CASE STUDY
Context
Brief outline of the artist’s practice
I am interested in creating images, which challenge our perception of the 2D picture surface. Images which explore an aesthetic ambiguity of space and surface through a juxtaposition of digital, lens-based imagery with traditional drawing languages. ‘Wir liegen auf den dachern’ is a current series of work in which digital images of landscapes as photographic natural open environments are overlaid with hand drawn graphite images of inverted building structures. I am interested in dislocating an image from its sense of real space, from our normal associations of perspective, scale and sense of material weight. This dislocation is further amplified as the physicality of the inverted drawn image and the photographic surface create an uncanny dialogue, a spatial ambiguity where ‘surface’ hovers somewhere between each image layer, somewhere within the 2D picture plane.
1. Brief explanation of working process
My working process nearly always begins with the making and selection of a series of photographic images. I combine taking my own photographs, using raw digital files and medium format film with scanning old slides or photographs. I am constantly looking for an image with has a sense of spatial ambiguity that is not directly obvious as to its source or sense of scale etc. I print this photographic image digitally so I can explore colour, weight and scale. The second stage is a hand drawn layer. I work directly into the printed surface of the photographic print in pencil, graphite or I use traditional printmaking processes.
2. Relationship of digital technology to other processes/technologies
My recent practice explores the relationship between the digital photomechanical surface and the hand drawn surface. At the heart of my practice is the questioning and unravelling of this unique aesthetic dialogue between the photomechanical and the hand drawn physical image as they exist together on the same paper surface.
3. Indication of how they regard the surface in terms of importance
The surface is a vital aspect throughout the whole working process. The surface I select and use at each working stage dictates the visual aesthetic dialogue and resulting success of the final image.
Specific issues to the new piece of work
1. At what point in the development of the work is the size of the image fixed?
The size of the digital photographic print dictates the final image size. The digital print acts as a sort of canvas to hold the rest of the image. The computer allows me to physically try out different sizes of the photographic print. For this image I knew I wanted a large final scale to engulf the viewer in its physicality, the initial photographic input resolution is a major factor in the consideration of this final printed size. At the point of scanning a negative I am also deciding roughly the end scale of the work.
2. At what point is the actual surface considered?
The actual surface is thought of at the point where I see the image on the screen and consider what paper I will print out the photographic image. In this image I wanted to reduce the photographic weight of the image, to dull down the clarity and sense of space within the image and so I printed onto heavy weight fine art matt paper to soften the image surface. This surface then dictated the drawn surface, its process and material. In this image I wanted the photographic tonal range to equal that of a graphite pencil mark so they could have a closer visual dialogue.
3. What factors determine the choice or creation of the surface in this new work?
I consider how strong, clear and ‘photographic’ I want the photographic image print to be. This determines the choice of paper surface I print onto and this then determines the choice and process of the hand drawn layer. As mentioned, in this image I wanted to bring the photographic and the graphite as close as possible.
4. How does working digitally contrast with other practises they have used?
Digital processes have had a huge impact on the way in which I am able to think about and create work. I am able to create new images from many more inputs, using old slides and photographs and the chance to manipulate these images so that they become completely new images in their own right, with the potential to be completely fictionalized, dislocated from their original source, bearing no relation to the real. I use Photoshop like a sketch book, quickly seeing mock ups of images and quite often I layer many photographs together to create a final image. The digital printer offers a chance to explore scale and surface like never before. Within my practice the digital photomechanical surface has opened up many new possibilities and created a major shift in the way I explore ideas of space and surface within the picture plane.
Title: No 2 from the series ‘Wir liegen auf den dachern’
Size in cms of finished artwork
110cm x 190cm
Process
Graphite pencil drawn onto a digital photographic print
Material
Digital photographic print and graphite
stage 1
stage 2
stage 3
stage 4
stage 5
Final image
