Surrealism, Photomontage

PAINTING 2: Exploring Concepts

Part 1 – Painting in Detail

Project: Surrealism

Exercise . Photomontage

The work by Richard Hammond was interesting; I particularly liked “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas”, which was a screen print.   It reminded me of some of the enhanced photographic processes I have played around with and which I am hoping at some stage to incorporate into my work. The work by Malcolm Morley, an etching, “French Legionnaires being eaten by a lion” shows similar effects.  “My Marilyn” by Richard Hamilton used photographs of Marilyn Munroe which had been rejected and therefore crossed through by her, he then augmented and enhanced the images, during the screen-printing process. So in both cases the images have been played around with.  Photomontage is a similar process of image manipulation that allows the juxtaposition of colours shapes and icons to be altered in new and interesting ways.  I can see that by doing this, one ends up with a final image that is surreal.   The image itself remains representational but the collage becomes an invention that distorts reality.  I had not considered this process very much in the past but it is a creative way of developing ideas, with surprisingly few cut out images.  I created two images which I would like to have used  together to create the words of a song “The temperature’s rising, we’re having a heat wave”.  The implication is that of global warming causing tsunamis, not the temperature “heat wave”, in the accepted sense.

Surrealism Check Log

• How did you decide what to include in your images?

It was fortunate that I had the images that I did as the overall background to both pictures. The Iceberg immediately got me thinking about global warming and from there it wasn’t difficult to find obtuse images that might reinforce this idea.

• Has your style adapted to this subject matter?

I didn’t think I would adapt so easily but the photomontage appealed to me in the sense of design, integrating colour and compositional elements, and I think I will develop my own enhance photographs in this way too, something I have wanted to do but haven’t quite known how I might go about it, now I have a clearer idea.

• What aspects of the surreal approach can you bring to the rest of your work? 

As mentioned above, this will encourage the use of my own enhanced photographs compiled with an approach that is original, dynamic and hopefully artistic. Juxtaposition is the watchword and it has made me even more aware of pure design and balance in an inspirational way.