Identity SlidesBy Koen van den Brink

Identity Slides 2014

Ralph Ueltzhoeffer

Ralph Uelzhoeffer created almost a certain style of portrait with this so-called ‘text-portrait’. He usually makes a text-portrait for people who went missing recently or people who have died. The portrait goes way beyond the text having different colors to create an image. The actual text defines the person’s appearance or personality. Ralph also once made a portrait of his grandmother in which he wrote in the text how much he had loved her.

The meaning of making a portrait out of words is that Ralph wants to show

everyone is, quite literally, able to be defined into words. This is also why he usually defines the people in the portrait with words because he wants to show it is possible. The definition in the text goes from personally to appearance – humoristic to two metres tall.

I read this image by first looking at the person. How does the person look? How do I think this person behaves? After this, I will try to read the text. Sometimes this is difficult because the portraits of Ueltzhoeffer are in German. The text really tells you something about the person and sometimes what happened to them. This can be very satisfying when you guessed correctly what kind of person it was but in can also be disturbing if a person went missing in an almost paranormal manner.

I think the way Ralph does the text-portraits is a very great way to summarize a person in a very interesting way. However, many people have copied this style and are not doing it correctly. You can install a plug-in (an extra tool for another program) for the program ‘Photoshop’ where you are able to put in a couple words and an image and the generator will copy the words and create a, in my opinion fake, text-portrait. I think this way of doing it is almost faking it because you are not putting as much thought into the person you are portraying as you should.

Ralph only likes doing this style of portrait because he says you can really learn to know someone in this way. (source : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Ueltzhoeffer)

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Identity Slides 2014

Banksy

Banksy always stuns everyone with his insane works of street art. He tries to keep his identity a secret. However, some people claim Banksy’s real name is Robert Banks or Robin Banks.

Banksy’s way of doing street art usually involves using the

environment a lot. As an example in this picture Banksy used an actual sign and made it an object of his own. Using it in his own artwork.

I think this picture tries to show graffiti can also be a form of art. I read this by first looking at the sign. Due to this artwork obviously being very ironic Banksy is clearly trying to mock the sign. Because this sign is prohibiting graffiti Banksy makes it clear he does not agree with fully prohibiting graffiti. I think Banksy tries to inspire people to also start doing art.

I think Banksy also tries to inspire young people to start with arts. This is due to the way Banksy presents his art. Banksy is basically doing illegal actions. He once broke into a zoo to then break into the penguins’ place to paint the text: “WE WANT OUT!”. This is, obviously, against the law but still Banksy is a hero to many people with his form of humor.

I think the works of Banksy are amazing. I have known this artist for quite a while and I like how extremely active he is. Making the streets of London a great place. His form of art is truly unique. Give Banksy the real world and any wall to paint on and he will make something great.

Finding Banksy’s opinions on the internet or any other source is actually quite impossible due to him keeping his identity secret. If an interviewer manages to find him and get an interview with him, that interviwer will be the richest man on earth.

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Identity Slides 2014

Bruce Nauman

Bruce Nauman made this very text-intensive artwork which is obviously very colourful but also has some very dark words in there.

As soon as you start to read the words you can immediately notice how he has ordered the words. He always puts a verb with ‘DIE’ behind it to immediately do the same next to it but with ‘AND LIVE’ instead.

This can mean a variety of different things. However I like to think that this resembles choices. All the

different verbs resemble the different choices you make and the words ‘LIVE’ and ‘DIE’ resemble it either being a good choice or a bad choice.

There are four sequences which are out of order. In these sequences the verbs are replaced with the words ‘BLACK’, ‘WHITE’, ‘RED’ and ‘YELLOW’. I think this resembles your descent. People can treat you well when you are Christian or you can be hated because of it. This makes life almost like a roulette in a casino, where you have a 50% chance the outcome will be nice. This casino theory, which I personally like, would also sync in with the choice of presentation Bruce made here. The neon letters could be those of a casino and the words resemble life being a game wherein you have to be lucky.

Bruce stated numerous times how he noticed how some people of the same descent can turn out as very different persons and can be rich or poor with just a couple of simple decisions. He wanted to show small things can make a big difference so he made this artwork with the idea of extremely exaggerating action and effect. (source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Nauman)

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