The Rhetoric of Ekphrasis Type Strategy & Specification
Nelson Holtz 1
CONTEXT
Strategy
4–5
Page Architecture Grids System Page Number / Header Hyper-Real Grid Grids Examples
6–7 8–9 10 – 11 12 – 13
Typography Rational Quotes Bodytext Header
14 – 17 18 – 19 20 20
Expressive Typography Hyper-Real Page Truism Statements Tracing Paper Addressing the Reader Short Stories Individual Expressive Type
21 22 – 23 24 – 25 26 – 27 28 29
Concepts Title Context Highlights Chapter Header Individual Concepts Chapter Breaker
30 31 32 33 34 – 35 36
Imagery
37
Colour
38 – 39
Paper
40
Finishing
41
Content Reference
42
STRATEGY
This book is a response to the brief ‘The Rhetoric of Ekphrasis’. The definition of rhetoric is your own interpretation of something you see or hear and ekphrasis is to articulate your interpretation. For this brief we were asked to choose a major work of visual art and find a text that correlated to the artwork and create our own interpretation of the text. The work chosen was Swallow, a film that won Laure Prouvost the Max Mara Art Prize for Women. The piece of text chosen was Anneka French’s review of Swallow. The text was used to highlight the key words or phrases that gave a clearer understanding of the artwork. During the first chapter of the book it starts to explain the text through different artists or authors that have indulged in compatible concepts. Implementing this knowledge one can begin to unravel the meaning behind key words or phrases. The phrases that stood out in the review were sensorial and sensual. The use of these phrases was a key element in helping Prouvost create a hyper-real paradise. Looking into the words sensual and sensorial, which meant feeling different emotions and the physicality of the different sensors. A question arose, when does a person feel all these different things at one time? The answer that came out of that question was life itself. One person that helped towards explaining how in a lifetime a person can experience sensual and sensorial emotions was Erik Erikson. Erikson was a psychologist who explained the eight stages of emotional development through a person’s life span. Creating an interpretation based on Eriksons theory needed a hook, something that could masquerade this information to give it a hyper-real feeling. The original piece of text needed to be revisited to see if there was anything that could be this hook. The main physical object that stood out in the text was a raspberry; the reason for this is a raspberry had all the implications of a humanistic personality, which means just as a human becomes old and frail a raspberry starts to decay over time. By putting raspberries in different situations the replication of Erikson’s theory could be achieved.
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The second chapter of the book is based on Erikson’s explanation of the eight stages of emotional development through the eyes of a raspberry. Replacing the words adult or child with raspberry and phrases like adolescence with raspberryesense began to create a humanistic reality for the raspberry. The book concludes with hyper-real narratives of a raspberry that takes the reader on a journey where they can use their imagination to interpret the stories that are being told to them. This is done through conceptually thinking of what a raspberry would go through in a life span. The hyper-real narratives are based on Erikson’s theory of the eight stages of life. This book looks at how conceptual thinking can play on ideas of reality and fiction. The intended audience is people that can immerse themselves in a narrative that creates a alternative reality.
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PAGE ARCHITECTURE
Grids System I took the page size from Laure Provoust “ The Artist Book� which was the main influence throughout my book, to create a grid based on the body text. I started by seeing how much space I needed for my baseline grid; that was 5.115mm then when back to the book and measured all the margins and related them to my own, I adjusted the margins so it would fit within the baseline. I used the baseline increments as the gutter to my colums, because I wanted there to be an even space vertically and horizontally. I did this to make sure that different images and text could be distinguished from one and other. I used ten colums in my grid so I would be able to split the page evenly as well as use the space of the page effectively. Then I had twenty rows that sat on the baseline grid, if I wanted to distinguish text or image vertically I would use the baseline grid to do so.
Measurements 1. Top margin 10.231
5. Baseline 5.115 mm
2. Bottom margin 12.158
6. Gutter 5.115 mm
3. Inside margin 15mm
7. Colums 11.149 mm
4. Outside margin 10mm
6
Publication dimensions W150mm x H227mm 3
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1
5
2
6
7 7
PAGE ARCHITECTURE
Page Number / Header
R e v i e w
1
8
For my header and page number I wanted them to center the page because when Prouvost uses typography she centers it in the middle of a canvas. I based my book around centering the page or pages. I wanted the header to be lighter than the page number because a person reads from top to bottom it’s easier for the eye to track.
