Rankin

Rankin - Destroyed Analysis

In celebration of Youth Music's 10th Birthday, 70 notorious musicians and visual artists such as U2, Alex Zane, Andre 3000 and Florence and The Machine, collaborated with photographer John Rankin Waddell to create extraordinary, abstract art based on the emotions presented in their portraits and lives inside and out of the music industry. 

              

 

Rankin took ordinary portrait photographs of the subjects and destroyed them creating unusual abstract images to repesent emotion, feeling and senses. He often appeals to the visual sense through his work by creating eye catching creative images. Through the uses of added materials, inserted images, painting and  burnet and ripped images, he presents the sense of emotions through what were, ordinary portraits. By destroying images Rankin is able to connote feelings of loneliness, sadness, anger and a range of other emotions as well as presenting dreams, ambitions and beliefs of his subjects. His work varies from busy images which engages the audiences visual senses and excites them through the abstractness of his pieces to simple art which encourages the audience to think and find meaning within each image. 


I love how each piece that he destroys is individual and represents the subject in both overt and subtle ways. By using a rang of colours and materials, he also is able to make audiences feel a particular way when looking the photographs. Amongst many, one of my favourite pieces is that of Billy Brag (third image above). I particularly like this photograph as it has been transformed from a somewhat conventional portrait, which would not provoke any thought, to an interesting piece of work that can connote many emotions and thoughts. The simplicity of ripping up the picture and the placement of the sections, to me connotes loneliness and being torn between beliefs or areas in the subjects life. The image seems slightly dirty which makes me believe that it is slightly old and forgotten, it has not been preserved or seen as a treasured photograph. This thought of loneliness and neglect is mirrored by the subjects positioning in the photograph and the expression on his face. He is crouched down and is slightly reserved, this connotes that he is unconfident and reserved, this is replicated by the lack of colour and the use of black and white. I also like how some segments of the photograph have been placed back together and others are misplaced and disjoined.