Distorted Reality

Photographs:

My project focuses on the topic of Surrealism, through the creation of a series of 3 A3 sized photographs hung next to each other, creating a triptych that introduces a narration. These photographs have a spontaneous effect, yet they were intentionally and carefully staged to produce a feeling of curiosity and add strangeness to the images. The staged lighting plays a major role in these photographs, contributing to the surreal aspect. The narration revolves around the idea of entering a dream, fulfilling one’s desires by imagining strange yet humorous situations through the displacement of activities, providing a completely diverse purpose and function to the activities and atmospheres themselves, in order to provoke the feeling of ‘surreality’.

The photographs have each been given a name to demonstrate a specific situation; The Office, The Dressing Room, The Island. The Office is a transformation of a bathroom into a working space, inspired by the social habit of using phones in the toilet, taking advantage of the intimacy that the bathroom offers. The Dressing Room plays with the displacement of objects-clothes. The dark scenery, as a person is grabbing an item of clothing from the fridge, creates an intense and puzzling atmosphere, as if she was fulfilling her midnight desire to grab a ‘snack.’ Lastly, The Island represents the bed itself, excluding the conventional purposes of a room, and creating a sense of isolation between oneself and the world. It shifts its purpose from sleeping to living, and is rather used as a living space that an individual can adapt to any situations- dumping and scattering personal belongings, being able to do all kinds of activities.

Presentation display

This project overall highlights the juggle between the realms of dream and reality, where one is able to choose to enter at particular moments. It represents the ludicrosity of our domestic lives, how we are capable of adapting to certain situations that are often irrational and personalised due to social standards and perceptions. Displacing activities into a more desired aspect can shift the original purpose of a space or object, as well as reorganize the course/routine of our daily lives.

Bridge book link: Bridge Book

PROCESS

Sketches, notes, ideas

Presenting the first mini project, the Curiosity Journal, we were asked to present 3 research findings as a start to choosing and narrowing down our topic for the Studio/Seminar. Initially, I was interested in beauty and the different perceptions of beauty, sustainability and nature, and lastly interior spaces. I found it quite challenging to think of one topic and expand on it, however I received feedback from my class, which helped me begin my path.

In the beginning, I decided to focus on interior spaces and their importance to human beings, and revolve around the idea of displacing objects in an interior space (a house), to display how we tend to see objects in specific areas that are ‘meant to be’ or ‘fits’ there, and displacing the objects can shift that societal norm and trigger a strange feeling in one’s life.

From feedback received, I became well aware of my topic and researched the several references I was provided, offering me deeper understanding and insight of Surrealism. From this research, I was able to think of a direction for my seminar essay, and later on for my studio project.

I decided to choose photography as my medium as I have never experienced it before. Exploring this medium can allow me to gain photographic skills and use my learning for future projects.

Inspiration Mood boards

The mood board consists of images and references that are linked to my project. For instance, 2 photographs of Jeff Wall’s work is included, as I will be using his strategy in my photographs as well, which is that the scenes look so raw and spontaneous yet are surprisingly staged. I also included Surrealist artists that I focused on my research to deepen my topic understanding – André Breton and Salvador Dalí. Additionally, displacing the fashion items also revolved around the idea of one of my photographs, which is clothes in a fridge.

Prototypes

These low-tech photographs were taken to have an idea of what the photograph is going to look like: where objects are going to be placed, what should the model do, what lighting works or doesn’t work, and what needs to change. With these photographs, I was able to present them and get feedback on what needs to be improved for the final photographs, which helped me in planning out exactly each photograph.