The Bird of Paradise piece of work I completed in the Drawing as Painting exercise was dynamic and exciting, but was it finished?
It was bugging me.
Does it need more, something to make it my own? It was redacted or erased, but was it something I could look at and be proud of in the form of a digital crop?
It was veiled and looped within an energetic sweep of paint.
It was dynamic and intense, but does it need framing somehow?
Let's remind ourselves of the journey to get to this point.
Materials and process.
Opaque sweeps of various coloured acrylic paints on watercolour paper A3 size with a 5 cm brush.
The background was redacted with opaque grey and then scumbled with pale blue paint.
Then finally, digitally cropped and enlarged. Close Up of the surface, in other words, redacted within a rectangle.
Bird of Paradise
Digital crop of acrylic on watercolour paper.
The vivid hues in this artwork, particularly when viewed up close, evoke a sense of nostalgia within me. It's as if I am transported back to my younger years when I first encountered the Bird of Paradise - a flower named for its resemblance to a soaring bird. I remember this beautiful bloom during my visits to South Africa. The striking and imposing petals of the Bird of Paradise never ceased to captivate me, with their sheer vibrancy and strength with a sense of awe and wonder that lingers long after the blooms have withered away.
Bird of Paradise (2021) FloraLife. floralife.com.
Influences.
Wolf Vostell
Tearing off paper (de-collage) was a technique I wanted to explore. It wasn't the use up of the posters from the street that interested me, but the technique, tearing and peeling, adding and then taking off.
I suppose this signifies time passing again?
The Relevance of Destruction and Reconstruction
Vostell had developed his principle of dé-coll/age long before he became acquainted with the Parisian artists and their art. He initially used the term to describe his torn-off posters, later transferring it to his performances and happenings. The artist discovered the word "décollage" during a two-month sojourn in Paris when he read about the emergency water landing of a Super Constellation airliner on the Irish River Shannon in the September 5, 1954 edition of the newspaper "Le Figaro." Because he did not understand the word, he looked it up in the dictionary and found the following definition: "to take off," "to become unglued," "to become unstuck." He subsequently used the lexicographic spelling dé-coll/age and in doing so, highlighted the relevance of destruction and reconstruction in his oeuvre.
“... it’s just about peeling back the layers. And I’m always surprised at myself-there’s a lot under there.”
MARK BRADFORD
I used these techniques when researching Mark Bradford's work in the last course, and I felt comfortable with the process and outcome. Comparing my frame would be the decollage part of the work, not the whole piece.
I used paper as a mount or frame guide to access which part of the work I wanted to leave unredacted/undecollaged.
A Humument- Tom Phillips.
The research I had carried out on Tom Phillips and his book was of use.
I used my sketchbook to play and muse over the correct paper for my frame.
Should I use an old book I bought at a flea market in Johannesburg?
The book was about flora from the region. I also found a passage in the book that resonated with me. This was promising, confirming that my painting was going correctly.
It's funny how these things happen.
The cropped painting is glued to framed thick mount board and a South African flora book.
(I also quite liked the metallic decoration on the book's cover. I would reflect on this part and see what I could imagine doing with it).
Process Images.
I used the decollage technique to build up and then take off layers.
I added paint and glazes over the top, layers of materials.
I masked off my bird of paradise.
I used the ornament from Klimt's pieces to make the frame rich and metallic in places and the small metallic decoration from the front of the book.
I left the passage in the book visible, which explained the flora migration over the globe's surface.
I initially used the lime green glaze with black crepe paper to act as a base layer after looking at the colour wheel and seeing the compliments of the combination of purple, orange and lime.
When I revealed the painting (I took off the masking tape), I hated it.
I grabbed some Titanium white acrylic covered over the layers of paper and frame concealing the poem and wrote Bird of Paradise with the end of the brush in the wet paint. I wrote it twice in quick organic looping writing, not thinking just like a signature I had been writing for years. I felt I had ruined it.
Final Images.
Palimpsestic Paradise.
Acrylic paint, collage/decollage papers, metallic leaf, aerosol on mount board, and watercolour paper.
Redacted in a rectangle.
Digital crop of Acrylic paint, collage/decollage papers, metallic leaf, aerosol on mount board, and watercolour paper.
Redacted in Four Squares.
Digital crops of acrylic
References.
Image 1 -Bird of Paradise (2021) FloraLife. Available at: https://floralife.com/flowers/bird-of-paradise/ (Accessed: 8 April 2023).
Tanner, E. (no date) ART IS LIFE—LIFE IS ART: WOLF VOSTELL. Available at: https://www.schirn.de/en/magazine/context/art_is_lifelife_is_art_wolf_vostell/ (Accessed: 10 April 2023).
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