the challenge
This is the second part of my Art 101 challenge. If you haven’t been with us yesterday, you can catch up with the context in this post.
The second Seed I used for my artsy creative exploration is the Vertigo Seed.
my insight
This is my Vertigo Insight. It is based on an artwork by Olafur Eliasson called Whenever the rainbow appears. Unlike the previous Insight which was pretty much a photograph of the artwork as presented in the museum, this Insight requires some explanation.
Whenever the rainbow appears is an installation made of 360 oil paintings — each of a different color. Together they create an amazing 13-meters long rainbow in which you can easily drown, especially if you are standing close to it.
It’s a beautiful, mesmerizing piece. This wasn’t the first time I had seen it, but today it just screamed Vertigo. But I wanted more. I wanted the Insight I capture to cause a vertigo. I wanted it to confuse the senses. I wanted to recreate the impact of this huge artwork in a photo.
I took several photos of the artwork, each from a different angle. Later when I played with them at home, I chose one in which I had captured the rainbow from one end and looking toward the other end — thus creating an extreme perspective. But as often happens with such perspective, the frame included other parts which just got in the way, mainly the areas below and above the artwork.
It was then that I decided to crop the frame and turn it on its side. So, instead of long rectangle parallel to the ground, it now looks like a 90 degrees endless chasm. I deliberately kept the bottom part of the wall which now appears on the right side, to emphasize the depth and the message that the only way is down.
Why am I telling you all this? Let’s reflect on the Insight and on the process that helped to create it.
reflection
Anything we create is built on top of other things. Nothing is created in a void. And the process that led me to the Vertigo Insight today is a fine example of that.
It started with a random Seed and an artwork that caught my eyes. My brain gave this artwork a very specific interpretation inspired by the Seed. It is not the right interpretation — remember that we are allowed to make any interpretation we like — it is my interpretation.
But the process didn’t end with that. To amplify the interpretation, I played with what I saw. I used it is raw material for creating something else. Technically, what I did was very simple: I just rotated the photo and cropped it. But when you think of it, these technical steps are just a reflection of what was going inside my head. I changed the perspective and how I see what was in front of me. I gave this artwork a new meaning. I used it as raw material to send a different message — to tell a different story.
And that’s how every single thing in the history of humankind was created. Sometimes the process is as simple as what I did today. Sometimes it takes years of collecting raw material just to get to the time when everything magically connects even without remembering the origin of all the parts.
mental notes
- Experiment with interesting things you see — use them as raw material.
- Change your perspective physically and it might help you change your perspective mentally.
now it is your turn… be creative!