Make Art Not Friends- Pandemonium Series
Inspired by the mixed media of Sara Lando, I decided to put my own twist on her style, mixing digital and analog photography and working in the real world with my hands instead of on photoshop to create a collage. I’ve been doing that more and more, trying to step away from digital and creating art that exists in real life and not on a screen.
I was watching the Sturgill Simpson animated album on Netflix called Sounds of Fury with a friend and an absolutely awesome song called “Make art not friends” hit me like a train.
These opening lyrics just fit my situation so perfectly :
Lookin' out the window
At a world on fire
Flames see the end is near
Seen all the sights
Tired of the lights
So you can let me off right here
This town's getting crowded
Truth's been shrouded
Think it's time to change up the sound
Yeah, the wheels keep turning
The flames get higher
Another cycle rolls around
Face in the mirror's all skin and bone
Bloodshot eyes and a heart of stone
Never again, I'd rather be alone
Think I'm gonna just stay home
And make art, not friends
I literally burst out laughing during the song as I read the subtitles, just finding it so funny how it fit so well. We were still in partial lockdown, the virus taken over our brains and lives and it was a truly dark time. I had just slowly started meeting a few close friends, and not really. I was in hermit mode.
I immediately asked my friend Sami who was visiting me to let me take a portrait of him right then and there. I put an ilford film into my Hasselblad 500 cm and took a few quick portraits with the express purpose of making art, inspired by the chorus of the song. I developed them the next day at home. I just kept repeating the phrase ‘Make art not friends’ and chuckled so much.
I was convinced by the same friend to join him and our 2 other friends for a road trip to get outta dodge a few days later, drive to another emirate where the water would be cooler and swim in the sea. I had not left my house in a stupid amount of time, and I agreed. It was such a wonderful and much needed trip. Such a painful summer it was, and that visit to Khor Fakkan was a wonderful respite.
I took my Hassie along with me again and took some photos with no purpose but to make art and celebrate the temporary freedom from the pandemic life. I also spread the ashes of my boy in the sea, but that’s a story for another time. Anna and Sami were my muses.
After developing the photographs, the song still ringing in my head.
Face in the mirror's all skin and bone
Bloodshot eyes and a heart of stone
Never again, I'd rather be alone
Think I'm gonna just stay home
Think about my friends
I thought about my friends and how helpful they have been during this pandemic. How important their support was, even when we wouldn’t meet for months due to social distancing, we were always in touch.
I started to destroy the negatives I developed by cutting them up, putting them back together, and eventually I started photocopying and playing around with the images and creating a collage. Here’s some of the work process and results of destroying the negatives, putting them back together, shooting them digitally, printing them cheaply, photocopying them and eventually putting them together in a strange collage to try to express my pandemic stress and how these 2 friends in particular kept me at least slightly sane during such a surreal time.
Here are the results of me deconstructing the images.
Here’s the work in progress images of me just playing. I kept coming up with reasons why I would do each thing, but no need to peel all the layers. I really enjoyed destroying negatives, an object I treat with a lot of reverence usually ,and also playing with photocopying after so long was also super fun !
And finally, after a lot of layering and experimentation, I added myself into the mix by photocopying my face, set a part of the collage on fire because the world was on fire, and I photographed the results.
And that’s that ! Would love to know your thoughts below. By no means was this a blogpost about creating certain images. Nor am I particularly enamored with the final results. It was about the process, that’s where the joy was found. I dedicate this to Sami Sasso and Anna Shtraus, for just being there for me.