Project 4
Looking WithinDigital/Lens-Based
November 2020 Exhibition TextLooking Within is a lens-based digital collage that was inspired by Marja Pirilä's Interior/Exterior and Njideka Akunyili Crosby's 5 Umezebi St., New Haven, Enugu and created using Photopea. This piece is a visual representation of parts of my identity and is a 'look inside' to locations that are important to me. Crosby's work inspired the collage style while Pirila's work inspired the exterior, natural photos. The melding of the photos is a metaphor of sorts for the melding of the locations that helped meld me into who I am today.
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Planning
Inspiration
This piece has an eclectic, faraway feeling to it. The girl is sleeping; it seems as if the scene behind her could be a dream and not reality. My piece will also show the 'inner thoughts' of the main figure. The bed provides an anchor to the room and clashes with the scene on the wall, although in a subtle way. The colors blend together well because none of them are overly strong or eye catching. There are soft yellows, greens, and blues as the most noticeable colors. I like this and will not include any dazzling or obnoxious colors into my collage. The figure's pose is sleepy and relaxed; the figure in my piece will also appear relaxed. Although this photo is strange at first glance, with closer examination all the aspects are completely mundane. A girl sleeps in a bed and on the wall is the exterior of a house with a car in front. It shows a calm side of life that we perhaps do not take the time to appreciate as we should. I want my piece to also show the calmer, softer sides of our lives.
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This mixed media piece is primarily about the merging of Akunyili Crosby's different cultures. She is Nigerian born and resides in Los Angeles. She has said her art 'negotiates the cultural terrain between her adopted home in America and her native Nigeria.' This piece shows a family at a party or get together of some kind, simply relaxing and doing mundane things. Much of the wall, exterior, clothes of the figures, and floor are composed of magazine cutouts and photos. These are personal to Akunyili Crosby and display the cultures that she wishes to merge. There are also striking oranges and blues that serve as accents to the overall piece. I want my piece to also merge my respective cultures, that of my American heritage along with the Hispanic heritage I receive from my parents. The relaxed poses of the figures also fits in with my plans for this piece. For the photos and cutouts, I will most likely find a way to fill parts of my work with other 'scenes' or photos in a similar way to Crosby.
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Sketches
When brainstorming ideas to show my identity and inner self while also incorporating the idea of exterior, I decided to take pictures of outside locations that are special to me. Most of them are places that I enjoyed spending time in when I was younger or places around my neighborhood that are important to me. They have memories attached to them and they are personal enough that I think they show a part of my identity since so much of me was formed spending time in these places with my family and childhood friends. I also used photos of places I enjoy visiting, such as the lakefront and the art museum downtown.
Experimentation
A large part of my experimentation with this piece was finding the right tools to add texture to this piece. Because my piece is digital while Crosby's work is made with paint and paper, physical texture is impossible to achieve. So I attempted to create visual texture using the tools in the app. I ended up settling for adding noise because I enjoyed the way it looked, but I experimented with numerous other techniques previous to it. |
Process
My first step was to take a photo of a figure. Normally, I would have tried to get some other people to pose but with the current situation I decided to just do it myself. I posed in my favorite of the ones I sketched and set up my phone camera with a timer. I tried to keep the background mundane since I want the location to seem familiar. Most of the meaning will come from the photos I incorporate, so I knew that this first photo could look a bit boring. I kept the composition balanced but asymmetrical. The dresser on the left balances well with the curtain on the right and the flower rope fills out the top of the space. I didn't worry too much about my facial expression since it would be photoshopped out anyway. The colors are relatively muted, which further adds to the everyday, calm feel of the piece.
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I tried my best to use the dark and light values to create form and shape. For example, on the left arm I rotated the photos so that there is a separation of the arm from the torso in the lightness of the sky contrasted with the darkness of the ground. When placing the photos within the empty space, I tried my best to make the lines harmonious. I didn't want too many continuous lines and not too many broken lines. |
I also erased the facial area and added my favorite of the photos. It is a photo of a bridge near Lake Michigan downtown. I like that it adds depth to the space and is sort of visualization of a 'bridge' to the mind. For the feet, I added more photos of locations I enjoy visiting, one being the lake and the other a park where my family goes every so often. I wanted some pops of color similar to Crosby's piece, so I outlined the area where the figure sits and using the paint bucket tool on 30% opaqueness, I filled up the space with a salmon color. I thought it matched well with the color of the flowers above the head and added some unity to the piece.