Chapter Header NeuzeitGrot Light, 8pt, Tracking: 750, Align Centre, Title Case Page number NeuzeitGrot, 9pt, Align Centre Stroke 0.5, Width 5.115mm
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PAGE ARCHITECTURE
Hyper-Real Grid
For the last chapter I created a hyper-real grid that was double the space baseline grid, as there was 40 rows in my baseline this meant that I would have 20. So it fit into my original grid. The reason I did this was because it gave my text more space to breath, this slows down the pace of the book. I did this because in the original text it talks about Prouvost speeding up and slowing down the video editing process, and by doing that she creates a sense of dislocation and hallucination. There was no header or page number to emphasize this factor of another reality so the reader would be lost on this hyper-real journey.
Measurements 1. Top margin 10.231
5. Baseline 10.231 mm
2. Bottom margin 12.158
6. Gutter 5.115 mm
3. Inside margin 15mm
7. Colums 11.149 mm
4. Outside margin 10mm
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Publication dimensions W150mm x H227mm 3
4
1
5
2
6
7 11
PAGE ARCHITECTURE
Grids Examples
R e v i e w
“There is no rule to when or were a person gets to a point of realization. Sometimes it’s a survival tactic, sometimes it’s an erotic tick, sometimes it’s very well thought over. If a person does something out of the ordinary but acts or believes it is a normal thing it then starts to create a new world within that persons reality.”
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R e v i e w
R e v i e w
PIPILOTTI RIST
In 1997 the Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist produced one of the most delightful videos ever made. Ever is Over All shows a young woman skipping jollily down a city street gaily smashing car windows with a red-hot poker; and since it is shaped like a knobkerry, the flower makes a surprisingly convincing weapon. Oh dear, though, here comes a policewoman; but instead of admonishing or arresting the vandal, the bobby gives her an encouraging smile, salutes and walks on by. On the adjoining screen meanwhile, close-ups of the orange bloom reveal that, although its overall shape is phallic, the head is made up of myriad tiny flowers which cluster together like the many breasts of the Greek goddess Artemis so the plant carries intriguingly androgynous associations. Girl power and flower power unite in a feminist fairytale in which the sisterhood reigns supreme. Sympathetic women replace male authority figures and cars boys’ toys and symbols of relentless consumerism become fair game. Inducing a joyous sense of relief and feeling of empowerment, this is art whose feel-good factor is especially high. Rist’s work is all about release from the many constraints that can make life a misery.
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R e v i e w
JENNY HOLZER
“The effect of being exposed to a wide spectrum of opinions, some of which viewers would like and others they would be indifferent to or hate, might foster greater tolerance.” Jenny Holzer did a truism series in 1977-79 where she wrote over 200 statements about truism on an electronic board where you would read them one at a time. Most of the statements moved from right to left and others came in through different ways, while words some would be flashing at different times. The way it is presented normally had some correlation to the meaning behind the text. These statements are supposed to show how people communicate with one and other through different moods and tones. While writing these truism facts she put herself in the persons shoes of the scenario and imagine their opinions whether it be an object, event or person and what are there believes in a short sentence. Her work intends to open the eyes of the audience.
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12
Truisms explores a wide range of opinions some of those opinions don’t mean very much apart from the message that is presented to you, while others start debates and have controversy behind the message. These statements are supposed to provoke thought behind the viewer.
“You can imagine that a truism is a distilled belief. And you can also think that beliefs are the basis of action.”
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P l a y
A g e
INITIATIVE VS. GUILT
Around the age of one and continuing to the age of one and a half, the plant assert themselves more frequently and starts to produce raspberries. These are particularly lively, rapid-developing years in a raspberries life. It is a “time of vigor of action and of behaviors that the parents may see as aggressive.
The raspberry takes initiatives which the mother nature will often try to stop in order to protect the raspberry. The raspberry will often overstep the mark in his forcefulness and the danger is that the parents will tend to punish the raspberry and restrict his initiatives too much.
P l a y
A g e
Sprout age
It is at this stage that the raspberry will begin to ask many questions as his thirst for knowledge grows. If Mother Nature treats the raspberry’s questions as trivial, a nuisance or embarrassing or other aspects of their behavior as threatening then the raspberry may have feelings of guilt for “being a nuisance”.
