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Rankin and Hirst, D. (2011) Myths, Monsters and Legends. United Kingdom: Rankin Photography.
SURVIVAL REPRESENTATION
Photographing Damien’s skulls, snakes and, at times, Damien himself, Rankin dragged the gods of the underworld up into the realm of slick, hyperreal fashion photography. After “Medusa”, “Cerberus” and the “Painted Skulls”, the trio decided to take the project in a different direction. With the help of prosthetics wizard Nigel Booth, who usually works on high budget action films, they left fashion behind in favour of a disturbing cinematic aesthetic.
“I always try and make shit that people can’t ignore”, said Damien. “The kind of art you can walk past without seeing terrifies me.”
“It took a lot for Dani to have all these creatures created on her as she’s very beautiful, but she’s fearless”, Rankin added. “I want to blow people’s minds. I needed to get as far away from fashion on this and take something beautiful and make it horrific. But in doing that, I wanted to create another kind of beauty.”
Below: ‘About Hunger’ (no date). HUNGER TV. Available at: http://www.hungertv.com/pages/about/. [Accessed: 22 February 2015].
TV, H. (2012) HUNGER TV - MYTHS BY RANKIN AND DAMIEN HIRST,YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeNMfuG7fH0 (Accessed: 22 February 2015).
Make-Up and Digital Manipulation:
On the HungerTv website there is an interview with Rankin and Damian Hurst explaining the design, make-up and editing processes necessary for the shoot. A model was transformed into different mythical characters and the photographs where digitally manipulated to enhance the work. However, this is a great example of both make-up and digital working in collaboration with one another to create a high quality finished product. Previous research I carried out on CGI and digital manipulation (see on digital page) lead me to find artists explaining that ‘the two need each other’ and this video backs that up completely. The two components make an unstoppable finished product and both work collectively together throughout the whole process. Within the interview Rankin explains that the model would be sat in make-up for six hours at a time, she is completely transformed even before the digital manipulation and the make-up isn’t ruled out.
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Above: ‘About Hunger’ (no date). HUNGER TV. Available at: http://www.hungertv.com/pages/about/. [Accessed: 22 February 2015].
I will design and create my make-ups and apply them to a model before digitally manipulating the finished product, in order to see the subtle differences in the enhancements.
This book confirmed a need to create designs representing animal tendencies, where, emotion is translated through the camera beautifully. The mythical creatures within the book are very animal like and the model is unrecognizable. The image of the banchee (desert woman) looks like a woman struggling to survive alone, she is holding a skeleton in her hand and it looks to be a weapon. This is what I would like my design to show similarities to, where the bones are a form of protection/ a weapon.
The skin on the banchees face looks like raw scar tissue or keloid scars. I will use the images as reference material when I come to sculpt small flat pieces of skin to attach the deer skull to the models face- I want the skin to look as though it is growing over the skeleton, healing almost, but raw in texture and colour. I will have to use some common knowledge of skin puckering and artistic interpretation when I come to sculpt the skin due to there being a lack of reference material for the particular scarring. However, the image above relates to the skin growth idea and I will reference it if necessary.