week 10 collage and détournement
Collage is appropriating something that is pre-existing and creating a new meaning. Early 20ths modernism did not have as much as mass media but Postmodernism was the age surrounded by both digital and real images and media to play with. It encourages mix media outcomes.
In 1960’s Paris, Situationist International adapted ‘détournement’ technique developed in 1950s, which means rerouting and hijacking. It is a method of propaganda, a method which reveals the wearing out and loss of importance of those spheres. The approach was taking existing artworks in different mediums and hijacking. They used détournement to criticize the mass media mass culture around them.
Images below are examples of situationist work. They replaced the texts on the image to what they wanted to say.
source: screenshot from tutorial
source: Situationist, Détournement, https://www.widewalls.ch/situationism-influence-history/
Cultural jamming was another method taking détournementtechnique,became popular in the 1990s, which is taking ads, logos and recognizable cultural artifacts, and hijacking them to critique.
Below are cultural jamming examples from Adbusters. They hijacked the famous logo and turned the messsages against themselves
source: coca-cola Adbusters, https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/coca-cola-a-symbol-of-capitalism
source: McDonald’s Adbusters, https://www.slideshare.net/AnnLongley/anti-consumerism-dec-2011/8-Canadian_culture_jamming
source: screenshot from tutorial
source: https://www.tooli.co.kr/fun/384555
This is how situationist idea got reformed in different kind of eras through time. From the start, is situationist, détournement, cultural jamming, and memes. They are all using the same idea of détournement. Memes are now part of mass media itself.
The photo below is a type of Korean meme, the characters are from primary school textbook in the 90s and they put texts like modern slangs and swearing that relates to the image. It was a pretty popular type of meme, since the majority of people can recognise the characters and they were suppose to say something educational.
Bailey showed different ideas and techniques of collage.
source: Asger Jorn, 1964, https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/208080445256971352/?nic_v1=1a3yKX0A0%2FhkJnDFXe06mScV%2FgSqkz26UE0DlXKchbuzgbygKexKdI27fWu8ROoVcq
source: Asger Jorn, 1969, https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/Ohne-Titel/3C6706F57F74A723
source: Asger Jorn, The Busy Lover, 1965, https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/414683078159870490/?nic_v1=1absVhACT2bwUyJmjDNYO1ODfMKVOxZ8ioqMfY3Hp8lH%2BTzQ8TeWXmLQ%2BfpKJdHP0Y
Asger Jorn used decollage technique of pasting all images and posters together and then tearing them up and create landscape. He also worked mix media. The way he ripped the built-up pages create dynamically torned texture and shapes. I like how his works show the variety of materials he used.
source: Hannah Hoch, The Beautiful Girl, 1920, https://utopiadystopiawwi.wordpress.com/dada/hannah-hoch/the-beautiful-girl/
source: Hannah Hoch, Indian Dancer, 1930,https://www.moma.org/collection/works/37360?sov_referrer=artist&artist_id=2675&page=1
source: Hannah Hoch, Flucht (Flight), 1931, https://www.artsy.net/artwork/hannah-hoch-flucht-flight
Hannah Hoch’s work had détournement and criticism. I really like the style of her dada collage. Her collage is well structured and I also like how she is criticising something without literal words. Her works showed me how collage does not only have a dynamic structure, but it can also create a delicate feeling.
source: Mary Lum, Second Fold, 2008, https://bombmagazine.org/articles/mary-lum-s-edge-conditionsv/
source: Mary Lum, Incident, 2011, https://www.artsy.net/artwork/mary-lum-incident-1072
Mary Lum approaches a very unique technique of playing with 3d aspects and creating space with collage. It contains architectural bend and plays with space on a flat surface. It’s a very modern type of collage and how she creates such depth with only pieces of paper is amazing.
For an hour and 15 minutes, we were given to create a collage based on one of these techniques.
I had four magazines Marie Claire, Bazaar, Elle and Style Forecast. First three were fashion magazines and one was about interior. First I wanted to create space like Mary Lum’s collage works but didn’t have sources so I decided to use the détournement technique criticising about forcing appearance in media. I finished my collage on paper and converted it to Photoshop. I removed the background, added blocked colour background and reduced the vibrance to make coherent looks.
I played around with the background colour and vibrance of the image.
I wanted to have détournement feeling like Hannah Hoch’s ‘The Beautiful Girl’, criticising forcing of beautiful appearance to girls shown in media so I added the text bubble saying ‘these are all you need’, but I don’t really think I was successful. I still like the collage of beauty products and flowers popping out from a phone, and I think the composition is well structured.