The Creators Project: At first glance, close-up in the gallery space, Nick Smith's images might appear confusing, a chromatic blur. Step back, catch it on the periphery, or peer at it through the prism of your phone's camera, however, and it'll make itself clear. UK artist Smith has created a series of pixelated portraits using graded color chips he makes himself, the kind you might find on paint color charts. Underneath, they have writing too, just like in the charts, but these aren't the names of the colors, they're words and text from Shakespeare and other works of classical and romantic literature.
4 comments:
Anytime I see anything vaguely related to paint chips, I have Monet flashbacks, but this article actually comes with a novel use for the chips. By making each color an individual pixel of a larger picture, you get a greater appreciation of the visuals in the photo. By breaking up pictures into their individual colors, you get to, as the artist put it, see every color in the palette and understand how they work together. This also provides a lesson in context, as the pornographic images would mean nothing if we didn't know that they were pornographic, and this dissonance leads to a more careful examination of how we view art and where the line between art and crass photographs is. The fact that the artist uses however many chips the paragraphs he writes dictate is interesting, as most artists are concerned with the words the art is trying to conjure up, not necessarily giving an explanation of the art on the art itself. All of these elements come together to make a polarizing, but ultimately profound examination of how we view color and the world around us.
I'm a great fan of the creators project, having endlessly streamed videos of novel media design that they've hosted. When I saw the Creator's project on the PTM blog, I knew I had to comment. Upon first read, however, I found myself skeptical of Mr. Smiths work. Despite the fact that he is using a rather medium of expression, isn't he simply representing the work of other artists? I read further, and discovered how the paint swatches, which I had previously (and,, as I now realize, over-critically) dismissed as an excuse to use other's material, actually served their own creative purpose. Coupled with the words written below them, each swatch takes on its own nature, a meaning of its own. When strung together, the sonnets and sentences, and the non-chromatic color progressions all come together, not necessarily cohesively, but in such a fashion as to cause a new meaning, or dissonant collection of new meanings, to come together to challenge the viewer. When viewed from afar, a disjointed semblance of unity becomes more and more cohesive, and one truly questions what the value of this "making sense" thing we value so highly even is. Thank you, creator's project!
I think this is a very interesting form of art. It speaks to me as someone who grew up in the age of pixels. While the subject matter may be different than what I’m used to, the concept is familiar. In MS Paint, you used to be able to “paint” pixel by pixel. The technique involved may not be all that great. Essentially, the artist is just painting a square a single color. I think that the technique comes in mixing the appropriate colors so that each individual square has its purpose. I would be curious to know more about how the artist goes about creating these pieces. I can’t imagine that he just starts painting squares and arranges them. I would think some kind of chart portraying the overall shape and position of the swatches. The article doesn’t mention how big these pieces are. I don’t think they’d be that effective being small, especially because one wouldn’t be able to read the text without being right next to the piece. For someone who isn’t a big fan of art, this is an exhibit I would go see because it seems to be different than many other artworks I have seen.
Though "paint chips" might be among the dirtiest phrases I have in my vocabulary thanks to the dreaded Monet project, this take on paint chips is refreshing. The juxtapositioning of so many seemingly unrelated things creates a thought provoking and conceptually interesting piece. While the thought of generating my own paint chips for the sake of art causes physical pain within me, placing "images" of the naked female body in the context of Shakespeare and texts that were once banned yields an interesting contemporized version and perception of these old texts. Had any of the elements present in this particular exhibit been missing, the artworks would have decidedly felt more like they were trying to evoke a simple shock value response instead of inspiring careful contemplation that the collective works bring about now. Smith's unique perspective and dedication to this project - as evidenced by his meticulous creation of the paint chips - are a refreshing perspective on many things often written off as mundane.
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