John Stezaker
Case Study
In 1973, after John Stezaker finished studying Painting and Aesthetics at the Slade School of Art in London, he began to collect postcards and film stills. Since the late 1970s, they have become a core material in his art, which is based on cutting and juxtaposing found images.
Mask XIII (2006)
Manchester, E., 2007. ‘Mask XIII’, John Stezaker, 2006 | Tate. [online] Tate. Available at: <https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/stezaker-mask-xiii-t12346> [Accessed 25 April 2020].
In this work of his, it was created by superimposing a postcard on a black and white portrait of an unknown actress that was taken in the 1940s or 50s. There is a way John Stezaker positioned the postcard such that the inverted building in the post card appears to be framed within the actress’s face. The edge of the building is matched with the hairline of the actress on her right and the tree trunk on her left side continues from her hairline. The most left and most right side of the postcard is dark coloured which could match up as her hair. The tree branches of the tree on her left side actually connects to her hands which were up on her chin. Near the forehead, there is a caption that states ‘Nîmes – Le Temple de Diane’ in the postcard. It is actually the ruins of the temple of Diana at Nîmes, France. The overall position of the postcard on the actress’s face have the effect of evoking a skull. The 3 rounded frames of the temple in the postcard, with 2 at each sides suggesting the eyes and the one in the middle as the nose and the top of ruins suggesting a broken and toothless jaw.
Third Person (1988–9)
Manchester, E., 2007. ‘Third Person’, John Stezaker, 1988–9 | Tate. [online] Tate. Available at: <https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/stezaker-third-person-t12349> [Accessed 25 April 2020].
In this work of his, it is a collage of combining 3 separate images where the main picture is a coloured portrait of a film actor from the 1940s or 50s and a silhouetted figure of another man that has been cut out from the coloured portrait. In the silhouette, it is filled with a reproduction of a painting of Queen Victoria. The outline of the cut out cuts across the film actor’s forehead and part of his eyes, making it seem as if he is peeking out from his right eye. The film actor also holds a cigarette where his hands meet with Queen Victoria’s hand in the painting. The outline of the silhouette cuts off her head and the necklace on her looks like it extends out to the film actor’s right eyebrow. The head of the silhouette figure is half filled with the sky in the painting where the bottom of the sky is slightly covered with the sun’s glow. The warmer tone of the sky complement the Queen’s and the film actor’s skin tones. The blue sky kind of imitates the highlights of blue in the actor’s hair and jacket. Similar shades of orange and blue were also seen to be repeated as patterns at the back of the main actor, though out of focus.
From the works that I have seen from John Stezaker, he was trying to create a different perspective from a number of photos and making it a collage. Stezaker tried to use the old photos that he have collected such as postcards, film stills, etc, to create something that gives a whole new meaning to them.
In an interview with The Guardian, John Stezaker said that he always made a distinction between collage and photomontage. He thinks that montage is about producing something seamless and legible, whereas collage is about interrupting the seam and making something illegible.
By placing a coloured postcard of a landscape across a face, he creates a strange new world where the end results are always both deceptively simple in its execution and oddly disturbing in their suggestion. ‘When we look at a face, we assume that we are looking behind the face for a personality.’ ‘By making literal that behindness, I often create something that twists into an image of horror. It often takes me by surprise, because it is not what I have set out to do.’ John Stezaker said.
Creative Brief
The Project
The aim of the project is to tell people more about the stories in our community and the fact that the people nowadays are all hooked into our mobile phones and computer that we don’t really see what our community is like. These stories are important to be passed down and spread among the community so that we will not lose our sense of identity.
The Insight
Young adults and adults nowadays are slowly losing our sense of identity.
The Message
Be a stronger community.
The Theme
Using these unusual looking images to capture the attention of adults and to spread the message that will be indicated on them if it were to become an advertisement poster.
Experimental Process
Black and white portraits
In the black and white portraits, I chose pictures of young adults/adults as they are the target of this campaign.
Coloured postcard images
The postcards that I have chosen are places around the community such as HDBs, Community centres and our neighbourhood.
On the left image, I tried placing the elevator lobby picture on the face and invert it. It fits well but it is not that pleasing to see with my eyes.
On the right image, I tried matching the gradient-like grids from the right side to the left side which can be seen that it goes from a brighter sun shining in to a dimmer one on the right. In the portrait, the right side of her face is brighter and goes into a darker shade on her left side.
On the left image, I realised that when I try placing the postcards on her face, it doesn’t fit well because the postcards covered up the whole face. I wanted to try to do John Stezaker’s style by using the 2 elevator doors as her eyes/eye socket while the middle pillar as her nose.
On the middle image, I cropped this portrait tighter into her face, reprinted it and tried to fit it with the other postcards. For this, I tried to use the lighter shade of the leaf to continue on the finger and the sloped HDB building matching her eyebrows which were not that visible, sadly.
On the right image, I tried to match the yellow pillars onto the eyes in the face but wasn’t able to do so as it look too spaced out.
Final Work
In the final 3 images, the 3 postcards covered most parts of the face in the portrait. This can also mean that the young adults/adults are all oblivious to the community around them. This may be due to the lack of awareness and the addiction to technology devices that we mostly forgot them. This may lead to losing our sense of identity if we continue on and not pass down the stories that are within our community. Thus, the postcards are landscape photos of places like the Community Club, HDBs and the elevator lobby, which are places that most of the people in the community can recognise but others might not. I experimented all the portraits with all the postcards that I have printed and these were the final 3 images that I find that suits best.
Reflection
Through this activity, I got to learn more about John Stezaker through his artworks, what inspired him and the interviews that he did with the media. It took awhile for me to come up with ideas to create the images for the campaign that we may want to do for the organisation which we have chose. In my case, our group chose MyCommunity. It was hard to find landscape photos of the neighbourhood but thankfully, I found some photos that I have taken with my phone after looking through all my images.
