Fantastic Forgeries: Making New Cultural Memory (G.Pombo)

Concept

Frames have, for so long, subtly influenced how we experience what they hold within. Without being conscious of it, the picture frame may be taken for granted. However, what happens if you take what the frame holds away and focus solely on the frame itself? If you take a moment to study the frame, you can appreciate all the work that went into making it; the carved ornaments, the gilding, the size. For art dealers, however, frames become a marketing tool that allows them to boost the value of paintings. Nothing says expensive like an elaborately carved and decorated gold-covered frame.

By focusing solely on the picture frame itself, a chance is born to appreciate it. My idea is to take this appreciation for the picture frame to an extreme. To make the picture frame the artwork itself. Therefore it will no longer have to hold another artwork within itself.

Research and Works

The chance to make the frame the actual artwork offers great possibilities. The existing heavily ornamented frames already are an aesthetically pleasing view to behold. However, by playing with aspects such as size, material and narratives I could create a far more interesting piece.

Through research, I found out about the “framed panel paintings”. These frames were made from one piece of wood. The area to be painted was carved out, which resulted in a raised framing border around the outside edge, like a tray. After this, the whole piece was then gessoed and gilded. The last thing to be done was painting the image on the flat panel. The framed panel painting could consist of one panel of wood, or more panels joined together with hinges. Below you can see an example of a framed panel painting:

I really liked this idea of the framed panel painting. The painting and frame are one, they are no longer two separate pieces. Another great inspiration for me is “Couple with Their Heads Full of Clouds” by Salvador Dalí.

Dalí created a very interesting work by changing the shape of the frame. Furthermore, Surrealism is overall a huge inspiration source for me.

My first idea was to alter an existing frame to create a new one. Therefore I combined several frames to create a new frame. My next step was to create a frame with a new and curious shape.

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However, I was not satisfied with this and wanted to go one step further. I wanted to combine paintings that I thought would go along well with the texture of the newly created frames. The results are interesting because what you see is something that might trick you into thinking it is 3d, yet it’s flat.

Below you can see the combinations I made. The first frame, however, is an exception because it was made with an existing frame:

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The following were made with my newly created frames:

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I was very satisfied with these results. After this, I 3d printed two frames, but the printer had problems so they were not finished. The idea was to print a painting on the 3d printed frame. However, when the 3d printing failed, I was left with frames that were too skinny and I didn’t think it’s worth it to print on them. I did paint one of them gold though.

After this, I was really interested in using the embroidery machine to experiment. I chose to embroider frames because it is such a contrast from normal frames made of wood. So this was an experiment aimed at the effect of the material. For this embroidery, I used yet another frame I had created. The embroidery was done using gold coloured thread and purple. This combination is supposed to give the frame a more valuable tone. With this frame, I wanted to play with the idea of time and craft. It is the contrast between the people who make the picture frames and now seeing a machine make the frame for you in less time.

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Now it was time to experiment with giving a story to the frame. It is my opinion that picture frames function as a sort of cage for what they hold within. For some years now, I have been experimenting with an alter ego I created, called ‘Saint Maria Goretti’. Based on a picture I had of her, I made a sketch.

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Being called a saint usually means being well-behaved. Sometimes, one does not want to behave all too well but is afraid of breaking from the ‘saint’ image. As a result, this alter ego becomes a cage that you can’t break out from. Based on these ideas of the cage and the saint, I made the following sketch:

And then I created this on the embroidery machine:

Here you can see an embroidered frame. Not very interesting at first, but upon turning off the light, you can see this:

I really like this frame because I created it using ‘glow in the dark’ thread. When you look at it in the light, it almost seems as if there's nothing there, and then when you turn off the light, something interesting appears. With this frame, I was underlining the idea that frames are constantly overlooked, yet if given the chance, they can become interesting pieces.

Presentation Day

For the presentation day, I chose three of the frames I had combined with paintings to present and the two embroidered frames. I wanted to print the frames combined with paintings on 2cm-thick wood, as to make a reference to normal picture frames. However, since time was so short, if I had printed the frames on wood I would've not had time to cut the shape of the frame out. Instead, I decided to print on a thick carton.

As for the glow-in-the-dark frame, the room wasn't so optimal as it wouldn't become as dark as I needed but I did my best.

Conclusion

This project left me wishing I could do more. There are still some experiments I would like to do. For example, using the embroidery machine to embroider one of the frames that have a painting combined into it. I also want to try to create my own ornaments for a frame. I want to 3d print a frame again and print on it. There was a size limitation I was working with due to the restrictions of machines I used and financial funds. So I still want to experiment with bigger sizes somehow. I also want to learn how to work with the milling machine to be able to carve out a frame.

However, my conclusion is that I achieved my goal. I managed to create frames that present themselves as independent artworks. What is great about these frames is that they have lost their primary function. They are no longer supporting or protecting a painting within themselves.

Past & Future

The Enigma of Isidore Ducasse and its contrafactual past (by me)

What if in the past, they already discovered what lied beneath that blanket? What if it was something they could not understand and found kind of disturbing? For the contrafactual past of 'The Enigma of Isidore Ducasse', I imagined people found a blanket that was showing them the future. This future represented things their minds could not yet fathom in that time. Therefore, they decided to never show that side of the blanket again.

For this work, I used the Sublimation printer to print my created images on fabric. On the outer side of the blanket, I wanted to bring back the texture of the blanket in the original work by Man Ray. The innards of the blanket contain the images of the future.

Afterwards, I made a composition to put the blanket on as I was trying to reproduce the mystery of the original work.

Sexy Relaxy and its radical future (by me)

What if in the future, the only chair being produced is the 'Sexy Relaxy'?? The one who sits will be forced to always sit with his/her legs open. And what happens if this person has a short skirt on and does not want to show off their genitalia?? Use the Censored Underwear! Underwear that keeps your genitalia hidden:

The pattern on the prototype of this underwear is a pixelated version of a woman's genitalia. I experimented with different patterns of 'censoring' and then I chose one. Using the Sublimation printer, I printed the chosen pattern on fabric and created the prototype.

Future Frame by Zoe van Peperstraten

Goretti chose to focus on frames. For this assignment, I had to make a speculative Future. While discussing her process, she mentioned that most of the times the frame of the painting takes away the attention of the artwork itself. So I came up with the idea that in the future this will change. Now the painting itself is the frame, and the frame is the artwork. Now you will focus more on the painting than the frame, and the frame isn't taking the attention away from the painting.

Sources

• https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/01/arts/design/letting-the-frame-speak-for-the-artist-and-the-era.html
• https://www.npg.org.uk/research/programmes/the-art-of-the-picture-frame/guides-beningbrough-hall.php
• https://www.christies.com/features/Frames-in-Focus-5815-1.aspx
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picture_frame#History