Assignment 5 - Thoughts and planning

What source images do I want to appropriate?

I chose to use images that were taken from the internet. The types of objects used were from a list of random things that were suggested by my little friend group. The last of the images that I’ll use is one of the digital drawing I’ve made recently!

How do I want to manipulate surface/finish?

I want this piece to reflect the feeling and a bit of the look of 90s video game graphics so I’d like to have this printed on a matte piece of paper so that the textures on the print will contrast a bit more. I will maintain the “crunchy” sort of feel found in somewhat badly rendered graphics by keeping the pixelation visible and making certain parts feel like it would come out with a kind of texture when touched.

Do I want it to be critical, celebratory, or ambiguous?

I want this to be a kind of surrealist, search and find book type thing while keeping it slightly ambiguous. Why is this here? How will this look from far away? When do these random images start turning into something new? I’m going to attempt to create a picture of food using a variety of random items that aren’t food. I’m hoping people will have to do a double take when taking a closer look at this.

Where will there be exaggeration or artificiality?

I hope to speak about the idea of companies making food commercials which are done by fabricating a visually appealing product which is usually created using a completely different food or something that’s not even edible. What’s promised vs what’s actually received.

How will my digital painting change the meaning of the images I intend to use?

Like stated above, I hope to reinforce the artificiality of food advertisements. Among the items will be things like fire extinguishers, various pairs of shoes, garbage bags, etc. these will be placed in a way to resemble food from a popular/successful company like Costco (even though their stuff is pretty true to the picture haha). They will be brought together to make a cohesive “scene”.

While looking through the outline for this assignment I took a deeper dive into Wengechi Mutu’s work which emphasize the reshaping of narrative of femininity and politics which I found extremely powerful. I found the idea of taking various photos that may be unrelated and putting them together to make a piece that is recognizable while also main thing the individuality of each object or pattern.