Hybrid definition: A thing made by combining two different elements.
This summer project revolves around and explores the theme, Hybrid. This project is about experimentation, exploring materials and problem solving. Things that need consideration are composition, subject, colour, juxtaposition, shape, size, form and space.
Inspirational Media (Pinterest Board)
Artists, Photographers and Designers
Andreas Gursky
Born in 1955, Gursky is a German photographer and professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany. He is known for his large format architecture and landscape colour photographs, often employing a high point of view.
Bahrain II is not strictly a hybrid as it uses three sections instead, but placing them in this arrangement is more pleasing to the eye and makes for a more interesting image.
Antonio Mora
Mora is an experienced spanish creative who has had an extensive career as a designer and art director. His contemporary work is predominantly that of skilled double exposures. He describes his own works as cocktails, using images found in blogs, magazines, and fusing them together.
A consistent theme throughout this set of double exposures by Mora showcases his style of having very bright and white washed outcomes. To do this it looks like the subjects have been lit broadly and evenly, with shadows that are solely there to provide definition.
Ata Mohammadi
Mohammadi hails from Iran and is a relative unknown at the moment. In his recent project, Repulsion, he tackles several controversial issues including freedom of expression and laws based on Islamic religious beliefs. These black-and-white photos are taken in a simple and straightforward manner, but what they represent is not always as black-and-white to discern. Mohammadi “believes that art shouldn’t merely be used for the means of advertising or for the sake of beauty, but it can be a tool to convey pain and the problems in the world.”
The lighting in this images is coming from behind the tea bag. This gives a more sinister feel to the image as a whole by enhancing the slightly darker theme.
Madame Gilles
Gilles has a large interest in the Pop Art movement and in particular Andy Warhol. After leaving her hometown to study Graphic Design in Montreal several years ago, she soon developed an interest in the graffiti scene of the city, which is full of talented artists. But it is most likely the influence of the urban artist Shepard Fairey aka Obey that inspired Mrs. Gilles out into the streets to plaster her own posters, in order to decorate Montreal's street poles by adding some color to everyday urban life.
Here a brightly lit face, with minimal shadows, allows for maximum contrast with the stripes that come across the face. This defines the hybridity of the poster.
Adam Hale
Hale is a very collage artist based in london most well known for his portrait collages. All of his work is handmade and created using London's free magazines. He simply takes the images out of context and splices them together. His Instagram account (@the.daily.splice) has now reached a moderate following, with around 200k followers as of present.
Hale is working with images that he has not taken himself, which means he has no control over the lighting. To combat this he has made a conscious effort to give each 'splice' a bright, but neutral background card, that brings forward and defines his work.
Waldemar Strempler
Strempler is based in Germany and is an artist, sculptor and graphic designer that is known for his works that manipulate images using modern technologies creating new works that surround the subject of the human form.
The first image is overexposed and very bright, with soft blacks. This allows the colourful torn layer to stand out amongst the much larger background it sits on.
The second image of the girl uses a head on lighting technique to cast symmetrical shadows over the face. This draws your focus to the enlarged ripped section, covering the eyes. The addition of a white background enhances this effect.
Helmo
Thomas Couderc and Clement Vauchez are a graphic design and photography duo, founded in 2007 as “Helmo”. The French artists create projects by experimenting with different techniques and genres of art. One of their projects, titled “Betes de mode” includes experiments with blue portraits and red animal pictures made with silkscreen. This creates a double exposure effect that overlays the human and animal images as one form.
Strong contrast in the shadows and a black background blend well together and match with the blue and red tones of the portraits.
Charlotte Caron
Caron’s acrylic paintings of animal faces are set on the photographed portraits of people as if they were masks. The people of the photographs not only assume the appearance of the animals, but nearly seem to assume corresponding personalities. The hawk seems harsh, the fox mischievous the deer gentle. The anthropomorphizing of animals in the paintings emphasizes how this takes place. Caron also underscores the contrast between human and animal, and perhaps by extension civilized and animalistic, by also contrasting photography and painting.
Man Ray
Man Ray was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in France. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements. He produced major works in a variety of media but considered himself a painter above all. He was best known for his photography, and he was a renowned fashion and portrait photographer. Man Ray is also noted for his work with photograms, which he called "rayographs" in reference to himself.
Observatory Time: The Lovers is a great example of his work that combines more than one piece/concept to make something completely different.
A bright sky and a dull foreground draws your eye to the background where the lips a breaking through the clouds. This overexposure is reminiscent of a god like light you would expect to shine out, adding to the sense of wonder and presence of the lips.
Andy Warhol
Warhol was an American artist, director and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, celebrity culture, and advertising that flourished by the 1960s, and span a variety of media, including painting, silkscreening, photography, film, and sculpture.
Damien Hirst
Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur, and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists (or YBAs), who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly the United Kingdom's richest living artist, with his wealth valued at £215m.
Closely related to the theme of hybrids, his works such as; Cornish Pasty, Mushroom and Salad etc. show what everyday food staples would look like in the form of medication.
Eric Gill
Gill was an English sculptor, typeface designer, and printmaker, who was associated with the Arts and Crafts movement. He is a controversial figure, with his well-known religious views and subject matter generally viewed as being at odds with his sexual behaviour, including his erotic art and sexual abuse of his daughters.
I am attracted to the way that he uses religion as a theme in many of his artworks. Having an underlying or even completely obvious theme like this is something to think about going forward.
