The following post is rather simply motivated. It is part of my required pre-course work - a school assignment. The goal is simply to pick 10 images that I find interesting and to explain my picks. What follow are simply what happens to interest me at the moment of this posting.
1. Up and Down by MC Escher
MC Escher's work is interesting precisely because it plays with the viewer on so many levels. Escher continually challenges our notions of subject and object and deceives us into his fantasy. In
Up and Down a sort of courtyard space is shown, depicted with care for detail and importantly believable rendering of light and shadow that invites the viewer to visit the world depicted as though it were a three-dimensional space. As one looks, one can't help but mentally wander through the space, as if such a thing were possible, but just as one begins to do so one is confronted with the paradox - the space is self-containing, it is recursive. The ceiling is the floor - up is down! It's simple but well executed and serves as a kind of visual riddle.
2. Blade Runner Concept Art by Syd Mead
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| Blade Runner Concept Art by Syd Mead [Source] |
Syd Mead is rightfully recognized as one of the great concept artists/designers of the twentieth century. His work was foundational for so much science-fiction, so much so that his influence seeped into all kinds of media with which he had no direct involvement. Looking back on his work with hindsight it seems to capture so much of what was good about the halcyon days of science-fiction and also so much of what was wrong with it. There's an implicit set of social values communicated by the constant use of white Anglo-Saxon men, often with a sort of Playboy presentation that seems to perpetuate misogyny. But the art of
Blade Runner is different. Here Mead was instructed to reign in his "Playboy"-aesthetic to depict a used future, a dirty, decrepit future, a future with a past. All of his
Blade Runner work rises to this challenge, but I think this image in particular, showing an almost
contemporary future, only one more crowded with signage, with
artificial light, that could be mistaken for a night-time city scene, does so much to capture the look and feel of the science-fiction that would follow, namely cyberpunk.
3. Camel Thorn Trees, Namibia by Frans Lanting
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| Camel Thorn Trees, Namibia by Frans Lanting [Source] |
The above image is not an illustration but rather a photograph by Frans Lanting. A sand dune in the distance catches the morning sun, becoming a fiery orange while the trees are still cast in shadow. To me the image is interesting for how far photography has been pushed to an illustrated look, for every element seems as carefully planned as if done by a painter's brush.
4. MEDUZA by Jakub Rebelka
Jakub Rebelka has a very interesting and distinct style, one that plays with perspective by presenting forms alternately as flat and as having depth.
MEDUZA channels a certain pop-sensibility: the octopus and the cat stare at the viewer with a sort of disdain and inner city toughness. The piece seems to evoke graffiti while at the same time being set in exactly the kind of setting where one might expect to find such art: an urban industrial setting undergoing decay. It's brimming with detail and interesting line-work.
5. WTC 138 from New York in the 80s by Steven Siegel
This image is part of a series by Steven Siegel that explores the openness and the almost post-apocalyptic decrepitude of New York City in the 1980s. The twin towers of the World Trade Center stand tall in the distance, yet down here by the docks and the dirty water that is a world away. The canted orientation of the horizon lends the water a feeling of flowing downstream - of the whole world flowing downstream. Are we heading towards a drain? The television set, a symbol of wealth and technological prowess is here reduced to a curiosity, an artefact out of its element.
6. School of Athens by Raphael
School of Athens is interesting on a lot of levels. I won't pretend to touch on most of them. The arches serve as a continuous theme throughout the piece, framing the scene and then acting as frames within frames. This enhances the feeling of peering into the past, or perhaps, into another realm. Raphael constructs the scene not as it would have been, but instead imagines it in the most grandiose way possible, perhaps as its ideal form - maybe a nod to Plato. It is said that every notable Greek philosopher can be seen in the painting, although the who's-who is not clear for most cases. Many of these philosophers would not have been contemporaneous, so again their inclusion points to an ideal representation rather than an actual place. There's a great command of perspective and anatomy which enables the imagination to go the rest of the distance and envision the scene played out as if it were real. The piece is interesting too because it glorifies those who seek ultimate knowledge and the space in which they do so rather than any specific conception of that knowledge - the emphasis is on the pursuit of truth.
