Keith rankin
All creative people have different ways of gathering research. Whether it’s a poke around the local library, a thoughtful visit to an art gallery, or a beautifully annotated sketchbook; individual creatives record meaningful information in a way that makes sense to them. For the illustrator Keith Rankin however, he finds the best way to gather research is through a mammoth digital folder where he can save as many images as he likes from the internet.
“It’s basically like a Google search engine with an entirely different set of results,” he tells It’s Nice That. New to using Adobe’s library of stock images specifically, in the past, stock images have played a major role in his practice. Particularly fond of vintage stock imagery where the human subjects try to achieve “a weird sense of neutrality or false emotion”, Keith is drawn to the otherworldly realities presented amidst the stark white glares.
In a similar vein, Keith’s signature work collages together seemingly disparate visual elements into haphazard compositions. With experimentation at its core, Keith’s practice combines aspects of his in-depth research archive with more specific subject matter, driving the concept of each image forward. But for this Adobe commission, the illustrator took the theme of Stock images one step further, contemplating the conceptual nature of the internet and, in turn, centring the resultant work around it. “I was thinking about a modern version of isolation,” explains Keith, “the kind of isolation where we are constantly interacting online but are fairly secluded IRL.”
Rankins's work appears to be at first glance to be an old 80s poster, and advertisement with nothing to advertise. Recognisable symbols clash with each other battling for the most space on the page. Like a joke without a punchline, you search for the meaning in in, only to realise there isn't one.
His work does not appear to be showcasing this new type of loneliness, but it does so in an abstract and brilliant way. All the part of faces float by eyes half shut mouths that appear to be barely about to half form a grin. There is no emption within them. And still they float scattered throughout these symbols you search for their emotion and meaning, but you still can't find it. You are left stranded.
Until you realise this total lack of connection is the main focus in his work.
In the modern digital age, its very common to find scenes like the ones Rankin is displaying. Most commonly seen in YouTube videos. Flashy editing that shows images of what their talking about jokes food or whichever topic of the week. You see these symbols and flash back to their face and to the symbols and back again. It's all nauseating. Or if you dare to go on any newspaper without an add blocker your barraged with 100 different adverts each time. You may have to click away a few dozen before you can actually see what you went on there to see.
It's this new fake interaction that is displayed in Rankin's work, you see many faces with the sole purpose of selling you something, their face is always selling some news thing.
Even when you interact with someone you have only met online you may only see them with an avatar of profile picture covering their real one. Everyone knows that anonymity is one thing you often need to keep on the internet, but this too can become overbearing. Often, even interaction can't be used as an escape from the loneliness.
Here are some illustrations I have made.
I feel I failed to capture this element in my work, this barrage of symbols. Instead, I opted for a more simple approach. Again, searching for the door.
I wanted the loneliness to come from the lack of other symbols. A door beaming light towards you sitting in isolation.
The only other symbol I use is an iconic checkerboard pattern warped thoroughly. It twists and contorts infinitely throughout the page. however, there is only one pawn.
Is this door really the exit, it is it another symbol to be sold to you?
If you look at the image from far away, you can also see the vague eye shape hidden within it. This area is an apex predator, and it’s got its sights on you.
If you compare this lighter blue outcome to the searing red one above it and you check the checkerboard pattern can see some of the squares melding together in the red. This is because this blue one was made earlier, before all the edits I made to it. which led to the final red outcome. Although I like this effect, and I feel it enhances the message it's trying to communicate. Its melding is a by-product of how much I edit these outcomes, almost too much the. I layer colours on top of colours gradient maps on top of gradient maps, mixing different filters. It all gets caked up; it turns into a kind of sludge that can be seen dripping of the page. Off in the distance the checkerboard pattern melts into something else.
