Michelangelo Antonioni - L'eclisse

L'eclisse (The Eclipse) is a film by the Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni set on the outskirts of Rome depicting the relationship that forms between the central characters and also the relationship that occurs with the environment and architecture of the world around them. 

"His ideas for films are born of visual epiphanies, fleeting but revealing glimpses of the world around him."

"What Antonioni finds in the environment is immensely rich and aesthetically coherent." 

Quotes taken from Antonioni - or The surface of the world

Film stills

"His ideas for films are born of visual epiphanies, fleeting but revealing glimpses of the world around him."

http://dvisible.com/2009/03/02/the-architectural-vision-of-michelangelo-antonioni’s-the-eclipse-1962/

Evolution of a piece

Continuing on from the idea behind my photocopy collage I began to think more about layers and traces hidden by time. Walking past this wall with peeling paint and weather damage almost everyday it seemed like an excellent opportunity to explore this idea. As the wall was too large for me to photograph successfully in one image I decided to create more layers and depth by using multiple photographs to form composites of the surface of the wall which would therefore mimic the layers and traces of paint. From this point I then decided to separate the composite photographs to create a grid with which to display the different layers of both the 'joiner' and the paint to create a sort of history of the wall. My intentions with the final evolution of this piece was that when placed on a wall it would blend in with the surround paint or surface to create in a sense the history of what could potentially be hidden beneath the surface to only be revealed by peeling it back. 

 A selection of the composite images.

The full montage

Final Layout

^ Exhibition images 

Hockney "Joiners"

“I’m interested in all kinds of pictures, however they are made, with cameras, with paint brushes, with computers, with anything,” - David Hockney 

Hockney has always been interested in photography. He first used it as preparation for his painting, but during the 1970s photography gained an independent role in his work. Using 35mm commercially processed color prints, Hockney created photocollages, which he called “joiners” until the mid 1980s. He compiled them to create a 'complete' picture from a series of individually photographed details. In the 1980s, Hockney primarily experimented with the Polaroid camera, making composite images of photographs arranged in a rectangular grid.

His collage technique explores the mysteries and nuances between natural and camera vision. Although, his subject matter ranges from portraiture to still life, his style from representation to abstraction, Hockney uses photography to examine our perception of reality. Family, friends, and collaborators and his own residence, the pool, his dogs, and the California and Arizona landscape are seen in many of his photocollages.

http://www.absolutearts.com/artsnews/2001/07/24/28901.html

http://www.moca.org/museum/exhibitiondetail.php?id=8

Photocopy Collages

Experimental photomontages using photographs and photocopies of photographs. Inspired in part by the David Hockney's 'joiners' and by the idea of hidden layers and peeling to reveal.