Kaleidoscope

Collage made from images from ASOS Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar

The top image is a model from the fashion magazine from the ASOS website while the eyes come from a David Bailey photograph of his wife from an interview in Harper’s Bazaar.
I like the combination of the two types of imagery: one from a free mailout by a relatively unknown fashion photographer, the other from a high end glossy magazine, the image being from a world renowned photographer. Combining two worlds.

As the original Bailey image was black and white I decided to experiment with the photocopier and reproduced the whole image in black and white. This changes the impact of the image, I’m not sure if I prefer the original or the reproduction both are quite effective collages.

I then played with the colour settings on the photocopier and produced the image with a magenta tint and one with a turquoise tint. Although these images don’t have a particularly high impact on the viewer it was interesting to see the results of the process.

This was another experiment, I had photocopied either side of a face from a Nivea advert, one being the actual face the other being the text from the article on the other side of the page, I then interlinked them and they fitted over the original collage so the eyes just showed through. I put them over the turquoise copy and then photocopied it again.
This was agin more about the experimentation of the process rather than the final piece.

After not being fully satisfied with the results of my Bambi collage, I decided to photocopy the image without the background to see what it would like like in black and white.

I find the image in black and white is much more effective and after seeing it like this and on a larger scale as I enlarged it to A3. After doing this I feel as though it’s expressing what was in my head much more efficiently. The idea had been forming already but as usual when I make work it takes the process and completion for me to realise what I am trying to express.

To me the image expresses naivety and a loss of innocence, how you can meet something or someone in life who you can trust and no matter how intelligent or savvy you consider yourself to be this person or thing can turn you into the innocent and something can happen that makes that be taken advantage of or lost.

I continued to zoom in on the image, photocopying the photocopies and not the original image. I found as the image became more grainy and the quality changed, this enhanced the feeling I was aiming for. As a series of images the enlargements shown in order are more impressive and effective than the original images.

This was an experiment with the process of copying and enlarging and I find the final results interesting and the process created a viable result, to display it I would like to produce the images with a better finish than the photocopies.

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.

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.

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)