is way different to John Lytle’s work as it is a lot more serious in tone as it is not so obvious that the robots have been inserted (at least using aesthetic reasoning).
At one stage I made the robot layer invisible and the layer mask of the curves/levels adjustment was visible…quite a nice aesthetic accident…
Another
I built another one! Dang this things take forever! Tried to stick to a colour scheme for this one which made it challenging considering the palette of most of the photographs. I tried not to change the colours/shading of the original photographs at all.
