Jenine Shereos is an aritst who sews with hair to create delicate leaf sculptures. I tried sewing with my hair and it was really frustrating. I kept losing the end and it really didn’t work for me, no wonder it takes her months to create one sculpture. I found a quote by her on the Los Angeles Times website,
“I love the idea of working with an everyday material that you would think of as maybe even kind of gross and transforming that into something completely different than what it was before,”
I felt this quote in a way relates to my work as I have used watse everyday material and used them in another way such as the wipes for my dress. However my work isn’t beauitful looking in the end like her fragile leaves. Her work is subtle like mine. It is only once you get right up close and personal with her work that you see one wisp of hair that extends past the points of each leaf which is the only clue we are given that is actually hair creating this leaf frame.
Lion, L. (2013) Jenine Shereos’ ‘Leaves,’ stitched with human hair. [Online]. Los Angeles: Los Angeles Times. Available at: http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/01/news/la-lh-jenine-shereos-leaves-stitched-with-human-hair-20120731 (Accessed: 23 May 2013).
With the help of Mel again, she re-filmed me putting in my contact lenses and then taking them out with a close up frame. It took quite a few takes as, as soon as one lensgot in one eye it wouldn’t go in the other or it would get creased and then just pop out of my eye. I perhaps could have used these failed attempts in the piece to prolong the touching of my eye and hope the viewer find it uncormfortable. However I couldn’t really as every time the lens fell out my eye I kept laughing and you could tell in the video I was laughing, which obviously ruined what I was trying to do with the piece. Not sure why I found it so funny but it amused me.
After several attempts we finally got it filmed. I think it shows what I want it to; this abject feeling through the touching of my eye which is done on a daily basis through the insertion and removal of my lenses. Hopefully it will get the reaction from the viewer which I hope for, with them feeling uncomfortable with watching me ‘play’ with my eyes. Whether or not I will use it in the degree show I am still yet to decide. If I were I would probably re-film it due to the fact of me laughing.
Emma Bowles, ‘Eyeballs’, Performance, Film. May 2013. Filmed by Melissa McGinniss
As my performance piece of me removing my make-up went better than I expected I decided to try another piece this time putting on my make-up. I decided to do this to show the process of part of my routine in the morning. It shows the repetitiveness of me applying this make-up, then in the evening all that time spent putting it on that morning it is just wiped away.
I think the video does show this long boring process, but I think it is too long as I seem to be very slow at doing it! I feel this might lose the viewers interest and might not be as successful as the removing make-up one. I don’t feel this one is as strong because I already start out with no make-up on so nothing is really gained by the end of the piece. Unlike my previous video where you seem me becoming more and more uncomfortable.
One thing I did notice when watching this video back for the first time was how much my eyes flicker whilst putting in my contact lenses. For all the years I have used them I have never noticed this before. I think it is because you do not know you are doing it unless someones watches you and tells you, or you are recorded doing it. Considering they’re my own eyes it made me squirm a bit by how creepy my eyes did look. I know a lot of people do get squeamish about touching eyes so this is something I want to explore, carrying out this abject feeling again.
I discussed it with Jane in my tutorial and we spoke about how about if I was re-filmed with the camera up close to my eyes to highlight this contact with my eyes more and hopefully disgust the viewer further. So this is the next plan.
My pieces which I have collected from each day containing, a used make-up wipe, contact cases and lenses, hair and eyelashes, I do feel could work well in my degree show. They show collection, my daily routine, repetitiveness and pattern.
In my tutorial Tuesday I spoke to Jane about them. While I do feel they could be effective I need to keep collecting them and displaying them in my space to see how they work. I think I was struggling with not knowing what to do with them as I had only two days worth at this point. Because of the fragile state of the eyelashes and how hard they are to spot and easy to lose, I didn’t really know how to attach them onto my wall, so the viewer could still see the eyelashes but also attached securely. I also would need remove them nearer the time for the degree show if used without damaging them. The only thing of which I had on hand was masking tape. It did the job of attaching the eyelashes with ease. However it’s not exactly the nicest looking think to be stuck to the wall.
Jane and I spoke about how about if I attached them to a frame or another material so they were contained in one. This would therefore mean I could superglue the eyelashes and hair on and I wouldn’t need blue tac and masking tape, which would hopefully make it looker more aesthetically pleasing too.
Also was the date important? Does the viewer need to know a particular day of collections was in fact the 28th April? Or was it more about the pieces instead of the dates?
After my tutorial I sat there thinking about these collections. My only option really if I wanted them to look better for the viewer was to mount them onto something so I would no longer need this masking tape. Therefore that afternoon I took a trip to Jewsons and ordered 30 pieces of 300mm by 300mm MDF. Once it is ready to collect I begin making my frames and mounting my collections onto them.
I have had some good feedback about my video performance piece from other students. As it is something I have not done before I wasn’t too sure about if it worked or really came across to the viewer with me being uncomfortable how I wanted it too. But I think it has.
I had a tutorial with Jane on Tuesday and we spoke about if I would be using this piece in the degree show and how. In a way I don’t want people to see it because it does make me feel uncomfortable knowing people are watching this process happening. But in the same way I do want people to see it to get my uncomfortable feelings across, and I do think it could be an important part in my show if used correctly. I want to experiment with a projector with the video to see how it works best, with angles and objects etc.
Jane suggested to me to look at the art Pipilotti Rist who works with film on a small scale. When we think of projections we automatically think of a massive projection. However what would happen if it were to be projected small, or onto something other than a wall? Would the material distort the image?
I am going to experiment with using a projector to see how my video works best. I would like to try projecting it onto the dress that was used in the video as I feel this would create a good link and might work well on the white of the material. Whether it would be less effective small I do not know. This is something I will have to experiment and weigh up the pros and cons.
