Case Study

VJeko Sager is a current contemporary artist who experiments with an architectural style. He is also a philosopher, educator and curator. In this series called ‘Antimatter’ he creates shapes by cutting paper to raise levels and lower levels. He likes to push the boundaries of what we think we know. He doesn’t take simple solutions as answers and believes that society has become numb to the complexity of reality. His work has achieved awards and has been exhibited all over the world. Because of his philosophy and style of work, he has been described as an architect of the mind.

Analysis

Visual

Looking at this image it doesn’t look like cut paper at first glance. To me it looks like cracks in the ground and like something is trying to break through from beneath. When I look at this image there is not much depth, it shows some depth by taking what was a completely 2d looking image and adding depth to make it look 3d by cutting pieces of the paper to make structures. This image is also very minimal, not a lot is happening and from a distance it almost looks like a blank page, I like the simplicity behind the image and then the thought out placement of the ‘cracks’.

Technical

In this image, the light and tone has been explored by cutting the paper and lifting or pushing down bits. By doing this, shadows are created. Tone is about the values of light and dark that make up an image, in this image the is a vignette meaning there are dark areas around the image and in the corners, this suggests that a light was point straight down. I think an on camera flash may have been used as you can often get a vignette when using a camera flash, also the fact that there are no shadows from where the camera would have been. Overall, the image is very bright in tone and has a lot more white and highlights rather than dark areas. It obviously lacks colour so the image is made interesting by the use of the shadows.

Concept / Context

Vjeko Sager likes to push the boundaries of knowability. Tis image is part of a series called ‘Antimatter’ they look like things are breaking through the surface. With this image I like the placement of the ‘cracks’ on the page as it looks like cracks from roots or perhaps a mole. The way there are big cracks make it look like where something started then went back under and tried again further up. Sager also believes that culture is being numbed of how complex reality really is, this may be why he has made this series as he has taken paper which is usually always overlooked for what we think it is but then he creates it into something we had never even considered.