‘To age is not a crime’ Major project developmental work/refined work then final piece

22nd Mar 202016th Apr 2020 | harussell1

I started to bring together the images of the chicken I had created with some new performative pieces.

I wanted to really focus on the distorted view of the eye of the beholder and prehaps someone suffering with Body Dysmorphia disorder and exaggerate that as much as possible.Along with the cycle/construction and horror grim aspect of surgery and the unexpected turn of events in terms of the outcome not allways being what that person wants.

Above are images of the sewn together chicken skin from earlier work which I consider as strong developmental pieces towards the final piece along with some of the work below as it displays the gruesome reality and brutality of plastic surgery.As I said before I would liked to of experimented/explored further with the chicken but due to the current panidemic and shortages in shops I’ve decided to use the image of the chicken in with performative pieces.

I think this photo works great amongst the other developmental pieces as it shows the power play between the surgeon and the client.

Pic 1 Leaving some of the skin before surgery revealed.

In these refined pieces I again use the power play between the surgeon and the client, to show the cycle of surgery,she has clearly had surgery but the hand positioning of the surgeon shows that he is further distorting the face and potentially showing the client where there is more room for improvement and thus the cycle continues.I also wanted to ’embrace the horror’ as mentioned in my last crit by cutting and copying parts of the previous chicken images i have used and applying these to the face.

Not being an expert in the photoshop area i understand the images may look a bit amateur,altho timely to complete due to my inexperience,but i feel that it is enough to get across the point I want to make and it crosses the question one of the tutors asked me a while ago in a crit of :’does it really matter if the image isn’t visually pretty?’

Final piece

‘Mirror Mirror on the wall who’s the fairest of them all?‘

In this piece i really wanted to look at the body dysmorphia side of things.The magnifying glass is being held to the eye in order to distort any faults aswell as magnify them.But what the viewer doesn’t know is who is holding the magnifying glass?Is it the surgeon or the client?

I also wanted two different views to show what we see and what the person see’s and once again embracing the horror by adding one of the ‘chicken parcels’ to her head.

I think the worst part of all of this and something I really wanted to bring attention to is the fact that a percentage of surgeon’s are playing on people’s insecurities/mental disorders and by doing this they are going against the hypocratic oath of which they are sworn into where they pledge never to do harm and to save people’s lifes.

I really want this image to play games with the viewers head and to give them the same feeling that someone with BDD may have.

I consider this piece as my final piece as it has been really successful in getting across all the points I wanted to make all tho visually I feel that the chicken piece on the head looks a bit like a phallus.But nobody seems to agree with me!

Major Project Crit.

18th Mar 202028th Mar 2020 | harussell1

Feedback from my crit was as follows:

Good research into theme
Great graduation of development from experimentation
Maybe experiment more with different materials
Attention to detail in terms of connecting media to theme and research.
Use of chicken skin was effective,imotive,impactful,conceptual.
Think about surface more
The more sucessful work moves away from focusing on Hang Mioku
Embarace the horror!
Repulsion-chicken skin
Using the magnifying glass speaks volumes
The more abstract work works better
Need to think about health and safety when using the chicken skin for the end of the project
Performative work good use of self
Very thorough and engaged!
Extensive experimentation!

It was pointed out by tutors and peers that my work with the chicken and my performative work was my strongest work by far.I had allready come to this conclusion myself but welcomed the feedback as it made my thoughts feel more certified.

Sadly due to the Cornavirus there is no more chicken in the shops and even if there was I wouldn’t want to buy it merely for artisitic purposes when familes are struggerling. It’s ashame because i wanted to refine my idea more with video and photo’s but having this happen has taught me to problem solve and look resourcefully at what i do have.

I think i will experiment with the images of the chicken i allready have and mix these with performative pieces by using a free version of photo shop called ‘Gimp’.As due to the college being closed we no long have photoshop as a resource.There is allways the chance that things may not work out the way i want them to but it is all part of the process and if this happens i have many other images to choose from for my final piece.

‘To age is not a crime’ major project

5th Mar 202028th Mar 2020 | harussell1

I decided to start working on the construction and reconstruction of the face using the image of Hang Mioku.I decided to record this process using the hyper focus setting

Decided to paint a continous line picture of the 3rd stage of Hang Mioku’s surgery.Then i painted a sheet in cooking oil which relates to the cooking oil she injected into herself.I particulary liked the way the sheet of cooking oil gave an aged look to the painting.I then wanted to create layers and abstract shapes in response to the painting underneath.I then took this abstract image and placed it on top of the previous image of Hang Mioku previous to her surgery.

