This week I played around with a couple of ideas for my installation.And greated a champayne tower using red cups.I was hoping to buy more of the small cups that i had used previously but this turned out to work in my favour as the size of the cups made a fantastic sculpture when glued together.I decided to stick them together in two lots of 3 due to three being seen as an ‘unlucky’ number.I also pondered as to whether the cups should be glued together in a chaotic way but then I realised that the mucus is the chaos and that the uniformed stacking of the cups should be the ‘calm’ in a way.
To start with i was going to use a bigger plynth but then I realised that the small plynth worked perfectly in creating the perfect ‘fragility’ of how this tower could be knocked over at any moment and cause even bigger chaos.How these cups resembled the lives of people living togehter the slime the covid and tension bubberling over.
Plynth showed the fragility of the situation.Slime was created using pva and paint,I added more and more pva in the top cup untill it overspilled.There was something really therapeutic in the calmness of this chaos.The watered down solution had much less effect.Height used for intimadation,red for warning and the bundled together cups the people living/partying in close proximity with someone who may be infected.The overpouring slime is the tension building up to boiling point as with Taylor’s case.
Some reactions to the cups have been that of wonder ‘wow,how are they balancing?’ As alot of people didn’t realise they were superglued together,I just hope they hold up with the weight of the slime in them particulary the top one!But even then it may look better if it falls through.I’m really pleased and pleasantly suprised with how this has worked out.
From the book ‘Marina Abramovic the artist is present’The balancing of the cups on the plynth was made to look like an illusion,due to the fargility of the plynth itself and the way the cups look like there carefully balamced on top.Covid embodied is surposed to be an embodied illusion who interacts with what would normally be seen as an every day household item but which is given much more importance due to the context around the cups and the performance itself.
From Marina Abramovic’s book ‘the student body.’ I love this prop which gives the notion of ‘illusion’ like a magic trick our brain’s are ‘tricked’ into believing otherwise.Lurking about the studio…
Thinking back,I think i would of been better off doing something like this but using room 610 (a room free to use for anyone)Untrimmed and unedited.It would of been could to of used the tower for the green screen (well deffinately a blue screen if i was to go back and do it again)
I thought that what would bring the installation together would be a Western Style ‘Wanted’ poster,If Covid was a person what would people do?I plan on printing off more of these and sticking them around the uni and various other places.I think it would make quite a good graffiti stencil too.
This week was the week of silent group crits.Personally I would of prefered to of had crits before this point so that i could gain more opinions and reactions to my piece which would of helped shape it better.But I know that’s not everyone’s preference.
MucusMain suspect.The covid sticks were reguarded as ‘too literal’ My faithful Camera lady Emily Chan,Inspiration taken from a scrub down/murder board.A Covid board!
I personally felt that everyone took the performance far too seriously and looking for deeper meaning when it is meant to evoke a feeling of unease and humour through the absurdity.The audieces reaction was far too quiet even when I played Taylor’s piece which made me question alot of things.How does this piece fit into the world of art?How do I evoke more of a reaction?People I had shown who aren’t in the art world seemed to understand it better then the people who were.I think that’s because they took it at face value.I want my art to be availible to the general public so does it really matter that a select group of people didn’t react the way I hoped and instead rather awquardly.
I loved the motion of the movement of the jelly.It was mentioned tome during the crit that it should prehaps of been casually thrown at the audience?Or that i should of tried to of served it along with the mucus.
Reactions weren’t as I expected.
You think I’m funny?!?
I wasn’t going for as much of a comedic value with this video so i’ll let people off on the laughing front.
