How has identity affected the way in which artists tell and explore stories in narrative imagery? The definition of ‘Narrative” is “a spoken or written account of connected events”, this translates into a story. The idea behind a story is to recall an event or portray a idea that a person might have, the majority of stories involve people, people of all shapes and sizes, ages and ethnicities, these are the characteristics that make up a person’s identity. The idea of people and identity is prevalent in narrative imagery because the vast majority of the time a person is being used as a subject matter in artwork in order to provide a basis for a story. The question I am exploring is how does the role of identity affect how stories are portrayed in narrative imagery? Do artists focus too much on portraying identity of subject matters and not spending enough time thinking about the image as a whole? The identity of the subject matters in narrative imagery plays a massive role in the story behind the image. The way in which the identity of the subject matters are perceived determines the story that is read If the subject matters and is perceived wrong it can effect the outcome of the story that the viewer receives. The artists’ work that I will be analysing and exploring in reference to the question above are Fabienne Rivory, Oscar Parasiego and Pejac. Fabienne Rivory specialises in artwork which combines different techniques to create fantastic pieces. The most important aspect of his work for my analysis is that his work includes people. All of the examples I am analysing contain people but their identity’s are left to the imagination. My second artist is Oscar Parasiego, his work consists of images where the subject matter is replaced with the background, so they become just a silhouette. My third artist goes by the name ‘Pejac’, his artwork is portrayed through windows, he takes a photo of a very normal urban scene through a window but a window with a little character drawn on it which then interacts with the scenery outdoors adding a depth effect to his work. Three of the four artists work are very contemporary, it was all created only 2-3 years ago, however my fourth artist, Rembrandt Peale’s work dates all the way back to 1853 which is a major jump and is a considerable gap between the other three artists which may open a door for analysis between the time of production of the different pieces. It is obvious that all of the artists use people in their work which is perfect for my analysis because it allows me to examine the effect that the identity of these people has on the story explored in the imagery. Oscar Parasiego likes to explore the effect your surroundings can have on your identity as a person, himself being an immigrant, moving from Spain to Argentina and then to the UK, he has experienced firsthand what it is like to have your identity modified due to where you choose to reside. This is the topic that he explores in his artwork, how your identity can be erased by the environment you are placed in. ‘When someone is living abroad for a long period of time the person starts modifying behaviours and habits to adapt to the new environment” This is a quote from Parasiego that shows his reasoning behind producing the artwork he has produced, he wants to explore how your identity can be modified due to changing behaviours and habits in order to fit in with your new environment. The majority of Parasiego’s work is photography based, in a style where
he takes a photo and then lightly manipulates the photo to produce a narrative piece which has a story that has to be deciphered. In this particular set of artwork ‘Diaspora’ Parasiego is exploring how your identity can be modified to fit your surrounds, the definition of the word ‘Diaspora’ is “the dispersion or spread of any people from their original homeland.” This title fits in perfectly with the context of the artwork because it is showing how people can be dispersed from their original homelands and then changed to fit their new surroundings. The question that triggered Parasiego to create these pieces is “In what moment does a person stops pretending and becomes a different person?” This question is testing the person’s resilience to resist changing but ultimately it is inevitable that the person will change their identity because they have to in order to adapt to their new environment and survive. The narrative behind his pieces is exploring how the people in the images have changed or developed in response to their new surroundings, for example in the second example it looks to be set in the subjects bedroom, in the background there is a poster of a figure who looks like they might be from the persons home country, this shows that the narrative for this piece is that the person might begin to blend into their background but their past likes and interests still exist, no matter how hard you try to run away from yourself, your past self will always be there waiting in the wings ready to catch up to you.
The first two examples above Parasiego has a very refined style where he takes a photo of a person in their natural habitat and then blends them into the background because he is trying to highlight how their identities are wiped away after moving to new surroundings. The last example shows how the basis of this style carries over into Parasiego’s other works where he takes a photo and then manipulates it in order to tell a story, usually concerning a topic quite close and meaningful to him. The story behind this photo might be trying to highlight how much time people spend sitting in their office chairs and might be urging them to get up out of their chairs and scribble over them so it seems like they aren’t there and they blend into the background, very similar to Parasiego’s other pieces where the subjects blend into the background. When looking closer into the scribbles over the chair it is clear to see that the scribbles are revealing a more ordinary wooden chair underneath, this might be showing how chairs over time have developed and changed, this might also link in to his other pieces where people and society has developed and changed. However this piece might also link to how peoples lifestyles can change depending on their environment, like the chair people can have a different exterior but on the inside they are still completely the same person they always was. Parasiego has shown that identity can heavily effect the way he tells his story in his narrative pieces because his work focuses solely on identity and how people lose their identity when they move to a new environment, however he argues the limits of photography “The untruthfulness of photography and the inability of photography to capture the complexity of human self-reflection”. In this quote he is referring to when in his artwork you can’t see the subjects face or emotions so it is hard to distinguish. This effects the story told by the artwork because it is difficult to distinguish the identity of the person or their emotions which means the story told by the artwork can be very unique and depend on the mind - set of the viewer. However, when examining the mood of the artwork it is clear to see how the person might be feeling, none of the pieces particularly look happy, most of the backgrounds look cluttered and untidy, items are out of place and basic things haven’t been put away, this might be a reflection of how the subject feels, they as a person might feel out of place and feel like they do not fit in with their new environment. Ewa Zubek a writer from ‘the culture trip’ states that: “Just as the immigrants’ environments cheat them out of their identities, the viewers are cheated into a sense of unease and displacement. The post-immigration processes of blending-in carry much joy and excitement, and allow us to explore – and reinvent – our identities. Parasiego refers to ‘the untruthfulness of photography and the inability of photography to capture the complexity of human self-reflection’ as the philosophy behind his practice. And, seamlessly, an immigrant voice speaking through his own photographs, he carries his viewers across the volatile boundaries of self, fiction and circumstance, guiding and displacing the viewer’s own perception.” In this quote she is reinforcing how Parasiego has shaped his work in order to tell a story that challenges the viewer to think about their own perception of the situation and how they would feel if they were pushed into that situation, she also highlights how all of Parasiego’s pieces are raw because they tackle a topic which he has experienced first-hand, himself being an immigrant and moving from country to country.