7. Staircase Sculpture by Seon Ghi Bahk
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| Staircase Sculpture by Seon Ghi Bahk [Source] |
Unfortunately I don't know the name of this piece or the photographer to credit for this particular image. Seon Ghi Bahk makes sculptures using pieces of charcoal that are meticulously positioned into a mimicry of man-made and natural objects. What's interesting to me in this work is how it implies the idea of assembly/disassembly through the visible discrete charcoal forms and presents an implausible structure that we can't help but interpret as analogous to the real thing. Not only is the staircase a floating staircase, but even the whole form itself is implicit, suggested more by our minds than anything else, as the discrete charcoal forms are too low in density to make cohesive surfaces. There's a lot more meaning to be dug out for those who want to go looking, but ultimately I think it is compelling purely on a visceral level.
8. Essoladan by Simon Ståhlenhag
Simon Ståhlenhag has put out a number of artbooks that showcase the intersection of science-fiction technology with contemporary or even bygone scenes. His work really embraces that feeling of a used, lived-in future/past and in so doing makes a lot of otherwise unbelievable technology seem very believable, perhaps even mundane. I like how this image simultaneously triggers my nostalgia chords and then rudely interrupts them with juxtapositions of the futuristic. Ståhlenhag presents a what-if past, part of an alt-historical tradition of reinterpreting history.
9. Star Wars Concept Art by Ralph McQuarrie
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| Star Wars Concept Art by Ralph McQuarrie [Source] |
To my mind no one is more responsible for what's
good about Star Wars more than Ralph McQuarrie. McQuarrie's work did so much heavy-lifting in establishing mood, character, and backstory. In fact, watching the films after looking over his art is almost depressing, as one is struck by the feeling of being treated to an amateur mimicry of a much grander vision. The above image was made for the original trilogy but was never used but it portrays all those qualities Star Wars aspires to - the mythic nature and the sense of ancient mystery. Looking at the piece I don't immediately think of Star Wars, but I immediately recognize it as part of a story about which I want to learn more. There's an early morning quietude to the piece that lends it a comfortable sense of place.
10. Deus Ex Machina by Geof Darrow (Concept Art for The Matrix Revolutions)
It's funny how some things in the transition from page to screen can go so wrong. I remember watching
The Matrix Revolutions, and when the machines form into a baby face to speak to Neo I probably let out an involuntary groan. In Geof Darrow's meticulously detailed line-work, the infant face is ghost-like, ethereal. It seems to be pouring out, or being squeezed out of the apparatus, the eyes still closed, like an infant emerging from the birth canal. That such a monstrosity is what the machines view as the best way to communicate directly to Neo speaks to the disconnect between their minds and those of our own. Darrow's obsessive line-work lends a disturbing quality to the work, and his human attempts to achieve mechanical precision serve as an interesting contrast to the machines' attempts to attain human understanding.
References
Picture of M. C. Escher (2012). Available at: http://www.listal.com/viewimage/4086445h (Accessed: 13 August 2017)
Syd Mead Blade Runner Concept Art (2013) Available at: http://www.doctorojiplatico.com/2013/07/syd-mead-blade-runner-concept-art.html (Accessed: 13 August 2017)
National Geographic (2011) Photo of the Day. Available at: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/2011/5/camel-thorn-trees-namibia/ (Accessed: 13 August 2017)
Jakub Rebelka (2015) MEDUZA. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/PW2B (Accessed: 13 August 2017)
Steven Siegel (2012) New York in the 80s. Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/stevensiegel/sets/72157626376913418 (Accessed: 13 August 2017)
Wikimedia Commons (2017) File:Raphael School of Athens.jpg. Available at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Raphael_School_of_Athens.jpg (Accessed: 13 August 2017)
Nathaniel Smith (2013) Seon Ghi Bahk's Cascading Sculptures Created Out of Charcoal. Available at: http://beautifuldecay.com/2013/10/17/seon-ghi-bahks-cascading-sculptures-created-charcoal/ (Accessed: 13 August 2017)
Simon Ståhlenhag (2016) Essoladan. Available at: https://www.redbubble.com/people/simonstalenhag/works/15819840-essoladan?c=414561-ships-of-the-north-87 (Accessed: 13 August 2017)
Star Wars, The Art of Ralph Angus McQuarrie: 100 Concept Art (2010) Available at: http://www.iamag.co/features/star-wars-the-art-of-ralph-angus-mcquarrie-100-concept-art/ (Accessed: 13 August 2017).
Geof Darrow and The Matrix (2011) Available at: http://themoonsofmars.blogspot.ca/2011/04/geof-darrow-and-matrix.html (Accessed: 13 August 2017).
![[Source]](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Raphael_School_of_Athens.jpg){kind=link}