Image transfer on MDF
19 x 29cm
March 2014
Thursday, 1 May 2014
Inertia - Drawing Statement
Initially, my drawing project began as an extension of my self-directed work; I intended to look at the female nude in the medium of pure drawing, I began with life-drawing and working from photographs, and intended to explore feminism through the female anatomy. However, I quickly found that I was lacking motivation and felt that I was struggling to work with the same subject in two completely different ways without getting confused and over-complicating my work.
I found during my critiques that it was very surreal watching people discuss my work - talking about my drawings and discussing the model's form and the attitude suggested by her body without actually realising that in many drawings I was the model. Around this time my emotions were very up and down and it really affected my motivation and the amount of work I was producing; I decided that I would use my theme of anonymity as a way to produce work about these feelings that would hopefully turn my demotivation into therapeutic and positive work.
I discovered the Broken Light Collective which is an art project that displays the work of photographers who suffer from mental, emotional and personality disorders, or are close to people with these conditions, as a form of therapy and encouragement for these artists to continue to have faith in themselves and take comfort in their work. I was so touched by this collective's ambition and I discovered one artist, Fleur Alston, who's work about her daughter's anxiety particularly moved me. I also discovered the painter Romy Campe, who paints distorted facial expressions in abstract, emotive colours and uses distressed mark-making patterns.
Once I turned my project around I really got into the work, and my motivation picked up again; interestingly I found that expressing my emotions in my work was exactly what I needed to get back to normality. My work is a mix of drawing, photography and image transfer, for my final outcome I chose to reproduce a photo as an image transfer, comprising of 16 A4 boards, I felt that the enormity of my piece would convey the overwhelming nature of my emotions at the time; the disjointed boards and distressed marks from the image transfer add to the feeling of despair and negative emotion. I feel that this has been one of my most successful projects, not only due to the actual work I produced, but due to the effect the work had on me personally.
I found during my critiques that it was very surreal watching people discuss my work - talking about my drawings and discussing the model's form and the attitude suggested by her body without actually realising that in many drawings I was the model. Around this time my emotions were very up and down and it really affected my motivation and the amount of work I was producing; I decided that I would use my theme of anonymity as a way to produce work about these feelings that would hopefully turn my demotivation into therapeutic and positive work.
I discovered the Broken Light Collective which is an art project that displays the work of photographers who suffer from mental, emotional and personality disorders, or are close to people with these conditions, as a form of therapy and encouragement for these artists to continue to have faith in themselves and take comfort in their work. I was so touched by this collective's ambition and I discovered one artist, Fleur Alston, who's work about her daughter's anxiety particularly moved me. I also discovered the painter Romy Campe, who paints distorted facial expressions in abstract, emotive colours and uses distressed mark-making patterns.
Once I turned my project around I really got into the work, and my motivation picked up again; interestingly I found that expressing my emotions in my work was exactly what I needed to get back to normality. My work is a mix of drawing, photography and image transfer, for my final outcome I chose to reproduce a photo as an image transfer, comprising of 16 A4 boards, I felt that the enormity of my piece would convey the overwhelming nature of my emotions at the time; the disjointed boards and distressed marks from the image transfer add to the feeling of despair and negative emotion. I feel that this has been one of my most successful projects, not only due to the actual work I produced, but due to the effect the work had on me personally.
Voyeurism - Self Directed Statement
The female nude has been the subject of innumerable works of art over the centuries, more frequently than not, from the point of view of a man. Art critic John Berger made a series of videos called "Ways of Seeing" in which he discusses the role of the female nude in classical paintings. Berger suggests that generally, the female nude is displayed as an object for the pleasure and possession of first, the artist and ultimately, the viewer. The female is usually posed, often unnaturally, to the audience's advantage; her gaze is directly at the viewer - telling him that she is his possession, there only for his pleasure. Berger argues that most of the motifs and compositions of classic female nudes support the desexualisation and degradation of women to the point where they are no more than objects and belongings.
I have always been passionate about gender equality and I decided to tackle the subject of female nudity in art, and attempt to find a way of portraying the female body that is empowering rather than misogynistic and objectifying. I was particularly inspired by the work of Nan Goldin, Marilyn Minter and Marlene Dumas, who frequently depict female sexuality and fetishes in a way that suggests sexuality is something to be embraced and is empowering for women, rather than unnatural behaviour that should be suppressed.
I began my project by researching iconic women and recreating classical work and contrasting it to contemporary-style portraits of women; but as I began to broaden my research and look at the work of feminist artists I decided that the most poignant way of portraying female equality was to depict women embracing their sexuality, in a way that suggests it is purely their self-discovery and not for the enjoyment of men. My work is predominantly photographic, early developmental work is a combination of photography, image transfer and found-image collage. I chose to work photographically because I feel it is my strongest, most expressive medium, and also suggestive of a more modern and developed time which is relevant to my theme. I really enjoyed this project, and was pleased with my final outcomes, my only wish is that I could have had more time to explore the subject as it is such an enormous and controversial issue, I have done my best to do it justice in this short amount of time.
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