Tom Chambers is an acclaimed photographer who uses the photographic technique of photomontage (compiling layers of images) to create images with enhanced visual language and surrealistic qualities. In his 2009 series, Entropic Kingdom, Chambers successfully makes a statement about the fragility of the zoomorphic network, continually weakened by the human race that refuses to help. The technology he uses permits Chambers to enhance the visual language of his work to create greater meaning. Also, the use of digital manipulation and photomontage allows Chambers to distort reality and incorporate animals in surreal contexts. These two effects of technology help to gauge a response from the viewer and intensify the perceived meaning of the pieces in Entropic Kingdom. The way in which Tom Chambers manipulates technology enhances his works and allows the viewer further insight into their environmental and socio-political context.
In Entropic Kingdom, Chambers strongly employs several elements of visual language that are enriched via technology, including excellent use of space, desaturated contrasting colours and balance. His work, Saccharine Perch, demonstrates these elements of Chambers’ personal aesthetic. The use of photomontage in Saccharine Perch adds dimensions and layers that would not have been possible in standard photography, and manages to keep a powerful, symmetrical piece. With a precise distinction between the fore-, middle- and background in this image, the viewer is given a greater sense of perspective; one example of this is seen in the dissimilarity between the birds in the fore- and background. Without this strong sense of space, the birds shown in the distance could be confused with the small, frightened birds in the foreground, instead of appearing large and foreboding. Space is also important when considering the contrasting colours that Chambers has employed. The cake and birds featured in the foreground strongly contrast with the dress worn by the girl in the middle ground, but are harmonious with the purplish, yellow clouds and grass in the background. The colours are somewhat murky and desaturated, contributing to the intense feeling of foreboding that is cast by the image. Tom Chambers cleverly uses space and muted colour to create an apprehensive mood that enhances the ominous meaning of his series, with the aid of technology.
Along with visual language, the subject matter incorporated in Tom Chambers’ work relies on technology to create meaning, and also to contribute to the surrealistic qualities of his pieces. Surrealism is an artistic movement founded in the 1920’s by assemblage artist, Andre Breton, that constitutes the nature of a dream; commonly seen to be an exaggerating of the physical world or creation of unrealistic events, images or places. Tom Chambers uses the dreamlike qualities encompassed in surrealism to attribute meaning, and also to draw relationships that would not naturally occur, generally between humans and animals. This could not be done without the aid of technology. In relation to his use of photomontage to create surrealism, Chambers writes, “I desire to move beyond documentation of the present, and rather seek to merge reality and dreams in musing about possibilities of the future.” This merging of reality and dreams is seen in his piece Goatherd, which features a young girl reading from a book, surrounded by goats. In a natural environment, it would be very difficult to fabricate an image like this, unless the creatures were taxidermy, however this may lead to the animals appearing thus. The realistic quality of the animals in the compromising situation they are in would not have been able to be captured, had it not been for Chambers’ astounding use of photomontage and technology. This creates a very surrealistic image that would have otherwise been unfeasible, and enhances the meaning of the series by fabricating the dreamlike relationships between the humans and animals.
The use of visual language and the dreamlike, surrealistic atmosphere draw meaning from the pieces and articulate a response from the viewer. Having interviewed several people on the nature of Chambers’ pieces, it comes across as a unanimous consensus that the foreboding mood captured in Entropic Kingdom, and the surrealistic elements of his work, help the viewer to understand them. Chambers claims that the purpose of this series is to create an “emotional connection in the viewer” by offering images of a “disturbed eco-system created by man’s self-serving interests”. A strong emotional affiliation is created between the viewer and the image in the digitally created photograph, Camouflage. This piece is a highlight of Entropic Kingdom that almost summarises the statement Chambers is trying to make. It features a scared teenage girl who has been digitally placed behind a defiant-looking deer, hiding. The image uses colour and strong tonal contrast to create a mood of fear and foreboding like Chambers’ other images, as well as effective use of space. As aforementioned, surrealistic elements are key in this image, with the relationship between the girl and the deer being dreamlike and unreal; however, this is where the piece draws its meaning. The girl is hiding, scared, behind the protective deer from an oncoming who looks to be threatening the two. She is abdicating care for the animal, putting herself first and out of harm’s way, as is seen on a daily basis in social-political and environmental conflict. In his artist statement, Tom Chambers has written, “the tension [between animals and people] has escalated with man’s increasing disregard for the fragility of the environment and abdication of his responsibility to care for the earth”. This is compellingly articulated in all Chambers’ works, with the assistance of technology. Brilliant use of visual language that creates ominous moods and the employment of surrealism, both created via technological aid, engage the viewer and draw an emotional response.
Without technology, Tom Chambers would be a photographer with ideas worth sharing. With technology, he is given the avenue to explore, create and move people with emotive concepts in an artistic form that transcends reality. He uses heightened visual language to capture a mood that affects the viewer and enters the dreamlike lens offered by surrealism. These two consequences of technological use assist in delivering meaning and gaining emotional responses from the viewer to portray his message. That is, a zoological cry for help, unaided by the seemingly superior race of human beings, who are so bent on change; change that is not always of benefit to all species. Chambers’ Entropic Kingdom relies on technology to visually enhance and stimulate the viewer, while delivering a message encased in an environmental and socio-political purpose.
No comments:
Post a Comment