Anna Bu Kliewer and Flynn Cameron Jones are young artists who both make work that foregrounds collage as a medium. Have a look at the links to their work below. Which artist you do you prefer? Do they feel very different to the two artists you looked at in the previous study point? Reflect critically on their work, their decision to use collage and how they have used it.
www.breedlondon.com/artists/anna-bu-kliewer/ , http://thearchivecollective.com/2015/10/anna-kliewer/ http://flynncameronjones.com/index.php/video/the-codex/, http://flynncameronjones.tumblr.com/tagged/Collage
Unfortunately, there were only one of the links working ( the first one - Anna Bu Kliewer’s website). Two of the links gave me a warning that my data might get stolen and the video link did just not work. I do wonder if this is just my problem, trying to access links from outside the UK. Anyway, it took me a while to find some more information. I realized I often got images without even knowing if they are truly from these artists, plus I ended up on somebody else’s website - so I tried to stay away from this kind of “un-secure” information.
It is somehow very good, that these two artists are an official study point in this course. On my own, I would have probably not bothered to investigate them any deeper. At first look, both of their collages appear to be “too pretty”, boring and too “fashionable”. I got overwhelmed by the feeling that this is the social media generation which I do not understand.
But since I had to, I decided to go through all the images I could find, and then interview “myself and my reaction", picking 3 images each. First I looked for some personal information.
Anna Bu Kliewer - describes herself in her own words:
“Anna Bu Kliewer is a Gerkainian mixed media artist living and working in London, UK. She works in both analogue and digital collage, creating still and moving imagery.
Driven by her curiosity about other realities, time and space, she likes to challenge one’s perception of identity and environment by transforming found imagery into a new, surreal context.
Bu’s library of cut out paper pieces has now reached over 20.000 items and continues to grow, only a tad faster than her plant collection.
[ Gerkrainian ]
A human born in Ukraine, raised in Germany. A combination of Eastern European melancholy and love of beetroots merged with German efficiency and pragmatism. Contrary to other stereotypes both these countries entail, Anna does not enjoy drinking beer nor eating animals.” (https://annabukliewer.com/)
Anna was born in 1987, travelled extensively and studied both in Canada and Vancouver. She works both analog and digital and does multi-media projects including animations.
What was my first impression: I actually rolled my eyes and thought - oh my, another one of these “Instagram” artists. Everything is clean and pretty somehow.
Can I explain this? probably not very well. The images used seem mostly to come out of shiny magazines / Instagram posts and seem without flaws themselves. When Kliewer does deconstruction (or her reality and feeling of time and space) - everything looks so ordered so arranged so artificial to me, as if somebody photoshopped life or mixed up social media posts with real life. Her deconstructions feel more like deconstructing something like putting “fake” images or polished realities, together.
Anna Bu Kliewer
The first two works by Anna Bu Kliewer fall right into the category “first impression”, while I find the last image far more interesting. It might be as simple, as black and white appealing more to me, or that it seems more “real” for me. But I don’t think so.
The Drink image looks like an ad for a drink and remains me of a bit of Pop-art. I can’t find anything interesting, it is like somebody tries to hard to sell me this image.
The first piece is too predictable to me, there is no surprise, no new thoughts. I thought at the beginning, that Anna just found her little niche, not very original though, and now just produces more of the same kind. Gluing images of perfect flowers, plants, or colorful “flow’ over women’s body parts…
Meanwhile, the last image really interests me ( and though are some more on Anna’s website or the agency’s one - including some of her animation). The use of Black and White, the distortion through simply cutting out some pieces and sliding them into a different position, the lines running over the photo, like strange markings of past time and the background - all work together to tell stories to me. I do like that the cutting and pasting seems less clean, less pretending that it was not done. Not sure if I would call Kliewer’s collagen surrealistic, they seemed to be too fond of perfectionism, realism, and flat beauty. Or maybe this world is just so strange to me.
So - did I change my mind? Partially - some of Kliewer’s work is quite interesting. Do I necessarily understand it? No, but that might not be necessary…
Flynn Cameron Jones” collages are more abstract than Anna Bu Kliewer’s. There are more geometrical patterns, straight lines and one repeating element seems to be thick lines, cut out or pasted - almost as one looks through blinds or strange view-finders, which are still in the shot. Like Kliewer’s, everything seems to be polished, smooth, almost complaisant, and all balanced composition. Maybe one could call it formalism. Jones's work is carefully thought-out and constructed, it is more about geometrical design than about content. Actually, I am not sure about this - but I could not really find anything about the artist but an interview from Majestic Disorder Magazine. On his own site, there is no bio, and both links did not work.
Reading through the interview, I am a bit disturbed by the focus on consumption, product, technology - it all sounds to me like I am watching a movie inside the movie “Brave new world” or “ beautiful people make beautiful Art”
“I think it’s going to be pretty difficult. With technology at our side all the time now it seems that people just move on to the next thing so quickly. Maybe we consume so much that it’s just not practical for these publications to produce as many physical additions… With technology at our side all the time now it seems that people just move on to the next thing so quickly. Maybe we consume so much that it’s just not practical for these publications to produce as many physical additions….I can’t say I have much experience in the marketplace, but from what I’ve seen working around London, smaller, local businesses are gaining more influence. It feels a lot safer when you’re part of a small select team that works on creating a distinctive product. It definitely has never been easier to go independent thanks to technology, all the information you need is at your fingertips. But I think bigger visions and projects will need to be tackled by collectives and collaborations.” (majestic disorder)
Looking through his images and I realized that I did not like his animations. They bored and stressed me at the same time, without interesting me. Besides not liking most of his still collages either, I did find some.
The first image, of a group of soldiers, with an overlaid grid-frame, did not appeal to me. I found it almost cheap and somehow a bit voyeuristic. I am not sure if it bothered me to have an image of war “cleaned up” through another beautification.
The second image - a bird with a purple beam in front of left me cold, no idea what it is. It almost looks like an accident, but a boring one.
The third image, meanwhile, I totally like. There is dept, there are distorted perspectives - it made me question what I see and I find myself emotionally touched. I know that I like vortex and circles or waves and these ones, in the background, seem to move. I do wonder if he drew the circles or found them in a magazine. So this is for sure my favourite image.
Which of the two Artist’s do I like better? Since I like very little of their Art, I find this impossible to answer. I rather think that the images I like have a resemblance - they seem to be less polished, play more with perspective, and don’t try to sell me “realism”
Looking back at the work Twombly, or even older Artists like Hanna Hoch and John Heartfield, I think I prefer content over perfection and I like political, surrealistically contrast work Kliewer’s work is described as surrealistic but I am not sure that pasting seamlessly an image in the place of a face is enough to interest me. Lots of the work of Kliewer, but as well Flynn looks so much like advertising, like a sellable product, something that is too “becoming”. Or it looks like, both young Artists think a lot of what might get likes and followers - and this is what they create. Or maybe I just do not understand it, and I like the messy world, not the Instagram version.
Anna Bu Kliewer At: https://annabukliewer.com/ (Accessed on 10 December 2021)
Anna Bu Kliewer At: https://breedlondon.com/artists/anna-bu-kliewer/ (Accessed on 10 December 2021)
Flynn Cameron Jones At: http://flynncameronjones.com/works/ (Accessed on 10 December 2021)
Majestic disorder, Brooklyn vs London, Sean Stillmaker At: http://majesticdisorder.com/journal-brooklyn-vs-london/ (Accessed on 10 December 2021)