Noemi Goudal is a French Artist based in London that takes her “practice as an investigation into photographs and films as dialectical images, wherein close proximities of truth and fiction, real and imagined offer new perspectives into photographic canvas.”
I was really impressed by Noemie Goudal's work. I selected this photographs because I liked the construction behind them. Using concrete as a material reflects on me as a way to describe something permanent. But when you see the whole picture it looks almost look like obsolete products. The Iceberg feels like a statement to global warming and how concrete replaces the melting icebergs so us humans won't be uncomfortable with the truth. On the other hand, Combat projects an image of emptiness and destruction that we constantly are creating with the pursue of wars and conflict.
What is visual language? What is the message behind pictures, images, symbols? What is my personal interpretation?
In the case of the dollar sign, the words power and consumerism came to my mind. But this particular dollar sign makes me feel imprisoned and some sort of emptiness, kind of the dependency we can have to money.
Scribbles can be interpreted in many ways depending on many variables. For example, the image from the book is an ad that “is equated with non-creative thinking although ironically it constitutes ninety-nine percent of the advertisement.” It feels like it is trying to represent something wrong or not supposed to be there. A statement for bad advertisement.
On the other hand, by changing forms and lines, scribbles can represent different concepts.
The first one reminds me of confusion and chaos. The second one of an explosion, a new idea, a discovery. And the last one, the gradient made of different layers of ink gives me a sense of a downward flow, a feeling of falling into something.
“The photograph allows us to look at someone we don’t know for what would normally be an unacceptable length of time”
Sarah Jones is a British artist who tries to “look at our complex relationship to representing nature, at the idea of beauty versus the object. (…) How we may or may not relate ourselves to both the pictured figure and the pictured experience.”
This photograph caught my eye because I think the narrative is quite intriguing. The stillness of the character almost like a mannequin. The position also feels like she is falling. Why is she wearing those clothes and lies there barefoot? Is she lost? Is she dead? The uncanny background also gives us a feeling of mysterious emptiness and darkness. I think it could be a metaphor for being lost in our minds and falling into darkness.
Storm Thorgerson
Pink Floyd, one of the most acclaim bands in the world, known for their progressive rock, psychedelic music. With their mysterious and intriguing sounds they started a new era for music, inspiring many bands and giving a new meaning to space rock.
The exhibition opened the doors to their world, history and minds. It was the first time I had a close up to their album’s covers and the creative stories behind and I couldn’t help staring at a particular one for a long time. It was one of the inside covers from Wish You Where Here album.
Wish You Were Here is meant to be an album praising for Syd Barret and also as a respond and critique to music industry. When I saw Storm Thorgerson's work in a bigger projection I can not helped to reflect on how deep and direct the message behind the photograph is. Betrayal and hypocrisy. It works as a clear statement for me because of how focused and centered are the subjects in the photograph. The environment is also a clue for me because they are kind of isolated with no people around to watch them.
Christoph Niemann is a German illustrator and graphic designer. In the Netflix series ‘Abstract’ Niemann reflects about his work and creative process as an artist. I was, first of all, impressed with his ability to see things, to really look at things and how he is able to transform and give new meanings to stuff that surrounds him (and us). It’s like he is trying to speak to us through his work and teaches us how to observe and pay attention. I find very empowering how “simple” illustrations can have such an intense meaning. The last picture for example, I think is a clear statement of how much freedom we have lost being connected and wired all the time.
This book cover gave me a clear idea how much color and shapes (and typography) can transmit just by looking at it. This illustration gives me the sense of vertigo from staring at it just a few seconds. How the lines and the position of word Vertigo makes your eye sight go straight to the top of the bell tower.
Bird with mask, Bracket Press
Global warming? Pollution? The fact that the bird is placed on the bottom left corner also gives me a sense of emptiness. I find really interesting how a few lines can make a huge impact communicating a message.
“I’m interested in exploring the connection between how we understand a text and how it appears visually. Design acts as a language that infers meaning and authorship beyond the words themselves.”
"After Donald Trump was inaugurated, dystopian fictions such as Orwell’s 1984, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Aldous Huxley’s A Brave New World shot up bestseller lists. “I found it interesting how people were looking to fictions to try and understand the current political situation, and drawing parallels between the Trump administration and the dystopian worlds in these books.”
Emma King rewrites George Orwell's 1984 using Donald Trump's tweets. I think this was brilliant and I was really interested with this particular job.
She is able to draw a parallel between Orwell's dystopian world with what Donald Trump winner election means and what could become. She makes a statement with this action and creates her own dystopian world in the process using language and design as her medium.
I loved this book cover because although it is a still image it gives you the sense of rapid movement giving a certain dynamic aspect to the cover. I also like that the front cover and the back are aligned like it is a “never ending book”.
Commercial ad for ebay is a clever way to send to promote its business and sends a message of obsoletion of the current shops. The face of de advertisement looks so simple. For me this is an interesting reflection about how the idea and message of what you want to project to people is far more important than how big in size your ad is. An impression can be made on customers without having to be in every corner and in big meaningless posters.
"Design needs to take human behavior into account" - Paula Scher for Abstract series
"I began painting maps to invent my own complicated narrative about the way I see and feel about the world. I wanted to list what I know about the world from memory, from impressions, from media, and from general information overload. These are paintings of distortions.” - Paula Sher -
For me Paula Sher gave me a new understanding for typography because she elevates it's function and reason to create. Typography can express via different technique variables a specific meaning or sensation. MAPS work for me is obsessive and clever, she portrays her view of the world and creates her own language. She narrows massive information in playful and interesting way using maps to describe more than just geographic information.