Reflecting on my recent 1-1 Jane, we spoke about how the breasts represent pebbles due to the size/roundness of them. I wanted to take this idea further with develop how water distorts whatever is in it. I photographed the breasts through water orb to create a distorted appearance of the breast, a soft watery haze, see below.
Reflection 21/12/20: This work was another turning point for me, they weren’t as successful as I first thought they were (the message/portrayal), many different people said they suggest ideas of pregnancy and fertility instead of this distortion of social media. Having feedback that was the complete opposite to my meaning message, made me realise my work wasn’t coming across as clearly as I wanted to address.
Reflection 15/01/21: I have been creating projections of the form in the bath/running water where there’s this relation to the way women are presented/sexualised in Hollywood cinema through pools scenes. I learnt this within my dissertation research and that there’s this expectation that comes with the body when you’re observed so heavily, instead I am using water to emphasise/exaggerate the natural form.
The distortion plays with the concept of how social media distorts everyones perception on the natural female form. We are forced to see ‘idealised’ images of all women online. There has always been and may always be, the want for what we don’t have. Social media has enhanced this massively and has created pressure surrounding body image. It doesn’t bode well for young women and their mental health.
Reflection 14/04/21: This moment in time was difficult as I was trying to find a new path and create new work, I didn’t realise then that I didn’t need to make new work all the time as now I have learnt that it’s about exploration and trial, especially with Sweet Tooth B&W, there is a continued range of possibilities.
I wanted to distort the perception not the sculpture. See above. It plays with the idea of what you see in the image may or may not be real, like a false perception, like how social media works and the cinema. The haze around the breast is what was most successful in this series of images, refers to the ‘soft focus’ of women in page 3 of 70s; it’s known for a new image of a naked women daily. Sexualised. Social media has adapted the way we see and promotes the idealised over the natural. This is what I have looking at in chapter three of my dissertation and is something I am very passion about being a young women in the height of social media’s involvement in life which is becoming a scary other dimension. See films further below.
Reflection 15/04/21: I have mentioned this idea of a soft focus/page 3 rep of women throughout L6 and currently I am investigating the representation of pornography on women – Andrea Dworkin. It’s interesting to see this continually pop up through my blogs. Reflecting back these works have a very sensual element to them which wasn’t what I wanted to achieve at the time.
See below my sketchbook pages:
We had a workshop: recording ourselves speak about our work, see below. This was very useful to me as I worry that I struggle to get across what I am trying to say, this exercise was good for me/work/confidence to know that I am saying is what I mean to express! See below the films of the interviews:
Reflection 10/05/21: I feel with the films below, they worked at the time but now reflecting they feel v narrow in the sense I was trying to focus the ideas of social media onto my work. Currently I have learnt from this that I have a more direct focus point with stronger tangents during my exhibition proposal exploration.
Film quotations and thoughts:
“I wanted to focus in on the boobs as they are the part that represents the women” “I like the size of them because they are some to hold and squeeze” – me.
“I wanted to make them so they represent how women are seen as objects and you feel you can handle them, where as when I photographed them, I felt they then looked real and not like an object at all” – (Me, 2020) Reflection 10/05/21: However, the photographs still suggest the how the objectification is still present even if the breasts don’t appear as objects, will they always been seen as objects? – “In order to make them more real they have to be photographed, becomes mediated” – (Jane, 2020) which is the opposite bc you photograph to make them more real.
Reflection 03/05/21: “In the photographs you don’t get that tactile feel – I like that you can’t touch them, you can only look as a viewer” (Me, 2020) In Only Touch With CLEAN Hands this was explored more as I allowed the viewer to see their weight and firmness as I squeezed and dropped them.
I combined the noise of running water which I recorded from my garden to play to the visual of the breasts being in water. – Represent collectables/something you’d find? This allowed the viewer to enter the concept even further and to work with experimentation as I have only worked with sound once before and that was in Be A Lady, a poem reread by myself about the issues that surround being a woman. This was a big step for me and my work. Films with sound below. Sound – exhibiting and installing with noise of water running in background? I aim to continue to develop these in a range of ways. Performance is intriguing me.
Reflection 08/03/21: Are You Watching? used slight noise from the projector, it gave a comforting element to the work as though you’re the one in the room viewing as the camera moves, where as here for The Haze of Social Media I wasn’t sure.
