Visiting Whitworth Art Gallery, Speaker: John Stezaker

Today I went to a talk which held at Whitworth Art Gallery; John Stezaker was the speaker. I didn't know about him before today.

John Stezaker is an English conceptual artist and a collagist who is famous from creating art work by using cut-and paste technique to make collage; he said that it is his way to rescue those images. He works on the various relationships to the photographic image: as documentation of truth, purveyor of memory, and symbol of modern culture. He was inspired by two painters, Gerhard Richter and Sigmar Polke who’s work was influenced by photography. In 1968, he started making photo-montages and he found existing materials from books, magazines, and postcards to convey his own unique work.

However, Stezaker asserts that he does not have to look for images — they find him. This is how he describes the process of arriving at the final work: “Images in charity shops are like orphans, they’ve lost their context or culture, they’ve gone a little bit out of date. They’ve been neglected and overlooked for years and people have passed them by, then suddenly here I am, the alternative foster home. But unfortunately I then inflict terrible abuse down in the basement where I cut them up.” (PHAIDON, 2012) I think this must be what he said that he is rescuing the images.

In the presentation, he did mention 4 different collage theme of his art work, which were ‘Landscapes’, ‘Shadow’, ‘Marriage’ and ‘Blind’. Among all the themes he presented, ‘Marriage’ was the one which I was impressed.

In his ‘Marriage’ series, he focuses on the concept of portraiture, overlap and combine famous faces from film portraits. Some of the images actually looks very natural, is was just like a person was cut in half and combined into one images again (like the above image in the middle). In this body of work, some of the images were depicting male and female identities amalgamated together to create a harmonious and sensations of the uncanny. By combing images of the Hollywood’s golden stars (who are art historical genre and public identity) and contemporary context, Stezaker show his interest in Surrealism; his work retains their aura of glamour and at the same time operating as an unique obsolete culture. Also present the aspect, element and create of human being.

References

PHAIDON. (2012) John Stezaker’s uncanny. (2012) Retrieved 9 Feb, 2016, from http://uk.phaidon.com/agenda/photography/picture-galleries/2012/april/19/john-stezakers-uncanny-couplings/?idx=1

Saatchi Gallery (2015). John Stezaker Marriage I [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/artpages/john_stezaker_1.htm

PHAIDON (2012) Muse (Film Portrait Collage) VII. [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://uk.phaidon.com/agenda/photography/picture-galleries/2012/april/19/john-stezakers-uncanny-couplings/?idx=5

PHAIDON (2012) She (Film Portrait Collage) XVII . [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://uk.phaidon.com/agenda/photography/picture-galleries/2012/april/19/john-stezakers-uncanny-couplings/?idx=2

PHAIDON (2012) Marriage (Film Portrait Collage) LXXI. [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://uk.phaidon.com/agenda/photography/picture-galleries/2012/april/19/john-stezakers-uncanny-couplings/?idx=1