Alex Bodea: Project
Iconic Images
Iconic Images is a research project that came into my mind while working at “pocket poems” series. Getting used to simplify an image (and a text) until it reaches its most basic and powerful appearance, I started to ask myself if one can dare to do this to images that are already breathtaking perfect. Such as the iconic images of the 20/21th centuries.
What is the Iconic Images' secret? I remember, as a teenager, the first time that I ran my eyes on the famous “end of the war kiss”. I did not know by that time what that triumphal historical moment was about (the end of WWII), nor was I a big fan of 30’s and 40’s movies way of kissing, with the girl’s theatrical leaning of her head. But the image moved me. And I think that all these iconic images can move someone without even knowing what is all about.
So what we look at that we like so much? Technically we look at shapes and light effects. Do the shapes and lights of iconic images touch something atavically deep in us?
But the big question still has to come: what happens with an iconic image when everything is reduced to basic black shapes against a neutral white background. Could the iconicity be captured?
What is the Iconic Images' secret? I remember, as a teenager, the first time that I ran my eyes on the famous “end of the war kiss”. I did not know by that time what that triumphal historical moment was about (the end of WWII), nor was I a big fan of 30’s and 40’s movies way of kissing, with the girl’s theatrical leaning of her head. But the image moved me. And I think that all these iconic images can move someone without even knowing what is all about.
So what we look at that we like so much? Technically we look at shapes and light effects. Do the shapes and lights of iconic images touch something atavically deep in us?
But the big question still has to come: what happens with an iconic image when everything is reduced to basic black shapes against a neutral white background. Could the iconicity be captured?
| Tags | research |
| Technique | Drawing |
