Comparing the delicate undulations of a knuckle with fruit juice vesicles creates a bizarrely grotesque visuality. However, using a macro lens, my intention was to transform and objectify the body through its placement against a grapefruit, and I think the initial 12inches² dimensions do not project this intent. As these measurements are comfortable to the human eye, the sizing barely alters the viewer’s perception of what is seen. Thus, blowing the image up to a much larger size may transform it more elaborately and effectively. The details would be scaled, thus removing the definition, and in turn transfiguring the imagery into something which the viewer may have to analyse and re-think before knowing what it is.

We are aware of the appearance of our hands and these fruits, but, perhaps, when confronted with them at an abnormally large scale it will remove their recognisability and thus emphasise the questions I wished to pose: are our bodies similar and comparable to non-human biological bodies? And, thus, does our spiritual substance take precedence over our physical material?

Tasked with the analysis of my own and other artists’ work, to the comparing of chosen texts, I found myself discovering and exploring an eclectic mix of artistic literature, artworks, theories and more. For many of the individual assignments, I could see that I was naturally drawn to the artworks and ideas regarding the human form, spiritual mind, and the diverse methods in which one can express themselves both aesthetically and mentally. I found task 7 and 9 the most challenging, but the research and examination which both entailed led to far more further research than I initially anticipated. For example, I have become inspired by task 9 to incorporate philosophical theoretical ideology in my work, and have thus been reading up further about the spiritual ideas regarding the human form and our mentalities. Not only this, but task 10 allowed me to focus in detail on my own artistic practices, and I could see that from doing task 1 many weeks ago, to now, the concepts and visuals I have been experimenting with have developed and matured. Therefore, the many tasks which were set have strongly motivated and inspired me conceptually, contextually and aesthetically. 

The Intricacies

and Complexities

of our Physicalities,

Spiritualities

and Mentalities

At the beginning of this project, I would have described my work as focusing on psychopathology, but over the course of the term I have found myself steering away from the study of mental illness and instead experimenting with and observing the complexities of the human form, both objectively and as a spiritual presence. This image is a collage I created using a macro lens, examining the utterly unique details of the body. The Skin is something which I have examined in its authentic physical nature. Playing around with the grotesque versus the beautiful, I have practiced altering the viewer’s perception by transforming it from a biological layer of flesh to an imperfect optical medium of expression. Not only this, but I have been exploring the non-material existence of our own physicalities, exploring the spiritual and mental connotations surrounding our somatic being. The image and words chosen combine both of these examinations, presenting and incorporating the delicate nature of the skin of a hand with the distinctly gloss-dressed lips. Colliding the natural and artificial elements of our own characteristic appearances, the body is thus both an anatomical canvas to work on/with, as well as a metaphorical existence which can be limitlessly explored.

Sigalit Landau’s “Barbed Hula” (2000) demonstrates both conceptually and visually the idea of using the human body as a medium of expression in art. Captured as a film, the artist performs hula-hooping, an activity most commonly associated with fitness and/or childhood playground games. The camera edges closer to her stomach, and the cuts upon her skin become a focus, capturing a disturbing self-destruction. Therefore, this exercise has been transformed in an unsettling and perturbing way: the hoop is made out of barbed wire. Flesh has been investigated in art, exploring it as an immediate existence, and Landau reinforces its potential as an artistic medium by scrutinising its “surrounding [of] the body actively and endlessly” (Landau, 2016). Thus, the human body can be presented as more than a biological matter, but as a performative object and/or canvas for expression.

Body art often centres around the materiality of the somatic person. During the twentieth century, artists such as Marina Abramović, Suzanne Lacy and Marc Quinn examined the physicality and limits of our selves, which in turn provoked theorists to write on “the significance and meaning of the concrete body” (Heinrich, 2012). For example, theorists have proposed that what truly defines us as humans is our physical substance, and without our biologies functioning appropriately, we would cease to be alive. Not only this, but the Aristotelian Body Theory proposes that the identity of a person is mostly defined by their organised substance and form.

In “Barbed Hula”, her figure foregrounds the waves of the sea, the colossal earthly boundaries between ocean and land are compared to the skin as a material division. Therefore, the Body Theory can be applied to this concept, as this piece allows the viewer to potentially perceive the body’s potential as just as much an authentically physical matter as the geographical border of the sea.

