When I first began in October I knew
primarily that I wanted to collage. Collage was at that time the most exciting
way of working I thought one could do, sure that sounds a little small minded,
but after discovering Gelstans Cutting
Edges Contemporary Collage reference book, with all its beautiful and
creative images, I knew I wanted to make some of that. The whole underlying
theme of collage: recycling was particularly important to me; the process of
‘regenerating’ old resources by cutting them out and placing them somewhere
else. I love the way sections of photographs taken decades and distances apart
could be suddenly having a conversation together. The idea of giving life and
purpose back to these old photographs or magazines is brilliant, sustainable
and (thankfully) cheap. Of course that’s not to say that now months later my
opinion about collage has changed entirely, but I started out wanting to
explore a particular practise and the development of my concept and interests
ended up dominating more and subsequently the practise changed.
While process
itself can be an exciting thing to develop, I needed to be using my particular
practise to make work about something. Having
a concept is really important for me, it enables me to really explore something
and use a particular medium to make a response. Initially I wanted to respond
to something I feel really strongly about; the sexualisation of girls. Girls from such a young age are being
objectified and made to feel being ‘sexy’ is something they should worry about
when they should just be playing and growing up in their own time. This loss of
childhood is almost encouraged by society, with padded bikini tops for kids and
‘sexy’ Halloween costumes and horrifically the new trend of virgin waxing. Girls as young as eight
are engaging in this ‘treatment’ to ensure that they never grow pubic hair,
which according to Wanda Stawczyk from Wanda’s
European Skincare saves your child a
lifetime of waxing so that you can put the money in the bank for her college education
instead! While sexism is not as rife as it used to be, in that you probably
won’t be the one fired if you report that your boss had sexually assaulted you,
attitudes to women have changed. Probably as result of pornography being so
readily available and young boys (and girls) get exposed to it at such a young
age, certain types of behaviour are deemed acceptable and expectations of women
are becoming so unequal to that of men.
While this whole topic is something I was so interested in, I realised I
was being unrealistic; I was looking at too broad a subject and would
have to narrow it down.
But also I realised that with
regards to the sexualisation of
young girls and all the connotations that follow it such as the sex trade, sensitive as I am, I knew it would only distress me. As immature as that seems, I didn’t want to make work that would
leave me hating society and besides it was
far too broad a topic to really explore anything well enough for the work to
become relevant or poignant.
In the
end I had to be selective and realised that I could explore something similar
by concentrating on the themes of family life and role models. I was not
entirely sure how I was going to transpire this theme into collage but I began
to collate resources from which to work.
After
exploring various old bookshops and charity shops I had collected a number of
exciting resources, like dozens of old photographs, some of the same families
at different times. There were a number of portraits of whom I’m assuming to be
three sisters taken over what looks like a period of 5 years. The way their age
process was documented in such a regimented fashion but then wound up being
sold for 50p each in a charity shop, says something about the fragility of
life.
I also found a number of copies of ‘Housewife’ (the magazine of better
living) and ‘Homes and Gardens’ from the 60’s and 70’s and a number of old
sewing patterns. The magazines were filled with handy tips on how to cook the
best dinners, keep the cleanest house and how to keep the husband happy, the
latest inventions ‘essential for the modern housewife’ and the wonders of Branston Pickle, reinforced by the persuasive beaming faces of the housewives.
It was so strange how those ideals were so dominant for such a proportion of
women in a way that just isn’t the case nowadays, while women are more
concerned about their careers and being famous.
Not
entirely sure how to proceed with the work, I began initially by working into
some of the photographs, taking a more literal attempt on emphasising the
facade of happiness. I began working with the imagery of smiling babies from
the magazines and a vintage cake-decorating guide I found. In the guide there were
recipes on how to create ‘Cakes to Make Your Reputation’, which I thought was
brilliant starting point.
As a preliminary collage I combined imagery of ‘cutie pie’ babies with
perfectly iced cakes, elegant housewives standing proud next to her creations,
and babies and women made from cake recipes.