During this period the primary feature involves the raspberry being regularly interacting with other raspberries at school. Central to this stage is play, as it provides raspberry with the opportunity to explore their interpersonal skills through initiating activities. Raspberries begin to plan activities, make up games, and initiate activities with others. If given this opportunity, Raspberries develop a sense of initiative, and feel secure in their ability to lead others and make decisions.
Too much guilt can make the raspberry slow to interact with others and may inhibit their creativity. Some guilt is, of course, necessary otherwise the raspberry would not know how to exercise selfcontrol or have a conscience. A healthy balance between initiative and guilt is important. Success in this stage will lead to the virtue of purpose.
Conversely, if this tendency is squelched, either through criticism or control, Raspberries develop a sense of guilt. They may feel like a nuisance to others and will therefore remain followers, lacking in self-initiative.
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One day I noticed, I had a bump on my hand. I did not make anything of this. A few months went by and the bump began to grow. It started to make me worry, so I went to see the doctor. No one could explain the bump I had on my hand. Two weeks later I went to sleep, when I woke the bump had gone and a raspberry lay in my hand. I cared for this raspberry and soon after release it into the world.
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TYPOGRAPHY
Rational I originally wanted to give my book a contemporary feel to it because it’s a book based on concept and concept art is timeless, so the book needed a typeface that looked like it could be from this generation or the one before or even in 10 years to come. I looked into Laure Prouvost if she used any typography in her artwork. Prouvost makes these hand painted signs in numerous exhibitions. Sometimes they are in all capitals and other times they are in lower case, the meaning behind the signs normally dictates the way it is written. So by looking at the letterform of the hand painted signs I started to see if there was a typeface that matched these hand painted signs as much as possible. NeuzitGrot was one of the closet typefaces I could fine that kept to a contemporary look I wanted to achieve.
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NeuzeitGroT Light
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890 NeuzeitGroT Regular
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890 NeuzeitGroT Bold
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890 NeuzeitGroT BlaCon
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890 15
TYPOGRAPHY
Rational The reason I chose to use ITC New Baskerville is because I took reference to Prouvost book and the body text that is used within the book. I couldn’t find out what the font was so I had to look at different letters to see which font would be suitable. I had to keep in mind that the font I used also had to match NeuzitGroT. The reason for this is because if I wanted my book to have a contemporary feel to it the neither font could look out of place. I looked at a few fonts that would fit both criteria and ITC New Baskerville was the font I chose.
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ITC New Baskerville Regular
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890 ITC New Baskerville Bold Italic
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890
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TYPOGRAPHY
Quotes NeuzeitGrot, Bold 28pt, Aligned Left Leading = 30 Tracking = -30
WE ALL KNOW THAT ART IS NOT TRUTH. ART IS A LIE THAT MAKES US REALIZE TRUTH, AT LEAST THE TRUTH THAT IS GIVEN US TO UNDERSTAND. THE ARTIST MUST KNOW THE MANNER WHEREBY TO CONVINCE OTHERS OF THE TRUTHFULNESS OF HIS LIES.
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R e v i e w
by Michael Craign ordinary glass small glass shelf, e wall above head omposed a series rs to accompany e artist claims that een transformed xt was presented was subsequently ow and to the left
liberately asserts questions probe ity of the artist’s apparently valid n’t you simply er an oak tree?’ e only exists in swers maintain eding that ‘the cally present but s of water.
R e v i e w
NeuzeitGrot, Light 20pt/10pt Aligned left/ Justified
When you turn raspberry jum glass and goe
JUST AS IT IS IMPERCEPTIBLE, IT IS ALSO INCONCEIVABLE
I considered that in An Oak Tree I had deconstructed the work of art in such a way as to reveal its single basic and essential element, belief that is the confident faith of the artist in his capacity to speak and the willing faith of the viewer in accepting what he has to say. In other words belief underlies our whole experience of art: it accounts for why some people are artists and others are not, why some people dismiss An Oak Tree is based on the conceptworks of of art others highly praise, and why transubstantiation, the notion central to something we know to be great ITC New Baskerville does not always move us.
the Catholic faith in which it is believed
R e v i e w Bold Italic, 20pt that bread and wine are converted into Aligned left the body and Leading = 27 pt blood of Christ while
retaining their appearances of bread and wine. The ability to believe that “There is no rule to when or were a an object is something other than its physical appearance person gets to indicates a point requires of realization. a transformative vision. This type of Sometimes it’s a survival tactic, seeing and knowing is at the heart of sometimes it’sprocesses, an erotic tick, sometimes conceptual thinking by which intellectual and emotional values are it’s very well thought over. If a person conferred on images and objects.
does something out of the ordinary but acts or believes it is a normal thing it then starts to create a new world within that persons reality.”