Continuing the construction of Hang Mioku’s image.I painted an image of her old image prior to the 10 surgeries to fix it and then used this image to layer the current image.I decided to use latex and inject it with oil.And masking tape to represent bandaging.The oil stained the paper underneath but did not have the desired effect which was to make the latex bubble.What I find particulary interesting is how the latex has removed the oil from the paper underneath it.I wanted to use the large eyes again to focus on Hang’s hunger for the surgery.I wanted to use the chicken meat so that people would feel disgusted at the industry.I think this image has been quite sucessful

‘The Broad’ by Jean Michel Basquait. I feel that this painting relates well to plastic surgery as it shows the inner turmoil of the mind and also the patchwork often messy look of after surgery or even botched surgery.

Jenny Savile ‘Ugly’ I like how this painting uses the title ‘ugly’ and presents someone who has went through surgery in order to look ‘pretty’ I think has great irony and hopefully disgusts people the same way i want to with my art.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_ytbaK8aLlap0CLR4bw5G1lMlzI27ijn

I decided to use layers of emulsion then cooking oil and ink to build up a painting which was originally of Hang Mioku.I liked the way the oil ran with the ink and the consistancy of it.I then decided to deconstruct using a chisel which is an instrument shaped similar to an osteotome use in nose surgery.I then thought of the phrase ‘your eyes are bigger then your belly’ in terms of plastic surgery.The want and need for more and more.So I used egg cartons to suggest this then poured oil into them untill it over flowed (see video).I think i like this piece at certain stages but not at others.Particualy the abstract ink/oil stage and when i had freshly scratched into it.I wonder if this is the same feeling people have at particular stages in surgery?I also can’t say that i feel a strong like or dislike towards this piece which i am still trying to figure out why

I visted this exhibition this time last year and found that the size of the photo’s themselves had the most shocking impact.All the different stages of Emin’s surgery learing over you in a very intimadating fashion.

The ideal that surgery will lead to ultimate happyness is often wrong.

I experimented with injecting oil into an orange and a chicken thigh due to their skin-like texture.I felt that there was something ever so slightly sexual about the way the oil seeped back out again

Viktor Ivanov ‘Meat teddybear’ was a partial inspiration behind me sewing the chicken skin together and making ‘meat parcels’

The deconstruction and reconstruction of the chicken piece.I wanted to show how once flesh is operated on it will never look the same again whether this be in a bad or a good way.I want people to be disgusted by the piece which seems to of been the effect that has happened around the class.

I decided to sew the skin together to give the effect of human skin.I loved the visual effect of how the skin looked slimey and grotesque and also how the inside of the chicken skin was similar to that of human flesh.I also liked the connection between ‘the butchers’ on the chicken pack and how people are basically butchered during botch plastic surgery jobs.

‘To Age is not a crime’ Major Project

26th Feb 202028th Mar 2020 | harussell1

I started looking at replacing the features of the face with cut outs form magazines to show the commercial element of plastic surgery and how people are influenced by it.I used red in the background of the original image as symbolism for danger/warning.

I then started to focus on the continous line drawing I had drawn of Hang Mioko.How could i develop this further?I decided to use cooking oil to paint continous line pictures of her.I found it very interesting the way the oil slowly seeped into the newsprint paper and made it become transparent.

I used this piece by Jonathan Yeo to influence my performance art piece.By using the incisions lines around the eyes to suggest where to cut.I like the mixed media appeal to this painting.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1a5YWqUQ5dozH9V73d6JrQSG47kwoeNEc

Stage 1-wanted to show incision lines true to the ones used in surgery

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1a5YWqUQ5dozH9V73d6JrQSG47kwoeNEc

I think the next stage is to start injecting oil into different items to see how it reacts and doccumenting this.

‘Under the lense’ Looking at different elements of the face under a magnifying glass in the same way someone with body dismorphia might.And Also from the point of view of a surgeon.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/body-dysmorphia/

https://www.addictioncenter.com/community/plastic-surgery-addiction/

I think i want to experiment with some more photography/performance art pieces involving the surgeon and patient and play around with the control aspect.

