Research
ORLAN
Born Mireille Suzanne Francette Porte, she's a French artist, who is most famous for disfiguring her body for art. I decided to research her because of this, as I have a curious nature for all things different. ORLAN, went under the knife for plastic surgery several times in 1990-1995, not to make herself more appealing, by editing herself for beauty or youth but to add disfigurements.
"No, my goal was to be different, strong; to sculpt my own body to reinvent the self. It's all about being different and creating a clash with society because of that. I tried to use surgery not to better myself or become a younger version of myself, but to work on the concept of image and surgery the other way around. I was the first artist to do it," - ORLAN.
( Quote from http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/jul/01/orlan-performance-artist-carnal-art, paragraph 7 )
Lucy Lyons
Lucy is a member of the Medical Artists Association and accreditation of Medical illustration Practitioners, that draws diseases and deformed humans. I'm interested in her work because she draws imperfections and defects of the human body, although the drawings are very plain in colour they are filled with detail. I'm really fascinated by her specimen jar/case drawings, since it's something I'm curious about, as I want to produce peoples flaws into specimen jars this year.
http://www.lucylyons.org/
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http://www.lucylyons.org/projects/4886474#5
Giuseppe Penone
Penone is a conceptual artist and sculptor, the piece I practically like of his is The Tree Will Continue to Grow Except at This Point. He placed an iron cast of his clutching a sapling in the Maritime Alps, so it would still grow but develop around the grip of the hand. I find this intriguing, as it is across between human and nature, I think he is trying to show how we effect our own earth and nature, like leaving our imprint on the world.
http://www.moma.org/collection/theme.php?theme_id=10454
http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/blog/richard-longgiuseppe-penone-haunch-of-venison-london/
http://terrestra.it/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/mano_penone.jpg
Jason DeCaires Taylor
Jason graduated from the London institute of arts in 1998 with a BA Honours in sculpture and then went on to qualify as a diving instructor. Jason has over eighteen years of diving experience, he has also won awards for underwater photography. He created the first underwater sculpture park in 2006, which is situated off the coast of Grenada, in the west Indies. The underwater sculpture park is listed as one of the top twenty-five wonders of the world, by National Geographic. One of this other pieces of submerged work he has done is a collection of five hundred sculptures place off the coast of Cancun, Mexico,that artwork is titled MUSA (Museo Subacuatico de Arte).
The reason I like Jason's work is because he does human sculpture parks but underwater. They really do look amazing and transform as the water weathers the piece, while one bit decays, the ocean also brings it to life with bacteria and plant life. His work has really inspired me to experiment with my ideas of underwater experimentation in the past, I love how the pieces peer deformed, while they decompose with the sea life covering them, but still giving a silhouette of a person.
Mathilde is a French artist that is base in Paris, she is another sculptor that caught my eye as she uses wheat seeds in some of their human sculptures, I'm really liking 'Lives of grass', the natural looking sculptures made out of living plant life does intrigue me. The figures are suspended in mid air, as well as on the floor, so you can walk around and admire the pieces in their full glory. The grass pieces amaze me, as they start to grow and the grass gets older, it looks like it's going through the ages of a persons life, I think the artist was aiming for this with the artwork.
https://anti-utopias.com/artist/mathilde-roussel/
Pieces information- Soil, wheat seeds, structured from recycled metal and fabric.
http://www.mathilderoussel.com/files/gimgs/23_mathilde_roussel_lifesofgrass_12.jpg
Juuke Schoorl
Juuke is a Dutch photographer, the project 'REK' 2014 (which means stretch in Dutch) is what I am more interested in, within her work. She manipulates the skin with normal household things like cello-tape, while stretching the models skin with such materials, she then takes picture of distortion. I love how a simple thing like cello-type can deform the body and make it into something different, it shows how the human body is durable and can be manipulated into different shapes. Although the model is youthful, Juuke has placed the tape in away that makes her back look weathered or old, kind of like she is wearing a waistcoat, which really differentiates the difference between the two skin types.
