What I have decided to focus on for my final project how the media and others see us, us as in everyday people. Growing up a woman I've always felt that there were slightly more eyes on me, typically in judgment or anger. I am not a very intimidating woman, it can be very hard to have control over how other people view you. I wanted to take on the topic of social media and how you have your eyes always on you without you being fully aware of it. One could think of it was all eyes are on you and you're staring at the floor, blinded. A quote from Finklestein, and give further insight into this, “One might simplify this by saying: men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves.”
On Platforms such as social media, it is a common understanding that women are the "main show", and it is a stereotype that only cares or the fame that comes along with the likes and comments and friends requests that come with being beautiful and popular.
It is also because of this that woman doesn't dress for themselves anymore, everything we put on must be for someone else or attention. Another quote from Finklestein that explains there would be, “You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, you a put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting Vanity, thus morally condemning the women whos nakedness you had depicted for your pleasure.”
Two artists that made me want to do a female piece on social media would be Laura Callaghan and Banksy with their 'a sign of the times' art collection. Callaghan's work made me want to work with more colors and show women in a different light and to take down the perfectionism that is surrounded by barbies. The Banksy work made me want to focus on social media and how it has consumed us and tainted our minds in more ways then we would have ever thought to be possible. A quote from Bell Hooks's article, "the oppositional gaze", “Even in the worse circumstances of domination, the ability to manipulate one's gaze in the face of structures of domination that would contain it, opens up the possibility of agency.” How other people view us can show a certain kind of dominance, how they view you can determine where you fall into a certain society.
My project consists of a doll with burnt marks, googly eyes, fishing string, a cut up polariod, a burnt dress, and a collage of different eyes from magazines. Altogether this Collage piece of material was meant to represent how, no matter how messed up you are, the only thing that is important is how you will look like on camera. I will begin to explain the floor and why it is covered in eyes. I wanted to visually show how you are always being watched from all angles and directions. One thing I always found interesting is that almost all of the eyes I had cut out were from female models. Next, I want to focus on the doll, the doll was something not in my original idea, mainly because I didn't know what I could do with one. But I needed a centerpiece that I could attach strings going through the legs. The dress that is on the doll is the same one that came with the doll. I wanted to burn and mangle the parts of the dress that was not in the immediate frame of the polaroid. to show that everything outside the frame was ruined, the burning was a last minute decision after deciding that I hated perfect the doll looked, which then led me to erase her face. Using acetone or nail polish remover, I was able to scrub and wipe away her makeup, this move was just a way to erase any form of identity from the doll to keep everything more general.
The strings I have attached to the doll's legs were originally just for stability but looking at it more closely, it is as if she is chained down to the fame. I got the strings into the doll's legs by burning the tip of a needle and pushing it through the legs than pushing the thread through and adding some more glue for more stability. The googly eyes that are glued on her body that different parts are meant to show how the body is most watched, even if it is burned, melted with things sticking out of it. The polaroid is used to a type of framing, similar to what one might see on an Instagram page.
This project differs from my mid-term project because my mid-term project was based on more of my personal life and family life and not my personal feelings. As someone who used to get very unconformable when I am the center of attention, the thought of having a lot of people having access to photos of me online is a terrifying idea. I wanted this final project who relate more to my feelings about being watched rather than my personal experience. I felt the project works better if I can get many people to relate to it.
Work Citied:
- Finkelstein, Joanne. The Art of Self Invention: Image and Identity in Popular Visual Culture. Tauris, 2007.
- Hooks, Bell (2010). The oppositional gaze : Black female spectators. In Marc Furstenau (ed.), _The Film Theory Reader: Debates and Arguments_. Routledge.
No comments:
Post a Comment