ITAP - Week three

This weeks lecture was about connectivity in visual communication.  The two principles I have decided to look at are notions of originality and the relationships developed from existing forms of historical culture. Basically, I will be looking at the connections that can be made between artwork that has been produced in different time periods and the reconceptualised ideas and concepts shown in contemporary culture. To begin I have chosen to explore these two pieces of artwork.

Elsie Wright - Cottingley Fairies (1917)

Matt Collishaw - Catching Fairies (1996)

As you can see there is 73 year gap between the production of these two images but they look reasonably similar. This is because relationships have developed through historical culture. Cottingley Fairies is a well known piece that many people have been inspired by, Matt Collishaw being one of them. You can tell this from the notions of originality shown in his piece. The obvious similarity between the images is the fairies. Fairies are fictional characters and do not exist in the real world, but the way Matt has drawn them is very similar to Elsie. As they are unreal, you could portray them in any way you like but Matt has decided to keep the historical relationship and allow people to relate his work back to Elsie's. Another similarity is the lack of colour. Matt has chosen to only colour the fairies and the human. By doing this he may be trying to portray that fairies are real, like humans. Elsie was also trying to portray this by using a child in her work. It is thought by many that children never lie and therefore by using this child in the image it portrays that if the child thinks they're real and can see them, they must be real. The child looks very innocent which makes you believe it even more. To conclude, there is a strong historical and cultural link between these two images.

Hokusai - The great wave of kanagawa (1830)

Asahi Beer Advert 

Secondly, I have chosen to look at advertising and how historical culture has been used within it. Below and above are a couple of examples of where famous artwork has been reproduced in the form of an advertisement. Wanting to go into advertising myself, this has really inspired me to research further into classic paintings and think about how I could use them in my work. In the Hokusai example, I think it is really clever how the wave has been made out of bottle openers. When you first look at the advert you see the wave and think they are trying to say that it's first quenching, but then if you look again you see the hidden bottle openers and also realize that it is similar to the Hokusai painting. This works well as an advertisement as they are likely to be shown on a billboard or somewhere in public. This would mean that when you first walk past the advert you might only notice the wave, but when you walk back past it again you begin to notice the other subtle hints within it. Its the sort of advert that makes you think 'oh that's clever' and therefore you're impressed and more likely to buy the product. The Dior advert also has this effect. When you look at it you either see the skull or the woman first, and then you see both. To conclude, it can be said that advertising companies are using the clever ideas that are hidden in historical culture to successfully market products today. 

Charles Allan Gilbert - All is vanity (1892)

Vincent Peters - Dior (2002)