Binding in Reverse

 

This is just the video i made earlier but in reverse.  It doesnt look as obvious at first that its backwards as you focus on the hands, although when you look at the string you wonder where its going.

 

Willow

Today me and Emma did some experimenting with willow, i wanted to create something that would move and bounce when moving. Although the willow didnt bounce the way i wanted it to, it made me move awkwardly and position my body around it. Heres me dancing in some willow....

 

 

 

 

Experimenting with Materials

Binding with wool

 

 

This video took soooo long to upload, ive made another where ive just reversed it to see what effect it would have ill try and upload that too. I just wanted to start experimenting with putting materials on the body and movements i go through as well covering/ transforming the body with materials.

I like how after a while it becomes mesmerising and you have to keep watching, i think in a way the brain likes watching repetition to see if it changes.

 

 

Nick Cave

I was lookign at Nick Caves work at the beginning of the Alternative Miss World project as i was looking at combining body and sculpture however i feel it still relates to what im doing now as its working with alternative materials and how they react within a split second to then capture on film. Its given me some more ideas on where to take my exploration with materials. It also reminded me of Bart Hess' video Stabalise Motion as it records the way a material moves when interacting with the body and its environment.

A Hundred Beards

Niqi Segers

 

 

 

 

Body Modification/Transformation

Because im looking at ways of transforming the body from its natural state i thought id have a look at ways we change our bodies for different reasons such as fashion/ religion or culture. Besides all the more mainstream and normalised ways of body modification such as piercing your ears or dying your hair, body modification originates from centuries ago as part of rituals or beliefs rather than vanity reasons.

 

Scarification

 

This is a type of tattooing that doesnt use ink just a scalpel to carve out the skin then left to heal leaving the scarred tissue behind. It can be very dangerous as the cut needs to be a certain depth and there can be a lot of blood loss.

 

From research i found African tribal tattoos in South Nguni, however the tatoos are seen as beautifying the female body rather than religious meanings. Cow dung is used to seal the wounds from infection...

 

Just a warning the photos get a bit more graphic further down if you dont like blood!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also found some videos of tutorials for Asian women showing ways of making bigger eyelids that look more westernised. This type of body transformation is bordering more into racial identity which is a bit tooooo deep for my work to go into but the use of glue to change the face shapes is an interesting idea. Some use medical tape or can even have a surgical procedure.

 

 

 

 

Stretchers

 

Lip plates came from tribal rituals in Ethiopia and theyd also remove the 2 front bottom teeth. The size of the plate is meant to be a sign of their social or economical importance. This has spread into mainstream and become more westernised.

 

 

 

 

Implants

 

Dermal implants are pieces of material that can be implanted under the skin in different shapes from small gems to larger implants.

 

I also found this video ages ago from Japan which just really confused me, it just seems completely different to getting peircings or implants and seems like another level thats a bit scary! There are lots of ways people use to modify their natural body and shape it to get the image they want, this i feel is a sort of evolution of man as we're becoming more man made and technology based.

 

Bagel Heads

 

 



The Mighty Boosh - Costume Materials

I really love the mighty boosh and the costumes they make are always made of everyday items that are low tech and hand made. The characters and costume materials have been giving me some ideas on what materials to explore and are helping me think of less obvious options!
I want to use my instinct and explore materials with no real idea of the end product.

Mr Susan

 

 

Cobra

 

http://youtu.be/7G6YWmYAV6c

 

 

 

 

Lucy Mcrae - How can technology transform the human body?

Extraordinary Gentlemen

'In collaboration with stylist Alister Mackie and Nick Knight, this latest fashion film captures a series of hand-crafted handicraft homages to the extreme volumes and textures that characterise the best of twenty-first century menswear as featured in AnOther Man magazine'
 

Materials

My initial idea from researching skin like materials or ones that allow stretch and movement made me think about using plaster or something else to fill a stretchy material to create shapes similar to Sarah Lucas and Marci Rubin. However i want to use a material that goes through a transformation that can be unpredictable and have hard to control outcomes. Such as plaster and i also still want to try using foam or expanding foam as i think it would work well in a material that allows some to go through it. Id have to think of ways to manipulate and change the shapes to create body language within the shapes.

These are trhe artists i found relating to this-

Vesa-Pekka Rannikko

Material is attached to a surface then filled with plaster left to set then the material is cut away.
http://www.vesapekkarannikko.net/works-installation.php?id=132

Lynda Benglis

 

'Arriving on the New York art scene in the late sixties with her poured latex and foam works, Benglis created a perfectly timed retort to the male dominated fusion of painting and sculpture that had taken place a few years earlier with the advent of Process Art and Minimalism. Known for her exploration of metaphorical, sexual and biomorphic shapes, she is deeply concerned with the physicality of form and how it affects the viewer, using a wide range of materials to render dynamic impressions of mass and surface: soft becomes hard, hard becomes soft and gestures are frozen.'

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/feminist_art_base/gallery/lynda_benglis.php

 

 

 

 

Marci Rubin, Sarah Lucas and Bart Hess

 

Marci Rubin

 

 

Sarah Lucas

 

Lucy and Bart

 

Bart Hess