Here are further tests for the Dialogic exhibition. The tree section and the caterpillar to woman section run together for this viewing but are separate sections.
There are still adjustments to make.
The tree section the aim is to get a feeling of stillness that is gradually changing naturally from a seemingly dead tree in winter to a spring/summer leaves. At the moment the changes are too jagged and not smooth enough. Also there were problems with the shadows cast when painting, I hoped these may be able to be incorporated into the piece but again at the moment I think these are not quite working.
As I said I was just experimenting with the process of combining the images of the painted tree (done under the camera and edited) and the photographed clouds edited together. The clouds changing needs to be shot again and smoothed out. I wanted to create the feeling one gets when the clouds in the sky move very slowly and make the viewer feel destabilized and dizzy. The light changes aim to appear like natural sunlight changes on the landscape, creating strange shapes and forms as they move, sometimes shockingly quick floods of light sometimes gradually darkening brooding moments. Again this needs smoothing, but there are moments that are working. There is a point where too much editing makes the natural qualities become too digital for my liking. I want to maintain the organic feeling of the paint and the clouds.
The caterpillar to cat to lady dancing and then horse section is also still in the experimental stage. The metamorphosis and journey through the scene is a significant part of this piece. each 'character' is representative of vehicles of the transition from life to death. The early part of the caterpillars journey has yet to be edited. So at present it starts with the metamorphosis of the caterpillar into the cat. The caterpillar is drawn with an ink brush pen and I wanted to show the form by the changing shape of the black pattern on each segment, no outline. Then I used both drawn metamorphosis and editing to exaggerate and expand the process of change.
In drawing the cat I wanted to use suggestive lines that dance and breathe the shape of the cat. The representation and reference for the cat's presence is taken from the various cultural references about cats and death - a fear of cats around dead bodies and their ability (real or imagined) to predict death. Cats have a strange quality of metamorphosis within their own form and can stretch and squash into seemingly different volumes and shapes. The feline form is often associated with female and femininity. So with these things in mind I tried to both exaggerate the shape shift through to the woman; transitioning the cats form through the contentment and fluidity of form of a sleeping cat then waking and stretching sitting and looking in that all knowing manner they appear to have before morphing into the woman dancing.
The dancing woman was an attempt to choreograph and represent the subtle motions that form what we read as feminine motion. The flow of the stylised hair, the steps side to side with shrugs of the shoulders and arms. I looked at various dances, particularly looking at the steps, hand gestures and arm movements, referring to an Asian/Indian influence as this sequence is representative of the widows walk through fire (Sati). This then transforms by the use of mirror editing into a stylisation of the woman that has an uncanny resemblance to (and this was a happy accident) female genitalia in a (I think) quite beautiful flower like patterning. The fire joins the pattern and then she becomes a rough line, indistinguishable as female, she sits mournful.
The transition to the horse and the style of the horse is not yet complete so this end section is just a test.
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