Reflect & Research

 It feels as though I have a few different types of work, but all of them are based around the collages. It feels as though the main point of my work was to explore how to present it. However I feel like recently this has changed slightly through using clay. In a way it feels to have become more about representing landscapes. When I first started this I was taking fragments of places and then putting them together to create a whole pice however I was then fragmenting them again to re present them as a whole landscape. Showing that there was a relationship between the sections but also showing that they were in fact fragments of places. With the plain clay piece that resembled a topographical map in a way, it felt like this still reflected the idea of representing landscapes and making new ones. All this was was a piece of clay moulded so it had depth and contours and different levels, by placing it within this project it gave it meaning. It gave it context. This then allows the vie...

 When I created the plain clay piece my intention was to somehow combine it with my collages, I tried this before by emulsion transfer and also projecting the images. Although these worked it wasn't exactly what I wanted. I have found a way that I think works really well. I took one of the isolated clay piece images and then layered the collage on top. After this I increased the saturation slightly on the collage and made the clay piece black and white whilst also increasing the contrast. I then lowered the opacity of the collage layer so that the clay piece was showing through. The contours and shadows added texture and depth to the collage. I then cut out around the shape of the clay piece. This was the first one I made, I didn't like the rough edges. I feel like this has added a new depth to the collages. it feels as though they have become tactile even though they are still digital. They feel less fragmented and more like an actual piece or place. This feels better than the...

 I read this chapter about John Stezaker because he works with collage and although a lot of his work contains portraiture the chapter spoke about the relationships with the images and the fragments. It talks about how through collage we see something that isn't visible and that's what I am doing with my work, I am creating places that don't exist. Giving the viewer a chance to see something that isn't there. I am also buying relationships between the places in the collages by placing them next to or on top of each other to create a new scene. Taking fragments of places and turning them into something else.  This chapter also interested me because it talked about how collage goes against what photography is designed for. Photography captures moments in time and shows a particular place or person at a certain time. However with collage you are editing that and making the photograph not what it originally was. Taking the image, changing the context and it therefore no lon...

 Luis Durado is an artist who works with collage and photo manipulation. He uses a mix of p=both physical and digital techniques, his work is surrealism and his photos feel like you're in a dream land. The main series of  his work I am interested in are called Departure, The Garden and Maps. Although I love his collages in his work Into Space, I think the other three series relate more to my work. In Departure Durado takes a landscape image and manipulates it. He takes a shape in the middle of the photo and rotates it so it is a different way round to the rest, he then repeats this process inside the area he has just rotated. In the end he is left with a muddled up landscape. I like these images because you can tell they are landscapes but you will never really know exactly what that landscape looks like. I like the way that he has only used one image and has come out with such a mesmerising image, he has almost created a collage of the image using only the image. In his serie...

 Azabs work is a mixture of collage, sculpture and photography. His collage work is full of bright colours and different textures, using a mix of found and his own images, exploring ideas of memory. I think these collages look really interesting and I like how you can keep looking at them and not get bored, every time you look you seem to notice something that you didn't before. I like how tactile they look. One of the series I really liked was Out of Touch. The come across as slight optical illusions. When Azab spoke to us in the lecture he gave I remember him talking about the work. He said he had the original image printed and then placed his hand in the photo so that it made sense and then took the photo. I love this idea, it gives the work an extra element of interaction that might not be completely obvious at first. The method, composition and ideas behind this work is really clever. I like how he has taken his original image, interacted with it and turned it into something e...

Hammond is an artists whose work is mainly based around installation pieces. Her work combines ideas of photography with sculpture, structure and installation. Her work explores political contradictions within the urban landscape and construction sites and built environments. Some of her work uses digital manipulation and printing onto materials such as acrylic. I think Hammonds work is really interesting, especially the way it is presented, it feels like you are in the middle of a different landscape. Like you are physically in the work. She created landscapes and allows the audience to be fully involved in them. It really feels as though her work is an experience, like a Disney ride almost, where you travel through the built sets and scenes of a movie.  The added levels of interaction take her work from being a documentation or representation of something to being a proper immersive experience. I know I won't be able to achieve something to this level in this project however this...

 I projected some of my collages onto the clay piece I made. I was happy with how this worked. I really feel as though this adds another layer to the work. Taking these fragments of the landscape, giving the flat image another layer, making them more 3D with more of a structure. It feels as though they are becoming more of a landscape again rather than just a photo of a landscape. It also feels a lot more interactive. The images were on a slide show and changed every 10 seconds, meaning you had to readjust to what the new landscape looked like on the clay. I also moved the projector round, changing the perspective of the image on the clay. I also videoed this process, which looks like an interesting piece in itself. I like that this piece of work has multiple elements to it and it can be quite interactive, as where you stand changes the way you see the image.

