Sammy Slabbinch

Sammy Slabbinck is a Belgian Artist who is known for combining vintage photography with contemporary compositional settings to create visually appealing collage prints. A lot of his pieces are quite humorous and contain subtle social commentary. For example the top two designs I have chosen seem to link to consumerism. The giant woman towering over the cityscape in the top design is standing proudly with her fur coat and matching skirt, I believe this is commenting on how society has become obsessed with material wealth. The middle design has a more direct comment due to the text featured in the composition and the beam of colour radiating from the T.V, this piece is in response to the popularization of television and the addiction that comes with it. My favourite is the bottom design; I love how the repetition of the hand creates a crazy but intriguing composition. The entwining of the colourful birds and flowers creates an interesting contrast to the deformity of the multiple hands.

 

 

Raul Ronald Moreno Cardenas

Raul Ronald Moreno Cardenas is a graphic designer/artist and art director based in Lima Lima, Peru who has worked with various clients and brands including Frito lay, Hayduck, bimbo and BCP. However his most successful and popular works are his collages “Burda Retrospective Collage” in which he recycled fashion images from style magazine Burda-German edition, 1966. He combined these images with retro wallpaper, text and found imagery to create timeless collages. What attracted me to his pieces was his use of fashion photography as I find the imagery great and easily manipulated to create interesting collage designs. I particularly like the rough cut and paste effects he incorporates in some of his pieces, this is evident in the top design. For this design he has almost merged all the imagery together to make them look like pieces of wallpaper that has been ripped off the wall revealing more layers of imagery/wallpaper underneath.

Monika Traikov

Monika Traikov is a Canadian graphic designer, fashion photographer and illustrator. Her works include photographic collages of landscapes and portraits. I think the way she manipulates her photographs by layering them on top of each other and flipping them in different directions is brilliant. It rejuvenates the original image and creates an eye catching composition with varying textures. I also like how she entwines shapes into the compositions as they add depth to the pieces.  I particularly like the top graphic collage because it is so surreal. It was taken from a zine  I really like how the circle with what looks like mountains in it; acts like another planet poking through the bed of cloud coverage.

Joseba Elorza

 

 

Joseba Elorza is a Spanish freelance illustrator who is best known for his striking collages. He often uses people from different time periods and collages them into mountainous landscapes to create sometimes bizarre but captivating compositions. I find his collages have a real sense of balance in terms of his use of negative space and colour. The colours in his collages really complement each other and I feel this is a crucial element within collage compositions as too many clashing colours could throw off the aesthetical look of the piece. What I particularly like about his work is its randomness which I think is a common theme in many collage works. It’s this randomness that makes you engage with the piece in order to decode its hidden meaning.  

 

My Manifesto

A common stereotype about Graphic design is that the computer does everything; I strongly disagree because the computer and modern software are used as a tool. I am a strong believer in starting with pen or pencil when I receive a brief. I prefer to design by hand and then use the computer if it will help my design to communicate a certain message. I enjoy being hands on with my work and find that pieces of work designed by hand are more personal and have a sense of charm about them. I decided to create some collages because I have always enjoyed the process of manipulating readymade images to create something new. All three collages contain three male heads that I came across in a 1950’s newspaper; I thought these heads would be striking incorporated into a more modern setting to create an interesting contrast. The top 2 are collaged with images I found in fashion magazines and the last a photograph I had taken whilst in the Northern Quarter. I thought the most successful was the top collage. The colours and subtle and complement each other nicely, in addition to this the three connected heads placed at the top of the suit (which had been torn up and put back together to add texture) create a weird but dynamic composition that catches your eye.

Manifesto research

Africobra manifesto 1970

Africobra (African commune of bad relevant artists) manifesto was written by African-American visual artist Jeff Donaldson. Donaldson is the founder of the Africobra, a group of Chicago based artist came together to define a uniquely black aesthetic within the visual arts. The manifesto from which the group took their inspiration talks about producing work for the black community. They wanted to create work that spoke directly to the need, aspirations and experiences of black America. Donaldson wanted to create an identity for black artists within the art world and shed light on their achievements.

I found this manifesto very interesting because at that point in history the black community was struggling with its status in America due to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr 2 years prior. It was during this decade that black power and distinguishing blackness came about. The movement of black pride affected all aspects of the black community e.g.  Music, art and politics. I feel that its manifesto had a positive affect within the black community and particularly amongst black artists whom came together to create an identity for themselves within the arts.

 

 

 

 

Cheap art manifesto, 1984

This manifesto was created by the Bread and Puppet Theatre, a theatre group founded by Peter Schumann. The press for this theatre published the manifesto “Why cheap art?” directed by Schumann’s wife Elka. The manifesto expresses the availability of Art. The Bread and Puppet theatre believed that art had become a privilege for the rich, they used this manifesto to state that art should be like green trees: seen everywhere by everyone.

I loved the simplicity of this manifesto and its presentation, the different fonts, sizes and use of upper and lower case lettering made it more appealing to read. I completely agree with the views of the theatre group in the sense that art should universal and priceless so that everyone can enjoy it.

 

 

 

Maintenance art manifesto, 1969

Maintenance art- proposal for an exhibition is a manifesto by Mierle Laderman Ukeles a New York City based performance artist and feminist. Her manifesto documents daily routines that consist of mundane chores such as cleaning, paying the bills and clearing the table. Through performance art set in a gallery she portrays these mundane ‘maintenance’ tasks and turns them into works of art.

I found this manifesto to be really relatable because we all have certain chose that have to be done and that often society expects us to do. That fact that she takes these chores and performs them as acts of art in a way raises the ordinary into something else that can be viewed in a different light. I feel that she is saying that all aspects of life hold importance even the boring routine tasks.

 

 

 

S.C.U.M Manifesto, 1967 (society cutting up men)

This Manifesto was written by Valerie Solanas an American radical feminist writer. The message she is trying to communicate through this manifesto is that men have destroyed the world and women should overthrow the government, reject the financial system that has been put in place and eliminate the male sex. She presents a questionable theory that men are incomplete women who are genetically deficient due to the Y chromosome.  As a result of this men are emotionally stunted, egocentric and incapable of genuine interaction. Solanas discusses this theory in sections that refer to topics within society such as war and money. For example she believes that men struggle to retain relations women and therefore they invest time in manipulating money. Everything is controlled my money including people, through this they are able to gain control of how society is structured and run.

I found her manifesto and her theories/beliefs rather interesting but also incredibly controversial and radical. I wouldn’t consider myself to be a hardcore feminist but I do agree with some of her points that refer to how in our society men seem to have the majority of control which puts women in a difficult position and forces them to work that much harder for complete equality.  

 

 

Versatilist manifesto, 2007

The Versatilist manifesto was written by Denis mandarino a Brazilian composer, artist and writer. Through this manifesto Mandarino wanted to free artists from expert analysis as he believes that an art critic has a limited point of view on a piece of work because their own knowledge is limited. He wanted to promote art as a form of self knowledge and spiritual enhancement that can’t be judged by critics of art contests.

I agree and disagree with Mandarino’s manifesto. I agree in the sense that art should be a form of self expression with a sense of freedom however, as an aspiring designer I think being critiqued on your work is crucial part of growth as an artist. Taking onboard other people’s opinion and using it to enrich your work is part of being an artist/designer.