Artist Statement

Times up! Heralding in a New Age

Mixed Media Digital Print (2012)

594 x 420 mm

‘Times up! Heralding in a New Age’ is a mixed media digital artwork which represents the notion of digitisation in relation to the way news is accessed and read. Numerous techniques and elements were manipulated by the artist to present a statement about the demise of print news, posing questions about the future of reporting within a digital landscape.

Both human and computer processes were used to combine and juxtapose several material artefacts with their digitalised counterparts to create a cohesive, yet chaotic image, which evoked emotions towards the process of digitalisation. The final media of the artwork consisted of a 594 x 420 mm digital print on high gloss paper. Aesthetically, the foreground features a large skeletonised hand which reaches towards a pixelated left corner, situated on a black, white and red abstract background. The medium of the background consisted of acrylic paint on collaged news print, whilst the hand was photographed and digitally altered, before all layers were combined using a range of filters.

Several art movements and artists have influenced the artwork, including the Post-Impressionist movement and Van Gogh, whose work was characterised by short brushstrokes of broken, bright colour to define form, evident in the painting ‘Skull with a Burning Cigarette’ (Parr, 2012). The macabre use of dark background contrasted with a bright yellow skull, informed the selection of the equally sombre colours in my artwork, whereby the fleshy, yellow hand was contrasted against the chaotic background (Miller, 2010). Colour was a dominant element within the piece, with black and white used to symbolise the conflict of digital and material worlds, whilst also being symbolic of the dull colours of news print. Red was introduced to symbolise death and the bleeding of the newspaper. Together the three colours enact the pun ‘black, white and red all over’ with the cliché losing meaning within the future digital climate.

Shape was another major element within the art piece, with the irregular and jagged forms inspired by Abstract Expressionism, a 1940’s movement characterised by abstract forms whereby line and colour were detached to depict and transcend physical space (Roche, 2009). In particular, Jackson Pollock’s technique of flicking paint was used to create the harsh shapes, to evoke a chaotic tone and symbolise a changing world  (The Art Story Foundation, 2012). The emotive strokes incite feelings of anger and despair reminiscent of the employees whose jobs are at risk. This is juxtaposed with the even squares in the left corner which represent pixels as newspapers become digitalised, with the ordered and structured forms suggesting a lifeless future and the immediate and factual reporting of online news.

Emphasis has been used through the incorporation of an exaggerated hand, reaching towards the pixels and appearing as the focal point of the painting. Depicted in yellow, it appears to be aging, with details of newsprint and bones appearing through it and adding layers of rough textures, also synonymous with age. This again depicts death, as humanity attempts to reconnect with the digital world and depart the physical print news. Movement has been created by depicting a pointing hand, reaching towards the pixels, to lead the viewer’s eye towards the digitalised future, whilst ensuring a coherent and harmonious artwork through the connection between the two layers. This also disrupts the symmetry of the artwork, to add to the chaotic tone. Behind the hand, the word ‘Dumped’ has been emphasised, again evoking connotations of the newspapers being left behind.

Contemporary digital art provided the inspiration and the tools to create a cohesive artwork. Joseph Nechvatal uses technology to create symmetrical images which have been multilayered to create balance (Lewis, 2003). This informed the combining of layers which were asymmetrical to create a feeling of chaos in the artwork. Digital filters enabled the creation of a rough texture and a grainy feel, to symbolise decay and ageing. The final media of the painting was high-gloss paper, which highlighted the digitalised processing and again referred to the digitalisation occurring for both print news and art.

My artwork responds to the socio-cultural change of digitalisation, particularly focusing on the demise of print media. It is intended to challenge the viewer to question whether the newspaper will survive or whether it will be consumed by the digital age. Overall, it is a cohesive artwork which manipulates design elements to represent the changing and technological world we live in. 

References

Lewis, J. (2003). Joseph Nechvatal at Universal Concepts Unlimited. Art in America , 123-124.

Miller, D. W. (2010). Art work: Skullduggery. Retrieved November 30, 2012, from Madness of Art: http://madnessofart.com/tag/amsterdam/

Parr, S. (2012). Sue's Doodles. Retrieved November 30, 2012, from Research point: Artist’s depictions of skulls: http://suesdoodles.wordpress.com/2012/11/10/research-point-artists-depictions-of-skulls/

Roche, M. (2009). An Analysis: No. 1 (Lavender Mist) – Jackson Pollock. Retrieved December 2, 2012, from Metamorphisis: A Landscape: http://metamorphosisalandscape.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/an-analysis-no-1-lavender-mist-jackson-pollock/

The Art Story Foundation. (2012). JACKSON POLLOCK. Retrieved December 2, 2012, from The Art Story: http://www.theartstory.org/artist-pollock-jackson.htm

Finished!

