Vasko Taskovski- Surrealist Artist

Macedonia-based artist Vasko Taškovski finds inspiration from horses to produce surreal fantasies. Using an array of vivid colors and varying landscapes, the painter transforms the ordinary creature into a robust yet agile stallion. Most fascinating about Taškovski’s creations are the constructs and forms of the equestrian subjects.

In one of his elaborate paintings, the horse is militantly made of industrial materials, appearing like a giant Trojan horse. Several of Taškovski’s paintings portray the animal as half-botanic, sprouting branches and leaves. Taking it a step further, there are even instances in which the figure’s whole body blends in with the landscape.

There is a natural feel to these works that merge animal and environment; however, Taškovski also features entirely fantasy-driven images. A science fictional style is apparent in the most colorful visuals. A blur of hues represent the swift figure with a windswept mane. It is fascinating to view Taškovski’s series of otherworldly imagery.

This artist inspired m e to take a surrealist approach to my work with the rocking horse. I like the way Taskovski uses nature and the horse together which allows the horse to become embedded in the landscape and difficult to see. This technique i would like to use in my stop motion video with the rocking horse and a real horse to create surrealism and confusion for the viewer as this i feel, makes a higher quality piece.

Artist Research- Christian Boltantski

Christian Boltanski (born 1944 in Paris) is French sculptor, photographer, painter and film maker.

In the 1970s, Boltanski started using mainly photography for expressing form, exploration of consciousness, and remembering. After 1976, he started treating photography as painting, making collages of sliced photographs of still nature and everyday life banality in order to reflect collective aesthetic condition of modern civilization in ordinary, stereotypical way. As a departure from his earlier medias, he started using readymade objects. His use of small, colorful figures made from cardboard, thread and cork, transposed photographically into large picture formats, helped him creating effective theatrical compositions. These works encouraged him to start creating kinetic installations. The Shadows (1984) consists of strong light focused on figurative shapes and forms generating mysterious environment of silhouettes in movement.

I am going to link my work to that of Boltantski as the shadows he creates within his work reflect confusion and distortion which is what i want to try and create myself in my videos.

Motion piece- rocking horse video edit 2

This is my second video of the rocking horse. I have used the critique from my previous video to modify and improve the quality of the video that i produce for this theme. As discussed on the previous video, i have chosen a blue filter for my developed video. This creates a rather chilling mood and makes an almost haunting and menacing atmosphere. I have decreased the highlights and increased the contrast, which added to a lowered brightness of each image still, distorts the rocking horse making it illusive and mysterious to the viewer.

This video is more personal to me as the chilling, haunting mood reminds me of a bad dream i encountered as a child. Especially due to the fact that exact rocking horse in the video was in that dream. I have unintentionally recreated part of this bad dream, which is why it scares me when i watch it and makes me feel uncomfortable.

To enhance the shadows i have decreased the highlights, brightness and increased the contrast. This with the cool blue filter, allows the shadows to stand out from the wall. This creates a sense of distortion as the eye does not know whether to look at the rocking horse or the shadow. This i compare to the work of William Boltantski and how his work used shadows to create such distortion for the eye to follow. I think this panic and confusion not knowing where to look when you are scared- like being lost in a crowd- adds to the haunting feel to the video.

What i like about this second video, is the progression of mood within it which makes the viewer have a deeper connection with the video itself, which not only lifts the overall quality of the video but also the emotional message it is trying to put across also. I also like how the pictures are jerky in the stop motion which leads to further distortion and mystery, especially that way the saddle appears to flash with the differentiation of brightness within the stills which adds to the eeriness and haunting mood. The decreased brightness of the stills makes the rocking horse more difficult to see which adds to the mystery of whether or not the rocking horse is real or fake.

What i don’t like in the video is the speed. In my next video, i would like to decrease the speed further and perhaps make the video a little longer. Also the lack of a deeper symbolic meaning to the rocking horse. As a development, which will lead on nicely to my next video is trying to create a meaning for the rocking horse itself which will bring it out of the video a little more. I would like to focus on surrealism and try and incorporate a real horse and the rocking horse together.

Moving piece image- Rocking horse Video 1

I decided to work with stop animation to depict the movement of a rocking horse as this fits in well with my self initiated project of rhythm and cycles within my sub-theme of equines. I was inspired by Edweard Muybridge, who sort to prove that all four feet of a horse could be off the ground at the same time when in gallop. Muybridge also produced his findings using stop animation with a set of cameras alongside a race track and playing them in sequence. I chose to picture a rocking horse as this allows the viewer to make a comparison bewteen the movements of a real horse and the movements of the rocking horse.

In this first video, i took the raw images that i captured from the original rocking horse shoot and placed them in windows movie maker. I adjusted the speed of each image to 0.03 of a second so this produced a seamless running of the images which created thee illusion of the backwards forwards movement of the rocking horse.

What i like about this video is the way that the stills do not flow very smoothly as this helps to keep the unrealistically of the rocking horse and it goes well with the forward backward, rather static motion. I also like how the rocking horse creates shadow against the wall as this gives another medium to the video as well as the rocking horse itself. I like how the horse features great detail under the soft lighting and the texture of the horse’s mane and leather saddle is made apparent.

What i don’t like about this video is the lack of mood and tonal range within it. I think that this video could be quite haunting almost, by the way the rocking horse is moving by itself and this i am going to add to my developments also. Also, i would like t improve the shadows visibility present in the video as i think this is an important feature that the video is lacking.

For my development, i am going to try and create more of a mood withing my video. To do this i am going to change the colour filter of the video to perhaps a cool blue which will set the chilling mood, complying with my critique to make the video more haunting and mysterious. I am also going to slightly change the speed so that it moves ever so slightly slower so it enhances the fact that the rocking horse appears to move by itself. To enhance the shadows in the video i may adjust the contrast to bring them out of the wall to the viewers attention. This hopefully will make large improvements to the quality and feel to the video.

Here is the stop motion animation, created by Edweard Muybridge which has inspired and influenced my work and desire to carry out my own self initiated project on the movement of the horse.

Amber Draper – Moving Image Piece Brief

This is my introduction to my blog, I am capturing equines and their behaviours. I find this area interesting as it is personal to me, I have my own horse called Celtie. My blog is going to display my videos which is a much easier way to demonstrate my feelings and my devlopment over the next couple of weeks.

The reason I chose to study photography is because I have always found cameras interesting and I would love to be able to improve and develop my skills.

I hope you enjoy!