The work on the art project I did in the previous period is inspired by two TI workshops which I attended last summer, namely Klaus Knoll’s Language and Image and Marjorie Vecchio’s The Boundaries of Abstraction. They were very important in that they informed my thinking about new discursive strategies to incorporate in my artistic practice and ways to introduce political content into the seemingly apolitical vocabulary of abstract art. Another point of departure was the work of Oliver Ressler, an artist whose politically charged use of billboards as an artistic medium I came across during the work on my research project this semester.
All of these influences resulted in an idea for a series of highly political abstract works for billboards, as a way to reclaim commercially usurped public space for artistic purposes. Furthermore, there is currently much talk in the media about the intention of the current Macedonian government to call extraordinary parliamentary elections this spring. If that happens, the whole city will be covered in billboards advertising political parties, making my artistic intervention all the more topical and timely.
The process
This series of digital prints for billboards draws upon a wide array of artistic strategies traditionally used by abstraction (the liberating power of randomness, chaos, gestures), while at the same time recontextualizing them and translating them into the language of new media.
The process of their development can be illustrated through the first work in the series, entitled “European integration (Political consensus holds key to European integration)”:
The starting point in the process is the media, i.e. news coverage of national and global political issues. In this case, the process starts with a news story about the political dialogue in Macedonia, under the headline Political consensus holds key to European integration. In the contemporary, digital version of the aleatory principle, the headline is searched in Google Images, and the search results thus obtained serve as raw material which is later digitally edited (see screenshot).
Work #2 in the series started with the news story entitled At least 14 killed in separate attacks in Iraq, of 17 December 2007. The search of the title through Google Images returned some 2,500 results, including photographs of George Bush, 9/11, soldiers, weapons, maps, Slavoj Žižek, etc.
The final product, entitled “14 killed in Iraq (in full: At least 14 killed in separate attacks in Iraq)”:
Work #3 commenced with an article about the possibility of a new war in the Balkans ignited by Kosovo’s independence, entitled Antidote to Nationalism, published in The Guardian on 3 Dec 2007. The Google Images search of the title returned over 90 images, including the Statue of Liberty, George Bush, weapons, protesters, Bosnia, the Israel Security Fence, books, maps, Slavoj Žižek once again, etc.
I used a total of 56 images (above) to produce the following digital print, entitled “Antidote to Nationalism”:
Work #4 started with a BBC News story about the recent security problems in Macedonia, entitled Macedonia clash leaves two dead (BBC News, 10 Sep 2007). The Google Images search of the headline returned some 50 images (see screenshot), including maps (surprisingly mostly of Iraq), soldiers, ABBA, Aristotle, Abraham Lincoln, fighter jets, parrots, and soccer.
The final result is the following digital print, entitled “Macedonia clash (leaves 2 dead)”:
Work #5, entitled “The name issue (Greece and Macedonia to restart talks on name)” had its beginnings in a New York Times article of 6 Dec 2007 about the ongoing dispute between Greece and Macedonia regarding how the latter country should call itself, under the headline Greece and Macedonia to Restart Talks on Name. The Google Images search of the headline returned 177 results (see screenshot):
Results included the usual maps, war planes, tanks and other weapons, US soldiers (showed up in all five searches), as well as more interesting items such as food, Elvis impersonators, wildfires, soccer, etc.
I used a total of 86 images (above) to create the following digital print:
The expected output in this particular part of the project is envisaged as a series of 10 abstract digital prints for billboards.
Meanwhile, I am still awaiting acknowledgement of institutional support for the project (expected to occur in mid February). In the following period, my plan is to finish the series of digital prints, and continue working on the other two expected elements, i.e. a performative/participatory element and video (at this point conceived as a 'news package' with vox pops to explore public opinion on this issue).
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