Bibliography:

(1) Body of Art (2015) London: Phaidon Press Limited, pp.300-367

(2) Urban, T. (2014) What Makes You You? – Wait But Why [online] Available at: https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/12/what-makes-you-you.html [Accessed 1 Dec. 2017].

(3) Heinrich, F. (2012) Flesh as Communication — Body Art and Body Theory [online] Available at: http://www.contempaesthetics.org/newvolume/pages/article.php?articleID=633 [Accessed 1 Dec. 2017].

(4) Sider, T. (2017) The Body Theory [online] Available at: http://tedsider.org/teaching/415/HO_body_theory.pdf [Accessed 1 Dec. 2017].

(5) Landau, S. (2016) Sigalit Landau Barbed Hula [online] Available at: https://www.sigalitlandau.com/barbedhula [Accessed 2 Dec. 2017].

LINK TO DOWNLOAD FILM: Appropriation

After exploring Laure Provost’s film art, I was intrigued by the idea of combining an audio with synonymous imagery to play around with viewer perception. However, for this task I wished to instead experiment with antonymous visuals and amalgamate them with contradictory audio. With my interest in close-up photography and using the body as a medium, I found myself viewing YouTube videos of make-up application, examining the ways in which our own bodies can become a blank canvas for abundant expression. Thus, I wished to select a number of clips from different videos and combine them with a contradictory recording.

I am a feminist, and commercials from the 1950s, for example, aggravate me extremely. Women are presented in them as the less hard-working sex and derogatory comments are often made. Therefore, I wanted to take an audio from one of these commercials and combine it satirically with the make-up clips. Teaming together these audio-visuals I wanted to raise awareness to how disparagingly offensive the advertisement proclamations in fact are. Women are independent and powerful; we are equal; and the video I have created intends to mock the repellent nature of the 1950s audio.

Thus, by appropriating the audio/visuals I have fashioned a new meaning behind the two. And, by transforming the viewer’s perception, it encourages them to engage in a completely different way to how the originals would have intended.

Richard Serra’s “The Yale Lecture” addresses site-specific artworks. He discusses the ways in which art is contextualised within its environment, and the importance of connectivity between the piece and its surroundings. Teaming together a sculptural methodology with context, he suggests that it should not simply be about the artistic quality of the sculpture, but also its co-operation with its external placement. Thus, the scale, size, and positioning should be determined after regarding, confronting, and considering its enclosure, as opposed to working with it when the art is complete.

Leo Steinberg’s “Excerpt from Other Criteria” is similar in its discussion of the importance of artistic placement and how it can alter the viewer’s perception of what they are observing. He considers artists such as Rauschenberg and how he experimented with the traditionally vertical, eye-level curation (such as from the Renaissance period) in order to change “the relationship between the artist and image, image and viewer”. For example, he explored taking objects lacking artistic quality and presented them in a conventional gallery space to re-invent their visual purposes.

Therefore, both texts examine the correlation between the artwork itself and its physical placement. Artistic traditions should not define what can become a canvas and/or medium, but the location and orientation are of equal importance to the aesthetics of the artwork itself.

In my opinion, anything can be a medium of expression. The human body’s limitations are only what can not be achieved by pushing oneself to the eventual limit in our anatomy’s own physicality. The fascinatingly unique and comprehensive undulations of our skin’s texture allow so many possibilities, and by combining ourselves objectively with traditional and contemporary techniques, what is produced will be varied not only methodologically but also aesthetically. Bodies are constantly evolving and developing so subtly: one day we may have a cut upon our knuckle, or a bruise on our forearm, and this can be added and incorporated into our art just like an alteration of oil paint colour or photographic lighting conditions.

Therefore, the new mode of practice I would like to propose is using our own bodies as a physical, spiritual and visual medium of manifestation. The intricacies of our skin and features can be used as an artistically objective medium, canvas for adaptation and/or distinctive visual element which can aid our artistic practice extraordinarily.

In the ‘Everything At Once” exhibition, I found myself most drawn to Laure Prouvost’s ‘A Way To Leak, Lick, Leek’. She explores the idea of unanticipated word associations in language: revealing bizarre, sometimes grotesque, synonymous meanings through the miscommunication of spoken word. I found the discordant, surreal nature of her imagery, along with the jarring quick cuts, and loud, oddly placed music utterly fascinating.