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TYPOGRAPHY
Bodytext ITC New Baskerville Roman,10pt Aligned Justified
The body text is justified because it plays R e v i e w on the pace someone is reading, the idea relates back to the original text in how Prouvost plays on the pace of her video. This also enabled me to move text around different colums to create a controlling structure to how it is being read.
PIPILOTTI RIST
In 1997 the Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist produced one of the most delightful videos ever made. Ever is Over All shows a young woman skipping jollily down a city street gaily smashing car windows with a red-hot poker; and since it is shaped like a knobkerry, the flower makes a surprisingly convincing weapon. Oh dear, though, here comes a policewoman; but instead of admonishing or arresting the vandal, the bobby gives her an encouraging smile, salutes and walks on by. On the adjoining screen meanwhile, close-ups of the orange bloom reveal that, although its overall shape is phallic, the head is made up of myriad tiny flowers which cluster together like the many breasts of the Greek goddess Artemis so the plant carries intriguingly androgynous associations. Girl power I made the header text a point size smaller and flower power unite in a feminist fairytale in R e v i e w andwhich in all case sosupreme. it wouldn’t stand theupper sisterhood reigns Sympathetic maletext authority and cars outwomen from replace the body and figures so that you boys’ toys and symbols of relentless consumerism canbecome distinguish it from the chapter header, fair game. Inducing a joyous sense of relief which in title case. and is feeling of empowerment, this is art whose feel-good factor is especially high. Rist’s work is all about release from the many constraints that can make life a misery.
Header NeuzeitGrot Light, 9pt Aligned left Upper Case
PIPILOTTI RIST
In 1997 the Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist produced one of the most delightful videos ever made. Ever is 31 Over All shows a young woman skipping jollily down a city street gaily smashing car windows with a red-hot poker; and since it is shaped like a knobkerry, the flower makes a surprisingly convincing weapon. Oh dear, though, here comes a policewoman; but instead of admonishing or arresting the vandal, the bobby gives her an encouraging smile, salutes and walks on by.
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On the adjoining screen meanwhile, close-ups of the orange bloom reveal that, although its overall
EXPRESSIVE TYPOGRAPHY
Hyper-Real Page For this page I wanted to show how I was doing my truism statements, also the idea of a page being within a page brings the idea of an alternative reality of the piece of paper. For example if you put two mirrors in front of each other it creates a hall of mirrors, this is what this page is trying to achieve.
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EXPRESSIVE TYPOGRAPHY
Truism Statements With the truism statements I saw it as a chance to play with typography. I printed these statements then went to the photocopier machine to act out what the statement was indicating. I thought of the original piece of text talking about the physical element and acting them out would translate the emotion/ feeling that I was implicating towards the statements. I used NeuzeitGrot in various weight and point sizes as well as tracking and kerning that would go with what the statement. After doing this I then scanned in the images then changed the contrast in Photoshop so I could vectorize cleanly in illustrator. I then used these as page breakers throughout the first two chapters of my book. The reason for this is so that I wanted to work with the pace of the book, because in the original piece of text it talks about slowing down and speeding up the viewers experience so it creates a sense of dislocation and hallucination. After getting the images I tried to align the text to the grid, so it would flow with the book.
