Studio Journal

ONE DirectionNEW Direction

29th December 2016

Harry Styles is not my bag but Harry Seidler is. Kurt Kranz, Bauhaus imagery and influences which parallel German Expressionist stylistic linocuts have been the inspiration for a variety of my work for the Developing Practice module.

"Photography is painting with light"
Miroslav Tichy

I am interested in the idea of camouflage and pattern- using the human form as both reference and canvas with the printed image (specifically a combination of the photographic and digital) which is now more prevalent in my work. My light projections and photographic imagery have become the springboard for further exploration into textile, silkscreen and most challenging and interestingly for me, projected print.
The work of Mat Collishaw, specifically his work involving Crucifixion projections of 1990 as part of the Modern Medicine exhibition has been inspirational.
http://matcollishaw.com/works/crucifixion/ The overlapping styles using mix of transparent and textural with a propensity of linear and abstract are interesting means to develop projected abstractions using the human form as a key line.

Gueorgui Pinkassov Tokyo Businessmen 1990

Examples of 'impediments to clarity' and 'camouflaging reality' can be seen in the work of Gueorgui Pinkhassov. In my opinion, his reportage imagery from the 1990's is reminiscent and an amalgam of the Bauhaus, Collishaw and Rodchenko, where his portraiture is interrupted by shadow. The work of Kurt Kranz too mirrors this theme.

Mat Collishaw 'crucifixion' 1990 Projection

Kurt Kranz 'Portrait of Otti Berger'

With all my current experimentation, I have tried to incorporate the styles of artists who excite and inspire me and also using coloured, textural or movement of light as a printing medium, whether distorted, directed or projected, has become a new direction.
The moving image too is an excellent way to create emotive pattern or 'impede' the clarity of your subject. I have begun looking at colour halftones and pixellations to distort my canvas and photographic work. Again the work of Mat Collishaw and the photographs (1980s) of fashion photographer Guy Bourdin, where colour and camouflage alter the perception of an image, have been influential. The theme of 'retrospective' using film stills from the 1960, 70s and 80s as patterns 'hiding' the figurative are other forms of my emotional exploration.
Therefore, I may have all the myopic tendencies of Mr. Magoo but creating prisms of paradise using film and projected beams of light feels mighty fine.