Image choosen as final image as i felt that this best represented the theme in terms of how PTSD effects ex war veterans due to the story a friend of mine told me from experience (see last post)
Some feedback I recieved from tutors/classmates was that the photo was
comical/yet sinister.
Do the eyes have to look like eyes or could I use something else in replacement of them?
Do the eyes have to be on a person?
Has a look of animie about it.
Difficult to corrolate meaning
Will i decide to let conceptual inform my future practice?
The artist in residence mentioned that prehaps i should look at an artist who’s name she can’t remember but whom uses parts of magazines on her face.
Artist in residence suggested using the app called ‘face tune’ which is the app that Cindy Sherman has been using within her current work.There is also filters on the Mac that can give you ‘long eyes’
Prehaps i should stick the eyes on and stand in different public places and film using a timelapse.Would be interesting to see the public’s response.Also having the eyes on whilst doing every day things about the house or maybe just lying in bed looking at the ceiling.
The tutor commented that the piece was very performative and had good future performative potential there was still more that could be tested and developed.She also mentioned that I should prehaps concentrate more on the idea which is serious and move away from the visual comical aspect.
Idea was taken from original face paint idea.I decided I wanted to make the idea clearer using paper and an animated eye
The most exsaggerated pupil I think may get the message across the best as it shows that person in a constant state of alert.
After my one to one with the tutor we looked at what worked and what didn’t work and at making my ideas clearer in order to help with the creative process.I took my two ideas and wrote them down and looked at which one could get my idea across most simply.I realised that my ideas weren’t clear enough and the tutor discussed with me how my idea was the most important thing more important then the visual aspect and to focus in on the most simple approach visually and not to over complicate things.
I decided to write both of the ideas I had been using in order to simplify things
Focusing on the idea that I had choosen and how i was going to convey it in the simpliest way I could.
One of my ideas had been about carrying weight physically due to weight being carried mentally and the connection between these two things.How does one effect the other?Altho I liked the idea the visual was too complex and I was concerned that the audience/viewer wouldn’t understand the meaning behind my work as i felt that it could relay many other meanings which wasn’t neccessarily what I wanted.
In contrast,my second idea had the opposite set of issues,the visual idea was simple,yet strong but my idea had become almost lost along the way. The idea had been one of wearing a mask to cope with deep seated issues inside,but it would make no sense as to why the mask was only covering the eyes.
So I decided to go back to the ‘drawing board’ so to speak.I looked at my last theme of PTSD as i felt that there was so much more to explore.I decided to look at how PTSD effects ex war veterans.A friend of mine was effected by this and I remember him saying that he would enter every room/situation with his ‘eyes wide open’ allways on edge,waiting at any minute for an explosion.And that someone once banging a packet of crisps in a canteen made him duck for cover under a table.He told me he was fed up and exsausted by living this way.It also made me think of homeless ex-veterans almost having to relieve the same experience all over again but on the streets,constantly on edge and wary of what could happen next.It is a trained mind-set within war but did they really think this is what it would end up being used for?
I decided to look at different ways i could develop this idea so I decided to use animated/exsagerated paper cartoon looking eyes using different sizes of pupils and paper.I did this as I wanted to emphasize the constant fear/lack of trust in the environment surrounding that person.By accident I realised that the tilt of my head and the fed up looking expression (that i had done without realising) Was effective in portraying how exsausting it can be.
Here are two video’s where i experimented with taking the eyes off to reveal different eyes with different pupils which reveal different levels of shock/awareness
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