126 hours of silence

126 hour silence

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/126-hour-silence/435624423121482

Contemporary issues

Due to a complex field of analysis about how women are represented, power relations, the gaze and objectification/subjectivity, we now have a much wider understanding of our practices. Also, on a personal note, due to my research project, I now have a much wider understanding of this issue.

The feminism revolution has achieved what was probably thought to be impossible before it began. If it wasn't for the people that fought for gender equality in our society, women today might have still been unable to vote, unable to have a higher education and unable to become successful, recognised artists. I am so grateful that I'm currently studying at Art College, and understand that this opportunity may not have been available to me, if history hadn't played out the way in which it has. I actually feel quite selfish for not having significant knowledge of this subject before.

What I wanted to mention, was the fact that women today are still represented as objects, and that I don't feel that this has changed much since feminism began fighting against this. In fact, with the considerable increase in technology and the advancements of digital imaging, I feel that women could be more exploited than previously.

In our contemporary culture, women are used in advertisements and all other aspects of the mass media, which saturate our society. Capitalism and consumerism have dominated the 'developed world', which has in turn, been overridden by marketing. Ads are everywhere we look; television, magazines, billboards, shop windows, buses etc. Using an 'ideal' in advertisements is inevitable, but using women to sell products is something I think we have grown to accept - with not many people questioning or fighting the issue. This means, that the unhealthy images we are shown, that affect our health and wellbeing, are for the sake of profits. To me, this is extremely messed up.

Women are objectified and turned into products. They don't only sell the product to us; they also sell the woman. They sell her happiness, her success, her status, her beauty. They sell ideas of love and ‘ideal’ sexuality. The media dramatically informs us of what it is to be normal and to be desirable, by showing us an extremely limited range of images and sub-consciously manipulating us to believing it. This false perception of women, can account for some of us, but the majority of us who do not fit the criteria, are left feeling unworthy and undesirable.

Women are also dismembered. Only parts of our bodies are shown in adverts. Again, women are seen as an object, and as I have learnt, become subject to someone else’s gaze. We learn that the most important thing for a woman is her looks. In turn, men learn that the most important thing about a woman is her looks. I am not saying that all men and women think this way, but this is certainly the damaging message that is sold to us through popular media.


I am currently making artwork surrounding this idea. I entitled it 'The Illusion of Perfection', in which I am trying to visualise and critique the issue. I believe that the body image that we are surrounded with is a completely untrue perception of women. Images are retouched and digitally manipulated with software such as Photoshop. An extreme example of this is shown in this Dove advertisement below.

This Dove advertisement, allows viewers to visualise just how false the ideal female beauty is. This sadly represents only one of the thousands of image that saturate popular media.

The ‘perfect’ body image is non-existent in my eyes. If we do fall into the trap of believing it, I don’t think anyone can feel they have achieved it. The constant pursuing of something unachievable causes us to feel ashamed of ourselves and can lead people to hating their bodies. Depression and eating disorders can arise from a lack of self-respect and low self-esteem, which is just what the mass media is forcing us to feel. It purges this illusion to everyone, including the vulnerable minds of children. This may be one of the reasons why there has been a large increase in eating disorders and related mental health conditions over recent decades. In 2005, the National Eating Disorder Association stated that there was ‘Significant increase in incidence of anorexia from 1935 to 1989’. I understand that women have been represented unfairly for a very long time, so I am not saying that this is a new issue, but technology increases and our ever-consuming society certainly has increased our exposure to the media, which is a possible trigger for this epidemic.

Manipulating messages from the media

Exterior

Our image is determined by who we are,
but our image can be detached from ourselves

Our image is something we can use to express,
or something we use to hide behind

Our is image is something to love and care for,
or something hate and ignore

Our image is the visual interpretation
of our body

Our body is the physical representation
of our form

Our form encases ourselves

Our thoughts, feelings, aspirations, insecurities
live within our image

Our image is external
Our image does not determine who we are

Photograph: Self Portrait

Is the perfect body an attachment to youth?

Ellie Harrison, Eat 22

http://www.ellieharrison.com/index.php

Film: This is... Ellie Harrison

http://www.studio-orta.com/index.html

Neil advised me to look up Ellie Harrison and Lucy Orta, after a brief discussion with him today. He mentioned that the 'perfect' woman's body that is portrayed, is that of a young teenage boy, which embarrassingly enough, is pretty correct. We spoke about how the aspiration of this body could be linked to an attachment to youth. I also spoke about how I would like to incorporate the fact that sizes have completely changed over the years. Even in the last few, I would say that what was a size 12, is now a size 14, with clothes measuring the old size 10, now being labelled a 12. This wouldn't be such a worrying thought if society didn't put so much focus on people size and image.

Curatorial: finished

We handed in our Curatorial Studies module this week.

