25/11/2017 - FURTHER TRANSPARENT EXPERIMENTATION

After an initial experiment with silhouttes and transparent layers inspired by my trip to the Deep, I wanted to try experimenting further on a seperate occasion. This time, unlike previously with my Green Sawfish piece, I wanted to enter the task without a specific outcome in mind and instead let the colours, shapes and experiences of my trip inspire me creatively.

Whereas my first attempt had tried to capture the blue hues and ethereal silhouttes of the large 'Endless Oceans' tank, I thought in this second work I could instead take inspirationg from some of the submariums more colourful and populated environments, those of the coral lagoons and shores.

Wanting to avoid specific predisposed intention, I sketched out some bright and playful coral-like shapes which I remembered from previous research for my 'Calcify' piece. I had fun playing with these for a moment before deciding I needed a stronger background layer to give the sense of underwater depth of field. This is where the qualities of the film once again came into it's own, as I was able to lay down some ink with my pens and then scrunch the film itself to distribute the colour in a distressed, filtered way.

Once this was dried I could then use pencil and eraser to carve away at the ink, which gave some really interesting mark making effects in it's own right. It was amazing how the small difference of having a wipeable surface suddenly opened up a whole host of different techniques and ideas, and suddenly got me thinking entirely differently about how I could build up my image. Just like before, I was also really enjoying the depth of control I was affording by using the transparent layers in this way. Arranging each layer and component of my image almost gave a childlike sense of play to the activity, and I felt reconnected with the creative experience in quite a fresh way.

I was really pleased with the outcome of this environment which I had built up in an experimental way. At this stage I considered leaving the piece it was, without any central subject as the composition seemed to suggest. I considered the works Hurvin Anderson's work where he often intentionally leaves out or obscures the subject to give his works additional suggestablitiy, and to suggest abscence and displacement. I thought this could be potentially poignant, and would lend an extra sense of abstraction to the rest of the environment, without that additional contextualisation to even tell us for certain this is an underwater scene.

However the beauty of this method allowed me to very simply trial adding in a silhoutte to the middle. Following on from the facts presented by the Deep, I thought having the typically colourful clownfish captured in black and white against their vibrant surroundings I hoped would also give a sense of absence and disconnection, but still tie the piece down into a distinct visual narrative.

Another effect I really liked at this point was the physical distance between each of the layers. Shown in the below image, the seperation of each layer produced some beautiful shadows between the elements,  and gave my work spacial depth. For an underwater image this was particularly effective, but also got me thinking about ways I could intentionally seperate layers of an image to generate this effect purposefully.

Finally I just wanted to add a lighter edge to the bottom of the work, and was given a flash of inspiration when I saw this layer against a black background. Against black the qualities of the opaque Posca pens really came to the forefront, making intricate almost wavelike forms. This made me immediately want to try working with transparent layers against a black background.

I thought back to the moments which had particularly stuck with me during my visit to the Deep, and remembered the jellyfish tank which made me feel a bit ethically uncertain and unarguably illustrated the restrictions we put on these creatures when we bring them into captivity; even in the relatively unconscious case of the jellyfish.

I also wanted to test how other materials would work with the film, so decided to try using acrylic paints for this piece. I prepared a piece of paper by painting a black square onto it and then experimented with wiping and scratching techniques on film to create a blue swirl to go overtop. I found in fact that paint actually adhered better to the film surface than posca, and allowed colour mixing and tones to come through better on a single layer.

By juxtaposing the circular swirl with a white roughly drawn box overtop, I contrasted the wideness and freedom of the ocean with the restriction of the white rectangle. Again the reflective qualities of the film came into its own as it had during my first experiment yesterday, and gave a sense of captivity to the work.

The mixture of hard geometric and soft natural forms demonstrates the stark comparison between the normal lives of these travelling animals and the environment they are placed in at the Deep.

I really liked working with the film mainly because of the way it enabled me to arrange and compose my images, not unlike the way I often work in photoshop to manipulate works. I also remembered back to the collage lion piece I created for the IMAGE - PAINT workshops at the start of first year and how happy I was with the arrangement of this piece, due to the collage I had used to create my source material. Film also allowed physical distance between layers which I was actually more drawn to than when fully stuck down flat. However the works were very difficult to photograph as they were so shiny; light becoming increasingly diffused and reflected between multiplying layers. Also I was aware of the environmental issues raised by working with film. So I feel it isnt the best material to marry with my practice, however the method and control element is what  holds the most interest.