Boundaries and Intersections

Two images, a stylised landscape, and Origami, constitute this collage dealing with intertextual relations. Origami, as a re-narration of the landscape, does not directly imitate or decompose objects in the landscape but transforms the existing objects into other objects with similar properties. Traffic light and windmill, as the objects in the images, maintain their shapes and backgrounds and form a whole in the work while they do not interrupt each other by overlapping but relate through juxtaposition. Through the windmill image embedded in the background of the traffic light image, the background with different textures forms the contrast while highlighting the objects from two different systems. Although the juxtaposition complicates the landscape, the traffic light of the landscape remains the most contrasting object in the composition and has not lost its importance. The smaller version of the traffic light shows on a reflective part of the Origami, which attracts attention and implies the relationship between the two images. The clean white backdrop of the Origami sets off the 3-dimensionality of the objects, highlighting the reformed 2-dimensional image. After being photographed, 3-dimensional objects turn into 2-dimensional images; nevertheless, I maintain the shadow of the windmills to emphasise a space independent from the landscape. It is worth noting that the work has three types of depths: First, shoot the landscape from a specific angle so that the traffic lights are smaller than the other and the poles tilt at different angles. Secondly, the front-to-back placement of the windmill emphasises the depth of the still-life images, and I photographed them from the front. Third, the eye-shaped shadow on the Origami image brings the overall physical layering of the piece and hints at the distance between the two images. Once various depths merge into a piece, multiple perspectives and time and space are connected.

Collage practice as a creative approach offers the convenience of dealing with and presenting the information. Juxtaposition provides the viewer enough clues to observe the differences and similarities between the objects and further think about their relationship and the meaning they bring. I suppose art reflects and creates reality by establishing a point of view rather than unconstrained imagination. In my work, the flatness of the landscape seems to be broken but also attached to another flat thing; nevertheless, it could be the landscape is unpacked to reveal covered parts, while the narratives of the two images appear to influence each other. The traffic light I photographed in Turkey could be a metaphor for the border, while it also implies the geographical location as the intersection of the East and West. The Origami re-narrating the landscape and showing it in the shape of windmills could bring the metaphor of the energy/power or resources. The combination of the traffic light and the windmill could allude to the relationship of resource trade between countries in the globalised society. The eye-shape that the Origami embedded is supposed to invite the viewer to look inward and consider what affects the relationships between the countries and between the Origami and the landscape. The Origami as a symbol seems to discuss the 3-dimensional potential of an image, continuing the content or concept of the image from a digital image to a sheet, to a volume, to a digital image again, and other things. The original meaning of an image is maintained while new meanings are constantly generated and joined in during the process. Collage affects the relation between the Origami and the landscape, transforming 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional happen; meanwhile, juxtaposition allows the oscillation between multi-dimensions to manifest.