KEY SIGNIFIERS
Man in suit
Brick Wall
Writing on a wall
Photos
Tie
Shirt
Long hair
Low lighting
Composite image
DENOTATIONS & CONNOTATION
Young white man in a grey suit
Suggests class and wealth takes good care of himself
Brick wall with black and white on
Suggests urban, possibly dilapidated area
Writing on the wall
Suggests disrespect for property or maybe in this case respect for property (No Parking)
Photos
Suggests photography, photographer, memories, art.
Tie
Suggests uniform and authority
Shirt
Suggests uniform and authority
Long hair
Suggests student, stylish or maybe unstylish, breaking trends
Low lighting
Suggests night time, moody, drama
Composite image
Suggest different sides of humans, art, David Hockney
CONNOTATIONS AND MYTHS OF WHOLE TEXT
Pride of work, wanting to show it off, disrespect for the law, graffiti, concern for fashion in run down area, Photography as graffiti is challenging the notions of common graffiti, not being able to see the face suggests a certain amount shyness and insecurity within the subject.
KEY PARADIGMS
Gender
Relationship between photo and photos
Graffiti
Composite image
Artists
POTENTIALLY INTERESTING OR SIGNIFICANT PARADIGM SUBSTITUTIONS
Gender
Could be girls or could be one girl and a boy
Relationship between photo and photos
Could actualy paste the photos on the wall and photo that
Graffiti
Could not have a graffiti artist in the composite, could just be a model
Composite image
Could just have one big photo, or could project onto the wall
Artists
Could substitute me the artist with a builder (interesting juxtaposition)
KEY TEXTS WITHIN MY INTERTEXTS
Graffiti (as a whole)
Banksy (obvious, popular, mainstream)
David Hockney (composite image maker)
Street art books
INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCES
Urban fashion shoots, particularly Dazed & Confused and ID and so on. Clothing websites, Graffiti websites and urban artists own websites. Album covers, specifically hip-hop album covers.
AUDIENCE ASSUMPTIONS
I am assuming that my audience is familiar with what a graffiti artist generally looks like. I am also assuming that the audience knows that i the person against the wall (me) has put the photos up. But one should never assume as it makes an ASS out of U and ME!
WHAT I WAS TRYING TO DO WITH THE WORK
I was trying to get people to see that i was challenging the notions of graffiti by using photos instead of spray cans. I was also trying to get people to think that not all street artist look the same, some of them can look quite sharp, i tried to achieve this through juxtapositions of the suit and the urban environment.
OUTSIDERS VIEW
The feedback that i got from this piece of work in the final crit from my class mates and tutors was that they did not get the impression that i had put the photos on the wall and that i was the graffiti artist.
HOW COULD IMPROVE THIS WORK
The way i could improve on this and get my intentions across better is by actually pasting the photos up on the wall and then photographing myself next to it with the bucket and brush in the shot. This should get the point across. I would also like to shoot this in my basement as it is derelict and would still suggest an urban meaning to the shoot but it means i can control the lighting easier and there is no risk of getting caught.
OTHER WORKS WHICH NOW SUGGEST THEMSELVES
I know exactly what i want to do now which is what i just wrote in the previous section.
Evaluation
I'm glad i got to redo this piece of work, as i really liked the idea but did not like the final image. I'm really happy with how i have changed it, i feel i have got what i wanted to get across in an image that is 5 times smaller than the original one which just didn't work. The introduction of the bucket and brush was a simple idea but the connotations of having just pasted it really helped get across that i am the graffiti artist. Also being able to see the drops of the wall paper paste on the floor helps to convey that i have just finished it and also adds to the disrespect for the law aspect. This together with position of the brush on the bucket suggesting i have just put it down allows the viewer to really believe that i am the artist. The fact that it is in a basement and not outdoors does not hamper the meaning of the image in anyway, if anything it adds to it. Being in the basement it gives it a more underground subcultural meaning, it's as if your not supposed to know where it is and I'm letting the viewer in on part of my life. By keeping the suit i think i have achieved the juxtaposition i wanted between the stereotypical image of a graffiti artist and a smart artist to show that you don't have to look a certain way in order to create "urban artwork". The addition of the glasses was to start with just for the sake of it but i soon realised this worked really well to help convey the inteligent artist persona. In terms of the overall look of the image, it was helpful to be able to manipulate the entire shot at once and not have to worry about different lighting conditions because it was all in one shot. In the reworked image I'm wearing a better suit so i look sharper and as a result the final image looks better. Using the basement worked out really well, as it inspired my housemate and I to cover the entire thing with magazine pages and is now an amazing place for portraits and fashion shoots, which we have done. If you would like to see the images that this project inspired my housemate and I to create please go to this link below.
No comments:
Post a Comment