Texted: Indirect and Refer
- Liv Dollery
- Dec 30, 2020
- 4 min read
Personal evaluation of my work:
Throughout this project we were testing our creative capabilities by choosing two words at random from a dictionary and taking those forward within the project. The words used within my project are ‘Indirect’ and ‘Refer’. Within this I chose to focus on how families harsh comments can cause body issues/body dysmorphia, as loved ones words tend to hurt more due to the connection. Making indirect comments and mentioning you to other family members saying negative things about
Appearance can lead to serious body issues as this will be ‘drilled’ into someone’s mind effecting mental health massively. By using my own family at gatherings I will be distorting these images to warp figures to present the progression of bodily hatred due to body dysmorphia, by digitally manipulating these images from images taken of the positives on a light box. Moving forward within my project I enlarged these images, then manipulating them by blocking out the figure using white paint pens. However, the enlarged images are in negative because the developed images were positives. Completely distorting the image changing the perceptions upon the world we live in, giving an insight to another way to view the world. I have used these ways of distortion on the image to completely contrast how the world actually is, but to someone who suffers with body dysmorphia the world is completely different. It’s similar to constant anxiety and stress about personal appearance. By using white negative space to completely block out the figure it presents the emotions of harmful words from loved ones can make someone feel, wanting to hide in the background. The black and white negative further gives an insight to how someone else can see the world. However, while creating a contact sheet for my images it inspired me to then turn these distorted negatives so they can be projected around my house. To further present my idea of how family can effect how you perceive yourself and the harmful causes, showing these distorted images in what seems to be a normal family home. Looking under the walls of the home and the damage of the ones who live within the house further. Within my project I originally wanted to project the unedited images upon a painted canvas showing the emotions of body dysmorphia. A thick layered painting with green and yellows within presenting hidden eyes within the painting. The green paint used to present envy. However, once I had created this painting I found it to be highly unsuccessful within the projection upon it as well. The two pieces did not collaborate well together unfortunately. Which is when I decided to create my negatives that have been distorted to project around mine and my nans house. Throughout my project Caleb Cole and Richard Billingham have been a large inspiration for my imagery using my old family pictures capturing the dynamics within a family gathering but through my manipulation of the figure inspired by Caleb Cole. However, within my project these two artists were my own main inspiration and I felt most connected to the way they worked within how to present an image to show emotions and dynamics between families – the hidden sorrows within. Within my project I didn’t want to place in any other artists due to the fact that the brief states I need four, personally I felt disconnected to any other artists work or could not find any relevant art movements for inspiration within my work. I believe that my two artists hold significant influence across my work due to the emotions being similar within my work in comparison to theirs. However, I do believe I have met the requirements of the brief as I have used my words Indirect and Refer to communicate my personal experience along with many others, proven by my instagram poll, that families and the words they say about our body can effect how we view ourselves linking to body dysmorphia/general body hatred and other mental illnesses. Leading emotions of isolation due to how others talk about you, as loved ones words effect our mental health the most due to the closer connection and brutal honesty that seems to create. I have shown this through digital and physical manipulation of family imagery transforming the images completely into new negatives to be projected around the home. With material development and trialing in the process such as wood work, plaster work and acrylic paintings. However, these materials were not successful but it helped me refine my work and what I valued use to communicate my desired message through my imagery.
Within our project our time within college able to use other resources got cut short due to remote learning within the last week. Our planning time got cut short by a week, cramming making and planning into one week. Overall, due to this I find my project to be successful and expanding my creative process and what materials to use making quick and decisive decisions.
Even though this project has such a personal connection to me due to my bodily issues and family pressures I struggled immensely within my creativity. I seemed to have felt run down and worn out within this final project. The chaos and stress of living in a pandemic and having to act as normal while trying to build up a career and maintain friendships its an extremely hard balance. My mind was distracted which limited my creative process, but that’s okay! Mental health during this time is more important than ever and if that means less ambitious work for one project that lasted essentially two weeks then that is okay in my eyes. Learning to balance outside art and my college art will be a task for the future.
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