http://www.juuke.nl/photography/rek/
Jonathan Yeo
Jonathan Yeo is a British artist born in London, in the 70s and does portraits of famous people. Although that is not why I like his work, he does oil paintings of surgery, which I stumbled across looking for artists which play with plastic surgery. The work is amazing, the detail of the person and the artistic fade out makes the pieces look old, like diagrams from a old fashioned medical book.
http://jonathanyeo.com/about/biography/
Marc Quinn
Marc Quinn is a British artist, born 1964, London, who works with different genres of art,
such as sculpture, painting and drawing. He explores, art, science, the human body and
the perception of beauty. The latter is why I see similarities between us, those parts of his art interest me as an artist working with the body; how body image, acceptance and judgement of beauty affects us. Although his chosen working materials are different to mine, we have a similar theme of body and the celebration of it.
The sculpture created by Marc Quinn, Alison Lapper Pregnant (2005) is one of the pieces I have been inspired by within my practical work process; although I am more intrigued in the model and visual appearance of the artwork, rather than the skill or technique Marc Quinn used to produce the human form. The subject, Alison, has Phocomelia, which is a condition involving malformation of limbs, therefore she has no arms and truncated legs, The impact Alison Lapper pregnant (2005) has on me is one of curiosity and wonder. The reason this figurative sculpture resonates with me so much, is because the model is disfigured. I am not looking into disability or beauty necessarily, I feel the work follows some of the themes on body image, I am interested in. That of which is to show off the flaws and break boundaries of what is considered the proper subject matter for pieces of art, which is displayed in sculptural forms.
George Segal
I found this artist by chance and I am glad I stumbled across him while looking for plaster casting photographs for a project. Segal is an American artist, born in 1924 and now deceased (2000). He worked in different fields of art, although I found him interesting because he did sculpture and worked with the human body, but not only that he also cast using plaster and plaster bandages/Modroc. One thing I find similar to mine and Segal's work is he also left his human casts plaster white, it gives them a sense of lifelessness or purity. He didn't do flaws of people, but he did create amazing casts using similar material I use.
http://www.segalfoundation.org/index2.html
Woman with Sunglasses
Jenny Saville
I am interested in Saville's art work, especially 'Close Contact'. As she manipulates her body against perspex or glass, showing that the female form is not always beautiful visually; maybe she is showing that females do not have to comply to the beauty regulations put upon women or if you do then it is painful to manipulate your body.
Close Contact #14
Emma Gregory
Emma Gregory is an English artist, who grow up in London. The reason I am interested in her work is because she did a piece called 'Semi Permanent Collections' and within this she had drawn observations of specimens in the Victorian Gallery and Museum and place them in jars, as well as having other fascinating pieces in the collection. The piece is about things that you keep and things you can't keep, a bit like collecting or hoarding. I was more intrigued by the jars, as that is something I work with, plus curious about, I have recently seen this piece at the Victorian Gallery and Museum in Liverpool and it is really interesting.
https://glasswaxandpencil.wordpress.com/
http://www.emmagregory.co.uk/home.htm
Mark Dion
Dion is an American sculpture and installation artist, within his installations he exercises his interests in ecology, zoology and archaeology. He seems to collect interesting specimens, artifacts and displays them in different ways, such as cabinets and scientific displays, which I am inquisitive about and find fascinating. Like Dion I also have glass jars within my work and display them in a glass cabinet for the same visual effect, although my work is based on collecting flaws, I see similarities between Dion's and my own work, this is probably due to the same interests.
