#ual foundation

[elinormakin]

HANNAH HOCH

After creating my collection of digital collage that used photographs of my paper manipulations of Theresa May I realized that Hannah Hoch would be an extremely successful form of artist research to carry out and provide further inspiration for me. I have previously looked at Hannah Hoch briefly when researching Dada art.

Hoch was a part of a group of Dada artists living in Berlin and was found to be struggling to be taken seriously by her male counterparts as Dadaism seemed to be dominated by men (although reflecting back on Art History discussions, this probably means the documentation of Dada was dominated by men not the actual movement). I think this context of art history is significant to me for my project considering I am critiquing the perception of powerful women.

I found an interesting comment about Hoch in the book I previously blogged about concerning the critique of Modern art (”Why your five year old could not have done that” Susie Hodge):

“Aware of Germany’s social and political problems, her position as a female artist within a male- dominated art movement and expectations of women, she made bold statements in her work”

When looking at her collage work overall some of her pieces have a limited colour palette which avoids distraction from the playful and provocative imagery and composition whereas other collages are packed with dense colour ranges from the different photos and seem to strive off that visually. The collages feel like fragments of a comment or thought on society as well as a form of alienation- separation.

[elinormakin]

DEVELOPED PAPER MANIPULATIONS

After reviewing the success of my digital collages and seeing it as a turning point in my Final Major Project I thought it would be a useful exercise to print some of my collages and then scrunch them in the same process as my original secondary images to see the outcome and its success in provoking my theme- the perception of powerful women.

Prior to carrying out the manipulation, I was hesitant of how the visual language would come across once the paper was scrunched and if the outcome would become too busy. However I think these photographs highlight the success of revisiting the scrunching process but this time, using developed imagery rather than something took from my collection of secondary research.

I particularly enjoy the scanned in lines of pencil and charcoal being scrunched and warped physically as it epitomizes the notion of fabricating a story or narrative which is a powerful ability. I believe I could use these manipulations further; as the objects are 3D I could consider 3D collage (Assemblage art) and continue my newfound refined collage technique.

[elinormakin]

FURTHER DIGITAL COLLAGE AND HEADLINE EXPERIMENTS

Here are another set of further experiments using my “Thug in kitten heels” painted headline which was inspired by a series of tweets I sourced online that regarded May’s shoe choices.

The image at the bottom is one of my most successful experiments from this weeks work because I enjoy the manipulation with the original headline which included “EU” in it. It seems more obstructed and invasive as opposed to previous collages. Additionally, I find the colour selection of a light pink to be interesting as a choice to interrogate the perception of powerful women.

[elinormakin]

FURTHER DIGITAL COLLAGE AND HEADLINE EXPERIMENTS

I wanted to carry out experimentation that would focus on the newspaper front covers that I found to be crucial for my context and secondary research by combining more of my painted headlines back into a newspaper context in a more minimal approach. 

I like this thought and action as the idea of using something tangible sourced from my theme and using it as a tool to comment my critique of how powerful women are perceived naturally produces a cynical connotation- considering the absurdities of these media tendencies yet they are a common part of our tabloids and press?

To present the painted headlines more subtly I used the polygon lasso tool and crop tool on Photoshop to make the my own headline appear naturally occurring against the background newspaper. With this example here, the actual contents of the headline stays the same however my raw and messy handwriting alludes to mockery against the media, ultimately undermining the front page and dominating it.

I find the experiment using the monochromatic version of the newspaper most successful as the lack of colour forces the headline to be pushed forwards and the hand rendered aspect of the headline comes through slightly more than previous experiments.

[elinormakin]

For these experiments I used Photoshop to combine the separate pieces of work together; as mentioned previously, I think it was important to test out both hand rendered and digital forms of combining work together because I naturally assume that the quality would be different.

I find these digital renditions to result in a polished and clinical quality as although my hand writing of the painting is casual and authentic, the scanned in version doesn’t show this quality as much as gluing them together by hand.

[elinormakin]

As discussed in my previous post, I chose to digitally combine the headlines with the backgrounds rather than hand rendered collage too understand what quality it provides. Here I used the actual secondary images of the real life newspaper headlines and not my collages to make a different response.

I prefer the hand rendered combination of work over these experiments because the painting can be appreciated and resonated more as well as feeding into more of a mockery tone because the headlines seem more shoved onto the paper headlines.

[elinormakin]

The photographs above show some of the hand rendered comical headlines being collaged on top of the digital collages I made previously. The photos don’t capture the contrast and difference in texture between the printed paper and painted cut out which is an interesting formal element of these outcomes. 

I think this idea of layering on top of things creates a connotation of propaganda and forced opinions which is an alternative idea the comes off of my theme of the perception of powerful women. Another success of the outcome has been the collection of colours against each other which I think I can continue pushing further. I could carry out this idea again with digital combining the headlines and previous collages together by scanning in the paintings.

[elinormakin]

HAND RENDERED HEADLINES

To return to paint in my FMP I have started creating samples of headlines with acrylic paint which I intend on combining with collages in the future. With these headlines, some of the examples come from actual examples from tabloids such as “Heel, Boys” however I have also used the quotes I collected from Twitter regarding Theresa May as well to find and push the satirical humour more e.g “Thug in Kitten Heels”.

When painting the headline samples I knew I wanted to use a selection of saturated colours to retain a nod towards the tabloid newspapers such as The Sun. I didn’t have specific colours in mind to pair with but I just kept in mind the idea of colours being pushed forward or backwards.