Neville Brody
Brody is an English graphic designer, typographer and art director. He is known for his work on The Face magazine (1981–1986), Arena magazine (1987–1990), as well as for designing record covers for artists such as Cabaret Voltaire, The Bongos, and Depeche Mode.
In relation to this project, i am most interested in his typography work which is best described as art in the form of words.
Collecting Artefacts
The Radical Eye leaflet/guide, Man Ray (1932) Glass Tears, Man Ray (1926) Noire et Blanche (Positive), Man Ray (1926) Noire et Blanche (Negative).
Each of these pieces were collected from a recent visit to The Radical Eye exhibition, held at the Tate Modern. This exhibition contains modernist photography from the Sir Elton John collection. I chose these pieces by Man Ray because of their relation to the word Hybrid. Particularly the bottom two images, Noire et Blanche (Positive) and Noire et Blanche (Negative), which combine a negative and positive print and mirror them. This provides a unique piece that is completely separate to the two pieces as standalone works.
Andy Warhol (1963) Double Elvis.
I collected this post card reproduction of Double Elvis on a trip to the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum in Berlin. This piece by Andy Warhol is particularly interesting to me because of the way each side of the print is different, but the same. Having two side by side images is a theme that i would like to push further with experimentation.
Sector-Sign at Checkpoint Charlie.
Collected from the Mauermuseum Checkpoint Charlie. Although this reproduction of this sector-sign only follows the hybrid term loosely, i like the idea of repetition but in different languages.
In Conclusion
Black and white is a theme that runs very strongly through much of the media that i have researched and found inspiration in. Using this as a pallet to let the two different concepts etc. merge more seamlessly is very effective. The term 'black and white' could be deemed a hybrid in its own case.
The face is a common corner stone for many pieces of work. When combining two or more different themes or concepts and then attaching it to the face it humanises the relationship between them. This ultimately adds one more layer of depth to the piece.
References
Alien: Covenant (2017). David 8, severed head. [image] Available at: http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/alien/news/a823905/ridley-scott-noomi-rapace-alien-covenant-role/ [Accessed 17 Sep. 2017].
Caron, C. (2011). PHOQUE / SEAL. [image] Available at: http://charlottecaron.fr/albums/portrait/ [Accessed 17 Sep. 2017].
Exmachina (2015). Ava. [image] Available at: http://geekandsundry.com/ex-machina-a-feminist-sci-fi-thriller/ [Accessed 17 Sep. 2017].
Gilles, M. (2012). Split face collage. [image] Available at: http://madamegilles.tumblr.com/post/30573153814 [Accessed 17 Sep. 2017].
Gursky, A. (2007). Bahrain II. [image] Available at: http://www.andreasgursky.com/en/works/2007/bahrain-2 [Accessed 17 Sep. 2017].
Hale, A. (2015). Rose face cross section. [image] Available at: https://i-d.vice.com/en_us/article/gygw7x/the-collage-mash-up-madness-of-the-daily-splice [Accessed 17 Sep. 2017].
Hale, A. (2015). Skull cheek portrait collage. [image] Available at: https://i-d.vice.com/en_us/article/gygw7x/the-collage-mash-up-madness-of-the-daily-splice [Accessed 17 Sep. 2017].
Helmo (2017). A bear and a man. [image] Available at: http://viola.bz/red-and-blue-photography-by-helmo/ [Accessed 17 Sep. 2017].
Mohammadi, A. (2013). Pill filled tea bag. [image] Available at: https://www.behance.net/gallery/10545751/Repulsion [Accessed 17 Sep. 2017].
Mora, A. (2017). Bye. [image] Available at: https://www.citizenatelier.com/bye [Accessed 17 Sep. 2017].
Mora, A. (2017). La escalera blanca. [image] Available at: https://www.designisthis.com/blog/en/post/dream-portraits-digital-art-antonio-mora [Accessed 17 Sep. 2017].
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Ray, M. (1936). Observatory Time: The Lovers. [image] Available at: http://www.widewalls.ch/10-surreal-photography-examples/man-ray-observatory-time-the-lovers-1936-2/ [Accessed 17 Sep. 2017].
Saatchigallery.com. (2017). Wangechi Mutu - Primary Syphilitic Ulcers of the Cervix - Contemporary Art. [online] Available at: http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/artpages/wangechi_mutu_primary.htm [Accessed 17 Sep. 2017].
Strempler, W. (2015). Ripped eyes with tongue out. [image] Available at: https://picdit.net/2015/08/29/waldemar-strempler/ [Accessed 17 Sep. 2017].
Strempler, W. (2017). B&W with colour cartoon mouth. [image] Available at: https://picdit.net/2014/09/08/w-strempler/ [Accessed 17 Sep. 2017].
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Mylovt.com. (2017). About - mylovt. [online] Available at: https://www.mylovt.com/pages/about-us [Accessed 19 Sep. 2017].
Olda, D. (2017). Photographed Portraits And Painted Animal Masks By Charlotte Caron. [online] Beautiful/Decay. Available at: http://beautifuldecay.com/2013/05/31/photographed-portraits-and-painted-animal-masks-by-charlotte-caron/ [Accessed 19 Sep. 2017].
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Tate. (2017). Eric Gill 1882-1940 | Tate. [online] Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/eric-gill-1168 [Accessed 18 Sep. 2017].
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