By graphically manipulating an existing set of images, it is possible to achieve a new meaning or significance to the image itself, once confronted by an oblique or surprising relation to another object.
This concept was the impetus for my own exploration of space and socialization, and the idea that the landscape which we have created is no longer our own, but rather an entity which shapes human beings and our motivations.
The specific inquiry of my project delves into questions of urbanization and its relation to nationhood - the use of urban decay as the dominant imagery emphasizes the decadence of consumerism and the lack of moral conscience in such issues. Each image is a flag, consisting in a collage of various images of iconoclastic culture heroes, counter-culture vagabonds, and synthetic consumer products.
The first image deals with this concept, but in a mocking, ridiculous way. The black and white figures of Laurel and Hardy and the iconographic Big Bird are contrasted against an aged brick building. Perhaps this is the way one should view the contents or materials of nationhood.
The second image is composed almost entirely of primary and complementary colors. The simplicity of the human figure on the left contrasted with the byzantine map of London on the right illustrates the artificiality of urban life and its lack of connect with nature and human nature.
The third image is a mock-advertisement for recycling, with a strong red wavelength throughout, giving it an oxidized aesthetic which makes it more earthy. Rather than viewing a path carved out in a forest, it is a path cut through a massive heap of oily, rubber tires. It accompanies the fourth image, which takes this idea to an absurd extreme. Both are intended to elucidate the need for moralistic, rather than capitalist or utilitarian needs for our landscape.
The fifth composition denotes the pitfalls of urbanization in terms of the lack of connect, or communication with the landscape. Jaws break off from atrophy while sheep are being genetically cloned, and the Mississippi is equally industrial.
The sixth and final image relates notions of nationhood and how this dwindling, unsafe manufactured landscape is becoming unlivable.
“The City in Man” - an idea that anything, even a map, can be an advertisement. Indeed, so many of the landscapes we view as mundane are in actuality manufactured, human constructs with utilitarian and capitalistic features.
