I need to stop stopping. Stop flitting from one thing to another. Take a breath and dig deeper within a current exploration. I have to question that there are some instances when I go in too shallow, I avoid the depths and what can be found in the darker, deeper waters.
With the outcomes of the model project I started to photograph them to record them in isolation but I also wanted to go in closer, closer to the point where the actual objects become blurred , their identity and the material lost. They can then potentially become a doorway to another iteration or further exploration. In this entry I will explore a set of selected and edited images, what they say to me, what they may mean and what they could be.
Weave the wire with the glue.
I see globules, air bubbles, a spider's web of strands or even the secretion left by an animal as a sticky trap for it's prey. The wire this close up has become something else, it has a bonelike feeling about it, especially at the base of the image. The glue has become more than the hidden connecting substance it is normally thought of as. It is very much visible and almost has a quality of being alive, encapsulating parts of the wire, growing over it as if it was a disease attacking a host, growing, expanding and concealing the metal, feeding of it before it moves on to the next object. The wire is strong, structured and solid but the glue is active, devouring, controlling. The bones will eventually succumb to the predator.
Cut the foam with the tape.
Getting up close to the foam, you lose the feeling it is foam, it almost becomes road like, tarmac but with elements melted or a food-like substance being pulled apart. There is an element of decay, of breaking apart and the desperate clinging to keep the connection. Looking really close at the frayed edges of where the material has been torn it has a fur like character, almost the profile of an animal, if I was try and see a figurative element. The negative space doesn't offer any clue as to what is beyond, it is there but not. It is not inviting as some gaps in material or spaces can be, there is nothing to indicate what is on the other side, these aren't windows offering a view, they are merely gaps. This is one piece but it feels like two that are clinging together or meeting and melting into each other.
Wrap the foam board with the plastic packaging strip
Most of the images I have from the materials have are very devoid of colour, almost as if they have been turned into greyscale image, which they haven't. There are bursts of colour in some but this one has very little, a hint of light on the white of the foam board. I was attracted to this crop not just with the punctuation of the material by the plastic strip but by the cross made in the foam board. It could be a crossroads made by walkers on freshly laid snow. The cross divides the image, gives you the four segments, leads you in and out again to unknown destinations. The black material that pokes through the crisp white board could be seen as something emerging from the ground or standing proud despite the covering of snow. It hints at something below, something trapped. The curved nature of the black shape could be construed as a gloved finger grasping up to break through and feel a way out of it's trapped space.
Tape the polystyrene with the glue
With the image being this close the actual tape being wrapped around the polystyrene and the visible restriction isn't shown. The tape is slung, loose and shows little strength when in isolation shown here. The polystyrene and its molecular structure become more important than the actual shape of the whole piece, each 'bubble' seems to be forced to be together with its neighbour in this cell like arrangement. The contrast of the black tape and the yellow piece of cardboard contrast and also compliment, they converge but don't touch. All the elements have lost their identity, they have become something else, something but also nothing, just parts of the composition. I particularly chose this crop to balance the image with the limited components. The wire lazily flows through, it doesn't seem to have any purpose apart from breaking into the image and sneaking out again. It acts as a divider to the composition, balancing with the black tape and the triangle it makes in the corner.
Break the metal strip with the wire mesh
Both metals have become softer, flowing and even flesh like. The curves of the mesh and the layering of the mesh with the hint of the red below is reminiscent of an animal's feather or fur outer coating, the actual skin hidden beneath the outer layer, the shadows giving form to the item, making it feel soft and even something containing warmth and body heat. The metal strip could be a beak tucked under the wing of a bird, shaded by a fringe covering the eyes. Swanlike. It might be resting but it is aware of being watched and ready to unwind if required to defend itself. There is a hidden menace with the coiled, tucked shape, dark and foreboding. Wake it up at your peril.
Glue the bag with the wire mesh
Luscious, edible, ripe. The red speaks of flesh, flesh of fruit or the body, soft and tempting in the way it folds and offers layers to bite into. Or is it something that invites touch, invites investigation and a deeper exploration. The soft crevasses that are guarded by the protective wire mesh with its sharp edges ready to snag any intruder. Away from the fleshy, fruity feeling this image is giving there is an element of plantlike growth and shape, emerging as a flower does from a tight bud maybe on a wet day. The red cannot be ignored. It both warns of danger yet invites you in. Red peppers in a jar. Red chillis all soft and shiny as they ripen hiding their own bite. Red is danger but red is also temptation.
Gallery of other images
There is a temptation to paint some of these or at least draw them in great detail. The scale can be played with and even though these are minuscule elements of a much bigger object, what if they were to be isolated as they are here but portrayed as large paintings with the detail in full without being seen as details? I will add this idea to my ever growing list of possibilities to take things forward.
As part of a development of one of my What Next? blog page, I printed out some images on tracing paper to put in my concertina sketchbook I am looking to keep adding to (https://carldurban.wixsite.com/website/post/what-next) I printed out some of these close up images and then started to look through them with a magnifying glass I used to use to check registration on print items in my design days and recorded them with my iPhone. The item becomes even more obscure than when it was part of the model and the dot used to make it a halftone starts to become an element in itself. It almost feels like the darker object is attracting the dots, dragging them with it as it pulls out of the frame. The dots are more than dots, they could also be stubble on a chin, iron filings being disturbed by a magnet. The limitations of the process, printing mono on tracing paper strips images back to much simpler elements and arrangements.
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