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>>If I really want to look at images
in series...and series is just another way of creating context
for images...when we look at a series of images, when we look
at images sequentially, we put their meaning together.
And so for my very first series that I want
to show you I'm going to do something...I'm going
to show you something very, very simple.
This first image, I call it "Number 1," is very rigid;
it's very vertical, although I did include a certain level
of curvature in it.
Um, it's...one of the criticisms that I have of this image is
that it's very centered, but it also fits well with a series
because the next image is centered too.
But it's like got much more of a curve format
and I think you can see like how the series is connected here
and even maybe guess at what the next image looks like.
And if you want to guess that, it looks like a number "3",
you're absolutely correct.
Now...I mean ok, so this is a very...a very mediocre sort
of example, but it illustrates a point;
anything that is obviously sequential,
anything that is obviously part of a series,
can be made into a series and can be successful.
Now I don't think that these are good as art pieces,
but they're great as series.
So in considering series, I want you to think
about like a television series.
If we look at say the cast of the classic television show
"Star Trek," we realize each
of the people has a specific personality.
Over the course of the series, over the course of the course
of the season of the series, we see these personalities develop.
We acquire an expectation of their behavior.
They become familiar to us and this is very common in a series.
So it's like any element in a series that is repetitive
or that is sort of a continued exemplified,
is...serves the series.
Now sort of moving along and we think about the episodes,
the different episodes of the particular television show,
we realize that they're always different.
That the things...I mean the setting is generally the same;
in this case, the starship.
The crew is essentially the same,
but their adventures vary widely.
And one time they may be in some far flung reach of the galaxy
and another time they may be in the 1960s or cast back in time,
but how do we know that it's a series;
how do we understand that it's a series?
Again, it comes back to the familiar cast,
the familiar settings, the way
that the images are put together, the direction,
the dialog, and it's all of these sort
of familiar aspects of it.
So when we look at a series of images,
we want to look for these aspects.
In this particular case by Ali [assumed spelling],
he's modeling portraiture and he's modeling the four horseman
of the apocalypse, and he's taking both of these ideas
and bringing them together.
And some of the faces I'm sure you recognize and some
of them I'm not sure you do.
The key to it then is to look at the name plates and to be able
to sort of draw that into it as well.
Each element in this series is considered and you see that each
of these items then works well on its own
because it does actually imply the others.
But as a series or sort of like a contiguous whole,
there's more meaning; the meaning is exemplified.
In this case, Kim is working with our understanding
of advertising and food supplements
and she's really questioning the way that...or the messages
that we're giving to our children.
And so she develops a very sort of...in sort of a roundabout way
with like sort of looking at like the celebrity
and the vitamin and our understanding
of like pill culture, but then she brings it back
and her before and after image
in the final panel just completely says it all;
it says that this is sort of the transformative piece in it.
And the after image is you look at that and you're
like wondering, "Is this what we desire; is this what we want?"
So the final example that I have for you is by Larry
and he has taken the traditional tryptic and he's manipulated it;
he's using it to his advantage.
He's using like this sort of arched image
and the classic line drawings, but then he's also meshing it
up with images from the news (images about racism and hate
and war), and bringing them all together.
And you'll notice that there is a continuous theme
in the background as well and that's of hanging.
So he's like creating this dialog between contemporary art,
the media, and this sort of heinous crime;
this sort of like...this ***, whether it be by the public,
or whether it be by an individual, or by a hate group.