Tanja Deman is a multimedia artist born in Croatia. She works with various mediums such as photography, collage as well as physical statues and art pieces which explore the concept of the environment as well as its sense of space and dynamic effect.
Collective Narratives
In some of her most recent work she has created compelling black and white photographs where she uses digital tools such as Photoshop to combine images reflecting the natural and urban landscape to evoke a compelling narrative. This contrast and tension of urban and natural forces is something I plan on exploring and incorporating into my own work.
Dust Storm (2010)
The above image depicts a very surrealist scene featuring a tall building surrounded by dust overlooking a large quarry in the foreground. The photograph features very few components, which adds to the dreamy, surrealist style. There is an intriguing contrast between the very formal, congruous vertical shapes of the building in contrast to the jagged, dusty shapes of the quarry.
After looking at the work of Tanja Deman I wanted to experiment and explore how Photoshop could be used to combine two or more images to create something innovative and intriguing.
I wanted my photographs to portray the contrast in landscapes such as the idea of a busy city landscape contrasted with the calmness of the countryside. I picked landscape photographs taken for my AS coursework, I has a selection of seascapes as well as urban landscapes which I could use. I wanted to create a series rather then a single image so I could use different landscapes. I picked a photograph of my brother looking blankly at the camera to emphasize the effects of human presence on the environment. I used the same image over layed onto the landscape backgrounds to create a sense of consistency as well as develop a series.
I started with these two landscape backgrounds. I liked the variation of light in the first from the sky and dark in the second which makes an interesting contrast. I also wanted to make these both black and white similar to Deman’s work. I also think it is easier to edit in black and white as the lighting varies in the two separate images, making them appear less fitting. I then increased the contrast and put down the brightness to make the two photographs blend together better. I also like the contrast of high energy in the second photograph which was a long exposure of the tunnel in St Helier and the calm and softness of the first landscape.
I wanted to show a contrast of texture in the top two images. I also picked images where the horizon was at the same level, giving more continuity to the images, making them work better as a series as well as enabling a narrative in the photograph. I also kept a colour version to show the contrast in the backgrounds, I feel they don’t work as well because of the colour difference between the background and the superimposed image.
As a small starting point to my Environment project, I initially begin to go through a selection of baby photographs, of myself. This was not so much to use the imagery but more to gather an understanding into myself at this age and what my family life and environment was like. From birth, I only had my mother to look after me full time. I was born in Gloucester, England, where I lived with my grandmother (Dad’s side) for six months until my mum decided she would move back to Jersey to stay with her mother.
After A few years of moving back her mother had passed away, making my mum the only family member I had over here. Therefore I grew up with just her as a baby and up until I was much older. This meant that I had to heavily rely on friends as I grew up as other family members were never close to home.
In my last project I explored different female stereotypes of the 20th Century, selecting a cultural or political stereptype for each decade from the 1910’s to the 1990’s. I explored this characters with an outside perspective and now I would like to explore groups and stereotypes associated with these groups that I personally fit into. I think it would be interesting to play off these stereotypes and look at to what extent I conform to them. I hope to create a series of studio portraits that exaggerate these stereotypes in a way that will hopefully show that I am all of these and a the same time none of these stereotypes. I hope to make viewers consider the different stereotypes or boxes that they fit into.
Feminist
I personally identify as a feminist. “Feminism is the conviction that gender has been, and continues to be, a fundamental category for the organization of culture. Moreover, the pattern of that organization usually favors men over women.” P. Phelan (2014) It is my personal opinion that women and men should be equal and as of yet, women are considered not as important as men. I believe that people of any gender identity, race, cultural or financial background, nationality or sexual orientation should have the same rights. I do on occasion conform to the stereotype of an angry feminist, when in discussions surrounding women’s rights I can get frustrated with narrow minded people with misogynist ideals. I also think that when discussing issues surrounding gender inequality, sometimes women need to be loud and need to be passionate about what they believe in to be heard, and this can make them come across as angry. I hate the stereotype that feminists hate men. It is untrue, feminism is not about women being more important than men it is simple about women, the oppressed gender, to be equal to men, the socially dominant gender in our patriarchal society.
