I'm busting my hind end to get enough new work for another booth shot by the end of the month for the next round of deadlines. A question I'm trying to deal with is how to present some new work in the jury slide.
Any suggestions for jury shots for diptychs with a photo in one panel and a poem/text in the other panel?
Float the two on the black background or make them look like they're matted together? Connect them with a gray matte so it looks like it's a shot of a matted piece? Still entered as photography or does it become mixed media? The text/verse is my original work also.
Here's an example of what they will look like, although proportions may vary.
Replies
Gosh, that's a tough one, Robert. I'm inclined to think like Larry and would say don't submit the text. And I don't know if I'd call it a diptych necessarily since the text isn't a visual continuation of the artwork. I know I like the piece as it appears above and can say that it has more meaning with the text the way you've presented it. In the artsy fartsy world one might hand write that text across the dark part of the trees or something like that. Then the text really becomes an integral part of the art. But that might not be what you want to do at all and it might not appeal as you want it to, either. But if you have good penmanship you might want to hand write that text in the panel at right just to give it the original touch.
Larry gives good advice about the artist statement and how to present it all as well. Kudos for that, LB.
I think it's still photography and not mixed media. I actually like the white mat presentation rather than what black or grey might look like.
It's certainly an interesting dilemma, friend. Good luck with the project and I look forward to seeing what you come up with for it. WOOHOO!
I thought about writing over the image, but decided that had the too great potential to look like a gigantic Hallmark card. I did some work like this a few years back with two frames side by side, and had too many people wanting to buy the text piece by itself. You sell one piece thwn it screws up the other side until the replacement is made.
One thought is to print the image on the hand made bark fiber paper, with texture showing and everything, scanning a hand written piece and printing on matching paper in order to make the connection more obvious between the two. If I do that, the matting becomes more elaborate with floating the papers off the backer (gloss black surface) with a spacer, and opening the front matte anywhere from 1/2-3/4 inch past the edges of the paper so the work pieces are hanging in mid-air in a sort of shadow box matte. I've matted some pieces like that in the past and it does gain a lot of attention.
The solution for displaying both panels together for jurying purposes is to use pieces that have short passages that can be read quickly, something closer to a Haiku form or at least less than 5 short lines. All this comes down to carving out a unique place. I still recall words from a prof at least 43 years ago, "There are many photographers who are good, and there are many writers who are good, but there are damn few who can do both passingly well." I should have paid more attention to that guy.
I'm inclined to say no text because a juror might try and read one and not have enough time to score you. But if the poems are original you can incorporate that into your artist statement and use your booth image to show the presentation. Another thought is to maybe have one with text and the rest just the images, just enough so the jurors understand what they are supposed to be looking at.
But here's another thought, something I just did this past week for a jeweler. She created jewelry pieces to go on top of a vessel shaped piece and I did the whole piece with just the jewelry top next to it in the same image. If I get her permission I'll post one on Monday. So shoot the entire piece with the text and show an enlarged version of the photograph next to it in the same image.
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100