DIGITAL COLLAGE & NATHANIEL WHITCOMB
(WEDNESDAY 13TH MAY 2020)
In today’s tutorial, my teacher discussed collage versus appropriation, and covered the role of the Situationists in the society, following their actions and movements, as well as their method of détournement, where they hijacked societal values, culture and advertising of the time. We also looked at a variety of artists who used collage as their method of choice. My teacher showed works by Mary Lum, Eduardo Paolozzi, Hannah Hoch, Asger Jorn, and Nathaniel Whitcomb.
I really liked Whitcomb’s works. I love the use of a neutral ground colour, and the layering of different pictures to create a somewhat, fluid, narrative. I tried to delve more into his work after class, but struggled, there’s not a whole lot on him. There’s not even a Wikipedia page :0 I did however, find an interview he did with Colectivo Futuro. In response to being asked about his inspiration, he responded,
“Inspiration is a difficult thing to explain, it often happens suddenly and fades just as quickly, which is why my sketchbook is always within reach. Over the years I’ve found that certain things make me think more than others. Now I make it a point to surround myself with them, that way it happens more organically rather than trying to force something inspiring on myself....Silent films, soundscapes, a walk in unexplored woods, all leave elements unfinished that I can use for thought. I’m in a constant state of wonder, which seems like a good source of inspiration to me. But who really knows.”
The class project for today was to create a collage for ourselves. I took all my inspiration from Whitcomb. I had gathered images a day or two before, but I didn’t really have a direction. Adobe Illustrator is a software I am extremely comfortable using, but I wanted to try Adobe Photoshop, but despite receiving help, I just couldn’t make it work, so resorted back to Illustrator.
I gave myself a brown-earthy-tone background colour and started using the clipping mask tool to dissect my images. I realised when I presented collage to the class that it was very cliché, very stereotypical......‘tumblr’. Later this evening, I developed the design, adding a F. Scott Fitzgerald quote, and making it more ‘tumblr’ than it already was.
My second collage (bottom image) is by far my favourite. I think the composition works better, and there is much more of a narrative. When I was creating it, I didn’t have any direction, but then I came across a newspaper of some sort with the headline, ‘Martians invade Earth’. I thought it was quite funny, and thought that I could blend the image of the vintage women looking at a magazine in. I cut up elements of the article, and gathered images on UFOs and mountain ranges and a person in pajamas, matching the news article. I think there’s a much better story in this one.
I really enjoyed this task. I didn’t have the materials to do the task physically, but I enjoyed doing it digitally. I have used digital collage methods before for projects, but I found this task much more fun and exciting. While it’s not really an approach I can take for my zine, I think I might create collages like this in the future.
Colectivo Futuro’s Interview with Nathaniel Whitcomb:
https://colectivofuturo.com/nathaniel-whitcomb-is-a-colectivo-futurist/
[The included images have been individually referenced. They are visible when the images are viewed in presentation mode]
