Challenging Nudity

'Don't consider yourself a feminist?'

Sex offenders/Lad's mags

I want to do performance art!

These are some of the photos of people that responded to me with my body mannequin. I initially wore it around town, but felt that I wasn't achieving as much as I had hoped. Well, I was definitely getting a great amount of strange looks, as anticipated! So I decided to interact with people and talk about the issue I was attempting to visualise. It was interesting hearing people's reactions, and realising that there are so many factors that contribute to people's opinion of my theme. I took photos of some women with the mannequin, and presented them with a mirror in the studio - hopefully visualising that even though we may feel alone, everyone has this ideal female beauty to compete with. Holding the tiny waist of the body, these women behind the mannequin are representing all females exposed to this illusion of a 'perfect' body. The images show just how unrealistic the image that we are told conform to really is. We are not all one size. We can't all fit the mould.

Some of my photographs

I am very interested in performance art now. I am delighted with my recent burst of confidence (recent being over the last 2/3 years) and wish to explore ideas of how I can capture some kind of performance art.

Dove Commercial

Ana Mendieta

Ana Mendieta created works around themes of feminism, gender, violence, life and death. Above is a photograph from her Silueta Series. Medieta also explored place and the concept of belonging in her work. This series features many images of her nude body's sillohette, moulded or imprinted into a natural landscape.

Body Tracks

Conclusion (at this point)

I just wanted to write to a short conclusion to my blog, as it is at this point. I say that, because post-deadline, I will be continuing to use this space to explore these issues further. I am finding it very beneficial storing everything surrounding this matter all together. I am really enjoying writing down my thoughts in a blog. It has such a different feel to just writing in my journal or on scraps of paper when I need to vent!

It's hard to express how much I have learnt over the last 8 weeks. We were set a research project, in which I chose this subject as I have always felt passionate about it, but with no in-depth knowledge or an understanding of the history. Throughout this period of self-study, I have encountered many different writers and theorists, including Judy Chicago, John Berger and Laura Mulvey. I have also discovered so many artists which have inspired me.

I think forming a conclusion in regards to the issues I have been talking about is extremely tricky. I believe that the gender inequality that we see in the media, whether we understand it consciously or not, will be an ongoing problem. I may be wrong, but from my research, I feel that women are exploited even more now, than in previous decades. As I have previously said, this may be caused be the dramatic technological advancements that we have experienced. Women fought for more coverage in popular media, but maybe when they felt empowered, they were still being used. Women still seem to be vulnerable when it comes to how they are represented; something that can most-definitely be traced to our past patriarchal society. We are still portrayed as the stereotypes that are held against us, and there is still the most powerful emphasis on ideal female beauty.

However, I do feel that maybe the continued use of women's bodies, the objectification and gender stereotypes that are portrayed in current mass media, may be used ironically. At this point in time, people are aware of the women's movement. Popular culture knows about feminism and the battle women faced when fighting for equality. Industries are aware of what it means to objectify women, so maybe in contemporary media, women are represented in such ways to be ironic, to play around with past perceptions.

Like I have said, I don't feel there is a definite conclusion to this blog. Women being used for their visual value has been happening for much longer that I had realised, and continues to be more and more apparent, all around us. Fortunately, there are many people, charities, activist groups etc. raising concerns about this issue, as well as a lot of artists who critique it visually. I feel that it is very important for women, men, but even more so, young children, to learn about how media works, how much of it is false and how to safely interpret the thousands of images that surround us and tell us who we should be. That way, hopefully girls will grow detached from the illusion of a beauty ideal, understanding that it is computer generated, near enough impossible, and that advertisments are soley for marketing purposes. They don't care about our health and well-being, as long as we keep purchasing products in our over-consuming region. Children who learn that there isn't such thing as perfection and normalcy, will hopefully be more content within themselves. I think we should be teaching eachother that we don't have to mould ourselves to fit the criteria that is written in the media. I dream of a generation that celebrates the diversity of humanity.

I hope to continue making art surrounding ideas from this blog. I will definitely keep collecting anything that I find interesting here. Hopefully I can build up a large, virtual journal with useful websites, videos, articles etc.

Below are some extra photos from my current art practice

Self

The beginning of my performace art

Experimenting with casting. Latex and plaster mould.
Exploring ideas of how we must measure up and how we cannot all fit the mould