TOWARDS A TYPOLOGY
Twombly mimics the look of writing by creating slanted characters / the scrawled appearance of actual words is contradictory to their meaning.
1. First impressions
The overall effect of the work attached is (circle up to 2 words)
explosive humorous
factual relentless
natural surreal
irritating puzzling
dreamy informative
poetic nostalgic
political urban
provocative expressive
What is this picture / design / sculpture / photograph / advert all about?
Autumn colours / natural shapes / describing a season through colours / text complementary to image.
2. What does the image do / what does the text do?
Which is the more dominant, the pictorial or the linguistic element of the work attached?
image more dominant
text more dominant
both are equal
How would the meaning change if you took out the text / words / letterforms?
The subject matter would not be as obvious, but you could make an assumption based on the colours / shapes.
If you took the image away, would this affect how we 'read' / interpret the work?
It would be far less expressive, with less energy. It would be more ambiguous.
3. Aesthetics / form
Would the work look better or worse without the letterforms / writing / text?
better
worse
Explain why:
If 'Autunno' was taken out, it would still be aesthetically pleasing, but the small pieces of text make it a lot more interesting. This also helps the viewer to understand the piece.
4. Dynamic
Would you describe word and image to be in agreement with each other or in conflict?
in agreement
in conflict
They are in agreement through most of the image, but are in conflict where the paint covers some of the text.
If words and image are - broadly - in agreement, would you say that one
supports the other
complements the other
embellishes the other
substitutes the other
does something else altogether to the other
Is it possible to tell which of the two (words / image) in responsible for creating 'agreement'? If so, is it
words
image
both
PHILIP EGLIN
'kiss me hard on / felatio nelson'
Eglin aims to achieve 'a balance between the high and the lowbrow, the reverent and the irreverent, the raw and the subtle, the sophisticated and the crude'.
The markings / branding on the bottom of ceramics / plates / china are important for value / style.
MIRANDA JULY
'eleven heavy things'
This series of eleven objects have been designed for interaction, with objects to stand on, holes for body parts, and freestanding abstract headdresses. July assumes what will happen and invites people to interact with her work, using photography as a way of recording the process. The performance is only complete when the photographs are uploaded - 'at which point the audience changes, and the subject clearly becomes the participants, revealing themselves through the work'.
CHARLES & DIANA MEMORABILIA
These iconic images are important and would not work if there was just text and no image. Most of the memorabilia has text included in the image, which helps inform people, but doesn't take anything away.
IMAGE - we can see / understand an image without learning it.
TEXT - we have to learn and acquire language / letters / words to understand text.
HOMEWORK
For our homework, we were asked to produce a piece of work that included an image of our choice, with a phrase / word from the above sheet. I chose to draw an animal because it is the normal subject matter i would choose to work with on Illustration BA.
I chose to use 'rising seas' because it is somewhat relevant to the crab, and provoked thought into whether the image should be accompanying an article about rising seas / endangered animals / global warming. Neither the image nor the text would have the same meaning if they were standing alone without the other.
