This week,I started to look over some of the found objects that i had found and how i could display and put them together.I also looked at how some of the found objects relayed with others and how they could be combined.
The lightbulb was half filled with water that never seemed to come out.I felt like finding this object was a breakthrough moment (even if it was later on in the term as it gave the project the dystophian feel I had been hoping for but for some reason I had found myself lost without realising it using materials that only suggested a medevil era such as steel,rusted objects and natural objects.This has been a complete learning curb for me and has taught me to consider the use or materials in regaurds to the narrative of the story/project more in the future.I liked the way in which the objects fitted togetherCurious unknown artifactsI wanted to attach this object so that it would stand but due to the rust i wouldn’t be able to weld in,I tried superglue and the rust just peeled off.I realised I have a bit of an obsession not only with this auburn colour which may be why I am so obssesed with anything rusty.Twine became the only option for attaching the two items together
The Blood robots
After finding the lightbulb I felt that this helped draw in the dystophian influence and it also made me think of an Angler fish ,I decided what would happen if I mixed this with a robot? The edwards sciccor hands syle blades are hollow and draw the blood from people which in turn fuels the light bulb and also fuels the light within the town.
The mouth was also inspired by the Angler fish.
The blades were inspired by Edward Scissorhands.
Giant bomb inspired the tank in the stomach that fills with blood.
The making of the flag pole
To the right are two samples of the twist and a diagram showing me when i would need to twist.I twisted the wrong way at one point.OOPS! But we made it equal by twisting it the same way at both ends.Eyelets for the flagpole were forged and then welded on at both sides.Flag eyelets were a nightmare to keep in the material.But aslong as it attached I didn’t mind too muchMeasurements were very important to makesure the handle was at arm height and the eyelets attached to the flagpole were the right distance for the flag.The flag measured 302cm in total so quite a distance!The handle was brushed with a gold brush a technique I have used throughout.I liked the uredescent glow the handle had.
Something I should of done prior to making the flagpole was measure inside my car as the flagpole proved to be too long for it,so I had to take it back to the workshop and remove a good 20cm.The technician suggested making an extension so that it could still resume to it’s original height.I did this by welding a bigger squarer pieces of metal to a smaller piece enabling the flagpole to just slip inside of it.Altho this was a great idea at the time it just seemed to make the flag pole to ‘top heavy’ and removing the extension from the bottom of the flag pole made it less so.It was also really difficult to get the right kind of soil for it to stand in.The soil was either to hard or too soft.It managed alot better with the harder soil altho it took a while to pitch it into the ground.
Flagpole extension.Bottom Half slides onto the rest of the flag pole and acts as an extension (it also meant the flagpole could fit into the car)
A slow motion edit of the flag up Law hill.The wind was super strong that day and the flag pole had to be held up towards the end and the flag started to tear out of the eyehole it was that strong so I had to hold the flag pole and the flag after a while.
This shot I felt was particulary powerful due to the way it caught the sun right in the middle of the eye symbol.I choose Balgay park to film this part in as I had allready scouted out this particular area last time I was there and noticed that the lighting was amazing at that time of day and how it made the leaves look red and how eerie the trees looked.I only edited the warmth slightly in this shot along witht he contrast as the sun was doing most of it for me.Sadly tho due to how loose the earth was and the fact it was on a hill I wasn’t able to get the flagpole to free stand.
Different edit where by I enhanced the blue of the sky and the warmth of the flag more so.I felt like doing this gave the sky much more of a dystophian/outer worldly feel.
I decided to overlay the Red lady with the movement of the flag as I was interested in how the material of the flag would move with the cloth of the hood.I also wanted the symbol on the flag to tie in with her torment and torture.I have just kept the orginal sound in for this video as there seems to be a scream in the background without it even being purposeful.Altho I have wanted the video’s to be soundless I may experiment with some with sound too.
This edit uses a slightly warmer tone and did’t turn out quite as condensed as the first one (I’m still trying to work out what I did differently it may be due to how I exported it).All in all I’m really pleased with how both of these have turned out and I think is amongst my most sucessful piece so far.
