Doing research on my project recently I came across this video, Real Dove Beauty Sketches is a short film made as part as a marketing campaign. The video shows several women describe themselves to a forensic sketch artist, who cannot see them. the same women are then described by strangers who they had met briefly. the sketches produced from their own descriptions are visibly less flattering and inaccurate when compared to those the stranger had described. I personally find it quite remarkable the difference between how you see yourself and how you are viewed by others.
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I love immersing myself in the creative process. I feel art can open up people’s minds to new ideas, providing the chance to create something beautiful that affects everyday people, to make them look around and inspire them.
My work has spanned over various themes, media and techniques. For a long time I have been interested in mixed media artwork. I have worked with textiles, paint, drawing, photography and metals. After a recent workshop on aluminium casting I became immersed in the casting process and I’ve thoroughly loved the process of the sandcasting and the final outcome. Something that really interests me is the idea of the everyday person. As with many people I love people watching, it intrigues me to what the person is doing, how they came to be here and what their story is how they came to be at that exact spot in that exact moment in time. Livia Marin is a Chilean born, London based artist who has a fascination with everyday objects, and by collecting symmetric or abstract objects she combines them until they are no longer identifiable as objects. Her work encompasses large scale installations and mass produced consumer objects. Her work flirts with already existing objects. Marin looks for identity between objects that look the same and a sense of repetition. By collecting things when they are in their afterlife she looks at how do we relate to an object once it is broken, the care and loss of an object. By using techniques and strategies that are usually associated with sculpture and installation to explore the nature of how we relate to material objects.
‘Nomad Patterns’ is a collection of pieces consisting of ceramic: cups vases and teapots that appear to melt into puddles and yet manage to retain their original pattern. Despite the process the elaborate pattern stayed intact. The artist explains that the objects appear to be presented somehow indeterminately between something that is about to collapse or has just been restored; between things that have been invested with the attention of care but also have the appearance of a ruin. By giving new life to the objects Marin magnifies their importance. Breathing new life into her ceramics. The eye is drawn the sharp breaks in the objects that is softened by the aesthetically pleasing smooth ‘melted’ sides. The harsh cracks in the delicate china is contrasting. China has great connotations to wealth and class. China is often used as a decoration only brought out on special occasions. The idea of shattering the china or distorting them could be considered shocking. Her work is displayed in blank white spaces allowing the work to speak for itself. Almost linking to its origins of being a token of wealth. Who decides what is beautiful?Rokeby Venus100 years ago the Rokeby Venus painted by Diego Velázquez was attacked as it hung in the National Gallery. The painting acquired least five slashes with a meat chopper. The person to be responsible, Mary Richardson, a suffragette, was protesting against the arrest of Emmeline Pankhurst. she tried to destroy the painting because the subject of the painting was said to be the most beautiful woman in history in protest to the government for destroying the most beautiful creature in history, Mary Pankhurst. Within the painting an unknown model reclines on a bed with her back to the painter. Many say it is one of the most erotically charged images of that age. She is known as the paradigm of female beauty. The layers of paint make it seem like the painter is touching her. The Cupid's mirror gives the viewer a sense that she is looking back at them. The idea is that "what you can't quite have and what you don't quite know about" and thus far more desirable. Some say the face appears much older than her body, suggesting it’s a warning about beauty being transient, nothing lasts forever. The painting has since been restored to its former splendour however the history still lives on beneath its surface. The Incredulity of Saint ThomasThe incredulity of Saint Thomas was painted in 1602, According to the New Testament Gospel of Saint John after his Resurrection Christ appeared to the disciples and showed them his wounds. At the time St Thomas was absent and when they told him that they had seen the Lord he would not believe them and said: 'Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe' (John 20: 19-27). After Thomas had placed his hand himself on the wound in Christ’s side he was finally convinced the Christ had