The fusing of stereotypical housewife imagery with enthusiastic slogans
and smiling children was all too sickly sweet and the ironic tone came through
quite well.
I also
tried to create eeriness within the photographs by adding a red element to
them. My idea was to suggest that there was something not as it seemed within
the landscapes. When I explained it during the presenting contexts presentation
my peers understood that, but I don’t think it was as successful as the initial
collages I made, rather too ambiguous, and in a way it kind of ruined the
photographs. However all these early pieces of work, while an acceptable first
attempt, were too obvious and not skilled enough, there was no depth to them;
they were at a second look exactly the same as when you first glanced at them.
I wanted my work to be interesting enough so that the viewer would be able to
and want to, draw their own conclusions about it.
I started to look into a variety of feminist artists such as Martha
Rosler and her film ‘Semiotics of the
Kitchen’ a satirical and blunt portrayal of being a housewife in the 60’s.
Her deconstruction of being a housewife through her active display of
alphabetized kitchen utensils in a frustrated and violent manner emphasised the
suffocation and subdued anger that was felt by these women.
This theme is supported by literature such as
Richard Yates’ Revolutionary Road.
The novel was such a perfect example of how this idealised family life was not
ideal for everyone, published in 1961, it proved that there were women out
there who wanted more than to be a good housewife, and keep the family home. It
is such a beautifully written novel, and the film version too is so visually
beautiful and influential to my ideas.
I
have also been looking into Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas; both very interesting
artists under the feminist title, and both whom I saw at London’s Frieze Art
Fair in October. Emin’s piece that really stood out for me was
‘Head Falling’ an illustration of a
female figure stitched in black onto calico and while it is not collage, there
was an elegance within the piece and a subtlety that is echoed in collage. The
work of Sarah Lucas is also really exciting
,
‘Mumum’ her hanging chair, made from fluff-filled tights was on display in
Sadie Coles’ booth. That piece really interested me because it looked like
there was such strength to the work as if it was made of marble but in reality
was so fragile, which echoed the vulnerability of this discontented housewife
image I have in my head; who for all anyone can guess seem so perfectly happy
but inside is totally in anguish. Lucas’ work generally is very exciting as a
feminist reference, her sculptures are so evocative and honest like Emin’s but
they are suggestive enough to allow the viewer to read into them what way they
like. For instance
‘Bitch’ is a
simple construction with a lot of meaning: a small table with a t-shirt
stretched over it, beneath the table under the t-shirt two hanging melons and a
vacuumed packed smoked fish attached to the far end of the table. It is a
portrait of the object of desire, a bent-over female body, inviting. When in
reality, it is nothing but a few objects arranged in a particular way; crude
symbols that hint at female structure. I made
‘Fried Eggs’ as a personal response to her self portrait. I wanted to
reflect the sense of her work but without using the obvious medium of sculpture
so I responded in the practise I knew, although at this point there was an
underlying desire to experiment with sculpture but I didn’t feel like I had exhausted
the collage yet.
A
more relevant artist in terms of practise was Tom Partridge at the Nottingham
Castle Open Exhibition in 2012. It was so exciting to see contemporary collage
in an exhibition;
‘Hot Head’ and
‘The Pond’ were evidence that there is
still merit in collage. The pieces themselves were relatively simple
arrangements, but with a lot of beauty from the shapes constructed, and again
there is that wonder of creating a conversation between various materials that
would have otherwise never come together.
I began to
experiment with the display of the work, originally it had only been upon paper
and I had either pinned it onto the wall or framed it. But I wanted the work to
have a more strength about it and I thought that by arranging the pieces on
wood that could be achieved. Priming and then washing with a pale oil colour, I
had already a surface that was so much more interesting than a plain sheet of
paper. I experimented with adding glaze; when added onto photographs it created
a shinier, wetter appearance which looked interesting against the glazed wooden
boards and reflected that shiny facade of perfection. But also the contrast of
matt and shiny created an interesting relationship between the imagery and the
board as well.
