My coursework for the Coursera Warhol MOOC being run by Edinburgh University –
The Forth Rail Bridge as a Warhol pop icon.
Inspired by Warhol’s “The Brooklyn Bridge” (1983) and the 4 panel red, white and blue “Race Riot” (1964); I chose the iconic local image of Scotland’s Forth Rail Bridge combined with the Scottish St Andrews cross ( also known as the Saltire) and British Union Jack flags to comment on the upcoming Scottish independence referendum vote later this year.
The image of the bridge is a print from a black and white negative repeated four times on a silver gelatine paper sheet . The image was then scanned and digitally combined with colours and pattern selected from the two flags. Combining the traditional darkroom process with the ease of digital allowed many combinations to be considered and for additional smaller scale repeats to be used.
The bridge images were placed in a grid to follow the flag quadrants. Since both flags had a diagonal element the colours were split along this axis with single bridges in the upper left Saltire section for Scottish independence and sets of 4 bridges in the lower right Union Jack section to represent the current Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish union.
You can see everyone else’s efforts on their tumblr site – the variety is astounding!