Reactions from the crit were as follows;
‘Dark,gross and disgusting.funny,scared would be made to drink the mucus.Are the party cups to do with parties and socialising?Beer pong.Tutor interupted to ask how the videos were read? Did Taylor applying the green to her face symbolise it could be passed on?Covid had been made more light hearted through this.Without the covid test could it still be read as covid?Isn’t the mucus dependent on the individual?Sterile and unclean,clult/infection spread,mindmap,green liquid as a starting point for disease,are the tests too much info?Less info ont he performance and just show the jelly?Show items one by one.Cup with overpour of mucus.Green works well itself.Just keep pouring untill no water left.Bobby Baker table of occasions.Calm but chaos,no reaction to the chaos from the covid monster itself.Have people standing in a line constantly smudging each other with the green paint or use red thread and get people to walk to one another with it.
I felt that a bedsheet was the most fitting for the covid monster because if it was gonna spring up from anywhere it would be your bed!Especially as you spend the most time in it whilst ill.
Dylon dilueted in water and salt.The colour turned out much better then expected and esactly what I wanted considering the dye sachet was only meant for a small amount of material equal to that of a shirt.
I used a mixture of pva and olive green paint in order to gloop it onto the bedsheet and make it seem as realistic as possible giving the effect of snot/mucus.
Using the plasma cutter in Welding I cut out the shape of the ripe sternum using the card maquette that I had made previously (something i do which helps me work out the size and how things will work/not work.I had drawn out the outfit but it wasn’t untill I tried ti on in realisty that I realised it could easily be mistaken for a hijab which ofcourse I didn’t want.It made sense that the ribsternum needed to be detached from the headband as it was the headband and the colour grey that as making the outfit look most like a hijab and that the rib sternum should be made into a necklace to sit where the ribs are.
The theory behind the plague Doctor outfit was that it would ‘isolate’ the doctor meaning that they wouldn’t get contaminated.Much like the modern day PPE.I wanted one of the eyes to give resemble one of the plague dr goggles/gasmask.
I wanted the covid moster to resemble almost that of a scooby doo villian in terms of it’s mischieviousness but with a more sinister intent.
Same of the scariest masks are some from the victorian era,outfits would most commonly be made using ‘crepe’ paper (something which was new to that era and everyone was very excited about) masks were however made using paper mache,fabric and paint all of this left terrifying results!I wanted the covid monster to be infuenced by the simplicity of outfits like these almost with a mixture of a ‘bedsheet ghost’
simple yet sinister
Amazingly sad movie but I love the fact that altho the outfit was just a bit sheet the meaning was so much more then that.
I decided to attach the positive covid test first using super glue and then by stitching them on and adding the positive symbol in the middle of the ‘eye’ and then adding the pva and ink gloob to the other eye area.The necklace then gave great shape to the head and the shape of the rest of the gown had a rather formed yet high fashion shape to it the fitted ends of the sheet giving great shape to the arms.It resembled a body bag tho but also the hood used before someone is hanged.I hoped that the body bag shape wouldn’t cause offense to anyone who’s family member had died due to covid as that isn’t what i have intended.
The hooded head reminded me of a hang mans sack.
‘Pirates’ was a show I watches as a child and the top right character who allways remained in a sack reminded me of the covid monster.As I child I forever wondered who was in the sack which I want the audience to do with covid also.
A mixture of pva,ink and olive green paint left int he plastic pot from pouring onto the sheet turned out to make a perfect eye!
A poster I made and put up in the corridoor in order to see what people would respond.The respose wasn’t as interesting as I thought it would be.I think I will mayb put more up around the uni and see what happens.
On the left a collage piece aiming to resemble the gloom of the covid monsters.I find this to be quite an effective way of resembling it.
On the right is a page from the book ‘A brief history of the dance of death’ by Ian Breakwell.I think I would like to overlap the faces of thoose who have had covid with the covid monster.After speaking to a tutor who knew the artist himself he said that most of his work was actually done on the photocopier which is something I used to be really keen on years and years ago.
