I was watching ne of my favorite films last night – The Aviator. It’s a biopic of Howard Hughes life between 1920 and 1940. It shows his struggle with OCD and his eventual domination of aviation against the bigger corporate airlines.
In his rise to fame he dated and lived with Audrey Hepburn. He flies to a set she is filming on and takes her to play golf during this scene she gives her view on men, friendship and relationships:
Men cant be friends with women Howard. They must posses them or leave them be. It’s a primitive urge from caveman days. It’s all in Darwin. Hunt the flesh. Kill the flesh. Eat the flesh. That’s the, ah, male sex all over.
This was in response to his constant supply of glamorous girls he wore on his arm to various opening nights and parties.
I thought that this was interesting, I’m not sure if it’s a real quote from miss Hepburn or fabricated for the movie to highlight Hughes’s promiscuity, but I’d say it’s a pretty prejudice if not somewhat true comment.
My sculptures give the view that the hunter is now the hunted as the male comes in to possess and consume these females the very opposite happens they themselves are possessed and consumed. Its strange how clarity can come from the most obscure sources.
I have thinking about my work very deeply recently and trying to get away from top layer of prejudice that these sculptures offer. I’m beginning to think that these sculptures are a way penance for my promiscuity in my teens.
Theatrical trailer for the aviator.
Following on from a recent post about a tutorial in which I spoke about the positioning of my work for the degree show I though I would offer up some drawings to add clarity.
The first image shows my original ideas for the degree show presentation. The video installation is on the wall in front of you as you enter the room and the sculptures and their relic scattered around the room. As I said in the earlier post it was discussed that this would take away the mystery and power of the sculptures languishing in the rooms surrounded by their victims.
The second image then, shows the video installation in the cupboard on the right-hand side of the room. This, I feel will be a better place for it. As you enter the room the first things you will see is the sculptures languishing in the room, the video’s sound will then entice you to search for it. I hope that there will be enough darkness in the small cornered off cupboard to give the video a presence.
The arrangement of the sculptures at the moment will no doubt change once I get into the room and see how they interact with the space. This cannot be done however until the level fours have finished exhibiting their first year show tomorrow. Next week I hope to have several posts of me within my space seeing how the sculptures are interact and look within it.
Following my recent tutorial I’ve decided to readdress the ‘penis issue’ as I didn’t have time in my previous post.
The penis issue being, that people assume that me making all of these penises is a comment on my sexuality. This could not be far from the truth. To infer this, only shows ignorance and is a prejudice view of my creating. However, I feel that me not wanting to fall foul of prejudice is a bit hypocritical as my sculptures are highly prejudice to. I hope this addresses the issue better than I had done in the previous post.
The reason for the life-likeness and the sheer quantity is only to make the reaction of the viewer stronger I want them to feel like they are entering the beasts lair with scattered pieces of the beast’s victims crunching and uneven under their feet while the beast’s sit in their relative positions with scarred jaws and paint work marked with plaster.
To me the relic is just as important as the action of crushing these penises as it offers an insight as to what has happened. I want the clarity of the video to be there as well as the crushing is going to be a long, almost day long process and I would like more than a relic to show for it.
Had a group tutorial on the 03/05/13 I find these useful its always good to have another perspective on the work you are creating. The sculptures are still having the desired abject feeling to them when I describe their role as penis crushing. One of my colleagues crossed their legs – they were female. Was my work so abject that she could feel the pain or was she imagining herself to be one of these creatures and that thought of her harming another humans flesh made her wince – this being a normal reaction for any ‘normal’ person.
We also spoke about this positioning of my sculptures in the room that I shall occupy during the degree show. I spoke about putting them one in each corner but feared this may make them look too spread out, but on the other hand would make them look more animalistic as if they were snarling animals that had been pushed into the corner. I cannot truly see where to put these sculptures or how they will interact with the space until I can get in there and experiment after the level 4’s have finished their assessments.
Spoke about the video element to my show – a video showing the penis entering the traps and getting crushed in varying states of brutality. Originally I had wanted to video on the wall in front of you but after discussion agreed it would be better in the cupboard to the side so the viewer could absorb the sculptures then the sound of the video would entice them to see what had happened in the room as it would be littered with fragments of penis’s crunching under their feet.
I spoke about maybe doing a showing of this n the degree night but, health and safety are really on the fine art department and I felt that the viewers looking in through a porthole would detract from the whole feel of the room.
Spraying the mole trap girl pink. I bought the gin trap girl to see what the ‘two trap girls’ look like together. The outside setting I feel, gives them a more animal-like look, only adding to their brutality.
