Caitlin McCormack

McCormack’s act of creating surreal and sinister artefacts of humanity in the form of sculptural knitted decaying animals is both terrifying and intriguing. The suggestion that our humanity and as she says “bloodlines” are best recreated and remembered through the act of fabricating these creatures exemplifies a sense of attempting to rationalise human actions and natures which simply cannot exist except in an abstracted form. These forms evoke a strong reaction of dislocation whilst juxtaposingly we are inherently implicated in their creation through the very artificial human act of knitting them.

January 20, 2016January 20, 2016 by InfinitelyElise Categories: Artist, UncategorizedTags: abstract, anthropomorphism, Artist, Caitlin McCormack, dislocation, humanity, knitting, reality, sculpture, surreal, violence Leave a comment

Steve Cutts

Cutts has a very distinct visual style that revolves around his illustrations striking ability to convey a narrative pun in a singular image and keep attention to the evocative and challenging dialogue of its surreal joke. The singular image is able directly relay a story which all audiences can relate to and empathise with in some way. I love the satirical subversion of commonplace scenarios and criticisms in a way which is very relatable and speaks through a language which can be readily disseminated.

January 20, 2016January 20, 2016 by InfinitelyElise Categories: Artist, UncategorizedTags: Artist, graphic, humour, illustration, narratives, Steve Cutts, subversive, surreal Leave a comment

Max Ernst: A Week of Kindness

Max Ernst’s ‘A week of kindness’, was incredibly influential, in its subversion of human desires and actions with the amalgamation of animals in its chaotic and somehow enchantingly nostalgic collage landscapes. Ernst also draws upon the image and connotations of the Gothic with Malcolm Gee describing that there are “recurrent themes of sexuality, anti-clericalism and violence, by dislocating the visual significance of the source material to suggest what has been repressed.” Ernst’s exploration of the Gothic appropriates classical dreams and erotic fantasies which “seem to mysteriously lure the unconscious into view” (Stanley Applebaum).  Visually, the collages are hauntingly beautiful and often incredibly disturbing in their use of disjointed, surreal image placement and are able to spin complex stories and concepts through a series of images.

January 20, 2016January 20, 2016 by InfinitelyElise Categories: Artist, UncategorizedTags: A Week of Kindness, anthropomorphism, Artist, chaotic, collage, figure, gothic, Max Ernst, re-appropriation, sexuality, surreal Leave a comment

Salvador Dali

Dali’s work interested me for my work due to its manipulation of images and symbols into something abstracted from its original image and connotations, creating a new representation of it in his surreal, often dystopian looking, worlds. The fact that Dali so seamlessly re-appropriates and distorts the world around him and then constructs his own helped further my exploration of the hyperreal chaotic mass of images currently encompassing and pervading society. Dali’s work is always anchored in aspects of normality, but positioned and played with in such a way that they are devoid of all original meaning and defy simplistic explanation and does not openly offer meaning and ideals.

Interestingly, when researching Dali, I was intrigued to discover his illustrations for the Bible and his interpretations of the events and figures within and the way in which he treated them aesthetically, often transporting them to seemingly entirely unknown planes of existence and experience.

January 20, 2016January 20, 2016 by InfinitelyElise Categories: Artist, UncategorizedTags: dystopian, manipulation, religion, representation, Salvador Dali, surreal, twisted Leave a comment

Guy Denning

Denning’s work brims with a sombre energy and communicates a sense of loss. His use of charcoal creates a fading, ravaged world and plays upon symbolism which seems devoid of all meaning and recaptures it in a depressed and subversive way. Angels and symbols of hope and guidance are as equally lost and insubstantial as the people bearing them and the ghostly charcoal conjuring them.

I was particularly drawn to Denning’s use of texture and collage, re-appropriating the images and words of newspapers in order to communicate his own bleak voice. The expression and emotion conveyed in his twisted and disintegrating figures is equally as alluring and disturbing and creates a surreal dimension to them.

January 20, 2016January 20, 2016 by InfinitelyElise Categories: Artist, UncategorizedTags: angels, Artist, dystopian, Guy Denning, hope, loss, surreal, violence Leave a comment

Richard Prince

The work of Richard Prince and his acts of re-appropriation of images was very influential, especially the way in which he highlighted the absurdity of the mass media and digital, impossible reality mind-set, such as with his works New Portraits, and its awkward transition into a physical image form. I was drawn to the performativity of the images and the absurd, surreal experience of witnessing the conflicted forms of the images which can never be fulfilled.

The satire and absurdity inherent in Prince’s work is conveyed in a haunting and surreal way, leaving a haunting sensation of dislocation. The presentation of the images in such a sterile, revered way emphasises the sinister reflection we are presented with as societies private delusions are laid out before us and we are forced to re-evaluate our position and our own ideals in accordance with it as we are forced to witness our own unreality played out before us. Ideals, thoughts, dreams; all are presented like some revered joke.

January 20, 2016January 20, 2016 by InfinitelyElise Categories: Artist, UncategorizedTags: delusion, dreams, haunting, hyperreality, ideals, performativity, personas, re-appropriation, satire, surreal, worship Leave a comment

Dave Mckean

Dave McKean

I was drawn to McKean’s work due to its surreal and enchanting visuals, his style serves to blur the boundaries between reality and fantasy even further and his warping of imagery and the human form which we expect to recognise and understand is sinister and dangerous. McKean’s narratives are exceptionally powerful, but serve to subvert our expectations and place us in a limbo of fantastical reality. In particular I was interested in his warping of the human/female figure, with his specific use of colour and abstraction to convey emotion and the subconscious leaking into reality. His work on the graphic novel Black Orchid  with writer Neil Gaiman was especially interesting for impactful, expressive visual style and the metamorphosis of expectations.

January 20, 2016January 20, 2016 by InfinitelyElise Categories: Artist, UncategorizedTags: Artist, fantasy, figure, graphic novel, ideals, narrative, surreal Leave a comment

3AM

Summer project work based on the exhibition 3AM: Wonder, Paranoia and the Restless Night curated by Angela Kingston.

I was drawn to the 3AM exhibition due to its exploration and creation of  a surreal and murky, otherworldly space in which dreams and nightmares clashed with ideals and desires.

Through my piece I wanted to address this ambiguity and sense of restlessness; creating juxtapositions of freedom and constriction in this undefinable space. The superstitious and supernatural elements of the world created within this pocket of time is constructed of contradictions, where it both conceals ourselves and yet also promises total freedom of inhibitions and concerns being hidden in the shadows.

Printed 210 x 297mm and mounted on card.

3AM: Nocturnal Nightmares

Digital painting with graphics tablet, 210 x 297mm

W.I.P, initial sketches and shadowed layers

October 29, 2014January 20, 2016 by InfinitelyElise Categories: My Artwork, UncategorizedTags: 3AM, Angela Kingston, concealment, freedom, juxtaposition, nightmares, restlessness, shadow, supernatural, superstition, surreal Leave a comment