Existential Questions and Feminist Protest

Now that the first half of the year is done and ive had a little break its back to the grind with two new briefs. The first is 'Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?' from the title of Paul Gauguins' painting and the second is 'Protest' which involves making a paper based two dimensional thing.

Some ideas ive got for the first one are more related to the what are we and where are we going questions. Ive been writing an essay as part of our contextual studies part of the course and i came across this thing called the Proteus effect, this is basically when a persons appearance in a virtual world effects the way they behave and the way they perceive themselves in the real world. This whole idea made me think of a film i really love, Ghost in the Shell. In the futuristic world of the film a cyborg, a human in completely cybernetic body, questions what it means to be human. The film also talks about the idea of a 'ghost', part of you thats really you, like your soul or maybe something completely different that can whisper to you.

For the protest project im definitely taking a feminist slant on it. I suppose my problem is that theres too many things that piss me off to think of one at the moment. Something that annoys me to no end is this whole curvy vs. skinny stuff. Yeah its a bitch that we see a select few bodies in magazines being praised as the most beautiful but we also have the same restrictive standards of what is considered 'curvy'. Basically i dont want to be super negative about the whole thing but to have a bit of humor about my protest, if such a thing is possible for a humorless feminist.

Multiples: Finishing Up

Now its onto the final push and getting my last few bits done for my final piece. I bought a shelf from Argos, a bargain at £5.99 and bough a few bits of card to print my photos for the shelf. The thickest I could get was like 300 grams and I think its thick enough I probably couldn’t get any thicker in the printer. My final images for the shelf are these three in black and white.

I also got my calling cards printed on card and cut very carefully with the guillotine; I went for the pink with a white box option and I was worried they might be too small at first but I think there a good size for on the shelf next to my black and white photos.

My condom shoes are also making an appearance cracked open a bit to reveal more of their insides. And heres the final thing is all its glory!

Multiples: Woman as Object

When i was first looking at inspiration for my Edinburgh photos I thought about photography and photographers who are maybe considered exploitative to women. I came across a picture on Pinterest by Guy Bourdin of the women’s legs and I thought about taking pictures in a way that obscured my face or maybe focused on my legs and the shoes which would have originally been the ones I had made.

Multiples: Calling Cards

Remember how I was looking for calling cards but I only saw that one business card for club rouge? Well when I looked into calling cards online I found out that Gilbert & George had made a bunch of artworks using calling cards as part of their Urethra Postcard Art exhibition. I had a look at some of their stuff and the cards they had used and started thinking about making my own sort of calling cards.

Grant by Gilbert & George

I managed to get these photos taken before my shoes started falling apart in Edinburgh so I really like that they have my original shoes in. These cards are in pink but i have a black and white version that i might print onto pastel paper if i can get some soon.

I have the idea to display these calling cards along with my condom shoes and some of the photos i took in Edinburgh, the rest of my Edinburgh photos or completely different ones will be on the website xmultiplesx.tumblr.com

Multiples: Pictures in Edinburgh

I got into Edinburgh with my boyfriend relatively early to take the photos in my shoes. It was incredibly stressful after all the trouble i got from making them. We got to the first place to take photos and got all set up and the shoes just started to fall apart. I decided to make the decision not to use the shoes in the photos and just keep them as part of my display. Im hoping that the photos I have, with shoes that I bought, still show my concept of modern day sex work in a city that has a long history of sex work. About the kinds of sex work that are displayed openly and the underground illegal side and the women that have walked the streets and left their imprint over time. Now its just about choosing and editing the images in a way that is going to say this. Here are some photos from the day.