A little Harsh?

Something interesting is going on. I can not write over the images of my grandparents, but I can crop them. How do I explain this? Having conversation with my tutor today, I found that it is harsh indeed, and it is far nothing like John Hilliard, he has never done anything like that, it is brutal. I crop over the face, body, why would I do that? I'm trying to come up with an answer, and I think it's because it allows me to concentrate on the detail. On my grandmas' hand, or my grandads' eye, I can get close to it, see it better, feel it better. But why does it still look so harsh...?

Amazing Ideas

Today, I had another great conversation with a tutor and other students. As always ideas were shared and advices given. Looking back to my project I have many great ideas to be developed and realized.

The first, digital version, a cropped image of myself will be fulfilled with sliced images of myself and my grandparents. I hope to have a slideshow of around 15 cropped images combined with the text. It will perhaps become a fragmented narrative, having the text coming from my feelings to my grandparents as mentioned before. I have experimented some in my sketchbook, looking at John Hilliard I decided to use the same image for different meanings, which has become successful I believe. In addition to the text an image becomes an individual, and is read differently each time. As an observation I found that it is usually used in scandalous media, to create a sensation.

I have considered different options for the printed version. My first thoughts were to reveal these cropped images of my digital version, printed large, combined together with a linear text next to it. I imagined it to be printed A3-A2 with the text on the side, both on the wall. However, I had a concern, about poor quality old images being enlarged that much, as it might become pix-elated. Therefore, after having a discussion with my peers, we have decided that actually it is not that important, and differently than expected it might add to it. Of course images are old, so why hide it?

As mentioned before, I was fine writing over an image of myself, however, I could not physically do that with the images of my grandparents. It's an unexplained fear that has raised, and I'm still finding a reason. Perhaps I just love them too much.  Therefore I had great suggestions, and what I will do next is that I will have my grandparents writing over those images. It is not that easy as it looks, as I would need to post them across the Europe all the way to Lithuania. In addition, it will of course be written in Lithuanian, so it might not appeal all possible audiences. But I don't see the problem, it will have the spirit, and this is what will make it beautiful. I am excited with my next task, and I am sending it tomorrow.

John Hilliard

John Hilliard, English conceptual artist, who has started his career creating sculptures, later found himself photographing his sculptures a lot and moved to the world of photography. Not concentrating too much on the biography I will rather look into the artists' work that has inspired me to carry on with the image cropping. Images below sows Hilliards' Cause of Death project from 1974. He experimented with the ways of cropping the same image and how can this completely change the meaning. 'Crushed, Drowned, Burned and Fell' are the only anchors directing the viewer to the intended meaning. This is often seen in the media, magazines and newspapers, paparazzi taken and cropped images, a few words in addition and boom, sensation!

Cause of Death, 1974

Considering John Hilliards' practice, I am experimenting similarly using the same image with a different crop. So far I looked at cropping an image into 5-6 different pieces, each becoming an individual, differently to Hilliards' practice in Cause of Death where he includes the same object in each image. I intend to experiment this particular way of cropping as well, but my current interest is to add the text next to the same image and see how it changes the meaning.

Cropping Cropping Cropping

So, I have been busy working on my sketchbook. I decided to concentrate on cropping my images, and working specifically with those three of myself, me and a grandad and me and a grandma. I found that there is so much to be done with a single image. You crop it and immediately each piece becomes an individual image with its own meaning, own atmosphere own connotations. Having six pieces of the same image I added the text, and I experimented more and more, in order to find, how can a text change something what is changed already.

I had some great feedback and comments during the review session, and one of the was to look at John Hilliards' work as he did lots of image cropping too. Each decision has got to be conscious, and it is in my consciousness, I just need to work to get it out on the surface. So next - John Hilliard.

Adobe Illustrator + Paint + Adobe Lightroom = Voila!

Using Adobe Illustrator  I've sliced the photograph into 6 pieces, then using Paint I added a text and finally I created a slide show using Adobe Lightroom. I am sure there is an easier way to do this, but it seemed to work best for me.  So this is what happened.

 

 

So I loved it even more.

 

The photographs are not in order, just to confuse you :) But again, its not just individual images telling different stories now, it's actually the text that compliments or contradicts the meaning, and it's all about how you read it, what you associate it with, what are your values.

 

Therefore, my plan is to work on the text a little bit more. 

Slideshow

Experimenting more with the photograph of myself. I decided to cut it up into pieces, and this is what happened.

