Okay, now I'm up to date

I made this lady, much smaller than the first, in pink plasticine before painting her with latex. I wanted to look at bodily fluids and sensations this time from the outside. Even though it's figurative I have tried to keep some ambiguity- she could have just been given birth to, alien, in a protective coccoon, wrapped up in spider silk, sweating or expelling fluid from her insides onto her outsides. My nail varnish chipped creating these red dots that look like a rash and I absolutely love. So glad I took pictures because she doesn't look like this anymore.. the latex hardened and went all brown and crusty.. which I guess at least mimics what bodily fluids would do?

SO I made a second person, painting her with yellow in areas before layering latex over her. I didn't use so much so I'm hoping she won't change so drastically.. time will tell.

This is a latex 'skin' cast from a plasticine figure. I was thinking about the body as a container, fragile, used.

Plasticine Lady

With historical anatomical models in mind I made a miniature woman of my own, and painted her in oils.

I always prefer oil paint when it's all wet and shiny, maybe I'll try varnishing her.

I like layering things up. I'm hoping to make another better version of this, to dissect. Also when I return to uni I am definitely getting in that metal workshop and continuing down this route. I want to use porcelian and rubber. I've been reading Leaky Bodies and Boundaries by Margrit Shildrick and there's a ton of things it's inspired me to do.

Latex and Wool still life

Made June 2011, just me trying to improve my painting skills and capture the sense of fluidity/wetness.

Legs

I made this toward the end of the third term. I often paint on scraps of cradboard or whatever's laying around but I decided not to neaten it up, to fit the sense of vulnerability I was aiming for. I am particularly interested in the way framing elevates the piece.

End of Year Exhibition

I had been adding layer upon layer to this throughout the project, refining it and my painting skills. Due to time restrictions I had to frame it before it was fully dry though and now it's gone a bit odd..

This is was my plan of how to display my work, which I followed almost exactly. There are areas focussing on different sections of the body, and consequences of sensations/functions of areas leading or connecting.. I thought about it a lot, and there are a few ways I could read it. but I'd rather not say and have the viewer make their own connections or readings.. or just admire the forms.

Term 3 part 3!

I'm cutting a lot out but getting up to date. Alongside my 2d work I explored latex. I wanted something physical and sensory to show alongside my drawings, to act as stimuli for the viewer and create a real 'specimen' of the invasion and illness I had been depicting within the body.

I sewed several pieces together to create this, giving it a handmade feel- though not detracting from its alien/fluid/natural appearance.

I also experimented creating more 2d pieces which I pressed, pinned and layered over drawings.

This is one of my favourite things that I made. The drawing was inspired by the motuh/throat area but drawn from memory and sensations rather than actually looking, giving it a more ambiguous appearance. Rather than looking like phlegm in the mouth it comes to look more like a vaginal fungal infection/discharge.

Exploring the use of light in my work, thinking about microscopes and reflections.

Thinking about ways of displaying my sculptural latex work. I tried hanging/pinning it alongside drawings but it seemed a bit out of place. Here I placed it on a tissue, relating it back to what it represents, perhaps hinting toward emotion but also the sensory experience of blowing your nose. I liked the idea of keeping and displaying something you would usually throw away as disgusting.

I made a second, quite aggressive form with longer 'legs' or protrusions and staged it alongside the first in quite a violent and claustrophobic scene. I like to think that the first is more feminine and the second more masculine. I am pleased with the sense of animation and life and the fascination with things weird or disgusting.

Term 3 part 2

As the term went on I became much more concerned with methods of displaying my work.

These frames were inspired by the layout and display used in the Wellcome Collection's 'Dirt' exhibition.

Here I was exploring labels and relationships of images, using keys and lines as in anatomical illustration, though the relationships were more personal than scientific and often elusive for the viewer.

I considered text, taking scientific descriptions of having a cold and its effects on the body, focusing on the invasion of the body and physical sensations.. but I'm no good with words and I prefer ambiguity so I stopped that.

Layering inner sensations over the outer layer of a person (myself). The internal becoming a cage.

I began thinking about creating a chart. I must've laid these drawings out every possible way. Here I was thinking about mapping the body, but for my final exhibition I looked more to a cause-and-effect diagram that could be read (by me anyway)