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Utilizing Contradictory Images

(Post by Kirsten)

This week I tuned into the first episode of the television series (on Amazon Prime) "Tales from the Loop." This show is moving, weird, and visually stunning. There's a clear emphasis on visual imagery, and there's a striking use of contrasting imagery to create a sense of emotional tension. Reading up on the show, I learned that it drew its inspiration from the artwork of Swedish artist Simon Stälenhag. I had never seen Stälenhag's work before, but it is--like "Tales from the Loop" the show--visually evocative, eerie, and surreal. Here are a couple of images pulled from online:

* Credit

* Credit

These images are sci-fi in nature, but (like a lot of great sci-fi) they're compelling because they evoke a fantastical but also very familiar vision of our own world. They do this, in part, by making use of contradictory images, by suggesting story, and by utilizing color to create moody atmosphere.

Another artist whose work comes to mind here is Chris Van Allsburg, writer of Jumanji and The Polar Express, but also the fantastic The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. Here are a couple examples of images from that book:




Van Allsburg's images, like Stälenhag's, are eerie and atmospheric, surreal and visually detailed. But they rely more heavily on fantasy imagery than on sci-fi imagery to suggest story.


Today's exercise is inspired by these two artists.

1. Make two lists of objects--one list of objects that are familiar and "everyday" (like a comb, a tea kettle, an apple, a pencil, etc.), and one list of objects that are unfamiliar and out of the ordinary (like a flying boat, a robot, a constellation of bright lights hanging low over an empty field...).

2. Write a poem or story that uses at least one object from each list, the quotidian and the extraordinary.

3. Last, begin in the middle. Start with the question, the mystery, the unexplainable. Work outward from there.

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