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EXPRESSIVE TYPOGRAPHY
Tracing Paper NeuzeitGrot, Bold 28pt, Aligned left, Leading = 28pt Traching = -10 Angle = 15°
A yrreb ereh ps a t tuo s taht tlef ni enola aR ti ;dn eirre saw yrre bpsar e al ngie rehto bpsaR e rom eb rof tsum hT na stser etni r rof hcra .dnal eh t ni e a s l im eht o o S .en is htiw n t detnaw o o l i a n apm eerh eb t’ o t n ssorc decnivno dluow ti c c a yenru ti yrrac yrrebp os saR oj ot yrgn uh ht ehT .reta seiflrettu iw de w b dna .sd llfi d nwofl nah suom ,suoutro nal ts ro d eht d ah seiflre ne dna s aw drib ediu ttub g peed dna ss eerht eh T o evac ereh rca y w a l nehW ,dnal ng ot yrreb efas psa ier .d eh p u fles eppirt dn of siht nih R a t tiw i d d der a e e ta gn kcip yrre lbmuts ti b i r p ats s .erug aw sar eht fi
A ere berry Rasp lone in a elt that th out f a s t i e s i ; r a r d e w n aspb gn la ry forei e more r Raspber er b th e t mus land. Th h for ano erests t c n e r i h a t r e a s n l i d to with simi . So the e t n ne wa n anio e e alo comp ouldn’t b nced thre s i s w v o t n i r o c o c a s rry it berry ney Rasp flies to ca The jour ngry . u r r h e butt nd wate ed with s. a ll d fi d n , n a s h la ou flown mous tortu was nd enor ies had the fl a r s d e bird ree butt d guide n h p The t across a ave dee ere h c y safel erry to a n land, w hen b W ig Rasp this fore tripped. up he lf n withi bled and icked itse red a m p t u t y a it s spberr taring s a e. figur was the r
The writing is on tracking paper because it talks about a story that relates to the original piece of text by talking about the different objects that had been mentioned, while creating a narrative for the raspberry. The image is of a raspberry looking into a mirror, the text is a reflection of the raspberry and as you turn the page with the text it becomes a reflection of the mirror. The angle of the text goes with the image
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ITC New Baskerville
NeuzeitGrot
Bold Italic, 101pt Aligned left Opacity = 30%
Bold, 100pt Aligned left,
MIS-
MISTRUST
The title of this chapter was trust vs. mistrust, I showed this by placing tracing that said the word trust over the word “MIS-“ then changed the opacity to 30 percent, because the word mistrust seems hidden and oblique. There is a gradient on the trust because I felt there is a loose narrative between to the meaning of trust and mistrust so I wanted the colour to change as you flick the words.
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EXPRESSIVE TYPOGRAPHY
Addressing the Reader The first page on the left shows me starting to play with the original piece of text in the first chapter in my book. Spreading the text across two pages and working with the way a person reads the text. The text is large so it speeds up the pace you read it; I wanted to do this because of the nature of the words. I want people to resist this page to create a conflicting separation to what is being told to you and the way it’s being told to you. The second image on the left is the hyper-real section the section of the book that is suppose to draw the reader in. This is where I am referencing to the original text in my own interpretation. This time the text is smaller, drawing you in, in a seductive nature. Where as in the first section I wanted people to resist the text, in this section of the hyper-real reality I wanted to draw the audience in and slow down the pace of reading by leaving a wider space between words on other pages to create a seductive feel. The image in the background is a piece of paper photocopied in a seductive nature; I placed this image to enhance the seductiveness of this page.
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1. NeuzeitGrot, Bold 50pt, Aligned Left, Tracking = – 20
R e v i e w
1
2. NeuzeitGrot, Bold 8pt, Aligned Center/ Left Leading = 15pt Tracking = 40 R e v i e w
You are naked… come closer... In Laure Prouvost’s work she plays on the concept of real, remembered and imagined. If Prouvost remembers a event and she believes it to be real. This becomes a real reality through her. But what if this event didn’t happen, and it is only real in Provost’s imagination. That event would assert an incomplete truth, her reality would become real through her and we get sucked into Prouvost’s vision. Forming a hyper real reality through Provoust.
you can drink this image 10
2
11
COME CLOSER...
YOU CAN TASTE THE RASPBERRY ON YOUR LIPS
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EXPRESSIVE TYPOGRAPHY
Short Stories NeuzeitGrot, Bold 40pt, Aligned Justified/ Centred Leading = 40pt
As I was walking along the river, the current ran fast and the water fell deep. There were fishes hovering on the skim of the water so close to the top they could breath the warm air. The sound of birds CH - CH - Chirruping filled the air with sweet symphonies, as it travelled on the wind. I could feel the suns glow on my fingertips , it broke through the clouds and touched my skin. Along this river I noticed a tree as
tall as a rainbow meant for everybody to gaze in awe. The leaves russelled and fell to the ground like a swan dancing on ice. Under this tree there was a rock that was so heavy to lift. On this rock three raspberries sat in this very position. I looked around but there was nobody I could see, in shape, form or sound. I continued to walk along the river wondering if I would come across more raspberries.
