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Chapter 1 |
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Reading: Reread the section called The World as We Perceive It (pages 18-22) which discusses the manner in which we perceive both the world and works of art. In this section, the author compares six works of art that make use of the American flag. Each work creates a different context for thinking about the meaning of the flag.
Premise: In this project you are going to create two simple collages. Each collage will use the same icon as its primary image—your challenge is to cause the viewer to respond to the image differently in each collage. You will do this by surrounding the icon with a different set of images in each collage.
While it's clear that the flag can mean many different things to many people, it is indisputable that the American flag is an icon— a symbol steeped in meaning. People throughout the world recognize and respond positively or negatively to this image. An artist might think of an icon as a "potent image," which suggests any image that might evoke strong ideas, feelings, or messages, when placed into a work of art.
Time required to do this project: Allow five hours, not including developing or processing time.
Materials: magazines; rubber cement or Itoya® O'Glue® or other clear glue suitable for paper; scissors; 15" x 20" construction board (for mounting the work); and access to a color copy machine.
How to start: From a magazine, select an example of a "potent image," to serve as your icon, and color photocopy it twice. From that same magazine, look for other images that you think might relate to the icon and cut them out. These "secondary" images will be used to surround the icon. You will make two collage projects. Each collage will use one of the photocopies of the icon surrounded by other images you've cut out of the magazine.
Placing the secondary images around or with each icon, you will be able to create a "visual context," that connotes a different meaning to the original icon. In other words, you can change the icon's meaning with the things that you place around it. So, while the original icon is the same size, shape, and color in each composition, by placing very different things around each one you will affect the way we interpret it.
Consider Childe Hassam’s Allies Day, May 1917, on page 18, and Jasper Johns’ Three Flags on page 19. Both images depict the same flag, but each artist presents the flag in a way that creates a political context for interpreting it.
The images you place around each copy of your original icon are, in effect, like the political context that surrounds Hassam's and Johns' works. The images you place around the icon will cause the viewer to make associations between those images and the icon. You are essentially providing the clues that allow us to understand your composition.
What you will find is that an icon or a potent image has many interpretations, or can suggest many things. Perhaps, the more things that are associated with an image, the more things you'll be able to say about it.
The "content" (meaning) of a work of art is, for many artists and viewers, the most important aspect of the work. While your experience as an artist might be limited, this project is one that allows you to express yourself with visual images. Collage (actually, this process is montage, because it's done exclusively with photographs) is a preferred medium of many artists who find that they can express themselves best through pasted fragments of borrowed images. Another artist whose work you might want to look at is Hannah Höch, on pages 314-316.
Good Luck and have fun! If you come up with a successful pair of compositions, scan them and send them to me. Maybe we'll use them in this site! Below you can see an example of this project that was created by Lisa Wong of Oregon State University. (To see the works in their larger formats, click the thumbnail images.)
Lisa is using the Statue of Liberty as the icon. In the left image she has surrounded the icon with adverse images—homelessness, poverty, and crime. The right image reflects progress and affluence.
About materials: Most, if not all, of these materials are available at craft stores, college bookstores, and quite often discount department stores. I suggest trying Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, Ben Franklin, etc. You can also order materials through
Dick Blick, Inc.
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