Art Student
There are a few stereotypical qualities associated with art students. They are many different preconceptions about artists and art students, these include: mental health problems, drug abuse, middle class backgrounds (presumably because the struggle of living hand to mouth is not something the middle class are used to and art is often not a very lucrative profession) and a need to feel like a “unique snowflake” while at the same time looking like every other art student. Another stereotype is that art students can be full of self importance and are often very pretentious when discussing art work. Some art students are not however, self confident and full of self doubt, always feeling like there work is not good enough and that other artists on their course are much better than them. Aesthetic stereotypes of of a female art student is the tumblr and instagram popularised hairstyle known as “space” buns, some kind of facial piercing, statement lipstick, a “indy” brand back pack and doc marten boots.
Opera/ Classical Singer
As a young person I feel that I don’t fit into most of the preconceptions of what a female opera singer is. The most common opera singer stereotype is a large middle aged woman with huge blonde braids and a horned helmet introduced by the soprano singer Frida Leider (1888-1975) who played Sieglinde in the Wagner Opera “Die Walkure” Above is a modern recording of the role performed by Karita Mattila. Other stereotypes associated with female soprano opera singers like myself is that they are overly dramatic and consider themselves superior to alto singer because of the extreme range of high notes that they can perform. Another stereotype is of course the beautiful dresses and gown that they perform in as well as the range of facial expressions and hand movements that they utilise to make their performance more dramatic.
Blonde
The stereotypes associated with women with blonde hair are that she must have a low IQ, be incredibly high maintenance, a diva, a bitch or be sexually promiscuous or “easy”. For the most part these preconceptions tied to women with blonde hair are rather negative and also often, untrue. Most positive stereotypes for women with blonde hair is that they are fun and bubbly or are simply of Scandinavian decent. As a child I had blonde hair but as I got older my hair darkened into a mousy, ashy light brown. I have coloured my hair many times from the age of 13 and have been blonde more than once during this 5 year period. I had been bleaching my hair to a platinum blonde coloured for over a year in order to die it pink, when I was sick of doing so I decided to leave it blonde and just maintain he brown roots. I had some bad experiences being a young blonde woman. I experienced cat calling much more frequently than when i had pink or brown hair, the most popular being “Hey, Blondie”. I also experienced multiple scenarios on the one time I went clubbing with blonde hair, two different men in different clubs thought that they had the right to touch me without asking or even talking to me. This bad experience along with a concern for my own safety and the health of my hair drove me to die my hair back to it’s natural colour. I hate that men associate blonde hair with someone who is “easy” because I believe this is why those men thought that they could do whatever they wanted. I have experienced much less catcalling since being a brunette again, only two instances in two months and I have had no bad experiences out clubbing either which reinforces my reasons to believe that it was my hair colour that was sending the wrong message. As a feminist I want to live in a world where women should be able to have whatever hair colour they want without being judged, but unfortunately that is not the world we live in and my safety comes first.
Beauty Pageant Winner
I think that there are many pre-conceptions about women who enter beauty pageants, they are often perceived as vain, high maintenance and full of self importance. I personally think that these seemingly negative qualities are inaccurate and what people are picking up on is high self confidence. To a certain extent these sort of competitions are superficial as generally speaking, it is attractive, conventionally beautiful women who enter. However, these women also need to be well spoken and articulate as they are ambassadors for their country, state, county, province, town or village. On Saturday 11th March I was crowned Miss Saint Helier 2017. My experience was very positive as I felt that the focus was definitely on the public speaking skills than the beauty aspect of the competition. I want to explore and research the ideas and history behind beauty pageants further before producing a response to my experience in the beauty pageant world as i was also a runner up for Miss Jersey Battle of Flowers 2016.
As a fourth and final plan for my project, I will capture my friends, my two closest friends. As a three, as well as one to one, I believe that we share a very unique friendship that I am very dependent on. Therefore I feel that it is essential to include this element of my life within a project that I am attempting to make personal to my upbringing.
