Reflecting Back On My Review

December 29, 2021

Reflecting Back On My Review

My first formative review was back in late November, and during the holidays I’ve reflected on what was said and how I can improve for the real hand-in in February. The main goal was to increase my creativity and leave room for inspiration to take hold, to work within the moment, and THEN reflect on it after, rather than writing my thoughts out and in the end out thinking myself and moving on too quickly. I don’t leave enough time for the work to bloom and breathe.

In order to test how to present word art, in between the Nana writing, I took inspiration from Barbara Kruger, Tracy Emin and John Baldessari, and took short quotes relating to music, romantic cliches and dating confessions and repeated them over chosen paintings.

This is to test –

what does the repetition do to the meaning of the word/phrase?
how does it feel writing it out?
how did I decide on the quote/ phrase?
how does the image reflect the quote/ phrase?
how does the quote/ phrase reflect the image?

First Series -

This first mini-series used “The Kiss” by Francesco Hayez as its background with various quotes and phrases repeated atop the image. Like Kruger, I aim to reappropriate the paintings in order to create new artwork. While simple in its constructions, artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia and Kurt Schwitters who were influenced by themes such as Dadaism prove that art does not need to take a long time to create, it can be as simple as picking up an item and declaring it is so. As well as this the theme of “readymade art” again supports the idea that art can be quick to make. The term readymade was first used by French artist Marcel Duchamp to describe the works of art he made from manufactured objects.1 The theory behind the readymade was explained in an anonymous editorial published in the May 1917 issue of the avant-garde magazine The Blind Man run by Duchamp and two friends: - Whether Mr Mutt with his own hands made the fountain or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an ordinary article of life, and placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view – created a new thought for that object.1 Which can be argued is what I’m doing here, taking, usually romantic styles of paintings influenced by renaissance or romanticism, and bringing new life to it through the use of narratives and text. A goal for these experiments was to add a context or a thought process (either from a character or an omnipotent reader) to the image. This is to reflect a readers influence over a scene in a novel as they read, almost like reading between the minds so to speak.

It was very interesting to see how the repetition affected the reading of the quotes I used, for example, "it was only a kiss" (a reference to the song "Mr Brightside") could be read as a confirmation after a one-night stand, or an anxiety-riddled thought process or in a more positive light the realisation that it all it took was "only a kiss" for this relationship to bloom.

Second Series -

This mini-series on the other hand looked at the painting “Birth of Venus” by William-Adolphe Bouguereau. As a form of experimentation without conscious thought, I used quotes from Nana (Emile Zola) as before and repeated them in the same sort of fashion. I chose this painting as in the novel Nana plays the part of “the Blond Venus” in the stage production where she starts to earn her fame. As well as this, in her death scene, the graphic visuals are concluded by “Venus was decomposing”. I felt the way the characters looked up at her fit the way Nana is seen, as well as relating to the idea of metamorphosis in the novel, which influenced my butterfly connection and the scroll of descriptions. I use the term “metamorphosis” not only for its meaning of “major change in the appearance or character of someone or something”2 but also the connection to “a major change in the form or structure of some animals or insects that happens as the animal or insect becomes an adult”2. In this case, however, the famous beautiful butterfly decays into a gutter reared caterpillar, from whence she came.

Although, unlike the first experiments, here I changed the lettering, in order to see how it changes the reading. This quote is from one of the first times we see Nana in the gaslight of the theatre. Having the text circle Venus, I felt was more successful than covering the characters like before. It leaves more “white space” of the painting below while leaving the text legible. An influence by Kruger, I used the same font for each experiment. The font is “Georgia” and while I can’t control the size per se as each time I turn the font or angle it, it slightly changes, the font is clear and crisp. As you can see, if I moved the test, it cut half of it out and made the final outcome different, although not necessarily in a bad way. It kind of reminds me of wifi lines that show when a device is connected, while not directly connected, I find it ironic as I move between handwriting my influence and typing it. Each has its own pros and cons depending on what I want the audience to read from them. Ultimately my goal is to restitution narratives and play with literature in whatever form it may take.

Aesthetically I also enjoy the Georgia font more than the typical Times New Roman that is often used in novels. Theory wise it would make sense to be as close as a novel as I can, as literature is a huge inspiration to me, Kruger uses the same font each time as a character motif almost to identify her work.

Third Series -

Below are some experiences I did without any thought, just using humour and paintings I found interesting. The goal was to create something aesthetic but also funny, building similarities with internet memes. Although that being said, I wanted my audience to be able to read into the piece, and not just a single view giggle and move on. For the quotes I used mainly song lyrics and cliches, mixing single sentences with repeated quotes to see what was read more interestingly. Some are a lot more comedic than others, although I still have some anxieties about whether these experiments contribute as work, as they were easy to create, quick and fairly simple as paper posters, which is something I need to work on, which I'm sure will come with experience and build confidence.