Modern retro collage and Cristiana Couceiro
Cristiana Couceiro is an artist that specialises in modern retro collage, which is essentially the combination of multiple images to form a new one with artistic meaning For example I interpret this one as Resembling the rich and powerful going against the people, assuming the pointing of a finger symbolizes them shifting the blame onto others for the repercussions of their own actions such as the negative effects on the environment from bad business practices and the drilling of oil etc…
The Shapes and colours she uses are not always just abstract for example in this piece by Cristiana Couceiro representing the suffragette movement the colours are very much linked to the stereotypical feminine colours. The shapes she uses are also often also somewhat linked to the message she wants to portray for example in this piece they are surrounded by large instruments to potentially illustrate they have to be big and loud to get attention to these types of issues.
She is also known for her tendency to make her art illustrate her political values and beliefs, using it as a subtle medium to put forward her feelings and ideas for example in this piece she brings in images of politicians which I interpret as her insinuating that President Trump (Red) was a downgrade from President Obama (Green) using Colours to represent stock charts. She also includes these abstract shape architectural plans in this piece potentially to link to each president’s plan for the country using the colours to rate them.
Another thing to note about Cristiana Couceiro’s work with Modern Retro Collage the people are never in colour (or at least in the pieces I’ve seen so far) this could be to symbolise something or potentially just a feature of her work. In this particular piece, I don’t believe there is a message behind it other than maybe to Show off the skill of the Player (assuming he is famous but I don’t know). She once again also uses shapes to link to the images using a large number of circle shapes to illustrate balls being hit/going through the air potentially to symbolize the number of games he’s played illustrating his experience in the game.
My Reinterpretations
When reinterpreting the first image I knew I wanted to do something with hands, I decided to relate the meaning of the image to the cost of living crisis, forming the shapes to lightly resemble money while maintaining simplicity emulating the style of the previous image. The red lines resemble outgoing costs eating away at the income, the green dots, to get to your savings. The hand’s pose was chosen in order to resemble begging/ grasping for something that’s not there.
For this image I took the style and the topic of historical moments and reinterpreted it to illustrate the first flying machine. I used a lot of triangles here to resemble the momentum and forces that needed to act on the craft in order for them to succeed as they did. I also included a large shadow behind one of the brothers as he looks on. I did this to show that this moment made them more than just regular men punching their names into the history books forever.
In this image I wanted to reinterpret the political message behind her design and direct it towards the UK rather than the USA, therefore I used graph-like imagery behind the Prime minister in order to illustrate the economic situation in the Uk and how the government plans don’t always turn out successful. I also included some text within the image referencing plan number 1 linking to number one downing street, and the idea that they should consider more plans before they commit to a potentially bad decision as their predecessors have.
For this Final image interpretation, I decided to not go for sport like the first but to go for an important figure in British history Queen Elizabeth the 2nd. I used the style and made dots circle around her in order to illustrate celebration, celebrating her life as the queen from how it started to how it ended. I also included arrows above the head of the different versions of her to show how she got wiser with age despite her declining health.
References
All images found on Cristiana Couceiro’s website…
- Couceiro, C. (2022) Cristiana Couceiro, cristiana couceiro. Available at: https://cristianacouceiro.com/ (Accessed: 14 April 2023).
