I insisted on finishing this one before moving onto the smaller text only paintings. I had this one up as a mock up using photocopied images and text for a while. I wanted to push a few of the ideas I had from the ‘get your coat’ image and work through some issues.
The figure was to be black and white to use the language from magazines but I changed the lips to red to add to the sexual nature of the imagery.
If I felt that ‘get your coat’ had its limitations this is a move to address some of these. To move away from the siliceous and have more political intention behind the work as the last one I felt did not really address the issues I was hoping to deal with.
By having the face staring out at you, rendered in paint, the eyes become challenging as they stare out at you.
The message is reinforced this time by adding the #heforshe campaign as per my earlier research in the Elle magazine with Emily Watson. I want to make it relevant and political now. I feel I have struck a better balance this time. But again the old question, does it need the face at all? My next set of works will address this.
