#1

I first thought of Barbara Kruger for this assignment even though her works were not digital, they were photographs. Not only did she push boundaries with great use of mixed media but she really set the tone for digital art, which was soon to come. Barbara Kruger stood out in my mind since we first learned about connotations and denotations because of her throughly thought out simplistic work. So simplistic that the line between connotations and denotations is very blurry. Always looking to make a statement about politics, age, gender, sexuality, feminism, society, and so on; she went into creating these great works of art with the purpose of denotations to create a shock and statement.

 Barbara Kruger

This piece I chose has an obvious connotations, such as many of her works due to her use of text in her art. The simple text, 'Thinking of You' overlaying a picture of someone poking their finger with a needle gives off the connotation of pain makes me think of you. Denotations bring up the idea of more broad social issues, such as suicide, gay rights, and feminism. This simple picture represents the oppression that as human beings, we put on each other.


I recently became a fan Ann Leibovitz's work when I came across her recent work for disney in a magazine. In this project she chooses celebrities to depict certain fairy tails. Who she chose to portray the characters in the stories gives a lot of denotation. Depending on the frame photoshop plays a more apparent roll than others, but overall she uses editing to create the most naturalistic portrayal of a fantasy possible.

 Annie Leibovitz  

The original connotation I had about this was hollywoods 'it' couple from High School Musical were chosen to be sleeping beauty and her prince, cute right? Not so much when the denotation is screaming FEMINISM. The real life couple also played the same role in the popular disney movies they are featured in. Stereotypical roles for each of them, Zach Effron playing the popular jock and Vanessa Hudgenson playing the geek only to be saved by Zach, giving off the idea that she couldn't survive without him. Even if you didn't know the background of the couple, the fact that she needs a man to kiss her represents the feminism idea that women NEED men. This could also be gay rights denotation, do you have to be heterosexual to be saved? Its amazing how simple  children's literature can have such deep denotation about society.