Fanshawe video artist brings life to famous classic paintings
In today's post-post-modern world, the process of “remaking” is not uncommon practice - we see it in remakes of classic films and music cover songs all the time, often as a creative opportunity for applying a fresh spin on things, or perhaps someone's way to pay homage to something they love or respect.
The concept of the remake is not uncommon in the art world, either; some famous examples are Marcel Duchamp's “LHOOQ” (“elle a chaud au cul”), which pokes fun at the Mona Lisa (translate it online to get this “cheeky” pun), or Jake and Dinos Chapman's sculptural reproduction of one of Goya's Disasters of War prints, “Great Deeds Against the Dead”, complete with gory, dismembered mannequin parts.
One Fanshawe student who has chosen to use recreation as inspiration is Roberto Palomeque, a third year student in the Fine Art program. Palomeque has worked predominantly with the use of video and various digital applications, and this year each of his works is based on famous paintings throughout history. One of his most recent works is a video installation that recreates the Gericault painting, “Raft of the Medusa” in vivid action, which was showcased late last month “H” Gallery. This was a rare occasion for any student creating digital or video art, since there are usually many restrictions to technologically-based work — with the reliance on projection devices and DVD players, showing a video-based piece certainly isn't like hanging a painting on a wall.
“Raft of the Medusa” depicts a fleet of four ships that were sent from France to claim possession of the Saint-Louis port in Senegal from the British in 1816. The Medusa was the passenger ship of that fleet, carrying 400 people on board. Shortly after its venture began the Medusa drifted away from the rest of its fleet, only to become stranded in shallow water a month later off the coast of West Africa. With not enough room for all of the passengers on board, 250 dignitaries filled the ship's six lifeboats. 133 of the 150 remaining passengers were left on a flimsy raft, and the other 17 remained aboard the Medusa. The lifeboats towed the raft with much difficulty and disorder, until they eventually gave up, leaving the occupants of the raft to their own fate. Mutiny, murder, cannibalism and suicide ensued on the deserted raft. By the time the survivors were rescued 13 days later, only 15 remained. This story remains an infamous scandal in French political history.
It was only a matter of time before the young artist Theodore Gericault decided to paint the incident, two years later in 1818. Gericault prepped himself to paint by sketching pictures of bodies in a morgue. Later, when it came time to paint “The Raft of the Medusa” he used friends, to pose as models in the construction of a scene he felt perfectly captured the self-destruction, despair, and the sighting and hailing of the approaching rescue ship, the Angus. This terrifying scene has become an important part of art history, and the painting, a masterful classic, currently hangs in the Louvre.
Similar to Gericault's live model approach nearly a century ago, Palomeque, asked various classmates to stand in for his video. He had his models assume the positions, gestures, and actions of the figures in the painting and would film them in front of a green backdrop. The green background, used in what's known as the “green screen” technique, would later allow for digital manipulation of the video snippets, by omission of anything green.
He first began by photographing a replica of the Medusa's raft, and then was able to omit the background from the video of classmates, and “pasted” their footage all together onto the photograph of the ship, digitally. The result is a powerful live video of humanity struggling, exactly as depicted in Gericault's painting, bringing all new meaning to the feelings, actions and motives of the characters on the raft. In bringing the survivors into reality, and making them more than just a picture of despondency, you get a real feeling for what happened on the raft, as a spectator, as you see these strained and sometimes frantic characters in the scene that happens moments before their rescue arrives.
In his explorations, Palomeque has also recreated scenes from paintings by Magritte, Vermeer, Seurat, and Michelangelo. For his next video piece, Palomeque has created an animated replica of Coreggio's “Assumption of the Virgin” which is an exciting and trippy, spiralling vortex.
Of his upcoming work, videos will continue to bring motion and action, a breath of life, so to speak, to infamous paintings.
As well, as serving as an artist's exploration, these video works have also given Palomeque much needed experience with digital film applications such as Adobe Premiere, as he has applied to study Digital Animation at the Sheridan Institute, Centennial College and Seneca College after graduation. One of the requirements needed for acceptance is experience with these digital programs, along with a solid collection of video work to present, similar to a portfolio. Another demand, which to some may seem surprising, is a diploma from post-secondary Fine Art program, both of which Palomeque will have, partnered in a strong body of video and digital art experience to show.
