I have created a few collages in my sketchbook today, using the photos from the Butchers earlier this week, artists’ work and my slime & latex photos copies.
These were my first 4 collages, and whilst creating them, I remembered Claire’s advice during e-portfolio week about how the eye is drawn to the dark and light when they are next to each other. I feel like one of my weaknesses is my “illustrative” side in textiles, like the composition of shapes and colours, because I tend to add too much, and so the focal point is lost. However I tried to improve that this time, and I slowly see an improvement with each collage, as there should be one very strong graphic image, against a smoother, refined texture for a balanced collage overall. By “balanced”, I do not mean that the collage should be neat, as I want that shock of grotesque still, but visually, it should not be overwhelming and end up being confusing when we see it.
These two collages were my most successful, as I felt most confident at this point. I discovered that grotesque for me (and most likely for a lot of others), is captured as:
- Long, stringy textures
- Spotted
- Unnatural sizes
- Strange forms emerging
- Alien
- Roundness
- Disordered
- Unsymmetrical
- Randmoness
I thought about how shocked we are when we face mould on food etc, because the organic form is just so bizarre and unnatural. So I created the collages merging disgusting textures, but with a sense of uncertainty, creepiness even.
These two collages are not disgusting, but more creepy instead. Out of all the other collages, I would say this resembles surrealist artworks most, especially with the emerging hand and mouths. If I were to create a sample from this collage, I could trap wiggly eyes in the latex for example, which adds a slight wittiness to the piece. And grotesque has a comical element too, so this was also a successful piece in depicting this.
The slime in the middle of the collage was meant to be pinkish but the printer ran out of the correct ink, so it is purple. However I feel that this is still just as successful in showing space within grotesque textures. The gaps between each speck is large, and this creates an unnatural, disordered effect, especially when it is uneven and not symmetrical.
I will continue creating more collages, and use weaving as my next technique with the printed paper images. I will also try using a little yarn, and small craft pieces I collected from Orinoco today, and hopefully I will have refined surface textures, ready to be translated into tangible samples.
