Degree Project: Digital Sketchbook

After reflecting on this 1-1 with Gary yesterday 29/04/21, I have thought about how the work changes its reception slightly based on the audience. This is something Jane and my peers have mentioned previously in my exhibition proposal feedback, it depends who is receiving the art work. Gary as a man, began to see the artwork as very violent/aggressive/abusive and seemed to stick to this idea of male violence upon women. I don’t visual the art work as ‘violent’ or ‘abusive’ and violent has been a word I have questioned previously but I wouldn’t use to describe my work. There is the slight aggression with the chewing as this was my aim to make it uncomfortable and to get across my thoughts upon male control of women and their bodies e.g. objectification. This led me to think about how other men and women would view this art work as they’re both two completely different perspectives, men focus on the male mouth began destructive and women focus on the object representing a women being consumed? Is violence constructed by the male gaze? This area of ‘violence’ is an area I only want to acknowledge and not act on but it was interesting/important to hear. See film below which stirred ideas of acknowledging male and female audiences.

Reflection 20/05/21: I now see this comment from Gary differently and after my formative assessment feedback and now my group crit 19/05/21, Srin mentioned the same tone of violence within Moving in and around To Bite B&W Repeat in the studio. Srin as a man said it was challenging to watch, to see the males mouth consuming the breast. It has been discussed that there is a different perception based n who views it but Srin mentioned who’s gaze is it present in the film as the focus of it shifts throughout the film. I liked this outlook as he began to see the female POV of the dominance and consumption while the breast was sat in the mouth but then saw the male gazes’ view when he breasts was being chewed. This is what makes the work compelling to watch. However !!! Kieran said it is still disturbing but as he has seen it a few times it’s almost become normalised, this I repeated in the repetition of the film too.

Reflection 10/05/21: After my formative assessment feedback, Jane highlighted that there’s this change in position of male and female, there’s two sides to viewing To Bite B&W Repeat as I slightly discussed above. It’s possible men put themselves in the position of the male, hence why Gary saw the destruction, violence and aggression towards the breast and women who have viewed my work see the consumption and male control present. Jane mentioned it was importune to mentioned this recognition and from this I thought the representation of women through pornography may be emphasising this impact upon women. 

Reflection 26/05/21: I contracted Catinca and upon feedback it was expressed there is clear female consumption – this was interesting to see the comparison of male/female. The Sweet Number by Valie Export was mentioned where Export unboxes chocolates and eaten them seductively – may be interesting to explore different testing techniques like in Eating/The Other.

Reflection 30/04/21: This film above has been very influential into the way my work could be received it begin to invite people to visual them being in the space. Becomes more about the work, but the space, the audience the looking at someone, looking at the work. Becomes a chain of voyeurism in its own way of performance.

See below my notes from this 1-1 (they’re very messy).

Me and Gary also discussed that there is a lot of control over women’s behaviour today, even though everyone believes there isn’t. This relates to my L5 film Be A Lady, using the poem Be A Lady, They Said (quoted by Camille Rainville) – exploring the ways in which everything is contradicted. People have become complacent to it, pretending female control/observation doesn’t exist. Within my works Gary mentioned it’s as though you’re forced to watch this loop to understand this is what women have to put up with, continually. I liked this idea because the control even involves this way of films reducing women down to an object and portraying them as a helpful women who needs to be saved by love. Pornography shows women being an object the male uses for pleasure, there’s this focus upon women and their bodies in pornography that is used to attract the male gaze, yet continues this never ending cycle women can’t escape due to the male gazes’ control.

Reflection 30/04/21: From this I aim to email out some of my films of my projections of Sweet Tooth B&W projected to both men and women and to see what kind of answers I receive. I’m interested to see if there is a two sided perception based off of gender.