As a Mean girls fanatic I decided to ask each person if they had felt personally victimised by Covid,but what I did not expect was to unravel the household dramas that covid had caused in certain student households.I found it interesting that almost all of the participants choose a different colour to reflect on their experience with Covid.I decided to ask a variety of ages from the age of 9-50s.I was interested to see how a child would persieve it in comparison to an adultand also how each participant applied the paint when asked to apply it to the areas they felt it the most.Was the application of the paint connected to their own personal memory of covid?Taylor applied her paint like make-up whilst re-counting her personal experience of covid mixed whilst Marlee who i expected to apply the paint in a messy fashion due to being a child aplied it daintily and carefully to her throat and choose black which I found to be unexpected too.
(Bekiemphis 2022 The Guardian)The lockdown not only effected housemates but couples too.And that the long simmering resentments was one thing in common.
‘Have you ever felt personally Victimised?’ my inspiration behind asking the question is from this scene in ‘Mean Girls’
‘What’s your damage,Heather?’ ‘The Heather’s’ another high school drama which ties in well with the drama unfolding between Taylor and her flatmates.
Inspired by these stage scenes from ‘This is the story of a woman who’ from the book ‘Marina Abramovic the artist body’ ‘ I got Taylor and Kristina to try and recreate a fight scene of there own,showing the tension that has built up amongst the housemates since the ‘outbreak’
It seems like Taylor and her housemates issue was a common one at the time.
Taylor
I loved taylor’s dramatised version of events and have decided I would like to interview her in the green room in the future if possible.I love that it became almost like ‘Covid the soap opera’I also found that filming taylor outside was quieter then filming in the studio and her smoking whilst applying the paint gave a glimpse at her character and made the film seem more ‘personal’
Marlee
Emily
Altho this was the only video filmed using a tripod and I feel like the shot length is right I didn’t expect the noise of the studio to reverb so much which frustrated me as the video had great content and Emily thought hard about her answers.
Kristina
Kristina’s application of the paint was messy and creative,she also demanded to be filmed up high on a table which wasn’t the best due to the noise and her being quietly spoken
June
There is a first half to this film but I decided to just post the 2nd half due to June talking about being treated like a ‘leper’ as she got covid during the early stages of the Pandemic as oposed to the later stages when more was known about it and the stigma had worn off.June didn’t agree to the face paint.
Alana and Claire
Both felt quite shy about being interview individually but agreed to be interviewed together and refused face paint.
Naia.
BUT EVERYTHIng tastes like sponge?
During Covid and still now I have no taste nor smell.I wanted to show this by eating food then eating sponge and vice versa.Sadly I could only get white sponge which blended too much with the plate.It turns out sponge is really hard to pick up with a fork also!I’ve never realised how I have taken such simple pleasures for granted untill now.
Alex DA CORTE
Tutor had memtioned how my work was reflective of Alex Da Corte and Wahols,altho there food obviously stayed conistant throughout!There is something mesmerising however about watching people eat and how they eat as each person’s style seems one onto their own.
This week my project took a full 180 degrees turn.What was meant to be a weekend visit to my partner who lives in Okrney turned out to be a full week due to us both getting Covid.In my fevered delirious state i started to wonder if the cloaked figure I had imagined was actually a premonition of my own covid due to the fact it had a rib sternum as a face covering.I had felt so lost with what esactly the world was going to be that connected to the cloaked monster but now I knew.That world was this world and Covid visits us when we least expect it.The most hideous monster of them all
Covid Feels like.
Covid feels like: Burning hot pokers pushed into your eye sockets.
Covid feels like: Having your head crushed slowly by a car door.
Covid feels like: A lump in your throat that will swallow YOU whole.
Covid feels like: ‘Welcome to the worry factor’
Covid feels like: ‘I’m gonna fail,I’m gonna fail’
Covid feels like: ‘I can’t afford it’
Covid feels like:’Rich,Rich,RICHARD’
Covid feels like: *SNORES*
Covid feels like: *Cough…spew…cough*
Covid feels like: ‘it’s chocolate,it’s something you like’
Covid feels like ‘Not on your nelly,not one little bite’
Covid feels like: Missed opportunities.
Covid feels like: -£900.18
Covid feels like: There had to be a positive.
I wrote this in the midst of covid and altho I felt down and burnt out by it to start with one night whilst wide awake with the shivers I felt inspired to write this.
