Dissertation:
In my dissertation I looked at how female artist have explored in depth the representation of women throughout history through their art work and what I have come to realise is that I am documenting my own history with my artwork. However I want to show other females my emotions and feeling towards the issues I address in my art work, and hoping that they also relate to them in some way.
I discussed the theory of the male gaze and how woman are perceived, in my artwork now I am still working with this idea, as in my own work I am using myself and my own face ( like Cindy Sherman did). In this case oh I am working with the idea of the male gaze not actually how the male gaze makes the image be perceived as. Where in my work I have thought about the male gaze and applied this concept to my work as I feel that the male gaze control how I feel about producing the images I have. I said before I felt uncomfortable about looking at the images of my face, is this because I don’t think they are pleasing to the eye? The eye of the male gazing upon them, do I think that a male looking at these images of my face would be unpleasing? I think I apply the male gaze to my work as a concept almost as if I am the male being critical over myself and my own looks. I think that is why in my work I want to look at myself. I am self-reflecting, which one of me is the male gaze looking at the image and which one is the image looking back at the male gazing at them?
I looked at Manet “Olympia” In my dissertation and the power she had over her male viewers with her glaring eyes looking straight back at them, as if she had caught them out and she has catches them looking at her. She holds the power over her audience.
As Lacan once said that “we are beings who are looked at, in the spectacle of the world” and John Berger (1972) stated that “according to usage and conventions which are at last being questioned but have by no means been overcome – men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.” Also in Renaissance images of nude women were painted almost exclusively for the male viewer. Women are often painted with their bodies turned towards the viewer while their heads are turned away as they gaze at themselves in the mirror. The woman is aware of being the object of the male gaze (Berger, 1972). I am being the woman who is watching myself and almost judging myself. I am being the one that looks in the mirror while others look on at me. I want my video piece to play so that I am watching myself apply and remove my makeup (my mask and comfort blanket).
I will use myself as an object which is something artist Cindy Sherman done in her piece, she has been a big inspiration through my work. The idea of the pleasure of looking and voyeurism pleasures come from a male audience perspective, this is something that Cindy Sherman captures in her film still pieces. This is what I want to create from my work the pleasure of looking but this is different as it is pleasing to myself not the audience as such, voyeuristic is described as..
“Voyeuristic when it is dependent on the object of the gaze being unaware. Someone spying on another is popularly known as a ‘peeping tom’. To some extent both photograph and film invite voyeuristic looking. It is the act of viewing the activities of others unbeknown to them. Therefore the act of looking can be seen as illicit or as having forbidden connotations, in cinemas we are voyeurs, watching people on screen who are ‘ignorant’ that we are watching them. We desire pleasure from this. The camera is also a voyeur.” (Etherington-Wright,2011)
Artist Research: Douglas Gordon
I have been looking at Douglas Gordon and his video installations he is a Scottish video and installation artist. His work is often based on a disruption of perception; by making his audience aware of their own fugitive subjectivity, he questions how we give meaning to our experience of things. I really want to represent this in my own work by making the audience aware of them self and there size and space. Making the audience connect is important to my work. The piece I really liked is Play Dead;Real time, in which Gordon films an elephant but I like the way he play with the size in his installation’s.
ARTIST ROOMS: Douglas Gordon: Play Dead; Real Time
Tate Britain: Display
6 May – 29 September 2013
In his video installations, Douglas Gordon (born 1966) plays with the cinematic techniques of duration, doubling and mirroring to explore the dynamic between audience and image. Play Dead; Real Time was filmed at an empty Gagosian Gallery in New York, where the artist arranged to have Minnie, a four-year-old Indian elephant, brought in to perform a series of tricks – ‘play dead’, ‘stand still’, ‘walk around’, ‘back up’, ‘get up’ and ‘beg’ – on the command of her off-screen trainer. The footage showing Minnie’s sequences of tricks is simultaneously presented in a front and a rear life-sized projection and on a monitor, with each one depicting the same event from a range of perspectives.
