Matthieu Bourel

'Matthieu Bourel creates surreal collages from vintage photographs, to achieve images that resonate with us, yet are clearly fictional. He collages faces together to look like puzzles, or adds/takes away elements of photographs - he is essentially presenting altered versions of the truth. , I am interested in how images are censored and distorted in order to present 'guides' on how to appear to society, and this work appears to address that also - I find the manipulation of photos to be within the subject of Photoshopping models etc. Which relates to my COP work - I want to explore issues of truth in advertising as well as exploring the identity ideals that social media and the internet impose on society, which lead to self esteem issues in young people. There are ways we are expected to construct our identities in order to be accepted socially, outlined by the media and this is what my COP Essay is about.

http://beautifuldecay.com/2014/12/17/matthieu-bourels-surreal-collages-quietly-strange/

" In some of his pieces, it almost feels as though they’re still frames of a tall tale as opposed to utter fiction. They feel historically relevant, which, according to Bourel, is part of the intended effect. “When successful, all the elements fall together with irony and tension while all other realities are obliterated, leaving the viewer as participant inside the picture, with his own codes and connections,” Bourel explains. “The image then carries the weight of a personal reality.”

Bourel describes his process as finding pictures and photographs that spark inspiration. He’s drawn to pictures that “evoke a fake history or inspire nostalgia for a period in time that never truly existed.”

“A piece often becomes about the search and desire to combine those emergent narrative symbols that seem charged with a familiar yet distant emotion,” Bourel says. "

This artist deals with ideas of layers; the different layers to people and not just what we see on the surface. The portraits I have looked at seem to show different sides of people and look deeper into their personalities, this is something I'd love to create in my work.