Roché
Rabie
Derek Gores
City Sweepers
Introduction
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Derek Gores is known for his many collages of celebrities, shoes and animals. He uses pictures from old newspapers, magazines, photographers, letters and anything that he can find. The measurement of the piece is 48" x 48".
I wanted to analyse Gores artwork as at first glance it looks like a normal picture, however when you look closely you see that there are so many small images put together. This piece inspires me to explore how I can express my ideas to the audience through one big image that is made up of lots of smaller images.
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Visual Response
My first reaction to this work was intrigue. This is because the first thing I saw after the shape of the piano was the face in the lid of the piano. The mixture of faces and letters that make up the image, give the collage a busy quality, which is very contrasting to the other collages I have been looking at.
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Emotional Response
The collage made me feel confused as with so many things going on, one does not always know where to look. This contrasts the emotions that run through ones head when thinking about a piano.
Memory or Experience
This piece reminds me of a piece I made in Grade 6 after being inpired by a collage artsist named Michel Keck. I really enjoyed making this piece as it was very different to anything I had done and finding all the pieces to fit into the shapes I made on the dogs body excigted me greatly.
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Ideas & Intentions
It is my philosophy that Gores is trying to show that although his collages are very busy each piece has a beauty and specific quality. I believe that in todays society we don't take enough time to appreciate the beauty of the little things around us and often take things for granted.
The Artist
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Derek Gores is an American collage and mixed-media artist who was born in 1971 in New York. He works in Melbourne, Florida, however has galleries worldwide. He is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design where he earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts. He has been commissioned by multi-million dollar companies such as Adidas, ESPN and Prada to name a few.
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"I like my pictures to barely come together with teasing little details. Sort of like how the mind can't help but wander, even when trying to focus on one thing. In the collages, some of the little bits I use are deliberate, but in most I'm trusting randomness to help build an end result more interesting than I could have planned. One friend calls it a 'Zen Narrative.' "
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"Most of my pictures are of beauty, but beauty built of chaos and mess and discord."
- Derek Gores
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Materials/Techniques/ Processes
For his collages, Derek Gores uses scraps of magazines, documents, logos, and found objects from the digital realm. The artist describes his technique as an intense emotional moment, in which he gives his creativity free reign. He connects memories and thoughts with smirking details, confidently affixing paper to canvas to make perfect artistic compositions. (LUMAS)
​Colour
The colors in this piece are pink, red, grey, blue and white. The colors work well together as they softly contrast each other.
Formal Elements
Subject Matter
The focal point of this piece is the piano in the centre. Ones attention is drawn to it due the the harsh contrast of the pink, red and white of the background to the black, blue, grey and white of the piano.
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Composition
Gores used the pictures to create a rough outline of the piano. The shadow he created with more of the cutouts give the piano dimension.
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Mood/Atmosphere/ Environment
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Vibrant
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Fun
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Busy
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Sexy
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Classic
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Bold
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Loud
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Exciting
Concluding Response
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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 showed how one object can be made of up one many different tings. I believe the artists used this as a PSA to people connecting with his art to appreciate the beauty of the small things in life.
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By softly contrasting colors he creates a vibrant and exciting atmosphere around the piece. Although this is not necessarily the emotions I would like to provoke in my piece, it interests me how he only used so many hues of colors to spread this atmosphere. What makes these pieces unique to me is all of them are so different and very open to ones own interpretation.
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