‘To age is not a crime’ Major Project (Reflection on crit)

26th Feb 202028th Mar 2020 | harussell1

Some of the things that were mentioned to me by peers/new artist in residence and the tutor during my latest crit was:

Callender girls
Plastic surgery- Look at sewing and collaging together photographs
Photography of old skin
Fountain of youth
silhouttes of bodies
photoshop editing
fashionable ‘granma’s’
paint with makeup
make own beauty advertisment mocking beauty adverts
What does it mean to be invisable?
Have older women become inivisable or has culture changed?
is this invisability more prominent in women?
is it about ageing in general or is it more prominent in women?
Do you want to focus on one person?
Susan Boyle-Audiences laughed before hearing her sing because she wasn’t ‘convienantly attractive’
good research-from tv and stats.
Good variety of mediums
What does the idea of invisability mean?-Desire?Power?What do you loose?
Idea of meat-use pieces of meat
Try out photography-bring real women to light
Internet influencers to look at Baddie wrinkle.

During my crit I was asked to look at what i am really interested in and try to refine what i was looking at.I had mentioned briefly how I was quite interested in Jennifer Grey’s plastic surgery story where she had had surgery on her nose to make herself more employable yet it had ended up loosing her work because she was no longer reckonisable.The teacher suggested that if this was what i was interested in then i would need to do a lot of research fast.

I decided to start researching images of people who had had plastic surgery and quite quickly found myself uncovering alot of ‘botched plastic surgeries’One of particular interest was a korean lady who used to be a model called Hang Mioku.She became addicted to plastic surgery and was refused any more so decided she would inject silicon into her skin at home and when she ran out of silicon she used cooking oil.This in turn disfigured her face badly.She then went on a tv show to ask people to raise money so that she could get corrective surgery.She has had 10 corrective surgeries since but surgeons aren’t able to fully correc the damage that has been done to her face.

I became really interested not only in the shapes that had now occured in the woman’s face through the injection of cooking oil but the use of cooking oil itself and using it as a material.

After 10 surgeries her face is still unreckonisable.

I also started to consider the cycle of plastic surgery.And how this could be considered in terms of work so i thought about the construction and the reconstruction of this woman’s face and also about showing the mental trauma which is cause by body dismorphia by looking at your body under a magnifying glass so much so that you start to distort your minds image of what your body looks like.

I also think there is alot of power play between the patient and the surgeon.That person may think they are in control of what happens to their body but really that control liys in the hands of the surgeon which can be so easily abused leading to botched plastic surgeries.

‘To age is not a crime’ Major project

17th Feb 202023rd Mar 2020 | harussell1

After my one to one i was advised to prehaps veer away from the use of orange peel as a media and focus on using more varying media so that i have more that i can develop from.She mentioned that my research didn’t link very well with the work i had done either so i started to look at vintage adverts from the 1950’s promoting skincare and modern day adverts and what the slogans are/were was there many differences?

I also remembered my mum saying that once you got to 50 people don’t see you anymore and you just become ‘invisable’ i spoke to different people int he class for their opinion and to other older women that i knew and that point of viewed differed depending on that women’s confidence and attitude towards life one woman saying that ‘life was too short to care of what people thought’ and another woman saying that she felt it was a cultural thing because the brittish and americans don’t respect there elderly which is shown by putting them into care homes.I also watched a bbc interview with some online ‘influencers’ over the age of 70.One comment that stood out for me was one of the women saying ‘if you don’t live your life and try to stand out then you become ‘invisable’.

The word invisable started to stand out for me so I started to look at way’s i could make elderly women look invisable and realised when using collage as a medium that elderly women were invisable in the press!I found a totaly of 4 pictures of women i would think to be over the age of 50 in comparison to the overwhelming amount of women age 40 and under.If the media act like this age range doesn’t exsist then that has a huge effect on the viewer.

I didn’t really mind using the orange peel as much in these pieces as i feel that it has transended away from it’s original form using the photocopier and in the first couple of images it frames the image but also gives a feeling of stitches/surgery.

To Age is not a crime. Major Project

17th Feb 20203rd Apr 2020 | harussell1

I started to look at other way’s i could further develop the use of orange peel within my work.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ViIq9QV6be8CY_3KlWER9aTSc3U8iZia

I started to look at way’s that it could be used within a mask.Also using orange peels to cover breasts so that the use of the peels were symbolic in connection with females/the female body.