The stories in the last chapter of the book relate to either the review or Erikson’s theory of life. The text are aligned to the hyper-real grid then centered within the text box. This gives more freedom to how I used the text in the last section of the book.
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Individual Expressive Type NeuzeitGrot, Bold 79pt, Aligned left, Leading = 28pt Baseline Shift = -57
S c h o o l
Indu Raspberries are at the aged of one and a half to two years where they will be learning to read and write, to do sums, to make things on their own. Teachers begin to take an important role in the raspberry’s life as they teach the raspberry specific skills.
A g e
stry It is at this stage that the raspberry’s social peer group will gain greater significance and will become a major source of the raspberry’s self esteem. The raspberry now feels the need to win approval by demonstrating specific competencies that are valued by society, and begin to develop a sense of pride in their accomplishments.
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S c h o o l
A g e
Infer
iority
Raspberries need to be encouraged and reinforced for their initiative, they begin to feel industrious and feel confident in their ability to achieve goals. If this initiative is not encouraged, if it is restricted by mother nature or teacher, then the raspberry begins to feel inferior, doubting his own abilities and therefore may not reach his or her potential.
If the raspberry cannot develop the specific skill they feel society is demanding (e.g. being athletic) then they may develop a sense of inferiority. Some failure may be necessary so that the raspberry can develop some modesty. Yet again, a balance between competence and modesty is necessary. Success in this stage will lead to the virtue of competence.
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The text is separated to follow the text body text. Also because title of the text is industry vs. inferiority but because I have put the words on opposite paged I didn’t have to use the vs. because there is a indication that these are conflicting theories.
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CONCEPTS
Title NeuzeitGrot Bold, 21pt, Aligned Center/Left Leading = 23pt
Mesausements Width = 156.25 height = 227 spine = 12.5 mm
There should be a title here
Idealy this would be the last page
The title page plays on the idea of truism statements, by saying “ there should be a title here” is an incomplete truth because that is that. I played with the same language on the back cover by saying “Idealy this would be the last page” because of the word idealy I’m leaving the interpretation of what that statement means to the reader. I also spelt idealy with one l instead of two because its not ideal and it becomes ironic. Laure Prouvost has some signs that do the same thing and I thought it would be a good way to end the book.
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Context NeuzeitGrot Regular, Bold 9/10pt, Aligned left/ Right Leading = 14.5pt
LAURE PROUVOST SWALLOW
6 – 36
FROM SEED TO MOLD
37 – 65
HYPER - REAL REALITY
66 –110
BIBLIOGRAPHY
111
The context page is designed with the idea of hyper reality and the real reality. The red represents the hyper reality of a raspberry and the white the real reality of the physical paper of the book.
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CONCEPTS
Highlights I took a raspberry and smudged it across a page, then scanned it in to create the highlights. This is the real colour of the raspberry and the reason I used that is because in an interview Prouvost says that doing something physically can bring more emotion than words can explain. So the raspberry colour is the reality of a raspberry and the physical nature of highlighting the text that it sits on, this brings the physical aspect to my book. Also this is a more physical approach (which is R e v i e w talked about in the original text) to pointing out which parts of text I chose to look at. REVIEW FORM ANNEKA FRENCH
Laure Prouvost’s exhibition Farfromwords at the Whitechapel Gallery explores the sensory and sensual possibilities of landscape. Her provocatively titled Swallow (2013) is a large-scale installation, which presents the viewer with a hyper-real paradise. This is a place akin to Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights where fish steal strawberries from young women who bathe and smoke naked and nymph-like at the base of a waterfall. Filling the gallery with a total panorama of collaged painting, drawing and film, Swallow encircles and immerses the viewer within a make-shift amphitheatre. Images from the work’s interior surface slip between real, remembered and imagined aspects of landscape, and bring together disjointed images to confuse and delight the senses: marble plinths, enormous hands, palm trees and red wine. The installation incorporates a longer super-saturated video work cinematically displayed. This heightens the work’s jewel-like quality as it shines through the darkness of a smaller connecting room. Here the viewer encounters brilliant sunshine, oranges torn apart and the repeated motif of the open mouth. A fragmented narrative emerges that brings together references from classical antiquity with highdefinition television monitors, painterly gestures and naked flesh, in an assemblage of time and place. Much of Prouvost’s visual vocabulary, her use of film and her manipulation of the visitor’s experience echoes the work of Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist. In particular, Rist’s mesmeric video installation Lobe of the Lung, part of the Hayward Gallery’s exhibition Eyeball Massage, employs similarly high-contrast pastoral and bodily imagery in an immersive installation environment to seduce and engage the viewer, expertly tapping into pleasure senses, reveries and secret memories.
