Surrealism

Surrealism is a style of art as well as a change in culture that began in the late 1910s and early 1920s. Dadaism developed out of WWI, with a focus on nonsense, irrationality, and silliness. Surrealism was born from this movement, with a similar focus on imagination, subconscious, and the unexpected. This art movement features unconventional techniques and subject matter, for example, many surrealists drew inspiration from the art of children and ancient, primitive cultures. Like dadaism, they began to ignore conventional artistry, foregoing realism in favor of whimsicality and dreamlike subject matter.

Rene Magritte, a Belgian surrealist, focused on challenging the conventional perceptions of reality. His paintings are both humorous and thought-provoking, combining words with art, and meshing images together into one. He places landscapes inside of objects, and objects in places where they don’t belong. His paintings are not of things he sees, but of things he imagines or dreams. Combining this irrationality with a semi-realistic painting style and otherwise-normal subject matter, his paintings are slightly confusing and very provocative.

Jerry Uelsmann is a fellow surrealist, but rather than using paints and pencils as a medium, he uses photography. Like Magritte, Uelsmann combines images together in a manner which questions reality and causes the viewer to think. His photographs are less humorous than the paintings by Magritte, but evoke the same tone as Magritte’s dreamlike works. Uelsmann’s photos blend together and combine, less to be irrational, and more to show the connection between two otherwise unrelated objects.

The Treachery of Images - 1928-9

This is my chosen painting by Magritte. It's funny and somewhat paradoxal, with a biting title and an interesting use of words within the painting. Of course this is a pipe: that is a very realistic painting and it is clear what its subject matter is. But, as you think about it, you realize that it isn't a pipe: it's a painting of one. Does the sentence then refer to the painting or its own subject? Regardless of the contradictions, this painting is cute and funny, and one of my favorites by Magritte.

Journey Into Night - 2006

This photograph by Uelsmann is beautiful to me. I love how the hands become the tree so perfectly and how they relate to each other. Hands can hold a nest, but a nest belongs in a tree. It then makes sense that the hands become a tree, able to hold the nest and still have it be as it should. The black background is a good touch, and it makes the hands stand out more. I love the composition of this photograph, with everything front and center with a few more details scattered around to be discovered, like the bird.

WORDS Video

The purpose of this assignment was to recreate the video “Words”, and use short video clips to show different words and the transitions between them.  This assignment was meant to teach us to create videos, be creative, and learn to use different mediums to communicate words.  Emily and I wanted to show the words “fall”, “throw”, and “watch”, as well as the different meanings each might have.  We wanted to not only show the conventional uses of the words, but also different phrases that include them.  We tried to be creative in what we recorded and how we set up our clips in iMovie.

This assignment taught us to think outside the box, use video as a medium, and communicate the same ideas through different clips.  In order for this project to work, Emily and I had to be very creative and clever in how we would transition from word to word.  We had to think of different phrases and meanings of each word and how we could use videos that represent each.  We had never used video before, so it was a different experience in learning compositional techniques for video and how movement and sound would affect it.  It was very different to learn how to videotape what we wanted, but it was also a lot of fun and really different.  Because we were using the same words across a variety of clips, we had to learn how to show that we were using the same words, despite having different meanings and videos to represent them.

Light Painting

Light painting taught me a lot about light, negative space, and abstract photography.  A lot of my photos were not of any specific thing, but instead just trying to show light and its movement in the photo.  I had a lot of fun experimenting with color and shape, and it was very different to use photography to take a picture of something abstract.  Not having to pay attention to realism also gave way to using negative space to create new shapes.

In the future, I'd like to use light painting in more creative and experimental ways.  Laura and Emma's paintings were really creative, and I'd like to try more techniques similar to theirs.  I'd like to try using light painting in brighter spaces and see if I can get light to emphasize things already in the photo, rather than create them.

Patterns

I wanted to photograph everyday patterns, so I did.  Lines and repeating shapes are everywhere, so I did my best to try and find them.  When I started with color photography, I realized that often the shapes I wanted to photograph became obscured by too much color and complexities in the background.  The second time photographing, I decided to try my hand at black and white photography to see if that could simplify my photos and make what I wanted to convey clearer.  I think that I'd like to try my hand at more black and white photography in the future and practice creating strong contrasts without color.