From November 24 until December 18, 2010

Galerija Photon – Centre for Contemporary Photography Ljubljana

Photocartoons are a blend of scanned and digital photo-material. Image editing software allows the artist to compose and edit digital templates, as well as create an original and dynamic aesthetic form through mixing line drawings with various photographic samples, scans and digital images of various qualities. In terms of style, photocartoons are a mixture of comic strip and caricature, reflecting current moods and contemporary spirit. The individual and autonomous aesthetic exterior can be compared to the pop art of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, and, accordingly, understood as a quotation.

As an artist I am – further to the photographic and aesthetic realisation of an idea – particularly interested in the development process, the issue of technical procedure and its ‘breaking through’. Thus far, my artistic endeavours in the field of analogue photography are summed-up in the Scratches project, whereas in digital photography this authentic form of expression is reflected in the photographic cartoons.

Digital photography facilitates new approaches and artistic expressions. The basis of digital photography is the alignment of pixels, and a realistic picture is composed of an array of single pixels, whilst the dissolution of reality provides the concept of my photographic cartoons. Such artistic expression is based on the alignment of digital colour pixels in a different, non-realistic form. The modification of pixel configuration is a basic characteristic of this photo-artistic project. Indeed, digital technology allows new artistic forms, thereby expanding the thus far prevalent perception of photography.

The Photocartoons are a blend of scanned and digital photo-material. Image editing software allows the artist to compose and edit digital templates, as well as create an original and dynamic aesthetic form through mixing line drawings with various photographic samples, scans and digital images of various qualities. In terms of style, photocartoons are a mixture of comic strip and caricature, reflecting current moods and contemporary spirit. The individual and autonomous aesthetic exterior can be compared to the pop art of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, and, accordingly, understood as a quotation.

An artist may find the concept of copying digital photography into an analogue format arduous and boring; it feels, however, as though a new artistic form – i.e. digital photography – is attempting to imitate the old analogue. My artistic answer is the photocartoon, and in this I also strive to make my art applicable in real life. Undoubtedly photography, in the classical sense, should be exhibited in galleries in order to promote artistic and social discourse, and, further to this, I strive to provide additional possibilities for the application of photocartoons.

In my opinion, the increasing tendency of displaying handicraft photography in galleries and museums is questionable: can an image in the press be exhibited in a gallery or other such venue where ‘art’ is presented? It seems reasonable and necessary to break and reverse this trend. Photographic artworks should not merely be exhibited in galleries and museums, but also be present in everyday life. My photocartoons make full use of this reverse path, testimony to which is provided by collaboration with the Austrian daily Der Standard, which published a weekly series entitled Der Gedanke (The Thought).

Photocartoons, which received Bank Austria Art Award in 2008, will be published in a printed book version in 2010.

Marko Lipuš