Experiment 3 - Embroidery

Another artist I came across while scouring art blogs was the work of Jose Romussi, who takes found photographs of dancers and people and decorates them with embroidery. "Romussi brings these pictures back to life with bright vibrant colors, underlining the dynamic of these frozen movements. With each new line of embroidery he invites the viewer... to experience each subject's hidden vitality." - http://cargocollective.com/joseromussi/BIO

Jose Romussi, 2012. Title Unknown.

Jose Romussi, 2012. Title Unknown.

After some further research I then went on to find the work of other Photo Embroidery artists, one of these artists being Maria Aparicio Puentes. Her work, as she describes, is concerned with "...the overlapping of information, which in this case can be the visualization of the geometry..." http://cargocollective.com/mariaapariciopuentes/creative-process

Maria Aparicio Puentes, year and title unknown

Maria Aparicio Puentes, 2011. Title Unknown

Jose's work is about the underlying strength of pose, while Maria's work is more about finding connections between points in a photograph. Although their objectives are different, both artists are concerned with the creation of shapes within a pre-existing space, in this case, a photograph.

As I'm a fan of multi-media art, and as I really liked the simple effect of the Photo embroidery, I thought I'd try it myself. As is the way with most multi-media artwork, I used a found image of pigeon. I used quite thick embroidery thread - in order for it to be clearly visible on top of the paper. I pre-picked the paper before sewing so I could plan where each point would connect to.

Sally Taylor, 2013.

Although the finished image is not particularly aesthetically pleasing, I think its worth lies more in what it is trying to explore than how it looks.

"When I begin the stitching something else happens, drawing will never do what thread will..." - Maurizio Anzeri - http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/maurizio_anzeri.htm?section_name=photography

By combining the two materials together - thread on top of a photography - I feel as if I am asking questions about the different 'planes'. On what 'plane' does the embroidery exist? Which is the 2D medium and which is the 3D? Is the embroidery a 2D shape existing within a 3D one (the image within the photograph)?. The embroidery becomes sculptural when done on top of a photograph - it becomes an interpretation of reality - through observation - seeing the lines that exist within it.

As the experiment was done so quickly, I felt I didn't explore the possibilities available through the technique. When I first decided it was something I wanted to try, I originally set out to take my own photographs of pigeons, which I could then alter. But, after some deliberating (and after having a quick read about bird photography on the internet) I decided it would be near impossible for me to master bird photography in a day, and that it would be hard for me to take some usable photographs.

If I had given myself more time, I would have liked to try and create a 'line-only' version (similar to my pencil 'frame-works' I created for my Final Major Project) either free-hand or pre-drawn. If I had another chance to do this using my own photographs I think it would be a worthwhile experiment: altering an environment I have visited in real life via the decoration of a photograph.

I would also have liked to create a digital version - similar to the images created by 'WOOmadeit' on Behance, who created digital facets on top of photographs to show spiderwebs formed on statues. 

WOOmadeit, 2011. Title unknown

Although the strength of line would be different (the embroidery not having the strength of line than if it was created digitally) it would be interesting to see what the two different pieces would be asking via their methods.