The piece which really draws me in of Mark Dion's is 'Marine Invertebrates', the artwork resembles a Victorian display case which exhibits specimen jars. It is a very colourful art piece, which is different to my own work and the jars hold very odd dog toys and unmentionables, that visually seem like sea creatures within them. Personally I think the colour makes you notice the piece even more, so you take a closer look, maybe even study what is in side, but you soon come to realize not all is what it seems, which could be shocking to some.
http://www.tanyabonakdargallery.com/artists/mark-dion/series
The piece which really draws me in of Mark Dion's is 'Marine Invertebrates', the artwork resembles a Victorian display case which exhibits specimen jars. It is a very colourful art piece, which is different to my own work and the jars hold very odd dog toys and unmentionables, that visually seem like sea creatures within them. Personally I think the colour makes you notice the piece even more, so you take a closer look, maybe even study what is in side, but you soon come to realize not all is what it seems, which could be shocking to some.
http://www.tanyabonakdargallery.com/artists/mark-dion/series
Barbara Kruger
Kruger is a feminist artist, born in America and the reason why I like her work is because she makes you question things, such as your own body as a woman. I really connect with one of her artworks in a personal way, it triggers thoughts about myself, plus my own body and that piece is 'Your body is a battleground'. It contains a picture of a women but half of her is in photo negative and the other normal, with stark red outlined, white writing over the top of it, saying 'Your body is a battleground'. By this I think Kruger might be showing that women have more complexity to them and demonstrating the darker fight women go through with themselves over body image. Whatever the reason for it, I like how the picture and text together makes you feel and question everything about yourself. Maybe that is why I enjoy her work so much, because I want people to question their flaws and contemplate themselves within my work.
http://www.barbarakruger.com/
Damien Hirst
Hirst is an English artist, born in 1965, Bristol and grow up in Leeds. Before he moved to London for work and ended up studying a BA Fine art at Goldsmiths college. I enjoy a few pieces of Hirst's, he has a lot of different, interesting installations, such as 'Trinity- Pharmacology, Physiology, Pathology' and all the instrument cabinets. The pieces hold different medical equipment, medication bottles and 3D body diagrams. These are the ones that really excite me as an artist because I work with collecting body parts and I am interested in medical and scientific cabinets.
Books, poems and other texts
There has been a few books and other texts that have influenced my work or bettered my knowledge on body image and more. A lot of these book and other written forms inspire the collector of knowledge and research in me, which I have incorporated into my own artistic works.
One book which really helped me understand and widened my knowledge on body image was The media and body image by Maggie Wykes and Barrie Gunter. The book goes into great detail about body image and what encourages this with in our society, it does this by gender studies and facts of sociology and psychology.
https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/the-media-and-body-image/book225765
Fairy tales and myths
There are a lot of books we read as children or growing up, which we as people take morals from, there are quite a few which deal with the subject matter of being different too. Such as Beauty and the beast by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo, these are all about physical appearances, judgement of others and mob mentality. All these have informed myself and work in one form or another, helping me understand and grasp why people react the why they do and how we are taught as children about such aspects of life.
The media and body image
https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/the-media-and-body-image/book225765
Body Image: A handbook of theory, research and clinical practice
Body image: a handbook of theory, research and clinical practice by Thomas Cash and Thomas Pruzinsky is another book which in the pages is facts, studies and theories on body image. The book was also a big factor of inspiring my work, I deepened my own theories and thoughts I had on body image and started infusing this into my own working practice, it gave me a better idea of what I wanted my work to stand for and to push other's limits of self consciousness.
Body Image: Understanding body dissatisfaction in men, women and children
While researching, the book Body image* by Sarah Grogan came in very useful for increasing my education on the understanding of body image. The book taught me things that I did not realize had affected me and how I perceive situation, which then I applied into my work and understanding of this.
Fat is a feminist issue and its sequel
Fat is a feminist issue and its sequel by Susie Orbach, goes through the struggles of body image and being female, as most of these issues are aimed towards women. This relates to me because I am female but also I struggle with body image, I like to think I took positive information from this book which can be reused, not only in my working practice but my own life.
