In my more recent artworks, such as ‘Wedding Day’ (Fig 26), ‘Petal’ (Fig 27) and ‘Explosion of Colour…Life’ (Fig 28 – 30), I have begun to combine the use of text, photograph and paint or brusho, making multiple mixed media pieces. These have all very much been focusing on destroying images, deactivating their original purpose. A process that we have seen used in much of Salcedo’s works, though largely in a different physical appearance.
As you can see in ‘Petal’, I was still quite reluctant to ruin the photo; I have left the faces untouched by paint, really only painting a frame around the edge. This took many attempts with other pieces before this one. Whilst discussing with a tutor, I decided that I should try painting or drawing over the image with my eyes shut so I could not see what I was doing. My finished outcome was ‘Wedding Day’. Though a very simple piece, I found this experiment crucial to my artwork as it allowed me to see that manipulating a photo does not destroy it in any way: it just creates something new; a new perspective. In ‘Wedding Day’, the large crimson line down the centre really pushes the photo to the background, no longer making it the main subject, just a setting for a new piece of work in front. I intend to create lots more pieces like this as I feel it does not stand on its own terribly well, it looks like it belongs in a series. This perhaps could be a continuation for ‘Stolen Journey I & II’.
Following this, I found it much easier to manipulate my photos. I began destroying the photographs, ripping them, purposely trying to get rid of any significant details of the people in them. After sticking them onto my page, I started to paint over them: in some cases covering them completely, in others leaving them partially or fully visible. In some places, I have drawn over them and written or sewn in text. This can be seen in ‘Explosion of Colour…Life’.