Although the exhibit is no longer being displayed in “H” Gallery, there is often an exhibit on display. It's worth the trip down to see what your fellow students are creating, and is a great way to suppport local talent!
The concept of the remake is not uncommon in the art world, either; some famous examples are Marcel Duchamp's “LHOOQ” (“elle a chaud au cul”), which pokes fun at the Mona Lisa (translate it online to get this “cheeky” pun), or Jake and Dinos Chapman's sculptural reproduction of one of Goya's Disasters of War prints, “Great Deeds Against the Dead”, complete with gory, dismembered mannequin parts.
One Fanshawe student who has chosen to use recreation as inspiration is Roberto Palomeque, a third year student in the Fine Art program. Palomeque has worked predominantly with the use of video and various digital applications, and this year each of his works is based on famous paintings throughout history. One of his most recent works is a video installation that recreates the Gericault painting, “Raft of the Medusa” in vivid action, which was showcased late last month “H” Gallery. This was a rare occasion for any student creating digital or video art, since there are usually many restrictions to technologically-based work — with the reliance on projection devices and DVD players, showing a video-based piece certainly isn't like hanging a painting on a wall.
“Raft of the Medusa” depicts a fleet of four ships that were sent from France to claim possession of the Saint-Louis port in Senegal from the British in 1816. The Medusa was the passenger ship of that fleet, carrying 400 people on board. Shortly after its venture began the Medusa drifted away from the rest of its fleet, only to become stranded in shallow water a month later off the coast of West Africa. With not enough room for all of the passengers on board, 250 dignitaries filled the ship's six lifeboats. 133 of the 150 remaining passengers were left on a flimsy raft, and the other 17 remained aboard the Medusa. The lifeboats towed the raft with much difficulty and disorder, until they eventually gave up, leaving the occupants of the raft to their own fate. Mutiny, murder, cannibalism and suicide ensued on the deserted raft. By the time the survivors were rescued 13 days later, only 15 remained. This story remains an infamous scandal in French political history.
It was only a matter of time before the young artist Theodore Gericault decided to paint the incident, two years later in 1818. Gericault prepped himself to paint by sketching pictures of bodies in a morgue. Later, when it came time to paint “The Raft of the Medusa” he used friends, to pose as models in the construction of a scene he felt perfectly captured the self-destruction, despair, and the sighting and hailing of the approaching rescue ship, the Angus. This terrifying scene has become an important part of art history, and the painting, a masterful classic, currently hangs in the Louvre.
Similar to Gericault's live model approach nearly a century ago, Palomeque, asked various classmates to stand in for his video. He had his models assume the positions, gestures, and actions of the figures in the painting and would film them in front of a green backdrop. The green background, used in what's known as the “green screen” technique, would later allow for digital manipulation of the video snippets, by omission of anything green.
He first began by photographing a replica of the Medusa's raft, and then was able to omit the background from the video of classmates, and “pasted” their footage all together onto the photograph of the ship, digitally. The result is a powerful live video of humanity struggling, exactly as depicted in Gericault's painting, bringing all new meaning to the feelings, actions and motives of the characters on the raft. In bringing the survivors into reality, and making them more than just a picture of despondency, you get a real feeling for what happened on the raft, as a spectator, as you see these strained and sometimes frantic characters in the scene that happens moments before their rescue arrives.
In his explorations, Palomeque has also recreated scenes from paintings by Magritte, Vermeer, Seurat, and Michelangelo. For his next video piece, Palomeque has created an animated replica of Coreggio's “Assumption of the Virgin” which is an exciting and trippy, spiralling vortex.
Of his upcoming work, videos will continue to bring motion and action, a breath of life, so to speak, to infamous paintings.
As well, as serving as an artist's exploration, these video works have also given Palomeque much needed experience with digital film applications such as Adobe Premiere, as he has applied to study Digital Animation at the Sheridan Institute, Centennial College and Seneca College after graduation. One of the requirements needed for acceptance is experience with these digital programs, along with a solid collection of video work to present, similar to a portfolio. Another demand, which to some may seem surprising, is a diploma from post-secondary Fine Art program, both of which Palomeque will have, partnered in a strong body of video and digital art experience to show.
Although the exhibit is no longer being displayed in “H” Gallery, there is often an exhibit on display. It's worth the trip down to see what your fellow students are creating, and is a great way to suppport local talent!
