Case Study
Melinda Gibson
Utilising pre-existing imagery, Melinda Gibson creates surreal photomontages through cutting images into the shape of a human silhouette and then pasting them on a background image. She uses her signature cut-out style to transform existing scenes into unique works that changes the perspective of how images and viewed and perceived with its contextual surroundings. Gibson’s determination to do everything by hand questions the advancements of digital modernity.
For this series of images, Gibson cut out the pages of Charlotte Cotton’s book, “The Photograph as Contemporary Art”. Using a scalpel and adhesive, she cut into the book and created these avant-garde photographic works. To Melinda Gibson, the physical act of deconstructing the book was her way of digesting the book. She released a book with the same title, cleverly recreating Charlotte Cotton’s works through recontextualisation.
David Hockney
Consisting of layered photographs taken at different exposures, times and angles, “Joiners” was an abstract representation of the scenes that David Hockney had photographed. Hockney would stand in one place and take a range of photos of the same object or scene. In an interview, he mentioned that he was a “space freak”. His work depicts how we see the world - in fragments and in multiple viewpoints, then pieced together by our minds. Collectively, his work depicts how our minds view time and space.
Creative Brief
Your Third Face
The Japanese believe that you have three faces. The first face, you show to the world. The second face, you show to your close friends and family. The third face, you never show to anyone; it is a reflection of who you truly are.
Social media can be inspiring and wonderful, with many beautiful images at your fingertips. In the digital era where everything we do is reported on social media, images of people grinning ear to ear are aplenty. But how many of them are actually happy? How much of the images you consume are true? Models facetune their faces, influencers photoshop their stomachs and mothers pacify their kids to make them stop crying for the gram.
Social media is about presenting the ideal version of yourself; nobody wants to see the ugly side of life. People who often seem so happy online may not feel the same offline. The unreality of the images presented on social media is detrimental to one's mental health as it presents a false expectation for people to live up to. Hence, Your Third Face is a social campaign that aims to spread awareness on mental health issues relating to social media. It urges the audience to check up on their friends and family, even if they are distant — the power of the internet can connect them. Helplines directing to mental health organisations will also be highlighted.
Reflection
Having learnt about Melinda Gibson and David Hockney's Joiner works changed my perspective of photography. I learnt that there are no boundaries in photography; there are only standards and corporate requirements. To experiment is to forget everything that you have learnt, and who knows, maybe your personal experimental project could lead to a big corporate collaboration. I am definitely looking forward to creating something myself that questions the boundaries of an artistic medium.
