COVERT & OBSCURED

Concealed

Distant

MysterySecret

Shadows

Hidden

Codes

Wrap

Mask

Camouflage

Protect

SymbolsRiddles

Fraudulent

Private

Ambiguous

Enigmatic

ComplicatedIllogicalIndecisive

Confusing

Abstruse

Incognito

Furtive

StealthySurreptitiousBuried

SHADOW Darkness

ObscurityCover

Protection

GloomShade

Shield

Screen

Suspicion

Ghost

Kumi Yamashita is a Japanese born shadow artist who currently lives in new york. Kumi Yamashita uses a lot of number templates to manipulate them into making a shadow. He doesn't use the usual body image as most would to create a shadow he lends on using he's own unique technique, by using figurative numbers but placed in such a way that it makes a surreal body image as a shadow when shone light upon it. Which is very clever and innovative to the eye. He explores the space his given to full advantage and although it looks as if some numbers are there for nothing maybe randomly placed they all play a significant part in achieving the final outcome.

CONCEALED Buried

ReconditeInconspicuous

Camouflaged

CoveredGuarded

Masked

Secreted

HiddenGhost

Shaun Barber is an artist who’s work focuses primarily on painting, portraiture, and documenting contemporary tattoo culture. Here Shaun decideds to design a portrait of a concealed like photo. Whereby the baby's eyes are hidden from view being blocked in front by what it seems as “blood hands” as if the meaning is to conceal the baby from events taking place. Shaun Barber doesn't give away to much in his pieces although he manipulates the space and colouring to his advantage he still emphasising more on the key word to conceal to reach his target audience hence the red hands covering the face. Why is it covered? What doesn't he want us to see? Where do these hands come from?

CAMOUFLAGE Cover-up

DisguiseVeil

Concealment

BlindGuarded

Cloak

Shroud

Dissimulation

False Appearance

Liu Bolin is a Chinese artist whose trademark is photographs featuring himself, painted to blend into his surroundings camouflaging to whatever necessary. In the piece above Liu is ingenious in his manipulation as he doesn't just camouflage he's whole appearance, he still keeps a sense of reality within he photographs leaving a piece of himself shown. Bolin's work is inspiring in the way of he's creativity whereby he's location is very informal and would be very visible to the watchful eye if he stood in any ordinary supermarket. He’s sheer desire to keep himself hidden from society is the main focus here, he blends in perfectly with the scenery almost as if he's part of the products on the shelf himself. I like the way he has positioned himself to flow with the background he's stationery position makes the piece more believable to imagine and I think it is inventive and intelligent in what he has done.

AMBIGUOUS Opaque

InconclusiveVague

Puzzling

DoubtfulQuestionable?

Dubious

Cryptic

Obscure

Unclear

This ambiguous piece is by Charles Gilbert who was a prominent American illustrator. He is remembered for his widely published drawing titled All Is Vanity as shown in the picture. The drawing employs a double image within itself creating a ambiguous sense of awareness in which the scene of a woman admiring herself in a mirror as first glance but then it seems when viewed from a distance it appears to be a human skull. How? Well Charles Gilbert published this piece to the finest detail in order for it to work, there is no meaning to the final piece it is up to the audience to make a decision on what it seems. What Charles does well is he creates doubt and unclear images in the viewers mind to create a unquestionable picture.

COMPLICATED Various

PuzzlingMixed

Puzzling

EntangledPerplexing

Difficult

Intricate

Problematic

Troublesome

Max Beckmann's painting "The Night” was once dubbed as the most complicated piece of art ever to be seen. He's mix of variety catches the eye of many people but still nobody quiet has an idea of what the portrait is actually saying. Although there seems to be a struggle happening in the middle, why is there a man seemingly coming out of a room? why is the girl tied in such a position? All these elements play into the puzzling perplexing piece shown making it difficult to seize up what the main focus is hence the reason I chose this to example “complicated”.

CODES Hidden

PuzzlingCipher

Secret

GamesWithin

Difficult

Tricky

Problematic

Ambiguous

Scott Blake is 27, originally from Tampa, Florida and currently living in Omaha. He’s work has become renowned for being fixated on those little black and white labels or codes to which he manipulates to make iconic figures out of. At first glance it may come across as a ordinary photo but with more insight it is then made clearer that tricky secrets hide from within. The use of bar codes and pixels gives a sense of 21st century to the piece adding variation to his magnificent work. Although Scott Blake is not trying to send a obvious message he just tries to tangle the ancient artist to himself today creating this problematic piece waiting to be ciphered.

MASKS Cover

Disguise Blind

Concealment

SimulationVisor

Facade

Pretense

Masquerade

False Appearance

Marcos Chaves was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1961 and began his artistic endeavours in the early 1980’s. The artist works in diverse media, openly moving between the production of objects, photographs, videos, drawings, words and sounds. Marcos Chaves created this concealment piece of a “laughing mask” whereby what it seems may not be true. Although it comes across as the laughing and smiling mood it bears a jokers smile in front of a figure face hiding the true emotions of how the person feels behind it. The mask is cleverly structured to fit in well with the mans facial features. He's eyes seem to give a away a different approach when viewing the picture as they look tender and gloom sort of as if he's forced to disguise this false appearance. Although this picture may not seem appealing it holds many questions beneath, Marcos is very clever in the way he manipulated the mask so that not all the face is covered but just the part he needs to emphasis on. The dark black structure background behind complement the picture on its way to being successful and ingenious.

Hidden Clouded

Secluded Esoteric

Unrevealed

Invisible Covert

Private

Latent

Mysterious

Inperceivable

German photographer Florian Imgrund acquired his first film camera in the summer of 2010 and has made incredibly good use of it since. All of his double exposure work is done completely in camera without the use of Photoshop, and often merges human forms with the natural landscape. He's imagination epitomizes the headline “covert and obscured” its not only clever but it has a sense of meaning towards it. In the example above the clouded image represents a figure overlaid on top of a city to seem as if there is a mysterious mission being planned on. Florian makes his images seem Inperceivable so that he's focal image is not the focus but he's still able to manage to fit in the background to complement the photo. The imagination to make himself seem as if he's invisible within the image is clever and I think maybe I can gain inspiration from his further images. The clear constant flow makes the image more believable to the eye. Overall it’s a flourishing image and would suit “covert and obscured” perfectly.