Unlike a lot of traditional artworks, this stylistic new media allows viewers to observe a lot of artworks on their own screen. However, Prouvost’s amalgamation of video, sound and installation emphasise how important being a physical witness in a gallery truly is. Whilst observing this piece, the authentic impact of audio-visuals became more apparent to me. For example, the powerfully loud surround sounds, the darkness of the gallery space encompassing the crystal clear imagery broadcast on the large screen, and the ways the dialogue resonated upon each musical beat. Thus, for me, it became more than simply a video piece, but an idiosyncratically, intensely immersive experience.

Bibliography:

1. Mousse Magazine (2016) Laure Prouvost “A Way To Leak, Lick, Leek” at Fahrenheit, Los Angeles [online] Available at: http://moussemagazine.it/laure-prouvost-fahrenheit-2016/ [Accessed 6 Nov. 2017]
2. Jeff, M. (2015) Documentation of Laure Prouvost, “A Way To Leak, Lick, Leek” [online] Vimeo. Available at: https://vimeo.com/154779379 [Accessed 6 Nov. 2017]

It felt like every medium, every concept, and every question was represented in the “Everything At Once” exhibition at the Lisson Gallery in London. From Ryoji Ikeda’s hugely immersive “Test Pattern” binary light display, to Stanley White’s graphic block-coloured canvases, I was confronted by an eclectic range of imagery, audio and visuals. I found myself overwhelmed by the conceptual and contemporary range of artworks inspired by John Cage’s quote, “nowadays everything happens at once and our souls are conveniently electronic” – and a poignant message became apparent. After fifty years since this gallery’s opening, the featured artists over the years have teamed together to confront the idea that society has the ability and capacity to access everything in a cursory, superficial instant. Though there have been criticisms that this exhibition appears to have little direction, as there are no parallels between specified concepts and/or mediums, perhaps this reveals how successful these forty-five artworks are. Perhaps, the idea that there is so much accessible for the viewers reinforces the idea that there is, in fact,  everything at once: “time and space are no longer rational” (Cage, 1966) as “linear concepts and great distances can be traversed with an instantaneous click”.

Bibliography:

1. Lissongallery.com (2017) EVERYTHING AT ONCE | Exhibitions | Lisson Gallery [online] Available at: https://www.lissongallery.com/exhibitions/everything-at-once [Accessed 4 Nov. 2017]
2. Everythingatonce.com (2017) Everything at Once [online] Available at: http://everythingatonce.com/ [Accessed 5 Nov. 2017]
3. Ikeda, R. (2007) ryoji ikeda  |  test pattern [online] Available at: http://www.ryojiikeda.com/project/testpattern/ [Accessed 5 Nov. 2017]

Nikki S. Lee: Part (14), 2002

Nikki S. Lee’s ‘Part (14)’ reveals an incomplete narrative. She sits in the back of a taxi, an anonymous arm around her neck, her face expression inconceivably one of vacancy. Is she listening to the man beside her? Is she looking out the window at something? Lee entertains this idea of narrative in her images, and the ways in which a viewer perceives an image. A subtle implication of a story is revealed through the way her body is placed and presented; she is not resting on the man nor finding comfort in his presence. There is no physical contact but his arm resting upon the back of her neck. This impels the viewer to question further what the image is truly about and Lee’s own mentality, therefore progressively resulting in each observer to interpret the imagery in a different way.

Moreover, as a society we observe people, we people-watch, we are judgemental as a species and it is often in our instinctual nature to understand and have knowledge of what we see. The unknown is unnerving and this disposition is encapsulated successfully in Lee’s photograph. The viewer is likely to create their own narrative to fulfil that unknowing, anonymous identity of the man and the personal interaction between the two.

Furthermore, Lee’s use of cropping reigns hugely notable in this image. A photograph shall be confined to the physical border, but to the subjects themselves a photo is the trigger of a memory. Lee utilises this definitive crop to emphasise how little information a snapshot holds, yet it still has the potential to capture an intensity of passion and emotion for the person in it. Therefore, Lee’s depiction of this standstill captured moment leads the viewer to ask many questions. Such as, perhaps, does absence takes precedence over the visible?

Bibliography:

1. E-flux (2005) NIKKI S. LEE – Announcements [online] Available at: http://www.e-flux.com/announcements/41689/nikki-s-lee/ [Accessed 3 Nov. 2017]
2. McLeod, D. (2004) Stretching Identity to Fit : The Many Faces of Nikki S. Lee. Ciel variable [e-book] Available at: https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/cv/2004-n63-cv1069016/20765ac.pdf [Accessed 3 Nov. 2017]