Finally placed the finishing touches on my artwork!
I combined the two layers of the hand and background in photoshop and used a transparent eraser to blend the two layers together. This ensured the layers combined to create a seamless image. I decided to use an asymmetrical balance to prevent the image becoming too structured and formal, however, as I still wanted it to be aesthetically appealing I applied the rule of thirds. 
This was the completed product.

I decided that the hand looked very dull. Whilst it was quite realistic, I wanted to draw on the vibrancy and fleshiness of Van Gogh's painting 'Skull with a burning cigarette', so I played with the contrast and colour balance. This made a very high-contrast, attention grabbing image.

I was happy with this final product and like how adjusting the midtones, made the hand stand out more. It now has a slight 3-D effect, whereby the hand is reaching out of the paper. The only thing I want to change is adding more pixels down lower, so the hand is reaching out towards them.
Now I have my completed artwork I need to consider how I am going to present it. I have decided to have it printed onto high-gloss paper. This will again represent the transformation to the 21st century technologies, with the high-gloss printing far superior to the dusty newspaper pages of the past.
I plan to have it enlarged to A2 size for dramatic effect.

I have titled my artwork 'Times up! Heralding in the new Age' drawing attention to the subject matter of newspapers through the use of puns incorporating the titles of three renowned newspapers.

Overall, I am happy with my final product and looking forward to showcasing it at the class exhibition.

Changes and Digitilisation

I originally wanted to use a skull to symbolise death, however I feel it holds little relevance to the image. Thus I am going to replace it with a hand, in order to represent the death of the physicality of the newspaper and also symbolise the hand which turns the pages. At the moment I am envisioning a large hand, serving as the focal point of the image and stretching towards the pixels,  as a secondary point of emphasis and working as a lead line. I still want to draw on Van Gogh's influence to create a yellow hand, to represent age, further symbolised by bones in reference to a skeleton. I also would like to add details of newsprint to emphasise what the hand represents; the death of print news.
In order to create the hand, I drew on Nechvatal's digital art and decided to use photoshop to digitally manipulate a hand. The first thing I did was take a photo of my hand stretching out towards the camera. I used a low aperture, to create a shallow depth of field, in order to give the perception that the hand is reaching out. I want to place it on the background so that the hand appears to be pointing to the 'pixels' in the corner of my art work. This will symbolise stretching out to the future as the newspaper becomes more digitalised.

I then deleted the unnecessary background and layered a photograph of crushed paper and my original newspaper collage over the top. This gave the skin a wrinkled appearance as well as subtly hinting at the newspaper subject matter of the artwork.

I then had to add the bones to the hand in order to skeletonise it. I used the same technique of layering images over the top, using a scan of an x-ray. However unlike the skull, it was unable to be simply layered on top as the hand was in the wrong position. Therefore I cropped each individual bone and used the rotate tool to change the perspective. Eventually I ended up with this image of the hand. 

I then set the bone layer to overlay so it would blend into the hand. 

 Finally, I adjusted the levels and colour balance to make the hand more yellow, in reference to Van Gogh's painting 'Skull with a Burning Cigarette'.

Now I just need to combine my final layers. Another day!

Joseph Nechvatal

(Lewis, 2003)

Joseph Nechvatal is a contemporary Digital Artist; a movement which describes any digitally altered or created image. His work often involves using computers to create digital paintings which mimic traditional techniques  through the use of robots, photoshop or styluses (Lewis, 2003).  In addition, he has created animated works through inserting viruses which appear to attack his paintings. Nechvatal (2010) coined the term Viractuality to describe a connection between the virtual and biological; a now common phenomenon in today's technological world. One artwork I was drawn to was 'vOlumptuary droid decOllegtage' (2002) which challenges gender beliefs, through blurring male and female to create a Hermaphrodite. The artwork is a loose reference to the Roman poet Ovid’s sensual musings in 'Metamorphoses', which recites the birth of Hermaphroditus, from the parents Aphrodite and Hermes, resulted in the combination of both his parents; as in both male and female (Lewis, 2003). In the artwork, both male and female genitalia is depicted, using an abstract array of fractal patterns and programming code. Nechvatal uses binary code, comprised of zeros and ones, which represents contrast between the two spheres of gender. Similarly colour has also been used to express this conflict through the use of contrasting colours of earth tones and violet. Further polarities exist within Nechvatal's style which appears to be combination of abstraction and representation, something which I wish to replicate in my own work as I contrast the realistic element of the hand with the abstract background. I also want to draw on the technique of layering programming code, using newsprint instead, to add a further symbolic reference (Roniger, 2012). 
Interestingly, Nechvatal features numerous holes in his works, depicting anuses, retinas and graphic holes and subsequently capitilies the letter O in the pieces title, symbolic for being open and in a ready position (Roniger, 2012). 

Nechvatal has a fascinating interview found here. 

