UCS

I have been collecting my used make up wipes for months as it is a simple yet effective way I feel of portraying myself without actually creating a self portrait the traditional way that is thought.

It is a daily routine I go through of putting my make up on in the morning and then removing it in the evening. Each wipe represents a day where I have had that ‘face’ on. It kind of shows a mask of who I become once I put it on until I remove it. It is like hiding behind material, giving confidence, once that is wiped off the remains of that is left on the wipe meaning all confidence is lost? Each individual wipe tells a story of that day, but no-one can tell from the wipe what happened, it leaves the viewer to think about the story behind that wipe.

There is an abject feel to these wipes. Although they do not bother me obviously, because they have the remains of what was on my face of each day. However talking to others, it surprised me how many people actually appear to be quite disgusted in the fact that they are used wipes. This really interests me as to why they become so disgusting. There are pieces of work I have been interested in from artists whose work has disgusted and shocked me, but at the same time intrigued me as to why it has been done. Franco B’s piece ‘I Miss you!’ and Tracey Emins’s ‘The History of Painting’ are two pieces that really give that abject feeling to me and while my work is nowhere near as shocking as these it really fascinates me how people react to work … Is it the thought of the wipes being wiped over skin and eyes? Is it just the appearance of left over make up that stains these wipes? Or just how they look with the various coloured markings? Or is it the vast amount that I have collected, that they appear to just overtake the space?

This is something that has really fascinated me by how something as innocent as a used make up wipe can provoke so much response and is something I am keen to push forward to see how people react when it is more abject.

Following my interest in Dieter Roth’s work, I began to explore my own way of collecting waste material. I have began to collect every receipt I receive. This will portray me through this paper manner. It will be personal by displaying to the viewer items I have purchased. In a way this is showing me, but in a different form. Similar to that of a self-portrait through an auto-biographical collection.

This sort of personal collecting has really fascinated from looking at Dieter Roth. How the artist can portray themselves through a collection and by pushing the levels of shock and disgust through this can really provoke reaction and response. I initially displayed them all lined up on my wall in chronological order to show system and order. However different ways of display perhaps would affect how the viewer reads this. For example what would happen if the receipts were to be grouped into amounts of money spent, or times of the day, or particular shops? Would anything change?