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Reflection
As this was my second lens based piece, I certainly feel more familiar with the tools. I am satisfied with this piece, but I wish I had more time to better organize the photos in the collage sections. The edges of the photos seem a little hard, as if there are too many straight lines within the figure's torso. I didn't touch them out of worry I would mess something up, but in the future I want to get more experience with the program so that I could someday know how to solve a problem like this. They aren't horrible, but I wish I had the time to add filters and fit them more accordingly in the space. This piece made me realize how much I enjoy lens pieces; in the future I want to experiment more with the tools.
Compare & ContrastSimilarities:
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ACT Responses
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
Akunyili Crosby's desire to merge her cultures together through visual symbolism and the blending of different mediums inspired my desire to show the aspects of my identity through the blending of different photos in unique ways. Pirilä's beautiful way of showing the exterior of a home within its interior affected the way in which I decided to merge my photos together.
What is the overall approach (POV) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author of the New Yorker article on Akunyili Crosby praises her achievements and goes very in depth into Crosby's intentions and feelings when she is creating her art. The author of the CNN article on Pirilä describes her methods towards her work and explains the intentions of her work while remaining mostly neutral.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have concluded that mediums and techniques in art can be effective ways to communicate people's cultures and beliefs just as Akunyili Crosby does.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme around my inspirational research was the idea of 'inner self;' Akunyili's display of culture reveals her inner self and Pirilä's idea of showing the exterior in the interior also displays the idea of looking inside oneself.
What kinds of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred that Pirilä is a photographer that cares immensely for showing the strange sides of photography; her methods are unusual but beautiful and she is not against experimenting with her work if it means it will take on new meaning.
Akunyili Crosby's desire to merge her cultures together through visual symbolism and the blending of different mediums inspired my desire to show the aspects of my identity through the blending of different photos in unique ways. Pirilä's beautiful way of showing the exterior of a home within its interior affected the way in which I decided to merge my photos together.
What is the overall approach (POV) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author of the New Yorker article on Akunyili Crosby praises her achievements and goes very in depth into Crosby's intentions and feelings when she is creating her art. The author of the CNN article on Pirilä describes her methods towards her work and explains the intentions of her work while remaining mostly neutral.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have concluded that mediums and techniques in art can be effective ways to communicate people's cultures and beliefs just as Akunyili Crosby does.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme around my inspirational research was the idea of 'inner self;' Akunyili's display of culture reveals her inner self and Pirilä's idea of showing the exterior in the interior also displays the idea of looking inside oneself.
What kinds of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred that Pirilä is a photographer that cares immensely for showing the strange sides of photography; her methods are unusual but beautiful and she is not against experimenting with her work if it means it will take on new meaning.
Bibliography
Akunyili, Njideka. “Njideka Akunyili Crosby.” 5 Umezebi St., New Haven, Enugu | Njideka Akunyili Crosby, 2012, www.njidekaakunyilicrosby.com/work/5-umezebi-st-new-haven-enugu.
Dedieu, Jean-Philippe. “Njideka Akunyili Crosby's Intimate Universes.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 18 June 2017, www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/njideka-akunyili-crosbys-intimate-universes.
LensCulture, Marja Pirilä |. “Marja Pirilä.” LensCulture, 2014, www.lensculture.com/marja-pirila.
Pirilä, Marja. “ Marja Pirilä - Photographer.” Marja Pirilä - Photographer, 2020, www.marjapirila.com/portfolio.html.
Russell, Lauren. “Camera Obscura: From the Outside In.” CNN, Cable News Network, 5 Jan. 2015, www.cnn.com/2015/01/04/world/cnnphotos-interior-exterior-camera-obscura/index.html.
Dedieu, Jean-Philippe. “Njideka Akunyili Crosby's Intimate Universes.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 18 June 2017, www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/njideka-akunyili-crosbys-intimate-universes.
LensCulture, Marja Pirilä |. “Marja Pirilä.” LensCulture, 2014, www.lensculture.com/marja-pirila.
Pirilä, Marja. “ Marja Pirilä - Photographer.” Marja Pirilä - Photographer, 2020, www.marjapirila.com/portfolio.html.
Russell, Lauren. “Camera Obscura: From the Outside In.” CNN, Cable News Network, 5 Jan. 2015, www.cnn.com/2015/01/04/world/cnnphotos-interior-exterior-camera-obscura/index.html.