Yesterday I did the film. I spent the morning sewing together my clean make-up wipes into a dress. They dried out a lot quicker than I thought they would, so by the time I had finished sewing and was ready to be filmed it was pretty much completely dry. I had brought in some liquid make-up remover in a spray bottle just in case this happened so I was able to re-wet the wipes, to be able to remove my make-up with ease.
I was quite aware that I was being filmed obviously, which did make me feel slightly uncomfortable especially as Mel (Film student) hadn’t seen me without make-up on before. So I am hoping the finished film piece will show my uncomfortableness at doing this, and hopefully mirror this for the viewer too.
After the conversation about the process of the make-up wipes I decided to put this idea into action. I spoke to a friend on Film Studies who kindly agreed to help me. I told her my plans about how I wanted to be filmed wearing a dress made out of wet clean make-up wipes, and then remove my made up face with my dress. I originally had thought to be filmed from a distance to see the whole dress and me doing it. However after a conversation yesterday morning with David the idea of a close up shot would perhaps work better. I think I automatically had gone for the further away shot due to how uncomfortable I would feel with the viewer being able to see my face without make-up that close. But as David said surely this would give the better effect as if I was uncomfortable there is more chance of the viewer being uncomfortable too.
After the conversation with David it made me think. I have become so used to wearing make-up over the years, now when I am not wearing it I don’t feel confident. I think it is because this is who I have become in a way. I choose to put on these products to change features I guess, to hide some things and exaggerate others. Most people still to this day probably haven’t seen me without it on. I guess it has become my shield against people? The world? Judegement? I don’t know. As stupid as it sounds if I were to come into uni without it on I know I would feel very uncomfortable. I know that the film needed to be shot close up to hopefully portray this uncomfortableness more. I know when I watch the film it probably will make me cringe, but as long as this makes the audience do this too I think it will be successful. Well hopefully.
I found the group crit on Friday very beneficial. I think sometimes I get so absorbed into my work I don’t take a step back and reflect on what is happening. In the group crit people gave their opinions on what they felt was working well with my work, and asked questions that I hadn’t even thought about! This was key for me to reflect myself about what am I actually now showing in my work.
I think I have been too focused on the fact that I need to collect, what can I collect? How will I display these? In the last couple of months my work has progressed a lot a way from this. Collecting is still the main base behind all my work, I just need to not be so focused on making a collection; but to explore my collections I am making. The work I do doesn’t need to be repetitive like it was at the start of the year. I can do work that starts from me collecting, but I can do work from the collecting such as performance and video which I hadn’t thought about until the group crit where I opened my field of vision.
In the crit, Josh suggested it would be good to see the process of how my make-up wipes are stained in that way. I have been collecting these wipes since early this year. However why hadn’t I thought of doing this before? I feel it is down to me not taking a step back and thinking of other ways to create work. I have just been too focused on collecting, collecting, collecting.
This has now opened up a lot more ideas about using my collections in more exciting ways rather than just a collection. This is what I need to do to push my work forward. I need to be open and experiment more!
Finally found the artist whose name I couldn’t remember!
Anne Wilson. She’s an artist who uses hair a lot within her work which I feel i’m reflecting in my work at the moment. She uses the technique of sewing her hair into material similar to that of what I have been doing. I really like her work now I have began looking more into her work and as i’m creating something similar its really captivating me. Hoping this is going to inspire me to create better work using my hair and explore this as fully as I can.
Hair when it is removed from the body appears to be a really interesting subject. Everybody has hair fall out of their head but when its yourself I suppose you do not take disgust at it as you just discard it off you. You don’t actually intentionally keep it and collect it all. Then when this hair is put onto, or woven through something it appears to have this different form which everyone is automatically disgusted about. Is this due to the fact it shouldn’t be there? It is just waste after it falls off your head? Or is it the fact that that persons hair is woven into something? That it leaves a trace of that person behind in an eerie sort of way. This really intrigues me.
In our group crit today, Josh commented on how it made his stomach churn when he first realised what it was. Maybe this could be an element I could push further? Maybe my collections of me don’t actually have to be that obvious and clear at first. Maybe they can be more subtle, hidden and makes the viewer have to study pieces closer until they realise.
Talking of studdying pieces closely before realising what they are has just reminded me of a piece of Damien Hirst’s work I saw last year at The Tate called ‘Black Sun’. I remember going up to the piece and seeing the rough texture not knowing what it was. I got closer and closer trying to figure it out before realising it was infact a circle full of thousands and thousands of flies! Once realising this it automatically made me jump back due to the intial shock of these dead flies I had got right close to. This is something that has now really interested me and I want to take further.
As my prints worked well on paper, I decided I wanted to see how they would turn out if I were to print them onto my make-up wipes, as another way of experimenting with more than one collection together.
I therefore sewed together four make-up wipes to make a square would become my canvas to print onto. From my experience, printing on damp paper generally gives a better overall effect than dry. Baring this in mind I made the wipes damp and blotted them with blotting paper to draw out most of the moisture. I then printed onto them with my etching plate.
I found this worked really well on damp wipes, so experimented on dry wipes too to see what worked best. However I actually found there wasn’t really much difference compared with the paper. Both dry and damp gave a clear sharp print. I like the way it incorporates more then one collection then makes a collection out of that. This is something I want to take further.
