Grand Masters - Rachel Reupke

Rachel Reupke focuses on the stock image - her films mocking the constant use of these commercial images that in no way represent reality. Her videos are ultimately staged and leave the viewer feeling empty and completely unconnected to the film. However, the images are so familiar that you find yourself realising that you are exposed to these empty meaningless images everyday whithout questioning them.

Containing Matters of no very peaceable colour

10 Seconds or Greater

These films have made me interested in using the media of film to reconstruct grand masters - and also made me think about encorporating stock image as well as poor image. I want to express the original artworks in a way that is as true to modern day society as possible. By combining these over used images and ways of recording I think this would create a bizarre effect combined with a unique, meaningful  original piece of art.

Grand Masters - Brass Art: The Imagining of Things

After a visit to Huddersfield Art Gallery, I found the Brass Art exhibition particularly fascinating. The exhibition consisted of a combination of victorian scenes and images converted into modern 3D kinetic technology. The juxtaposition of the old images with the technology was bizarre and slightly sinister; this was increased by the mysterious soundtrack put together by Alistair Macdonald, confused whispered narration and nostalgic noises.
This use of modern technology seemed to fit with my idea of using the poor image to illustrate historical images - the difference being Brass Art used the best technology whilst I am interested in using the worst.
However - I like the idea of exploring historical images through modern day technology, this is the kind of thing I am interested in doing for this project.

Grand Masters - Poor Image

After the visit to Huddersfield Art Gallery, I found that my main focus if I was to recreate the images was to change the quality of the images themselves or the media. 

Jack Butler Yeats - The Explorer Rebuffed. 1953

For example, with this painting I was particularly interested in his use of colour and the broad brushstrokes. The majority of modern day art uses digital processes and there is an obsession with making things looks as realistic as possible. To deconstruct this image I would like to convert it into a low res JPEG, pixelating the colours and flattening the image. 

This made me think about a previous lecture on "poor image", how society is brought up on compressed images that circulate the internet, videos recorded on mobile phones; simply low quality images.

In Defence of the Poor Image - Hito Steyerl

The Poor Image VS. The Stock Image 

After reading through these articles, I think I'm interested in this idea of a flat image that doesn't have any emotional meaning or relevance. I would like to convert these old pieces of work that express historical reality in the best way the artist could manage, into the careless style of the current poor image society.