I also kept a diary entry.
When life gives you covid make a cup of mucus.
Day 1 8pm: It all started when I went for dinner with Richard and the girls. He wanted to sign up to
Rev comps and I was trying to ignore the fact that I felt ill until he went to sign up and it delayed us
leaving so I blurted out ‘I feel ill! Please don’t!’ Can we go now?
We watched 1408 as it seeped in I sure as hell wished we hadn’t as most Stephen King movies are
like a fever dream anyways and I swear this just made it worse. I didn’t know what day of the week it
was by the time it had finished and my temperature soared through the roof. Rich tested me.I was
negative which was the positive in my mind.
DAY 2 5am: Searing pain in my eye sockets, my head feels like it’s been slammed in a car door several
times. The pain keeps me awake the chills make me not want to leave my bed to search for
ibuprofen. Decided to wait until almost day light (which takes a while in Orkney in the winter) to
wake Richard because I couldn’t handle the pain much more. Out of the goodness of his heart he
wet me a small towel and applied it to my head and eyes. It was a small gesture but one I was so
grateful for. I finally slept until 9am.
He took the day off to look after me.
He’s too sweet.
I lay on the couch lethargic and coughing up flem balls like flemy cat.
Somehow, we came to the unanimous decision that going to the spa would be a great idea.
(It was not)
Turns out the sauna and steam room did not clear the flem in my throat it just made it SO much
worse. It felt like the thickest flem ever that I couldn’t clear or get up. The coughing was leading to
me gagging, which was so embarrassing (especially in public)
Rich told me to spit.
I’d rather swallow.
I was meant to be going home tonight but I had to reschedule due to feeling so ill. It cost me £30 to
reschedule.
Day 3: I slept so well!!!!I woke up so refreshed!!I never sleep like this, I barely even noticed Rich
leaving for work! The hill is alive with the sound of…shivers? The cough of doom? FFS. At least I
managed to get the clothes washed and some of the dishes done though. I decided to run another covid
test because something isn’t right here…
POSITIVE.
Messaged Rich because he was in a meeting. He comes home then…
POSITIVE.
Couples who get covid together stay together right?
His &hers
How sweet.
I had to reschedule the ferry (again)they let me do it for free this time though because to travel with
them with covid is against their policy. Thank God as I had no money left.
Feeling so para about Uni, had to cancel my welding session, tutorial and everything. I didn’t want to
fail.I can’t fail. I really don’t want to fall behind but what can I do?
I messaged Pernille, she said t would be ok to talk to her about it. That and the 10,000 other things
keeping me behind just now. My Dads ill ,my cats ill ,I’m ill. I have no money. Urgh.
I can’t differ again. Not this time.
We played stardew valley. It was addictive yet therapetutic I can see how people got hooked during
lockdown and how it helped mental health. Planting, listening to rainfall and relaxing music.
We watched Goodfellas.
Day 4:I couldn’t sleep, Rich’s bed is as solid as a mortuary slab and my hips and back cant take it. I
shivered so much, hugged him for warmth but even he wasn’t his usual warm self. I didn’t wanna get
up because I was too cold to turn the heating on. I finally got up and turned it on. Tossed and turned
consistently. My back and hips hurt, it was too hot it was too cold, coughing,I thought covid was
meant to make you lethargic? I thought up a spoken word poem about covid and all of a sudden it hit
me,
THIS IS A POSITIVE.
The hooded creature with the rib sternum IS COVID. The elephant in the room!!The ultimate
creepester in the room! The one guy you didn’t invite to the party but he turns up anyways
UNINVITED. No matter how big or how small he is he’s there.
I moved to the livingroom to sleep but the ideas paced and paced my head.
