Contexual studies, essay 2

Heather Boon

Liz B

Word C:513

Essay Two

This term I have been looking at the artist called Robert Ryan. He specialises in collage, paper cut and screen printing.  Ryan did his foundation at Birmingham Poly, fine art at Trent Poly and printmaking at RCA. Ryan has been called an illustrator, a graphic designer and a artist but he himself doesn’t like to pigeon-hole his work and say’s that he’s happy to just have his name spelt right. Printmaking was initially his first love but when he no longer had access to a printmaking studio he started searching for something new to do and began to work with folding paper. To start with he did symmetrical cut outs but then he started to cut out words as well. He uses a 15 or 10a Swann Morton  scalpel blade to craft his work. Sometimes he uses laser cutting techniques to cut wood, acrylic and steel. He also uses this technique for things such as show invitations and more recently when he was asked to dress Liberty’s Christmas window. He say’s he loves post- war pre 60’s illustration and has been influenced by this and people such as Eric Gill. He likes the tailored aspect of his work as he feels it has a timeless quality and sharper silhouette.  His work is influenced by his emotions and what is happening around him at the time. He looks at other people and tries to emphasise with them, using their perceived emotions in his work. He likens it to being a writer and puts himself in their shoes. The story-telling that is present in much of Robert's work is perfectly illustrated by his recent book, 'This Is For You', the dreamy tale of a man who has lost his place in the world who takes a magical papercut journey of rediscovery.

Ryan’s work interests me in the sense that he’s work with collage, I think that collages works well in my work as I can keep layering my work to build up texture and form. Ryan doesn’t tend to use a lot of colour in one piece of work, and sticking to a limited colour draws my attention to the initial thought of the idea of people’s emotions or feelings. Ryan said that he was drawn in the first instance to express himself though printmaking and for similar reasons I feel the same pull to this form of creative expression.

 I have made a collage using a newsprint message just like Ryan did but in my own words ‘I think I love you’. Ryan’s idea was that the words read ‘I think that you are gorgeous’. I used cardboard underneath to make the cut out more interesting. I found his idea very thoughtful and creative. The idea of bold black letters on a black and white background sets the focus on the text and draws the eye to the negative spaces. My work is a story within a story showing new thoughts and words by recycling words and adding new thoughts.  This creates a different dimension to the original words which gives them new meaning.

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                                                                               Heather Boon

                                                                               Liz B

                                                                               Word count-513

  

                         Deformed Dolls

 

Hans Bellmer, La Poupee 1933-1936

Hans is a surrealist photographer and has used surrealism in this photo by taking two mannequins and joining their lower halves into a sexual pose in a wood. In the background, a dark shadow of man lurks, presumingly to represent the male lust and passion towards the distorted female form. As a female, I look at this photograph and it has a certain shock factor due to its lack of respect towards women and its implication women are no more than sexual vessels and playthings for men. Maybe she’s a prostitute, clothes on the floor, the sexual pose, maybe she is a woman he has ‘stolen’ but her helplessness and vulnerability is clear for all to see.  I like the way he’s uses the grungy colour woods letting most of my attention focus onto the doll and the colourful clothing on the floor. But the man is still there waiting to take advantage when the lens is gone…

Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still 1993

Cindy’s work refers to herself, being the model, the director. Although these are Cindy’s still photos the photographer is unknown when she is modelling herself. Or she could be using a shutter with a self timer. The reasons behind this ‘unknown title’ is because Cindy is trying to portray her own self and essence into her work so we are seeing her soul but shielded behind a veil of anonymity.

In this particular still photo this doll reminds me of a child’s doll such as ‘Barbie’ or ‘Cindy’ but in  a bigger real life size form. The section of black looks like a dress, the straps are falling off the dolls shoulder. Also wearing trousers the feet look real. This dolls looks out of proportion. Her legs are way too long for her body, is the real Cindy under the dress? The lady inside of her chest makes me think that the lady you see is staring right at us but won’t show emotion until you look inside of her what she really feels like. To me she shows like she’s I’ll or got a deformity maybe she portrays special needs.

Both photos

The artist both use dolls body pieces and put them together, kind of like ‘Frankenstein’s creature’.

Both artists portray women but Bellmer concentrates on the female physical sexual vulnerability and Sherman portrays the vulnerability of female emotions. Both to the extreme of these forms. Sherman is interested in portraying herself through her work, unselfishly, openly and truly whilst Bellmer is intent on exploitation of women and sees them as purely beings of entertainment; to be used and manipulated, bent to his will and for his enjoyment. One artist empowers whilst the other enslaves. Each artist uses form to shock the senses of the person viewing their work; Bellmer with deformation of body parts and Sherman showing raw emotion the naked eye might miss in the split second of reality.  The real and true difference between the two artists is that one deals in hidden realism and the other in hidden fantasy.