Tableaux

Week 9 at Art School - p.2


Today we were doing a Tableaux - what is THAT you ask ... well, according to the notes given to us, it is:

• A picturesque presentation
• A group of silent motionless persons arranged to represent a scene
• A dramatic or effective situation brought about.

Basically, it was another photography project, but based on something that we could build, like a model, or set up, like a scene (think theater or set design). It could be quite surreal if needed be as well. It was quite open ended actually, and we were given lots of examples of what previous students had done, and people and things to think about:

• Composition, framing, illusion, scale, lighting, animation, props, collage
• 3D collage, Twin Peaks dream, Mariele Neudecker tanks, Boyd Webb actors, Guinness adds, mirrors, closeups, windows
• Think about appearances, be individual, imaginative
• Transformation. Transcend material. Not documentation
• Is temporary. For the camera only, not just model making
  

Unfortunately, we were only told about this the day before, so most of us turned up with limited props and ideas. Whilst the full timers had 3 days to experiment and come up with a working concept, us part timers only had this afternoon (although according to the tutors the reason they chose this project for us is that we can easily go off home and do it in our own time). Anyways, I came in with some of Sunshine's juggling balls and some architectural model mini airplanes that I'd come across, and some other bits an bobs. I can't say I'm happy with what I've produced, and will probably want to take another set of photos, but here is my favourites of this lot: