‘100 Days of Make-up Wipes (part 1 and 2) and Cotton Wool Remains’:
I wanted to include the make-up wipe folders because it shows a large collection of myself for 100 days. When flicking through the viewer can see that it is very boring and repetitive. Every wallet looks exactly the same, but on closer inspection they are all so similar. They have the same markings, just made in a different way with these colours. I was inspired to create this after learning a lot about Dieter Roth’s work and how he filed away a whole years worth of collections of waste in an archive. I didn’t want to have too many folders, but I did decide on creating another one of cotton wool for another collection of the remains of me. I decided to have one folder open to encourage the viewer to look through it and be more comfortable about looking at the other folders. This was also an influence from Roth as he filed away all of his collections on shelves, apart from a few which were lit by lamps drawing the viewer to look at them.
I didn’t want all my work to be too similar as it is all of me it is going to be very similar. I wanted to be experimental with the display to really push my work and make it as appealing as I could to keep the viewers interest. As much as I had the idea in my head the perspex shelf was going to work it didn’t due to the weakness of it so there came the plinth. Overall the plinth I do feel is a lot more successful than what the shelf would have been, as the folders are more inviting laid out like this.
Overall I am happy with how my degree show has turned out. I did encounter a lot of problems which affected my original plans, but luckily I overcame them and have made it to the best I feel I can for my chosen area of auto-biographical collecting exploring subtle abjection and repetitive daily routines.
‘Camouflage Dress’ –
This was a piece I did quite early on before the degree show. It was one of the pieces I did when I noticed my collections worked well turning something which would normally be discarded into a new life. Make-up wipes didn’t have to been thrown away, they could be used as material to make clothing or paper which I experimented with printing onto. AlexandraBircken was a big influenced after researching her work ‘Repeat 1’ was one I really liked as it was tights gussets which are quite a personal area of the tights being sewn together to make a larger piece. I liked this Idea of transforming something old into something new. Was this dress an early idea which I should have left out? This question has crossed my mind several times. Did I need this dress along with the dress made from the film? In the end I felt it was important to have it. It shows this used of old waste material turned into something new with purpose. The dress has buttons and is fully able to be worn if desired. It portrays me throughout the entire dress – it is just full of days of the remains of my make-up. The fact that there are even a few eyelashes hanging on there if you look very very closely makes it even more abject than just the look of the wipes. It does look dirty but that is what is smothered on my face every morning and removed every evening. It shows routine and myself. Every wipe holding a different story for that day and they way in which I removed the make-up.
’30 Days’:
These 30 boards are to represent 30 days of myself collecting me. I wanted to incorporate a few of my collections of me altogether as one. I wanted to show that every day is the same yet slightly different with my daily routine. Agnes Martin was quite a big influence with her grid system she has with her work. I like the way these boards are a piece on their own but also a piece as a whole with all 30. I have been asked several times as to why aren’t they framed. The wipes do look like a painting on their own, but I feel it is not necessary with the contacts, cotton wool, eyelashes and hair. I felt by framing them it would take away the abject feeling from them if I were to contain them in a frame. It wouldn’t allow the abject form of them to come through. I felt by framing them it would make each piece more of a piece on its own where in a way they are but all 30 are needed to make the whole piece. I thought framing them would just overwork them them and make it not as effective. They are quite minimal on their own. I wanted them in the show pretty much as soon as I liked the collections on the board. I felt they were aesthetically pleasing like this and felt that a whole wall of them would be very striking and catch the viewers attention as soon as they enter my space. I am very pleased with how they turned out. They are exactly what I wanted; a collection of a collection of me. They portray me through my waste material creating auto-biographical work. They were measured the exact same distance apart as to follow Agnes Martin’s grid system which I researched a lot about in the dissertation through this regimental style like Hirst and his exact measurements of his collections of objects.
‘Eye Routine’ – I decided on using the cabinet as I feel a cabinet of curiosity is an essential part of collecting from the knowledge I gained from the dissertation. People who had money would use these to display their most valuable belongings to show them off. I’ve used the cabinet in a slightly different way to show empty contact lens cases I have used. This is to show the long boring routine I go through most mornings. I lined them all up in rows adjacent to each other to show this receptiveness.
