Final statement and evaluation

My work focuses on the intermediate between the inside and the outside of the human body, my main emphasis being on the female body. Using materials which all link to the textures and aesthetic of skin, flesh and organs I create installation and manipulated photographs, which correlate with the body. My interest is within the fluidity of bodily materials and I explore how I can create images with the same fluid nature. The transformation from interior to exterior takes place in my work, where I play with materials produced by the body in new forms outside of it.

In this unit, I’ve focused on materials linking to the human body and how I put these materials through different processes to deform and manipulate them. My interests have revolved around the limits of the body, the female body in particular. I’ve researched into performance artists who push the boundaries of their own bodies, varying from Marina Abramovic and Carolee Schneeman to Gina Pane and Franko B. To get a better understanding of Franko B’s work I went and saw him perform his piece “Milk and Blood”, where he repeatedly punched a bag filled with milk whilst shouting out words relating to his past traumas. Reading texts such as Peggy Phelan’s ‘The Unmarked – the politics of performance art’ and Kathy O’Dell’s ‘Contract with the skin: Masochism, Performance art, and the 1970’s’ encouraged my interest in how the female body in particular is tested in performance art. My focus on the materials I’ve experimented has been influenced by artists such as Eva Hesse, with her use of latex as well as Pakui Hardware. I went to see the Pakui Hardware exhibition at Tender Pixel gallery, where the materials and structures of their installations are all visibly linked to the human body. A few other helpful exhibitions I’ve been to have been Sondra Perry’s ‘Typhoon coming on’ at the Serpentine gallery and Stine Deja’s and Marie Munk’s ‘Synthetic Seduction’ at Annka Kulty’s gallery.

Throughout this unit, I have taken a focus of the materials I use which is something I’ve thought about less in previous work. I’ve become very aware of the certain process I use in all my work, where I play with a material and then convert it into image form. I used this and linked it with my interest of the female body and worked with these subjects together to create images where the body has been distorted through multiple processes. I have also worked with my interest in performance artists and experimented with performance as a medium for the first time. I made a performance piece where I got a woman to wear a pair of latex shoes I’d made, and walk around for a length of time. I realised through this experimentation that I wasn’t happy with the theatrical feel in the performance and transferred this piece into photographic form, which I then used for my offsite show. I was challenged when working in the offsite show group as the space we decided to exhibit in wasn’t the right environment for what I was showing. I got a better idea from this of the type of exhibition space my work goes well in.

I intend on continuing to work with the female body, exploring bodily materials and how I can manipulate the body into new forms. I want to experiment with this through different mediums, perhaps through film. As I discovered I wasn’t too interested in performance due to the theatrical nature of my own work as well as the performance I’ve seen in galleries, film might be a good medium to play with in terms of viewing the body in different ways. Materiality has been something I’ve worked with more in this unit and I plan on focusing on it more in the next unit. I want to work with materials such as plaster, wax and latex again with the intentions of then using these materials in film.

photoshop process

comparisons

Yoni and Flo

tongue

perplex/glass against jelly? Jelly tongue? perplex against tongue close up

experimentation with the tongue image  – the problem I have is that with the photos where the jelly looks like tongue, I had no intentions to create a representation of any body parts and if I were to create a piece where the jelly was to be moulded in the shape of a tongue it would be too literal

 

Could I experiment with images of tongues – links back to the body – female body – inside and outside – saliva

repulsive but also sexual nature of the tongue – play with it being something on the inside yet also outside *saliva

look at some of the previous images I’ve taken and see if they correlate with the tongue

j tutorial

Fluid – the female intermediate of inside and outside

James Rosenquist

Camden arts centre – american female artist

Hannah collins – large photos

Spoke about what I’m currently working on – my focus on the process of the materials I’m working with – how I feel a bit out of place with how I’m focusing on the materiality and playing with the image compared to the work being linked to my personal interests such as the female body (as it often has been)

Relating to this we spoke about how much current work does link to my interests and in particular femininity. We talked about how the materials I tend to work with appear feminine with the materials being liquid based/fluid/visceral. In a way I agree (maybe because my main interest is the female body so there are always going to be these links within my work) but I also questioned the problem of defining a material as feminine and what gives it these characteristics? Is it the stereotypical view of masculine materials being hard, solid, dark, concrete like materials compared to feminine materials being more flexible, liquid and flesh coloured?

The materials I enjoy working with are often wet materials which can be used in a covering/moulding/coating form and I tend to work with these in colours linking to the body and flesh. I have a fascination with the visceral and materials which can be played with and moulded or deformed into bodily like shapes. I often manipulate images of a material so that its hardly visible as to what it previously was or is. Jeff mentioned in how some of the images of the jelly, it appeared to look like tongues and how its interesting to experiment with these materials (which relate so closely to the physicality of the body) in a way where they become bodily objects. I said about how the current piece Im working on, being the tube of red jelly, was something I chose to do due to the ‘womanly’/umbilical cord/fallopian tube feeling I get from it. I’m intrigued by the wetness of the materials and how this can be presented in both sculpture and photo form.

“intermediate of the inside and outside” was something we spoke about. The way in how the materials Ive been using have the similarities to materials produced from the body such as saliva and how this can be played with in how I present my work. I could look at materials such as saliva and how its a product produced in the body yet it is constantly both inside and out (when speaking for example). Could I produce an image of a material that is on both the inside and outside in a literal form? For example make an image of a material which is then also coated in the same material?

• experiment with the gelatine images which I’m drawn too and coat the photos in a layer of gelatine