New "Chinese Whisper" exhibition

I have chosen a different location for my improved design for the show. I prefer this one as the images are closer together almost like a collage and the bright likes make it so much more celebratory, flamboyant and glitzy which is in complete contrast to the dark undertones of many of these pieces. When I showed this redraft of my show to a friend she said that some of the paintings she thought were adverts intially which is exactly what I wanted to achieve.

All of these artists work I respect highly and have also been obsessed with at some point which is one reason I want to include them in my virtual exhibition to be able to say ANDY WARHOL'S work is in MY exhibition. But it is also the recurring theme of media influence that is present in all the featured works a concept that I am and have been personally interested in my own practice. Each artist uses and explores mediated imagery in completely different ways and each have very powerful results.

Andy Warhol Big Electric Chair and Marilyn

 

I chose to include two pieces from Warhol’s  Death series; One from the famous deaths and one from the unknown people that died.

Warhol lifted his imagery from media sources mechanically reproducing them through silk screening. This exact rendering of the image erased any sense of humanity in his work e.g. errors, smudges... much like the anesthetising affect the media has upon our senses - "If you look at something long enough, I’ve discovered, the meaning goes away".

Gerhard Richter Woman with Umbrella

I love how ambiguous and mysterious Richters paintings from photographs are. There is always a sense of some dark secret or history being hidden or that is about to happen unknown to the subjects included in the frame. The woman featured in this painting is seemingly unexceptional, from a blurry photo looking upset, grief-stricken. After further inspection one realises that it is Jackie Kennedy though I think that you recognise her deep grief before her famous identity.

Johannes Kahrs Untitled (Man Crawling) and Silent Depression

Kahrs takes "disposable moments" of media and erases, covers up and crops out any contextual information so the viewer is left with a gaze, a touch, a look etc... His work mixes the banal and the horrific stuck in the "frozen moment".

I love how Kahrs captures the "imperfections" of photography with blurred contours, edges of the TV screen left in.

John Keane Untitled (Terrorist)

This painting is taken from Keane's "Fifty Seven Hours in the House of Culture" series which focuses on the Chechen hostage taking crisis that happened in Moscow. The paintings focus on both parties - the Russian hostages and the female suicide bombers - highlighting the terrorist/freedom fighter paradox as the suicide bombers were victims of Chechen war as the hostages were victims of this crisis.

I think I am going to swap this painting for one that includes text lifted from interviews with the few survivors as it creates a sense of distance which we all sit at in front of our TV screens watching the world at a safe distance.

and Guantamerica

Paintings taken from low resolution photos of prisoners of Guantanamo Bay be subjected to sensory deprivation downloaded off the internet. In some of the later pieces from this series Keane abstracted the images further on Photoshop and the pixelated pattern that emerged was similar to the effects observed when oil and water mix (or don't mix). Keane linked this to America's pursuit of oil from Iraq hidden under the "War on Terror".

Oil Interference Patterns (inkjet print on jute)

Wilhelm Sasnal Terrorist Equipment

Sasnel uses everyday images as well as those sourced from of advertising, consumerism, propaganda icons and photojournalistic imagery. Terrorist Equipment is a banal, still life of a terrorist’s necessary equipment for a suicide bomb attack. The lethal items are dislocated from any personal or political commentary by its impartial, cold replication.

Arms Raised

I love how this painting could be interpreted as a powerful leader (heroic or dictator) or a victim surrendering to the other side - two very different positions.

Richard Hamilton Swingeing London

I love how Hamilton has reproduced this image through the mechanical process of screen printing. I like the rich colours and grainy texture of this newspaper image. When I first saw this I couldn't stop staring at it, I love how the handcuffs are physical in this piece. The inclusion of iconic celebrity figures is relevant now in our celebrity obsessed culture.

Elizabeth Peyton Kurt Cobain

Peyton lifts imagery from magazines and popular media sources. Though she her paintings depart from the stylized, airbrushed imagery of magazines and embrace a much more naturalistic approach which creates a sense of closeness to the subject - personalising a relationship between her and the famous subject. Peyton’s paintings are representative of the idolised status and worship of celebrity figures in the media.

Robert Rauschenberg Retroactive 1

Rauschenberg is famous for his collages of overlapping, seemingly disparate imagery that aptly recreates our experience in a society saturated by media images.