Thinking about about the 100 photos project- the hundred days that past, it seemed to come forward as a large collage of events, like a story in pictures and words cut up and scattered. By recalling these memories it feels as though i'm trying to piece together an old mixed up story while still moving ahead and continuing it. I am going to try and create that sort of image on a large canvas board. By using oil paints, papers, images, and other medias i will arrange, change, and add to the photos to describe their significance to me. Photos that describe memories more important will be larger, more visible, with colours surrounding that relate to my mood or feeling of the memory. Less important or unclear days will be jumbled, layered, or to the side.
The text from the blog posts will also have importance. Most of the text was song lyrics from things i was listening to, some of the words were things that had been going on in my head. I'll mix the text in by overlapping it over the photos, writing it into the background, or clearly in front if it is important.
edit: For the final presentation, to really communicate the idea of an unclear story from the past, i am thinking of placing a book in front of the finished piece, opened with a plant standing on it. i think this could represent a movement of time and a continuation and building upon the past. this is still a rough idea so any other suggestions would be welcome.
so thats about it I think, if you have any questions or ideas about it go ahead!
I like the idea of this piece. Your description really portrays the concept of memory, but I'm wondering, how can you make it go further...
ReplyDeleteWill this wood be aged or just a regular plank of wood, like maisonette? Will these photos be printed on paper? I think it would be really cool if you did this exact idea, but instead of printing them on paper and placing them on wood, you printed them on transparencies and glued them together, supported by a frame. If you did this, you could place a light from behind the piece so the light would travel through the transparencies and onto the viewer. By doing this you blend memories both disjunctly and consistently depending on how you put it together. As the light hits the viewer, it suggests the viewer being in that memory, experiencing it third-hand, like Scrooge does in his Christmas story. For text, instead of painting on text (which you could do as-well; this is just another idea) you could also experiment with silhouettes. Another idea might be to print all the photos on transparencies in black and white, but then carefully colour each one that is important to you, or features in the photos that stand out and seem more important.
Since the last project I've seen from you, I was very intrigued by its meaning. I loved the performance and the overall effect it had on me. I got goose-bumps at times just watching. I think it's safe to say that you have an interest with nature. With this in mind, perhaps you could incorporate some sort of plant into the piece as well. As these plants grow (perhaps vines along the frame) it could suggest time. Time in the sense that as time passes, you grow as a person, but also (if you choose vines along the frame) as time passes, the composition of your past is slowly consumed by the environment. Everything returns to dust.
Just some suggestions! I hope it helped a little. :)
thanks for the ideas. the transparencies idea really gives me a lot to think about in terms of how im going to go about altering the photos. perhaps i could print multiple transparencies of particular important memories and have them layer over other photos. i do like the sound of the light idea but it's not quite what i wanted to communicate with this. i want the piece to seem like a story that is unclear, confusing and trying to come into focus. i think i have an idea of how im going to present it more so i'll add that to my writeup.
ReplyDeletei decided to go with a large canvas board instead of the wood because it'll allow me to be able to work with the paint more.
thank you for bringing up plants, i was thinking about working that sort of element in somehow, especially since a lot of my photos were taken outdoors. again, i'll add this new idea in my writeup.
very helpful comments and i have a much clearer idea of how this is going to look so thankyou!
Very interesting idea. I really want to see how it looks with all the of the different medias incorporated into it.
ReplyDeleteBut I have a suggestion. You mentioned that your image text was from song lyrics that you had listened to. Have you thought of adding sound to your piece? maybe you could add the actual song that you are referring to. or maybe you could merge the lyrics together in audacity and play it during your presentation.
I was thinking that you should incorporate the plant even more into the work with having maybe moss or ivy living off of it, and the memories. with it starting at the memories that are less vivid too you, so they are fading away and creating new memories. I think that will also give it even more texture which seem important to the work, with the many different types of materials that you are using. I would also give more connectedness to the work, because the plant right now doesn't seem too connected to the board.
ReplyDeleteI would also consider it being more interactive, with bits and pieces that you will be able to uncover over time, (independent of the viewer I think) like when you can forget something, then days or years latter you'll remember it. Almost uncovering the mystery of your memoirs. I'm not sure how you would do this though.
hope this helps a bit.
I love the idea, which makes it hard to be critical. You have a very matter-of-fact way of creating. by that, I mean you know exactly what you want to happen.
ReplyDeleteI'm imagining it as a very personal board of images, that will be hard to read; kind of like a person.
I think maybe some photos and pieces of the board should be stuck on permanently, while others might be barely pasted on (suggesting some memories are harder to take off while others might be fleeting). You could even introduce velcro and stickers someone can add on themselves, to try to create their own understanding of the story you have presented.
Hi Slimy Bum.. your photography adventures were write good. I like this idea. I also like the suggestion of making it more interactive. I think this would be really interesting because the piece would require some exploring, like when something suddenly triggers a memory or you are digging through old thoughts and remember something.
ReplyDeleteAlso, have you considered working with wax again like you did for Hockney? I notice when you put wax over surface, you can still kind of see what is underneath but you are also blocked a little by a fog of something.. that something could be like forgetting.
oh and I mean quite good. not write good. Although you do that,too.
ReplyDelete@connor - i did think about that and it would make for a more interesting project . however, im hoping to put most of my energy into the visuals and i just don't think i would have time to commit to the addition of sound. thanks for the suggestion tho!
ReplyDelete@miranda- i will for sure try and incorporate the plants throughout the board somehow. i like the idea of old memories fuelling growth and the future, like how mushrooms feed off of decaying matter! i love the idea of it being independently interactive and i wish i had thought of that earlier. however, it doesn't exactly mesh with the idea i'm going for right now. you mentioned a clock being involved (outside of the blogzone) and thats a great idea, but again doesn't convey what i want this to. and i can't think of how else it could independently change on it's own, unless the moss/plant matter was active (which i'll try out)
@julie- thanks a lot for the suggestions. i would like to add some interactive elements so that helps. even if some of the photos were barely stuck on and had the opportunity to fall off it'd be cool.
@amy- a lot of people are mentioning that it would be good more interactive. i want this too, it might be hard to pull off with the way im presenting it- as more of a personal looking piece. people might be hesitant to get close to it and interact with it. wax could help this since i know when you add more of a texture to things it makes everyone want to touch them. i was thinking about incorporating that so thanks for the reminder. wax reacts really well with photos
thanks all for the comments!