Lewis, J. (2003). Joseph Nechvatal at Universal Concepts Unlimited. Art in America , 123-124.

Nechvatal, J. (2010). Emergence of the New Paradigm: Viractuality. École Supérieure d'AudioVisuel (pp. 21-30). Toulouse, France: Université de Toulouse le Mirail.

Roniger, T. (2012). Interview with Joseph Nechvatal. Retrieved November 30, 2012, from Concatenations Blog: http://www.concatenationsblog.org/2012/03/interview-with-joseph-nechvatal.html

Back to Chaos

Today I created the background of my image. I used the collaged newspaper sheet as a base and I then placed black and white paint over it, using water to gradually disperse the paint, drawing on water colour techniques. I used shape in the form of squares on the left side of my painting to represent pixels, as the newspaper becomes digitalised. The 'pixels' gradually become more prominent, until they are fully revealed in the left corner, symbolising the gradual change to newspapers until they are fully digitalised.

The medium I chose was acrylic paint, as I like how it is thick and fast drying and creates a high-contrast image.

I then drew on the techniques foregrounded in the movement of Abstract Expressionism, flicking black, white and red paint over the image. The irregular and jagged shapes created a chaotic image, which evoked the emotions of anger, as the newspaper nears its death. These emotions are also felt by those whose jobs are in this dying industry. The red splatters also represent blood, another representation of death and the bleeding soul of the newspaper.  Although I liked this effect, I thought the background lacked the references to the newspaper and therefore I ripped the word 'dumped' out of the newspaper and collaged it into the background. 

Although I am happy with my background, I think that it could be improved using Photoshop to increase the contrast and overall vibrancy. This would also represent the process of digitalisation, as the print news and my artwork become improved through technology. I will need to do some further research into digital artists in order to gather inspiration for this next process. 

Becoming a skeleton

My original plans to create the skeleton were to utilise watercolour on newspaper, however I have since discovered Digital Art and now decided to layer a skeleton over a face in order represent death and decay. I will talk about the Digital Art movement in a later post.
Although  my final artwork will probably utilise an image of a person related to newspapers, such as Rupert Murdoch, I used my own photograph for the experimentation.

I started by downloading an image of a skull from the internet, from ZME Science (2012).


I then cropped and rotated this image and placed it over the top of my face, before placing another layer of my face over the top; essentially creating a sandwich.
This allowed me to gradually rub out areas of my face using a transparent rubber, to reveal the skeleton underneath. Thus providing the effect of a partly skeletonised face. By keeping the other layer of my face underneath, I was able to retrieve components where necessary, by rubbing out the skeleton. This is the effect I finished up with.

ZME Science (2012). 'Skeleton'. Viewed 28th November, 2012. Retrieved from: http://www.zmescience.com/research/studies/american-skull-get-bigger-432143/

Abstract Emotions

The background is an integral component of my image as it supports the focal point of the skull and depicts the transition to a pixelated future. My first thoughts about the background were to use watercolour to create blobs of colour which gradually become more square-like as they became digitalised. However, I have since discovered Abstract Expressionism and feel it could be used to represent the chaotic demise of print news.

Abstract Expressionism emerged in the 1940s as a departure from traditional painting conventions, techniques and realistic subject matter. Instead, abstract forms and colours were used to evoke emotion, with the artists favouring an improvised style of painting expressing emotion through energetic brush-strokes (The Art Story Foundation, 2012). 

Jackson Pollock, an Abstract Expressionist painter, used the technique of flicking paint at a large canvas to capture the emotion of his subject matter and to detach line and colour in order to depict and transcend physical spaces. In Lavender Mist (1950), he depicts a western American landscape through the use of earthy colours, to create a lavender tone. Black and white have been used to create a balanced image and point of emphasis, with the viewer drawn around the edges of the canvas and given the feeling of a sparse landscape. The abstract forms add variety to the image to again depict the images of branches and sticks of plants covered in mist. This, therefore, does not only allow the viewer to 'see' the landscape, but also feel its chaos as Pollock's style transcends the physicality of realistic painting (Pioch, 2002). 

I want to use Abstract Expressionism as my background; however, I first want to experiment with the technique of flicking paint. A few weeks ago, I created a plaster cast of my face and hand, which I was going to use as an art sculpture, however I decided to revisit this artwork and flick paint on it. I decided to use bright colours as I wanted the self-portrait to be happy and selected the primary colours of red, green and blue to depict the building blocks of myself. This also makes it symbolic of my own art journey, whereby I can now use the basics in new ways. 

A practice of flicking paint. 

Pioch, N. (2002). Pollock, Jackson. Retrieved December 3, 2012, from Web Museum, Paris: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/pollock/lavender-mist/

The Art Story Foundation. (2012). JACKSON POLLOCK. Retrieved December 2, 2012, from The Art Story: http://www.theartstory.org/artist-pollock-jackson.htm