The viewer is presented with an opportunity to see the animal with an intimacy and perspective that are very rarely offered. For Gordon, Play Dead; Real Time sits between ‘a nature film and a medical documentary, to observe the subject in a way that could be used for a practical purpose but also had a very certain aesthetic. One of the beautiful things about film and video is that it can imbue a sense or sensibility that doesn’t actually physically exist.’
Artist Research:
Since I have been looking at video installations I decided to look at other artist that uses videos in their own work to see how they use them to create piece. The first artists that I looked at where
Jane and Louise Wilson
Jane Wilson and Louise Wilson (born 1967, Newcastle upon Tyne) are British artists who work together as a sibling duo. Jane and Louise Wilson’s art work is based in video, film and photography. I really enjoyed looking at their video pieces they had really deep meanings to them the piece I liked the most was “Erewho” The footage is projected on screens that surround the viewer from multiple sides, including overhead projections, bringing us more into the cinematic experience of the their work.
“Erewhon”
For this new installation, Jane and Louise have filmed several women in a gymnasium inspired by archival photos of ladies exercise classes from 1910. At the time, the concern of procreation in New Zealand was at its height. The medical profession equated a women’s adoption of physical culture with the regeneration of the population. These images perpetuate an anthology of poses in a rigid geometric setting, removing it from a recorded document into an abstraction. This footage is projected on screens that surround the viewer from multiple sides, including overhead projections – bringing us more fully into the cinematic experience of the Wilsons’ work.
After thinking about what I thought worked and didn’t work from my previous art work I decided to try and work with layering images to see how this looked before I put it into a video formation. The image I used to create the over lapping was the photograph of me looking at myself with and without my makeup one. I have choice to call this image “self-reflection”.
I think the over lapping of the images worked really well and created a 3d effect which is something I wanted to produce from this work. I also flipped the image so that the top layer is not the same reflection as the bottom images, meaning that my head and face is in a different place and my face is not overlapping with the same image of me with and without my makeup on. This did work well however this may not be what I want to achieve from my videos. Another idea is that I overlap the images so much of my face that it becomes some kind of blur in the videos as if you cannon recognise me. This would symbolise the makeup mask that I apply every day, in which I hide behind.
I think my next task would be to work with a projector and see how the images come out of my face. To have a play around and see what works and what don’t. A video my not work for me from a projector and I may resort to using a TV screen so I need to play with a projector and see if it works for me.
I spent some time in my studio today looking and my work in more detail and where I really want my work to be by the time it is the degree show and what I really want it to say. I also thought about different way I can achieve this, by looking back at my other blog posts and previous work.
After having my tutorial it made me really want to push my work further. I have looked back over my blog and really thought about what worked and what didn’t.
What worked and didn’t work for me where…The images of my face worked well where I am looking at myself. As for me this represent self-reflection and that is what I wanted to achieved. Also the images of my face which I sowed over, I liked the way they distorted my face which is what I wanted to achieve, as I think I distort my face day by day by wearing makeup. However this is something I feel I achieve in previous work and I want to step away from that. The blurry images I created digitally worked well I liked the lapping side of them and how they were a little unclear, however I wish I had used other images instead of the ones I did use.
I really enjoyed making the video piece, however I think it need improving in some ways I don’t think it is quite what I wanted to say. One I am looking at the audience which I don’t need to be this work is about self-reflection so I think I need to be looking at myself. Also the music doesn’t particularly link well with the video and I need to think harder about what music to use when making my next video. I think my removing of the makeup works well and I would use that idea again in another video piece. Also colour works well as it make it less film like and more realistic.
The next thing I thought about was the over lapping of video and images, maybe playing the videos backwards so you get this lapping effect. This could also be achieved in images as well, by over lapping a range of images together and possibly playing them as if they were a video piece as such. I think what would work well, would be reversing the videos so they play backwards. I then thought about expanding that idea and maybe making a piece that was a performance piece, maybe something like me standing in a room in my underwear and having a projection of me putting on my makeup onto my face. Then again I think I need to display the idea of me self-reflection so therefore having myself facing myself. Like I did in my first photos as I think that works really well, me looking at myself with and without my makeup on.
