Joiner images: from street view to textile art

 I shall use this post to reflect on the recent work I've been doing to map my cultural experience of Bradford.  It follows directly from a previous post 'Moving through the landscape: arches and cupolas'.

In that post, I describe how I began mapping my knowledge of Bradford by using Google Street View (because a Covid lockdown prevented me visiting) to photograph my route from Forster Sq Station to the College of art:

I was encouraged to suspend the arches and cupola work for now and go back to explore more features in this map, perhaps looking at the 'joiner' photographs created by David Hockney for inspiration.  Hockney developed these photos during the 1980s.  He argued that normal photographs have a weakness in that they just capture a split second in time unlike other forms of figurative art which, completed over a longer period, have the opportunity to convey more than the frozen moment.  His solution was to build up a picture taking a series of photos of the same scene from the same spot which he reassembled.  This enabled him to concentrate on some aspects  of the scene much as he would do in making a drawing or painting.  

David Hockney by David Hockney

Hockney claimed that using a range of photos taken over a period of time, using different angles and showing some movement or change of light, enabled him to capture something of time and space.  He worked with hardcopy photos (this was the 80s) and didn't chop or trim them, rather placing them on top of one another in ways that emphasise certain elements.

Hockney: Sitting in the Zen Garden

Hockney: Gregory reading in Kyoto

Hockney: Place Furstenberg, Paris

Inadvertently, it seems, in trying to map my route through Bradford using a series of photographs, I had created a simple 'joiner' image.  This was interesting as I was trying to map a 'cultural' journey and, by implication, a journey involves time.  When I looked again at my 'joiner' journey I could see time expressed through changes in light and, more particularly, the same people cropping up in  different images photographed a few seconds apart, for example these two images:

Image from Google Street View taken outside the Santander Bank in Bradford

The same couple appear in a different position a few moments later.

Other architects and artists have used a similar 'joiner' method to express ideas about buildings and cityscapes.  Here is the work of the Spanish architect, Enric Miralles, depicting buildings and urban scenes in a way that conjures up time and space through dynamic arrangements and photos taken in different lighting conditions.

People are also evident in Miralles' photo montages in a similar way to Street View.

Another architect and designer from Nigeria who uses this method is Charles O. Job.  He also works with urban scenes and the work seems to express a very dynamic sense of the city, pitching the buildings at different angles which emphasises their shape or size.  The same people appear in different parts of the montage, again conveying a sense of time.

This 'joiner' approach felt worth developing.  Firstly I took specific sections of my original journey and played with them using digital manipulation. 

Then I explored ways to create textile expressions of the image.  The work below is created from a patchwork background in blue and shades of beige with the shadows, buildings and people added through applique.  I didn't pay too much attention to the colours in the original but worked instead with a palette developed from looking at the colours of Bradford found in photographs of buildings.  The photos of the buildings were added using Jet Opaque inkjet heat transfer paper.  I thought the work needed this detail to help the viewer understand the different blocks of colour.

Looking up Tyrrel St towards Bradford College

On reflection, I think the piece works quite well in terms of conveying a journey - seeing forward.  The people I found in the original image were too small and didn't look like they were moving but I think it is important to use the real people, not created images.  Consequently, I tried to create further joiner images where the people looked more dynamic.  It is also rather dominated by the sky, which although brightens the work, it also draws the eye from the main 'action'.  It may have been better to use non-opaque inkjet transfer paper to allow the colour of the fabric to show through a little.

I then created some new 'joiner' montages where I did draw on my earlier interest in arches: The Co-op bank and the Santander Bank buildings. Here are the stages I went to in order to develop these initial 'joiners' into textile outcomes:

Firstly create the montage:

The Co-op Bank, Bradford

Then use drawing or painting to identify what could be the main blocks of colour in a finished work.  In this case, I traced the main lines, photographed my tracing and added colour using pastels on the Artset app on my Ipad.

