Revisit / Remake
Expanded Practice ‘…Commercially successful Illustrators challenge the idea of relevance…we know existing ideas of business are changing so fast it would be foolish to base Illustration education solely around the perceived current industry needs’. (Roberts, 2016) Founder of Graphik Magazine, Caroline Roberts’ insight would appear to suggest that today’s education model would be better suited to developing a curricula option where the student is encouraged to become a subject innovator. Robert’s describes a number of individuals who, ‘have not followed the conventional route for an Illustration career and perhaps are a good example of the fact that there is no prescribed route any more… they have to some degree invented their audience, there platform…’ This level of ambition is reiterated in the fostering of such individuals by Alan Male (Professor Emeritus of Falmouth University) in his aptly titled Eye Magazine article ‘Ambition in Illustration’. Male suggests that today’s graduating Illustration student should adopt an authorial position and be mindful of transferable skills that promote cognitive ability alongside the predominate craft-based association with the discipline. Graduates would have the ability to multitask with a view to becoming ‘professionally independent and intellectually ambitious’ (Male, 2016, p. 74), qualities that Male relates to the polymath principle. These emergent propositions also suggest that the multifaceted nature of the creative industries have direct implications for the requirements of students and the relevance of their skill learning. The acquisition of established practical skills associated with image making (and assumed industry needs) would also accommodate more entrepreneurial thinking and industry innovation. Conversely it is important to remember that not all students engender entrepreneurial flare and that innovative practice may take many years to acquire or be recognized after graduating. However, within an evolving industry that precipitates divergent career paths for graduates from specialist disciplines the revival of the polymath principle would appear to be an appropriate framework to engage with - in today’s design schools. Revisit / Remake Convention’s ‘… thinking about the future of Illustration means thinking about illustrators who are utilising strategies from outside of the industry to inform their practice as illustrators’. (Morgan, 2016) The Level two Professional Practice module in Illustration has been designed to question both disciplinary precedents and established industry conventions. To begin this inquiry students are asked to respond to the project theme Revisit / Remake – with the intention to extend the reading of an existing artwork, artefact or film. The project brief stipulates that the selection of an existing work must be associated with practitioners or disciplines that do not consider their outcome(s) to be Illustration (when considering established / traditional definitions). Once the selection is made students are set the task of re-contextualising the pre-existing work so that the remake can now be considered as belonging to the discipline of Illustration. Similarly, the re-visitation process must also include a contemporary context for the remake - enabling the work to resonate with the
cultural landscape of today. To aid the reappraisal of content the ‘new work’ needs to align with either homage or parody to offer an authorial comment on society. Lastly students are asked to extend the possibilities for storytelling (that is embedded within Illustration) beyond the conventional industry formats for print or screen. Questions pertaining to what illustration is, or what it could be are brought to the fore? Subsequently, the module enables a platform for speculation on new modes of practice or identifies gaps in the market for innovative possibilities / contributions. Collaboration The emergence of the collective in the Illustration industry affords practitioners a level of independence and the option to forgo potential creative restrictions associated with the intervention of agents and art directors. The model offers practical, economic and social benefits for graduating students exiting the bubble of University life. The Professional Practice module also includes a collaborative element by formulating and mobilising a series of student collectives. Groups of between four and seven members are formed after deliberating what unites them as a team and what type of collaborative model could be adopted. By working together groups are expected to share ideas, skills and resources that would aid the making, organisation, presentation and publicity for a public exhibition.
Blue Sky, Walter Kandinsky, 1940
Jazz Circus @thejazzcicuss
Mariela Rios Manriquez Lucy Hancocks Milly Parkin Jennifer Dingwall Isobel Beer Mary Trehearne
The Jazz Circus is a collective with a shared passion for transforming illustration and transporting it into our own physical world with whimsical performances and creatures. Our work is influenced by the Russian artist Kandinsky, famous for his abstract work, a result from his synesthetic condition. The inspiration for our work is his painting ‘Blue sky’, placing particular focus on how his work will have been influenced by his synaesthesia. We transported our work by presenting a live performance showcasing characters that represent the different kinds of synaesthesia.
The Harlequins Carnival, Joan Miro, 1925
IT’S A RELIEF @itsarelief
Meg Thimm Lucie Delafoulhouze Marta Brevi Tharim Cornelisse Meg Thimm Lucy Eades
Joan Miro’s “The Harlequins Carnival� was painted between 1924 and 1925. During these years Miro had very little money and therefore could not afford many art materials or even food for that matter. This led him to starvation, where he would get frequent hallucinations. He painted during these hallucinations and this is one of his most surreal outcomes. Miro found an escape route from his hunger and suffering through his painting.
