May - Preparation towards the Degree Show

The Major project - "Czechoslovakia" land of Two Faces

I will spend the following weeks preparing the exhibit. The project is already mostly assembled but I should still try to create a couple more diptychs that go along with the overall theme and then concentrate on the exhibiton techniques, printing, leaflets...

I also need to write a project description (that will acompany the exhibit), essay and finalize the journals...

I will need to decide on how to position the images (wall), and also how to exhibit the rest of the images (using pouches binded together or loose) on a table...

All material must be ready within 3-4 weeks, so that it is prepared for assessment by the 6th of June...

April - Two Faces

Out of previously mentioned themes that interested me... I have decided to narrow down the focus into creating the diptychs that explore two faces we all have. I will take no side in commenting of the situation in which we are, or in which we had previously been. This work is becoming personal as I myself am two faced, which will be explored through the picture selection and through the composition technique. The work will focus on people - urban landscape, traditions, religion... 

I would like this body of work to create layers of meaning and metaphors that refer to both current and past experience. 

I will be using techniques that I explored earlier, although will keep it simple and I hope readable. 

 

SAMPLES

image 1.

image 2.

image 3.

image 4.

April

After I spent couple of weeks exploring the techniques to create photomontages, I came to the point where I need to start thinking about the concept/theme for the project. I have already chosen couple of issues which I followed up so far although I need to narrow down the focus now. 

I have done some brainstorming, searching for the aspects that interested me most about the status quo of countries I had been exploring. 

 possible themes of interest: merging of cultures (change)

    icons (juxtaposed)

    identity (traditions, habits)

      people (contemporary)

-one technical adjustment which I will do to my work, is removing the images from the frame... They will be left frameless, with no divider between the images. This way, emerging of the images will be emphasized even stronger. They also create one reality instead of the two previously created when framing was used. When images are seen this way, they find new meanings and context in the place of their exhibition because the surrounding will eventually have created the frame in which the diptychs are seen.

 

March

In the past few weeks, I have been collecting new images (from the Czech Republic trip).

I have also started to experiment on images I already had or acquired recently. I created diptychs which I then cut, painted over, made collage with or adjusted on the computer. 

I have visited a couple of exhibitions - solo exhibition of Matej Vakura in Zilina (photography, 

instalation), group exhibition KEBABB in Zilina (fine-art, design, video, photography, instalation)  and Charity exhibiton in Prague (photography).

I have also looked into some works of Hiroshi Sugimoto, Martha Rosler and John Baldessari

(not directly influencing the major project).

The examples of changes (experiments) I made to the diptychs.

computer alteration (color, shapes)

Computer alteration (geometry)

Computer alteration (composition)

Computer alteration (multiplying)

Computer alteration (copying, pasting)

Manual alteration (cutting, pasting)
Computer alteration (collage)

Manual alteration (hand coloring)
Manual alteration (hand coloring)

February

In the past few weeks, I put a lot of effort into my own practice. I needed to focus primarily on picture taking. I stopped reading as much as I did in the previous months, and I started to use the theory for my practice. I have been traveling across Poland and Slovakia a lot, and I took couple dozens of interesting images that I already started to pair up. 

I divided my interest into couple of themes which I will be working on, before deciding on one, for the Major Project. 

1. Inspired by D.Roussel, 'The Places I Live In"

    - photos of places from outside and inside perspective 

    - space transition, looking at one place from different space positions at one time

    - juxtaposing space ( outdoor/indoor)

2 . Inspired by R.Gibson, "Overtones"

     - taking photos (creating diptychs) according to their shapes, forms, geometry

     - concentrating on formal similarities

     - paying attention to tones - shade/ light  

3. Objects evoking positive / negative emotions 

     - creating emotional juxtapositions

4. Negation of composition vs Des-integration of composition

     - dead pan style images juxtaposed to precise studio shots

     - dead pan  (pattern, landscape, chaos)   vs  studio (one object as a central motive)

5. Empty spaces vs used spaces

     -focusing on one space portrayed as used on one side, and as empty/abandoned on the other 

    

6. Other unclassified scenes and objects that interest me

    - with preferably social, environmental or cultural theme

This list is not final and it is a subject to change. 

In the following weeks/months, I will be traveling a lot, taking pictures of different places which I will then adjust for pairing (resize, dust removal, pushing contrast in some cases). 

I will be mostly using 35 mm camera for the street shots, and medium size camera (6x6) for the studio/dead pan shots. 

January

In the past few weeks, I have been working mainly on practical site of the Major Project. I have been taking street photos on my travels across Slovakia. I was focusing on interesting sites, empty or used by people. I have traveled across rural and urban places using variety of transports (train, bus, hitchhike). That helped me to photograph places I otherwise would never see. Sometimes I ended up at places in the middle of nowhere and even there, I found interesting sites to photograph. When I am traveling, meeting new people, finding new places, photographying everything I find interesting, I feel completely free. There are no boundaries to what I can capture. It gives me a complete freedom over my creativity and experience of photography.Part of my most recent work involved a computer work - pairing up images into diptychs, size adjustments or other manipulation (croppings, removing dust...). I have finalized couple of diptychs which I could divide into three categories:

1. The Street Photography diptychs (made of images taken on ''the street'', usually paired up with the same style images, although sometimes paired up with a stu

dio shot)
2. Composite Series ( Half Heads put together creating one combined Identity, there is a strange relations

hi

p between the two halves of different heads, which readers are to explore)

3. Other diptychs (Empty Spaces vs Used Spaces, Ironic Diptychs, Bizzare-Experimental Diptychs, diptychs made of two different mediums...)
In next couple of days/weeks , I will start wor

king on contextual essays, writing and contextualizing work I have done so far. I will also write on basic photography theory which is the core

 of my project. Besides writing essays, I will be taking pictures on my trips In Europe (Poland, Czech, Slovakia). I will also do more of the studio head shots for the composite series.

HEAD COMPOSITES

Zuzka / Unknown

Edna / Gaspar

December

Previous couple of weeks, I spent collecting, annotating and summarizing material which I found interestin and inspiring for my project. I have started narrowing down the focus into researching diptychs and their use.. Looking at work of other artists gave me a valuable insight into issues around diptychs and also it has inspired me in many cases.

My aim is to use my images to provoke audience to ask questions. I want to challenge them. I know that my work must be visually interesting enough for them to be bothered to think about it, question it or even to look for answers / meanings in it.

 I have decided on my project's working title : 'Diptychs'. So far, there is very little outcome of it, as I have just made first experiments with portraits which I had shot for this project. I have combined various images together creating visual games. 

One of the ideas which I will be developing further, is combining a portrait of a person with his thoughts written on a paper... Images of both will be displayed side by side influencing each other and reading of the diptych.