Despite the fact that my family play a huge role within my life, my friends are my immediate go to if a problem or issue phases me. In terms of my environment and change within this, my friendships formed have helped me to overcomes my greatest of problems and in turn have reconstructed how I view and perceive various things.
Within this shoot, I plan to simply photograph our routine, which consists of driving around, visiting each others houses and sitting around talking about everything and anything. This may sound boring to most, or nothing different from what any other teenagers would do, but to us it is something we all need and takes our mind on anything else we may have going on at the time.
As a third inclusion to my project, I plan to incorporate the relationship I share with my girlfriend. In order to replicate this through photography, I intent to venture on a walk, photographing the process and how she acts around me.
Of course being with someone means that a large proportion of my time is devoted to this one person, therefore my world and environment is altered drastically. My routine has become much more different, from when I was younger and completely uninterested in girls, all I wanted to do was skate and see my friends. Whereas more recently I would be happy to simply go on a walk and take some photos.
My personal environment is western society. This encompasses a wide array of different cultures and values but can be seen as very different form eastern society. As someone who has traveled to China, in the eastern world, and stayed in a Chinese family home I can confirm that subtle and more obvious differences exist. Western society seems to value individuals more than groups and communities than they do in the western world. The preservation of culture is also very important in China, and I can only assume that this sentiment is present in other countries in the East.
Visual Displays of Cultural differences in the East and Western world
Western culture is present in many European countries as well as others that have experience immigrants from european countries such as Australia and the Americas. Western values have many different influences including Celtic, Greek, Latin and Slavic as well at the different variations of the Christian faith. Despite Western Society’s many faults, there has been great ideas and customs that have orginated in the west. Western concepts include democracy, the separation of church and state, freedom of speech and the pursuit of equality. Western societies are often concerned about self discovery, self criticism and self inprovement and this has helped western countries because more interlectually developed. Western countries are generally economically and superior and more powerful than eastern countries with the exception of China. Although countires such as Japan and South Korea that have adopted a more western values have economically benefitted from the changes. There are many different opinions about the top five most powerful countires so I have included lists from three different websites linked below.
Most powerful countries according www.usnews.com
United States of America (West)
Russia (West)
China (East)
United Kingdom (West)
Germany (West)
Most powerful countries according to www.themeshnews.com
United States of America (West)
United Kingdom (West)
Germany (West)
China (East)
France (West)
Most powerful countires according to www.the-american-interest.com
Western culture is also built on capitalism which is why western countries or countries that have adopted certain form of western culture are on average more economically developed then countries with easter culture. Many people believe that western culture is superior to eastern culture and this is partially to do with western countries being, on the whole, rich and more powerful than eastern countries. Western culture is also more progressive and inclusive than eastern culture. In the west people of all races, sexualities, gender identities and backgrounds are more likely to be accepted in western countries. Here is a link to an essay describing how western values are superior to eastern values in the opinion of Ibn Warraq, an anonymous author critical of Islam, who we can only assume from the pen name is of middle eastern origin. I cannot say that I agree with everything said in the essay as I feel that Warraq is often overly critical of the islamic faith as many muslins live in western countries very peacefully.
Something that is present in both eastern and western cultures is patriarchy, men and women are not considered equal in either cultures. However, the west are known for their objectification of women and do this much more consciously and obviously than in the west. Above is some examples of how women are sexualised and objectified in western advertising. The Dolce & Gabbana advertisement depicts a women being pinned down be man while three men look on. The woman is not even making eye contact with the man she is being restrained by which emphasises the passivity she is displaying. The image actually makes me, as a woman, rather uncomfortable. The American Apparel advertisement again shows a woman being held by a man, this time upside down by the ankles in a suggestive position. Although both figures have no sense of identity with the lack of faces, there is more of the male figure on show, suggesting that he is the dominant of the two. I want to explore the idea of how women are presented in the western world in this project and perhaps look at the time of women that are celebrated for their looks.
Something that I want to explore in my personal study is my personal environment of western society and the western female stereotypes that I fit into. I explored female stereotypes of the 20th century with an outsiders perspective as I was born in 1998 and was not present to see the stereotypes I explored first hand. In this project I hope to explore my own archetypes and how I do not fit into one box, but many.
