I originally stated in my learning agreement that I wanted to explore our relationships with objects, however reflecting on my final outcome I can see that the work has become much more about celebrating vintage publications and found printed ephemera. For my final piece I produced a wall covering. This was made from large sheets of painted paper incorporating materials such as found photographs, stamps, magazine and newspaper clippings. I was inspired by the work of Kurt Schwitters who believed in the ‘choice to montage every imaginable kind of commonplace object and waste product.’ I added coloured shapes to break up the areas of detail and add another point of interest and also worked in elements of screen prints I had done such as a polkadot print and an insert from an old Readers Digest that I developed into a repeat screenprinted pattern. This combination of elements helped to create the lively and fun aesthetic that I believe the outcome possesses.
I loved the intricately detailed designs on the hobbie pattern sheets so began tracing these and creating stencils from them. I enjoyed recontextualising found fragments creating a new context for them. To juxtapose the more complictated areas of collage I chose to have a more simplistic pattern spreading over a large area as well as a ‘candy striped’ element added to the composition.
I was very aware of my colour palette and decided to work using predominantly pastle tones to enhance the nostalgic vintage aesthetic that I wanted to create. I always planned to create an environment for people to be in that was a fun place to be and feel that I have achieved this however not on the scale I initially imagined.
I enjoy the fact that the audience are unable to take in the whole artwork in one go and have to look closer to see the smaller details and that you notice a different element each time you observe the work. I believe in a gallery environment this would draw the audience in and hold their interest for longer perhaps. Workng on a large scale has been a challenge I have enjoyed and to develop this way of working further in the final major project I would ideally create a permanent installation somewhere in the community. I think displayed in the right environment and professionally photographed would really bring an added quality to the work.
Within society there are certain conventions that we can all collectively understand however when viewing an image it is our own individual experiences and connotations that we bring to the piece that can make us respond in different ways.
"a galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signifieds; it has no beginning; it is reversible; we gain access to it by several entrances, none of which can be authoritatively declared to be the main one; the codes it mobilizes extend as far as the eye can read, they are indeterminable...the systems of meaning can take over this absolutely plural text, but their number is never closed"
I have always been interested in this relationship between the author of an artwork and the reader and the way work can be interpreted differently by individuals. Therefore I wanted to leave the work as open as possible and I think I have achieved this. My work could be interpreted as a comment on and response to societies attitude on mass production and consumption.
Once I had completed the wallcovering I did intend to photograph objects in front of it, therefore combining 2D and 3D elements however I felt the objects distracted too much from the hand crafted work.However I did experiment with paperchains in front of the collage to give an added dimension. Overall I am pleased with my final images however feel I could have achieved a more resolved outcome if I had planned my time better and explored the topic more thoroughly.
