Serving up Cake by the Seaside

About Vertigo Artography

Vertigo Artography is an artistic project by Mohanad Shuraideh, a creative director and visual artist based in Christchurch, New Zealand. His background in design and advertising informs his work with Vertigo Artography, repurposing… Read more

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Vertigo Artography is an artistic project by Mohanad Shuraideh, a creative director and visual artist based in Christchurch, New Zealand.

His background in design and advertising informs his work with Vertigo Artography, repurposing vintage posters and 1950s lifestyle magazines into surreal, satirical new artworks.
Seamlessly blending collage, digital art and photography, Vertigo Artography combines the retro with the cutting-edge, creating unique images that are at once referential and highly original.

Shuraideh is influenced by Surrealism, and especially Dada, the early 20th-Century European art movement that used absurdity to criticize the emerging post-war capitalist society. Embracing this Dadaistic blurring of humor and pathos, the works, even at their most light-hearted, are built on a deeply perceptive foundation. Fun, playful, kitschy, yet always though-provoking, his art celebrates and reflects Pop art in its reinterpretations of consumerist imagery and space-age stylings. This style lends his works a global appeal, enhanced by a focus on universal themes of sustainability, environmentalism and social issues.

VITA

Vertigo Artography is a contemporary art project by Mohanad Shuraideh, an award-winning creative director and visual artist. Originally from Jordan, Shuraideh lives and works in Christchurch, New Zealand. Vertigo Artography draws on his own background in advertising and design as an outlet for his creative ideas. The project has received widespread acclaim and popularity, gaining over 58,000 Instagram followers in under 3 years.

INTERVIEW

What was your first encounter with art and what made you want to become an artist?
During my earlier work as an art director my artistic style included a lot of photography that I incorporated in visual illustrations and layouts. The creative process itself has an appealing artistry that has always fascinated me where I was always experimenting and introducing different designs, textures and mixed mediums on analogue and digital illustration. This is when I got hooked on collage art as an independent form of expression, including my own original photography, it took me to a different level.
 
How would you describe your work in three words?
Thought Provoking, Sinister or Dark with a humorous Twist.
 
What does your artistic process look like, from brainstorming to the finished work?
Coming from an advertising background, I am constantly experimenting with new methodologies to better express my ideas and give form to my inspiration. I get my ideas from everyday life, people’s behaviour, general social influences and social sustainability. Depending on the idea I approach my collage either with an analogue or digital base, or both that I expand on, until I reach the final piece.
 
What vision stands behind your work?
Pushing the boundaries of visual representation to evoke a powerful and unsettling experience in the viewer. Embracing inspiration and exploring the complex relationship between perception, emotion and artistic expression.