My second area of exploration within my project is my previous involvement with skateboarding. In order to explore this, I again want to retrieve archival content, although create my own new images and shoots in the process.
I used to spend countless hours filming skateboarding in order to create videos, as well as being filmed for others personal projects. This was such an important part of my life for many years and I wish to involve this in my project by recreating some old footage of myself into new video.
Alongside this I plan to photograph one or two of the guys I used to skate with in an up to date shoot. I will focus less on the skateboarding itself, but more so the lifestyle that comes with it and the passion we all once shared. I would also like to create a short video of the day itself, maybe of a trick attempted.
the surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates
the natural world, as a whole or in a particular geographical area, especially as affected by human activity.
thesocialandculturalforcesthatshapethelifeofapersonora population
From Middle French environnement, equivalent to environ + –men
I think the theme of ‘Environment’ is very broad and can be interpreted in a number of ways. For example the surroundings that artists are exposed to significantly influences the meanings behind their work because the political and economic forces of their social context will effect their physiological condition. Physically the natural environment has always been an dominant theme in art because of its aesthetic qualities. An obvious starting point for this theme could be to explore landscapes as well as environmental portraits to show how people interact with their environments. ‘Environmental art’ as a genre addresses ” social and political issues relating to the natural and urban environment”(Tate) and particularly it is now associated with ecological concerns to do with climate change.
To begin my research and planning for this project I have created a mood-board and mind-map of ideas associated with the theme.
I have many possible starting points for this project but most of them are currently quite vague and need to be narrowed down. I think that ‘environment’ can be thought of on a large scale, for example aerial views of landscapes in contrast to macro shots of elements that make up an environment. There is also the potential to explore it in a personal way through the environments unique to individuals like their homes and families.
Reflecting on previous projects, I was interested in exploring the contrast between the natural and man-made environment in response to the Romanticist and New-typographic movements. As part of my exam module last year I explored weather, light and tidal changes within the same landscapes which was also interesting. Previously I have also explored Jersey as an environment especially during the Video Art project. I like the idea of challenging the stereotypical representations of Jersey’s natural beauty, not necessarily by focusing on the urban side but just finding new ways to represent the natural beauty. This could also be an opportunity to bring in archival imagery by exploring how the Island has changed and been portrayed in the past. While doing the Video Art project I was also introduced to the film ‘Koyannisqatsi : Life Out of Balance’ which I think is very powerful in the way that it juxtaposes the beauty of the natural world against the man-made as well as the impact of humans and technology which would be relevant to explore again for this theme. We are now considered to be living in the Digital age and historically technological advancements have impacted both the form and content of art. For example during the Industrial revolution artists rebelled against it such as the Romanticists who aimed to explore escapism and focus on the beauty of the natural world. When studying Tableaux I also found that the Pre-raphaelites expressed a nostalgic desire for the past and imagined a medieval world unsullied by the industrialisation of the 19th century. Realism on the other hand aimed to portray life as it actually was with truth and accuracy. I think it could be interesting to explore how contextual environments have influenced art both in the past and present and maybe look into varying ideas of values and standards throughout time maybe in relation to things like beauty and representation of social class, women etc.
I have been thinking about developing something in relation to my Personal Study, possibly by approaching the subject in a different, more artistic way for example using the mirror found in the Foot buildings for a shoot. However the mirror is big and fragile so i’d have to be careful about borrowing it. A good way to explore this would be using the mirror to photograph scenes within the buildings but this isn’t really possible at the moment with the current work taking place. I could use the mirror at my own home and potentially create some family portraits but I think I would only be able to borrow it for a certain amount of time and I’m currently not sure how I would connect this to other shoots and ideas based around the theme of Environment.
I think this project could provide an opportunity to experiment with a more creative and artistic approach to photography for example I have started to look at ‘land art’ with the broader idea of conceptual and abstract art as a possible feature of my work. I am hoping to come up with an overarching narrative for my project as I don’t want to end up with disconnected images and ideas although I might have to do some experimentation first. Some of my ideas I like but I’m unsure as to how I would actually represent them.