Just lately I have been watching the Andy Warhol diaries on Netflix.What I found particulary interesting from this doccumentary is that few people really knew Warhol as his personality was part of an act and a persona and most of all part of his art.I liked the fact that this doccumentry wasn’t another run of the mill doccumentry about his work but rather a deeper and darker look into Warhol himself via his diary entries.It made me think about ‘The Red Lady’ and how much of a cross over there is between my personality and hers.I think we certainly share the same strength of character.
This week was alot about experimenting,trialing different ideas and seeing what worked and what didn’t.I also felt like it was quite a lsow week and I have been struggling with not really having anyone to bounce ideas off of in the studio.
I did however,find that it really helped having my one to one with one of the tutors this week.She really helped clear my head in regards to the whole performance/sculpture balance.She recomended that i do keept the performance aspect even if it is just the short films and maybe have a performance opening night of the exhibition then leave all the things i have made out and some films running.We talked over the idea of this dystophian world and the importance of the character having a backstory.Prehaps her character was invented by men in order to stop there wifes from gossiping and to keep them under control and these stories were told to young girls so that they would behave.We also talked about leaving bound items in the woods and punlic places etc.
We also discussed the myth of the red lady in the modern day world.What if she was like Bloody Mary or slender man?What if parts of her tale were true and the rest got lost in myth and then resurfaced as an internet myth?
Slender man was created on a ‘something awful’ online forum for a 2009 photoshop parnormal image contest.The myths were then expanded by fan fiction.The myth of ‘slender man’ encouraged two 12 year olds to lore their friend into the woods and stab her 19 times.Which infact seems more sinister then the myth itself.
Bloody Mary was used in the olden days by women in order to see their future husband in the mirror.They would either day it 3 or thirten times whilst holding a candle in a mirror and soemtimes when walking backwards upstairs.It is said you would either see the face of your future husband or they may see a skull or the face of the grim reeper instead.It is said that staring in the mirror for long spells in darkness actually causes hallucinations.
After watching ‘The First Monday in May’ on Netflix I was inspired by some of the faces cages on the catwork and the whole concept of fashion and art merging.So i drew up a design for a medevil style headpiece almost on par with a ‘scold’s bridel’ but without the mouthpiece as I wanted to show that altho she was free from her husband’s control she was still imprisoned within her own mind consistantly looking for revenge.
An original ‘Scolds bridle’Image drew whilst watching’the first monday in May’Using imagery to story tale.The brown crumbled paper gave an aged feel and the plaited twine holding it up made it feel like a medevil posted or warning sign.Head cage made using sticks.Playing with imagery in regards to a head cage,Development stages of a maquette used to measure out for making it with metal and to understand design flaws
I was encouraged by the welding technician that before trying to make the headcage,to try and make it from cardboard first so i could then take it apart,Measure the strips and then make it with metal,it would also point out where there might be difficulties as he predictied that making this kind of structure may prove troublesome but in order to problem solve it was best to make the maquette first.
The cardboard proved to be too heavy so never held the shape well enough and started to fall inwards.For some reason I had forgotten that maquettes are supposed to be made with card.Using card wouldn’t have as much give and therefore would hold much more like metal.
The card proved to be much easier and more light weight in regards to holding it’s shape.The card to however reveal a problem area which was in the top right corner which didn’t attach very well.
Added some Ivy that i found to the design but I feel that the centre part of the structure doesn’t stand out as much with the ivy around it.I think once the headpiece it made that i would like to try weaving around itSome cardboard packaging which i felt related well to the woven straw and twine on regards to asthetics but not in regards to material.
An Artist that was suggested to me by my one to one tutor this week was a previous student called Morgan Black who’s work focuses primarily on gender and who’s degree show imagined a past different from the one we know. I find their illustrations interesting,altho personally I prefer to do my illustrations by hand.I also like the artefacts that they have made outside.
Sekai Machache was another artist whom was mentioned to me.I find her performance pieces and costumes particulary striking especially in the surroundings she has choosen which provide the perfect surroundings.The way the colours reflect in the water is particulary striking.
