Daniel Lee, 'Manimals'

 

"The ancient Chinese zodiac is comprised of a cycle of twelve animal signs associated with birth years. They are: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Cock, Dog and Boar.

A person is believed to exhibit behavioral and personality traits, sometimes even physical characteristics, relative to the animal year during which he or she was born.

In the twelve portraits of the "Manimals" series, the artist Daniel Lee interprets the Chinese zodiac in contemporary terms through computer manipulation of photographic images. Each portrait represents the animal sign of that person. The "Manimals" series is composed of twelve 24"X30" Ektacolor prints. The original images were photographed with Ektachrome in medium format camera, then converted digitally and rearranged on a Macintosh computer, using Adobe Photoshop software."

 

Daniel Lee (1993) Manimals. [online] Available from:http://www.daniellee.com/Manimal.htm [Accessed: January 10th 2015]

 

I thought this artwork was really interesting; traditionally when combining human an animalistic features, the designer will use the texturural qualities of the animal, like feathers for a bird. But here, Daniel Lee has simply morphed the human face to take on a more animalistic facial structure. It's odd when looking at them because some look very familiar but you can't quite distinguish what animal theyre supposed to be, but theres that sense of recognition. I think it illustrates really well the importance of minute facial alterations and how they impact design. For example, most people would consider a horse and a goat to look quite similar, but when you look at the two designed through human features you can distinguish the differences between the two quite clearly. It's made me consider a totally different approach to hybrids, although I doubt all of these designs would be feasable in makeup, I would consider planning a makeup to create a similar effect.