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Chapter Headers NeuzeitGrot Light 8pt, Align Centre, Tracking: 750, Title Case
A d o l e s c e n c e
NeuzeitGrot, BlaCon
Raspberryescence
27pt, Aligned Left/ Center Title Case
A d o l e s c e n c e
Raspberryescence The chapter headers are the same as Erikson’s headers about his theory of life. I did this because I didn’t want the reader to become too lost within the concept of raspberries. But I change the heading of in the in the page to the alternative reality of Erikson’s theory, to keep to the idea that it’s a hyper-reality of a raspberry.
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CONCEPTS
Individual Concepts The images relate to the piece of text Michael Craig-Martin did a piece called “An Oak Tree” where he placed a empty glass of water on a stand and proclaimed it was a oak tree, So I put a raspberry in a clear glass as my interpretation to the piece of text. Prouvost also did a similar piece in the exhibition where she put a glass of water on a stand and wrote above it “At night this water turns black”. This was her interpretation of “An Oak Tree” and inserts a incomplete truth because when the lights go off the water looks black that’s because everything is black, but you cannot say for sure that the water has or has not changed colour. This is where I begin the narrative to my raspberry, I say “ When you turn the page the raspberry jumps out of the glass and goes into the mug” this statement also addresses a incomplete truth because as you turn the page you don’t know if the raspberry is still in the mug because you cant see it. I put the image at the edge of the page because it is linked with the image on the other page. Then on the next page there is a mug that is a solid colour this relates to Beatrice wards crystal goblet where she mentions that there are two goblets to typography a clear goblet (the glass with the raspberry in it) and a gold goblet (the mug). The mug is in blue because it’s a opposite colour to red and stands out from everything else, because the gold goblet is a goblet that stands out and attracts people while the crystal goblet looks ordinary.
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R e v i e w
R e v i e w
MICHAEL CRAIG-MARTIN
An Oak Tree is a piece by Michael CraigMartin. It consists of an ordinary glass of water placed on a small glass shelf, which is attached to the wall above head height. Craig-Martin composed a series of questions and answers to accompany the objects. In these, the artist claims that the glass of water has been transformed into an oak tree. The text was presented printed on a leaflet. It was subsequently attached to the wall below and to the left of the shelf and glass.
JUST AS IT IS IMPERCEPTIBLE, IT IS ALSO INCONCEIVABLE
Craig-Martin’s text deliberately asserts the impossible. The questions probe the obvious impossibility of the artist’s assertion with such apparently valid complaints as: ‘haven’t you simply called this glass of water an oak tree?’ and ‘but the oak tree only exists in the mind’. The answers maintain conviction while conceding that ‘the actual oak tree is physically present but in the form of the glass of water.
An Oak Tree is based on the concept of transubstantiation, the notion central to the Catholic faith in which it is believed that bread and wine are converted into the body and blood of Christ while retaining their appearances of bread and wine. The ability to believe that an object is something other than its physical appearance indicates requires a transformative vision. This type of seeing and knowing is at the heart of conceptual thinking processes, by which intellectual and emotional values are conferred on images and objects.
When you turn the page the raspberry jumps out of the glass and goes into the mug I considered that in An Oak Tree I had deconstructed the work of art in such a way as to reveal its single basic and essential element, belief that is the confident faith of the artist in his capacity to speak and the willing faith of the viewer in accepting what he has to say. In other words belief underlies our whole experience of art: it accounts for why some people are artists and others are not, why some people dismiss works of art others highly praise, and why something we know to be great does not always move us.