However, from this 1-1 with Gary I liked the focus on the repetition and in reference to Andy Warhol and his print Marilyn Diptych, see below, “the work was a commentary on the relation between Monroe’s life and death” (MasterWorksFineArt, n.d.).”By creating repetitive imagery, Warhol evokes her ubiquitous celebrity status.” (MasterWorksFineArt, n.d.). “The use of two contrasting canvases for Marilyn Diptych illustrates the contrast between the public life of the star, who at the time was one of the most famous women alive, and her private self.” (Tate, 2021). One thing I have learnt is the exaggeration of the repetition usually either normalises or desensitises the work to the viewer, but, in my case with my work with Gary it made it more impactful and some what more violent. As said previously, from my peers and group crits, they have all mentioned it becomes sickly sweet, almost too much to watch which was the initial aim for this work. Gary mentioned it’s compelling, and it shares this simulairity to repetition here with Warhol in a different way, his repetition makes it less impactful where as mine becomes worse – you can’t help but watch and the more you watch the more ‘relentless’ it gets, as Matt mentioned previously.

Reflection 04/05/21: It may be worth printing out film stills and placing them in a similar format to Warhol and seeing how To Bite B&W Repeat looks up on a wall in print, repeated instead of a moving film on a wall.

Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych, 1962.

In response to the installation/filming – Gary said the angles works well and is becoming very thorough the moving around as well as the station films. It was also mentioned that the film of me watching brought a new element to the documentation/installation. Gives another scope, especially visual people in the space. Could I film more angles of me watching? Side profile view?

• Men and women viewing the work – how would it feel watching a man watch a man eat an icing breast?
• Would age change the way the film is seen?

Reflection 26/04/21: As said in my exhibition proposal with my class, they said this use of one art work being explored in a number of ways shows good exploration. This is because I have discovered what works well throughout L6.

Reflection 04/05/21: Whereas Gary said it may be worth playing with some of my other films e.g. coloured, in similar ways?

We discussed artists such as Rosie Gibbens and Ana Mendieta, while using Elephant Magazine to find currently female artists who explore similar issues to me, with regards to how they do so.

On the 28/04/21 I wanted to finalise one of my prints for the printing workshop. As discussed with Srin last week, it was thought to include more of the black to frame the work. We spoke of censorship that comes with these ideas for print, see digital image below. Censored images means “to review something and to choose to remove or hide parts of it that are considered unacceptable” (Vocabulary, n.d.). As I discussed within my dissertation this year, “Censorship increases paranoia and curiosity. Censorship of images occurs when something is too sexual or disturbing; social media will censor it, warning the viewers before they see. The censored sign draws attention and due to the intensity of social media it develops us to have an overactive paranoia. It gives us a fear of missing out for example, if an individual’s account is private, we request to see what is hidden.” (Lockwood, 2021, p 22).

Barbara Kruger was a name mentioned in relation to text and bold block imagery of framing the print. I also thought of Kruger of her art being confrontational and bold in relation to the message and meaning, see below Untitled (Your Body Is A Battleground). As I have research Kruger for my dissertation I have an idea fog the way she work, using text to create a relationship to the image and text, to draw attention to the meaning and what she is trying to say. “Her works examine stereotypes and the behaviors of consumerism with text layered over mass-media images” (art net, n.d.). Kruger also uses red, white and black to captivate the audiences eye with bold text. “Personal pronouns like “you” and “I” are staples of Kruger’s practice, bringing the viewer into each piece. “Direct address has motored my work from the very beginning,” Kruger said” (The Broad, 2021), feels like a personal attack almost to follow the print/text. As said previously Craig Owen writes in The Discourse of Others, where Kruger is “making an equation … Between aesthetic reflection and the alienation of the gaze” (Owens, 1983, p184) and “is always gender specific” (Owens, 1983, p184).

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Your body is a battleground), 1989.

“Untitled (Your body is a battleground) was produced by Kruger for the Women’s March on Washington in support of reproductive freedom.” (The Broad, 2021) Within the art “the woman’s face, disembodied, split in positive and negative exposures, and obscured by text, marks a stark divide. This image is simultaneously art and protest” (The Broad, 2021), she’s voicing her opinion and emotion through art protest, the spilt image feels uneasy and unusual. It makes you double take at the visual/split image. This is something I am working with with my print – the black box above the prints face feels as though there’s a half you can’t see. Leaves the viewer to questions and wonder why. This again introduces these ideas of censor ship.

