"Trying to look good limits my life." - Stefan Sagmeister.
Sagmeister creates some of the most visually exciting and confrontational work of the 1990's. He abandons formal constraints, disregarding social barriers, resulting in work that isn't always entirely acceptable. Below shows the result when Sagmeister was asked to design the poster for a lecture he was giving in
As well as appreciating this sensational image for its aesthetics, the piece also conjures up feelings of awe, inspired by a man so dedicated to the visual arts and his work, that he could actually carve the message into his skin. This works especially well, given the context being a poster for a lecture, casting his students work ethic to shame.
There is limited attention to detail in the design of the font used for the text on his body, this is a reflection of the method of production. As each stroke cast would have been painful, it would have been sensible to avoid overly complex fonts or designs and limit the amount of strokes used.
I admire this piece the most for the use of unconventional canvases. I can see strong similarities between Sagmiester drawing on himself, and graffiti artists projecting their thoughts onto the building of a city. As soon as an artist uses a different canvas, be it a human body, a building, a tree or any other aspects of the environment, it gives the piece a more tangible feel. It brings the piece away from the sterile white walls of art galleries that so many of the masters are displayed on and makes it more accessible to the masses.
This piece is a contradiction to our modern throw away culture. Advertisements and poster graphics have only moments to grab your attention and get their message across before they are cast aside and thrown away. Carving the message into a human being promotes a much more permanent idea that the image will be there to stay, and can't be thrown aside so readily.
I definitely won't be forgetting this image anytime soon.
Alga
No comments:
Post a Comment