Monster Chetwynd work was mentioned as her crazy bat lady image relays in a similar way to the red lady image.Altho the crazy bat lady imade has been created by cut up seperate images then glued together.I do appreciate and like the surreal quality of this image tho.I have created images like this in the past so may be a good idea to try and do something similar again.
This week I focused on more character development for whom I have now called ‘The red lady’I focused on a series of angry faces but reflecting back I think I need to add more menacing like what is seen in the short video I have made.
I experimented with a series of different ways of doing the eye make-up.Two eyes?One eye?Drawn with a brush?Drawn with fingers?I found that altho having one eye painted on worked well in the video as it exsagerrated that eye as I flew towards the camera and my hair covered the rest of my face.The primative look of the smeared on black snazeroo had a real viking feel to it and made the cahracter seem alot darker.
Favourite shot as I love how the crinkles in the corner of the eye causes themake-up to flicker up at the corners.
It is known that the vikings only wore make-up on their eyes,this was called Kohl and mainly made from a mix of antimony,burnt almonds,lead,oxidized copper,ochre,ash,malachite and chyrsocolla.
My future plan is to print a couple of these off using the printing suite for some good quality images (as the libary prints that i did were quite poor) and to hire a black and white film camera to take a couple of images with that too.As i think these would do well blown up.I also want to take a couple in the area where the lecture halls are in DJCAD as i feel like it has quite a dystophian feel which goes along quite nicely with my character.
Forging.
This week in the forging class I worked on something called a ‘pineapple twist’.This is achieved by heating the metal untill yellow and the scales are lost then squaring off the sides with a hammer.It was a very time pressured activity tho as I then had to take what looked like a wallpaper scraper and hammer it in the middle of each side untill it caused a groove.I had to hammer it into the same groove each time so if it had moved whilst hit i had to reposition it.I had to work alot on my hammering skills before I could do this tho as my hammering wasn’t as hard as it needed to be but once I got to making the twist my hammering was spot on which was really rewarding.The technician had said he wouldn’t judge me if i wanted to focus more on the metal work side of things but this was the worst thing he could of said because then I had to prove to him (and myself) that i could do it haha.My lines were straight (ish) but not bang on.I then had to twist the metal in the vice one way and then do it all over again then twist it the other.The results were alot better then expected for a first timer and it showed up quite well once i brushed it with the gold brush.I would like to go back and practice it again tho so that i can get the lines straighter.
You can see towards the left hand side where the scraper didn’t reach into the groove well enough.
A better view of the whole handle.Prehaps the is a likable touch to the almost primative quality of the handle not being quite ‘perfect’Last year during lockdown I climbed into the ruins of a fenced off castle on the east coast on a liff ledge (urban exploring is one of my favourite past times) and found what looks like an ancient poker.The technician reckons it has been in the sea at one point due to the sand-like crustaceans living on it.I don’t want to alter this object (mostly because I’m worried it will be worth money) but I would like to use it in some way as a prop.I may experiement with different ways it can be used.
Woven Sculpture
I found this piece of wood whilst filming in the forest which I felt was very vulva like.To start with i imagined it in some kind of choker (but it was a bit to death defying) haha.Then it just made sense to weave it into (what was originally) a bin lid (found in the forest whilst filming too).My future plan is to make the lid into some kind of trap/shield so I may take this apart again as I realise how important it is not to be attached to work so that it can be developed further.I also would quite like to try and make the wood into a headpiece.
Placed this experiment over the photo and realised it would look really interesting as a mask.Considered this piece to cover the mouth following on from the story that she was silenced by her husband but I feel that it looks to Hannibal Lecter!I decided to write out ‘The red lady is watching you’ as if it was written in blood with my fingers.But the piece was too big to fit anywhere.I love the sweeping gestural yet creepy effect of the writing.I may put it up in the corridoor..
I was inspired by Richard Ramirez’s satanic blood symbols that he would write using his victims blood.Apparently due to the oxysidisation of the blood once it is outside of the body it remains bright for a long period of time.
