Kaleidoscope

With these images I was seeing what different effects I could create by using the same fragments of a face over different images then photocopy them to get a new image rather than gluing it together so it’s a permanent design.
I did these on my home photocopier and I’m not happy with the quality of these prints at all so I would like to try it again using the mfd printers at uni to see if I’m any happier with them then.
I do like the top image more, the bright, contrasting colours of the bottom layer of the image make it seem as though half the face is being seen through a heat camera or the like.

I’m now most of my way through the top floor of the dollshouse. The side that is completed looks great, I’m really pleased with it. One of my main feelings while I’m creating this is of my disagreement with how women are still represented in the media and the images that are portrayed about how we are supposed to look.
It’s also about the feeling of being judged not only for women in the medi but in everyday life, having people question what you wear, your size and many other aspects of appearance and never having been 100% confident of my own appearance and how people view me, this is a very personal piece of work.
Now I am going through all the changes that happen during pregnancy I feel like the eyes are on me even more, how much weight have you put on? Your boobs have got big, your bums sticking out and even things said as compliments can knock me. The people around me are very supportive and I’m well aware that media imagery is altered and what pressures they put on, but I still find myself conditioned to think I should be a certain way even if the other half of me screams ‘stop being so ridiculous!’
I saw a comedy tweet the other day about Princess Catherine with mock headlines from the major newspapers with three saying she’d given birth and one saying had she lost the baby weight yet. It made me laugh and also rang true with the attention the media puts on these issues and how even if people around you are putting no pressure on you whatsoever, in your own mind you can be the person applying the most pressure.

Just a couple of photographs of the progression I am making with collaging the interior of my dollshouse. It is very time consuming but it is looking more and more effective the more of it I complete.
I am finding it harder to do the actual cutting out of the eyes at the moment as I’ve been suffering from carpel tunnel so it’s taking even longer than it was previously but I’m persevering as I think it will be impressive in the long run.

These are two of my favourite face collages. The original images are from Vogue magazine and Hairstyles magazine, so the brighter coloured hair comes from the hairdressing one.
The images are bright and bold and have an immediate effect on the viewer, catching the eye and creating a whole image out of fragments of many others.

Cindy Sherman is an American artist who is best known for her photographic self portraits. Her black and white photographs are very simple and incredibly effective, using herself as the model, dressing up and changing her appearance so she was nearly unrecognisable.

The Bus Riders series was literally what it said it was, she created herself in the image of people she saw riding the bus everyday. I like her work because although it doesn’t reflect popular culture, it does mirror everyday life in such a direct way that it makes the ordinary look extraordinary. With an amazingly simple method of production, she creates work that has an immediate impact on the viewer that can resonate with anyone.

Sherman’s work is considered feminist and one of her series of images, Society Pictures 2008, in particular, was supposed to address the obsession with female youth and beauty in American society. Sherman herself doesn’t see herself as a feminist or see her work as it either but said “The work is what it is and hopefully it’s seen as feminist work, or feminist-advised work, but I’m not going to go around espousing theoretical bullshit about feminist stuff.” Her straight up approach and no nonsense talk reminds me a bit of my own opinions and viewpoints and also the fact that some of my work has been accidentally feminist.