Sylvia Plath - In plaster
My thoughts on the poem below by Sylvia Plath are mixed, confused and unsure on what the meaning of it all is. It seems like she is fighting with depression over her own body or with the idea of the perfect one. Maybe like the inner self is being trapped by this perfect imagery or by the imaginary plaster case. Although this is also tainted because it is forced upon you, so you start to hate that as well. Furthermore throughout all this poem, the meaning behind it could be a person who has broken a lot of bones, who is bored to death of being stuck in a body cast. Who really knows what was going through Plath's mind when writing this but her. I can only say what the piece makes me feel and it resonates feelings of being trapped, unhappy with ones self and things out of your control, I believe this poem links with my work, with encasing body parts in plaster and the whole theme of body image.
In plaster
I shall never get out of this! There are two of me now
This new absolutely white person and the old yellow one,
And the white person is certainly the superior one.
She doesn't need food, she is one of the real saints.
At the beginning I hated her, she had no personality --
She lay in bed with me like a dead body
And I was scared, because she was shaped just the way I was
Only much whiter and unbreakable and with no complaints.
I couldn't sleep for a week, she was so cold.
I blamed her for everything, but she didn't answer.
I couldn't understand her stupid behavior!
When I hit her she held still, like a true pacifist.
Then I realized what she wanted was for me to love her:
She began to warm up, and I saw her advantages.
Without me, she wouldn't exist, so of course she was grateful.
I gave her a soul, I bloomed out of her as a rose
Blooms out of a vase of not very valuable porcelain,
And it was I who attracted everybody's attention,
Not her whiteness and beauty, as I had at first supposed.
I patronized her a little, and she lapped it up --
You could tell almost at once she had a slave mentality.
I didn't mind her waiting on me, and she adored it.
In the morning she woke me early, reflecting the sun
From her amazingly white torso, and I couldn't help but notice
Her tidiness and her calmness and her patience:
She humored my weakness like the best of nurses,
Holding my bones in place so they would mend properly.
In time our relationship grew more intense.
She stopped fitting me so closely and seemed offish.
I felt her criticizing me in spite of herself,
As if my habits offended her in some way.
She let in the drafts and became more and more absent-minded.
And my skin itched and flaked away in soft pieces
Simply because she looked after me so badly.
Then I saw what the trouble was: she thought she was immortal.
She wanted to leave me, she thought she was superior,
And I'd been keeping her in the dark, and she was resentful --
Wasting her days waiting on a half-corpse!
And secretly she began to hope I'd die.
Then she could cover my mouth and eyes, cover me entirely,
And wear my painted face the way a mummy-case
Wears the face of a pharaoh, though it's made of mud and water.
I wasn't in any position to get rid of her.
She'd supported me for so long I was quite limp --
I had forgotten how to walk or sit,
So I was careful not to upset her in any way
Or brag ahead of time how I'd avenge myself.
Living with her was like living with my own coffin:
Yet I still depended on her, though I did it regretfully.
I used to think we might make a go of it together --
After all, it was a kind of marriage, being so close.
Now I see it must be one or the other of us.
She may be a saint, and I may be ugly and hairy,
But she'll soon find out that that doesn't matter a bit.
I'm collecting my strength; one day I shall manage without her,
And she'll perish with emptiness then, and begin to miss me.
Websites
I found some websites a while back that have inspired my art and made me more curious on all things different, such as Museum Fur Naturkunde in Berlin, that has collects of specimen jars and also a website about Victorian curiosities. I find anything like this fascinating and it also portrays in my own work.
http://www.thehumanmarvels.com/
http://www.naturkundemuseum-berlin.de/en/exhibitions/the-wet-collections/
Found images
Some found images from google that I saw which inspired my hangings and conveyor belt ideas.
Video of work being done near the college with a conveyor belt
Letter boxes web images
When I got the idea for a letter box, I decided to search the internet for a clearer idea on how one looks and what design I would like to use.
Tags
I have been looking at different tags, such as medical and specimen jars lately to give me ideas and my work some identity but also to see what effect it gives.
Part of the wet collection at Liverpool's Victoria Gallery & Museum
Web images
Posters/ waiting rooms
I looked at a few posters of beauty products and waiting rooms to give me ideas of how and what to put on my own.
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