Experience, Create, Review, Repeat

Sketchbook Page

When looking at all the different styles and fonts used in neon signs for advertising all manner of things, it’s clear to see there’s no fixed rules.  Originally I felt there might be some kind of standardised style of text but that is definitely not the case.  Which leaves me to decide on what kind of font I want to develop for my sign.  Just looking at the examples of strip club signs in the last post, it seems that capital letters work well.  However, I like the idea of a more flowing script like in the example below.

Neon Sign Example Image

Available at: http://i.istockimg.com/file_thumbview_approve/27161018/3/stock-illustration-27161018-neon-sign-girls-icon.jpg

With this in mind, I’ve attempted to develop a kind of cursive writing style that I can adapt to the text to be included in my sign.  I feel it looks more enticing somehow.  More alluring, more feminine.

Notebook Page

As my research has been progressing for this idea, I’ve been tackling a feeling in my gut that perhaps this whole neon sign thing has been a bit done to death.  I’m torn between this and the fact that I feel the materials work perfectly for what I am trying to address in this piece of work.  I’ve finally come to the conclusion that, if anything, the fact that neon signs have been a bit done to death in contemporary art, adds strength to my point.  It correlates well with the fact that similarly, misogynistic attitudes like those echoed in the routines of Dapper Laughs and elsewhere in patriarchal society have also been completely over used and also ‘done to death’!

It’s all just a bit old hat!!

Selection of Neon Sign Examples

While researching The language idea that has sprung from the Dapper Laughs ‘comedy’ discussed in the last post, my thoughts moved towards sex advertising, strip clubs, neon signs flickering down dark alleys.

In my brain it all fits together so perfectly.

I was drawn back to the writing of Andrea Dworkin, whose feminist book Pornography, Men Possessing Women was one of the key research texts for my dissertation.  One particular line that she repeats quite a lot throughout the work is “She wants it, they all do”.  This references the idea that subconsciously, as a result of growing up within patriarchal social systems, men believe that women are ‘gagging for it’ the whole time and that should they refuse a man’s advances, they’re either deranged or a lesbian.

This phrase has been echoing in my thoughts constantly since these ideas have emerged and I feel I have to use it.  It also struck me how similar this phrasing is to the hashtag and motto used by Dapper Laughs: #SHEKNOWS.  I’ve taken his meaning to be something like ‘she knows she wants it’ which would fit perfectly with his ‘comedy’.

If I can figure out a way of making a neon sign within a student budget, I’d like to think this could end up being quite a powerful piece of work.  There are also lots of possibilities for placing the sign in different contexts and environments.  It could stand alone or work as a single element of a multi-dimensional installation work.

Next steps:

Research materials for use

Research font styles

In my earlier post Andrea Dworkin and Allen Jones I decided that language was one of the main areas of interest for me in the world of feminist theory, and one that I’d like to approach in my work.  I’ve been looking a lot at the way Sarah Lucas plays with language in her work.  For example, in Bitch she plays with common misogynistic references to women by portraying a woman as a beaten up old kitchen table with melons for breasts and a stinking kipper in place of a vagina.  This desire to use modern, abusive, masculine language in my work is becoming stronger and I’m noticing it much more around me on a daily basis.  I’m becoming more and more aware of how prevalent it really is in our society and how discomforting that is.

Dapper Laughs ‘Vines’ Compilation

Late last year I stumbled across the work of ‘comedian’ Daniel O’Reilly, better known as his character Dapper Laughs.  He rose to fame via his publication of six second videos called vines.  His popularity increased to a level of recognition that warranted him an entire series of programmes on ITV.

If you watch the video above, you get an idea of his style of ‘comedy’.

My initial thoughts when I saw his ‘comedy’ for the fast time was that he must be making some kind of statement on the ridiculousness of this type of banter language used against women specifically by particular types of ‘modern’ man.  In my blissful naivety I understood his routines as a cleverly ironic feminist comment.  Nope, the man is simply a chauvinistic, foul-mouthed idiot.

The more I watched and read, the worse it became and the more I felt I wanted to create something that could subvert his material and try to make a powerful comment against it.  Because of the quick, off the cuff nature of these short videos, when you watch them one after the other, after a time they become like white noise.  Similar to the background drone of ‘laddish’ shouts at football matches.

Depressing, infuriating, demoralising, harmful, degrading, sickly, offensive, thick.  All I could feel about it was just a torrent of negativity.

Perhaps influenced by my recent study of the work of Sarah Lucas, I was interested in the language used by O’Reilly.  One of the main focus points of my essay is the aggressive and abusive language used by men against women in an attempt to maintain patriarchal, masculine roles of power in society.  This is a perfectly packaged example of all of the worst parts of this concept.

I want to use his language somehow, create a bombardment of offensive masculinity to emphasise how damaging it can be for women as something which affects them in daily life.

– How can I find an impactful way of demonstrating my discontent with this ridiculous barrage of language?

Next steps:

Further research

Play with the language

Research contextual links with this language and other examples I’ve studied

Royal Academy Advertising Poster for Allen Jones 2014/15

I went into this exhibit of works spanning the career of Allen Jones with one main question, ‘is he a misogynistic pig??

I find I am still none the wiser.  It’s difficult to ignore the overt sexuality of the figures portrayed in both his paintings and his sculptural work but throughout all the literature about his work, you are encouraged to focus on ambiguity of sexuality and gender.  I’m not so sure.  while examining his large paintings and life-sized sculptural representations of women I can’t get away from the fact that he has almost entirely avoided displaying his women with any clothes on.  No, actually, to his credit they are fairly regularly clothed.  However, scantily and almost without exception, displaying the un-naturally pert buttocks and breasts with their monumental nipples and neat little vaginal ridges.  Men on the other hand are always clothed, often in business suits, I assume to demonstrate their superiority of station.

Perhaps I’m missing the point and I’d happily be corrected if I am but I’m afraid I don’t buy it.

Below is an idea I decided on as a take on the work Table, 1969 by Allen Jones.

Initially I had intended to start by setting the image against a very plain background in order to centralise the focus on the ‘table’.  I had in mind the possibility of going on to create an office-like setting as a progression of the idea, in order to emphasise the point in the Dworkin quote that, despite being in positions of power, in business for example, nothing has really changed in the ways that people view woman’s roles in society.  I wanted the emphasis to be on the fact that misogyny is still so ingrained in our society that it wouldn’t be surprising for people to be blasé about the idea of a woman (supposedly more powerful in this day and age) being reduced to an object of servitude.

Notebook Pages, Project Layout Ideas

Untitled, 2014
When reflecting on the success of this image, it feels somehow cluttered, too busy with too many things detracting from the main element that should be the table structure.  I am now wondering whether going back a step and experimenting with my initial idea of keeping the imagery very simple, might make for a more powerful end result.

Next steps:

Strip back the scene to perhaps a white background (whitespace)
Re-take the image in this plainer setting
Add in a sheepskin rug as used by Jones in his original sculpture.

Would the plain background and hence a clearer, simpler reference to Jones’s work give it more impact?