Within my prints I am using pink, brown paper and black, they all compliment each other as well as the black allows the striking eye catching element on top, centralising the print for the gaze, see below. The text I have used is very factual yet opinionated, like Kruger, its raw and direct as to the imagery women have to play to due to pornography representation of women. See below. The black box really does take the work even towards looking like Kruger’s which is “concerned with not action, but gesture” (Owens, 1983, p192) and does, every time play to “the evil eye” (Owens, 1983, p195) of the observer.

As I have decided on the paper – the glossy brown print paper – I printed the black layer on top of black onto the print it suggests these ideas of censorship, but instead of the object being blocked/covered/blurred of the sight of the viewer, the eyes of the man appears to be. See below. Showing the mouth in the males breast almost feels confrontational, like you’re forced to look at it. This is the same with my projections, projecting so large in the studio space has this forced approach to look and observe the film and the consumption. The print does this but there is this same seriousness about the print as there is with the film work which is B&W, it plays with no playful colour, very straight to the point.

Reflection 30/04/21: The use of block shapes above the face reminded me of Naomi Uman’s Removed as I reflected, blocking out the women to be left as an object, instead, I am doing the reverse here.

It was really hard to align the layers – I eventually got it but there is a lot of prints that are slightly out of line like this below. The shine on the paper as well was through the colours is great, it adds the glamorised visual of a magazine type quality. I feel like the box/lines surrounding the image should be in line perfectly, not much more for error.

On the 21/04/21, we continued to work with our Riso prints. I had brought a range of colour/size paper to trial in the Riso, mainly pastel colours as the inks are so bold, they possibly need a soft paper behind – was something me and Srin spoke of, as well as composition and imagery. I really enjoyed the images with the text in the mouth, from Andrea Dworkin’s Pornography essay so I refined the drawings so they would sit neatly in the mouth. I think it worked well in relation to the context of image and allowed the text to not consume the main image. I decided to try the original still from To Bite, I really enjoyed this in my first printing session, it was much more clear as Sweet Tooth B&W was confusing, couldn’t see what it was. See initial digital layers I used to create a draft.

Reflection 26/04/21: The still from To Bite is very successful, it’s clear its a mouth and a beard. The definition that is picked up from the pink ink almost exploits the beard, male dominance, in a grotesque way. Very defined and unsettling especially filling an A3 piece of paper.

I aim to try the first lay (text) above in yellow and remain the main image as pink. I think with an image like this and text, it doesn’t need much else, would become confusing to have more layers. We discussed sizes of paper – I think A3 works best as these works below are all A4 and I’m unsure if I like them, they feel quite compact. See images below, the colours paper works well, slightly changes the colour of the ink depending on the colour paper. The yellow text also seems to get lost on the coloured paper, is this something I want? Almost something which surprised me was the paper almost made the colours so unusual in person they made you feel dizzy and hurt your eyes.

Reflection 26/04/21: The black text on brown paper cancels this out, it almost acts as a focus point to the print and the paper helps soften the colours.

Reflection 26/04/21: I really wanted the yellow to work but it lost the ability to read the text. Yellow maybe more successful as a black background colour? Or not use it at all? I’m unsure.

Srin mentioned black would be more striking and works well with pink, I really inked the boldness of the blue previously so I decided to use black. In comparison like the image above, the back text prints stand out much more than the yellow in the pile. It invites the reader to then read the text rather than pass it by as words they can’t see. I stuck with this and began to print on brown paper which I did really enjoy with the first image and session, see below. Alongside this, me and Srin spoke about the orientation of the page – I hadn’t considered this much so I printed on the middle of page, portrait. They seem much more finalised being larger – the black text in the middle of the mouth also centralises the image, this was the composition to work with.

