John Stezaker

I recently visited the Whitechapel Gallery and was introduced to the work of John Stezaker. I had heard his name before but never took the time to look at what he had created. He takes old film stills of particularly unknown actors, postcards or book illustrations and collages them which completely changes the meaning of the image. He cuts away parts or places new images over the top to achieve his new desired outcome. His work uses the uncanny in his work, we as the viewer are constantly trying to search for a face and imagine it how it should be.

As previously stated, I had never seen his work before and was impressed how the images worked so well. The Marriage series was one of my favourite. Some of the pictures met so effectively and others changed the face so it was twisted and grotesque portrait. I did think that there was something very mesmerising of this work and stood and stared trying to imagine the whole faces without the added sections.

His famous mask series fused postcards of waterfalls, caves or cliffs with a person’s face. I stopped to again to peer deeper into the images and try and see any facial features. In the end it decided I didn’t need to try and take these images apart but to just look and enjoy.

My favourite piece by him was the upside down reflection of the woman and man in the piano, I think because this was so simple that it was so successful. I turned my head to view it up the right way and then thought I actually preferred it how Stezaker had planned for us to view it. He has taken the normal and made it abnormal but we can still relate somehow to it which is what fascinated me.

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/john_stezaker.htm

Whitechapel Gallery, John Stezaker exhibition

http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/john-stezaker

http://framescourer.blogspot.com/2011/03/john-stezaker-at-whitechapel-gallery.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stezaker