Damien Hirst was a massive influence at the start of the year when looking at my dissertation and displaying collections. I really liked his regimental display which is what influenced me with this piece. Several people have said to me it reminds them of Hirst. I was very tempted to use a ruler to measure the exact distance between each case. But could I get it exact? Did I need it exact? I sat and thought about it. All my other collections such as my boards and my wipes in folders and on dresses, the hair the contacts, they all look very similar however they are all slightly different. A bit like the topic of animals and their skin. they all look so similar however they all have slight markings which differentiates one from another. All this I thought about and came to the conclusion my work isn’t perfectly the same it looks similar but each make-up wipe is slightly different with its markings just like each contact lens has dried up in a different way. When I put in the cases I didn’t separate the cases with writing on to the plain ones I just picked them out of the bag as I went along arranging them. The ones I chose were just the ones I pulled out. It just happened like that. The same as it just happened when I took off my make-up that day or how many hairs fell out when I washed my hair. Or how that contact lens dried up. Some cases were slightly more open than others which is only clear when you get closer, which brings it back to the idea of my work, of the viewer having to get up close and personal before noticing these little things. the cabinet looks regimental which it is and the contact cases all the same black colour. It is only upon closer inspection you notice little flicks in the cover of the cases and that some have writing on. The dark colour of the cases compliments well with the white cabinet making a striking eye catching piece.
Mark Dion was a big influence for the use of the cabinet, as his work is based a lot around mueseolgy which is why I visited Ipswich museum at the beginning of the year to gain inspiration to see how I could incorporate this sort of idea before my ideas changed. I looked at Dion a lot when using my cabinet but I was more interested with Hirst’s way or arranging. Josiah McElheny’s use of mirrors was a topic which began to provoke ideas in my use of the cabinet. He used mirrors to make the objects appear to go on forever making the space seem larger which I felt could work well with the mirror I had in my cabinet. Making my collection appear even larger.
I thought I would do a bit of a sum up of why I have chosen what i Have to be in my degree space:
‘Hairy Chair’:
‘Hairy Chair’ is one of my favourite pieces. This is due to it looking like a fairly normal chair (except my bad upholstering!) until you get up close and find there is in fact my hair loosely sewn all into the back of it. I am excited to see how people react at it at the degree show. I found it strange how people find the though of someone elses hair disgusting, but they will sit on public transport when you don’t know how many head have deposited hair there. I wanted the viewer to see it as a normal armchair, use it as a chair to view the projection and then stumble across the chair and be disgusted that they have Lent against it. I positioned it to view the projection, but only comfortably when lent back. This will hopefully encourage them to lean back onto my hair, without them realising. I hope they then notice afterwards there is hair rather than before they sit on it. Perhaps it is so subtle they won’t even notice what they have sat against… Jenine Shereos, Anne Wilson and Adrienne Antonson were massive influences for me to create this chair. They al had slightly different ways of working with hair. Either through cloth like me, or making them actually into little sculptures which I found fascinating. Their work was all so abject but so fascinating too.
‘The Removal of a Part of Me’ (Film and Dress) :
The projection of me removing my make-up kind of contradicts my whole idea of creating a space which doesn’t involve me. This video clearly is of me, showing me which I didn’t want. Why did I choose to use this? The reason I chose this to be in the degree show as although it does show me, it shows me in a way that most people haven’t seen me. No-one except Mikalea from our class had seen me before without my make-up on, so for me to put it online for my class to watch and even the Internet was a big step for me. This mask I use everyday this is who I feel I am, I don’t let many people see me without due to how uncomfortable I feel in public without it. For this reason I felt it was important to use. I was becoming more open with myself and my art. In a way I don’t want people to see it and to know that how I look, I don’t have perfect skin etc, what would they think? But in another way I wanted them to sense my uncomfortable feeling that I was removing my make-up but not very comfortable at having being filmed doing this. Especially as Mel who filmed me had never seen me without it on before. I feel from watching the piece you see how I start off not really bothered there is a camera there, but the more and more of the make-up that comes off the more you sense my uneasiness at having the camera there and trying to hide from the camera at times it seems. You also see that at the end I constantly am rubbing my face. Why did I do this? I only recently noticed this and thought about it when watching it on the projection. What was I doing? The only thing I can think is that it was an instinctive reaction to try and keep covering my face from the camera seeing my bare face. This piece isn’t abject but the dress which compliments it which was worn to remove my make-up on contains an abject feeling as this has the remains of my make-up on it. I placed them near to each other due to the relation of them linking together as one piece.
Carried on from the last post…
The items I chose really helped to reflect this auto-biographical collections. How I take off my make-up might be different to someone else, it is me who has took it off, it has traces of my skin all over it. So many people found this abject which I really liked. I wanted people to be disgusted at my work. It wasn’t obviously in your face disgusting, just subtle. It might take the viewer a little while to realise what it actually is. then once confronted with this abject material they then become shocked. I liked this idea a lot which is then what I brought into my work a lot.
My work also started to take on a lot about my daily routine. It began to reflect this boring repetitiveness of every day routine. For example the application of my make-up, the removal of make-up, putting in contact lenses, taking them out, brushing my hair etc. Routines are so boring yet we all do them as part of life. My work then had several topics it all interlinked with:
Auto-biographical collecting
Making this collection abject through materials of me and
Portraying the repetitiveness of daily routine
I feel they all related well together interlinking making good connections throughout my work.