After making the mask i realised that one of the peels covered my mouth which almost made me look like i was gagged and powerless.I feel that this tied in well with the whole message of anti-ageing within the industry and women being voiceless just forcefed infomation which they feel pressured into acting on.It also made me think of plastic surgery and of creating a ‘new skin’ and trying to dis-associate from the natural ageing process.I also decided to cover the orange peel in slogans that i found from an article.

Quick developmental drawing drawn from the oragne peel which had dried

Reconstructed peel-Thought the half an orange was good symbolism for the vulva.

I also looked at different shapes that i could make with the orange peel and tried to reconstruct the peel.I also did a developmental drawing of this using watercolour media.I then added more peel onto the mask to find out what the mask would look like if it covered the whole face.

I then started to look at statistics within the film industry and how on average 74% of men were offered roles above females between 2011-2017.And also a chart showing the ages in which females an males are hired for films.From the age of 36 onwards females seem to be dismissed and from ages 62-72 the ages seem to match up. (these findings being from 2006-2016)

I decided to photocopy the orange peel and reverse the colour.This had a really interesting effect as the texture of the inside of the peel close up has a scaley effect and went blue in colour and looked quite space like.

Some experimental collage
I like how this image has taken a horror movie twist since being photocopied.This is something i would like to take forward.
This image i felt was symbolic of not only a penis but ovaries aswell
l like the linear qualities of this pic
I feel that this piece has a space like/horror movie quality to it

I then experiemented with imagery using the actress from the baby jane film,orange peel and collage.

I then looked at creating a mask using the inside of the peel and did a collage of this.I felt that the collage was quite sucessful on it’s own.

Looking back at the work i have done so far i think that the collage work is actually more sucessful then the sewn orange peel.I think sewing the orange peel was actually quite time comsuming aswell and that prehaps i should of reckonised this initiatlly and that would enabled myself to get more quick inital responses done.

I also looked at a couple of artists including Paul Mcarthy (for his developmental drawings as suggested by my tutor int he group crit),Sarah lucas for her use of inanimate objects used in a sexual/lewd manner and Emma Finn as suggested by our artist in residence for her use of face masks. Also Martha Rosler due to her reflection on beauty.

Paul Mccarthy-baby world 1984-I like his loose style of drawing

Sarah Lucas.-I like the simplistic yet crude use of materials

‘Double mountain by Emma Finn.I like the mask effect.

Martha Rosler ‘Body beautiful or body knows no pain’
These different images of women ‘beautifying’ themselves being uses as shipping containers i think is a strong yet effective image in conveying it’s meaning.I would like to try something similar within collage.

Major Project ‘To Age is not a crime’

21st Jan 202028th Mar 2020 | harussell1

For our FMP we were given a variety of themes that we could use but I decided to use my own theme.

Working between two ideas.The post stick notes feature stand out comments and questions from articles.

To start with I was stuck between two ideas.One was how female ageing is portrayed by the media and how women are treated in the tv/film industry due to age.

The second one was inspired by a video I watched where female celebrities were asked intrusive questions based on the fact that they are female and not focusing on there career. Some of these questions were:

‘Where you able to wear undergarments? (when the male presenter recieved a shocked response) ‘Is this inappropiate?!?’
‘If you could pick make-up or your phone which one would you pick?’
‘What are you looking for in a man now?’
Your gonna walk home with more then just a trophy tonight.I think lots of men!’
‘There is one subject we didn’t talk about…Your Breasts!’
‘Aren’t you worried that people will pick up on the sexual references and not care about your music?’

I decided to choose the first idea as it seemed to generate the most questions.I also found alot of interesting articles which had some stand out ‘pro ageing’ comments aswell ascomments which brought attention to certain issues

Some of these comments were:

Ageing is not a crime
Invisable women
Ageing has no cure
Ageing isn’t a disaese
Why is ageing treated like a problem to be solved?
‘Women cast as players in a doomed quest for eternal youth‘

I thought about writing these slogans onto suffragette style posters,and also sewing them onto orange skin and doccumenting the skin ageing and how the writing changes on it as it does.I felt that orange skin would be an interesting choice of material due to it’s skin like pores and texture and the fact that it ages.I also considered creating some kind of mask using the peel too.