Theme
Play and Self
Context
"Play exists to evolve the self" - by Brian Sutton-Smith
Inspired by one of the surreal drawings Matt showed us in the class, and the quote by theorist Brian Sutton-Smith, "Play exists to evolve the self". I am inspired to explore the idea of 'surrealism' further. As it seems a complex phenomenon at first, what I gathered, is the juxtaposition of images by the artist that triggers the unconscious mind to visualise a unique space that exists in the mind of the thinker.
Method
Create a surreal artwork without any particular influences, creating a form of art completely from the spontaneous thoughts I get in the class
Response
I was discussing with my friend Chris in the class about his ideas on Play and Self, and we thought of drawing those ideas instead of discussing and letting the other person know what exactly is the story. So, we took a piece of paper and Chris started first, he drew a couple of lines and handed over to me to add something on top of his drawing. He initially drew a half of a mountain but I extruded his linework and made it into a dagger. As we practised together, our drawing started taking a unique shape because every time we tried to portray our unique thoughts and added on top of the existing drawing.
We did that for five to six times and the drawing emerged into a surreal artwork as if it was done by an experienced artist.
This process demonstrates the Play and Self because there was not a specific source that triggered the idea but the process itself.
Process
I scanned our drawing and took it into Photoshop. I wanted to shape the ideas with materials, collected reference images and like a 'matte painter' I started 'collaging' images together using basic tools such as masking, cropping, warping, transform. However, after incorporating all the images, I experimented with filters in the application and it completely transformed the overall look of the artwork. It looked like a mural and that made me think about ancient murals in the caves so I dug dipper into the concept of Surrealism, further exploring its origin. It looks like the natural process of 'playing' with materials/process is the way to discovering new pieces of art.
