I am not sure why I hadn’t thought of this idea earlier but as well as collecting contact lens cases I have began collecting my actual contacts. I decided on this as it is perhaps even more personal than the contact cases. The lenses have had contact with my actual eye so they give the reaction of disgust through this. The appearance of them changes once taken out of the eye due to them drying out and they go crisp and shrivelled.
I do quite like the look of these shrivelled up lenses, however perhaps if i were to keep them submerged in water they would keep their shape and perhaps give a better look. This is something I will therefore experiment with, and then play around with the display of these.
Going on the theme of collecting items related to me, I decided to also collect my eyelashes.
I feel it relates to the idea of me collecting my hair as it is very similar with the close contact with the body, especially the eyes which may be disgusting to some. I am not really sure how well this collection will go as they are not the easiest things to keep hold of and notice when they fall out, however I will attempt with this collection and see where it goes.
With my collections now being personal to myself I began to think of what other items could I collect. I began to think of my daily routine and what I could collect actually from myself similar to my make-up wipes.
Hair… My hair falls out all the time through brushing and just day-to-day activity. How much could I collect through brushing and collecting the single hairs that fall?
This was the hair I collected in the space of two weeks. I decided to put it in a plastic bottle so it was contained but still visible.
Many people find the thought of a collection of someones hair abject due to the personal relation maybe, or perhaps the idea hair shouldn’t be used in any way apart from seen on the body.
Helen Chadwick’s piece, ‘Loop my Loop’ is a photograph of long golden hair in-twinning with a pigs bladder. The idea of hair mixing with this just provokes a disgusting reaction as to why would anyone mix hair with a pig’s insides.
Robert Gober’s piece, ‘Hairy Cheese’ is another piece which portrays across the abject feeling due to the hair on the cheese. I think this is due to the fact hair and cheese is not a combination you expect to see. The thought of having a piece of hair in a cheese sandwich gives the utter feeling of disgust. I think in a way this is more disgusting than ‘Loop the Loop’ due to the fine individual hairs just hanging from the cheese in a weird way, while the long golden hair appears less abject in a way because of the neater look of it.
I feel my collection of hair could be explored further with the individual strands, as well as it all to see what reactions it produces amongst viewers. This is something I am keen to explore.
When starting this project this year my plans were to interpret the display of collecting. Last year I had explored other peoples collections. This year I wanted to do my own collecting and focus on the display of these.
Although display is a main factor in my work still, from all of the recent work I have been doing with personal collections, such as the empty toiletry bottles, make-up wipes and receipts, it has drawn me more towards auto-biographical collecting where I am portraying myself through these collections. Display still links in a lot with how I then go on to display these objects and collections, but it is not so much the main focus point now as my work has developed on from that. I feel that auto-biographical collecting is what I am really enjoying and am able to explore deeper with more passion than the display.
Thinking about what I was actually doing with the bottles, I was arranging them due to their shape and size mainly. I am more interested in the actual shapes not what they are. Although they kind of portray me through what I use. What would happen if I were to paint them? This would cover up the branding and the colours, but this isn’t so much what I am focusing on when arranging them, it is the object themselves.
In a way perhaps they don’t have to show what I use in such an obvious way; they can in fact just but the shapes leaving the viewer to almost guess what they are. I feel if I were to paint them white it would match the cabinet and make the whole piece work better as one perhaps as they would be so similar? It would also allow me to explore the collection through these objects focusing more on the shape and size forgetting about the different colours on each bottle. Hopefully this will give more exciting ideas of where to next progress with them.