Fabienne Rivory’s art also tells a story through various narrative techniques, her artwork consists of taking a photo of a landscape and then layering this photo with dash of ink to create a contrast effect that provides depth to the image and helps provide context for a story. In all of the images used in the collection ‘Labokoff’ there is at least one person and in some there is more than one person, however in all of the images the subjects are either facing away from the viewer or simply too far away to distinguish any of their features, obviously you can work out basic characteristics such as height and gender. Rivory’s work is based around childhood memories and places where she grew up, when asked the question ‘How does where you grew up and where you live now affect your art?’ she answered “It affects my art a lot, as many of my photographs were taken in these places, and are linked to personal memories. My parents still live in the village I was born and it’s a place that evokes for me childhood nostalgia. I love to take photos there.” This shows that Her work is heavily effected by where she grew up so identity is explored in her work because the subjects in the pieces might be people who are close to her. All of the pieces link to her own personal childhood memories, this means that all of the subjects could be from the same family. Her artwork combines real word, imagined memories, real memories, photos and ink paints to create significant compositions that all have a different story behind them to be deciphered by the viewer.
Above is a piece of Rivory’s work, in this work you can see that there are two children running across a beach, the sky has been duplicated to create a surreal environment in which the subjects are placed. The identity of the subjects is difficult to distinguish, the most that can be known about them is that they are children. Identity has affected the way in which Rivory tells her story in this piece because the subjects in the story might relate to a memory she has of her childhood. The aspects that provide this sense of nostalgia is that the photos remind me off photos that are taken by a parent during a trip to the seaside, it
is also clear to see that the subjects in the piece are children to the size of them and the way they are walking and exploring the beach. As you can see Parasiego and Rivory have very different approaches and techniques when it comes to their artwork. On the one hand Parasiego explores how people lose their identities when they migrate to a new country, he does this through fading people into their backgrounds so they eventually become only a silhouette of who they once were. On the other hand Rivory’s work is alot more personal and is essentially based on her own childhood memories which heavily shapes how identity is explored in her work, as mentioned before the identity of the people in her work is personal to her and so therefore is very realistic. However there are some similarities between their work, both artists make it difficult to distinguish the fine details of the subjects, Parasiego completely fades out all distinguishable features of his subjects making it near impossible to work out the features of the subject, similarly Rivory places her subjects so they are facing away from the camera and also far away from the camera so it is difficult to recognise who the people are, essentially both artists make it difficult to work out the identities of the subjects in their artwork, this might be because they want the identity of the subjects in their artwork to be hidden so that this has no influence on the viewers interpretation of the artwork, instead the artists want the backgrounds to explain the narrative contained by the artwork, this explains why both artists put a lot of time and effort into the background of their pieces so that they can add to the narrative throughout. Pejac is an artist who explores identity in his artwork through painting characters in acrylic onto a window and then taking a picture of this window at an angle so that the characters are lining up and interacting with the environment surrounding them. In an interview conducted by Sami Wakim Pejac is asked ‘Which artists inspire you and why?’ in which he responded “what inspires me most are human beings, in their brightest and darkest moments and the relationships in the world we’re in.” this shows that the identity of human beings is what inspires Pejac to create his artwork, identity has changed how he explores human beings because the identity of the subjects in Pejac’s artwork is shaped and bonded to the environment surrounding so they can appropriately interact with it. Maybe this is a reference to how humans as a specie adapt to their environment, similarly in a way to Parasiego’s artwork where he explores how people eventually fade into the background of their new environment.
