Final Summery
Throughout my final degree project I have wanted to really capture and sum up all my past an pervious work that I have create over my time at ucs. Over the summer last year I began to realise that all my work where based around my own personal thoughts and feelings. So for me this final piece was all about pushing myself to new limits.
I began by digging deep to see what really makes me tic as an adult and how my brain works. I have always been very body conscious ever since I was little, I have always wanted to change the way I look. When I was younger I was obsesses with my hair being curly I hated it and wanted it as straight as I could get it. I then went through a stage of think I was constantly fat and over weight (which is something I still struggle with). The stage I hit as an young adult was not leaving the house without makeup and only a few of my closest friends and family have ever seen me without any. It was almost like a ritual before I left the house even now at the age of 21 I have only ever left the house without makeup on a handful of time. I still find it very challenging and uncomfortable.
This makes me really angry at myself, as I have always been interested in body image and have watched a lot of programmes about people having plastic surgery go wrong and botching their bodies. Also programmes about people with disfigurements and how they go about their daily lives with this disfigurement that they cannot help and cannot do anything about, that’s when I get angry at myself and try to make myself realise how lucky I really am.
So for me this final piece was all about pushing myself to them final limits, and taking myself out of my comfort zone revealing my true self. I wanted to show the audience what it’s like to be me and what I face in the morning, when I apply this mask of makeup that hides my true self. I chose to represent my dressing room as for me this is a very private room in which I spend hours sometimes transforming myself into this masked more confident person. Also my work is personal and about me but also I think it’s something the audience can relate to, at some point in everyone’s life they have stood in front of that big scary mirror and thought yuck what is that looking back at me. This piece was just about me showing that it is okay sometimes to just be YOU or even ME..
The image of me looking at myself titled ‘self-reflection’ is about standing up to myself and looking at myself square in the eyes and saying I don’t always need to look like you. I chose to print the image big and it really stands out and grabs the audience’s attention I wasn’t them to see how I am looking closely into my own eyes and the pain that hides behind them. Again I was trying to push the boundaries of myself and making any image of yourself large scale is daunting especially ones without makeup on that reveal what you really look like. I
So I think I have really summed up in this degree show piece everything I have ever wanted to say, really to myself and to show to myself and the audience how I do hide behind this mask but also how I have dealt or not dealt with body image and the way I look. Either way I am very pleased of the outcome and it has given me a conclusion to all my previous degree work.
