Commission Research

I loked at many artists for this project but a only a few of them were helpful.

The first were Tim Noble and Sue Webster. They used rubbish and cast a shadow over it that was in the shape of humans. This rather unsettling work is an example of a reminder of human nature. the rubbish represents our personalities and our ways of living. We litter, it over runs us and becomes part of us. There work is focused on the transformation of the rubbish into the shadow of portrait and sometimes self portraits It was my initial research as this is where we started when I did this project las year in my foundation year. This is where my idea of casting a shadow over rubbish came from. But quickly moved on from that after the tutorial.

I looked at the Shadow catchers, camera less photographers that worked with shadows directly onto the paper. Their work was more about what defines the line between art and reportage, or the possibility of both at once. There are 5 artist in total, including: Adam Fuss, Pierre Cordier and Floris Neussuss. They all had very different concepts and ideas, but I had a look at them for their technniques. I thought about using camera less photography for my project, but after studying them and their techniques I realised that they used very complicated ways of doing their work and that I did not have the knowledge to do what they did. For example, submerging the paper in water, using a flashlight to expose it and than working with the chemicals to adjust it.

Finally I looked at Rashad Alakbarov, a photographer that uses rubbish and other material to cast a shadow that spells out words or create landscapes that a few students recommended. He uses this technique to create shadow paintings, a strange way to combine photography, shadows, and the traditional art of painting. Even though they are not actual paintings they are referred to as paintings. He uses material he finds lying around and recycles it in his works of art. His work with words became my main inspiration for my concept and idea.