Above is an example of Pejac’s work. In this particular piece the subject seems to look like a character called Peter Pan, in this piece he has climbed a phone mast and is looking out over the horizon, as if he is looking for something in the distance. This shows how interesting this piece is, every image is shaped by the perception and associations of the viewers past experience which builds into the narrative, for example if you didn’t know who the character Peter Pan was then you would have a completely different view of this piece, it is only because I know of this character that I can make that association. It is also interesting how identity is built into this piece, it is due to the identity of the character being drawn on the window that you can then begin to make associations with it and begin to build the narrative in the viewer’s mind. My fourth artist is an artist that artwork dates back a lot further back than those studied so far, this artist goes by the name Rembrandt Peale, his artwork dates back to 1853 where he would paint portraits of people in prestigious positions, usually trying to present the people in these paintings with perfect identities, or as people who were above most in the hierarchy of life. Below is an example of one of these pieces, titled- ‘George Washington’. The author of the article “Narrative Works by 19 th-Century American Artists Shaping Young Nation’s Identity at Frist Centre” states that Peale’s aim in his work was to “capture a perfect likeness of the person who most exemplified American ideals.” This shows that Peale’s work might have been slightly biased and leaning towards a superficial look instead of a raw and real look, the people he was painting might not have looked anything like the subject portrayed in the painting. This shows that identity has affected the way in which Peale is telling a story in his work because he has to ensure that the subjects in the paintings have a perfect personality and represent everything that an American should aspire to be, Peale’s paintings could be described as propaganda due to the fictional claims that they portray. This is a stark contrast to my other artists where their aim is not to deliver a fake account of the subjects in their work, instead they are highlighting why these people are included in their work by the story behind the work which has to be deciphered from the artwork as a whole, of course identity has affected the way in which they explore the stories in their work but it is only to a certain extent, whereas in Peale’s work identity has altered his work and meant that the story he is telling could have been twisted to alter perceptions of the subjects place in society and status. This painting helps
explain the American ideals at the time, such as freedom and success, as you can see from the painting the subject looks very successful due to his clothing and even the fact that he has a person drawing a painting of him symbolises how successful he is. This could be evaluated due to the fact that the subject of the painting is George Washington who was the first president and one of the founding fathers of the united states so arguably he was a very important person at the time and so the way in which he is depicted in paintings such as this one is likely to be very true to life.
In conclusion it is easily apparent that identity has affected the way in which artists tell stories in their narrative pieces because identity is one of the most important aspects of the artwork and makes up a large proportion of the personality and substance of a piece of artwork. This is seen especially in Pejac’s artwork where his subject’s identities are shaped by their environments, this shows that identity has affected the way Pejac’s tells his story because the identity of the characters is dependent on the environment. All three of the artists studied in this essay centre their work around identity, it is this priority on identity that shapes the work that they produce, Parasiego’s work relies heavily on the identity of his subjects in order to tell the story in which he wants to tell. This is a stark contrast to Peale’s work where he is painting people but glamourizing them so they seem like they have a perfect identity, this obsession with the portraying the perfect identity has heavily affected and hindered his work and stopped him from portraying a true interpretation of the person so instead we are left with a superficial interpretation, whereas in all of my other artist’s work they are delivering a stark and raw interpretation of the subjects, however in order to truly show what this study has taught me the differing social environment which created this difference in how identity is portrayed has to be considered, in the 19 th century society was very different to the society in which we live today, most people were more focused on surviving and so instead creativity wasn’t an option and was something that was reserved for the elites, whereas in modern times society has developed greatly and the average person has a much higher level of true freedom and so creativity can be explored in many different ways, such as through art, digital art or media. This has impacted heavily on how identity is explore in narrative imagery as people are less concerned about the status they are portraying in their artwork, instead they are focusing on the story being told and portraying the true identity of their subjects, which as a whole adds vast amounts of depth to the narrative being built through the pieces. While completing this project I have learnt vast amounts about narrative and how identity is implemented to create a story, this has led to my own artwork improving and being delivered with more depth as more time has been spent thinking about the narrative
behind the artwork. This has led to myself spending more time thinking about how I am going to deliver information to the audience, I also feel that this will provide great benefit later on in the course when I am sitting the exam and completing other projects.
Above is a piece I have designed myself, after studying various artists I began to think more about how I am going to portray the subjects in my artwork, for example each silhouette in the piece has a story behind it, for example the middle silhouette is looking back, this is showing how people can look back on their life with regrets and think about how they could have done things differently. With my pieces how they are received by the audience is dependant on the outlook of the viewer, it is how they interpret these silhouettes which will impact on the story being told. The idea behind ‘Fade Away’ is the concept of when a person can become to blend into the background of society and lose the characteristics that enable them to be who they are; they eventually lose their sense of being an ‘individual’ instead they are just part of the crowd. Narrative helped me explore this theme as it helped me to understand how storytelling can be conducted through artwork, and also how identity is portrayed and can be altered depending on the situation. For this piece I have used narrative when considering how to tell the story and highlight how people can begin to fade away into their surroundings, I worked on the idea that each silhouette contains a story which can be deciphered in a different way by each and every viewer depending on the way in which they interpret it. However, it is very important to analyse how identity has been portrayed in this piece, for example it is not possible to distinguish any features of the subjects in the piece as they are silhouettes, this means that the viewer would not be able to rely on this when trying to decipher the message and identity of the subjects, instead they would have to focus on the position of the silhouette, the way in which they are standing, this leads to the viewer having to delve deeper into the narrative of the piece in order to comprehend the story being told.