 In my work I have been taking landscapes and cutting them into fragments. I have then been making them part of a whole piece again by creating collaged landscapes. However in order to present them I have then been cutting them up again and fragmenting them. This takes away the feeling of the whole landscape and shows that each part is different and on its own. Each of the sections come together to create a full landscape. However on their own they are just a section of a place, a fragment. I think it is quite interesting that I am taking one place cutting it up, creating a new place and then almost destroying it again in order to present it. In some of the images, I have taken a beach and added sky scrapers. This almost feels as though I am trying to escape to a paradise but then reality hits and I'm back in the middle of Manchester surrounded by buildings. Its like I'm trying to bring fragments of where I want to be into my everyday life.

I also took out the book Photography is Magic By Charlotte Cotton and this is a list of artists from the book that I really liked and I would like to look into. Lucas Blalock Michele Abeles Marina Pinsky John Lehr Jason Evans Joshua Citarella Victoria Fu Yosuke Takeda Hannah Whitaker Artie Vierkant Marten Elder Brea Souders Anthony Lepore Anne de Vries Brendan Fowler Daniel Gordon Brats Suter Florian Maier-Aichen Tay Onorato and Nico Krebs Kate Steciw

I took this book out of the library and made some notes of the artists work that I really liked and I wan too look into. John Stezaker Johanna Goodman Jesse Greece Sarah Eisenlohr Noa Ginger Luis Dourado Scott Dickson Sergi Sviatchenko Eugenia Loli Martha Rosler Matthew Buckingham Joel Lederer I have already looked into some of these artists, but this list gives me artists to look into if I ever feel as though I need new inspiration.

I wanted to try something different with the collages. I decided to take one a few of my collages and separate the sections out again. I then ripped up the pieces and put them into groups based on the colours in that section. I then drew out a basic landscape scene. I then filled in the sections with pieces that fit. I wasn't sure show this was going to turn out. It looks quite abstract and you can't really make out what the whole image is meant to be. I think this could work better if I maybe only collaged sections of an image rather than the whole image, for example only the sky or the sea. I want to try use this image and develop it further, I really like the texture on the paper so I might try to project onto the collage. I know that there is already colour on the page but if I use a collage that has similar colours in the same areas then it might work quite well.

 After my first attempt at using emulsion to transfer my images onto clay wasn't very successful I decided to try again. I tried the technique again onto of what was left over from before. This was a lot more successful than last time. However you can not really make out what the images are of. So although there is colour on the clay now the actual details of the landscape are not visible. I am glad that this was more successful however it still didn't work out as great as I had hoped. I still think using clay could be successful but I am going to try to go a different way about it. Maybe projecting onto clay instead.

After looking at the three previous artists I made some new collages. I tried to keep it quite simple and kind of base it off the basics of the other artists. I combined some of their ideas to make new work. I do like how they have turned out but I am not sure if I want to carry on this style. Maybe if I can find something that is similar but slightly more subtle it would work better for what I am trying to achieve.  

 Originally palimpsest was a page which had been written on, such a scroll or a page in a book, it had then been washed or scrubbed to get the text off so that the page could be used again. This process would be repeated multiple times to one piece of fabric, in the end there would be text on a page with marks left behind from the previous times the scroll had been used. This idea can be applied to other things such as architecture in cities. When you walk around Manchester you see lots of different styles of architecture next to each other. This is similar to the idea of palimpsest as, as new architectural styles come up they get built next to older styles. It can also be related to when brownfield sites have had buildings knocked down and new buildings built on top, or even when old buildings have been refurbished. There is a contrast with the old and new. Palimpsest is about layers and having new layers build onto of old layers. I feel as though my collages relate to this idea a...

 To test out a way of physically creating one of the landscapes I decided to use clay. I have tried clay before but this time I used a different technique. First of all I let a photo dry face down in the clay, then when I pulled the paper off the image had transferred onto the clay. This did work except the colours are quite subtle and muted, I think that if I used a photo with stronger colours then it would have left a stronger print. I am glad this technique worked. The second thing I tried was I created a sculpture similar to my collages. I had made obvious sections in the clay for the sections of the collage. I then used emulsion transfer to put the images onto the clay. i picked out sections of photos that I already had and then transferred them onto sections of the clay. I enjoy the emulsion transfer technique as the results always look really interesting. I was surprised that this didn't work as well as I though it would. However I think I will try emulsion transfer on top o...