Creating my collage
I found the image of Bambi in his normal Disney setting in one magazine and the image of the rabbit from Frieze magazine. Immediately I thought of Bambi and Thumber although this rabbit was nowhere near as fluffy and friendly as the Disney creation.
I photocopied the combined image repeatedly and layered them so they would stand out from the background. I wanted to give the image more depth and give it a 3D effect so it would stand out of the box frame I was going to put it in.
Painted background
The background is acrylic paint on the actual frame backing itself, in a swirled pattern in muted colours. I thought the muted colours would accentuate the uneasiness created by the combination of the innocence and threatening look of Bambi and the rabbit.
Finished image in frame
The final image wasn’t quite as effective as I had envisiged as I think the scale was too small but this was just some experimentation.
<a title="Martha Rosler Reads Vogue"
This is a video of Martha Rosler interpreting Vogue. I find what she is saying very apt and am able to relate it to my work. This is a piece of performance art which i find very interesting and reflective of Rosler's ideals that i had already looked at in Bringing the War Home.
While her previous work was showing the post war prosperity of America mixed with photographs of the military, wounded and dead, to express her anger at the consumeristic nature of the U.S.A and at the reporting techniques and propaganda surrounding the war. This almost poetic piece is stating the elegance and affluence promoted by Vogue; and the idea that you should strive for and change yourself to be how these women in the magazines were, while at the same time there is the unspoken, aggressive undertone reflecting Rosler’s unhappiness and anger at this idealism and asks questions about the links between advertisement and the media and sexism and the ideal image of what we should aim to be.
I feel like this relates to how i feel and the work I am trying to create, although my work is not as high impacting as Rosler’s, her feelings and reactions are similar to my own and the anger towards what we should be and should own and the importance placed on this.
Cleaning the Drapes, Bringing the War Home : House Beautiful (1967-1972)
Patio View, Bringing the War Home : House Beautiful (1967-1972)
Rosler is an American artist i have looked at in depth and find her work extremely interesting and a huge influence on me. She used imagery from Life Magazine to create a series of works for Bringing the War Home : House Beautiful (1967-1972).
This was a series of collages that combined images from the Vietnam War and the images from Life Magazine, expressing the American public’s obsession with possessions and consumerism when such a violent conflict was taking place abroad, involving their own countrymen.
The images were very powerful and almost uncomfortable to look at, reminding people in an in-your-face manner that there are more important things in life than having matching carpet and drapes.
Her work was very politically motivated and she was an activist herself, powering her work emotionally and politically. She was making a statement and reflecting the unhappiness of much of the general public about the war in Vietnam. By combining the imagery from two so very different but recognizable sources she created something powerful and reflective of the time in which it was made. She then created a similar series in 2004-2007 about the war in Iraq, which again she strongly objected to.
Bringing the War Home : House Beautiful (2004-2007)
After learning about appropriation and detournement in Art and Contemporary ideas, i decided it was a practice i was very interested in and found i could relate to it in some ways with my own work.
Based on Guy Debord’s definition, highlighting the use of imagery or text appropriated from the media, then used in other forms like poetry or art. Debord articulates how subversion of original images is used to change the meaning of an image to show a politicised or social message. Using two separate images, taken from differing contexts, bringing them together, means changes in meaning occur. It is possible to discover new relationships between the elements and establish new meaning. ‘When two objects are brought together, no matter how far apart their original contexts may be, a relationship is always formed’ (Debord,1956).
When bringing these elements together, the ability to understand the new meaning is in knowing what context the images have been taken from. ‘The main impact of Detournement is directly related to the conscious or semi conscious recollection of the original contexts of the element’ (Debord, 1956). The combined imagery often critiques the source or original message that was being portrayed, knowing the origin of the image is key to understanding the works. Artists using images from the media comment both on the media and societies perception of the message the media gives. In order for detourned images to be effectively received the artist has to know what audience they are aiming for and with this more accessible art world and a subject matter seen by millions, it was ‘ a powerful cultural weapon’ (Debord, 1956), accessible by any social class as recognizable imagery was available to anyone.
This image, taken from Vogue Magazine, May 2nd, 2002, is supposed to pay homage to the rescue workers saving lives after Hurricane Sandy. At the time the image was seen as disrespectful and received a lot of bad press.
This is one example of how fashion photoshoots can be utterly ridiculous, although the idea was to celebrate the first responders, it just ended up looking like the scenes of destruction and hopelessness were being used to increase the luxuriousness of the clothing and models by using lives that had been destroyed to promote designer clothing.
I like to deconstruct these images that either have a badly judged theme or give themselves far too much importance for what is basically a clothing advert.
Images like these taken from the
Little Girl And Little Boy Lost photoshoot, (2009) are fantasy based and although are slightly tongue in cheek, would have still been created with such seriousness, every bit of make up and back combed hair would be arranged and rearrange until perfect and the money spent on creating these images would be an incredible amount after every model, photographer, designer and person involved had been paid.
I take the eyes out of many of the images as so many eyes look at them I want to reflect that.
In many ways these images are a form of art in their own right and can take their source material from scenes of destruction, from fantasy, literacy, music or from historical backgrounds.
