SEASONAL STILLS
Liz Rideal
The inspiration for these images is 17th-century Dutch still life and drapery
painting, Andy Warhol and Donald Judd. Im aiming at a combination of
modern machine aesthetic bathed in a purely sensuous delight in the repetition
of form and colour.
In this new work the coloured fabric cascades have led naturally to pieces
reminiscent of swathes of folded kimono combined photographically with natural
objects, often flowers.
Focusing on real cloths photographed prescriptively and repeatedly, I have
built up works which have at their core a feeling of exuberant restraint and
frugality of expression, formal and austere, and in this sense, Zen-like.
Now I am adding real objects - mostly natural, home grown and seasonal - and
arranging them within the booth to form a satisfactory composition. The image
is taken repeatedly by the camera.
In some of the works, for example Japanese Snow the natural object
is moved around so that each photograph of the final collaged piece is different,
some images with parts out of focus and close to the lens, others catching
a bloom centre stage.
In other works, the images are exactly the same and collaged together making
tight rhythmic patterns. The backdrop colour and shape of drapery influences
the way that the eye responds to the overall collaged image and the regularity
of the object, for example the narcissi in a yellow vase, setting up another
syncopation. With this particular example, the white flowers jump out at the
viewer forming a vertical cascading garland.
Original unique photo-booth collages measure 8 x 6 ins (20 x 15 cm).
C-type enlargements, in editions of 3, measure 40 x 60 ins (102.5 x 130.5
cms).
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