I then used a Gelli pad to print sheets of coloured paper and chopped those up to create a simplified collage of the joiner:

As before, I sewed the main background blocks in a patchwork style and then added details using applique.

Whilst the people worked better in this piece with the movement of the suitcase-pulling woman, overall it has lost something in transferring the paper version to textile.  The overlapping blocks of colour have been streamlined in order to sew several vertical blocks.  I need to improve my patchwork technique to develop this method.

I looked briefly at both Jogakbo technique using very small pieces of cloth and the Gees Bend patchworkers who also used recycled/ scrap cloth.  Both suggested to me that successfully representing my images through patchwork would involve using small pieces combined in the right order.  So that was my plan.  Here is the next 'joiner' I attempted:

Firstly painting over the photograph on Artset to identify the main blocks of colour.  There were lots of columns which seemed an interesting feature to highlight.

Santander Bank, Bradford

Then using a printed paper collage to recreate the image in simple blocks of colour.  I multiplied its size by four in order to produce workable size pieces.

I tried to recreate this paper collage using patchwork techniques and being careful about the order in which I assembled them:

Although, these patchwork pieces work reasonably well in re-creating my 'joiner', it wasn't a sustainable choice.  Firstly, the work was so detailed that it would use up most of my time available for the whole project and, secondly, as each piece was added, the 'fit' between the pieces became less accurate.  I clearly need to learn better patchwork piecing techniques but a really complicated, large design is probably not the place to start.  I discussed this with a keen patchworker, Mary, and she suggested using entirely applique for this design as I was not creating something that would have a lot of handling.  So that is what I did, adding in people from the original images:

I'm pleased with the result.  The fabrics give an added texture compared with the paper and it is not dominated by one hue as in the previous work.  I think there is a sense of time and movement with the different angles of the pieces and the people travelling across the scene.  However, I think it can be improved. I could possibly make more of the texture of the different elements - the greenery in the front and the stone.  When I look back at my first painting of the montage (4 images up), I think this textile version might have benefitted from being laid on black fabric with the main rectangles of the original montage highlighted in black - definitely worth experimenting with.  I wondered about adding some stitch to highlight, for example, the arches and pillars but I was afraid that it might spoil the simplicity of the piece.

So, for next time, I shall try using a simpler 'joiner' montage and attempt to complete it in patchwork.  I shall look at the fabric I choose and try to better reflect the texture of the landscape whilst still trying to use scraps of material (sustainability!!).  I shall also experiment with adding stitching to the patchwork to highlight details. In the longer term, it will be interesting to experiment with other ways to express my 'joiners' in textile, perhaps through printing the designs onto fabric.

I've also got to think about what I want to photograph, given that it is 'my cultural experience of Bradford' that I am trying to capture.  I could focus on more of the exquisite Victoria architecture in Bradford but that would be contrived and I prefer to stick to my journey.  Something to think about!

Bibliography

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Hodsdon, C. (2014) David Hockney's 'Joiners'. Juxtapoz Magazine, May 21st. [online] Available at https://www.juxtapoz.com/photography/david-hockney-s-joiners/. [Accessed 5th February, 2021].

Job, C. O (2021) Carles O. Job/ personal  [online] available at: https://charlesjob.com/personal [Accessed 5th March, 2021)

South Bank Show (1983) David Hockney's Joiner Photographs. London Weekend Television reshown on YouTube [online] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGtraVb_0vY, [Accessed 5th February, 2021].

Turner, J.F.K (undated) Cubism, Joiners and the multiple viewpoint, The delights of Seeing. [online], available from: https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1115869338788865459/7508397727127563569 [Accessed 5th February 2021]

V&A (undated) Jogakbo - traditional Korean patchwork. V & A [online] Available at https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/jogakbo-traditional-korean-patchwork, [Accessed 5th March, 2021)

Wallach, A (2006) The fabric of their lives. The Smithsonian Magazine, October  [online]. Available from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/fabric-of-their-lives-132757004/. Accessed 26th February 2021].