Creating of “Selfie”- tape art self-portrait of tape artist Ostap
My selfie out of duct tape
Tape art self-portrait. Size: 300 x 200 cm, Berlin 2016.
The selfie is clearly a tendency these days, due to the advanced mobile technology available on the market. Everybody is doing it, so I thought that I should not be an exception from this rule. Of course, the selfie I made is different from the rest you may have seen up to this point. I used my vision of seeing things and my technique of creating art so that the outcome may surprise you. The “Selfie” I made is self-portrait out of duct tape. It is quite large, by the size of a decent painting, and has vivid colors, more like in the case of a cartoon, something that no mobile device can create. It’s not that I don’t like mobile technology or the way people do selfies, so there is no reason to misunderstand me.
Photo 2- Making of selfie- tape art self portrait
Portrait of the tape artist
I am an artist that is in love with tape art, so it came only natural to create such artwork. Just like a painter will use oil colors and canvas to create his portrait, I used colored tape and a wall to do it. I’ve done so many tape artworks up to this point, but I haven’t got the chance to create my image this way yet. So when the opportunity arrived, to create my “selfie”, I took the challenge. It was both fun and exciting, although I have to admit that I took it just like any other project I get involved into. I did it with the same dedication, no more and no less, focusing on doing an interesting artwork, even if I was the subject this time. The best part about working with tape is the high diversity of colors and band widths. So it would have been a shame not to take advantage of this. I used as many colors that were possible, the final selfie looking like being carved out of a comic book than rather being a real picture.
“Selfie”- tape artist self-portrait out of duct tape
I am pop art
The adhesive tape is an incredibly versatile material, and very many things can come out of it as I learned in time. I managed to create painting or portraits that were closer to reality, like a photo. So this was entirely my choice, of creating my selfie using a great range of colors. But not only the colors will make you think of a comic book character because the text box containing the sound of the tape when it is cut will have the same effect. As you may know, in comic books, all the dialog and sounds were presented in such text balloons. Statements had the shape of a round cloud, while sounds, like the one in my selfie, had an irregular form, like a star with multiple corners.
Cartoon or comic book page, or however you may see it, I hope you will enjoy looking at it as much as I did when I made it. To be honest, most artists don’t like to have the front page when it comes to their art, focusing more on creating interesting pieces about others or various things. But, there is always a compromise that can be made, to make a portrait, or selfie, in this case, look like an art piece, without being too subjective about it.
“Selfie”- my duct tape self-portrait
