EXPERIMENT 2- FORM + PRESENTATION

I want to explore different techniques for how a story can be presented, and how the form it takes can enhance the image. This may be what effect it has on how a story is told or read by the audience.

Grayson Perry's work is both narrative and uses untraditional methods to tell his stories. I am using an example of his tapestry for this experiment.

THE IMAGE  + ARTIST  Adoration of the Cage Fighters by Grayson Perry 

[a]

[b]

By using tapestries, a decorative textile usually attributed to the extremely wealthy, and portraying common place themes on them, Perry makes the audience read the image differently. We take the image more seriously due to the scale and workmanship of the piece.

THE EXPERIMENTS

The image is meant to be a huge textile item, and printing it out in any form changes how we see it. When I shrunk the image I could already see that it loses the sense of grandeur that it holds as a tapestry. By adding it to a newspaper I tried to place it into a normal setting, where images are frequently seen. However I still think we read the image different in a folded book compared to if I had printed it out huge and wallpapered a wall with it- and putting it on a newspaper was an attempt to make it blend in even more.

However I think I could end up looking at something completely different if I keep putting a tapestry image on different things- a tapestry is still a vehicle for telling a story, whereas I wouldn't say the same thing for an image in a newspaper (except for comics of course). By using another method of Perry's, ceramics, I decided to try and translate the tapestry onto a vase:

Obviously the image becomes mismatched, but we still get an idea of the image and we are forced to read it differently. But I also think putting the flat image of the tapestry onto the curved shape of a vase makes the image more decorative than narrative, and we lose the story itself.

So why, essentially, do I think Perry used this form to tell his story. One reason is to create a visually interesting juxtaposition of the classes, but how about the juxtaposition of classical and modern? The combination of an old storytelling technique showing contemporary imagery?


THE IMAGE + ARTIST  Black Lighter by Erin M Riley 

[c]

Another artist who does this is Erin M Riley- who's 'selfie weavings' [1] depict drugs, explicit sexual images and herself. Although not as story based as Perry's tapestries, her work nonetheless strikes an interesting visual juxtaposition- whilst also exploring the multi-faceted aspects of femininity


THE EXPERIMENTS 

 A line drawing of the weaving highlights the composition Riley has used, a close up cropped image which reflects the modern layout of an instagram photo.  Unlike Perry's long and narrow tapestries that tell a story, and where separate images can be looked at in great detail,  the cropped image of Riley pushes the lighter and joint to the centre, and therefore the forefront of the image, giving the audience little else to look at.

Like an instagram picture, we get the information immediately from the image.

The rich colours the Riley uses are reminiscent of ancient tapestries, and this can be seen when the colour is blocked out. When given a painterly look, the image becomes warmer than the line drawing and adds an almost sultry aspect to it. The weaving that adds a toughness to the image, not to mention texture and depth of colour. By taking away the weaving I'm taking away what makes the image unique, and also the contrast between explicit imagery and traditional weaving methods. Another interesting aspect of Riley's work is that she's taking imagery that usually takes seconds to create (taking a selfie or a sext) and translating it into a piece of work that can take up to 600 hours to make [2]. There's also an idea of taking something small and disposable and turing it into something large and substantial.


RESPONSE THUMBNAILS

Using Perry and Riley as inspiration, I drew thumbnails where ancient/traditional methods of displaying imagery are used to tell a contemporary tale

Stained glass windows:

The mother and baby selfie

Forbidden Apple 

Hillside figures :

If ancient hillsides depicted horses and people I think todays would feature pugs and instagram 

A night on the tiles

For my response I am using an old myth, so instead I tried flipping this idea and think of modern storytelling techniques and applying an ancient legend to that.

I also thought about modern situations and where they could intersect with traditional/ classical art. The idea of a Grecian myth on a takeaway cup, a Persian rug as a door mat and a classical painting turned into wallpaper all came to mind.

Relating back to Erin Riley, I also thought about modern storytelling through social media- and wanted to try and establish a character and story through a Facebook profile:

MY RESPONSE

Part 2. The Task

Through looking at how other artists have presented images combining old techniques with modern stories- I decided to put a part of the myth I am looking at into GIF form.

REFERENCES

[1] N/A. 2016
[2] ECKARDT, STEPHANIE. 2016

IMAGE REFERENCES

[a] PERRY, GRAYSON. 2012.
[b] BRITISH COUNCIL. 2012.
[c] RILEY, ERIN M. 2015

Bibliography

N/A. 2016. Erin M Riley's Selfie Weavings. Yen. [Online]. [Accessed 27 Jan 2017]. Available from:
http://www.yenmag.net/erin-m-riley-selfie-weavings/

Eckardt, S. 2016. Meet Erin M. Riley, the Artist Turning Sexts into Tapestries.  W Magazine. [Online]. [Accessed 27 Jan 2017]. Available from:
 http://www.wmagazine.com/story/erin-m-riley-tapestries-brilliant-champions-studio-visit

Perry, G. 2012. Adoration of the Cage Fighters. [Online]. [Accessed 25 Nov 2016]. Available from:
http://www.artnet.com/artists/grayson-perry/the-adoration-of-the-cage-fighters

British Council. 2012. Grayson Perry: The Vanity of Small Differences. [Online]. [Accessed Dec 5 2016]. Available from:
http://visualarts.britishcouncil.org/exhibitions/touring/grayson-perry-the-vanity-of-small-differences

Riley, E. 2015. Black Lighter. [Online]. [Accessed 27 Jan 2017]. Available from:
http://erinmriley.com/artwork/3847667-Black-Lighter.html