 

 

I absolutely loved how it looks. Each slice has become an individual image with its own story. But it needed a text.

Large Format

Instead of writing over the photographs, I would love to scan them into the computer and print large format. Perhaps A2 or even A1. I would have a text underneath each photograph, which will improve with time. As discussed with Ellen Nolan, perhaps I should try and simply write down my feelings about my grandparents. The text will come itself. And I am sure it will happen.

The only problem is, that the photographs are really old, and a large format would definitely make them look pixelated and create a poor quality.  Will probably work on improving it as much as possible. However, I think that the aesthetics of an image would create positive aspects, fulfilling my narrative.

My Grandparents

As mentioned earlier, there are the old photographs of myself and my grandparents. One with a granddad and one with a grandma. Kind of the same series as the one where I am on my own. At the beginning I did not know how to engage them to this project, I looked at it, I had it in my picture, I scanned it to my computer but I could not put a hand on it. I could not change them. In any way. I could not cut them up into pieces or write over, I just could not possibly do that. It nearly felt so wrong when I wanted to do something with them, I haven't got the words to express the feeling. Even it if is just a copy, it doesn't matter, I could not do it.

So during the tutorial, I tried to find the reason. Because there has to be one. Every single detail has to have the meaning.




And the meaning was, that actually, my grandparents mean so much to me that I can not change, I don't want to change anything that is seen in these photographs.

Writing over the face

I found, that writing over the face is not as easy as it looks. Experimenting with the photographs of myself, writing over it, I kept trying to avoid my eyes, its almost really hard to write on top of them, like it would block the vision. I am still trying to find more reasons for it, it has become like a self analysis. It is also different when writing by hand and digitally. It feels differently and as much it looks differently. It is easy to do whatever with a digital version, perhaps because of knowing you can restore it, however for some reason even writing over a tenth copy of a photograph by hand, it becomes extremely hard. Looking at Shirin Neshats's work, I will try to explore different shapes of writing, again, on the face of my little self.

Shirin Neshrat. ' Unveiling Series', 1993.

Had a tutorial with Ellen Nolan, and as usual, she gave me great examples of the work I could look into. I had my idea, however she helped me to develop it further. She has suggested me to work on the text and perhaps use my grandparents photographs too, which I will upload as well. But later about that.

Following from the idea of writing over a photograph, she has suggested me to look at Iranian artists' work who did something similar. Here are some of her works.



Being Muslim,  it obviously changes the connotations. Looking at this image, the viewer immediately associates the photograph with the religion and suddenly there is the meaning. To me, not understanding the actual text, I would imagine the writing to be about how this woman is forced into her religion. How she has to wear certain clothes and there is so much more underneath it. Maybe she doesn't have the word in her family, maybe she is 'just' a woman, in a religious Muslims' views. I am not criticizing anything.

Writing over a photograph

Experimenting

I noticed that my blog mainly contains the research, and my experiments usually take place in my sketchbook. Not to forget that I need a digital version too, I wrote a short story that I would love to combine with photography. At first I thought I could write a story using my calligraphy set and photograph it. So I did, however I'm not sure weather it is visually pleasuring enough. So I tried to write over a photograph. But first, here is the text. I used a digital calligraphic font.

Once upon a time there was a little girl. She lived in the most beautiful place on earth. Every morning she used to wake up just to catch the sunrise, look after her rainbow coloured flowers, run after the unset and get back home. One day she grew up. One day she met a man.

 

Sophie Calle - Take Care of Yourself

Take Care of Yourself by Sophie Calle 

is an amazing book that has inspired me a lot. It encouraged me to perhaps open up a bit and talk about myself. It does not have to be hidden. I admire Sophie Calles' ability to be so open, and spread the world such a personal experience.

I love an idea of the collaboration, especially the type of collaboration, the connection of all these women sharing their feelings when reading this letter of a goodbye. All women are so different, in their profession, personality, look, sense of humor, sensitivity, each of them provides such a different response. It becomes a kind of interpretation of a letter, and every singe of it is right, there is no wrong understanding, especially when you don't know the writer.

This is the narrative. The narrative in Sophie's and her ex's relationship, narrative in the letter, and narrative as a connection of all those women. It forms an amazing story in another way.

I also thought that the story I want to tell about myself, doesn't have to be true. Rather, it has got to be interesting itself, so me, the writer, and a reader would be satisfied.