Further Research: The Turin Shroud - Materiality & The Image

The Turin Shroud

'The Shroud of Turin is an ancient linen cloth about 15 feet long by 4 feet wide (4.4 by 1.1 meters) that bears the image of what appears to be a crucified man's body. On display at the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, Italy, it is one of many shrouds claimed over the centuries to be the one true burial cloth of Jesus.' (Choi: 18.07.18)  Fake or not the idea of the trace of a body left on the cloth is fascinating and in terms of this being a 'photograph' it is very close as a reproduction of a live image, a moment in time recorded.  If it is medieval then this is still a very well preserved moment of, perhaps, an unknown man.  It is a thought an artist made this shroud and what an art it is!  Considering this and the work of Ana Mendieta who worked on leaving traces of her body in the landscape.  Mendieta made a series of films that explored different techniques for leaving traces and these included 

'video and Cinefluography (X-ray motion film)' (Tate 2020) 

Ana Mendieta X-Ray (1975)

The X-ray is an amazing invention allowing us to literally see inside ourselves and this is what we are biologically a suit with bones and blood and nerves.  I would like to explore how I can explore this further with traces of myself inside and out this could be using techniques like printing onto cloth or photographic techniques that find their way inside me....

Helen Chadwick also used her inner self and others and animals creating materiality and performance that could be horrifying and beautiful in equal measure.  This work Enfleshings below she thought resembled a male torso 

Enfleshings II (1989) 

This 'image is an enlarged close-up view of raw meat. A light bulb containing an illuminated coil is embedded just below the centre of the meat in Enfleshings I. Fissures in the flesh below it evoke vulvic openings. The steak in Enfleshings II has striations resembling the delineation of pectoral muscles on a male torso.' (Tate 2020)


I am very interested in the materiality of the image and how to create that using photography. I will explore these ideas further and begin to make some samples of the work I would like to explore...


References


Choi C.Q. (18/07/18) Live Science: Shroud of Turin Is a Fake, Bloodstains Suggest
[Online]Available From: https://www.livescience.com/63093-shroud-of-turin-is-fake-bloodstains.html (accessed 09/07/20)


Tate.a (2020) Ana Mendieta: The Earth that Covers Us Speaks [Online] Available from: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/film/ana-mendieta-earth-covers-us-speaks (accessed 09/07/20)


Tate.b(2020) Helen Chadwick: Enfleshings [Online] Available from: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/chadwick-enfleshings-ii-t06877

Object Lesson: Saint Veronica

Saint Veronica is the Saint of Photographers' and so obviously she is a great inspiration for a project.  Saint Veronica is famous for the Turin Shroud, this is the cloth that was offered to Jesus upon his crucifixion to wipe his face. The imprint on of his face transferred to the cloth.  It is believed the Vatican has the shroud and it is one of their most treasured possessions.

Saint Veronica

'Legend states that as Christ was walking to Calvary, his face dripping with sweat and blood, Saint Veronica, a bystander, was moved with compassion. She approached Jesus and offered Him a cloth, likely her veil, which He accepted and used to wipe His face.

The image of his face was subsequently imprinted on the cloth.

There are no legends from the period which speak of Veronica either before or after her act of compassion. We do not know when she was born or when she died. She is literally lost to history. However, the cloth may still exist today, kept safe at St. Peter's in Rome.' (Catholic Saints Online: 2020)

So Saint Veronica is a bit of mystery but there were copies made of the shroud and it is unclear whether the Vatican has the original or a copy.  This is interesting the problem with photography in now is the reproduction which is prolific as soon as an image is placed on the internet making it essentially lose its value as a unique image.

Jean Baudrillard understood the importance of the real and copy he stated that:  “It is no longer a question of imitation, nor duplication, nor even parody. It is a question of substituting the signs of the real for the real” ("The Precession of Simulacra" 2). Baudrillard is not merely suggesting that postmodern culture is artificial, because the concept of artificiality still requires some sense of reality against which to recognize the artifice. His point, rather, is that we have lost all ability to make sense of the distinction between nature and artifice.' (Purdue University: 2002) Interesting as all things are connected Zurbrugg who I was speaking of in my last post was an expert on Baudrillard and edited a book Jean Baudrillard: Art and Artifact (which proudly sits ion my bookshelf - sorry a little aside there! More of that perhaps later.

The point here is from Saint Veronica many ideas have formed and how I could use these in a project need to be explored here, so first thoughts: 

Consider making photographs and outputting these on cloth - they then have the uniqueness of being a material object - the theme would perhaps be on acts of kindness

Consider the idea of reproduction and how this affects photography - either deliberately create prolific reproduction or create something that cannot be copied through the materiality of the image. 

Make something 'real' and something 'copied' and go with Baudrillard's theory that no difference can be seen between nature and artifice. 

Create an article on photography discussing Saint Veronica and the beginning of photography

So here are my first thoughts ... I shall one of these in more depth in my next post.

