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Dr
ROBERT ORGAN |
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SURREAL 2009 |
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“Surreal”
is a series of photographs taken during 2008. The photographs are typical of surrealist works, featuring the
elements of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and
non sequitur (humour). They can be broadly classified into three groups:
Group 1 Photographs of objects which are deliberately contrived to be
surreal in nature, e.g. a surreal sculpture.
Group 2 Photographs of objects where are not deliberately contrived to be
surreal in nature but become so because of their circumstance, e.g. their arrangement, orientation or location. The circumstance may be created
deliberately or randomly.
Group 3 Photographs of objects which are neither deliberately contrived
to be surreal in nature, nor become surreal because of their circumstance,
but become so because of the composition, or perspective, selected by the
photographer.
The series alludes to the “Ishikawa project” previously created
by the photographer. Grouping of
photographs according to the themes of “people”, “plant”, “product”, “place”
and “process”, the core methodology in the “Ishikawa project”, is
evident. However, the current series
is necessarily less rigorously treated and several of the themes are
frequently combined into individual photographs. All the photographs are fundamentally
documentary in style. Two important observations can be drawn from the series. Firstly, the majority of
photographs are figurative in one form or another; some incorporate man
himself, others incorporate models of man.
This seems to reinforce the concept that surrealist works derive from
a philosophy which rests within the mind of man and thus man must appear to
act as a reference point, champion or idol for these
works. Secondly, many of the
photographs involve reflective imaging.
As well as producing dream-like qualities, additional cognitive
processing is required to “unravel” such images which again reinforces the
cerebral nature of surrealist works. All of the photographs were taken with
digital cameras and printed digitally. Click here or on ‘Surreal 2009 gallery’ on the left hand side of the screen to see the photographs. |