Drawing Workshops

Drawing light and shadow

 

Blindfolded self portrait



Tracey Emin

In Contextual Studies, Jess, Elena, Shaun and I done a presentation infront of the class about tracey Emin. It seems odd that when given the chance to present on anything or anyone (so long as we can relate it to art context) we chose Tracey Emin, but there was a logical chain of thought.

We wanted to present ideas relating to the psychology of art, comparing two artist with completely different approaches. We were going to look at Andy Warhol, with his absolute depthlessness and pure surface-meaning that he conveys with his artwork in comparison to Tracey Emins' severely expressive, personal and intimate art work. We were interested in the metal status of each artist and how that influenced their artwork. However, after talking to Sally, who told us she was a Fine Art Lecturer and not a Psychologist (duh?) we realised we could easily go off track. We then decided to home in on Tracey Emin, as this was someone that all of us didn't have much knowledge about.

We presented about her life experiences and influences, that play a centre stage in the majority of her work. She has had quite a traumatic time, and she expresses this in a number of different creative approaches. We spoke about ideas about Tracey's high/celebrity culture, yet her low/popular culture that she seems to still embrace. I done a lot of research on her critics and found interesting views and opinions of her work. The most were quite negative, however it wasn't all bad. I did strike up a conversation with Sally and the class about how critics tend to say that because her artwork is so confessional, it makes it hard to judge it. Effectively, critics may be seen as judging her and her personal experiences, rather than the direct piece of art. It must be hard to critique fairly, as when you hear quite traumatic influences that you interpret through her art, it can make you quite bias. I understand that as a professional, it is important to look past that, but I also think that the meaning and underneath reasons for an artist to produce a certain piece of work, is as important as the piece itself. Maybe I don't know enough about the world of art right now though...We also questioned whether she can be considered Modern of Post-Modern, or something entirely different. It was then that Sally mentioned the Feminist revolution and I realised I didn't know anything about it! I wish to research this as part of my next project, maybe drawing it together with my ideas about how contemporary women are represented in the media.

This presentation was a summative assessment, meaning we were not marked. Our next project (the largest part of the module) will be assessed.

Tracey Emin - My Bed

Manipulating words

'Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels'
'You can never be too thin'
'If you eat like a man, you might end up looking like one'
'Only the ball should bounce'
'Because her boobs are for you, not your baby'
'Want my body? Go vegetarian'
'Cosmetic surgery, the best decision I've made'
'Eat paper to lose weight'
'Make your ex wish he wasn't'
'Lose weight and receive lots of compliments'
'Sugar can be the willpower you need to undereat'
'It's better to be fit than fat - don't eat between meals'
'Warning: It's hard to be a little girl, if you're not'

Online Research

Great articles and info for contextual assignment and studio project:

http://www.thefword.org.uk/features/2009/01/feminist_progre

http://www.thefword.org.uk/features/2008/01/glamour_models

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1972425,00.html

http://feministmedia.tumblr.com/

http://www.slideshare.net/mcmrbt/feminism-and-the-media

http://feminism.eserver.org/real-and-ideal-body-image.txt

http://www.eating-disorders.org.uk/body-image.html

Also: Feminist Media Project

Get real Barbie

Galia Slayen made a life size version of the Barbie doll to send a visual message and spark conversation about eating dissorders.

Self

Photograph: Self Portrait, Struggle with disappearance

Oil Pastal drawing: Self portrait 'Noise'

Oil Pastal drawing: Self portrait

Photograph: Self portrait

Perfection?

Perfection; a desire. A desire that instills the itself in the deepest corners, hidden through shadows that seek for it. Ay, we long to taste perfections beauty, only to find its flavors unpalatable. Perfection is a thirst that leave the mind burning and dry.
It is a flower who's pedals are beautiful, but scent deceitful
It is the sermon of man seeking to walk in heavens garden. Only to find rotting fruit and shadeless trees.
Perfection is a dream, masked in desires nightmare.
It is the the souls army, marching to do battle with itself once more.
It is the hearts magician, and the minds illusion.

Perfection is when one no longer desires perfection, but instead, silently learns about one's imperfections.
Pain is loves shadow forever walking near light. For the deeper pains well draws, the deeper loves beauty is stored.

4am

I wish I could fit on this piece of paper..

First formative assessment

I presented some of my work to my tutors this week, as my formative assessment after the first term. It could have gone better, but then I could say that about most things I do! I lost track of what I was saying a couple of times but I hope I was able to explain the depth behind the art I had displayed. It was difficult to chose only a few items out of all the short projects we completed last term. I chose to focus on a lot of my 1st, 2nd, 3rd world art and a piece based on consumption.

This is colossal

Awesome website with some amazing work from incredible modern artists
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/

'German photographer Markus Reugels. Using large satellite photos as a backdrop and a high speed camera he captures the background’s refraction through water drops.'