The Images That Changed The World By Wayne Barker

Wayne Barker’s The World that Changed the Image uses technology in new and exciting ways. The image in the background of the screen print featured in a book entitled The Images that Changed the World. The artist uses the image as a judgement for the world in which we live in. The use of photography, which first originated in 1840, plays an immense role in creating meaning in this piece. The image which Barker uses creates a narrative; the viewer questions the identity of the boy and his contribution to the world. Barker’s pieces are known for their focus on the relationship between live and the image, which the use of photography captures well as it is the preservation of a fleeting moment, a life, in an image. The use of the photograph is also a comment on the way in which various images are produced and then reproduced. The photograph was initially taken by an individual, but through television, the internet and print
the image is manifested by different perspectives, into something completely different, where in the post-modern world, it is free to be interpreted and then re interpreted to mean something personalized to the viewer.
Barker gives the image meaning both by using it and by reproducing it, and then leaving the photograph of the boy to be again interpreted by the viewer.

The World that Changed the Image considers the reproduction of symbols as an image as well. Over the photograph of the boy, pink black and white polka dots, The Treachery of Images, and the popular politically-charged phrase “Je suis” (which makes reference to the solidarity phrase “Je Suis Charlie”) can all be seen in opulent, saturated colour. The jarring colours are a contrast to the black and white historical photograph. Through manipulation of images on programmes such as Photoshop, images can be worked-on or distorted to suit the artist. Barker has
reversed the image of the pipe, or The Treachery of Images, by the surrealist artist Renee Magritte. The caption “This is not a pipe” accompanies the abovementioned surrealist work and references Barker’s point that the world sees an image and immediately changes the purpose of the image, which the Magritte mockingly opposes by saying that the pipe is not actually a pipe. The transformation of the pipe shows the power of what technological applications can do, but furthermore, I believe it proves a point that Barker aims to show through his use of technology. To explain further; the historical black and white photograph is able to be backgrounded by popular contemporary symbols due to the artistic and technological technique of screen printing which involves a “transfer of ink, by a mesh, onto a substrate”. Barker chose this medium as he saw it” as a precursor to digital printing, another mode of reproduction that would completely change the way we consume and create the image”. Barker is showing the power of the world being able to physically change an image, but also the ability of the world to change the initial intention of the image, as Barker does here. The photograph no longer serves its initial purpose of capturing because of the context of the image and the symbols which lay over it.

Through the symbolic text “Je Suis” which became associated with the terrorist attacks on a media outlet in Paris, Barker aims to show something about the struggles that we face. The popular symbols balance the ugliness of religious extremism as we oppose the conservatism of the world, we unite, and we stand together, as did the solidarity campaign mentioned above. We interpret and consume other’s narratives through images in the media, whilst creating our own narratives, which is what Barker is trying to prove.

This artwork would not have been able to communicate so many layers if technology had not been involved. Technology here is useful in communicating the intention of the artist in a way which traditional media would not be able to do. The image of the boy, replicated by paint, would not be as striking or intimate to the viewer so therefore, the technological advancement of screen-printing is very beneficial to the meaning of this work by Wayne Barker. Technology plays an imperative role in the way the world has changed the production of images, such as The World that Changed the Image.

Although stylistically similar, Wayne Barker’s Bed of Death is notably different. The image in the lower half has been manipulated in a different manner from the image of the boy in the above analysed work. The process of working on Arches and different paper has allowed for a different result. Advancement in technology have allowed for artists to choose the outcome to suit their needs. The distortion of the photograph, which has a stylistic reference to Goya or Daumier, through technological creates an ominous feeling which links to the theme of death, as suggested by the title.

Advancements in machinery and design has allowed for the production of stencils. The organic pink forms in the top left and top right of the screen print, although consisting of organic line, have a strong outline- suggesting the use of a stencil. This advancement in technology has allowed for a contrast between the hard-edged pink repeated pattern and the splattered, Dadaist-like green splatter.

Technology has allowed for the transfer of the text which consists of both san serif and serif type faces. The text spells out the title “Bed of Death” in an ambiguous order. The transfer of the lettering, the technologically-created ominous feeling of the photograph and the amoebic-like forms communicate to me, a sense of confusion, ambivalence and interest towards death. The artist uses bright or lively colours (which also came about due to technological advancements which resulted in natural pigments being ‘discontinued’) next to a dreary looking figure and a title which involves death. The artist possibly does this to create meaning by showing the contrast between life and death, which is a central theme in several of Barker’s work.

Wayne Barker recognizes the ability, with cell phones, to re-create images; to reproduce our own daily narratives. Barker states that “we have changed the way we consume images, we have changed the way we make images. We are the world that changed the image”