References

Catholic Saints Online (2020) Saint Veronica [online] Available from: https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=1953 (Accessed 01/07/20)

Purdue University (2002)  Module on Baudrillard: Simulation II [online] Available from: https://cla.purdue.edu/academic/english/theory/postmodernism/modules/baudrillardsimulation.html (Accessed 01/07/20)

Zurbrugg N. (1997) Jean Baudrillard: Art and Artefact, Sage Publications, London

Welcome to Summer Term Two (Lockdown) 2020

Welcome to the new term.  My thoughts turn to my last year at DMU when I was a young student and I began to think of Professor Nicholas Zurbrugg.  I had the privilege of being taught by this great man and he supervised my dissertation which I absolutely loved writing. 

Nicholas Zurbrugg (Born 1st February 1947; died 14th October 2001)

You can read the obituary from the Guardian here .  Zurbrugg died a year after I left university but the short moments that I spent with him were a joy.  I studied avant-garde literature and I had a love (still do) of the dadaist and was writing my dissertation on John Heartfield and prewar Germany and Anselm Kiefer and postwar Germany.  Zubrugg sent me in all the right directions and although I used to leave notes under his door in his office he would always file these away somewhere in the piles of papers and notes, he would never forget what I was doing and he took time with a very naive young woman who wanted to learn (that was me then).  Zurbrugg introduced me to Baudrillard and Postmodernism, got me excited about Beckett and really just made me want to read more and more.  When I was at university I had no idea that he had written books as he never recommended his own.  A beautiful and admirable individual.

DMU also has a curated collection by Zurbrugg which you can read about here

I am hoping that you all find someone who inspires you as much as you go through university...

Reflection on Object Therapy

Cast Alive (1967) By Marcel Duchamp

I will start with Duchamp here as this piece of work the artist becomes the object casting his own face, hand and arm above his beloved chess set. This must be the ultimate object therapy - I am now considering how exactly I can become the object!

In my own small little book here I did not add this to my website as it was more playing with an idea and some techniques on the images. I enjoyed making the book and adding the text and I thought the overall look was good and the concept was good however if I wanted to go further I might use this as a prototype and then perhaps complete much more writing and research to make a more interesting and more in-depth piece of work.

I am looking forward to the last term of the year to see what else I will explore!

Object Therapy: Making the Book

All the pages I have made with text by creating a coloured canvas on Photoshop adding the picture at the correct resolution 300dpi and adding the text using the text tool.  I used Palantino Linotype as teh font and I think this work s well for the style of the book - here is a sample page:

I now will convert my files using a jpeg to pdf convertor tool online - there are many of these I just make sure it is a free one!  Then I go onto Yumpu and upload book as PDF pages.

To view the flipbook please go to this link below...

Object Therapy By Zoe Van-de-Velde

Object Therapy: Final Images

Finally completed all the images so here they are: 

Head Hat (2020) By Zoe Van-de-Velde

This image has my two holiday hats they sit forlornly now on my cupboard awaiting to be adorned upon my head in hot sun!

Mask Head (2020) By Zoe Van-de-Velde

This mask I bought from a craft fair - it was probably the only thing not for sale - I persuaded the maker to sell it to me and again it sits on my cupboard totemistic and most enjoyable to have around.

Orphan Doll (2020) By Zoe Van-de-Velde

Found object - found upon a Leicester bin (prior to the Covid I might add!) I took her home and now she stays with me. The pot was given to me by a friend, it holds emergency cash in case of crisis.

Big Putin/Small Stalin (2020) By Zoe Van-de-Velde

Genuinely from Russia - I bought them back with me the little dictators - I punish them by making them sit by books they might hate!

The Hand (2020) By Zoe Van-de-Velde

The hand I an art project never completed _ I bought it and never used it so now it stays holding out its little fingers perhaps praising God, perhaps just waiting to be useful in life!

Woman (2020) By Zoe Van-de-Velde

Woman a gift from husband when I left I think it is one of the best presents I have ever received.  A woman alone is always at her strongest. 

So here they are and I am most pleased with them - they are consistent and they have the look I intended.  Now I just have make them into a little book!

Process of Creating Aged Images on Photoshop

I am doing this rather late as can be seen I should have finished this last term however assessments took over but always determined to finish what I started I will continue!

So here is my process for ageing my own images - I will just post one as otherwise this will be very repetitive and you will get the idea!

So here is the original image that I chose to work with for the book 

I have uploaded this image to Photoshop from my desktop.  I then change the colour to Sepia

To do this I simply went into adjustments and photo filter and picked 'sepia' and adjusted the density.

I now want to create a kind of frame to give it that old photo look.

So here I created a new blank layer and then used 'edit' 'fill' and picked a colour from the original image.  I then used 'transform' and scale to place the border around the image.

I now want to add texture and that old 'feel' to the image so I downloaded a couple of images from the internet of rust and old paper - here they are:

I will now layer these on top of the image and use opacity to give the look I am after.

I now want to soften the edges of the photo and frame so it looks dated and not sharp.

I used the smudge, blur and burn tools to soften the edges and just darken the image in places.

I will now save this image as a jpeg so that I have the final version ready for the book pages

I think that this has worked really well and each image will be unique as I can use the tools creatively on each to give the look I am after. 

I will now create the rest of the images show these in my next post