Project #2 Collage and Translation collage: a technique of composing a work of art by pasting on a single surface various materials not normally associated with one another ( newspaper clippings, parts of photographs, theater tickets, and fragments of an envelope, etc). Translation: The rendering of something into another language or into one's own from another language. Change or conversion to another form, appearance, etc.
Bar Table with Guitar, Picasso, 1913
The Mouse's Table Burgess Collins (Jess),
Detail The Mouse's Table Burgess Collins (Jess),
Robert Rauschenberg
Rembrandt, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp,1632
Radek’s image here
First strategy (technique): Breaking down the image Analyze the main components of the work. Break them down into smaller components that either contradict or complicate the meaning in the original. This is quite similar to Seurat breaking down light into its constituents (colors) The central figure is a composite of small pornographic images appropriated from magazines
First strategy in action: How do you break down (contradict, expand, complicate) the central image of the romantic hero/explorer: The man who is constantly reaching for new heights and vistas? How do you “break down” the image of the sublime, awe- inspiring landscape? Caspar David Friedrich Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, 1818
Second strategy: creative use of material Analyze the main components of the work. Pay attention to the material in the painting. Transform and replace the material to create new meaning/reality/experience. For example, a knight in shinning armor is replaced by tin-foil.
Second strategy in action: How do you translate/substitute the large area of glass and transparency? What material(s) would you use? Edward Hopper Nighthwaks, 1942
Third strategy : Transform the composition, Analyze the meaning and structure of the composition. Transform/translate/distort the original composition. You can even project it into 3-dimensional space.
Third strategy in action: How do you transform the composition (inside the frame) and the physical structure (include the frame) of this painting? Millet, The Gleaners, 1857
Exercise in class