In our homage to The Harlequins Carnival we refer to the escapism represented in Miro’s work. We want people to be able to escape the pressure of student life and the reality of being a poor artist by coming to join our party with all of Miro’s wonderful characters. See the stories behind the characters andwhat they were escaping from in our zine ‘Hungry Stories’ and become part of the carnival yourself while looking at the work.
Medea, Anthony Frederick Sandys, oil on board, 1868
Thom Goward Florence Holland Rebecca Pasieka Billie Prowse Chloe Sargent Heather Savage Jay Simpson
UNCONCIOUS UNCOUPLING COLLECTIVE @unconscious_uncoupling
We are a collective with a shared interest in storytelling and a fascination with all things dark and unsettling. For this, our first collaborative project, we chose to remake the preRaphaelite painting Medea, attempting to pay homage to the character of Medea (as the painter Sandys did) and parody the deep themes of the mythology the painting draws on.
We have produced a body of work which recontextualises the archetypes and specific story elements of the myth of Medea, and woven it together into an immersive, contemporary multimedia exhibition focusing on narrative through traditional 2D illustration, scene-setting, performance, and the creation of a luxuriant yet disturbing atmosphere.
Rene Magritte, Golconde, 1953
Claudia Collett Amber Starrs Seren Pritchard-Bland Larisa Wong Dide Tengiz Michaela Piper Tomekah George
THE TROUSER PRESS COLLECTIVE @thetrouserpress.bristol
With a shared interest in feminism, we decided to take inspiration from the recent Woman’s March on Washington, which globally saw 4.8 million women protest for their rights. In response to this; funding for DOJ’s Violence Against Women programs were cut and Russia decriminalized domestic violence (unless the spouse is hospitalized or dead); therefore encouraging devaluation towards women and ‘post-feminist’ beliefs. In our remake of Rene Magritte’s ‘Golconda’, we present a parody death of these 1950’s ideals of females, particularly criticizing Barbie and President Trump’s ploy of publicly objectifying women.
Otto Dix Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden (1926)
Neu Neu Collective
Eleanor Wilkinson Grace Spalding Laura Knox Francesca Ridsdale Erin Wildy Zuzanna Drozynska Che Dedames
@neuneu_
As a collective we are interested in illustrating the new woman based on Otto Dix’s original muse, Sylvia von Harden, in the Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden (1926). We were particularly interested in the fact that the painting was purely based on aesthetics and how Otto Dix perceived von Harden to be the New Woman of Germany at the time, as she is considered to be androgynous and spends her time drinking and smoking alone. We wanted to capture this element of the painting; the fact that Dix assumed her personality from her outward appearance. We created a character profile, called Vera lon Hans, based on the real von Harden’s life, but her contemporary and relatable to today’s society as the New New Woman. We created a bedroom – a very personal space – for our viewers to interact with and discover more about her. Everything in the installation is created using cardboard and paper in order to illustrate the fragility of the 21st century woman, as we want to comment on how the idea of the New New Woman of today is heading towards a slump.
Vincent Van Gogh - Bedroom in Arles, 1888
Mo Morris Cameron Peet Ivar Hennep Melcher Oosterman Damian van Soest Lot van Teylingen
To Be Announced Collective @
TBA_collective
To Be Announced Collective is a diverse group of illustrators from both the UK and The Netherlands. Van Gogh’s bedroom in Arles spoke to us because we as illustrators can really relate to the feeling of spending hours on end alone in our rooms, working and sketching and forgetting about the outside world. Van Gogh painted the room while he was struggling with severe mental health issues, which reflect on the colours and perspective used in the room. We felt that this was also something we could translate to contemporary life. We talked about our own experiences regarding this matter, and found that time plays a big role in these issues as well. Not only the feeling of being stressed out and anxious before a finishing deadline, but also the feeling of having to become as successful and famous as possible in the shortest amount of time, the fear that if we don’t succeed NOW, we never will because trends and norms keep changing so much and so fast. In order to keep up with society we have to keep running or else we feel like we’re missing out. The only way to escape is to turn off your phone, stop replying to your e-mails and lock yourself in a room, closed off from the outside world. Thus we created the Bedroom in Isolation, to convey the feeling of an art student locked in their own bedroom, bordering on the edge of imagination and reality, unable to deal with the increasing pressure of everyday society. As a nod to Van Gogh’s distinctive style we kept true to the illustrative aesthetic and made the room feel as if you’re stepping into an illustration. It is a comment on how we let deadlines control us and that if we are not careful, we might find ourselves in isolation someday, overwhelmed with everyday life.
