Nicholas Ballesteros

Emotional Response

The first thing that came to my mind when I saw this image was the masked doctors working during the plague. The doctors were seen as a symbol of death, because doctors then had very limited knowledge. The size of the sweepers also pokes at the social status of sweepers, as they as not regarded to be important, however their size makes them important in this piece.

Memory or Experience

This piece reminds me of when me and my family travelled to New York City. We saw many people of different classes, many of them noticed. The eerie quality also reminds me of visiting the Colosseum in Rome as knowing many people had died there made my skin crawl.

Ideas & Intentions

It is my philosophy that Ballesteros is trying to convey the message that people lower in class to others are more important than we realise as they will replaces us once we die. He used New York City as the background as it sometimes referred to as the Capital of the World where everyone has a part to play to keep it in its condition. Additionally since over 8.5 million people live in NYC it is easy to forget that the lower class are working tirelessly to keep the city clean and at the best interest of the tourists and residents of the city.

Introduction

The piece on the left is one of the many collages Nicholas Ballesteros has made. He uses pictures from old newspapers, magazines and photographers. The measurement of the piece is unknown.

I wanted to analyse Ballesteros work as it combines very different types of images in a simplest way that makes one ponder what the artist was thinking about when making the collage. This piece inspires me to explore how I can express my ideas to the audience using only a few images.

Visual Response

My first reaction to this work was wonder. This is because the "sweepers" of the city reminded me of the plague doctors that I had leant about in History. The neutral colors and fog in the background of the piece create an eerie atmosphere, compelling one to look closer. I also like how clean cut all the lines are as it makes the pictures seem like they were meant to be there.

City Sweepers

The Artist

Nicholas Ballesteros is an American collage and mixed-media artist based out of Chicago, Illinois. He has a Bachelor of Art from the University of Minnesota and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Illinois.

He is greatly influenced by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. He supports Deleuzes beliefs that “A work of art does not contain the least bit of inspiration. In contrast, there is a fundamental affinity between a work of art and an act of resistance." by moving away from making art that can creative rationally productive modes of understanding. His works illustrates the weird world we live in, exploring the themes of life, death, war, and beauty.

"I present it aesthetically, as an embryo -leaving it to the beholder to decide upon the degree to which my work can be read as political manifesto, or not."

- Nicholas Ballesteros

Formal Elements

Subject Matter

The focal point of this piece are the figures in between the buildings. Ones attention is drawn to them due the the harsh contrast of the grey, white and brown of the background to the black and grey of the figures.

Composition

Ballestros uses the lines created by the buildings as well as the roads in the picture to place the sweepers in a position that gives the city a circular look, giving the illusion that the city is coming towards you or vice versa.

Mood/Atmosphere/ Environment

Eerie
Forgotten
Unloved
Pain
Death
Suffering
Empathic
Small

Materials/Techniques/ Processes

The collage was composed using cutouts from images gather from mixed media. It was then stuck together using an adhesive. Due to the fact that Ballestros has not openly discussed his techniques however this is an assumption

Colour

The colors in this piece are black, white and some hints of brown due to the saturation of the NYC picture. He uses pictures with different intensity of these colors to make them standout from the background.

Concluding Response

I decided to look at this piece as it was thought provoking and unique. While analyzing this piece I realized that it was not what I thought it was at first glance. The piece displayed the hardships that many lower class people endure trying to keep places presentable to the classes above them as well as the waiting game they play to move up in the ranks of the social ladder.

By using different intensities of three colors he provokes emotions of pain, suffering and forgoteness. Although this is not necessarily the emotions I would like to provoke in my piece, it interests me how he only used three colors to create these emotions. What makes these pieces unique to me is all of them are so different and very open to ones own interpretation whether it be political or creative.

Roché

Rabie