imprint
Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled, 1991, Billboard/Print
https://bombmagazine.org/articles/felix-gonzalez-torres/
Interview by BOMB Magazine on the Untitled '91 Bed Piece with Torres:
"The year before he got the diagnosis of AIDS (...) he was 195 pounds, he could build you a house (...) This beautiful, incredible body, this entity of perfection just physically, thoroughly disappear right in front of your eyes. Disappear like a dried flower. The wonderful thing about life and love is that sometimes the way things turn out is so unexpected. I would say that when he was becoming less of a person I was loving him more. Every lesion he got I loved him more. Until the last second. I told him, “I want to be there until your last breath,” and I was there to his last breath."
After reading this interview with the artist, I felt like I could understand the piece better.
His reflection over the imprint of his lover's body on the bed is a depiction of his passion towards him. The importance of capturing his last night with him in order to preserve Ross' body and being in a calm and comforting manner as the bed depicts it. Although the bed presents their relationship in a positive and warm manner it can also be viewed as bittersweet because of the absence of the bodies themselves, as a way to remind the viewer that presence is momentary.
Similarly, I want to include the same feeling of emptiness and a feeling of lost love through imprints and hollowness using my sculptures that I made.
comfort/protection
Emin's perception of her bed changes throughout the years, depending on each version of the bed she puts out yet one thing remains constant: It is a representation of a safe space where memories stay intact.
Recently, at Turner Contemporary, Emin was asked to display "My Bed" with objects that reflect aspects of both Joseph Turner and Tracey herself.
beds
Frida Kahlo had a love/hate relationship with her bed as it was where most of her masterpieces were created in but only because she was bound to it due to her illness.
In my project, I want to illustrate the comfort yet restraining force of beds and pillows to illustrate my toxic relationship. I'll do that through the use of pillow and bed covers with the texture of rusting/corrosion.
wet/rust: textures
wetness: texture
I want to include the texture of liquids waterproof materials such as my umbrella fabric and plastic bag as well the non-waterproof fabrics such as bed and pillow covers.
To support this I researched the designer Di Petsa whose most recent collection/performance art focused on maternity glow and the sac rupture at the end of a pregnancy.
Di Petsa, SS20
https://www.vogue.fr/defiles/madrid-printemps-ete-2020/di-petsa/slideshow/collection/5
spines: comfort
Although the appearance of spines is disquietening due to their fragility I want to portray bones as something that can be treasurable and comforting.
I've photographed the backs and spines of some people so that I can visualise their delicacy.
physical fragility: spines
Frida Kahlo, The Broken Column, 1944
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-broken-column/EgGMbMFBQrAe3Q?hl=en-GB
Frida Kahlo's Plaster Corsets at the V&A exhibition "Making Her Self Up" I visited.
Kahlo's constant interpretation of her chronic illness is something that really intrigues me because she was always able to visualise her mental and physical state through the use of adornments that restrict and alter the self-portraits.
In this case, the metal pole across her upper body representing an artificial spine, the nails and the white cast were her reality but in order for the viewer to relate, we create a narrative that we can visually interpret.
The plaster corset I saw at the exhibition is also something I'd like to reference in my work. I'll do so through the use of sculpture.
dark romanticism: cannibalism
The meaning of grotesque can also be distorted or monstrous which is definitely something i'd like to interpret in my own work through the use of sculpture, photography and by playing with the dimensions and proportions of my objects and response to those objects.
Similarly, Goya portrays a lot of his childhood fears as giants. This could be taken literally or abstractly. It could mean that, as humans, we tend to overdramatise our feelings, even if they are no longer relevant because we believe in the grandiosity of those fears.
Picture #2 and #4 from the book "Romanticism" by Jean Clay
Picture #3 "Saturn Devouring his Sons" by Francisco Goya
romanticism: a narrative
The objects I chose led me to interpret this project's concept as the narrative on a failed relationship I've had in the past and how it affected me mentally.
To represent so, I looked into Romanticism as well as into the violence and grotesque imagery within the Art Movement.
Book: "The Romantic Rebellion" by Kenneth Clark, 1974
Looking at the Grande Odalisque by Ingres, a neoclassical romantic painter, allowed me to understand the concept of romanticism very well. The way he portrays the female body in a slightly perverse yet charming manner is what interested me the most. In fact, Ingres received many negative comments on this piece, even contemporarily, due to the fact that the moel had "three vertebrae too many" and was even described as a creature. For this series of drawings, Ingres searched for a pose that was credible and simple yet complex and almost physically impossible.
For my project, I want to create my own pose, in order to portray my ex-partner in the same flattering, nostalgic yet alien-like manner.
object 5: x-acto knife
The x-acto is the last object in the narrative. It is supposed to represent self-harm and fragility as it is quite easy to inflict pain on yourself or others using the knife.
The rusted sides of the blade help to convey brittleness and reinforce that same sense of debility/weakness and consequently, decaying/corrosion.
Introducing rusting as a texture and concept to explore would also link to the umbrella and my research on protection and comfort.
object 4: plastic bags
The plastic bag is the forth object in my tale. It is representative of suffocation, both physical and emotionally.
I found the plastic bag at Barbican, which is the place where my significant other and I actually shared really important memories with each other. The aftermath of dating this person was very toxic and it led me to distance myself from friends and family, which had a horrible effect on my mental health, which explains the suffocating and feeling that the I'll be exploring with the plastic bag.