Reflection 22/04/21: Me and Srin discussed it maybe worth lining the box of the print with black to centralise/contain the image. It feels slightly unfinished due to the face coming off the page. We also discussed a black box above the face where the eyes would sit, making the print portrait – almost suggests these ideas of censorship of which I discussed in this practice and my dissertation – Ideas of wanting to look but you can’t, entice people in. Lack of identity. I aim to try this when I next print.

Reflection 23/04/21: Jane mentioned there was this Barbra Kruger type quality to these prints, the bold text with an impactful image almost forcing the viewers to read/listen.

Reflection 23/04/21: After my 1-1 with Jane today, we discussed how I would feel if I used text with my film. Jane mentioned it’s become successful in prints and may work to use text within my projections/films – m ay add that extra depth. Jane also asked how I feel about colours again after using print – I’m going to work and combining both black and white with some colour to draw the eye in – like these most recent prints.

After all this experimentation, I prefer the sand/brown paper with a portrait composition. The warm tone of the paper warms up the pink print – on white I felt it looked very bold and almost florescent which is too much in previously prints. The brown paper above that has a slight glow/shine to it, it it adds this glamorised feel to the print, this may be the paper I go with for the final print. Reflection 26/04/21: Glamorising the act, the text and the representation of women today, a new form of cellophane.

The progress of my exhibition proposal has been going well, I have continued the exploration of using the studio at uni further this week by working larger and also by involving actual cellophane more into the space, like the digital collage I created below, rather than through the imagery.

Reflection 23/04/21: From my 1-1 with Jane, the use of colour in my Riso prints could be reflected in this exhibition proposal. In my print Is use balks text to draw the viewers eye into the work, where as here I could use colour mixed with the black and white film, to draw the audiences attention into the film/space. And possibly text? May become rather like Barbara Kruger’s work – confrontational and forceful.

19/04/21 I went into uni to sit and work in the space with daisy chaining the projectors again as it feels most successful – the mirrored image of the breast in the males mouth suggests a pair of breasts or eyes. Relates to the gaze. From my 1-1’s with Matt and Gary I learnt that film may work best in response to documenting this kind of installation so I wanted to explore this. See film below, I wanted to show the scale of the projections if people were allowed to sit and be in the space as part of the documentation process. The projection becomes quite daunting and even more aggressive when you’re so close to it like I was – a lot to take in. There also becomes this relationship to the artist and the artwork again, like Martha Rosler in Semiotics of the Kitchen, even though I am not making/doing anything, it’s the simple act fo the gaze/looking that adds to this film of the projection. Artist and artwork is something I have commented on within my practice.

Reflection 10/05/21: Upon reflection of my formative assessment, Hal Foster says in Obscene, Abject, Traumatic that “Sometimes the screen seems so torn that the object-gaze not only invades the subject-as-picture but overwhelms it.” (Foster, 1996, p113). I feel this appears this way in the film below. Discomfort and the overwhelming feeling of the act as well as the size of the projection, becomes too much for the gaze.

Reflection 26/04/21: From my 1-1 with Jane on the 23/04/21, we discussed how the use of the film above gives a good idea of the space/scale and visual of how people may perceive this work if they could in normal situations. It’s with creating a film where I am continually observing the film, rather than making notes. Gives a better perspective of gazing deeply at a grotesque thing.

Reflection 30/04/21: after my 1-1 with Gary also, we discussed how the film above may be more than a documentation piece, it could be part of the exhibition, there becomes more than watching a film of the installation, it becomes about watching the person watching the work in the space and how they respond.

I decided to record for longer between filming, it gives a better idea of the loop I have chosen to play for this endless exhibition, like Nauman, using a seamless and never ending appearance to his film Poke in the eye/ear/nose. I thought about different placements of the camera/angles of how the film could be perceived. From my group crit 24/03/21, my peers said they like the view up to the film Sweet Tooth B&W. As me and Catinca discussed, the camera becomes the audiences eye and I aim o continue to use the camera in this respects to suggest this feeling of a cinema, where you are lower looking up to watch female representation/sexualisation.