Because I was not sure which method of display worked best; for the
Show and Listen I exhibited two pieces, ‘
Her
Shapes’; a minimalistic collage made up of five pieces on wood. The imagery
is obvious; cut into representative shapes but also ambiguous enough in that
the viewer can decipher what the shapes really represent. The
other piece was ‘
Untitled Nurture’, a
suggestion of breastfeeding as a baby looks over at its mother whose breasts
are made of an icing gun, pointed toward him, which is presented on mount board
in a black frame. There was not a preferred one style at all, they felt that
both ways of displaying the work worked well; the glass and thick black frame
reflected the facade of perfection as if everything was all untouchable and the
wooden board had more of a depth and materiality about it that was liked. I
really enjoyed that process of priming the boards and working on them, it was
all very new and exciting to me, despite being a time consuming process.
Here’s an example of matt imagery onto the
shine of the wood; it’s really simple but I think by having the blue wash and
slight shine, the piece is much more interesting.
After I enjoyed deconstructing the female form into basic shapes as in
‘Her Shapes,’ I wanted to continue with
the symbolic theme, and began to look into circles. I was interested with what
was associated with them with regards to women; the obvious immediate physical
resemblance of breasts or the roundness of a pregnant belly, or less
physically; the circle of motherhood, giving life. Like Rosler’s ‘
Semiotics of the Kitchen’; the semiotics
of circles are very interesting.
Encouraged by the reaction of
‘Untitled, Nurture’ at the Show and
Listen, I created this piece
‘Tits’ made
entirely of breasts. Circles within circles; I wanted the imagery to be
feminine not sexual, or if it came across that way to be an appreciation of the
female form without the graphic imagery despite sourcing the images from porn
magazines. While the piece was appreciated by a number of (male) students, I
don’t think it really worked that well in relation with what I was trying to
achieve, it was an experiment, but was too obvious and brash, there needed to
be an elegance that I seemed to be achieving when there’s more white space on
the page.
A different route I went down
was to
combine
female imagery with that of the domestic such as household items and
kitchens; this is an example of a piece where I began to merge a content
looking woman with kitchen cupboards. I was aiming for the integration of
her feminine curves with the sharp edges of the counter-tops to be a
representation of the idea that she's is losing her femininity as she
becomes more of an object or rather 'objectified' by the male viewers.
While I do not think that was particularly clear, the imagery is quite
interesting aesthetically, particularly the contrast of curves
with shape lines. I think the concept of de-feminisation is
really interesting; when I spoke to woman who was living
in London in the 60's when sexism was particularly rife, she told me
how as a result of unwanted male attention she ended up trying to
de-feminize herself by changing the ways of dressing, such as
hiding her curves underneath quite 'male' clothing.
This modification from a feminine female to
an androgynous identity is something I am quite interested in
exploring further.
H
owever at this point
I didn’t feel as if I had quite
exhausted the use of circles, and began to use them differently to ‘Tits’; in block colour and in
moderation!
‘Perfection Reflection’ was thus made from
that, I wanted to carry on the amusing appreciation for breasts by having
orange bubbles emerge from them like a bubble gun. Unlike ‘
Untitled Nurture’ there was none of the obvious mothering themes
but by having the boy look up at her in wonder; I was trying to capture that
ability to mesmerise and awe, that the perfect housewife has, according to
Good Housekeeping!
While the circular imagery is interesting, and aesthetically pleasing
particularly in a bright colour, I have begun to realise that the shape is not
as important as I wanted it to be, and in fact I have begun to be disillusioned
with solely working in collage. The enjoyment I felt by painting and working
with the wood was partly because I was so excited to be doing something other
than cutting and sticking for a change.
I do not want to stop collaging
with my resources just because I want to physically make something different, I
also feel now I need to move away from collage and take the work into a
different space. Making it relevant for nowadays is the challenge for the
moment. I need to question what it means to be a woman in this century instead.
Possibly having been subconsciously inspired by Sarah Lucas’ work, I really
want to explore a more sculptural practise. I have begun to investigate what
being a woman means to various women of different ages, and I plan to use their
opinions to make a response that id more sculptural. The work is definitely not
yet finished and I am really excited about what I can make in the future, when
exploring new mediums and newer ideas.
