This week I’ve been looking at possible presentation outcomes for the project.
The aspects I really want to retain are.
- the faux influence, both in the interior and in the imagery.
- the eclectic composition on collections.
- the qualities of the interiors, loud patterns, expensive finishes, ornamentation and gilt frames. ( these are also a fantastic contrast to the often sublime painterly qualities in art work.
- the business of the artworks within the setting.
I have looked at the the interiors associated with finishes such as marble and antique wood and arrived in upperclass stately homes. This is great as an interior is far more that just a set of walls, it is is a platform for decoration and in this case in the true aristocratic home a platform for high art. In areal stately environment that art would be valuable and of historical significance. it would often comprise an eclectic mix of sculpture and painting; landscape, portraiture and still life. the cope for exploration and imagery therefore is extensive and suits my love of variety and interest in Art History..
With the MADA 1 looming to an end I am somewhat concerned about the consistency and clarity in what I am doing. As I am once again branching of into another area with my painting project I have decided to combine these ideas with the digital world. these two areas will be the interior and the images within the interior.
Interiors.
Jacqueline Hassink – 2000
Scanned from Cotton, C. (2004), The Photograph as Contemporary Art, World of Art Series; Thames and Hudson
( Above) Image of interior of stately home depicting great pattern, marble fireplace and landscape and portraiture.
Image of the Ufizzi Gallery Florence another environment which has similar physical characteristics. And much gilt framing.
Paintings
What really interests me in looking at painting collections for digital image inspiration is the certain ethereal quality that eludes them. I have always had a great admiration for the historical art worlds and to somehow contemporise this would be both enjoyable and technically – for me – challenging. I believe there are certain characteristic that create this effect and that it is not necessarily painting. It has often to do with light and texture – just like in antiquing one of the popular faux finishes. It is possible to create an aged look with modern technology and yet there is an odd irony in wishing to do so. For me this also links back to the faux techniques and questions why one strives to age things. of course it’s tied in with associations of value and success and perhaps social comfort, that which is familiar or understood. Theorists suggest that the abundance of possibilities and choice and inconsistent styles and indeed Postmodernism.
(Above) A chemical transfer print from a digital photograph, own work 2005.
I produced a series of landscape images from Meteora in Greece, by using certain chemical only the reds and black are extracted from the print and transferrd onto the paper. I was pleased with this imagery and felt they had a ‘Turner’ like atmospheric quality.
(Below) REMBRANDT, FLORA, 1654, Oil on canvas, 39/91.8cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Self Portrait.
This is the first in a series of images I hope to produce. It is purely an experiment in results.
If i am going to look at art work through history I will need to do some research. One of the advantages and yet inherent problems I may encounter in a stately home collection is the eclecticism. I have drawn up a generic timeline of art periods, so that as i loo and individual periods of art I can place them. This I hope will be useful when it comes to write up after the project is completed.
GENERIC ART HISTORY TIME LINE.
it might also an interesting idea to take on a faux family tree as these often co inside with collections. Allowing myself to be fully integrated into the upper class. There is commonly an anecdote to the acquiring of each piece and narrative might be a fun angle to exploit.
STUART FAMILY TREE.
www.mountstuart.com
I have been commissioned to paint 9 paintings for a trendy restaurant opening in 6 months I have decided to take it on as it is a good commercial project.
The content of the imagery must be painted replica stone and so I have been looking at Faux finish techniques. It’s actually quite interesting and not conceptually unlike what I have been experimenting with in my digital imagery.
My research for the painting project led me to the history of artists who first used these visual illusionary techniques.
Techniques of glazing were employed as a deceptive tool to age the appearance of furnishings ‘antiquing’ and luxurious oil glazed wood finishes were substitutes for unattainable, expensive materials.
In short, the first examples of faux marble can be found on Mycenaean pottery dating back 4,000 years. During the Renaissance the ability to render realistic stone finishes rose to the levels of high art – it was lighter than stone and less expensive. It was respected and regarded as challenging to paint something so realistic that it was difficult to distinguish it from the real thing. The French later used artists to create illusions of space, natural environments and grand architectural structures. They call this Trompe L’oeil (Full the eye). Oblique anamorphosis, commonly seen in fresco, is closely related to Trompe l’oeil, however demanded an irregular viewing position as opposed to more conventional perspective.
Trompe L’oeil and Oblique Anamorphosis.
I looked at other wall murals during the MA when I produced the landscapes from The Royal Palace.
Mural, Royal Palace, Pnohm Penh.
These are some of my favourite images. I love the contrasts between the deteriorating wall surface, the aged paint and the glazed areas that have withstood the elements allowing for a value of colour to give depth. The murals are extensive and run for about a kilometer in total around the palace walls. One of my earlier thoughts had been to rereate a mural in digital format.
PAINTING
Faux marble painting 5/4 Ft.
The Faux techniques as textures and surfaces remind me of the Digital paintings of Casey Williams.
www.artnet.com/artist/719642/casey-williams.html
Faux Interiors
It might also be interesting to explore building an interior out of photographs, not digitally, but physically.
I’m having trouble staying on track as everything I do seems to lead to something else. I do think though that it will eventually come together. Having looked at the “trapped” images of people in the walls I decided to look at stone statues. I thought it would be interesting to explore the use of material replacement in the figure.
Cambodia -2006
(Below)
Composition taken from image of myself and my niece – reminded me of the art works of the `virgin Mary’.
Copper Budah
I am not particularly pleased with the outcome of these but the idea is quite interesting.
This week I have been experimenting with photographic imagery which looks at the relationship between man and his personal space. Looking at moments etched into the surface of the architecture and how I can use digital technology to bring out the history of a place.
I have also ordered a software guide for Final Cut and look forward to getting started on that.
The chat this week discussed possible methods for our presentations. I imagine that I will use the MP3 format and am collecting imagery that could be used to present my project.
Digital manipulation of figures on marble floor.
this could be quite interesting. It would be interesting to mimic the composition of the wall murals and have real people within a suraface but in a contemporary context. Almost like a choreographed still. The naturalness is also slightly surreal too.
Possible composition of figures.
There is a distinct visual pattern of grids flowing through my imagery that reminds me of tiling. This has led me to think about other structural patterns that we use every day such as bricks and flooring and whether it would be possible to integrate these systems into imagery.
There was a long conversation at work this week about ghosts and Chinese superstitions. The building I work in is apparently haunted and students have claimed to have been possessed during lessons and have never come back. I don’t know what to make of this, perhaps we are just bad teachers. However it did get me thinking about the history of buildings and the notion that there is a third party watching at all time – not just Big Brother.
I then began to think about walls and using digital technology to create the effect of life watching from behind the walls. Walls have eyes and ears so to speak. I then went back to my Cambodian wall reliefs, people through the ages have used art to show beliefs, myths and to protect. People in walls. A very common phenomenon of the haunted house are eyes moving in a painting.
Myself in a wall – Just playing!
Images from Anchor – Cambodia – 2006