Contextually, plastic is a rather toxic material towards the environment and I want to highlight its destructive effect on my work by depicting it as a dangerous material.
object 2: umbrella
The umbrella is the second item in my narrative, in which I found in the bin at the Archway Campus.
I was very fortunate to find it because I have done some research on everyday objects and found that umbrellas are an object that is often forgotten about.
As well as that, its shape could lead to very interesting forms of research and development work on its practical use to shield us from bad weather or metaphorically speaking: as a form of protection. I could also then delve into the whole notion of wet and dry objects and how to portray that on my primary research.
beds/pillows
My research on protective/repairing spine devices is something that I want to tone down by contrasting it with my research on pillows.
I want to explore how narratives can be told from one to another or from mother to child or inbetween lovers such as the term of pillow talk.
Pillows are a way for me to tone down the medical side of my research into a more intimate, comforting and vulnerable part of spines and pillows. Therefore I can use that restraining and violating part of my research towards the end of it.
To support my research into pillows I looked at the artist Tracey Emin and her piece "My Bed", 1998:
rust: texture
The idea of rust came to mind when looking at my x-acto knife and its rusting.
The second set of photographs are some pictures of rusting around my surroundings.
I find that the brittleness of this texture is something that I want to mimic in my project because it represents the fragility of being exposed to something that will damage you, such as water to metal.
rust: texture
Andy Warhol, Oxidation Painting, 1977
Warhol made a series of paintings exploring the oxidation process by urinating and using other natural materials on this work.
I find this a really original way of creating rust because he's implementing natural and personal resources to create texture.
Similarly, I'll experiment on ways I can create my own rust or oxidation process.
physical fragility: spines
I'm looking into the spines of humans rather than any other bone because of Ingres' painting Grande Odalisque, where he was able to portray the model's very uncomfortable pose, as he painted her with three extra vertebrae, in a really comforting manner.
I want to portray the human being in a really fragile way and looking into historical devices that protect or repair the spine is something that really interests me.
Book: "Spinal Disease and Spinal Curvature: Their treatment by Suspension and the Use of Plaster of Paris Bandage"
Dr Lewis Sayre's Back Suspension Device, 1875
Apparatus for the treatment of Scoliosis:
dark romanticism: blurriness
"Bandit Murdering Woman" by Francisco Goya
Goya distances himself from romance by concealing the face of the people in his paintings. This makes his paintings seem less personal because there isn't a concrete identity to the depictions.
Most of the times, he also seems to play the devil's advocate by concealing the attacker's face on his Bandit series.
For my project, I'd be able to do something similar by linking this idea of hidden identity with the use of plastic bags, which are matte and can, therefore, disguise the body.
I don't want to have a definite concept so early on to the project, so I'll try to use most of my dark romanticism research in a very abstract manner so that I don't limit myself.
dark romanticism
"Romanticism" by Jean Clay
In this book, I'll be concentrating on Delacroix, Francisco Goya, Henry Fuseli and D'Agoty's portrayal of romanticism which is far more grotesque and graphic than other painters' portrayal of it.
Delacroix paints with ink and oil paint, in sudden and violent strokes, to represent anger and passion towards the body.
I also find interesting how he also uses the back of a woman to depict the same mysterious atmosphere that Ingres uses on his work. It's almost as if the spine of a person makes them somewhat scarier or alien.
researching on objects: rubber
Book: "Rubber!" by Janet Blood and John Sinclair
Rubber is a material that actually isn't plastic but an anelastic. This book helped me to understand rubber better.
I also found inspiring the many ways that rubber can be used: For example, the artist Jil Weinstock encloses various clothing items or adornments such as feathers, zippers or nighties in rubber, which creates a mysterious impression of common objects.
I found this idea of preserving items really interesting and it could be something that I look into further for the concept of my project.
In the other hand, I could look into the way rubber distorts and blurs the object itself (which would be visually interpreted as the portrayal of feelings or past memories with certain people).
researching on objects
Book: "The Official Point Of View, Milano Furniture" by Giulia Bertacchini
Once again, this book helped me to find an aesthetic for this project by looking at objects in our everyday life that I tend to take for granted or dismiss.
researching on objects: plastic
Book: "Art Plastic: Designed for Living" by Andrea DiNoto
Over the weekend I looked at some books on plastic and designs made from plastic, over the years. The use of unusual designs has shaped Product Design from the 20th century and on.
I wanted some inspiration on the type of objects that I could try to find or even objects that I have myself.
object 3: rubber cables
The rubber cables are the third item in my narrative. They are representative of self-inflicting pain because when I was going through a container filled with cables at the Baker's Flea Market, the rubbery texture against my skin hurt slightly and it was then that I knew, exactly, the direction in which I wanted my project to go towards.
In a more practical manner, cables are a way of connecting things and people and of suspending and tieing things to one another.
I could link those visual key words to how I distanced and lost bonds with certain people during that overwhelming period of my life.
object 1: victorian china shoe
The victorian china shoe is the first item on the narrative I've made for my project.
The shoe represents physical fragility, romance as a weak yet beautiful and treasurable concept becuase the object is small its material is delicate. The object is used for decoration so I could look at ways in which houses are adorned by comforting and delicate objects.
When I was looking through my personal belongings, I chose it cause it possessed a lot of meaning to me as it was gifted by a previous significant-other and I want to somehow include it in my project.