risen from the dead. The painting carefully unites the four heads as they seek for the truth. The Light streams into the image from the left hand side bathing Jesus in light and his white skin and robes also make his stand out. Thomas position in the canvas is reinforced by his red clothing and the light shining on it.The painting was painted about doubt, Art seems to be a philosophical matter. Caravaggio Tries to tell us about how hard it is to understand peoples experiences in their body unless you have felt it yourself. Hans BellmerBellmer’s first Doll was a construction of wood, plaster, metal rods, nuts and bolts representing a young girl. A disturbing sculpture, it embodied a number of qualities of the surrealist object: subversive and erotic, sadistic and fetishist. Bellmer completed a second doll sculpture and photographed it in different stages of dismemberment in various different scenarios, often showing the doll wearing little white socks and the black patent leather shoes of young girls. The second version of the Doll had no arms or legs, and was photographed hanging from a tree. The photograph is taken from below in a way that emphasises the doll’s breasts and genitals, while her face is partially obscured. Bellmer presents us with the shocking image of torture or abuse. The pale hues of yellow and green give a theatrical presence, reminding the viewer that the image is a presentation rather than an act of sadism. The Doll sculptures and photographs Bellmer assumed and undermined the idea of the child’s toy. They explored his fascination for the exploitation of innocence and self-destructive sadistic impulse. Mark Hogancamp
Francesca WoodmanAmerican photographer Francesca Woodman began taking photographs at the age of thirteen, her work exhibits mature influences, from symbolism and surrealism to fashion photography and Baroque painting. They have a timeless quality that is ghostly and exclusive. Her photographs explore the self and questions gender, looking at the representation of the body in relation to its surroundings. Within Her vast collection of photography she often puts herself in the frame, often patially hidden or concealed using slow exposures that give the illusion of a ghostly figure. The photographs are intimate and vulnerable. She often portrays herself in deserted empty spaces, her body can be seen to merge with its surrounding, concealed by wallpaper, hidden by a door or crouching over a mirror. She combines performance, play and self-exposure. By concealing her subjects she reminds the viewer that photographs flatten and distort and therefore never displays the whole truth. Sadly, she was only twenty two when she took her own life, she left behind a substantial body of work. Her narrative images are vulnerable, which present a human approach to the way we see ourselves. Oreet Ashery is a London-based visual artist, who experiments with performance, objects, still and moving image, events, and writing. Her work is socially and politically engaged, Ashery exhibits, performs and screens her work in public spaces and situations often using participatory and interactive elements. She has exhibited her work extensively in places such as: Liverpool Biennial, Tate modern, Pompidou centre and the Freud Museum. Often Ashery will produce work as a a Male character, including characters such as an orthodox Jewish man, a black man, a Norwegian postman, a farmer, a false messiah and an Arab man. Her work is often complex however humorous and assessable. Ashery’s most recent work has investigated the culture of the avant-garde; created performances of freedom in the power of speech and collective actions. Ashery’s first solo exhibition in Denmark consists of Ashery exploring the potentials and dilemmas of liberation in a culture at odds with itself. Ashery created a participatory installation piece entitled The Space for Freedom is Getting Smaller and Less Transparent. The exhibition consists of a transparent walled structure that visitors are encouraged to enter and paint its translucent walls. As the walls become coated with paint the outside world becomes obscured. Every other week an additional transparent structure is built within the existing structures. The first structure (880cm x 665cm) permitted black, yellow, blue and red paints, however the second (660cm x 445cm) only black and white, before only white in the last structure (440cm x 225cm). Her work is socially commentating, accessible to everyone and comprehensible. This piece particularly gives a clear and concise view on our current society, is interactive and therefore has a more profound effect on the viewer, they can see the process of the outside being obscured and as a result the real world. Oreet Ashery, The Un/Clean (mermaid), 2014
sculpture, textile, paper, tape, metal, plaster installation view at waterside contemporary, photo: Jack Woodhouse ASH106 |
AuthorHannah Watson is currently a student at Sheffield Hallam University, studying towards a BA in Creative Art Practice Archives
May 2015
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