Turning Dad's Old Cassettes Into Art for the Whisper Gallery I: Cassette Tape Dimensionals

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Firstly, I am so thankful to be a part of the Whisper Gallery I. This has been an incredible project to inspire and cultivate new art in a unique way. Thanks to @mrblinddraw for the invitation as well as all of the artists thus far whom have contributed: @upheaver @paolobeneforti @aksinya @voronenka @natureofbeing @artistchristian @juliakponsford @erb @adrianv @scuzzy @coloringiship @rachelsvparry @Yusaymon.

Inspiration from @yusaymon

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I have been contemplating ways to use music mediums to create art. After seeing @yusaymon's piece, it struck me to use something transparent. His painting has something that looks almost backlit and transparent to it. The browns and blues are also striking to me. I decided to create a piece using structural and color ideas from @yusaymon's piece. I also used the eye of my cat in the middle of the photo as an interpretive transition from the portrait and eye of the woman.

Source

Cassette Tape Dimensionsals

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I give you "Cassette Tape Dimensionals, 2018"

The Making Of

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Step by step, here's a visual guide to how I created this piece of art.

First, I searched for frames. This one came from Blick, and turns out to be ideal for the piece.

I took an old tape from my family (one they didn't want to keep anymore).

I removed the back of the frame as well as the placeholder art.

This cassette happens to be a disco cassette from my parents. For those of you who would like to take a listen to what was on this cassette, check out the video below!

It is a bit odd cutting up something that you know has a piece of art, culture, history, and meaning behind it. But this process is going to be fun nonetheless because I am creating something more modern. I like to think of it as an homage to cassettes.

I created the parallel lines along this matte and started taping them to the back of it.

Once I got them about half way diagonally across the piece, the hard part begins.

I didn't want to just layer the casette strips on eachother, I took the weaving approach. The tapes are very fragile and get little marks in them easily from being bent just from the slightest touch. This process was tedious.

More and more progress was beign made and the art started becoming almost 3D.

And, there we are! But wait, next came the photography.

I composited these two images to make the one background image at the top of this page. Taking that, I masked and blended a photo I took of my cat:

And, Voila! We have the final piece!

Thank you to everyone who checked this piece out. I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below! #whisper

Other images:

You can see the dimension of the tape over the white background.

You can see the contrast of the lines from the tape.