Day 5:I can’t smell or taste. Somehow I never noticed this until now. It makes life so abysmal.I keep refusing food and Rich is getting worried. Trying to makesure I atleast take supplements. We went for a walk across the beach. I only managed half way before feeling absolutely freezing,I feel that this was mostly down to me not eating. Everything tastes like textures. My head feels heavy. All I want to do is sleep constantly. I moved the ferry again to Friday this time. Luckily having covid means you can’t travel with them so they will transfer the trip for free.
Day 6: We chanced a walk to Tesco. The exercise did me good and if it was Richard’s way we would be climbing mountains by now but am I fuck. He tested negative. Can’t help but feel bitter about it! Starting to wonder if I will ever test negative at this rate. Or even get my taste and smell back. Not looking forward to getting the ferry home tomorrow especially feeling like this.
Day 7:Even packing for the ferry was a killer let alone getting on it. It was pouring down too which wasn’t great, the ferry wasn’t too rough atleast.
Day 8:I had to wait atleast 2 hours on the train. Forcing myself to eat food I couldn’t taste and then struggling with my luggage to the taxi rank. Taxi driver felt so sorry for me after I told him my multiple sob stories that he gave me a can of energy juice.haha.
Day 9:still positive and I need to pick the cat up.My brothers autistic OCD traits were going into overdrive. Sanitising my hands at his door, wearing a mask. wouldn’t let me use the toilet or touch anything that wasn’t Tia’s. I’m definitely greatful that this happened now and not during lockdown as I spose I would of faced this off everyone. Went to the shops, bought food but barely ate it.
Day 10.Still positive although my mentality is not.Apparently I am well over the infectious stage so is ok to return to the public even though I feel guilty about doing so.Rich is sending me vitamins.I managed to eat breakfast and lunch although it felt like yuck. Mushroom stroganoff tasted like the texture of slugs. Emily made me eat a banana for her project because the joke is that I ‘wouldn’t be able to taste it anyway’ I still hated the texture. I couldn’t even swallow so I spat. Spoke to Pernille, feel better about things now. I will just take everything one step at a time and stop comparing my workload to last years. Done printmaking prep which was an effort and a half. Pushed myself to stay all day and do as much as possible
Did you know your an amazon warrior?
I decided to smear body paint where i felt it the most which was my eyes,head and throat,I also felt like I was drowning in my own mucus which wasn’t particulary a pleasent feeling.Mucus which never comes up.
During a talk from a lecturer (Delia) in my expansive module she mentioned how Amazon Warriors use a type of red seed which is also used to colour cheese in the West and cheesey crisps etc to smear there bodies with in order to protect them from measels!I was in shock as I knew nothing about this but instinctively I was drawn to do this!
I think when I return to uni (hopefully next week) I will ask fellow students who have had covid to go over their stories of it and to choose a colour that they feel best resembles their experience with covid aswell as interview them about their experience.
The covid monster.
I decided to play about with the idea of covid as a monster,the cheap halloween costume kind made from an old snotty bedsheet.But first I decided to create it in shadow form watching over me whilst I slept.
One..two..Covids coming for you.. I like the fact that this shadow figure was reminiscent of ghostly figures from the victorian era.
An abandoned church in a chzech village was filled with lots of statues made by a local artist ‘Jakub Hadrava’ His work was to try and save the abandoned church and was meant to resemble the ‘Sudetan German’s’ (ethnic minorityGerman’s) who were expelled from the country atfter WW2 to Austria and Germany.
On the right the figue of ‘Nadja’ from ‘Art and the Occult’ prehaps ‘The Covid Monster’ is like a spirit figure only ever seen by thoose who are hallucinating due to fever.
Through out dark times in history,people have created art.What I like the most about American Gothic is the fact it was painted during the ‘great depression’ and yet the couple seemed to be in some kind of depression themselves,the painting is such a satire.I want my work to be this,dark humour,based around a dark era in the world’s history.
In this age of darkness,do we need a modern day demon to blame our troubles and woes on?Can we blame our woes on ‘the covid monster?’ as it seems that everything esp at the time of the full lockdown was blamed on Covid.Businesses being behind with workloads,people not replying to emails when they should etc etc.
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