Task 2 - Mechanical Reproduction

www.owengildersleeve.com

For this task I will be looking at the portfolio of Owen Guildersleeve, a London based designer, illustrator and set maker working primarily in paper craft, his skills lying in hand crafted techniques and styles. There has been much recent recognition for his intricate, detailed work becoming this years ADC Young Guns 9 Winner, resulting in a prestigious client list, consisting of Rolex, Cadbury and The New York Times. Working in the media he does, a lot of his work is mass produced, among editorial articles, moving image and print; his prints are available for purchase. Relating back to Benjamin's theory of mass production, technological advancing has meant some hand crafted work can be digitalised to exist in a new technological media. This gives his work a far wider audience through his prints, Benjamin states through "Technical reproduction can put the copy of the original into situations which would be out of reach for the original itself" Walter Benjamin (1936). Owens work is extremely time consuming, with new technological advances, work which would take days can be produced in a less time constraining method of printing. This means his work can be pushed further than the limited environment and media and hand crafted piece could exist, with its digital form it can be printed onto a range media, for instance, clothing, canvas and textiles. It also makes it far more cost effective for Owen and his works. 


With this technological reproduction, the Marxist theory of superstructure and structure was effected.  The aura of the works are lost / unsee, its detached from its history,  "Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be ." Walter Benjamin (1936), within this essay Benjamin states the effect of mechanical reproduction as a compromise to the art work produced, the emotion, history, authenticity and uniqueness which can be behind a piece of original art work is lost in its immediate duplication "Detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition", this art work can be recontexualised as something new with reproduction. To counteract this, he explains how the printing process could be considered an art form of itself "it also had captured a place of its own among the artistic processes" Reproduction can too be changed and altered and become an art work in its own right, lines are blurred. Owen Guildersleeve has managed to do both, to produce prints of his work, but to retain its aura by selling the original crafted works, they are available to purchase at a price reflecting the intricacy and skill taken to produce such a piece.