urban art
Getting back into some mixed media with this piece. Inpsired by the detritus of our urban walls. I've been drawn to working in a mostly monochromatic colour palette with small bursts of colour and torn pieces of type, similar to that of the torn street posters.
I'm going to leave this one for a few days and come back to it for some final touches.
Mixed media on board.
I'm drawn to the surface of the urban landscape and the overlooked beauty of elements that combine to produce a contemporary canvas. These fragments and details attract my eye and I feel the irresistible urge to record them. From drawings on cave walls to graffiti tags in alleyways, humans have marked their environment from the beginning.
Whether a political statement, an artistic expression, or the tag on an individual, the walls of our cities reflect the layered history of it’s people and a moment in time. Through human intervention and degradation, these layers become a collective collage of the citizens, forming a dialogue between city and people.
By use of the photographic lens, I aim to frame this communication, creating juxtapositions to draw comparisons and thereby create narratives based on social and political commentary. I’m equally intrigued by the abstraction on the walls of the city, both reducing it to impressions and revealing the accidental collisions of texture and intention which exist in cities at every scale.
I aim to celebrate the aesthetic of impermanence and imperfection and to reflect on a moment in time in a constantly changing landscape. I aim to challenge the viewer to look at their surrounds in new ways and highlight the beauty in the decay.
“I AM NOT INTERESTED IN SHOOTING THINGS NEW, I AM INTERESTED TO SEE THINGS NEW.”
Recently I have become very drawn to abstraction and the visual explorations within the urban environment.
I have always been drawn to the simplicity of line and form of architecture and the abstraction found in the relationship between buildings and their surrounds. Typography and street art provide interesting marks and graphic elements that can be combined to create interesting results. The layering of street posters peeling reveal an interesting interplay with type, creating new narratives.
This piece was created using found torn street posters. The technique of collage and decollage were employed to created a balance of colour, texture and type. The challenge with a piece like this is for it to look spontaneous with a strong sense of composition, without overworking it. Below are some progress shots, tweaking until it feels 'finished'. This quote sums it up well...
'Art is never finished, only abandoned' - Leonardo Da Vinci
DETAIL - Mixed media collage using torn street posters
More layering - Mixed media collage using torn street posters
Final tweaks - Mixed media collage using torn street posters
This piece explores abstraction through firstly selecting some of my original photos. I don't set out with a plan of the how the work will look, it's more of an intuitive process of selecting images that speak to me at the time. I then proceed to add and subtract elements of the images by tearing of cutting as needed. In this piece I wanted to introduce some interesting layering by including transparency. Once the composition is complete, I glue it to the substrate and scan to enhance digitally. Some addition textures and minor colour adjustments were made, as seen in the final piece below.
'East' - Digital collage. Started analogue and finished digitally.
This image is one from my ongoing 'Urban Fragments' series. Capturing the rich urban landscape of Melbourne's streets has become a consistent source of inspiration for my work. I'm drawn to the layers on the street walls, the accidental collage of torn street posters, the texture and the typography all provide so much visual interest that is so often overlooked. I love the contrast of the pink and yellow against the strong black and white type. I hope you enjoy it too...
On Friday 10th of June I was selected to take part in the one night only exhibition, 'TREND', presented by RAW Melbourne. RAW is an independent arts organisation for artists and focuses on spotlighting independent talent to the public.
Every second month they hand-select and showcase approximately 40 artists in film, fashion, music, visual art, photography, performing art, hair and makeup. Naturally, I was very excited to be approached to showcase with so many talented artists.
Another awesome thing about RAW is that once you've showcased in your hometown, you can then showcase at any RAW city, anywhere in the world in places like New York City, San Francisco, London... and beyond!
This was quite different to other group shows I've taken part in, as it wasn't you're usual white wall gallery exhibition. It was good experience deciding how to best display and hang the works. I created urban signage and designed some self-promotional postcards to accompany my display so that people could take away a little piece of my work, as seen below.
All works are available as limited edition prints, framed and unframed. Email lesley.bourne@gmail.com for more information on pricing.
I've been experimenting with some hand-made urban collages. Taking inspiration from Melbourne's vibrant streets, I've been exploring the possibilities of using my photographs as the source material for new mixed media works. By printing them out and cutting them up, I'm able to open up to a new, meditative way of working and the results have been very rewarding.
Here are some works in progress that explore layering, with a focus on type and texture like that of the torn street posters that surround us every day. There is so much visual interest and history to be found in the layers of the street walls.
I have enjoyed exploring decollage techniques with these works too. There's a fine balance between adding elements and taking them away. It also creates unexpected results when peeling back the images in this way, creating some playfulness to the work. The type is illegible and therefore becomes part of the design, rather to be read. I'm excited to explore this direction further and share more experiments with you soon...