The Garden of Earthly Delights, 1503–1515
Meg Wileman Holly Heaton Elizabeth Dymock Hannah Knowles Emily Lord Hannah Seal Bence Mészáros
Bisch Basch Bosch Collective @bischbaschboschcollective
¬As a collective, we were excited by Bosch’s ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’. By focusing on the theme of indulgences and temptation, we began to consider social responsibility, specifically within industrial production processes, therefore thinking about the human impact of such practices. From this, we decided to create an interactive installation based in a modern shop setting, using Bosch’s triptych style to create an immersive 3-room space showing a narrative, mirroring the painting’s, that the audience can travel through. By re-contextualising this painting, we have created a sensory, tactile and performance based 3D homage to Bosch that aims to tempt and disgust.
Francis Bacon, Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X. 1953
The Bacon Collective @popeconfessional
Joe Davis Bea Grey Evie Jacobs Xim Martinez Jake Palmer-Simmons
The artwork we have decided to remake is Francis Bacon’s 1953 painting, Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X. Using influences from both Bacon himself, and Spanish Painter Miquel Barcelo. Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X presents a distorted version of Diego Velázquez’ 1650 painting Portrait of Innocent X. Bacon’s piece was produced at a time when his style changed, moving from lighter blues to a more nocturnal colour pallet of rich purples and darker browns and blacks. It has been suggested that Bacon’s pallet changed due to his real-life love affairs with violent and turbulent men, which Bacon almost sought after. His reckless behaviour in life manifested itself in his imagery through the portrayal of tortured looking figures, such as Pope innocent X. Bacon was renowned for living a life of sin, coming from an Irish Catholic family, Bacon’s homosexuality was something he masked with alcohol and hedonism. We have produced a zine to reflect Bacons tortured soul due to exile from religion. We have also produced an altar where you may confess your sin, and in return receive penance, inspired by German philosopher, Friedrich Neitzche. Neitzche famously stated ‘God is Dead’. Within Catholicism, God is supposed to guide you in life, therefore if God is dead then you are responsible for your own actions, therefore able to live as hedonistic of a life as you please, provided you are able to confess what you deem as sins.
Grimaces et Misères, Fernand Pelez, 1888
Phoebe Lenton Jessica Tucker Chloe Worth Hannah Wakeling Jon Rodriguez
GRIMACES ET MISÈRES @grimaces_et_miseres
As a group with many different skill sets, we all knew that we wanted to do an installation of some sort, incorporating everybodys individual work, but presented in unison. We chose to use Pelez’s 1888 painting depicting circus performers to create a homage with a modern twist. The painting itself highlights the performers’ underlying suffering in society as impoverished outcasts, unbeknown to their spectators.
We took this idea exploring a cheerful and thrilling event with dark, twisted, underlying problems; creating a fictitious circus themed music festival, and highlighting the issues that people are unwilling to talk about. While festivals are seen as exciting and lively events there is a problem that organisers aren’t willing to admit - sexual assault. By incorporating the message that sexual assault can, and does happen at festivals we have created an immersive and overwhelming experience for the viewer, luring them to our twisted festival, while also warning of the terrible things that could happen.
The Nightmare, Henry Fuseli, 1781
CHINOGRAPHERS UNION @chinographers
Joe Adams Will Evans Sam Bedworth Fin de Freitas Toby Williams Daisy Jordan
Have you ever experienced sleep paralysis? Heard the horrors of the Night Hag, or the incubus that sits on your chest whilst you lie there, utterly immobilised?
As a homage to Fuseli’s The Nightmare, Chinographers Union invites you into our bedroom/pop-up shop to see for yourself the terrors that await you whilst you dream. Using imagery from ancient folklore to first-hand accounts from interviewees across campus, we have sought to contemporise The Nightmare through making marketable goods including scree-printed t-shirts, prints and stickers; transferring Fuseli’s painitng from 1781 to 2017
Peter Paul Rubens, The Lion Hunt, 1621
THE BRACONNIERS COLLECTIVE @braconniers
Ren Chang Lee Alex Jenkins Bernard Solomon Eoin O’Sullivan Christos Georgiou Adele Hurst Joe Slater
For this project we have decided on creating a homage to Peter Paul Rubens The Lion Hunt. We wanted to bring hunting into a contemporary context by exploring how and why hunting is practiced today, discovering that hunting is largely a means of gaining wealth which is bringing many animal species to the brink of extinction.
Our final exhibition will consist of a Le Gun influenced mural as well as a series of small clay models wherein attendees of the exhibition will have the chance to destroy.