See film above, I shot this to get a feel for the space/walls and the angle suggests the way you try to look but you may not want to. It encourages this ideas of the grotesque/disgust of a female intimate area being physically consumed. “She is isolated, glamorous, on display, sexualised” (Mulvey, 1973, p). “Mainstream film coded the erotic into the language of the dominant patriarchal order” (Mulvey, 1973, p59).

Yet with the film above, it feels intrusive and unapologetic. This is what I want when it comes to the exhibition proposal, I think the studio space works so well with the type of projection – I will need the space to be darker but this can be sorted. There is a good development from my initial drawings etc. Reflection 26/04/21: Regarding my 1-1 with Jane 23/04/21, it was mentioned that the film may worked well if it is projected onto two separate walls – the audience will have to look at both continually to see if they miss anything out e.g. will suggests it’s out of sync.

On the 21/04/21 I brought cellophane into the studio. As my original idea in my digital drawings was to create a space with cellophane draped etc, I felt I needed to try it and as me and Gary mentioned in my 1-1 15/04/21, to not over complicate it, the work doesn’t need it. But I think these also work well in relation to bring the film/experience to the environment, like Are You Watching? and CUBED. I think there is more of a relation to CUBED here as CUBED was more interactive int he sense you could physically go into the space, where as Are You Watching? was very intimate/personal as it was my home, and the camera did the looking/viewing for the audience. There are ideas of pornography and may always will be but it is important to note that pornography acts as the cinema, where it creates a situation/context to normalise it. The use of the large projections, creating a double suggests this warped version of the cinema/representation of women and the visual of sexual objectification you don’t often see at the cinema, but do in pornography, they of course glamorise it too.

Reflection 29/04/21: my 1-1 with Gary today made me consider more about the audience, Gary as a man, saw the work as male violence towards women, my peers see it more as consumption and male control over the women – this is where I also see it. I don’t see violence. I think that word is too strong for the work to be considered ‘violent’, but it slightly aggressive as the male chews. I need to consider the ways both men and women will view this work. Do I want this drastic perspective? Will men and women always see differently depending on society and experiences?

I really enjoy the low angles, giving a glimpse of the cellophane helps picture what it is – they continue the thoughts of the peering gaze/looking at something you shouldn’t which have all been comments made my peers and tutors throughout documenting this work, especially in group crit 24/03/21.

I think it might be interesting to have a movement film, like from Are You Watching? and the last film above for the exhibition proposal. Or does the focus only need to be on the film/placement? It will allow the viewers to see more of the space and the sparkle from the projector onto the cellophane. Creates a more in-depth perception of the cellophane as this glorifying material, covering, but not covering, up the action happening behind. In the image below, I edited it to appear similar to Sweet Box where I installed carpet into the cardboard box to have a visual of a soft but destructive experience. I tried to bring this back into the still and I think it’s something I am going to have to experiment with – actual carpet or digital manipulation? Is it needed? It think the darker floor creates a more cinematic space.

Reflection 26/04/21: After my 1-1 with Jane 23/04/21, it was mentioned that a movement of the space works well in relation to see more of it. As no one can visit, it is good to create videos like this for the audience online can envision as much of the space/exhibition/work as they can. it’s interesting because it’s all through the artists eye, which normally it is the audience control to see what they want to see.

After discussing my first prints for the Riso with Srin last week, I wanted to get more hands on e.g. think about layering, the formation of colours and possibly text. I created these stencils with no bitmap to play around with the appearance of photos from the Riso, currently I am considering pornography within my practice, Andrea Dworkin’s text struck me as quite aggressive and angry, similarly to my still/films of Sweet Tooth B&W. I wanted to work with text within print and decided to play around with Dworkin’s text from “Pornography: Men Possessing Women”. Me and Srin spoke of placement within the image, I had thoughts of replacing the breast in the mouth with a section of text from Dworkin’s passage to combine these ideas, as well as experimenting with movement of the text around the page. See stencils below.