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R e v i e w
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“You have two goblets before you. One is of solid gold. The other is of crystal-clear glass. Pour and drink; and according to your choice of goblet, I shall know whether or not you are a connoisseur of wine. For if you have no feelings about wine, you will want the sensation of drinking the stuff out of a vessel that may have cost thousands of pounds; but if you are a member of that vanishing tribe, you will choose the crystal, because everything about it is calculated to reveal rather than hide the beautiful thing which it was meant to contain.” BEATRICE WARD
Beatrice Warde talks about two goblets of wine and compares them to design. The crystal-clear goblet is for people that know about wine, various elements will be taken into consideration from the way it smells to the colour of the wine, without worry of the goblet that it is in. Those who take the goblet of gold care more about the appearance rather than the wine. The manipulation of the views experience by choosing the clear glass you make the viewer focus more on the content rather then the aesthetics of a gold goblet.
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CONCEPTS
Chapter Breaker The chapter breakers have been used as tip-in pages, because I wanted to cut them down so they could be hidden in the within a page. The gradient is a concept for when a raspberry grows from a stem to a raspberry. So the idea of a plant then changing to a raspberry the chapters change from one to another.
Hyper–real reality After explaining the life of a raspberry through a humanistic perspective. I wanted to go further and create stories about raspberries to give them more of an identity. I started to play on the idea of truisms and how each person has their own truth or perception of what they see and read. So I started to create an identity through stories, statements and imagery for these raspberries, so that people can interpret what they are being shown in there own way. I have done this by starting to make narratives with raspberries but leaving incomplete truths so that the reader can use their intuition to fill in the gaps and the story beings to become real through them.
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IMAGERY
With the imagery I took the pictures with a macro lens, then put the images in Photoshop and changed the contrast, brightness and levels as well as sharpening a few images. This was done to create a hyperreal feel to the raspberries.
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COLOUR
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Hyper-real raspberry C=17, M=98.5, Y=100, B=7.3
Real Raspberry C=11.9, M=83.7, Y=47.4, K=2.2
Stem of a Raspberry C=68, M=92, Y=100, K=29
Uncoated Black K=100
Hyper-Real Raspberry I photoshoped a raspberry and used the eyedropper tool to pick the hyper real colour of a raspberry. I used this colour as a guide to make all the raspberries look like the same colour.
Stem of a Raspberry The green represented the colour of the stem of a raspberry this gave a different variation of colour so I was able to play with the colour of pages and text.
Real Raspberry The colour of a real raspberry the reason I chose to do this is because it played on the idea of reality and fiction of a raspberry. I mainly used this for the colour of the highlighted text.
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PAPER
I used paper that was purchased from abc printing. The last pages of the book are in gloss to give it a hyper-real feel and a series of large images look good on glossy paper.
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Front cover
Reality pages
hyper-real page
300 gsm white card
130 gsm white matt
130 gsm white gloss
FINISHING
I coptic stitched my book in 8 signatures so you could open up and see the whole page, because I had images that covered both pages. The thread I used was nylon string, I did this because its see through so unless you are in the light the string would be invisible and would not take away from the images. I scored the spine and applied doublesided tape to the spine then stuck it down with double sided tape. I then used the electric guillotine to cut my book, but it ripped the spine of my book, which I had to manually glue to amend.
Printer: Xerox phrase 7800
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CONTENT REFERENCE
Barthes, R., (1976) The Death of the Author www.tbook.constantvzw.org/wp-content/death_authorbarthes.pdf Craig-Martin, M., (1973) An Oak Tree www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/craig-martin-an-oak-tree-l02262 Erikson, E., (1923) Stages of psychosocial development. www.businessballs.com/erik_erikson_psychosocial_theory.htm French, A., (2013) Laure Prouvost www.a-n.co.uk/reviews/laure-prouvost-farfromwords Holzer, J., (1984) Truisms www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/holzer-truisms-t03959 Kawara. O., (1966) Date painting www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/jul/24/on-kawara Picasso, P., (1923) Picasso Speaks en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso Rist, P., (2011) Eyeball Massage www.theartsdesk.com/visual-arts/pipilotti-rist-eyeball-massage-hayward-gallery Warde, B., (1969) The crystal goblet gmunch.home.pipeline.com/typo-L/misc/ward.htm
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