Casper David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, 1818
Charlie Fischer Alex Allcock Alex Baboulene Clara Lee Leo Vaughan Lok Lo George Harris
CANDY BUNCH COLLECTIVE @candy.bunch
Our Project idea was to create a parody of the painting, ‘Wanderer above the Sea of Fog’ by Caspar David Friedrich. As a group we deemed the painting as snobby and highbrow, so we aimed to recreate the image in a more fun and accessible way. We settled on the idea of a 3D installation whereby the landscape and ‘Wanderer above the Sea of Fog’ were made of cardboard.
In order to place our parody within the field of Illustration, we thought that the man should be naked from the front which enhances the idea of a parody through illustrating humour. Our intended outcome was for the landscape to be colourful, immersive and obvious in terms humour, which is the opposite of the intentions of Caspar David Friedrich.
Modern Times, Director Charlie Chaplin, 1926
Michele Poli Tzuhsien Chao Haizea Garcia Tobalina
THE GEARS COLLECTIVE @gearsillustration2017
This project is based on the movies Modern Times written and directed by the actor Charlie Chaplin. The image from the movie that we selected as a collective presents a goofy Chaplin joking around in potentially hazardous situations within a mechanical factory setting. We see this as our starting point to discuss mass production.
The approach for this project is satire (parody), we wanted to talk about the issues of mass production whilst embracing Chaplin’s comical outlook. The Illustration context has authorial qualities that a derived from our personal interpretation of the movies themes, these include mass production, social media and humans becoming machines. We also wanted to speak about the development of technological industry over the years and how the impact of technology is having a counter productive effect on humanity. One of our main objectives was to leave our comfort zone in drawing and do something physical 3D.
@the_uwe_futurists
New City, Antonio Sant’Elia, 1914
THE FUTURISTS
Andrew Smith Esther Philips Max Wilson
We occupy the world that the futurist’s envisioned 100 years ago, but how similar is it to Antonio Saint Ellia’s architectural drawings? Or artists like Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Giacomo Balla and Umberto Boccioni, who’s work focused on speed, machinery, glorified war and modernity.
In this exhibition we make subtle nods to our source image by Antonio Sant’Elia, but more broadly we decided to focus on the Futurist’s movement as a whole by adopting their ideas and beliefs. We have revisited and remade an Airport Terminal from the future, through pastiching their ideology but also through parodying their idealistic, glorified visions of the future from a more cynical angle. Our work plays with downcast futuristic concepts of pollution, animal extinction, technological advances, addictions and colonising of other planets. As much as we are pastiching futurism in our way of thinking, we have also deliberately steered away from adhering their ideology. Through parodying their optimistic visions of the future, we have produced our own advertisements, artefacts and travel posters from the year 2071, displayed within an airport space. Airports were just as much a vague concept when the Futurists were producing their work as that of sports cars and mega cities and so it felt appropriate to contextualise our work within one. Our visual language takes influence from the architectural forms in our source image as well as homaging the highly important futurist typography that came out of the movement. We hope the viewer feels immersed in an overwhelming, cluttered and sickening presentation of the future.
Tipalet Cigarette Brand Ad, 1969
SIX SHADES OF BLUE COLLECTIVE @sixshadesofblue
Metropolis-Fritz Lang (1927), Heinz Shulz-Neudamm
THE DEADLY 7 COLLECTIVE @the_deadly_7
Six Shades of Blue are challenging the misogyny present in this original advert from the 70s, and aim to remake it with the lens of a critical parody. This particular challenge is based on the stigma around periods, society’s view of them and how these misogynistic views perpetuate many forms of injustice. We are addressing issues such as the tampon tax, which treats a necessary item as that of luxury, and general derogatory attitude towards periods. Our illustrative aspect comes from the narrative nature of the zines we have created, and the more intricate style of the artwork that also in part is inspired by the aesthetic of modern tampon adverts.
Anne-Louise Highley - Hollie-Ann Hart - Anna Wiessner - Rachel Walsh Jamie May - Liana Brockmann We are an illustration collective known as ‘The Deadly 7’ and our starting point was the film ‘Metropolis’ (1927). We were inspired by the dark, architectural visuals in the film and by how the messages portrayed are still relevant 100 years on. Our approach was a parody style map of a theme park based on Metropolis focusing on the seven deadly sins and how they are portrayed in the film. The theme park idea gave us a more contemporary context to work with and each of our seven members worked on one ride each with the theme of one specific sin.
Edie Woolf - Thijmen Brinkman - Hélène Lechermeier - Lewis Ostacchini - Nadia McDermott - Tamasin Williams - Tom Simpson
To be continued...
Design by Finoa Ribes