Reflection 30/04/21: This has been working really well – text and imagery. The boldness, instead of coloured text I have decided to go with black. It more readable and acknowledges the thoughts among the print.

See simple mock ups below of how I wish the print to look as an outcome. The text may add depth to the image and capture the viewers attention for longer.

Reflection 19/04/21: As I printed these I realised how unrecognisable the main layer of Sweet Tooth B&W is. I feel you can see the breast if you know what to look for, this is a similar issue I was having from my 1-1 with Gary 15/04/21, there can be a line where you play with the image too much it looses its identity. I may have to use To Bite imagery instead, one which hasn’t been over layered with cellophane.

Andy Warhol is known for his screen prints, especially the one of Marilyn Monroe. He uses the coloured ink to highlight the important parts/well known parts of Monroe – “her iconic lips are boldly colored a deep red” (Masterworks Fine Art Gallery, n.d.), “her platinum blonde hair by adding variants of yellow” (Masterworks Fine Art Gallery, n.d.), see below. This is what I have carried out within this experimentation of prints using pornographic text to embody the breast, of which represents a women to explore these ideas of sexual objectification through a print sense instead. The use of bold colour in Warhols prints suggest the vibrancy Monroe lived and this glamorisation of herself which came from the cinema and the male gaze.

Andy Warhol, Marilyn Monroe, 1967.

The use of paper within this experiment was very weak as I am yet to buy coloured card/paper – the white worked really well with vibrancy for the inks, I learnt I prefer the neon quality of the inks. Where as the brown paper dulls the actual ink, absorbing its boldness, especially the yellow, see below. Reflecting on the previous prints I did, I prefer the sand like colour – I think it was soft enough to act as a base colour for the print. Maybe my paper of choice for submission after more trials. I aim to try documenting these in situ of the studio too but the documentation of the colours work well in the sun. – Work with better placement.

Reflection 20/04/21: After reviewing these prints, I felt they looked flat, the image was lost – I have recently created some extra layers to add depth to the prints including – coloured paper, text, imagery (photo or bitmap, or both?) and then a digital drawing on top highlighting breast/mouth. I felt the mouth/breast was lost in these experiments and I want them to be the main focus.

I think pastel coloured paper may work really well with these prints. Like Warhol uses a background to work off, I feel a background colour, instead of a gradient, would give more depth and tonality to the image. I previously tried colour paper and it was very effective, giving the ink more of a base.

I really enjoyed the photographic look the print as well to these images. Before I just used bitmap for all layers, would be good to work with a mix of textures with the levels. I feel I could use a bitmap layer as the final finisher on top instead to add depth and they feel quite flat without a gradient.

I firstly experimented with blue and pink – I felt like the blue text dominated the image while experimenting with a number of lay outs, the main focus of the print and felt quite dark see below. I didn’t like this however, I feel yellow and pink work best in relation to layering and soft-ness as well as the ideas that come with women’s representation in pornography. I feel the ‘pretty colours’ relate to the glamorisation of destruction in the image – cellophane glamorising the breast being eaten. ‘Pretty colours’ act as a new form of cellophane.

Reflection 20/04/21: I felt the blue was too bold/contrasting for the text – I aim to trial black as an over lay (digital drawing) to redefine the mouth and use the paler colour (yellow) for the text so it doesn’t draw too much attention away from the main imagery.

The side format of the type is interesting blue – this would work well if the photo was more recognisable – the blue text isn’t as distracting. But layered completely over the breast isn’t appealing, I feel the yellow is less distracting but works quietly with the context of the photo as well as being visually pleasing considering the image.

I also combined some life drawings with text and photography, this was to experiment with how drawing would come out like – I liked them but I wasn’t sure they worked with so much already going on. I threw them off centre.

I am having a crit like session 21/04/21 to assess these images/context/paper and colours to get feedback with how to approach the next lot of prints.