I had initally planned on filming myself walking throught the woods and disapearing at various points the re-appearing.But when filming it my friend who was filming said that you could really see any of the detail of the props/eye make-up when we were doing this. and that it would work better if i was coming towards the camera especially due to the way the light was hitting and nicely bouncing off of the headpiece I felt that i wanted to take advantage of that with some more closer to camera filming.My regret is that i didn’t get my friend to film horizontally for the shot.
I decided that i wanted the film to be grainy as I remember watching the new I.T at the cinema and being terrified of the scene where the scene in the book comes alive and it had a grainy quality to it and this is how i wanted this to seem that it had come straight out of an old horror book/scene.I wanted the image to be silent like a silent movie but I decided that the slow mo sounds were quite creepy within themselves.I do want to try a variation of other edits tho with and without music this week.
There doesn’t seem to be an awful lot of information about female warriors/tribes of the past (prehaps because the history books were mostly written by men)
But I particualry enjoyed reading about the wrath of Tomyris the queen of the Massaegetae and the vengeful way of which she waged war aganst the Persian King Cyrus the Great
‘…she took a skin, and, filling it full of human blood, she dipped the head of Cyrus in the gore, saying, as she thus insulted the corpse, “I live and have conquered you in fight, and yet by you am I ruined, for you took my son with guile; but thus I make good my threat, and give you your fill of blood.”
There are matriachal societies which exsist today such as the Minangkaubau in Indonesia where by the mothers and daughters pass down the family name and claim the inheritance etc.
Zadie Xa
A fellow class mate had told me to look at the work of Zadie Xa as her work corresponds to some of my character work.
I appreicate her mixture of discaplines and there is something to be said about how she used the space around her during her exhibitions.Altho her visual asthetic is more playful then mine.
This week I started to create the wig for the character as well as creating the character herself. I also came to the decision that as the character develops so will the wig.
After some quick development sketches, I got to work creating the wig. The initial starting point was to use a mop-head but the one I had was too small for my head, so I decided to use sheep’s wool and stretched it out and attached it to the scrap material I had used to cover the top of the foam headband. The sheep’s wool didn’t give the desired effect as ‘bus shit crazy old lady’ has really big, almost foam like hair; so I decided to use some wadding mixed in with the sheep’s wool and super-glued it together which was very effective in giving the exaggerated look I wanted. I then took a pair of old glasses and decided to cover them with red collage and the word ‘bus’ at the top; I wanted the character to look like she had walked straight out of a story book with parts of it still attached to her.
Altho i liked the effect of the sheeps wool it wasn’t the effect i was looking for and reminded me more of the character ‘Jaquerline MCcafferty’ from the Limmy show
I wanted to give the impression that her glasses were part bus too
I wanted the glasses to look like they still partially belonged in a storybook and to be completely surreal yet comical.
The glasses had a much better effect once the eyebrows were added to them.I was inspired by a devil mask which I felt fitted in well with her character.
sculpture become really eerie and took on a life of it’s own after adding a mouth to it.Considering adding more human elements
Wig and cross crutch.Becoming a warning flag of it’s own
The wig had started to become a free forming sculpture/character of it’s own. It amused me to think of her wig crawling off her head at night and going on adventures of it’s own. This is something I hope to work on in the near future. I was also lucky enough to acquire a pair of crutches from Tayside re-users which is perfect as the character uses these.
Some quick sketches/scribberlings on how I was planning to develop the wig further/eyes crutches etc.
Decided to put lace on top of the image to see if it encouraged the ‘malificent spirit’ image I so desired.
The character frightening small children in their beds.(inspiration taken from the Babadook)
Quite liking the effect of the watercolour pen with the fine liner on brown parcel paper.It makes the colour more vibrant and noticable then if it was on white paper.
Some illustrations with character scenarios/descriptions/dialogue.
I also decided to change the name of the character to ‘bus shit crazy old lady’ in order to stray away from any kind of connection with poor mental health and the from the person that she is based on.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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